The movements of the entirely metallic beings throughout the similarly halls, completely forged out of metal didn’t go unnoticed, the instant the way had been opened to the deeper portion of the dungeon, everything moved out of their stasis and began moving, the scrapping, clanking, the slashing, the bludgeoning, everything bounced off the walls without stop, as though even sound was trapped down there.
Anyone, anywhere in the dungeon could hear those at all times, having no idea whether the place they had felt it coming from was the original source or nothing more than an echo, the exploration of the depth wasn’t necessary for the working of the cities economies, not in the least, but such things weren’t on the minds of the daring people delving into the danger and darkness.
They all aimed to hit it big, find something that would make them rich multiple generations over, everyone had heard of stories, stories of great treasures hidden away inside dungeons, some were fake, some weren’t, one could in fact become rich by stepping in a dungeon and stumbling upon something.
A secret way had been uncovered, nothing screamed of riches more than a hidden path, everyone that could fight swarming in, like flies to a pungent corpse, even those that couldn’t, and wouldn’t step into the dungeon were attracted.
A dense presence of dense skulls incensed merchants of all sizes and fame, they too could hit it big thanks to this opportunity, whatever that could be sold was getting sold, clothes, armours, weapons, potions, scrolls, anything that was even remotely close to the experience of dungeon crawling.
But there was a glaring problem, one that didn’t discourage much, only heightening their expectations and hopes, the dungeon was simply enormous, a veritable maze of unknown proportions, larger than any that had explored others could have expected.
Even if one were to know the exact way from entrance to end, it seemed clear that at least a week would be necessary to traverse it all, without counting the threat of monsters or accounting for the requirement of sleep and rest.
Everyone believed it to be even longer, this harrowing fact served as fuel.
’What lies at the bottom must be extraordinary’ they must have all thought, seemingly convinced that a dungeon had to reward their efforts and not simply be one giant death trap.
Time passed and passed, the group of five that had opened the gateway to all of this madness had entered multiple times since then, going back in and out, attempting to map the way to their destination without getting skewered.
She inspected the strange substance forming some sort of indoor jungle of nightmares, it sizzled, bubbled and moved in generally disturbing manner.
"Looks like something rotten...’ remarked Ariandnel, reconsidering taking another step down. Continue reading stories on novelhall.Côm
"Well, there are already undeads in there, so not totally unexpected, right?" Tilke, the red ogress cracked her neck, not quite minding the prospect of digging through pure decay.
"We don’t have to step closer anyways, step back everyone!" finally, the star of the show, Marlene, the unwanted that had warranted this team to be under close surveillance in the first place, closing one eye, she flinged some sort of round object with a rope attached to it.
The item bursted as it struck the ground, spreading a flaming liquid all over the growth of rot all around, quickly spreading along the vile substance.
The five ran up the stairs, not planning on staying in the dungeon as smoke filled up the whole place.
The great stake of flames fell flat as the rot quickly began to defend its integrity, oozing and bursting with black blood, extinguishing the fire before it could deal any real damage.
The burnt off pieces fell off and were promptly replaced before the astonished eyes of the group.
"Don’t tell me this whole thing is a single monster" that was a rather spooky prospect, and seeing the way it had reacted to being attacked, even if it wasn’t the case, they may as well treat it as such.
"We still have the necklaces at least" relativised Marlene, still opting to retreat and regroup for now, they would allow others, and hopefully the death hunters to try their own things before moving any deeper.