Chapter 284 - The Sanctuary (Patreon)

Once again, we stand in front of the massive iron door into what I guess is a bunker, also called the Sanctuary.

Darren keeps looking between me and the pile of food and water on the ground.

The entire time, I keep [Redistribution] on Vega so she can try to fight against it, and I also constantly disrupt her mana so she trains that as well.

Even though we are not leveling right now, she is getting some levels into her skills, and my intention is to have her learn something with an effect similar to my Mantle. Making sure she can keep using her mana and has enough control over it is one of the priorities, even more so than just leveling.

Vega is getting hurt, and there's some blood and tears on her body, with blood flowing from her nose, which earns me a few weird looks.

“It’s not poisoned or anything,” I tell Darren when he stays too silent.

“I know that it most likely isn’t, and we can check that or remove the poison if needed. I just can’t understand where you got it from, and I’m sure you won’t tell me even if I ask.”

He looks towards me and I nod, confirming his suspicion, then I increase the pressure on Vega as she is now more effectively fighting against it. Did she level up her skills?

“I like to be honest, Darren, and I don’t like it if things become too annoying or take too long. I know you most likely have some trouble within the Sanctuary, and I also want to get inside of it.”

“You realize what you are asking for, right? There are a lot of weaker people we are protecting, our families, and our kids. We don’t even know you.”

“And you realize that in the worst case, I can get inside on my own. Usually, I wouldn’t mind taking some time to ‘prove’ myself, but I don’t have such a luxury.”

Nina, who once again stands by Darren’s side, touches her sword, and our eyes meet.

“Don’t,” Darren warns her and turns back to me. For a second, he glances at my disciple next to me and then back, “Do I have your word, Nathaniel?”

“Kind of? If you guys attack me or my disciple, I will fight back.”

“That much is reasonable.”

“Father…” Nina leans closer and whispers something into Darren’s ear, but he shakes his head.

He reaches inside one of his pockets and pulls out a mana stone. He activates it, and it sends a signal somewhere behind the giant circular iron door.

A few cracking noises sound and slowly the door that weighs tens of tons starts smoothly moving and opening. There doesn’t seem to be any mana at all, and it moves only by the combined strength of multiple men and women pushing it from inside.

They open the door only partially, and when Darren gestures to me, I release some pressure on Vega and only continue to disrupt her mana. Both of us follow behind him, and closely behind us, are a dozen guards and Nina, some of them grabbing the supplies I left outside.

“Welcome to the Sanctuary.”

We enter into a rough circular tunnel that is filled with buildings mostly made out of wood and set there mostly as space to rest for the guards. Getting a few surprised looks from the latter, we pass by them, and the door behind us starts closing again. The guards pull on the dozens of ropes connected to the door and close them.

The inside of the tunnel is made out of stone with gray veins of iron going through it. It’s something similar to the gray stone from the 4th floor, the one used for the tunnels and orbital base. It’s not like the material is the same, but the iron veins seem to be strengthening it, and when I send mana toward it, I sense the channels gouged through that are empty and void of mana. The iron itself feels durable and even somewhat mana-resistant and shielding.

We delve deeper into the tunnel that is leading straight and slanted downwards, leading us deeper under the ground.

Some channels seem to be here to deal with water that would threaten to drown the people.

I reach out and touch the walls, unlike the floor, it is rougher, feeling as if it was made in a hurry.

“Is the Sanctuary something your group made?” I ask.

Darren shakes his head, “The Sanctuary is much older than any of us are alive. From what we know, it was a bunker built long before the war, and then abandoned and unused. Our ancestors came up with much better types of bunkers, and the Sanctuary was considered to be obsolete. Only after the war, some of the survivors found it.”

I listen carefully to what he says about it, and I can’t help but feel a tingle of curiosity and excitement. I can’t explain it properly, but this feels fun. Even back on Earth, I liked the videos of people delving into old buildings and examining them, or visiting the bunkers from the World War era. There is something creepy, yet exceedingly fascinating about it.

