There were no twists or turns.

The sides were smooth to ensure no material got stuck, however, the metallic surface, even if coated with years of dusty offered little resistance to John's rapid descent. He felt the rushing air, full of dust, hitting his closed eyelids. His dry lips were shut the whole way, for fear that a mouthful of the stuff might enter his lungs.

After a very brief descent, the chute leveled off like the side of a bell curve. John went straight into the side of a mound of light particles, probably ashes or flaky fuel. He climbed to his feet and dusted himself off.

The chute might be unpleasant, but it was a fantastic shortcut.

The magic stone quickly unveiled the brown color of the surroundings. The room was a combustion chamber of sorts, shaped like the inside of a vase, with walls made of firebrick. There must have a huge blaze here before. John slid down the pile of spent fuel and out one of the air intakes that lined the side walls.

There was a large circular area that surrounded the furnace. Huge billows and pedestals for wind elementalists covered the air intakes. These laborers that manned the area were still in the room, scattered from their positions after what seemed to be a frantic but impossible escape.

The room was far enough underground to remain at a normal temperature year-round, and the furnace was long dead, but there was an uncomfortable warmth.

The heat of the fire must have been unimaginable at peak operation.

John slipped out of the room hastily.

His destination was one of the manager's office. When the medium guild had swept through, that's where they had found the B-Grade treasure chest, the first the entire Gyead region.

Treasure chest tiers were weird. B-grade didn't necessarily mean that B-grade items were inside, or that a B-grade boss was guarding it. The items inside weren't game-changing. The biggest treasure for the medium guild had been the area itself. But B-grade was outstanding for an individual at this point.

In the previous timeline, they encountered Manager Bressh, a B-grade field undead boss. In RISE, after common and elite monster, there were bosses, ranked by the standard alphabetic tiers.

B-Grade field bosses usually required large teams of players to raid successfully, assuming their levels were similar to the boss and their tactics were effective. Additionally, most bosses had skills, weak points, and strengths that needed to be discovered to facilitate the raid.

Manager Bressh was a large warrior type skeleton which wielded a battle ax. He had an absurd defense to physical damage types other than collision. However, his damage was very low for a monster of his tier and his combat skills were very weak. His key characteristic was his ability to summon waves of skeleton workers to assault invaders. Moreover, provoking him meant provoking every monster in the ruins. This didn't matter for the past-life expedition which had cleared the ruins, dealing with the boss last, but would be horrifying for a sneaky thief.

In short, it was impossible for John to do anything to Bressh whose battle regeneration would easily out heal anything a level four could do. Moreover, level suppression was a very real thing in RISE.

But John had a plan.

Bressh's office was big for an office. Still, no matter how big an office was, an enclosed space was unsuitable for a fight involving many players. That was another challenge of the raid: Bressh could only be attacked by a relatively small number of players. It was crucial to pull him out into an open area like the factory or into the giant furnace.

That was how players defeat him in the past: by pulling him into the furnace and roasted him. The B-grade undead boss, weak to ocular, fire, and holy magic was killed by sub-level 50 players under the flames' suppression.

However, when the raid team baited out the boss, none of them had the idea to search the office. They would have found the B-Grade treasure chest far easier otherwise.

John theorized that he might be able to sneak past Manager Bressh, considering that he hadn't woken a single soul. The previous players had killed every monster in the ruins before finding the boss awake and guarding his wares. Perhaps, like the other skeletons, he would still be sedated at this moment. It was a bit optimistic, but then again, no game would expect a player to be exploring the ruins so early and know the way well enough to arrive quietly.

Besides, what did he have to lose? Maybe some experience, but Assimilation barriers weren't revoked. He might drop items too, but it would be most likely a cheap equipped item. It was well worth the risk.

The office was in a hallway near the furnace room. John avoided the skeletons that lay on the floors fairly easily. The intact wooden door, distinguished by a large number and nameplate, was ajar.

John poked his head through the open office door.

Manager Bressh's office had a sort of waiting room before the office itself. This room had basic chairs, a low-table, very typical. The curious rays of the magic stone looked around, and confirming it was safe, John entered. He stowed the light source and took a deep breath.

The next door was the crucial one, shut firmly.

It made an awfully loud sound as John pushed it open. He winced with every creak. He opened it a quarter of the way and held it there.

Nothing.

John relaxed a bit and gradually reequipped the light stone, suppressing the full light, and peered around the door.

Bressh's room was completely empty. Well, the furniture was exactly where it was supposed to be. Bressh's desk was the same and there was the chair reminiscent of any executive's office. It just that it didn't have the occupant.

'Huh?'

John entered the office, closing the door behind him. He deactivated his stealth skills and uncovered the magic stone.

The shadows were not playing tricks, the boss really wasn't there.

John activated Thief's Wit. There were no traps, not even a single suspicious thing rather than the lack thereof.

John checked for the treasure chest, allegedly hidden inside the drawers of the desk. At least that was still there. B-Grade treasure chests were different from the plain wooden crates of A-Grade. It was a proper metal box coated with anti-picking magic formations and massive lock.

