I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 248

The directions the old man had given us led to a narrow, spiraling staircase that descended deeper into the bowels of the prison. The air grew colder with each step, and a strange, heavy pressure began to press down on us. It wasn’t just the physical weight of the rock above, but something more palpable. A growing sense of dread.

Tiffany shivered, her teeth chattering softly despite herself. She instinctively moved closer, her hand brushing against my arm before she grabbed onto it, clinging tightly. I raised an eyebrow at her, and she immediately pulled back, her cheeks flushing in the dim light.

“Don’t get any ideas,” she said, her voice a little shaky. “This place… just feels suffocating.”

“The miasma,” I looked around at the darkness, which seemed to push against my enhanced senses, “The concentrated death and malevolent intent down here have combined with the ambient free energy. It’s created a kind of psychic poison.”

In my old world, scientists believed in the theory of miasma for centuries. The idea was that diseases like cholera and the Black Death were spread by “bad air” emanating from decaying organic matter. This was also what attracted and spawned things like flies. It was logical for the time. Plague-ridden areas often smelled terrible, so it must have been something in the air.

It took scientists like John Snow, who traced a cholera outbreak to a specific contaminated water pump, and Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch, who established the germ theory of disease, to finally disprove the theory of miasma. They proved that invisible microorganisms, not foul air, were the true culprits. This place, however, felt like a physical manifestation of that old, disproven theory. It turned out the air really could go bad, and it seemed to eat away at the energy contained within paragons.

Of course, my defense was far too high to be inflicted by this level of miasma, but Tiffany wouldn’t be able to remain here for too long a period of time. It might not kill her, but it would slowly eat away at her health. With that thought, I couldn’t help but step away from Tiffany and move toward one of the sealed cells that lined the corridor. The door was a solid slab of metal with a small, reinforced window.

“What are you doing?” Tiffany hissed, panic in her voice. “He told us not to enter any of the cells!”

“I’m just looking,” I replied, peering through the thick, cloudy glass. “And it seems our friend was telling the truth. There’s nothing in them but dust. I don’t sense very much life down here.”

“Why would there be life?” Tiffany asked in confusion, seeming to calm down as I took my place beside her.

“Why?” I looked over at her. “It would be stranger if he were the only survivor.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Think about it,” I spoke as we continued our descent. “In any prison, the most dangerous, high-value criminals are kept in the most secure, deepest levels. That man was kept in a relatively accessible chamber without even a proper cell. By all accounts, he shouldn’t have been the most powerful prisoner here, yet he outlasted all the others.”

“Maybe… maybe he’s not human,” Tiffany suggested, her voice barely a whisper. “Perhaps his lifespan is just naturally longer than the others.”

“He’s clearly not human,” I shrugged, “As to how he survived, there has to be more to it.”

As we reached the bottom of the stairs, I acted on an impulse. I grabbed Tiffany’s arm and yanked her back with enough force to make her stumble. A split second later, a brilliant beam of crimson energy shot through the space where she had just been standing, slamming into the opposite wall with a sizzling impact that left a smoking, molten crater.

Tiffany stared at the hole, her face pale with shock. “What was that? How did you…?”

“The prison has automated defenses,” I said, my eyes scanning the walls and ceiling for the source of the attack. “Traps. Stay close to me. Don’t wander.”

She nodded, her earlier bravado completely gone. She looked docile, almost fragile, as she reached out and took my hand, her grip firm this time. Her behavior was unusual for the girl I had known. I figured it was a lingering effect of her injury and the healing process. Her body had been through a massive trauma, and her hormones were likely still out of whack, making her emotions more volatile and her instincts more primal.

Following the old man’s directions, we finally arrived at a large, circular door. It was seamless, with no visible handle or lock, just a complex series of glowing runes etched into its surface.

“It’s locked,” Tiffany said, running her hand over the smooth metal. “There’s no way we can get through this.”

“I thought you could pick locks,” I said, only half-teasing.

She shot me an annoyed look. “This is an Antecedent lock, you fool. It’s not some cheap padlock on a backcountry paragon’s estate!”

I sighed. “Fine, I’ll give it a try.”

“You?” she said in disbelief, but as I touched the door and it started glowing, her mouth shut close.

