Chapter 57 Lower level
Chapter 57 The Lower Level
It was too evil, so Duncan couldn’t get the bowl of fish soup down in the end.
After all, just thinking about Miss Doll’s head rolling around in the soup pot, he felt that the style of this dinner was going in the direction of a curse and the Grim Reaper – even if Alice’s real style was actually too harmonic, the fact that she dropped her head in the pot was a bit too creepy… …
Ms. Doll looked a bit hurt as she looked at the food that Duncan had put aside, both hands grasping the lace trim on the side of her dress, “Are you angry, Captain?”
Duncan gave the mannequin a physically and mentally exhausted look, “You can just tell me if you’re going to be upset about anything on the ship ……”
“Huh? I’m not ……”
“Then try to stay out of the kitchen from now on ……” Duncan said casually, but soon he noticed Alice’s increasingly frustrated expression, and finally shook his head helplessly and changed his tone of voice, “Never mind, you’re starting from a good place… In fact, I’m very happy, but cooking this thing, right …… unskilled will be a little accident, in the future familiar with it will be good.”
Alice immediately stumped up, “Then I can still try later?”
Duncan held his tongue for half a day and finally nodded, “…… Just pay attention.”
He also considered this for a while: this cursed mannequin obviously can’t stand the status quo of living on the Lost Country ship, perhaps she really has some kind of “nature”, so she must do something on this ship to settle down, and she is an independent individual with thoughts and personality, Duncan felt that he can’t treat this mannequin in the same way as a blow forever. Duncan felt he couldn’t treat the mannequin with blows forever.
In contrast, then, it was better to let Alice help in the galley than to let her continue to fight with cables, anchors, and cannonballs-at least the pots and pans on the Lost Country were relatively good-tempered.
He glanced down at the fish soup placed next to him, in all fairness, the taste of this fish soup was actually quite normal, although the ship’s seasonings were limited, there was no problem at all with the heat, and as a mannequin that didn’t even have a sense of taste or a digestive system, the fact that Alice could do this to such an extent based on just a few words of theoretical knowledge that she heard (and which came from a goat’s head that also didn’t eat human food) was actually rather remarkable.
What more could one ask for when two guys who didn’t eat human food could come together and whip up a meal that people could eat? Duncan thought that if this mannequin was careful in the future, it should still be able to work in the kitchen – so at least he, the captain, wouldn’t have to cook himself in the future.
“Then …… Captain, do you want me to make you something else?” At this time Alice’s voice came from the side, interrupting Duncan’s thoughts, “I also learned how to grill fish and fillets from Mr. Goathead, there are …… in the kitchen”
“No, I’m not hungry,” Duncan shook his head, his body actually does not have a strong demand for food, usually maintain three meals a day is just to maintain his own habits as a “human being”, at this time a bowl of Alice’s soup has already eliminated half of his appetite. At this time, a bowl of Alice’s Soup had already eliminated half of his appetite, so he simply stood up from the table, “I’m going to take a walk in the cabin.”
“You’re going to the cabin?” Alice froze for a moment, followed by a slightly tense expression as if she remembered something, “Then …… then can you go ‘down there’ to take a look?”
“Down there?” Duncan frowned.
“It’s the deeper hatches – the ones I’m not allowed to go to,” Alice said, “I always hear creaks and rattles coming from down there, and sometimes it seems as if someone is muttering under the floorboards, do you want to go and see …… if there’s something going on down there?”
Looking at the slightly nervous expression on Ms. Doll’s face, Duncan’s heart slowly lifted.
The Lost Country ship’s deep …… that was a place he had not yet explored!
Because the deepest part of the ship gave him a really strange and dangerous feeling, and at that time he had not yet “helmed”, nor had he mastered the power of the spirit body fire, so the previous several times he explored himself were in the place leading to the deep cabin to stop – of course, in the future, he had plans for further exploration, but now it seems to be the case. Of course, in the future, he had plans for further exploration, but today, it seems that plans obviously can’t catch up with changes.
Just then, Goathead’s voice suddenly came from the side: “Ah, it sounds like there is some restlessness in the bilge, do you want to go down and take a look, Captain?”
Before Duncan could say anything, he heard Goathead already rambling to himself, “Come to think of it it does seem like a long time since you checked down there, and the bilge is a bit in need of a little Captain’s soothing, you know, after all, it’s been immersed in the infinite sea for a long time……. Are you going to take your lantern with you? It’s still in its usual place, just behind the door …… You’ve been up there all this time, and the lower decks are noisy, you don’t know how annoying they are, and I’m a quiet person, I can’t stand to hear all that creaking and rattling in the middle of the night …… “
Duncan gave the goathead a silent look, and the latter fell silent.
Honestly, after hearing some of what Goathead was saying, he suddenly felt even more resistant to that weird bilge – it sounded like it had been affected by the deeper reaches of the Infinite Sea, and had turned into something that would be considered “wrong” even on the Lost Country! Structure!
But the thought of resistance was only in the back of his mind for less than a second.
Sooner or later, he would have to further explore the other structures of the Lost Country, and it would be better to go there later than earlier……. Reason told him that the sooner this happened, the better.
