It was no simple affair, the putrefied reek in the air made most blink more often than they would like, tears filled their eyes over and over again, until it all dried out, many had begun to regret their decisions, but there was no going back, the way had closed behind their backs, they could only persist against this environment built with products of death.
The paths available were tight, forcing them to crouch or even crawl in certain parts, the deeper they went, the less the decay seemed to be willing to back down even in the presence of life, forcing its way closer and closer to them, everything seemed to be somehow growing quieter and quieter.
The explorers had already been the only source of sounds for a while now, their narrowing surroundings only forced them to repress themselves, no one said anything, all of them subconsciously tried to be as small as possible, somehow fearing that they would alert something.
Iritim silently casted miracles upon everyone periodically, keeping their minds in the right place, preventing anyone from suddenly starting to freak out, the travel across this wretched dungeon soon reached a greater place.
A wide, open room, rot was still present all around but not nearly as oppressive, the ground was the familiar lustrous metal rather than abject grass of rot, they had all been moving around, contorting themselves to avoid the decay and getting its special, showery surprise.
Those that had gotten marked by its filthy embrace had required excessive healing, despite not being outrageously powerful in its varied effects, the injuries it did manage to leave vehemently fought against their removals, the few healers had expended way too much energy compared to the sort of wounds.
"Let’s take a rest here" Marlene spoke the awaited words, everybody sighed in relief, brightening up when she tapped on a ring on her index finger, bringing out necessities out of thin air.
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The morose mood was quelled just like that, the five girls moved away, the two elves appearing rather concerned about something, in fact, Tilke also appeared with a frown on her red face.
"Actually... Yeah, but how the hell are we supposed to know? We just dragged in whoever, we didn’t ask their names, we barely looked at their faces and such, there are groups and loners, if it was a loner that was replaced, then no one will know!" it was a rather difficult situation, they had conscripted so many people to help them, but it was coming back to bite them.
"I mean, this dungeon is filled with living armours and undeads, unless a third type of monster showed up, our imposter should be one of those, right?" Tilke rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
"She’s right, we could just look around, or, I could add specificities on my barrier" Iritim smirked, a glint in her eyes as she pulled out the necessary equipment for her to put a barrier.
Normally, a holy barrier shouldn’t permit for an undead to remain in, but considering that there was the possibility that it could be something else, the priestess simply had to add conditions on her barrier, she had the qualifications to do something like that.
Without wasting any second, she naturally began the process, inscribing scriptures on the floor with a paste diligently, having done this action plenty of times before, it didn’t take her long to finish the foundations for her barrier.
Some of the adventurers were already sleeping soundly, exhausted from all that exertion and pressure, the group of five paid close attention to the loners in particular, but couldn’t notice anything too suspicious about any of them.
With a clap of her hands, Iritim erected the barrier, there was no way for her conditions to be bypassed, she had only allowed inside the people that had entered the dungeon with them, excluding monsters as well for good measure.
Yet, nothing happened.
"Huh, has anyone left the premises? Marlene, count again"