Well of God

"Good friend, we meet again."

Wu Heng walked over to Vinayak, who lay on the ground bound like a silkworm cocoon. He lifted him with one hand and gently propped him against the well.

"Raghav, is this how you treat a friend? There's no treasure here. I'm just cleaning out a basement my ancestors left behind."

Vinayak glared resentfully, but as he spoke, his eyes kept darting toward the well cover beside him.

He had long since come to regard this temple as his ancestral home. The reason he hadn't bought a house was that he considered this place, with its endless supply of gold coins, his own.

In his eyes, Wu Heng and the others were bandits who had broken into his family's treasure vault.

"Boss, this guy's acting suspicious. Look at his eyes."

"The treasure of Tumbbad is definitely in that well. Let's hurry down and find it."

Yellow Braid said impatiently.

Hearing him say that, Vinayak felt a trace of delight deep beneath his resentful expression.

"If you're in such a hurry, you can go down and look first. I'll catch up with my old friend."

"Here, take this. Stick it at the very edge of the passage below."

Wu Heng didn't refuse. He signaled to the Dark-skinned Middle-aged Man, then handed Yellow Braid an adhesive wireless camera.

The camera and the tracker were small items from the Modern Technology Pack. It also included two walkie-talkies, a mechanical claw, a small robot, and various other gadgets. That was why Wu Heng had bought the pack.

"Y-yes, okay."

Yellow Braid nodded eagerly. Right now, he was consumed by greed and desire for the endless gold, and had even forgotten to speak respectfully.

The Dark-skinned Middle-aged Man quickly tied a rope around Yellow Braid's waist, opened the heavy metal well cover, and lowered him inside.

"Aren't you going to take a look? Maybe there really is treasure. Better make sure your subordinate doesn't pocket any gold."

Vinayak spoke mockingly, but there was a trace of anticipation deep in his eyes.

"Good friend, there's no hurry about the treasure. After all, you'll need to go down first in a moment."

"Now, let's talk about Hastur."

Wu Heng had seen through Vinayak's transparent attempt to distract him and get him to enter the Well of God. He called him out directly, with no desire to keep up the pretence.

"You know about it!" Vinayak exclaimed in shock.

"Of course I do. I just wanted to confirm."

Seeing that Yellow Braid had gone down, Wu Heng switched on the monitor in his hand.

The inside of the Well of God was a bloody red, like the hollowed-out belly of a butchered animal. Membranes and veins coiled across the walls of flesh.

Yellow Braid felt afraid down below. All around him was a vivid red, and there was nothing else to see, yet he felt that something was lurking nearby, watching him.

"Hakob, pull me up! There's nothing down here."

Yellow Braid shouted urgently toward the passage above.

"Boss?"

Hearing the call, the Dark-skinned Middle-aged Man turned to Wu Heng.

"Don't panic. The gold coins are down there. I'll talk to Vinayak first and find out how to get them."

Wu Heng spoke to the monitor, and his voice carried clearly from the camera into the Well of God.

Then he said to the Dark-skinned Middle-aged Man:

"Put the well cover back on first. I need to say a couple of things."

The Dark-skinned Middle-aged Man quickly did as he was told, lowering the metal cover over the rope.

"Vinayak, why can Hastur eat flatbread but fear a circle drawn with flour?"

Wu Heng asked the protagonist, who had been completely exposed and had lost all hope of escape.

"Raghav, you win. I'll tell you everything, but I want to work together. We can find the gold coins together. There are endless amounts of them."

"Fine."

"Then I'll tell you. The Goddess of Prosperity revived Hastur and hid it in the Well of God. That also made it unable to accept the faith of mortals."

"Hastur took the goddess's wealth for itself. The other gods grew insanely jealous, but couldn't find it, so they joined forces to curse it. Food would burn it, and it would suffer the torment of hunger forever."

"But it still has a way to evade the curse and ease its hunger: it can eat food offered to it by mortals."

"Flour scattered on the ground belongs to no one, so it burns Hastur. But little figures shaped from the flour are offerings, so it can eat them."

Vinayak simply told him everything in one go, hoping Raghav would honor their agreement for the sake of their friendship.

"If someone goes down without bringing food, will Hastur attack?"

After hearing him out, Wu Heng felt that things were much as he'd suspected. He checked the monitor. Yellow Braid was frozen with fear at the bottom of the well, listening to a strange panting sound.

Yet after all this time, Yellow Braid was still safe down there. Hastur hadn't appeared.

"Usually not. Legend says it's closely connected to the goddess's womb, and it often eases its hunger by sleeping. Only food can lure it awake."

Vinayak recalled everything his great-grandmother, who had turned into a monster, had told him.

"Fine. Then I'll have to trouble you once more, my friend."

Wu Heng gestured to the Dark-skinned Middle-aged Man. On the monitor, Yellow Braid untied the rope and looped it around Vinayak's waist, bound like a human cocoon, then slowly lowered him into the Well of God.

"Quick! See this flour circle? Close the gap!"

As soon as Vinayak reached the bottom of the well, he hurriedly shouted to Yellow Braid.

"You tell me to close it, and I'm supposed to obey? You'd better just tell me where the gold is."

Seeing someone come down, Yellow Braid had found his courage again, and greed filled his eyes once more.

"Close the gap in the flour circle, Shahu."

The voice came through the camera.

"Yes, boss."

Yellow Braid quickly dropped his brazen attitude and filled in the gap in the flour circle.

The Dark-skinned Middle-aged Man also came down to the bottom of the well.

Wu Heng watched the monitor for a while. After confirming that Hastur didn't seem likely to appear, he listened at the passage of the large well outside. Hearing no sign of anyone else approaching, he slid down the rope into the well.

In the movie, Hastur didn't eat people, but it did bite them. Anyone it bit would live a long time.

But their entire bodies would rot, and they would suffer endless hunger. They'd be weaker than ordinary people, like slugs half-melted by salt but still unable to die.

Wu Heng put the ten Exorcism Talismans he'd bought from the Lighthouse for 200 survival points into his pocket. According to the Lighthouse's appraisal, they had a faint exorcising effect, but to him, a Cursed Disciple, they only felt slightly warm.

Then, like a paratrooper, he slid quickly down the rope to where the camera was inside the Well of God. The Lighthouse Mark on his hand sent him a message:

[Completed Plot Mission One: Enter the Well of God. Received 1,000 survival points. Exploration progress and plot rating increased.]

As soon as Wu Heng received the message, he clamped the rope between his feet and pulled hard with both hands.

He scrambled up toward the well opening at top speed, then dropped the rope into the well and shut the metal cover.