The marsh was quieter after the end of Floor Four's Event ended; no wraiths prowled about and tried to tear out his innards to mix with the mud, no arrows shot at them from high above on the battlements. It was unsettling given how chaotic it was when he, Sam, and Jass were searching for the banners.
The five of them now stood before Floor Four's Waystone, staring at it with wonder, as just like every other Waystone on the Floors they've completed, it seamlessly blended in with the genre of the Floor it was on.
The Waystone looked like a massive pillar covered in ornate-looking runes that none of them could make heads or tails out of.
Deacon let out a low whistle, one hand patting his Spatial Sling Bag that held both the Ravenlight Banner and the Guild Waystone, which, in comparison, was only a fraction of the size of Floor Four's Waystone. "Well, there it is. Not exactly the grand send-off I was expecting, but I'll take quiet marshes over wraith ambushes any day."
Sam shifted his weight, his staff angled lazily across his shoulders, though his eyes never stopped scanning the marsh around them. "Man, even though the System got rid of the wraiths, skeletons, and whatnot on this Floor, it still feels uncanny as shit."
Esmerelda crouched near the stone, with her fingers attempting to reach the glowing runes that were high above her head as the light from them spilled faintly across her pale skin. "Yeah… It truly is fascinating how the System does this," she said softly, almost to herself.
Bonehead let out a grunt, adjusting the straps of his satchel before sitting heavily on a fallen timber, his boots squelching against the marshy ground. "Great. So, are we gonna enter Floor Five or not? Cause the smell of moldy piss is getting to me."
Jass, who had been silent up until now, ran a hand through her hair, her eyes fixed on the faintly glowing veins running down the Waystone, then back to Bonehead. "I still can't get over the fact that you have all five senses."
Deacon's smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth as he stepped closer when Bonehead opened his mouth to stick out his tongue, only to remember a couple of seconds later that he had no tongue. He placed a hand against the Waystone's surface and felt as it thrummed warmly beneath his touch. "Yeah, let's enter Floor Five and complete it quickly so we can have more time to rest and prepare for the competition."
Sam strode up beside him and placed his own hand across the pillar's base. The two of them were joined by the rest of the group shortly after, one by one, until all five palms rested against its surface.
A ripple of light surged outward from their touch and formed into a prompt in front of them.
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
You are eligible to enter Floor Five.
Confirm transfer?
[YES] [NO]
Deacon glanced at the others, the grin on his face crooked and sharp. "Let us pray that the next one won't cause me to lose any more arms."
And with that, they simultaneously said "[YES]," and the ripple of light that surged outward from the Waystone covered them entirely.
***
For a heartbeat, there was nothing but white glare and the pull of displacement - like their bodies had been dragged through a narrow funnel. Then the mud that should have been underneath their boots transformed into stone.
Deacon staggered forward for half a step before steadying himself as he was momentarily blinded by the harsh daylight that cut sharply across the new landscape that he found himself in front of.
They weren't in swamps anymore.
They were standing on a stone brick bridge that now looked like it was two or three kilometers long.
Curious Deacon walked towards the left side edge and looked down, only for his brows to reach his hairline. There was a ravine beneath them, a gorge so deep that he couldn't even see its bottom, even with the help of the sun above. "Holy crap."
At either end of the bridge, there was what looked like a small desert that acted like some sort of buffer between the ends of the bridge and the lands beyond them. Past them, the land broke in two directions – one horizon clawed upward into jagged mountains, the other stretched flat into endless grasslands.
"Shit," Sam muttered as he went back to leaning just enough over the edge of the bridge to peer into the abyss. "That's a fall straight into the afterlife."
Before any of them could reply, a System Notification popped out in front of them.
Floor Five – War of Kingdoms Event 1 [Scouting]:
You now stand upon the future battlefield where a war between two kingdoms will take place. The one in which it is a Holy Human Kingdom against a Tyrannical Undead Kingdom. After the king of the Undead Kingdom kidnapped one of the princesses of the Holy Human Kingdom and slaughtered her before performing a ritual to transform her into an undead, the Holy Human Kingdom gathered every banner under their flag to wage war against the Tyrannical Undead Kingdom, while in turn the Undead Kingdom did the very same where in the next few days the War of the Kingdoms will take place.
Now, however, is a brief period in which scouts must infiltrate the kingdoms and gather information to the best of their ability.
Floor Completion Criteria:
▸ Scout the area to the best of your abilities within the 24-hour time limit.
▸ You must reconvene back to the bridge you teleported onto before the 24-hour time limit is up, where you will be automatically teleported to the Waystone of Floor Five.
Time Remaining: 00:23:59:53
NOTICE: Upon completion of the Floor Quest, you are unable to teleport to Floor Six until the surviving majority of your generation completes Floor Five. You will be notified when you are able to teleport to Floor Six.
"Well," Deacon muttered, blinking the notification away with a flick of his fingers. "That was something."
"Man, fuck them Humies," Bonehead said without missing a beat, throwing his hands up like the announcement had been made for him personally. "I hope the Undead Kingdom wins."
