Chapter 615 – Beneath the Fault Layer

Chapter 615 Beneath the Fault Layer
Duncan felt his mind spreading through the ship, his perceptions spreading like a spider’s web, every part of the ship seeming to become his own physical structure – smoother than the last time, clearer than the last time, this phantom ship sailing on the edge of a dreamscape was revealing all of its secrets to him without reservation.

His spirit began to sink all the way down, from the lofty aft deck, to the hold below deck, to the mezzanine where gunpowder and shells were stored, to the storehouse where the anchor ropes were kept, to the water closet …… from every wall, to every strut, to every rope, to every lamp of carrying… …

The whole ship in a little bit into a detailed “projection”, floating in his mind.

Duncan compared the structure in his mind with his memories, expecting to find something out of place, perhaps a beam that was not part of the structure’s design, a cabin that never existed in the real dimension, or a compartment that no one had ever found before – the misalignment in the fusion of the Lost Country’s consciousness with that of the goat’s head. place.

Originally, this was just a thought that suddenly appeared in his mind, Duncan just realized that this ship was not “Goathead’s” own dream, and realized that the Lost Country’s own “memories” might also play a role in it, so he wanted to look for evidence of the latter’s existence. As his senses continued to spread across the ship, this idea of “giving it a try” became stronger and stronger, as if there was an invisible voice guiding him, telling him that…

There was something hidden in the depths of the ship, the Lost Country was really trying to tell him some secrets, in a place that could not be seen from the real dimension, the Lost Country still “remembered” some things that had happened in the subspace.

And this hidden memory points to one of the most central secrets of this intricate dream – the origin of the Goathead, and how it came to be.

The origin of the Goathead, and the connection between the ship and Silentis.

Was it one’s own intuition? Or was the Lost Country really murmuring and whispering to itself over and over again?

Hazy thoughts floated through Duncan’s mind, but he didn’t dwell on the question as he focused on his work, searching for clues that might be there.

It wasn’t easy, because even on the ship he knew best, Duncan couldn’t claim to remember the location of every item on the Lost Country, and he hoped that his intuition would play a part in the process, helping him to find something that didn’t fit.

But he didn’t realize that he didn’t need any intuitive assistance at all – the discrepancy was even more obvious and sudden than he had imagined.

He was three decks below, he detected a large scale …… “perception fault”.

Duncan frowned, gripping the wheel in his hand as he looked down to the place he had sensed he was “seeing”: directly below him.

The bottom of the ship?

Something occurred to Duncan, and then he hesitated, releasing his grip on the tiller.

His connection to the rudder was broken.

But the ship’s perception of himself was not interrupted, and he could still feel that the ship was connected to him – the ship was still sailing fast in the boundless darkness and fog, and in the dark space beyond the ship’s side, the huge structures that looked like the roots and branches of plants were still there, and were constantly sweeping in the surroundings.

Silentis’s “stream of light” was also there, and still hovering around the bridge.

Watching this scene, Duncan’s heart slightly realized: it seems that as long as the connection is established, then until the end of this dream, this connection will not be broken.

Because he used his reflection to enter the dream, he is now also a part of this dream – the various actions he took here will no longer be regarded as “foreign invasion”, and will not be easily expelled or erased by the restorative power of the dream itself.

Confirming this, Duncan breathed a sigh of relief and left the bridge, but before heading through the depths of the ship, he turned back on the aft deck and returned to the captain’s cabin.

Near the door to the captain’s cabin, he saw the ancient carrying lamp that hung silently on the wall.

Traveling to the Lost Country’s substructure required the carrying of a lantern – and though he wondered if that code was still required on this Dream Ship, he decided to proceed with caution.

Agatha’s silhouette appeared in a nearby mirror, and she looked at Duncan with some curiosity, “Captain, what are you doing?”

“Heading for the bilge,” Duncan said quickly, while glancing back in the direction of the sailing table – the goat’s head remained still, seemingly unresponsive, “There’s something in the bottom of the ship. ”

Agatha sniffed, her expression immediately turning serious.

“Walk and talk,” Duncan added immediately afterward, “Don’t discuss it here.”

With that, he had grabbed the antique-looking brass carrying lamp, opened the door and walked out of the room.

He walked quickly across the misty, empty deck, where the Spark had ignited the lamp, giving the flame a greenish glow, and the fog that had been drifting around him receded a little in the light, and then closed in behind him – and in the shadows created by the light, an additional shadow was also behind him. An additional shadow also darted around him, almost overlapping his.

Agatha’s voice came from that shadow, “Is the bilge …… you speak of the area you usually keep me away from?”

