Chapter 56: Chapter 56: The Lower Level
This matter was really too sinister, and so Duncan had never been able to bring himself to eat that bowl of fish soup.
After all, just the thought of the doll Miss’s head bobbing and rolling in the soup pot made him feel as if his dinner scenes were sprinting straight towards curses and the Grim Reaper—even though Alice’s true form was actually cheerful to no end, the incident of her head falling into the pot was still a bit too horrifying…
The doll Miss seemed a bit hurt; she looked at the food Duncan had set aside, her hands clutching the lace decorations at the hem of her clothing, “Captain, are you angry?”
Duncan, exhausted in both body and spirit, glanced at the doll, “If there’s anything you’re unhappy with aboard the ship, you can tell me directly… ”
“Ah? I’m not…”
“Then try not to enter the kitchen again…” Duncan said offhandedly, but he quickly noticed Alice’s increasingly dejected expression and ultimately couldn’t help but shake his head and change his tone, “Never mind, your intentions were good, and actually, I’m quite pleased, but cooking… accidents can happen when one is not skilled. You’ll get the hang of it later.”
Alice immediately perked up, “So I can still try again in the future?”
Duncan restrained himself for a long moment, finally nodding, “Just… be cautious.”
He had given this some thought: it was obvious that the cursed doll couldn’t stand the current way of life on the Homeloss, and perhaps she really had a certain “trait” that required her to do something on this ship to settle down; she was, after all, a thinking, individual personality, and Duncan felt he couldn’t always treat this doll with dismissal.
Compared to that, letting Alice help in the kitchen was better than letting her continue to fight with ropes, anchor chains, and cannonballs—at least the pots and pans aboard the Homeloss had comparatively better temperaments.
He looked down at the fish soup to his side; to be fair, the taste of the soup was actually quite normal. Despite the ship’s limited seasonings, it was perfectly cooked, and for a doll who lacked both taste and a digestive system, the fact that Alice could achieve this level based solely on the theoretical knowledge she had heard (and that too from a goat head who also didn’t consume human food) was truly remarkable.
Two creatures who didn’t need human food had managed to concoct a meal fit for humans—what more could Duncan ask for? He figured that if the doll was just a bit more careful, she should be able to handle the work in the kitchen—this way at least he, as the ship’s captain, wouldn’t have to cook himself anymore.
“Then… Captain, would you like me to make you something else?” Alice’s voice came from the side, interrupting Duncan’s thoughts, “I also learned to bake fish and make fish fillets from Mr. Goat Head, we have the ingredients in the kitchen…”
“Not for now, I’m not hungry,” Duncan shook his head; his own body didn’t actually require much food, and his regular three meals a day were maintained merely to keep up the habit of being a “human.” At this moment, a bowl of Alice’s excellent soup had dissipated his appetite for the rest of the day, so he simply rose from the table and said, “I’m going to take a walk through the ship’s hold.”
“You’re going to the hold?” Alice was taken aback for a moment, and then as if remembering something, her expression grew a bit tense, “Then… could you check on ‘down below’?”
“Down below?” Duncan furrowed his brow.
The deeper chambers—the places she wasn’t allowed to go,” Alice explained, “I always hear squeaking and creaking sounds coming from down there, and sometimes it sounds as if someone is muttering under the floorboards. Could you check… to see if something is amiss down there?”
Seeing the doll Miss’s slightly anxious expression, Duncan’s heart gradually began to sink.
The depths of the Homeloss… that was a place he had yet to explore!
Because the deepest part felt eerily dangerous, and at that time he hadn’t “taken the helm” nor had he mastered the power of the Spiritual Body’s flame, so he had stopped short of exploring the deeper chambers on his previous attempts—of course, he indeed had plans to further explore in the future, but it seemed that plans couldn’t keep up with changes.
Just then, the voice of the goat head came from the side, “Ah, it sounds like the bottom of the hold is getting restless; Captain, will you go down to have a look?”
Before Duncan could even speak, the goat head began to ramble on, “Come to think of it, you really haven’t checked down there for a long time. The hold needs some pacifying by the captain; you know, it has been soaking in the Endless Sea after all… Are you taking your oil lamp? It’s still in the usual spot, right behind the door… You’ve been active on the upper levels recently, and the fellows below have been making quite the racket—you wouldn’t believe how annoying they’ve been. Ah, I’m a lover of quiet, can’t stand those creaking and squeaking sounds in the middle of the night…”
Duncan silently gave the goat head a look, prompting him to quiet down at once.
Frankly, after hearing some of the content the goat head had prattled on about, he suddenly felt even more aversion to that eerie hold—it sounded as if it had been heavily influenced by the deeper reaches of the Endless Sea and had become a structure that, even aboard the Homeloss, was considered “off.”
But the feeling of aversion only lingered in his mind for less than a second.
