The door leading out of the cavern and back into the keep’s lower levels squeaked open, Aegis walked through while Rakkan was in the process of reigniting his longsword, and they carefully stepped through the threshold, Aegis being sure to walk forward very slowly.

They found themselves at the end of a long hallway with only one direction to go, but unlike the levels above, these hallways were lit up allowing them to get a sense of how long the hallway was - it was really long. There weren’t any signs of doorways lining the corridor nearby, so the two were not as on edge for the moment.

“So, you can use crossbows and axes? What was that switch skill?” Aegis tried to start an idle conversation. Rakkan grunted at him, reluctant to answer. “It’s better I know, since we’ll be fighting with each other a bit, right?”

“I’m aiming to be a battlemaster for my intermediate class. It requires at least 5 weapon skills to be intermediate, so I use a few different types.” Rakkan relented.

“Battleaxe, Longsword, Crossbow… what are the other two?” Aegis turned to ask him, he just grinned back without an answer. “Alright, fine.”

“What about you, you don’t wield any weapon, a bit foolish don’t you think?” He asked in a condescending tone.

“I have my reasons.”

“You rely completely on other people to fight your battles for you.” Rakkan said coldly.

“That’s one way to put it, I guess.” Aegis shrugged.

“You take hits well though, and you have a good battle sense, so I guess that makes up for it. Still would be better to use a weapon though.” Rakkan replied, he seemed to be pondering. “You don’t even use your smite spell, or any attack at all, I’ve noticed.”

“Very observant of you.”

“If that’s the case, you ought to just wield two shields.”

“Shields are offhand only.”

“There’s still reasons to equip a weapon, then, even if you aren’t planning on attacking with it.” Rakkan argued, Aegis was getting the impression this guy was going to be really stubborn.

“I prefer to have my hand free for consumables.”

“Hm.” Rakkan went quiet again as they walked on in silence for a moment.

“Why were you out here grinding by yourself? You work well in a group as far as I’ve seen.”

“I have my reasons.” Rakkan replied smugly, causing Aegis to chuckle.

“I guess we’re just a couple of mysterious guys, huh?”

“I guess so.” Rakkan replied. Their conversation was put to a stop when they heard the sound of something approaching. It ran at them fast, coming from the hallway ahead of them. They could catch glimpses of it each time it passed by a torch - it looked like a humanoid creature but it wasn’t wearing cloth as the Shadow Assassins had been, it was wearing dark grey armor. When it got close enough they saw it was wielding a flail, and looked abnormally bulky and large compared to a human or an orc even, it was nearly large enough to block the entire hallway.

“I’ll try to draw it to the side so you can squeeze behind it.” Aegis said as it closed in. Once it got close enough, about half a meter away, it swung the flail at Aegis, it’s chain extending a good distance to smash the head of the flail into his shield. Aegis mistimed the brace due to the unfamiliar swing speed, but Rakkan was able to shove into the knight and push around to get behind it.

You take 91 Crushing Damage.

As Rakkan maneuvered around him, the knight drew a longsword in its free hand and took a swing, but Rakkan was able to deflect the attack with his sword and took minimal damage. Flanked, it wasn’t immediately clear who the knight would go for. He pulled his flail back and looked as though he’d attack Rakkan but suddenly turned and swung the flail at Aegis once more. This time Aegis was able to brace it, but simultaneously the knight lunged at Aegis with his longsword, plunging it into Aegis’ right shoulder by swinging it above the shield downward.

You take 68 Crushing Damage.

You take 121 Slashing Damage.

In this time, Rakkan landed a few nasty blows on the Knight’s back, drawing its attention away long enough for Aegis to Minor Heal himself. He watched as Rakkan was able to sidestep the flail and deflect the longsword.

“That’s why you need a weapon!” Rakkan mocked him. Once the heal finished, the knight turned back to Aegis and did the same attacks. First the flail to get the attention of his shield, then a longsword lunge. This time, Aegis sidestepped the flail strike like Rakkan had done, using his shield to block the longsword with Brace.

You take 71 Slashing Damage.

“Nah, I’m good.” Aegis shouted back, causing Rakkan to smirk.

“You’re a stubborn guy, eh?” Rakkan replied between strikes against the knight.

“You’re one to talk.” Aegis called back as he sidestepped and blocked more attacks. The knight was durable, it took a long time to take him down, but once Aegis had a hang of his attacks it wasn’t able to do much, and it couldn’t escape because of their positioning. Eventually, it fell.

“Guess the guys down here are a bit tougher. This is going to take awhile.” Aegis sighed as he rested against the wall, giving his stamina and mana time to recover. Rakkan didn’t reply but did the same, and once they were recharged they continued forward.