“That’s right,” Duncan nodded as he opened the door to the lower cabin and darted down the steps with his carrying lamp in hand, “In the Reality Dimension, the bilge of the Lost Country connects to subspace – there’s a fragmented area, outside each crack is a reflection of subspace, and it’s dangerous for anyone to go near there without me.” “…… It’s already dangerous just by hearing your description,” Agatha’s shadow seemed to tremble, and although her expression couldn’t be seen, the shadow faded a little noticeably, which seemed to indicate that she was a little nervous, “By the way you reacted, it It seems that the situation in the bilge has changed on this ‘ship of dreams’?”

“A structure has appeared there that I have not seen before,” Duncan said quickly, as he made his way through the stairs below decks, through the empty, dimly lit warehouse, and deeper down, floor by floor, “Not far ahead of here, the shattered area is at the bottom of the last staircase… …”

After making their way as fast as they could through the dimly lit corridors and staircases with their eerie atmosphere and even light and shadow reversals, Duncan and Agatha’s shadows came to a sudden stop.

They came to the end of the last staircase, and the door connecting the broken area of the bilge was standing silently in Duncan’s field of vision.

Agatha’s shadow “creeps” up the stairs to Duncan, then rises a little along the wall, and judging by the silhouette of her profile, she seems to be looking cautiously and nervously at the door in front of her.

“I can’t feel anything across the door,” she said, in a lowered voice, “even at this close distance, as if there were a pure ‘void’ across the door. ‘ as if it were.”

Duncan glanced at Agatha and then down at the carrying lamp he was holding.

The glow emanating from the lamp softly illuminated the surroundings, but when it fell on the door in front of him, it was as if it had been absorbed by something, vaguely leaving only half of its brightness.

He gently inhaled, stepped forward, and pushed open the door.

In the real world, the space behind this door was the fragmented cabin at the very bottom of the Lost Country-its structure floating in subspace.

And here, what greeted Duncan’s eyes was initially an infinite darkness.

He almost thought he was going to lose his footing and fall into this infinite darkness.

Duncan subconsciously felt his nerves tighten a bit, the contrast between this vast darkness and the previous scene in the cabin was too much to catch him off guard, but soon he saw that there was in fact something else in that darkness.

His eyes gradually adjusted and made out the massive things that were emerging from the darkness:
First of all, there was an extremely huge continuous structure, as wide as a road floating in nothingness, with its ends showing a slightly elevated shape, and then what became clear was the many “branches” connected to both sides of the continuous structure, which were neatly arranged in the darkness, extending all the way to the end of the field of vision, just like the …… ribs.

Duncan is standing in the middle of this large-scale, continuous structure, he saw that in addition to the “trunk” under his feet and the trunk around the thin branches as if the rib-like, here can not see any cabin walls – not even the fragmented walls, in the Between the “ribs”, there was total darkness and nothingness, and wisps of mist surged in the darkness, lingering in this vast space.

Duncan knew what it was.

At the same time, Agatha’s shadow also “wormed” out of the door and landed next to Duncan’s shadow, she looked at this incredible scene in front of her with dismay, and after a few moments she suddenly reacted: “Wait, this thing is… …”

“The keel of the Lost Country.” Duncan nodded gently and spoke in a deep voice.

“The keel …… yeah, the Lost Country is a sail ship built a century ago, of course it has a keel ……” Agatha hesitated, her tone a bit odd, and “But it looks ……”

Duncan ignored Agatha, his attention having been drawn almost entirely to the amazing structure that curved and stretched through the darkness.

This was the first time he had seen the keel of the Lost Country – because according to the shipbuilding rules of this world, under normal circumstances a completed sail warship would not expose the keel to the visible area of the cabin, and the “bottom compartment” of the Lost Country where the keel could be seen had been broken, and was floating in the sub-space. The “bottom compartment” of the Lost Country, where the keel could be seen, had been broken and was floating in subspace, making the structure of the keel completely indistinguishable.

He had never thought about what the keel of this ship would look like.

Now he knew.

He stepped out onto the “road” that floated in the darkness and followed it forward, stopping at the first “link”.

The light from the lamp illuminated the huge bulge, the connecting structure, and beyond that, the next “link” and more “links”.

This segmented “connecting structure” of course does not meet the requirements for the construction of the keel of a sailing ship, which for an ordinary old-time sailing ship must be a complete piece of wood in order to be able to withstand the winds and waves of the sea.

But Duncan believes that the keel with many “connecting structures” at the bottom of the Lost Country is definitely stronger than any other keel in the world.

Because it is the spine of an ancient god.

(End of chapter)