John considered his options for a moment, then went to pick up the chest. Treasure chests were items in RISE and as such, could be stored in the inventory and transported around. However, their weight values were usually absurd and required a long time to store. Moreover, chests were guaranteed to drop upon death.

A little progress bar appeared as John began stowing the treasure.

...

Manager Bressh was a diligent supervisor in life and even more so in death. Rather than the expected slumber, he was patrolling the halls, ensuring the dead workers did their jobs they hadn't done for countless years. As a higher-tiered undead, he was somewhat bound by the quirks of his life and he liked to make morning rounds of the factory – it was coincidentally around 8 AM.

Another weird trait of Bressh's was the addition of a supernatural instinct. The instant John laid his hands on the treasure chest, Bressh felt an electrical signal run down a dead spine. Actually, some other bosses could remotely detect robbers, but this ability was inconsistent amongst B-Grade and was previously undocumented for the skeleton warrior. His oversized ax dragged along the stone ground until sparks flew up. The large skeleton warrior let out a howl and rushed towards his office.

...

Meanwhile, John was stealthily exiting the office as the skeletons in the hall started to stir. One might assume that it was because the boss' chest awoke them, but John knew otherwise. Their behavior was telltale of command by a superior monster, something far more fearful.

John immediately dropped his stealth skills that limited his speed. As soon as the skeletons were awake, the quiet approach was a dead one. Even with the poor detection skills of skeletons, the level difference would catch him within a second at this range.

'The boss is home.'

As the lethargic collection of workers woke from their daze, John ran as fast as he could. He adopted the workers' hunched posture as the huge weight of the chest dragged him down. The first skeletons were on their feet now, chasing John at their best speed. They were, fortunately, common undead, and very slow.

It was a snail race. But as more and more undead arose, it became a race of one against many.

John didn't have far to go though. His haven was right ahead - the washroom. That was his plan. There were many entrances and exits from the lower ruins, and this was one of them.

The skeletons definitely seemed to get faster as the chase continued. More came from other hallways and rooms, flooding in from all directions. Clearly, no worker, dead or alive, wanted to get on Bressh's bad side.

John made it into the washroom by some means. He equipped his starter dagger and jammed it into the handle of the wooden door behind him.

The room was a normal but ancient bathroom. There was a line wooden toilet seats, the kind that didn't flip up, with a hole shaped like a perfect circle, and a disposal system that was essentially a giant tank underneath.

John hacked at an intact wooden toilet seat with his dagger, trying to expand the hole large enough to fit a human. The sound of break wood was incredibly loud, not only with the scraping of John's weapon but also the hundreds of bony fingers scratching against the bathroom door.

Players had already destroyed the seats when he had visited last life - John had no idea how hard it would be to cut through hardwood several centimeters thick with a dagger. He swore as he switched to the pistol and activated Rapid-Fire, spraying the huge rounds.

Explosive bangs resonated through the room, the last of which being the skeletons knocking the door down. The door had held on for a very long time. Undead were unusually dimwitted for RISE AI and the skeleton workers normally used scratch or grab attacks that were ineffective on hard materials.

John split open the weakened toilet seat with his dagger and leaped feet-first into the tank below. The fit was tight and the splinters dug into his coat, but he couldn't care less.

-18

[You have strained your ankles; you will feel temporary difficulty walking.]

John fell like a rock and nearly broke his ankles on the landing. He had rolled to lessen the fall, but still injured himself.

John urgently raised the magic stone upwards, revealing the skeletons crowding around the small hole and jamming themselves. He was safe.

'Phew.'

It occurred to him that he might have dealt with too much sewage today. At least, the tank was fairly dry after a long time of disuse. He caught his breath and ate a biscuit while waiting out the numbness in his joints.

Players would eventually be able to purchase return scrolls to go back to the fountain instantly but that cost too money for a relatively short distance. The pipes were a great shortcut for players trying to exit from the bottom floors of the ruins and return to Gyead, just like the chute was a great shortcut for the opposite. Normal players would be able to kill Bressh on respawn or farm certain areas where skeletons could respawn, and return to Gyead without any distractions.

John had farmed skeletons in one of the warehouses and would come through here at daybreak to return to the main ladder. He would then sell items and repair gear at Gyead.

But rather than returning to the main ladder, John followed the pipes all the way to the other side of the complex. It was likely that most of the skeletons assembled near Bressh's office and the washrooms when he had been discovered. He would take an alternative exit.

It took a little while to find the right pipes that led to the other side. The areas closer to Bressh's office were better for leveling and John had only briefly leveled here, never taking the pipes between the two areas either.

The thief poked his head through the toilet seat, looking like a monster. It was washroom identical to the one before.

John only needed to cross a production area and climb a few flights of stairs. He crept to the large section and lurked in the hall, surveying the room.

This production area was dedicated to materials refinement. Rows and rows of magic formations spread out the whole football-sized area, like workstations in a huge sewing factory. Magic formations were optically variable and the grid layout of them on the floor cast interesting patterns with the bouncing of the blue rays of the magic stone.

The room was completely devoid of skeletons. However, the open sight lines would make any thief uncomfortable.

But what else could he do?

John reactivated his Stealth and Silent Steps and stuck against the wall, progressing slowly.