The exit in front of Rei was rather narrow. Even Julius had to bend down a little to walk through it.
Estimating the size of the exit, Julius felt that it would be quite comfortable for him to walk through it, but the same could not be said for the strong men.
Regardless, it was a passageway for people to walk through. As long as they were not giants, most people could walk through it.
"Is this the new passageway?" Julius asked.
"Yes, but it can also be said that it is not," Rei replied.
Rei's words confused Julius. "What do you mean?"
Rei walked in first, then turned around and looked at Julius. "Follow me and you will know."
Julius followed Rei in.
After walking into the narrow passageway, the light no longer spread outwards. The light that enveloped the two of them became brighter, and it also made it easier for Julius to see things.
The passageway seemed to be filled with a cold air, which made Julius's skin crawl.
The passageway was much colder than the outside, and the breeze from the other side of the passageway made it even colder.
The flame on the torch swayed with the wind, drifting behind Julius.
The passageway was not long, and Julius and Rei soon reached the end.
Even in a passageway with only two directions, Rei still used a guiding stone to mark the way.
When the two of them reached the end, the bag in her hand was empty, and she only had one torch left in her hand.
Julius thought that Rei would take him to a new place, but when he reached the end of the passageway, he was stunned.
There was no exit in front of him, nor was there any other passageway. There was only a thick wall in front of him.
The wall was not made of bricks, but of stone.
It was probably blocked by a huge rock, which was much stronger and more reliable than a wall.
Bricks could be blown open with explosives, but a huge rock, if there were no holes in it, would be difficult to blow it open.
"There's no path here," Julius said with a frown.
If this was the new area that Rei mentioned... they had wasted a whole bag of guiding stones in exchange for such a great gain. Additionally, they had also allowed Rei and Julius to enter the sewer for free. Although it was not a big loss, those people would not be happy to be fooled by a little girl.
"Just like you, when I first came here, I thought I was mistaken. There was no new area at all, only endless dead ends. How could I find a new place so easily?" Rei had a confident smile on her face, as if she already had a card up her sleeve.
She squatted down and searched for something on the ground. She didn't care about the dirt as she slid her hand along the ground.
After a while, Julius heard a cracking sound from Rei's side. It was the sound of stones rubbing against each other.
"Found it." Rei's voice sounded even happier.
Then, Julius saw an unbelievable scene. The boulder that blocked the path was slowly moving down, revealing the space behind it.
After the boulder moved away, the wind became stronger, and more sounds were heard.
Rei squatted on the ground and raised her head to look at Julius. "Am I lucky?"
"Is this a place that can be found by luck?" Julius asked.
Rei clapped her hands to get rid of the dirty water. "But as long as you are lucky, you can find something new."
For Julius, Rei's words were a bit too optimistic, or perhaps too optimistic.
But she did find a place that no one else had found, and she attributed it to luck.
Rei walked in first, not worried at all that there might be something dangerous lurking behind the stone wall.
Seeing Rei so unguarded, Julius guessed that she must have been here several times.
"You have been here before."
Julius said, and then got an affirmative response from Rei. "Of course I have, but this is the first time I have brought someone here.
There are some places that I can crawl through, so I can avoid the fees. But you can't. You are not a dwarf. "
Julius understood why Rei did this.
She needed someone who could protect her, but this person could not avoid the cost of the rat tracks as she, the "little mouse," could.
No matter if it was him or her, they were both struggling to make a living, especially when Julius's meals were surprisingly high. Rei even took out part of her harvest to help Julius.
Julius followed Rei and walked through the lowered stone door.
After walking for a while, the two finally left the labyrinthine place behind.
In front of them was a completely different world.
The two of them stood on a platform high in the sky, with no place to stand or stairs to go down.
This space was a circular passage that led up and down, which looked like a large vertical pipe.
Beside the platform was a smooth wall, and there was no place to stand on it. It looked like there wasn't even a place to climb.
Below was a bottomless abyss, and above was also pitch-black. They did not know where it led to, or if there was no place to go up.
Now Julius and Rei stood on the platform with a guardrail on the side, which prevented them from slipping and falling.
But the guardrail was eroded by moisture and dripping water for many years, so it did not look very sturdy.
Julius walked to the side and put his hand on the guardrail.
The guardrail made a creaking sound, and as he thought, it was not reassuring.
He and Rei did not intend to rely on these things for their safety.
Julius looked around for a while and concluded one thing: this place looked fresh, but it was actually a dead end.
There was no way to go up, and there was no way to go down — unless they jumped down and went down as a dead person.
"This is also a dead end." Julius said, "Those guys will not be satisfied with the reward you give."
Julius had dealt with those uncouth guys before, and they were all rude and stingy guys.
"If they are willing to put in the effort, they can make a ladder to go down.
From the shallow water to the middle, most of the roads are ladders, and in the future, this place will just have one more ladder. "
"Is this our final destination?"
Rei shook her head, "No, this is the end of these guiding stones." She threw the last stone in her hand down.
"I have a way down."