“How old is the bunker, and when did the war start and end? Also, who fought in that war? And don’t ask me why I’m asking.”

Darren closes his mouth in the middle of the question.

Nina answers instead, “We estimate it’s around 120 years old. The war started around 100 years ago and mostly ended around 99 years ago. For the rest of the 99 years, the Veil has been trying to wipe out what remains while fighting against the monsters.”

I don’t even have to ask another question, and Nina continues, “The Veil is the creation of the guild of enchanters. Something that was supposed to protect our cities and help us in our war against the monsters. We don’t know what happened, but the Veil turned against us and within days after activation and wiped out most of humanity.”

We stop in front of yet another iron circular door. This one is smaller than the one outside, but still three times taller than me. Darren sends a signal, and we wait for them to open.

“Thankfully, the monsters used the opportunity and attacked too, and that made the Veil fight against them as well. That’s probably the only reason there were some survivors.”

I ask, “And the monsters, what are they?”

“They are just monsters... There isn’t only a single species of them, and there are dozens instead. We believe there are a few really strong monsters that either dominate, force or manipulate them to attack us. The monsters came here around 120 years ago and took over some territory. The event we believe to be called Pairing.”

Huh, that's interesting. So Pairing can happen even to worlds of monsters? Or is it something else? Do they only consider them monsters, and it's another race? Or are the monsters tools for a war used by another race, similar to the Colony and the Living Tree created by the lynthari?

I partially expect the quest about finding out what happened to this planet to be completed, but nothing happens. Obviously, that would be too easy.

The door finally fully opens, and we continue walking deeper, the floor narrowing and turning into stairs. Our steps start echoing differently, and this time there is more light as well. In the distance, I can hear voices and other sounds.

Soon enough, a cave opens up in front of us, and I notice that Vega loses her concentration, but this time I let it slip and stop disrupting her mana.

The cave, if I can call it so, is a perfect half-sphere with smooth walls, with a mana crystal at the top of the half-sphere. That crystal lets out a gentle orange light that is enough to light up the entire cave. Within that cave is a mix of buildings.

A few towers and other buildings made out of stone that look as if they are made from one single piece. They are most likely the original buildings.

In between those buildings, houses made out of wood and bricks are nestled, with people moving around. I estimate there are at least a few hundred, most likely a few thousand people. Plenty of them are under level 20, and there are a lot of kids as well.

The Sanctuary seems to be a city of survivors, and even now, I don’t notice anyone stronger than me. That explains why Darren was so worried.

“Master?”

“Yes?”

“You can continue,” my disciple says.

I nod and renew my attempts to disrupt her mana.

“Where do you get water and food from?” I ask.

Darren seems relieved, seeing my reaction, or lack of it. Did he expect me to murder everyone or something? Well, I can't even be mad. It’s fine to be so paranoid when you have so many people relying on you.

“There are some old facilities we were able to reactivate and power. A few smaller gardens and a filtration system. We mostly get our water from the outside and use the filtration to get rid of the poison.”

“That must take quite a while to get enough water for so many people.”

He nods, “It’s nonstop work and dangerous too. There is a small aquifer that slowly fills, but we only use a small part of it. We also keep it replenished in case we would need to. Then we also hunt some of the animals and have some people that can get the poison out of their meat.”

It still sounds suspicious, even if they did have enough strong people to bring the water, it would be a goddamn hard task. Do they also have items similar to my Aqua Arcanum Vial? Something able to contain more water than its size should allow?

“So, what is the problem you have down here?”

Darren exchanges a quick look with Nina, and she steps ahead, “I will be your guide and tell you as much as we can. Father has work to do.”

“That’s fine with me.”

“I’m glad, I will see you later tonight.” Darren then quickly leaves, followed by a few of his men.

The moment he leaves, Nina turns to me, “I don’t trust you.”

“Okay.”

Taken aback after my answer she continues after a moment, “I trust father, but he is getting less decisive as he grows older and has more people to take care of. I believe we could fight you.”

