“I don’t think there’s anything inside.” Elise said, looking down the dark hole.

“Yeah, Ben would’ve said something if he found something, and there can’t be that much in there to explore.” Thomas said.

“Maybe my fishing pole scared them off? It’s supposed to lure creatures, but…” Elise asked.

“Guys! There’s nothing in here!” Ben said, appearing from one of the once-windows.

“What? But this is a larger piece of rock than the rest of the rubble! How can there not be a monster den here!?” Alexa said.

“There is! There’s ton of gnawed-on bones and scraps of hide, and I mean really nibbled to the last bit. Scraps of cloth and some primitive tools, not even worth looting. But not a soul in sight, and while the stench is strong it doesn’t smell fresh.”

“Well, no point lamenting over time wasted.” I said. “It doesn’t seem like Azriel is going to move anytime soon, so I think we’ll just have to bite the bullet and enter that tower.”

While reluctant, the others nodded and got up.

“Shame, it probably would’ve taken us a bit to clear out this place. Might’ve even found some kind of underground passage into the tower to completely circumvent Azriel, or something.” Alexa said.

Clearly not as enthused to explore the tower as she had been to explore the bigger than usual rock, Alexa didn’t fly ahead with Elise and Miho. Instead she just sat down on my shoulder as I climbed over all of the concrete, plaster and decomposed furniture.

As we came closer to the tower, the small flying dots became more defined. Elise went ahead and checked them out from a safe distance, messaging us that these were some kind of hideous elongated hawks with goblin faces called Serentile Harpies. Ugly monsters whose meant-to-be-alluring song instead repelled people with their tone-deaf rasping.

The lvl8 creatures didn’t sound like they would be very dangerous, unless that song could force someone to run right off a cliff. So as long as that someone wasn’t me, we’d still be fine regardless.

Behind us, Azriel was still sitting on his jutting out rock, idly watching us. Hiu finished scouting and joined him, sitting faraway enough to make it clear he was scared and none too fond of the man without giving insult.

I ignored them for now, focusing on the immediate threat. The harpies weren’t attacking us quite yet, but that could change in seconds.

“Alright, we’re here.” Ben said. “Now to find some excuse for Darryl to stay behind, and we can start operation Ditch ‘Em.”

“We’re not calling it that.” Thomas said.

“I’m not sure if my acting will suffice for it, but I could pretend that my footing isn’t too solid and that things get too wobbly for me after a few floors.” I said. “Or maybe that I get sea sickness, though I don’t know if Talo-”

I took a single step into the building, and the floor immediately gave out under my weight.

Disoriented and suddenly engulfed in darkness, I couldn’t right myself in time and crashed on the floor below. Several sharp, jagged wood splinters shattered underneath my body, which was fortunately too hard to get impaled by these stakes like a normal person would’ve been.

My health bar dipped a surprisingly scary amount, confirming that I most definitely wouldn’t survive a fall at terminal velocity. Or even half that. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be another floor below me to fall down, the concrete around me thick and uniform like a parking garage.

The fall made the iron in my mouth shoot up the wrong hole though, and I gagged and coughed as I spat out the half-digested metal.

“Darryl, are you okay?” Elise shouted through the hole above me.

“I’m fine. Alexa?” I said.

“Fine over here. I could take to the air before we hit the ground.” Alexa said somewhere from the darkness, before flying into the light of the hole I made.

I looked around as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. The place seemed to be empty, both in terms of danger and furniture. There were rotten crates scattered around here and there, the last remnants of a floor dedicated to storage that had otherwise been cleared out a long time ago.

Well, if there was nothing for cover or for creatures to eat, then the place should be deserted. Of course both the dungeon and fantasy in general might disagree with that notion, but right now I could still be optimistic.

“I’m not seeing anything attacking me right now, so I think I’m fine.” I shouted at the hole. “Alexa, go back to the others, I’ll find a way back up while you guys climb the tower.”

“Shall I come down there?” Ben asked.

I wondered about that, and looked around.

“Wait. Can someone with flight come down for a moment?” I said. “Actually, Alexa or Miho, not Elise.”

Alexa flew down to me. “What’s up, D?”

Before she could reach me, she coughed and her health began to diminish slowly.

“That’s what I was afraid of. Fly back to the others, quickly!” I said. “Ben, don’t come down here. There’s a poisonous fog of some kind, I didn’t notice it until the dust of my fall settled.”

“I see. Alexa doesn’t seem too hurt despite her low health, but given time the poison would do anyone in. The basement is an optional floor and a continuous hazard, predominantly for people to fall into so that they have to hastily find a way back up again. Forcing the slow and steady kind of people out of their groove.” Thomas said, as Alexa returned to the surface. “Which means that the enemies down there are probably not too strong, but ambushers relying on rushing prey.”

