Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 8 Meeting again
That strange perception had been pointing him in the general direction.

But that seems to be just the direction.

Zeus only knew that the strange fish was below him, but he had no idea how to get past it.

He tried to explore the abilities he had acquired. In addition to being able to feel the water, he seemed to be able to roughly distinguish the composition of matter, but this was limited to the parts he touched.

When walking in the house, he wore soft-soled slippers and walked lightly and quietly. When he passed the corner of the corridor, he would carefully look out and make sure there was no one before moving forward.

Thanks to the fact that he usually had no interest in tormenting his servants, there was usually no one on guard in the house at night, but there were people patrolling outside.

Hughes counted and found that only the lights at the corner of the corridor and on the stairs were on.

He didn't have much direction, so he could only focus on checking suspicious areas. However, with the enhanced senses brought by the symbiotic ritual, he soon discovered something amiss in the study.

"There's a lot of metal inside the wall here, which should be some kind of mechanical structure."

Looking at the wall in front of him, Xius raised his eyebrows.

I actually found it. There are indeed some unknown things hidden in this manor!

He looked around the dark room. He was able to see in the dark and was not affected at all. After thinking for a while, he began to focus on exploring other metal objects in the room.

If the mechanism behind the wall here is a mechanical structure, then there must be a directly connected transmission mechanism extending all the way to it, which would be very easy to handle.
Zeus began to sense the walls of the house inch by inch.

Soon, he discovered that there was metal inside the wall connected to the fireplace. If he looked closely, he could see that there was indeed a charred part deep in the fireplace. It looked like stone, but in fact, it contained springs and gears.

"This depth?" Zeus looked around and took a long-handled axe from the display stand above the fireplace. There was a sharp tip on the top of the axe, which poked into the mechanism deep in the fireplace. The length was just right.

Hughes placed the axe tip against the stone and applied gentle force.

After a low sound of gears gnashing together, part of the fireplace chimney flipped back, revealing a gap just big enough for a person to pass through.

Hughes curled his finger, licked it with his tongue, and then put it into the hole.

"The air is circulating, and there's another outlet below."

Hughes looked delighted.

Without rushing in, Zeus turned and walked to the study door, observed for a while, and made sure that the noise of opening the passage did not disturb others before turning and walking to the fireplace.

He did not use a lantern to illuminate the area, as his dark vision was more than enough. After tightening the hem of his clothes and cuffs, he took a deep breath and walked into the cave.

After entering the secret passage, Zeus did not rush forward, but instead touched the surrounding walls. Sure enough, he found two metal pull rings not far away, one high and one low. He tried to pull the high one, and the wall behind him slowly closed.

The secret passage was covered with moss, emitting a faint fluorescence in the darkness. Zeus kicked the stone steps under his feet, which were a little slippery. He tried to take a breath, and the air was also full of the smell of dampness.

It seems obvious where this leads to.

As Xiu Si walked down, he looked around.

This place doesn't seem to be completely man-made. After walking a few steps, you will enter a space similar to a cave. A small stream flows down the road.

Hughes walked to the stream, scooped up some water and took a sip.

“It’s actually fresh water.”

With water and food stored here, they should be able to survive for a long time. Hughes dipped his hand into the water and activated his extraordinary senses again.

The perception of the water, which was originally vague, became extremely clear this time. He seemed to have turned into a fish, swimming down the stream, and the sea was not far away.

And that familiar existence seemed to have sensed his actions. It excitedly turned around a few times in the sea, and then slowly walked ashore and walked towards him.

Zeus subconsciously reached for his pistol, but found nothing. Then he remembered that he had not prepared any weapon when he came down.

"Forget it. If it wanted to harm me, it would have done it at the dock. Might as well just go and meet it directly."

After withdrawing his perception, Zeus walked down the stream.

The gurgling sound of the stream and the faint sound of waves lapping in the distance made Xiusi feel inexplicably familiar.

Not long after walking, the familiar and ugly figure appeared in front of Xius.

Unlike the dying monster seen at the dock, the monster now looked completely different.

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

And above that mass of flesh, scales could be vaguely seen between the swollen flesh.

The creatures before him looked more like bloated floating corpses than living things, yet they were visibly full of life, which was indescribably strange.

Zeus's eyes twitched. Creatures with this kind of appearance had only appeared in horror movies in his previous life.

Normally speaking, seeing such a shocking appearance, Zeus would be frightened at least a little, if not scared to death, but now he only felt a sense of familiarity.

I could sense its ugliness, knew it looked disgusting, but the feeling didn't feel very real.

It sounds complicated, but it's actually like encountering a disgusting monster in a game in your previous life. No matter how bizarre the appearance is, it will look just like that through the screen.

So when Zeus looked at the monster in front of him, he unexpectedly didn't feel it was that bad.

The effect of the symbiotic contract?
But the swollen monster in front of him seemed quite uncomfortable. It seemed to feel guilty about its ugly appearance. It curled up hard and tried to hide its swollen limbs. The movement was somewhat funny.

Does it have similar concepts of beauty and ugliness as humans?
Looking at the clumsy appearance of the swollen monster in front of him, Zeus's nervousness dissipated for the most part.

"I'm sorry, my lord, for letting you see my ugly body..." The monster's muffled voice came, and it realized that its efforts were in vain.

Is it ugly? It is indeed ugly, but Hughes knows that it should not look like this, at least in the deep sea, it should be more normal.

However, Hughes did not bother to refute this, because -

".What did you call me?"

"My Lord," the swollen monster said, as if it understood his thoughts, "You are the salvation of the cursed. You lead us out of our tragic fate. You are the god we wait for."

Zeus's face twitched. What was wrong with this monster? Why did he suddenly call himself a god?
"Please allow me to explain." The swollen monster's eyes were sincere.

You should explain yourself, Zeus thought. Any ordinary person would have been scared away by your reckless behavior.

Hughes folded his arms and looked at it.

(End of this chapter)