Chapter 31: Leaky Pipes and Zappy Blobs!
Daniel stood at the entrance to the Bypass Conduit.
The hidden passage his map showed looked less like a secret shortcut and more like the building's messy basement.
Instead of smooth, pulsing stone walls like the main labyrinth, this tunnel was lined with bundles of thick cables, rusty pipes leaking strange goo, and flickering junction boxes that sparked occasionally.
The air hummed much louder here, and it felt warmer, like being near a big engine.
The floor was a metal grating, and he could see more pipes and wires running underneath.
It smelled like hot metal, burnt dust, and that weird leaky goo.
Nyx whined again from her pouch. "Yeah, doesn't look friendly," Daniel agreed quietly.
But the map clearly showed this conduit snaking directly towards the area marked 'CORE'.
The previous explorer came this way. Maybe it was safer than the main labyrinth paths, even if it looked like it was falling apart.
He activated [Ghoststeps+], his boots making no sound on the metal grating.
He moved carefully, keeping his C+ daggers ready. His [Aura Sense+] felt the energy in here differently.