"Ah-ahh..."
Bjorn mumbled, his expression of fear growing on his face. He clutched his head in both hands, as if trying to hold back his thoughts physically.
Panicked, Icarus looked down the steps, expecting to see something, but nothing was coming.
Looking back, he tilted his head and asked the obvious.
"What is it?"
Bjorn shook his head, his face pale and taut.
His breath caught in his throat a moment before he coughed once.
"It is... A multi-floor dungeon... this was just the floor boss, which leads down to floor two."
Indeed, this was some of the worst news imaginable.
Floor one had already been a horror, and it left them with not even half of their original force.
Icarus suddenly understood the veteran adventurer's terror.
Bjorn shook his head again, seeming to regain some composure.
"We can't let the rest know how dire the situation is, maintain appearances, but we will have to be even safer from now on to stay alive, understand?"
He nodded; he definitely understood that if everyone panicked, the next floor would be their death, but without giving away that danger, they still had to be stricter with certain rules and regulations to survive anyway.
It was a tough balance, but not impossible.
Returning, he saw Alice still watching the entrance; she nearly jumped as she heard him approach, but smiled slightly when she saw him.
"Oh, hey, you guys find the way out?"
Icarus nodded, "Yeah, Bjorn will give you the details, head over there."
He pointed in the direction of the staircase where Bjorn waited, then walked over to Lei and Hugo.
The Paladin was standing now, his arm looked ragged, but he was insisting it was fine to Lei, who appeared to still be worried.
Icarus detected the pain in Hugo's voice, but didn't acknowledge it, simply giving them the same instructions.
He had to look around a while before he found Skew, who was observing the remains of the bone obelisk.
"Make out anything?"
He turned
"No, just a bunch of bones, maybe before it was broken, I thought I saw... Something, anyway, doesn't matter now, I guess you guys found it?"
Icarus nodded, "Yeah, just need to find Jean now."
As if in answer, he saw a flame light up by the exit; it seemed the young mage had made it there already.
They exchanged a glance before heading that way themselves.
.
.
.
The stairs were ornate stone, cut perfectly the same size all the way down.
And it was a long way down.
The stairs stretched down through the earth for what felt like miles; nothing but stone surrounded them for the longest time.
They even stopped a few times; they were already exhausted, and the stairs, although they did not provide good quality rest, were enough to sit down on and take a breather.
It was a while longer till the group's breath was taken away.
The surroundings opened up and revealed a massive sprawling cavern, just like the previous; this one was much darker, and there were patches of what appeared to be bioluminescent fungus dotting the roof of the cavern, they emitted just enough light to see the dimly lit area they were heading to.
It seemed to be a barren, ash colored land that was dotted with large pillars of rock, each one had a distinct, almost man-made shape, but it was hard to make out from the height they were at.
The staircase began to spiral down to the ground below rather than continue to slant. This made the group more cautious in their descent; they stopped taking breaks and walked in a single file.
Eventually, the ground met them, and they felt the nerves of worrying about falling to the earth below ease off.
Of course, they were naturally replaced by the worry of whatever horrors might be lurking on this level.
Icarus walked out to the nearest stone pillar. Now that he got close, he saw it was actually an enormous slab, and on it there appeared to be scratch marks.
He squinted; they had looked random at first, but the more he examined it the more it appeared the scratchings were some sort of message.
Of course, he was no language expert, especially of whatever strange language could be this deep in a dungeon.
Something clicked in his mind, and he rushed over to another of the slabs, panicked; he spotted the markings once again.
They were neatly organized in very similar positions.
At the top left, there were some, and below it, there were two more bunches of markings neatly organized.
Perhaps a name, a date of birth, and a date of death.
He looked out to the tens of thousands of slabs that stretched as far as the eye could see.
This place... was an enormous graveyard.
He swallowed. Just how much more ominous could it get?
He hurried back to the group. Upon arrival, he saw Hugo's spear was lodged in the ground and was emitting a dull radiance.
Bjorn looked to him and nodded.
"Hugo told us there is evil in this place. He put up this simple barrier so we can rest for at least a night. We'll take shifts watching obviously, but he's pretty sure it'll hold, we will need to move right away tomorrow tho."
Icarus looked to Hugo, who was clutching the arm that had been injured. He still appeared worse for wear and was keeping to himself.
He only hoped the injury would improve. In a place filled with the undead, a party without a paladin would almost certainly be doomed.
Everyone else was already looking exhausted. Icarus himself felt a sudden surge of fatigue and wobbled slightly.
Bjorn clearly noticed as he gestured to a spot on the ground.
"Get some rest, I've got first shift."
Icarus saw no reason not to and obliged, making himself comfortable, staring up at the bioluminescent Ceiling.
.
.
.
He awoke to clamor, panicked voices, and curses filled the air.
"Where is Hugo!?"