My silly disciple once again stops focusing, and to punish her, I send a bit more mana towards her. Something akin to a tap on the back of the head.

“You should have done that outside then,” I answer Nina.

“Yes, maybe I should have,” she doesn’t seem to be overly antagonistic, just the type that can be hotheaded and doesn’t like to hold in her feelings.

A common variation of the extrovert class.

“I would like to see your water filtration. I have some water with me and would like to see how it works,” to prove it, I pull out my epic Aqua Arcanum Vial.

“So you also have a water storage item,” Nina looks at it and then back at me. “We can do that.”

I follow behind her, and the guards follow us as well.

“How much water can it store? Looking at its shape, it’s at upper uncommon or maybe low rare? Ours are usually bigger, and the compression isn’t that good, but since we can't fix damaged ones, we keep using them.”

I avoid answering her question, “You also said you were able to activate only some of the facilities?”

“Yes, there are many more, but often we don’t even know what they were used for. We don’t have enough mana to start some or don’t have enough skill to fix the others. And yes, before you ask, I can show you some. They don’t work already, so it’s fine.”

We pass through the streets of the city, and I start noticing that most people wear similar kinds of homemade clothes, similar colors, and styles. They are mostly thin, but not overly so, and seem to be at least somewhat taken care of.

They greet Nina and her guards with a smile, and my guides return them. For a moment, their faces become less tense.

I glance back at Vega and notice that she is looking around with a suspicious expression. Her body is tense, and her mana is radiating, ready to fight. She twitches every time someone makes an unexpected movement and keeps locating escape routes.

Unlike when there were only two of us, her expression is colder. She still tries to put on the mask to look innocent and defenseless, but it feels fake. A big difference from the relaxed behavior she has when it's only me.

I also notice that people don't seem to care about her red eyes or horns. This could be either caused by it being somewhat normal or the work of the system that makes natives ignore it.

Pushing through the streets, Nina leads me towards the edge of the cave where we enter another tunnel that is much smaller this time. It's still wide enough for multiple people to walk side by side and better lit. Passing by a few men and women who seem to be working, we reach another cave, much smaller than the main one, but still sizable. It also has a perfect dome-like shape.

“This is one of our unused filtration plants. You just need to pour the water you have into the tank, close it, and then send your mana through the control device.” As if challenging me, she continues, “Do you think you can do that?”

A smile that flashes across her face tells me that it's a bit harder than she lets on. Perhaps she expects me to falter once or twice, or she is using a reverse psychology strategy.

The filtration tank is under the floor. It seems to be not too wide but really long. Something akin to a wide tube. At the bottom, I can sense some inscriptions and other things that most likely help with filtration.

Out of that tube comes another tube that leads into the transparent tank in the wall that seems to be there to store filtrated water. This one is much bigger and empty. Next to it, there is what Nina calls a control panel. A piece of iron with inscriptions and a few mana stones, all connected to the tank under the ground.

I take out the vial and, while looking at Nina, start pouring the water inside.

At first, she is smiling and watching the water trickle down.

Then I control the item and increase the pressure, causing much more water to flow through.

Her expression turns to confusion, and when I continue for a minute, it turns to shock.

When I finally stop, the tank, which is probably big enough to fill a swimming pool, is full. The remaining water in my vial is multiple times that.

Nina becomes even quieter when I put my hand on the control panel and immediately activate it, avoiding broken inscriptions.

A soft hum fills the room, and water in the tank under the floor starts going through the filtration system, fed by my mana. That water moves through the tubes and flows into the giant glass tank that encompasses the entire wall and goes deep into the stone.

I make a few changes to the way I use my mana and find partially hidden mechanisms in the control panel, turning off a few invisible switches. The drain on my mana dramatically increases, but the water starts filling the tank much faster.

Like waterfalls, it shoots from the tubes and inside of the tank, quickly filling it.

After a few minutes, it's full.

Vega notices how much I'm enjoying it and pulls on my clothes, “Asshole,” she whispers so only I can hear.

What are you, Biscuit´s disciple?

***

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