In truth, I couldn’t pick the lock, but I had something else at my advantage. I already had a good idea of what was on the other side. The mycelium network outside had given me a rough layout of the entire compound, but this room was different from the rest. It seemed like there had been an accident at some point, perhaps one of the confiscated tools had become unstable and detonated. The explosion had blown a hole in the outer wall, allowing the mycelium to infiltrate. It was trapped behind this door, but in doing so, it had meticulously mapped out the inner workings of the lock mechanism. It only took me a moment to process the information, and then I sent a precise electrical pulse through the mycelium that had crept up to the door’s edge.

There was a series of soft clicks, and the runes on the door flickered and died. With a low hiss of escaping pressure, the door slid silently open on its own.

We were immediately hit by a wave of pure, clean energy that washed over us, momentarily pushing back the oppressive miasma. The room beyond was a large, circular chamber, lined with rows of what looked like personal storage lockers. Most of them had been breached by the encroaching mycelium, their contents turned to dust, the metal frames rusted and crumbling.

“There we go.” I chuckled.

“H-how did you…nevermind.” Tiffany shook her head and then stepped into the room. There doesn’t appear to be much left.”

“There’s a locker right here.” I pointed to the last one standing.

She knelt, brushing away some dust and fungal growth from a small recessed compartment, and glanced around the room. Her eyes fell on a wall that seemed to be lined with keys. It didn’t take a genius to match the symbol on the locker with the appropriate key. She retrieved it shortly before she handed it to me, and I inserted it into the lock. I stopped just before turning it, looking over at her.

“You know he said only take what he demanded, right?”

“Hmph! He’s looking down at us. At least we can look. If something can survive down here this long, it must be good.”

I chuckled softly and then turned the key with a satisfying click. The door swung open to reveal a single object resting on a velvet cushion: a bracelet made of interlocking rings, designed to be worn with one ring on each finger.

I picked it up, cupping it in my hands. It hummed with a latent power, the metal warm to the touch. I placed one hand over it, obscuring it from Tiffany’s vision even as she leaned over to look at it. She frowned at me, hiding it, but after only a moment of examination, I held it out to Tiffany.

“Take it,” I declared, putting it in her hand.

She checked out the item in her hand and then looked up at me in disbelief. “You’re not going to keep it? This looks like an S-ranked weapon, maybe even a Quantum-ranked artifact!”

In truth, I had already pulled it into my luminal space and analyzed its function. For all intents and purposes, it was a highly sophisticated set of brass knuckles. They were designed to amplify the user’s physical impact, channeling their energy into a devastatingly powerful punch. It was an incredible item, a top-tier weapon equal to Eternal Harmony. For me, however, it was a limitation. My own physical strength, when fully unleashed, would likely shatter the device upon impact. It would only hold me back.

“I don’t need it. We can call it even for the technique.”

She blushed. “That… hmph, in that case, I won’t be greedy.”

She immediately put it on her hand, but her face was still a bit red as she admired it. It really had a feminine appeal to it. I could also tell that the device could be upgraded. Those rings could be replaced, allowing her to attach other attributes to them.

“Of course, that’s not what the old man told us to look for…” I began to scan the rest of the room.

“Then what is?” she asked, looking up from her hand.

My gaze fell on a corner of the room, buried beneath a dense tangle of glowing roots and pulsating mushrooms. A faint, eerie light pulsed from within the overgrowth. I took a step toward it, but the vines suddenly moved as if they had a mind of their own. Sharp spikes emerged from them.

“Watch out,” Tiffany cried out. “The flora down here is more powerful than the surface. It will protect itself.”

I paused for only a moment to give a subtle wave of my hand. The tangled roots and mushrooms receded, pulling back obediently to reveal what lay beneath. Tiffany gasped at the sight. In truth, she was right. This was the heart of the mycelium network in this facility. Something had been feeding it a great deal of energy, and the mycelium had evolved to the point where it was almost sentient. At least, it would protect that source from anyone who threatened to take it.

Well, it would protect itself from anyone except for me. I had already invaded the mycelium network, and it was now bent to my will. As the mycelium retreated, it revealed a small, antique lantern giving off a soft, ethereal glow. This was what the old man truly wanted. What was the name he had given it? That was right, Gibbs’ Lantern.