Chapter 17 – Rules of the Sewer

Nick focused on searching for the Dreamer.

'The Investigator doesn't know what the Dreamer looks like exactly, but he said that he knows it can fly.'

'Physical and Possession Specters of the first level are not nearly powerful enough to fly without wings, which means that the Specter is most likely a winged creature of some sort.'

As Nick swam forward, he kept looking upward.

Naturally, the Dreamer most likely didn't reside inside the actual murky liquid.

'It's probably living inside some of these structures.'

Naturally, there had to be some support for all the metallic plates and grates that made up the floor of the Outer City.

These supports came in the form of long and wide pillars of rusty metal, but they were not the only kinds of support.

Nick had already found a couple of other ruins jutting out of the liquid.

For example, there was a wide building made of stone that seemed to touch or fuse into the metallic plates above it.

There were also several other sizable buildings made of metal and stone jutting out of the pool.

While most of the normal pillars ended in a part of the street with a couple of plates, the sizable ruins that supported the city often ended in big areas of plates.

There were no grates for over ten meters around these big structures.

Additionally, most floors below the actual buildings in the dregs were also made of plates instead of grates.

In a way, since the sun was directly above Nick at all times, the map of the Dregs was reflected on the murky liquid in the form of shadows and big areas of darkness.

While Nick was swimming through the sewers, he was essentially following the roads of the Dregs above him.

It had a kind of bizarre sense of order.

Sadly, this meant that Nick couldn't fully investigate every part of the sewers without having to enter the darkness.

Many buildings were often clumped together, and since the people wanted to avoid the rising smell of the sewers as much as possible, they also replaced their floors with plates.

This created areas of pure darkness over a hundred meters wide.

Naturally, there were also ruins and supports in these areas, and Nick couldn't see much from a distance.

Nick was in the light, and if he wanted to look into the darkness, his eyes had to acclimate to darkness first.

This meant that he had to enter the darkness if he wanted to see in the darkness.

But for now, Nick avoided the darkness.

He would only enter when it was necessary.

Nick remained on the "streets" as he continued to search for any movement above him.

The good thing about the sewers was that they were so incredibly toxic and disgusting that not even insects came here.

The only movement Nick saw came from the rats scuttling across the ceiling of the sewers.

Surprisingly, not even the rats were swimming in the liquid. 

Instead, they were scuttling across the metallic grates with their claws.

In fact, there were quite a lot of them.

In a certain way, these rats were the pedestrians of the sewers since they also followed the roads.

While Specters were not being hunted by the Nightmare, most of their minions were.

So, even the minions of a powerful Specter, like the Parasite, had to avoid the dark places.

Luckily, none of the rats were looking at Nick, keeping his ability active.

In the beginning, some of them had looked at him out of curiosity, but after Nick had thrown them a glare, they turned around.

If the Parasite annoyed Nick too much, Nick might decide to hunt its rats.

So, out of politeness, the Parasite tried to ignore Nick.

As long as it didn't antagonize Nick, Nick wouldn't antagonize it.

That was their unspoken agreement.

For several hours, Nick continued searching for the Dreamer.

The sewers were kilometers upon kilometers long, but luckily, not all the flooring was made of grates.

The Dregs didn't surround the city. After all, no city would want every single visitor to travel through the absolute worst place they had.

So, while the sewers covered most of the underground of the city, the Dregs were only about two kilometers wide and three kilometers long.

Nick was quite certain that the Dreamer didn't go outside the sewers below the Dregs.

First of all, the other parts of the cities had far more Zephyx Extractors, and if any of them found a level one Specter appearing near them, they would hunt it down.

Every Specter represented an incredible amount of wealth!

Additionally, the nicer parts of the town had the sewers completely isolated, making it impossible for the Dreamer to surface.

This meant that the Dreamer had to focus on the Dregs.

'By now, it should be late evening,' Nick thought.

The sun didn't move, but Nick's inner clock was telling him that it was getting late.

'According to the Inspector, the Dreamer has received its name due to the method it uses to hunt and feed.'

'Once a night, it leaves its nest and visits a sleeping person.'

'While they are asleep, the Dreamer creates terrifying nightmares for them but doesn't allow them to wake up.'

'For several hours, the person is stuck inside a terrifying nightmare.'

'The next day, the person wakes up again, but they feel even more tired than before they went to bed. Naturally, they also need a long time to recover from the mental stress.'

'Since it's already late in the evening, the first people should already be going to bed.'

'In at most a couple of hours, the Dreamer should leave its nest to feed.'

'That's when I can find it.'

'Sadly, I also need to reach it and sneak up on it.'

'That won't be easy.'

'But for now, I should wait.'

Nick went to one of the ruins that were below some grates and grabbed the edge.

Then, Nick slightly pulled himself down so that only his nose and eyes poked out.

He didn't want the Dreamer to see him when it searched for its food.

And like this, Nick waited.