Meeting Again

That strange sense kept pointing him in a general direction.

But it seemed... only a direction.

Theus only knew the strange fish was below him; as for how to get there, he had no clue.

He tried exploring the ability he had gained. Aside from sensing the water, he seemed able to roughly distinguish the composition of matter, though this was limited to what he touched.

Walking through the house in his soft-soled slippers, he moved lightly and quietly. When passing corners in the hallway, he carefully poked his head out to check that no one was around before proceeding.

Thanks to his usual lack of interest in tormenting his servants, no one stood guard inside the house, though there were people patrolling outside.

Theus counted; only the lights at the hallway corners and the stairs were on.

He didn't have much direction, so he could only focus on checking suspicious areas. However, with the sensory enhancement brought by the Symbiosis Ritual, he soon discovered something amiss in the study.

"There's a large amount of metal inside this wall... it must be some kind of mechanical structure."

Looking at the wall before him, Theus raised an eyebrow.

He had actually found it; this manor really did hide things unknown to others!

He looked left and right at the pitch-black room. With his ability to see in the dark, he was completely unaffected. After a moment of thought, he began to focus his search on other metal objects in the room.

If the mechanism behind this wall was mechanical, there had to be directly connected transmission gears extending all the way through. That would make things easy.

Theus began to sense the walls of the entire house inch by inch.

Soon, he discovered metal inside the wall connecting to the fireplace. Upon closer inspection, there was indeed a charred section deep within the fireplace. It looked like stone, but inside, it was braced with springs and gears.

"At this depth..." Theus looked around and took a long-handled axe from the display rack above the fireplace. Its tip had a sharp point; he poked it toward the mechanism deep in the fireplace, and the length was just right.

Theus pressed the axe tip against the stone and applied a little force.

After a low sound of gears engaging, the flue section of the fireplace flipped backward, revealing a gap just large enough for a person to pass through.

Theus curled his fingers, licked his tongue, and reached it into the opening.

"The air is circulating; there's another exit below."

Theus's face showed joy.

He didn't rush to enter. Theus turned and walked to the study door, observing for a while to ensure the noise of opening the passage hadn't disturbed anyone, before turning back to the fireplace.

He didn't bring a lantern for light; his dark vision was more than enough. After tightening his cuffs and the hem of his clothes, he took a deep breath and stepped into the opening.

Once inside the secret passage, Theus didn't rush forward. Instead, he stroked the surrounding walls and, sure enough, found two metal rings not far away, one high and one low. He tried pulling the higher one, and the wall behind him slowly closed.

The passage was covered in moss, emitting a faint glow in the dark. Theus kicked the stone steps under his feet; they were slightly slippery. He tried taking a breath, and the air was filled with the scent of the tide.

It was self-evident where this led.

Theus walked downward while observing his surroundings.

This didn't seem entirely man-made. After only a few steps, he entered a space resembling a karst cave, with a small stream flowing downward along the path.

Theus walked to the stream, cupped some water, and took a sip.

"It's actually fresh water."

With a water source and some stored food, one could survive here for a long time.

Theus reached his hand into the water and activated his Transcendent senses once more.

The previously blurry perception of the water domain was now incredibly clear. He felt as if he had turned into a fish, following the stream all the way down; the Deep Sea was not far ahead.

And that familiar presence, as if sensing his actions, excitedly circled in the sea a few times before actually walking slowly onto the shore, heading toward him.

Theus instinctively reached for his pistol, but grabbed empty air, only then remembering he hadn't prepared a weapon when coming down.

"Forget it. If it wanted to harm me, it would have acted at the pier. I might as well go see it."

Withdrawing his senses, Theus followed the stream downward.

The stream tinkled, and the sound of waves crashing in the distance gave Theus an inexplicable sense of intimacy.

Before long, that familiar and ugly figure appeared before Theus's eyes.

Unlike the dying state he had seen at the pier, the monster was now a completely different sight.

It was still a mass of swollen flesh, but there was no sign of that weakness or decay. Several limbs extended from the mass, supporting it on the ground, crawling in an extremely strange and awkward posture.

And on that mass, between the swollen flesh, scales were vaguely visible.

The creature before him looked more like a bloated floater than a living thing, yet it was visibly full of vitality—indescribably eerie.

Theus's eyelid twitched. A creature with this design would appear in horror movies even in his previous life.

Logically, seeing such a shocking appearance, Theus shouldn't just be scared out of his wits, but at least startled. Yet, he felt only a sense of... intimacy.

He could perceive its ugliness and knew its appearance was repulsive, but this feeling didn't seem very real.

It was complicated to explain, but it was like encountering a disgusting monster in a game from his past life; through the screen, no matter how bizarre the design, it was just that.

So, Theus looked at the monster before him and unexpectedly felt it wasn't that bad.

The effect of the Symbiotic Pact?

However, the Swollen Monster before him was quite uncomfortable. It seemed to feel guilty about its ugly appearance, trying hard to curl up and hide its swollen limbs—the action was somewhat comical.

Did it also have a concept of beauty and ugliness similar to humans?

Watching the clumsy movements of the Swollen Monster, Theus's tension dissipated for the most part.

"Sorry, my Lord, for letting you see my ugly body..." the monster's muffled voice came; it also realized it was doing something futile.

Was it ugly? It was indeed very ugly, but Theus knew it shouldn't look like this; at least in the Deep Sea, it should be more normal.

But Theus didn't have time to refute this, because—

"...What did you call me?"

"My Lord." The Swollen Monster seemed to understand his thoughts and continued, "You are the salvation of The Cursed. You led us out of a tragic fate; you are our god."

Theus's face twitched. What was going on with this monster? Why did it suddenly call him a god?

"Please allow me to explain." The Swollen Monster's eyes were sincere.

You really should explain, Theus thought. If it were any other ordinary person, they would have been scared away by your reckless approach long ago.

Theus crossed his arms and watched it.