Crimson World

"Can this really take me where I want to go?"

Samlet stared into the deep, pitch-black sewer and asked the man beside him.

The man raised the oil lamp in his hand, which gave off a crimson glow, and turned its shade.

Once the crimson light was blocked from the stairs, the enormous staircase leading underground was nowhere to be seen.

"Now that's a treasure. I never thought it would end up in your hands."

"Follow me."

The pale-faced man did not answer Samlet. He simply beckoned for him to follow.

The lamp in his hand was a special spatial artifact. Its red light, once lit, could carve a new space out of reality.

The stairs they had just descended, for instance, belonged to another space hidden within the lamp.

Of course, that was all this unusual artifact could do. Everything else about it was a drawback.

It could only be used in darkness, with no interference from other light sources. Nor could it keep anyone else from entering that space.

And when that space was closed, no living thing could be left inside.

One could say its only use was for sneaking around and doing underhanded things.

With the man leading the way, Samlet headed straight toward the inner city. Any walls that stood underground simply vanished within the lamp's special space.

After a little over two hours, the man stopped and changed his hand gesture. The crimson light instantly turned amber again.

By its amber glow, they could see that they were in a sewer beneath the Kingdom of Como, with a manhole cover directly above them.

The cover was slowly pushed aside. The pale-faced man poked his head out first, and only after finding nothing amiss did he climb up with the lamp.

Once both men were