The city was built entirely of stones.
That alone made it a incredible sight.
Even in my previous world, I had never seen settlements like this—not on this scale.
As my entirely life revolved around the urban city. This sight is a quite refreshment in a way and excitement filled me over it.
The buildings were small, rectangular, stacked with stones of little variations.
They were modest in scale, yet the city itself was not small. It did not stretch across miles, but it carried weight, as if it had been placed here intentionally rather than grown naturally.
My mind immediately jumped to the movies I'd watched back home. Usually, a city this ancient and quiet was crawling with zombies.
Yet from where I stood, I saw none.
That alone made me both hopeful and cautious.
I wanted answers. I wanted to know more about the Abyss. More importantly, I wanted to know if escaping it was even possible.
But my last encounter had taught me caution.
As I was on higher ground and couldn't jump. I do know that it's quickest way getting down. But feeling the pain is a whole another story.
And my left hand was damaged and even wrongly healed.
So climbing down wasn't even option worth considering and if I were to judge the drop was somewhere around 300m.
After searching around the edge or peeking below it. I found several openings leading downwards. Feeling like someone carved them on different points along the escarpment.
So,once again, I entered the darkness.
Walking through caves were a different experience. While the entering the cave was a simple light chasing but navigating is entirely different thing.
I constantly tapped my stick against the ground, the walls, nearby rocks—anything. This 'Darkness' still overwhelmed me after the void.
I moved carefully, using my right hand and walking stick to probe ahead while keeping my left hand pressed against the wall for support while walking with it.
Navigating downward was far harder than walking straight.
I wasn't trying to stay on the same level this time—I was descending.
In the total darkness, mistakes were inevitable. I scraped myself more than once against jagged stone, earning fresh cuts and bruises, but compared to everything else, they were minor pains. The constant dull ache of thirst and injury almost helped suppress them.
Eventually, I reached a steep descent.
With only one properly functioning hand, climbing down looked nearly impossible.
I dropped a small rock.
It struck the ground in less than a second.
Roughly thirty meters.
I considered jumping.
The fall would hurt. A lot. But pain wasn't exactly unfamiliar anymore.
Then again, my left hand was already ruined. I didn't even know how many times I would need to break and reset it before it healed properly. Breaking another bone carried far more risk.
Still…
I was willing to take that risk.
The excitement of finally finding proof that I wasn't the only existence wandering this vast emptiness outweighed common sense.
I began descending instead.
Using cracks in the rock and protruding stones, I slowly lowered myself downward. My left hand barely cooperated. Simply closing my fingers required effort, as though the arm itself resisted movement.
Closing my fingers felt fighting agianst an invisible force and the bones were clashing with each other thats sting at every movement.
These made my every motion jammed and wrong.
At some points, I practically hugged the wall, shifting my weight between my right hand, my legs, and whatever support my damaged arm could still provide.
After several careful steps, I slipped.
But by then, I had already descended a significant distance. The impact felt more like a violent sting than a catastrophic fall.
I endured it and continued downward.
Eventually, I emerged from the cave opening.
And after few steps I did fall but I did gone downward a lot so it was nearly a sting thats all.
And then I started my desend towards the village Or settlement since it was quite big enough covered through both escarpment beside it.
As I navigated myself further down and doing little bit of jumping I reached the opening of the cave and city was few minutes away.
I was happy but this time I didn't rush over there and walked instead to preserve my stamina and in case anything go wrong.
I will simply run away from all these zombies.
The city—or perhaps village would be a better word—was only a few minutes away now, sprawling between both sides of the escarpment.
I felt excitement rising again.
But this time, I didn't rush toward it.
I walked.
Preserving stamina.
Thinking ahead.
Because if anything went wrong…
I would simply turn around and run away from whatever zombies might be waiting inside.