"Fuck!" He didn't believe he had let his guard down for a mere moment of vanity. How did he let that happen, if he knew from the beginning that Medon was going to screw him up?
He could not get out of the metal door, he had heard each of the countless locks being bolted and knew he would not be able to break in.
Now he was in that stinking hole, which he was sure was the place of defenestration for many idiots like him, for the disgusting things he saw under the green light of the lantern. All the dirt from the river mud under his feet, plus rotting corpses, and he found himself trying to inhale the odor of gunpowder to relieve his nausea.
"Okay, I didn't transmigrate to die in a well like a level 1 adventurer who took a critical failure. Think, boy," he said to himself, realizing that he had to save his anger for a more opportune moment.
Glax felt something walking on his foot, and his eyes widened in apprehensive suspicion.
He grabbed the flashlight that was hanging on a hook and lowered it enough to see the floor. The flame flickered and sparked, so Glax raised the lamp quickly.
But he had time to see little dark crabs with strangely green eyes under the lantern's light - river crabs, supposedly - walking around. He saw a pile of them, their little eyes flickering like fireflies, feasting on something. Or someone's remains.
'Yuck!' he shivered. 'These creatures eat corpses!'
He decided to investigate how those creatures got into that place, but assessed whether it was a good idea to use the flashlight again. He wasn't quite sure of the composition of the green thing they used as fuel, but he suspected that flammable gases were concentrated in the place.
He knew that decomposing substances released gases, and what was the name of that gas, again? They were usually very reactive, and he didn't want to explode there with a powder keg, even though he suspected the substance was inert because of the humidity.
In addition, he imagined the gases would soon intoxicate him and he'd lose consciousness.
"Choo bee doo bee doo…" he hummed to calm down, thinking about how to escape as quickly as possible. He tore off a piece of his tunic and covered his nose and mouth, and crawled around looking for an opening, some outlet where the animals were coming from.
In the time when he managed to keep his face close to the stinking mud, groping and strangely, remaining calm, he was unable to locate the hole through which the crabs entered, but he found a gladius and a useless pistol covered by slime. Although he couldn't use it now, he decided to keep these items, which seemed useful.
The mud under his feet stirred, and the ground began to shake. Glax leaned against the wall, feeling dizzy and sensing the danger.
Then he realized that the thick, immense column that stood in the middle of the small circular room began to spin slowly, with an excruciating creak. When that happened, dust and chips of corroded metal started to fall!
He leaned against the cold, gooey wall, trying to prevent a huge chip of corroded metal from hitting him. Then he got a sense of where he was and what was going on. In less than a minute, the column had stopped moving, and the large chips of sharp, corroded metal had stopped falling.
'What was this?' He looked up, and moving cautiously, he approached the column. The riveted metal column disappeared into the darkness, and Glax deduced it opened and closed a port, just like a ball valve. But it certainly didn't make the angle to open the door fully ...
'Uhn ...' It was ridiculous to stand there in the dark and slowly be suffocated by toxic fumes while wondering curiously about it.
Now a shower of small debris continued to fall, and he squinted to make sure he was seeing a source of light coming down from far away.
'Is anyone coming down?!' It was unexpected and also a thread of hope for survival!
The light was getting bigger and bigger and he was now able to identify the muffled sounds that the person going down made, due to physical effort.
Glax pulled some air into his lungs to summon the person, but it made him cough poorly, inhaling gas.
When he did this, the person stopped the descent for a few moments.
That lit up the warning sign in Glax's mind. He leaned against the wall, holding the rusty gladius in his hand.
As soon as Glax could see the person's silhouette descending on a rope ladder, the person moved his head, scanning the bottom of the pit with the light. He went down some more, and then Glax saw a net being thrown. It covered a good portion of the muddy ground.
'You bastard! What do you want?' Glax continued to watch closely when the intruder jumped to the floor. Glax had a good view now. The man wore a leather gas mask. Much like the models he saw steampunk cosplayers use. He must really be up for something.
He had a backpack on his back and a dagger in his hand, in much better shape than Glax's.
The sneaker went towards the lamp that Glax had abandoned, dagger in hand. Certainly, he thought the prisoner was lying near the lamp.
Glax crouched quickly, anticipating that the newcomer would react to his movement. As the man in the gas mask turned, Glax pulled the ends of the net under the stranger's feet.
As expected, the man lost his balance and fell on all fours to the muddy ground. Glax pulled again and threw the end of the net over the guy. Struggling to free himself, the stranger tried to use the dagger, but it was too late. He didn't know exactly where to turn and started to entangle in the mesh while trying to get out. Glax kicked his hand, and the dagger fell in the mire.
"This is ridiculous. A thief stealing corpses!"
"Haha. You are tougher than most," scoffed the thief, despite his situation. Glax came up behind the thief now sitting on the floor and tangled in the net, and placed the tip of the blade on the back of his neck. "Do you have someone with you?"
"Why do you think I would tell you?"
"Because you have a chance to stay alive here and wait for the rescue, or die now and find out if you're going to New Hell or not."
"Hey, dude. It's just business. A corpse does not need possessions. I'm just redistributing it."
"It's true." Glax grabbed the helmet with a lamp on top of the man's head and, moving away, put it on his own head.
"You are not going to leave me here, are you? You don't know how to get out. Without me, you won't be able to. Can we negotiate?"
"I don't think I want to do business with the guy who was going to kill me moments ago." Glax went to the stairs. How he liked the athletic Glax! Clinging to the rope was not difficult, but getting up would have been impossible for the skinny, flaccid, and sedentary Matt.
He hurried to take the lead and warned, "It is better to count to 1000, slowly. If I notice that you're going up, I'm going to cut the ladder behind me. But rejoice, you have your mask on."
"Oh, how generous!" the bandit scoffed angrily, but remained seated, trying to get rid of the net.
Glax started to climb, and every now and then he looked down with the beam of light. He couldn't see much, and certainly, after a few meters, he couldn't see anything but a few meters around him. The circular walls around the column seemed to become more and more suffocating as it ascended.
It still annoyed him he hadn't gotten the gunpowder, but he was having an idea of how to get back at Medon, that night. Screw the vengeance as a cold dish. He wanted his now.
As soon as he reached the top, he found an opening that was little more than enough to pass through.
He went out into a dark hall. Right in the middle of the corridor. And now he understood exactly where Medon kept his stock of clandestine weapons. After all, before they reached the chamber where Glax was locked up, Medon was sure to make him think he would be taken to the ammunition stock.
He knew he was in the bowels of the Officina, where natural gas had once been kept and used for ovens and forges, in addition to steam. And he knew Medon kept his fabulous treasure chest of weapons in one oven.
He just had to find the right handle to release the gas that was inside the column - in fact, a pipe - straight into the oven, and then turn it on. He was sure there was still some gas in there. Just a little would be enough to burn Medon's weapons.
'Mwhahaha!' He could not leave without this, and in his mind, he celebrated in advance his 'little' revenge.
He just didn't count on someone coming out of the shadows behind him, to attack him!