All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 68: A Step Up

Bee went with her master to check on the Lieutenant. Upon arriving, she found the black room spotless, as always. Her master did seem to like cleaning this room. It was perhaps the one that got dirty the most frequently; the castoffs of a powerful demon like the Lieutenant were nothing to scoff at. Also, she figured it probably helped Void keep watch.

She was hesitant to get very close. The statue seemed like it hadn’t moved at all; it still stood in its cage in the same position with the same look on its face as before, but something was different. She did her best to put her finger on it but couldn't quite figure it out.

Bee walked closer to get into range of her Scan. Last time she had only gotten limited information about the Lieutenant’s level from the "Level: 30+". Though she had learned that it was a torture-type class. She was hoping to find out more information now that she had leveled up a bit more.

Name: Nazareth'gak, Type: Lieutenant Demon, Level: 50+, Class Type: Torture.

She didn't get much more information, but as she got closer, she realized that the color of its eyes had changed. Not significantly, but she could see that they were a slightly darker color than the rest of the gray stone. Also, the stone flames that danced along its arms and shoulders seemed to be emitting a faint glow of light.

She quickly stepped back. Now that she was aware of it, she could feel a sort of magical pressure on her skin. That wasn't there before. In fact, she had never felt anything like it. But she had read about it. Apparently, Scan was slightly better than just reading system messages or system details about a person. It also lets people sense magical energies with a higher sensitivity than their level would normally allow. She started to feel some pressure she hadn't felt before, so she wasn't sure if it was her Scan leveling up or if the demon was becoming awake. However, she didn't feel like she could just assume this sensation was a result of her getting more powerful. She shivered. She'd have to come back here daily to establish a baseline.

Once she had a good idea of how quickly he was progressing, she might be able to better gauge when he would be free. But even these changes alone were worrying. She had no way of telling how long it would actually be now, but the fact that it was in fact waking up was not good. She probably would assume that there would not be much time before she needed to act. The only real question was whether it would stay still until it was at full power, or start venturing out while it was still recovering like the other demons had done.

She was not sure which one would be worse. She would either have more time to plan for a stronger foe or have to fight a weakened one right away. She guessed it all came down to if she could improve faster than the demon could awaken.

It was unfortunate that she wouldn't have time to try and contain it. Just laying a new circle would take so much time that it would likely awaken before she finished. Assuming that she was even able to set the protections up without any mistakes. And that the changes and energies around it didn't force it to wake up slightly sooner. Even if it wasn’t at its maximum potential, she didn't have any confidence in facing the Lieutenant. Also, she wasn't going to force Void to help her if it hadn't taken care of things already. It probably had its reasons.

Closing the door behind her, she left the room. She needed to start planning. She also needed to decide whether to let Tony in on the big secret. There wasn't much he could do to help, she thought. Unless he was going to change his field of study from farming. But if he already had the farmer class, it wouldn't help much. No, probably just letting him focus on creating a stable supply of food would be best for now. If he finished that and was able to maintain it with less than a day's effort, then maybe she'd think about it again.

But for now, it was time to explore the upstairs.

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I watched as Beatrice checked out the tasteless statue and beautiful room. At first, I had been rather dismissive of the statue, but the more I had learned about it from hints Beatrice had dropped, the more I was wary of it. I had cleaned this room while she was gone, but I found it more difficult now to appreciate the beauty of the floor. I still couldn't deny that it was breathtaking, but it was hard to enjoy when I was so acutely aware of the thing at the center. So I had slightly mixed feelings when we left.

But I had a good idea about what we were going to do next. I zipped ahead of Beatrice and found the nearest stairwell. She was initially right behind me but had fallen a little bit behind. She had broken into a jog but just couldn't keep up with my speed. I was slowly spinning in a circle, trying to contain my excitement. I didn't realize before what it was to get bored, maybe because my earlier inefficiency meant there was always more for me to do. But between my avancement and familiarity with these areas, the same castle that had been so much of a challenge was now so far below my abilities that I wanted something new to tackle.

When Beatrice caught up, she smiled at me. “You want to go upstairs, master?"

I let out an affirmative beep.

I still wasn't a huge fan of being carried, but Beatrice did do a good job of it. Being carried upstairs without having to just stare downwards at the floor was a much more positive experience. It also gave me a much higher perspective than I was used to. The stairs we were climbing were right across from the closet where we found the human woman. It was a narrow set of stairs, made of plain stone and hidden in the walls.

I had to say I approved of how this set of stairs was done. I thought this was how all stairs should be made. Hidden and out of the way. The fact that it was blocked off by a door was even better. If I didn't want to see them, I didn't have to. But this also disrupted my count. I thought there were 27 different stairways besides the grand hall, but apparently, there were at least 28 and possibly more.