Sooner or later, he was going to conduct further exploration of the Homeloss’s other structures, and it was better to do it sooner rather than later… Reason told him that it was better to act sooner rather than later.
The Homeloss was huge, not just in length, but its chambers also extended far below, divided into many levels. The areas Duncan was familiar with were currently only the upper structure of the ship—including the deck area, the upper hold beneath the deck with the ammunition depot and cannon area, and the next level down with the storage, fresh water tanks, and some of the crew’s quarters. Based on his previous explorations, he could fully imagine just how vast the structures might be below these areas, hidden in the darkness.
These structures were located below the waterline and, judging by the depth, they were completely submerged in the Endless Sea.
Dark, eerie, echoing with hollow wind sounds or howls—the deeper they went, the more sinister the environment inside the Homeloss became.
Duncan did not understand his ship—this situation could not drag on indefinitely.
He was now the captain of the ship, Homeloss was his foothold, and it was his base of operations in this world; he could not afford to be so ignorant about his own foundation—even just to survive for a long time on the Endless Sea, teeming with abnormalities and phenomena, he had to clearly understand the potential and dangers of Homeloss.
Who knew whether a crisis would come tomorrow, who knew whether Homeloss would collide with the offspring of the deep sea or colliding with the collapsing boundaries of reality in the next second.
Moreover, Goat-Head had just mentioned: the bilge needed the captain’s soothing.
The “captain” had not gone down to the lower decks for too long… If this continued, it seemed that something bad would happen.
Duncan stood up, went to the door, and found the lantern that Goat-Head had mentioned.
It was a very old lantern with a copper frame that was wider at the top and narrowing down into a hexagonal prism, with glass lampshades set into the copper frame, appearing somewhat blurry. But inside the lampshade, Duncan did not see anything like a wick.
He did not show curiosity, nor did he ask Goat-Head. After a brief and silent contemplation, he tried to activate the eerie green Spiritual Body flame and infused this power into the lantern.
A bright green flame immediately leaped and burned inside the lampshade, and the ancient lantern began to release a continuous glow.
Wherever the light from the lantern shone, an eerie atmosphere somehow spread, but standing within this light, Duncan suddenly felt an inexplicable calmness and sense of control; it was as if he could faintly sense his own power spreading with the light, and every detail of things touched by the light clearly reflected in his mind.
Suddenly, the pigeon Ai Yi fluttered over and landed on Duncan’s shoulder.
It had already taken on that translucent shape of a ghostly bird—though Duncan had not actively “activated” the pigeon, under the illumination of the lantern, it had still passively completed the “transformation”.
Duncan looked down at the lantern in his hand and thought it might be something useful… It seemed to be able to spread his power into the surrounding environment with minimal loss and maintain a “force field” that combined detection, early warning, and even controlling capabilities. This Trait was obviously quite suitable for long-term exploration in unfamiliar or dangerous areas.
“Captain… may I join you?”
Duncan turned around and saw Alice standing behind him, curiously looking at the lantern while also wearing an eager expression: “I’ve never been to the lower levels yet! Mr. Goat-Head said I couldn’t go down without your permission…”
Duncan thought for a moment and gave a slight nod, “Yes, you can.”
He still didn’t know what was in the lower decks, but anyway that was a part of Homeloss, and since he had successfully “taken the helm,” there shouldn’t be any great danger in the bilge. Bringing this automaton along might even lend him a hand.
Goat-Head, left on the navigation table, did not voice any opinion, apparently, in its view, it was quite normal for the captain to inspect Homeloss—bringing a helper was equally so.
Outside the cabin, night had gradually fallen, the cold glow of Creation of the World illuminated the sea surface, shining on the empty deck of the Ghost Ship, with the translucent Spiritual Body sails billowing in the air, slowly adjusting their angles without human control.
Duncan, holding the lantern, armed with his side-sword and flintlock pistol, walked across the empty deck with Alice, passing through the two upper deck cabins, and down the wooden stairs towards the depth of Homeloss’s cabin.
The stairs at the end of the sailor’s cabin were where Duncan had previously stopped his exploration.
An odd dimness loomed around the stairway sloping downwards, and in the darkness, one could only faintly see the supporting pillars and some wall structures of the cabin.
“This is so dark below,” Alice stood at the top of the stairs, looking nervously at the dim environment below, “Isn’t there lighting down there? Everywhere else has those ever-burning oil lamps…”
“No, there are lights down there,” Duncan said slowly, holding the lantern, his voice low as the power from the lantern suffused the area, allowing him to see much clearer than before into the cabin below, “…it’s just that the lights down there are black.”
“…Huh?” Alice blinked, taking a moment to grasp the concept, “There’s black light?”
Duncan didn’t respond at once, just slowly walked down with the lantern until Alice followed him; then he softly said, “After all, we’re already below the surface of the Endless Sea.”