“I don’t think my Mandibran form is immune to that kind of poison, only snake venoms. Can’t help you, sorry!” Miho said.

“My whirling levitation would probably get rid of the poison for a while, but not for too long.” Elise said. “And once my gusts are full of the stuff, it’s probably going to hit me twice as hard.”

“Don’t worry, guys. I’ll be careful and I can always just run away if threatened, so don’t worry about me.” I said. “Just climb the tower while I find a way out of here. And be careful not to fall down yourselves!”

“Five minute check-ins!” Thomas said.

I gave a thumbs up and turned my attention back to the area around me. The light coming from the hole above me illuminated a massive stretch of the area, likely caused by my new eyes having great low-light sensitivity. If there was any light at all, it sufficed for me to make out most details.

What I saw was nothing special, so I had to move onwards into the darkness. I didn’t know if this gas would ignite, and I wasn’t going to light a torch to find out. Darkness quickly enveloped me, with small islands of light where cracks in the ceiling allowed light to shine through.

I could see everything within 3-5 metres with my darkvision, though it was a grainy black and white that would only allow me to discern large objects and movements. I could see the location of an enemy and how they attacked me, but it wasn’t enough for me to read something or discern a real sword from a wooden replica. And I instinctively knew that I couldn’t see any health bars or descriptions with this sight either.

Well, it was enough for me to not stumble around blindly, even if the place was big and open enough to have me surrounded by an impenetrable abyss of darkness from all sides most of the time.

It would’ve had me scared, if my mind was still human. Instead the natural fear of an endless void hiding untold horrors just incited a dim wariness within me. Then again, I had never been that scared of the dark.

Then I remembered the last time I’d been alone. I had walls to both sides, but it had been dark just like it was now. Darker, actually, but I had a torch at the time.

A torch that I threw as far as I could, revealing the Krutnik hiding in the darkness. I remembered the first one slowly stepping into the circle of light, followed by the whole pack rushing at me.

The panic, the frantic attempts to keep them at bay, the biting and pulling…

My right arm began to tremble, and I grabbed it sternly to make it stop. It didn’t even make sense; this wasn’t the same arm as the one that was almost bitten off at the time. Phantom pains.

The darkness didn’t have me scared, but that memory still got my blood pumping in fright. And once it began, it only got worse.

Talossians didn’t sweat, whether in exercise or fear, and there were no hairs in the back of my head to stand up. Instead my new species felt fear in the form of an unnerving ache in my head, unfortunately similar to the human feeling that someone was watching them.

And thus my human memories made my Talossian fear worse, and my Talossian body trembled when it was scared.

I stood still and focused on regaining control over my own body.

Thomas: Check in.

Darryl: Here. Okay.

Thomas: Same. On third floor now.

I breathed in and out. They were already on the third floor, while I had barely stepped out of the island of light.

They had like a hundred floors to climb or whatever, but still. If I couldn’t climb a single floor before they reached the top, then…

I waited for my arm to stop shaking. It was slowly getting better.

Thomas: Check in.

Darryl: Here.

Thomas: Sixth floor.

Damn it!

I was too slow. I had been standing here for over ten minutes now, just because I couldn’t control my own damn body.

I still felt like someone was watching me, knowing that this was actually my new sense of fear. I still felt my arm shake. I still didn’t feel like moving.

I got through this before. Even as a frightened, disoriented and unarmed human that crawled under a cubicle to curl up and sob after surviving my first boss battle, I eventually managed to get myself back up again.

I didn’t wait for the timer to run out at the time, even if it would’ve been the easy way out. I picked myself back up. Then why…

Thomas: Check in.

Darryl: Here.

Thomas: Still sixth floor, running into a bit of a snag. Elite entered the tower.

Why couldn’t I do it this time? Why couldn’t I get myself to…

At the time, I still had to take care of Ben, whose leg had been broken. Without me, the kid would’ve been stuck in that Safe Zone until the timer ran out.

Why didn’t it work this time? Sure, they could take care of themselves now, they were well-armed and used to fighting for their lives. But didn’t they need me?

Doesn’t Alexa at the very least need a guardian?

I took a step forward, forced myself to make it. Then another. Then a third.

There wasn’t a fourth.

Thomas: Check in.

Darryl: Here.

Thomas: Eighth floor. Seems like there are 62 in total, so this will take a while.

Come on! Keep moving. I’m never getting out of this basement if I just stand still!

Fourth step.

Fifth step.

There are no Krutnik down here, and they couldn’t pierce my new skin even if they were.

There is no Neighbourhood Boss that I cannot possibly stand up against, I have weapons now.

There is no reason to stand still, I have friends to protect.

Except I didn’t. I was all alone, and had to save myself.

Fifth step.

Come on, make that damned fifth step.

There is no one watching me. There is no reason to tremble. There is only that fifth step to take.

Sixth step…