Hecathe descended deeper and deeper into the secret emergency passages and eventually got used to the smell and the dust covering the place.
When he finally stepped down to the bottom of the long spiral staircase that seemed to have been going on forever, he sighed in relief before taking out something from his pocket.
It was the pocket-friendly suitcase that could expand with just a button and once he pressed the button, he took out the cloak and mask that he had kept inside the suitcase before closing the suitcase again and contracting it back to the size that could easily fit inside his pocket.
He wore the mask and the cloak before pulling the cloak up to cover his nose, trying to save himself from choking on the dust that seemed to fill this place.
He sighed as he looked up one last time and by now, the entrance that he had come from was so far away that it looked like a mere grain of dust.
Hecathe lifted his left hand and pressed a button on his watch before swiping and going to contacts as he left a message for Xanie, "You know, I just realized. Why don't I just send you a distress signal if things go wrong down here? You can come and help me sooner. It'll be much faster than waiting to see if I make it out alive or not."
He looked up and waited for a few minutes and as expected, a response came for him in the form of another voice message.
"Captain, you are right. This is a better idea."
"..."
"This is why you are the captain and I'm your worker!" The girl didn't forget to flatter Hecathe.
Hecathe pursed his lips and shook his head as he turned his watch back off and put his hand down before stuffing the small pocket-sized button of the suitcase back into his pocket.
He took out the map that he had kept away and looked at it carefully before raising the lamp in hand to see the three passages that went into different directions ahead of him.
"Hmm..." He muttered as he wondered what he was supposed to choose.
All three passages looked absolutely the same and he was a man who had no sense of direction. It was only now that he realized this big problem. Even with a map in hand, if he didn't know which direction was north and which was south, he was still going to end up getting lost in these passages.
He pressed the button on his watch again and contacted Xanie, "There are three ways here. What do I do?"
Soon enough, the response also came from Xanie who was still waiting in Hecathe's room, looking down at the bottom of the spiral staircase that could be hardly seen, "Captain, how am I supposed to know? I gave the map to you."
Hecathe scratched the back of his neck as he glanced at the map in his hand and then back up at the three paths that lay ahead of him.
"Damn it..." He cursed as he tried to come up with a way through which he could find the right passage he was supposed to choose.
Because of the spiral staircase, his sense of direction had worsened even more and he was completely helpless.
Just when he thought that he would have to depend on his luck and choose randomly, the speaker of his watch came to life as Xanie sent him another voice message.
"Captain, try using the direction map inside your QMS."
"Wait, there is a direction app inside this thing too?!" Hecathe cried out in shock as he immediately tried to find it.
He swiped through a lot of different programs that he didn't even bother trying out and soon enough, he was able to find the direction analysis app.
He turned the app on and held his hand out front. Because the main page of the app looked like a familiar handheld compass, Hecathe thought the arrow on it would move around to tell him the direction, however, he seemed to have been made a fool out of.
The arrow spun around once before it suddenly vanished and in its place came a sentence: You are facing the north.
It was also followed by a few numbers but Hecathe wasn't sure what the numbers were about. He knew that they were about the degrees of the angle he was facing but he wasn't exactly sure about it.
He looked at the map again and saw the direction given on top.
"Great!" He exclaimed as he suddenly found the passage that he was supposed to choose.
"Captain, did you find it?" Xanie's worried voice message came once again.
"I found it," Hecathe responded after a minute as he kept going deeper into the passage that he had chosen.
He walked for a long while and a turn came. This time he only had two passages to choose from. One going towards his right and the other going towards his left. It was much easier for him to make his decision this time and he didn't even need to depend on the compass tool as he turned right and continued on in that path.
He eventually started getting bored and the silence annoyed him a bit so he hummed an unknown melody to make sure that there was some sound around.
He walked for another few hours and kept on turning according to the map. After three or more hours of walking, he looked down at the map and checked to see how much distance he had covered. He hoped to see himself covering a lot of distance, however, the reality was rather pinching.
"That's it?!" He shouted in shock as he saw that he had only covered a bit lesser than twenty percent of the way that he had to cover.
He gulped as he immediately started regretting his decision. He definitely shouldn't have chosen such a risky option to run away from here.
"Captain, are you okay in there?" Xanie seemed to be dedicated to this mission. Every ten minutes, she would leave a voice message for Hecathe asking the man if he was alive or dead.
"I'm alive," Hecathe switched on the watch for a second as he responded to her timely checks.
He took a deep breath in as he continued to walk forward and followed the map.
If by the end of this, he was still alive, he would certainly want to pat himself on the back just for surviving these hellish passages that seemed to be slowly trying to break him down.
He seriously wondered what was going on in the head of the maker who created this thing. This was supposed to be the emergency passages, wasn't it? Why would someone make such small emergence passages that were more like tunnels that just went on forever?
Even if there was a real emergency, Hecathe would rather choose to jump through the fire and escape because that option sounded a lot better than entering these narrow tunnels again.
He hummed and continued on his path, ignoring the hunger and thirst he was suddenly suffered to feel.
It was too soon for him to eat or drink. Although Hecathe had packed both water and food, it would still be insufficient if he eats too much. Originally, he thought that it won't take more than a few hours to get to Ocasia so he only packed one tiffin filled with food and a bottle of water.
So if he was going to be stuck here for more than a day, it was better for him to save up on his resources and use them only when he was in dire need of them.
After another few hours, he could almost feel the muscles on his leg hurt from tightening up too much and he was sure that the veins on his legs had also managed to pop up like that of a marathon runner.
"I can do it," He reminded and motivated himself as he kept on walking forward.
"Captain, are you okay?" Xanie checked in on him again and once again, he responded with a dejected 'yes'.
After another few hours, it was probably near six or seven in the morning and Xanie had already stopped checking in on him.
Hecathe didn't mind it too much as he guessed that the girl had probably fallen asleep or something.
It was only natural that she did. Hecathe could never imagine himself sleeping on the floor of these dirty passages but Xanie was up there in Hecathe's room so of course, she succumbed to the drowsiness and tiredness that melted away on the soft mattress of Hecathe's bed.