While travelling the long corridor they came across a mixture of Knights and Assassins, and occasionally small black spiders as well. The corridor eventually reached a fork and split left and right, forcing them to choose which way to go next. Their first choice ended up being a deadend, leading to storage chambers and bed chambers for the cultists. They were able to get some free experience by targeting some sleeping enemies, getting them both another level up, but the detour took them an extra two hours. Aegis was expecting Rakkan to show signs of tiring or wanting to give up, but he never relented, he rather seemed to be enjoying himself.

They did both get slightly demoralized when they returned to the fork and took the opposite direction only to find that they were mere meters from a staircase leading to the floor above. They both looked at each other with the same expression of annoyed disbelief as they ascended the stairs, but upon reaching the top, they found themselves standing in a doorway with a portcullis dropped down in front.

A lever was on the side of their portcullis, making it possible to raise it up, but the room beyond was ominous and large. It was dome shaped, paved with the dark grey stone that made up the rest of the dungeon.

In the center there was an altar of stone, atop of which sat a glowing purple orb, floating a few centimeters above the altar.

Above the orb hung a female dark elf NPC. On one wrist was a shackle of fire, burning her repeatedly, and on the other wrist was a shackle glowing with a dark purple light that seemed to be mending her wounds from the flame. An endless cycle of burning and healing, both shackles were bolted to the ceiling so that her legs dangled above the orb. [Luryala - Level 10].

“They’re torturing her and healing her above that orb. I bet that’s the magic object that absorbs suffering…” Aegis whispered, turning to see that Rakkan was glaring angrily at the scene, bearing his fangs as he reached for the lever, preparing to pull it and open the portcullis so they could enter the room.

“Hey, hang on.” Aegis reached out to stop him from pulling the lever, causing Rakkan to turn his anger towards him. “It's extremely likely that there is a boss in there.” Aegis said this, and afterwards he felt the force of Rakkan trying to pull the lever down anyway, Aegis had to use a great amount of force to stop him.

“Just wait one second, damnit.” Aegis shouted at him, fidgeting with his party interface to speak with Darkshot and Lina. “Guys, any luck finding your way down?”

“Not yet, but most of the enemies on the first floor are dead now. They aren’t respawning which means this is an event dungeon, so that’s good.” Lina replied.

“Event dungeon?” Aegis asked curiously.

“Event dungeons are ones that only exist because of something happening in the world, usually the enemies won’t respawn and once it's cleared it goes back to being a normal area. So this place is a dungeon basically because of your quest.” Lina replied.

“Okay, that’s good. We’ve got another boss room ahead of us, but I think we’re still a bit below you guys.”

“You should wait until we get there, we’ll try to hurry!” Lina shouted anxiously, and the communication shut off.

“You’re going to wait, while she’s like that?” Rakkan motioned to the dark elf, she was whimpering and moaning in pain from the constant burning. Aegis saw it too, it was an unpleasant sight. He looked around the room through the bars of the portcullis to try and see if he could spot any creatures present, but there weren't any.

“You’re in such a hurry to save the people of Orm. Is it because you actually care about them, or is it because you have a quest to do it?” Rakkan sneered at him. What he said irked Aegis, because in a way he was calling him a hypocrite, and Aegis couldn’t immediately refute him. He knew it would be smarter to wait for Lina and Darkshot to arrive, but truthfully, he wasn’t sure how long that would take, and this dark elf was being tortured right before his eyes.

Together, they both pulled the lever down and the portcullis lifted, giving them access to the room.

“Focus and work together, if we die we won’t save anyone.” Aegis replied, to which Rakkan grinned, and the two stepped forward through the threshold of the doorway and into the dome shaped room. Once they had entered, the portcullis behind them dropped down again, locking them in the room.

There was another portcullis on the opposite side of the room, and the walls were lined with tables, crates, and barrels with various torture instruments pushed up against the walls as well. A few torches were bolted into the wall, illuminating the scene before them, but upon the portcullis shutting behind them, all of the lights in the room began to flicker and dim to give off minimal light, including the flames on Aegis’ shield and Rakkan’s sword.

The two stood closely together as they glanced around for an enemy. Unexpectedly, the orb itself began to hover towards them, and from its dark purple light extended outwards a thick shadowy mist in all directions. The mist warped and wrapped around the orb while slowly forming itself into limbs. By the time it had finished, the orb itself was no longer visible, instead standing before them was a large, muscular, featureless humanoid silhouette made entirely of shadowy mist. It stood before them motionless and silent. Aegis lifted his shield while Rakkan began strafing to the side to move around it.

“Wh-who are you?” The dark elf cried out in a weak voice, staring down at them while wincing from the pain of the flames on her wrist.

“We’re here to save you.” Aegis replied, trying his best to sound cool.