Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"What now?" Archer called out as they came to a crossroads.

Would they try to return to the dungeon entrance to escape, or go down the stairs? It was a question they all had, but they had neither the time nor will to think about it, as it may have held a terrible conclusion.

Jess and James had fallen down the gap between stairs. Nobody knew whether they were dead or alive. In the best case, they were somewhere on the lower floors, heavily injured. In the worst case, they were already dead.

If they went down, the colossi would follow them. Even if they were alive, would they even have the time to help their comrades? The dungeon entrance on the other hand offered safety. They could survive at the price of abandoning their friends.

It was conflicting and nobody wanted to voice their opinions, waiting for Lydia to make a decision. But there was nothing to wait for. The same moment Archer had asked, Lydia, riding a massive black wolf, had already descended the first stair on her way down.

"What are you guys so worried about, this is just a dungeon. If we die, we die, but there is no reason to leave anyone behind. Also, do you really think we can outrun those guys on a straight stretch of land?" she shouted brightly to lighten the mood.

Right, they kept forgetting it was a dungeon, they would lose experience, maybe some equipment, but not their lives. The second part was also very convincing. It was better to lose their lives trying to save their comrades than trying to run away.

Without even pausing, they quickly started descending the stairs further down. Their pursuers followed them two more landings, but on the third, the colossi suddenly hesitated. The group of five that had followed them all the way down here, were all lv.99 elite with slightly better armor than the guards.

This group was standing huddled together on the third landing past the entry floor and none of them dared to follow them even one step further down. The party stopped three steps below this landing, uncertain of what to do.

There had to be a reason why they stopped. Without their pursuit, it was not the best idea to keep brainlessly running down the staircases. They wanted to hurry and look for Jess and James, but if they met some danger on the way because they hurried too much, they wouldn't be able to help them anyway.

"There is an ominous aura around here. Maybe that is why they don't dare follow even further down?" Azul suggested.

On their way up, they had not felt any changes, but now on their way down the party had noticed the temperature dropping slightly with every floor they descended. There was definitely a change. Hearing Azul mention an ominous aura only increased their suspicions.

"It's not just the temperature! It's the darkness!" Ferdinand, their priest suddenly exclaimed like he had an epiphany.

"We may not notice, because of the night vision, but on our way up, the place has gotten brighter, while on our way down, it had kept getting darker. The ominous aura Azul mentioned it is the power of darkness and death;" the priest explained his theory.

They had entered an abandoned floor, filled with decay and pests. The next floor above held a bunch of poor inhabitants. The next floor above that, they already faced armored guards.

"Maybe this place is set up like a castle of giants. The floor we emptied might have been something like the servants' quarters. Afterward, come the guard quarters, or maybe the guards a blocking the way to the better parts of the castle..."

"Then what is it about these floors? Why would they abandon them?" Archer asked clueless.

However, Faenys and Duhu had a dark impression. They knew what the basements of castles usually held, and the reason why they would be abandoned.

"The dungeon, the crypts, coupled with the aura of death, this dungeon emulated a castle where the basement had been claimed by the undead..." Duhu mumbled his conclusion.

The dungeon in this case was a real dungeon, for prisoners and torture. It also was not unusual for the owners to have the family crypts below their ancestral homes. The basements of castles becoming infested with undead and being subsequently abandoned by the inhabitants were not unusual in other worlds. Often it was the reason why some castles were completely abandoned.

"That's also my guess! The reason they don't dare to follow us is because they are afraid."

The priest said happily, but his face soon fell, when he realized what he had just said. The terribly strong guy that had been running away from, where afraid of this place. This was more than enough reason to be worried.

"O-of course this could also just be a dungeon setting, right? The things down here won't be necessarily stronger than those elite guards, right?"

"I wouldn't count on it," Faenys said grimly.

"Okay, everyone calm down. It's not like any of those guys would be a problem for us if we can lure one at a time. As long as we don't meet a group, we will be okay," Lydia called for order.

"For now, we are only going down the staircases and look for Jess and James. There shouldn't be any mobs on the stairs, so we won't have any problems."

"I have an Idea!" Azul suddenly exclaimed.

"How much rope do we have? Maybe we could rope down to the next landing. It might be faster this way." the chimera suggested.

"Well, it's worth a try. Everyone, take out your ropes."

Rope was one of the inventory slots any adventurer gladly sacrificed as a permanent item to have. A single slot had 99 stacks of rope, while 50m was one stack. It was as much rope as anyone would need. The question was only how much one was willing to purchase to take along.

Each one had at least 200m of rope supplied by Minas Mar in addition to their private supplies.

"We should have more than enough to get down by several landings in one go," Duhu said " On that note, I would suggest that we don't go down as a party, but we should let Lydia down on the rope." the tiger suggested.

"Wait, why me?" Lydia asked surprised.

"You are the only one among us who had the <Stealth> skill. If we let you down on the rope, you can take your time looking for the other and possible dangers, without being in danger yourself," he quickly explained. Despite sounding like they were going to use her as fishing bait, it reasoning was sound.

"Fine, let's go with that strategy. You get let me down to check the next few landing, and I will check for danger, Jess and James. When things are clear, you come after me."

"Alright, we will stop every 50m for a minute. Don't tuck and we give you another 50m rope. Tuck once to tell us it's clear, two to pull you up and three if you see-"

They were in the middle of making up the signals and preparing Lydia for the descent when they suddenly heard an explosion in the distance and a small blip of light lit up far below them in the darkness.

"Well, I guess we can skip the first few landings. Give me as much rope as you can, I bet the blip was Jess."

They came up with a new signal before Lydia was hurriedly lowered into the darkness by the party. They didn't what Jess was battling in the deep, but she probably needed their help as soon as possible.