Oh well. Beatrice knew the whole castle better than I did, I assumed, so I'd have to follow her lead in this.

When we arrived at the top of the stairs, I was set down again. This was a starkly different environment than the downstairs. Well, at least compared to the entryway downstairs that was so grand and fabulous. When you got farther back downstairs towards some of the bedrooms and offices, things became a little more simple.

Up here on this floor, they didn't even try to pretend to be fancy. It was a narrow corridor lined with hard black stone. The stones were well fitted, but not nearly as polished and smooth as the ones below. They also weren’t arranged in any decorative patterns. The walls were made of similar materials to downstairs, understandably, but I wondered what possessed the architects to change their floor strategy so dramatically. Well, even if it wasn't fancy, it was still very well made.

We came up to the end of a corridor that was only three and a quarter feet wide. And boy, was it dirty. It was as if no one had cleaned for over a month up here. Dust was everywhere, and I could see tracks in it, likely from the lesser demons. Apparently, they had found their way upstairs. I wondered if there were any still hiding around? I hadn't seen any in forever, so I assumed not.

Beatrice set off down the hallway. We passed several doors that resembled the ones downstairs but didn't go into any of them. I wondered what was in there. I would have to check later.

As we went, I cleaned. Normally this would have taken me a very long time to do. I would have had to go back and forth across the three and a quarter feet, vacuuming up a 13 1/2 inch strip of dirt at a time. However, with my newfound abilities, I was able to just follow along at Beatrice's heels, vacuuming up the entire width of the hallway as I went. I actually could have moved significantly faster than we were going and still not have left a speck of dust in my wake.

So I wasn't going to complain about the pace. It seemed like a comfortable pace for Beatrice, and it also gave me time to methodically sweep my sanitation lamp across the floor. I didn't have time to disinfect the door handles or the walls or anything, but the floors did seem to be the dirtiest.

The only thing that disappointed me about my new cleaning powers was that I wasn't able to incorporate my graceful curves anymore. No, the most efficient style for me now was more similar to how it was before ever coming to this castle. Straight lines and sharp corners. When my cleaning radius was smaller, I had to find interesting and creative ways around obstacles. Now I just needed to send a bit more power to my vacuum and direct the air around any object in my way. That wasn't to say I didn't enjoy cleaning; it was definitely satisfactory to see the job done. But it never really felt like much of a challenge anymore.

We reached the end of the hallway, which was also capped by a door. Beatrice opened it for me quite graciously. I rolled through, out into a hallway. This hallway was much more reminiscent of the ones downstairs. Still not as fancy as the entryway, of course, but the oak flooring and the carpet runner were quite tasteful.

"All right, master, I think we need to check all the rooms in that direction," Beatrice said, pointing off to the right. “I believe that's where some of the secondary testing facilities were. Usually those had to do with some of the Junior Mage's research projects. But I think there are some store rooms which might include live specimens. That's likely where we would find any potential escapees."

By “escapees”, I assumed she meant some kind of mess maker. I couldn't let that happen. I'd already been responsible for far too much mess when it came to releasing the lesser demons and earth demons. I would have to be very careful not to disturb any more containment measures even if I wasn't sure how various types of salt could possibly contain demons. That was another thing I should probably figure out, besides reading.

I followed Beatrice to the right and entered the first door over there. Well, we didn't actually enter the room. We opened it up, and it turned out to be a closet. Then we went on to the next door. That one was more interesting. It wasn't a room with cages or anything that we were exactly looking for, but it was a room full of benches. And not the kind of benches people sit on.

The rows of narrow tables with stone tops were almost perfectly flat. Often beside the walls were cabinets with glass windows, clear enough that I could see inside. They were full of various other glass-shapes and things. Along the far wall, there were several more interestingly-shaped pieces of furniture. I wasn't sure what their purposes were, but humans did have some pretty odd design choices.

One of the stranger pieces looked almost like a fireplace set on a table. The table part was about the same size and dimensions as the other tables around the room. A hutch of stone rested on top of it, taller than either Beatrice or Tony. The open part of the hutch faced towards us and was mostly covered by a pair of heavy-looking hanging curtains. Even more confusing were the tubes that led from the stone fireplace-like part to a set of bellows on the floor next to it. Truly, I had never seen anything like this. It seemed well made, but it wasn’t exactly pretty. It didn’t have any ash or soot around it though, which was a relief. I might not have been able to clean inside otherwise.

The room was actually surprisingly clean. There was a little bit of dust, sure, but it seemed the room had been shut this whole time and was well cleaned beforehand. Beatrice seemed to get very excited, though. Darting towards the edge of the room, she started rifling through the cabinets, checking to see what was there. I just started sweeping the room, making sure that I cleaned off the relatively thin layer of dust. With all the tables navigating the place was actually a little bit tricky. It almost made me a bit nostalgic.

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