Sam's head snapped toward him, eyes filled with mirth as a smile grew across his face. "Bro, you do know four of us here are humans, right? And your mom, dad, and brothers are also human, right?"
"Bah." Bonehead waved him off like he was swatting away a fly. "Semantics. Y'all will become undead by the time you die anyway – if I have anything to say about it at the least. Plus, wouldn't it be fun as hell to be on the Undead's side?"
That made the others pause. The bridge wind whistled between them for a second before Deacon shrugged, lips quirking. "I mean… he isn't wrong. Wouldn't it be interesting? The supposed 'evil' faction and all that?"
Esmerelda tilted her head thoughtfully, a faint smile on her lips. "It would be interesting to stand with the "villains" of the story the Linked Floor Quest is giving us, yes."
Jass frowned, arms folding across her chest. "How the hell would that be interesting? I'd rather not get lumped in with the evil kingdom, thanks."
"Because," Sam cut in, leaning on his staff with a grin, "every movie or show we've ever watched has been the same formula – good guys win, bad guys lose. Except for that one where the alchemist teacher went rogue and became a drug lord. And didn't you like that one, Jass?"
Jass groaned, dragging a hand down her face. "Fine," she admitted with a roll of her eyes. "But we're so screwed if we back the Undead. Practically everyone's gonna pick humans, no one wants to deal with the discrimination bullshit the undead races already face."
Bonehead ignored her completely, cupping his hands around his jaw and bellowing, "Fuck yeah! Undead Army for the win! Kill all the Hummies! Devour their flesh and use their bones for broth!" His laughter echoed down into the ravine, manic and unbothered.
The rest of the group let him cackle himself out before quietly coming to a decision. The bridge was too obvious a landmark; splitting up would cover ground faster.
"South for us," Deacon said, jerking his chin toward the mountains. Esmerelda fell in at his side without question, as if they were going to split, it would always be best for both sides to have a mage and a warrior to be able to deal with close, middle, and long-ranged attacks.
"North then," Sam said, already motioning for Jass and Bonehead to follow toward the wide plains.
***
Deacon rushed forward, carrying Esmerelda on his back in order to make the most of their 24-hour time limit to reach the castle that the both of them assumed to be hidden within the mountain range.
Each step cracked against stone as he vaulted over boulders and leapt across jagged gaps in the mountainside. His footing held steady despite the uneven ground, Esmerelda's Gust barrier cutting down drag and lending him an extra push with each jump. The air pressed tight around them both, funneled into a stream that made his movements sharper and faster.
Loose rocks skittered off into the gorge each and every time his boots hit the ground, but Deacon never slowed, even after running for three hours straight up the mountain range.
Deacon ignored the burning of his thighs and the tightening of his lungs; instead, he focused on his breathing to keep his breath steady, body moving, and his eyes stayed locked ahead. Esmerelda kept her head tucked low between his shoulder blades, constantly adjusting Gust around them whenever the incline steepened or the next leap demanded more height.
The path broke suddenly into a cliff. Deacon stopped at the edge, his boots grinding gravel into the drop, and looked down. The world fell away into a valley far below, and in the heart of it sat a castle. Its walls jutted out of the rock as if grown there, towers stabbing upward toward the sun.
Esmerelda slid off his back, already weaving new motions with her hands. "We're going down," she said, her voice even.
Deacon nodded once. "Let's move."
They both jumped.
The Gust barrier flared around them and took a more dominant role in their aerial traversal now, causing the air to bend beneath their boots and slowing them into a steady descent. The closer they got, the more massive the castle became.
Upon landing atop the outer wall of the castle with twin muted thuds, Esmerelda bled Gust off at the last second in order to safely conserve as much mana as she could.
Peering inside the outer wall of the castle, Deacon's brow furrowed as he turned his focus towards the battlements he stood atop of on the outer wall and found a similar sight.
"Empty," he muttered.
There were no guards walking the walls, no torches burning in the sconces, no birds chirping about. Even as they traversed the mountain range, they hadn't seen any signs of wildlife.
Esmerelda pressed her hand against the wall, her expression tight. "This isn't normal," she said. "The spirits here… they feel muted."
"Maybe because this is a scouting Floor, the System removed all living beings other than us so we can scout to our heart's content?" Deacon suggested, as he had no other theories in mind.
"Why would it?" Esmerelda asked as she began to walk down the outer wall battlement. "In order to properly scout, shouldn't we need to see people doing their day-to-day so we can get a better understanding of what to expect?"
Deacon followed at her side, his gaze scanning the courtyards below where weeds cracked through the stone. "Maybe," he said. "But the System's never made it simple. Maybe it wants us to dig for the information, not just watch it play out."
Esmerelda hummed, though she didn't look convinced.
The two of them pushed further along the wall, slipping down a stairwell into the inner grounds. All around them, they could see empty stables, barracks without clothes thrown about, and an armory stocked with polished weapons on their racks. Everything was in place, yet there were no signs of life around.
They moved carefully, testing each threshold before passing through. The caution proved justified when Esmerelda's heel pressed down on a faint ridge in the floor, just enough for Deacon to hear a click.