Chapter 167: The Furnace

I let out a breath of relief at the fact I had managed to escape the pursuit of the dranes. 

The simple fact of the matter was that I could have probably taken them out with relative ease. 

Their armour looked as if it had been built to give them more attack power and to increase their speed, but thanks to the amount of manna that was constantly coursing through my system I was likely both stronger and faster than them. 

No, the real reason I had been so insistent on getting away from them instead of fighting them is that I wasn't quite ready to reveal my hand just yet. 

If they knew that there was a being as strong as me walking around the streets of the city then the people in charge would start to get very nervous very quickly, and that would mean it would be almost impossible to get to them as time progressed. 

I needed to keep a relatively low profile, at least where the officers were concerned, at least for now. 

That wasn't the only reason I hadn't engaged them in combat, either. 

If they had managed to hold a candle to my speed and strength, then there was a chance that things could have gotten messy, and surrounded by buildings on every side that would have led to a lot of casualties. 

I'd already been in fights where my actions had directly led to a lot of casualties, and I wasn't willing to get myself into another one. 

<Well, if we're not going to be fighting anyone right now, what exactly do you suggest that we do?> BB asked, clearly not on the same wavelength as me for once. 

The answer to that was, of course, quite simple in my eyes. 

To know if a revolution was possible we needed to scope out the lay of the land and to do that we needed to try and embed ourselves into the local population. 

We needed to live like we were part of the city, we needed to integrate ourselves and learn everything that we could about how things operated down here at the lowest of the low. 

<And how exactly do you plan to do all of that?> BB asked, seemingly completely baffled at the way that I was going about things. 

Well, that was the easy part. All we needed to do was go to a pub. 

I looked over the bridge that I was on, the last bridge before the final twenty or so foot drop down to the pavement of the lowest level, and made sure that no one was walking past. Then I vaulted over that final barrier and came down onto the ground. 

I knew why they called this place the Furnace at least, it was incredibly hot. 

So hot, in fact, that I'd already started sweating through the shirt that I had on. There was probably a reason that everyone, man and woman alike, was either wearing a very loose and thin tank top or nothing at all and most of them were still covered in a light sheen of swear across their brow. 

When in Rome, you should do as the Romans do, so I shrugged my way out of the flight jacket that covered my upper body and tossed it to the side, leaving my top half bare. 

It was still weird to look down at my body and see a well-defined six-pack instead of the chubby tummy that I had come to know and hate back in my home universe, at least now I didn't find myself anywhere near as self-conscious about going bare-chested in public. 

I walked over to the corner of the near-abandoned alleyway that I had dropped down into and leaned against a wall that was slick and wet with… something. 

It was astounding to see the difference between the upper city and the lower city. 

In the upper city, sure things were a little bit dusty, but it was clear that there was a very rigid sense of order and control. The officers kept everything in check and to the design of those that were in charge. 

Down here? It was a free for all. It was life unbridled. It was… freedom. 

I was looking out on what was obviously some kind of main high street. A busy thoroughfare that wasn't just designed to allow people to get from point a to point b but was also a place for people to meet up and enjoy themselves. 

On my side of the road, the streetside was lined with shops, selling all kinds of wares from body mods that promised incredibly powers and abilities to simple knickknacks that had no actual purpose other than looking good. 

On the other side of the street there were a wide variety of food stalls selling various kinds of street food, as well as small attractions such as supposed soothsayers and future tellers, as well as stalls that didn't seem to have any real indication as to what they sold at all. 

The street was lit up by lightboxes every few meters, though it didn't look like they were electrical in any way. Instead, they seemed to be lit by some kind of lightning bug, some of which were green and others of which were blue. 

All in all, compared to the upper city, I honestly thought the lower portion of the city under the mountain looked beautiful. 

I took a breath and stepped out into the bustling street, allowing the flow of the crowd to carry me down the road. 

It didn't take long for me to spot a pub. 

It was on the corner of the main high street and a smaller road that split off to the left, with the name "The Drane's Arms". 

I couldn't help but snort at that, considering the arms of a Drane were supposedly there to suck the life out of their victims. 

Fighting against the crowd slightly, I directed myself toward the pub. 

It was time to see what was really going on in this city.