The Lost Country was large, not just in terms of its incredible length, but also in terms of the depths of its holds, which were divided into many layers, and at the moment the only area Duncan knew about was actually the ship’s upper structure – including the deck area, the upper cabins and ammunition stores and gunnery areas below the decks, as well as the storehouses, the freshwater compartments, and a portion of the crewroom one level further down – and based on the previous few times he had explorations, he could well imagine just how vast a structure lay hidden in the dark depths beneath these areas.
Those structures were located below the waterline, and from the depth they appeared to be completely submerged in the infinite sea.
Dark, eerie, echoing with the sound or whistling of a hollow wind – the deeper you went, the more eerie the environment in the Lost Country became.
Duncan didn’t know his ship – it certainly wouldn’t do to keep dragging it in this condition. He was already the ship’s captain, and the Lost Country was his landing place, and more importantly, his home base for his activities in this world; he couldn’t afford to be so half-knowledgeable about his own fundamentals – even if it was only for the sake of long-lasting survival on a sprawling sea filled with anomalies and visions, he had to be aware of both the Lost Country’s potentials and its dangers.
God knows if a crisis will strike tomorrow, and God knows if the Lost Country will hit one of those children of the deep, or the collapsing borders of reality, the very next second.
Not to mention the fact that Goathead had just mentioned something about the bilge needing to be calmed by the captain.
The “captain” has not been to the lower cabin for too long …… If this continues, it seems that something bad will happen.
Duncan got up and went behind the door to find the lamp Goathead had mentioned.
It was an old lamp, with a copper frame in the shape of a hexagonal prism, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, and a glass shade set into the copper frame, which appeared to be a bit blurry, and inside the shade, Duncan did not see any structure similar to a lamp wick.
He did not show curiosity, nor did he inquire of the goathead, and after a brief and unmoving moment of contemplation, he attempted to activate the ethereal green fire of the spirit body and infuse this power into the lamp.
A cluster of bright green flames immediately jumped and burned inside the lampshade, and the ancient and obsolete lamp began to release a constant glow.
Where the lamp shone, a bleak atmosphere somehow permeated, but Duncan stood in the light but it produced an inexplicable sense of calmness and control, as if he could vaguely feel his own power spreading along with the light, and where the light shone, the details of all things were clearly reflected in his mind.
Aye the dove suddenly fluttered over and landed on Duncan’s shoulder.
It had already taken the form of an illusory undead bird of flesh and bone – although Duncan had not actively “activated” the dove at all, under the light of the lamp, it still passively completed the “transformation”. The transformation was done passively by the light of the lamp, even though Duncan had not actively “activated” the dove at all.
Duncan looked down at the lamp in his hand, and thought that it might be a good thing …… It seems to be able to spread its power to the surrounding environment with very little loss and maintain a “force field”, which has the function of detection, warning and even control, and this characteristic is obviously quite suitable for the unfamiliar or dangerous places. Apparently, it is quite suitable for long-term exploration in unfamiliar or dangerous areas.
“Captain …… can I go with you?”
Duncan turned back to see Alice standing behind him, looking curiously at the carrying lamp and at the same time with an expression of eagerness on her face, “I haven’t been to the lower levels yet! Mr. Goathead said not to go down there without your permission ……”
Duncan thought for a moment and nodded slightly, “You may.”
He didn’t know what was on the lower level of the ship, but no matter what, it was part of the Lost Country, and under the premise that he had already successfully “steered” the ship, the bottom of the cabin wouldn’t be in too much danger, so he might be able to bring along this mannequin to give himself a hand.
The goat’s head, which remained on the navigation table, didn’t make any comments, apparently from its point of view, the captain’s inspection of the Lost Country was a fairly normal thing to do – and so was taking a helper with him.
Outside the cabin, night was already falling, and the cool glow of the World’s Creation was illuminating the sea, shining down on the empty deck of the ghost ship, the translucent sails of the spirit body drumming in the air, slowly adjusting their angle unmanned.
Duncan, carrying a lantern in his hand and his own sword and flintlock rifle, crossed the empty deck with Alice, passed through the two uppermost cabins, and made his way down the wooden staircase to the depths of the Lost Country’s hold.
The staircase at the end of the seaman’s cabin was where Duncan had stopped on his previous explorations.
An otherworldly dimness coiled around the staircase that sloped downward, with only the risers used to support the hold and some of the wall structure vaguely visible in the dimness.
“It’s so dark down here,” Alice stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at the dim surroundings a little nervously, “aren’t there any lights down here? Everywhere else there are obviously oil lamps that stay on all the time ……”
“No, there are lights down there,” Duncan spoke slowly, holding the lamp, and under the diffusion of the power emanating from the lamp, he could finally see down below the cabin more clearly this time than he had before, “Only down there the light is black.”
“…… Huh?” Alice froze for a moment, half unable to react, “There’s a black light?”
Duncan didn’t respond for a moment, he just walked slowly downwards with his carrying lamp, and he didn’t speak softly until Alice had followed him, “After all, we’re already below the surface of the Infinite Sea.”
(End of chapter)