The black sun hangs high

Chapter 88 Underground Floor
After half a night of investigation and verification, Hugh's attitude toward the strange traces in the Ernst Manor Hotel has changed somewhat.

Hughes judged that the power entrenched in the manor hotel was most likely some kind of "dirty thing" similar to, or even much weaker than, the offspring of the Dark Abyss.

Based on this, it's really hard for him to feel any fear.

"After all, I am a 'dirty thing' myself, and I am probably much dirtier than it."

Hugh stood up from his chair and snapped his fingers. Sniggy, the Runaway Rat who had been curled up and fast asleep, immediately appeared on the desk. It had been tormented all night and now covered its eyes with its three tails, seemingly not wanting to pay any attention to Hugh.

"Wake up, help me with something else."

Seeing Sniggy's expression, Hugh sighed and tapped its head: "Next time there's something good to be had, I can give you priority consideration."

Upon hearing this, Snich slightly moved his tail, revealing his sleepy, half-closed eyes.

Hugh was all too familiar with this listless look; it was like looking in a mirror.

So he ignored Sniggy's tantrums, reached out and picked it up, and carried it to the bedside.

There lay a huge bundle bound with clean sheets, containing several odds and ends. Without exception, these were the unusual objects that Hugh had previously identified in the room using detection magic.

"Hide it well, hurry up."

As Hughes spoke, he released his grip.

Sniggy deftly twisted his body in mid-air, his three long tails springing up gently amidst the debris before silently settling inside.

It turned its head to look at Hugh, flicked its tail twice in dissatisfaction, and let out a soft hiss, but then, under Hugh's unfriendly gaze, it darted into one of the retro-style wind-up clocks—the clock was shaped like a classic night owl, with a rather narrow space below it that Sniggy could barely squeeze in.

After making the preparations, Hugh repackaged the odds and ends, then opened the door with the package and placed it heavily in the hallway outside.

He coughed forcefully twice.

Soon, a young waitress came over.

"Sir, is there anything I can help you with?"

The attractive waitresses, dressed in sharp uniforms, and their impeccable manners easily make a good impression.

Hughes nodded to her, then pointed to the package next to the door: "I don't really like these things in the room... Could you please take care of them for me? Also, I need a new clock, please bring it to me as soon as possible."

"Good sir!"

Perhaps because she was used to dealing with difficult customers, the waitress showed no surprise. She smiled and asked, "So, which kind of clock would you like, sir? A magic clock or a classic wind-up clock?"

"A wind-up clock will suffice. Also, my room doesn't need cleaning unless I notify you."

"Ok sir."

The waitress responded very quickly. She had no complaints about Hughes wrapping the miscellaneous items in a clean sheet and immediately pushed out a small cart from the tool shed next to her and put the entire sheet-wrapped item on it.

"If you need anything else, please feel free to contact me."

After leaving behind a seemingly odd remark, the pretty waitress pushed her cart away, the whole process clean and efficient without a single wasted word.

Hugh closed the door and sat on the bed. Sniggy's senses immediately connected with his consciousness, and he could feel that his magical summon was now huddled in that small space, dozing off intermittently as the surrounding clutter swayed.

Although unable to see what is happening outside, Hugh is able to accurately determine its current location through its magical connection with Sniggy.

The waitress didn't show anything unusual. She went about her daily work as if she were doing her job, taking some more trash from two other rooms before going into the old-fashioned elevator used by the hotel staff.

Before long, she arrived at her destination.

Hugh, through Sniggy, sensed a continuous, slight vibration—it seemed the cart had been pushed onto a stone-paved road, and the vibrations were coming from the indentations and patterns on the stone.

The tremor didn't last long; soon, the waitress stopped somewhere.

Perhaps because there was no one around, the waitress no longer maintained her usual dignified and serious demeanor. Instead, she lazily yawned and then seemed to stretch before taking the items off the cart and stacking them together.

After finishing her tasks, the waitress cheerfully hummed a song and quickly walked away.

Once her footsteps had completely faded away and there was no further sound from the surroundings, the scurrying rat immediately emerged from its hiding place at Hugh's command. Its three powerful tails lashed out at the white sheet blocking its path, easily tearing a small hole in it.

Sniggy arrived at a place he had never been before.

Through Sniggy's eyes, Hugh quickly "saw" everything around him.

This is a closed storage room, piled with many used sheets, blankets, and some damaged items. A magic crystal lamp that provides stable lighting is fixed on the wall. It is a very old-fashioned model that could be sold in a collectibles store and might even be bought.

Perhaps because no one else usually comes here, the door to the room was open, so Sniggy carefully looked out from the side of the door, and a straight corridor appeared before him.

"This is... the basement?"

Hughes surveyed his surroundings and immediately drew a conclusion.

Aside from the storage room, there were many other rooms on both sides of the corridor. After confirming that no one was active there, Hugh immediately manipulated his summoned creatures to begin a new round of exploration.

The doors to most of the rooms were closed, and they were all heavy metal doors. These locked doors were like walls painted with black dye, and they could not reflect any light even under the light of the magic wall lamps.

Sniggy tried to approach one of the metal doors, and soon, Hugh felt interference applied to the magical level from these doors—clearly, these metal doors either contained a substance similar to stun silver, or were inscribed with special rituals that could control and interfere with the flow of magical energy to a certain extent.

Either way, it's enough to illustrate the special nature of this place.

“If this basement level exists to support the hotel’s operation, why would it need these things?” Sniggy looked up and saw a metal plaque fixed to the door. It was not rusty, and the text on it was clearly visible.

That's a number.

"203?"

Hugh paused slightly when he saw the number.

He then immediately ordered Sniggy to continue down the corridor, and more rooms marked with numbers appeared before Hugh's "eyes".

"Starting from 201... and ending at 220."

Looking at the room numbers, Hugh seemed to have thought of something. He immediately pulled out a piece of white paper, picked up a magic ink pen, and roughly drew the structure of the basement corridor on the paper. Based on what Sniggy had discovered, he marked the room numbers on the simple structural diagram.

During this process, Sniggy the mad rat continued to move forward in the dark and quiet underground floor, and when it ran around the corridor and returned to the vicinity of the door of the original storage room, the sound of the elevator stopping came from the other end of the corridor.

There was nowhere to hide or conceal himself in the corridor, so Sniggy immediately sped into the storeroom and quickly slipped into a pile of old bedding in the corner, cautiously peering out through the gaps in the bedding.

The sounds of carts moving forward and footsteps echoed through the corridor.

Soon, two figures appeared at the door of the storage room.

Hugh's vision was connected to Sniggy's, so he could clearly see the two men—two male waiters, dressed in smart hotel uniforms like the other waiters at the Ernst Manor Hotel, their every move conforming to the standards of waiters at the Waterl Manor.

However, the strange convenience was that these two male waiters actually...

Wearing a mask.

Yes, they were all wearing pitch-black masks, large enough to cover their entire faces. Moreover, the masks seemed to be embedded with small magical crystals, which meant that the masks likely served more than just to cover their faces.

The two waiters were very silent. They didn't exchange any words, but they seemed to have a high degree of tacit understanding and immediately began their work.

They were taking inventory and selecting items from the storage room.

They ignored the pile of tattered bedding where Sniggy was hiding, but selected a stack of relatively clean sheets on a shelf not far away and moved them to a trolley. Then, one of the waiters opened the white package that Hugh had packed himself and began to take out the items inside one by one.

Before long, their selection process was completed.

The simple wooden carving, the magic clock where Sniggy had previously hidden, and a painting were all selected and placed on the cart along with some other items. Then the two of them left the storeroom with these items.

Throughout the entire process, the two did not exchange any form of communication.

They looked like two puppets acting according to a predetermined program.

Just like the young female waitress before them, these two strange male waiters pushed a cart toward the elevator.

Hugh had intended to manipulate Sniggy out of the pile of bedding so he could follow and check on the situation, but a strong sense of vigilance and resistance from Sniggy's instincts made Hugh abandon the idea.

Although it can be frustrating to be "rejected" by your own summoned creatures sometimes, Hugh understands the principle of leaving professional tasks to professional "people".

He chose to trust Sniggy's intuition at this moment.

The long wait began.

However, as time passed, the frantically running rat hiding in the pile of bedding showed no signs of relaxation; on the contrary, its tension began to grow stronger and stronger.

The elevator had long since left, and there was no further sound in the corridor.

Just as Hugh was beginning to question his judgment of the summoned creatures, Sniggy's vigilance had reached its peak.

The next instant, two hands suddenly reached out from the right and grabbed the door frame of the storage room.

Immediately afterward, through Sniggy's eyes, Hugh saw a face covered by a black mask slowly emerge from beside the door frame in the silence. Cold and sinister eyes shot out from the eye holes of the black mask, quickly sweeping across every corner of the storeroom.

"..."

Despite being in a brightly lit hotel room, Hugh still felt intensely uncomfortable.

Because he had received a warning from Sniggy in advance, he wasn't frightened by the strange scene that occurred in the underground floor. However, the behavior of the hotel waiter who returned gave Hugh a very awkward and uncomfortable feeling.

Because his movements were not what a human being should do.

It looks more like... some kind of beast.

Based on Sniggy's reaction, Hugh made a rough assessment of the hotel waiter's situation. He knew that someone who could make a bloodthirsty, running rat nervous was definitely not simple.

Given this spying behavior that defies human habits and the bizarre act of returning after leaving, Hugh has every reason to believe that the other party is likely closely related to the "culprit" who carried out last night's attack.

The waiter's spying continued for a very long time.

He still hadn't found anything, but he was still uneasy about the storage room, so he reached out his hand.

Hugh noticed that his arm seemed to be able to extend, strangely reaching the length to touch the doorknob. Then, with a forceful pull, he caused the metal door of the storage room to slowly close.

Throughout the entire process, the waiter's body never appeared at the doorway; he remained in that "clinging" posture on the door frame, looking just like a lizard or rat with a unique body structure.

As the storage room closed, Sniggy's tension gradually subsided. Seeing that it was no longer possible to explore the hidden underground floor, Hugh disconnected the magical connection with Sniggy. Just then, the door to the hotel room rang, and Hugh went forward and opened the door.

The young and pretty waitress reappeared at the door, holding a classic mechanical clock in her hands, and smiling: "Mr. Hugh, this is the clock you requested... Would you like me to hang it up for you?"

(End of this chapter)