Astolfo brandished the large sword-like branch he had broken off from the tree and sharpened with care. Blood trickled from the scratch on his shoulder that was reminiscent of the deep wide gashes on the ground. Lying behind him were two four-limbed stone giants bleeding from their giant eyes.

With slight tears in his eyes, Astolfo tried to lick his shoulders. “Guh… it hurts,” Astolfo said, unable to reach the wound. After wiping the blood away with his hand, Astolfo turned to the ground and observed the gashes. “I didn’t expect it to break, but it really withstood those attacks.”

He was surprised at the sturdiness of the floor. While testing the efficiency of the fountain water’s mist, he picked a fight with two of the monsters at once and they really end up hitting the floor, but it still didn’t break. Instead of disappointment, he was feeling a little bitter. The fall from above ground was bad for his heart.

Astolfo shrugged and dissipated the layer of pure mana from the broken branch. Sheathing a weapon or equipment with unattributed mana that one controlled was the staple technique of knights and warriors that Astolfo had learned from Vincent. It was just a layer of pure mana for Astolfo, but according to Vincent, it could also be molded specifically to fit the weapon, this layer was called sword aura or Qi.

With a shrug, Astolfo strapped the branch around his waist and picked up his canteen again. ‘Why in the world are there no kitchen appliances in any of these houses!’ Astolfo thought. There were a few things around but they only extended to a few spatulas, pans, and woks.

After collecting more water and getting some rest, Astolfo began a new travail. He would now check every building for a way deeper! Of course, checking every last one of them would just be stupidity on his part. He had already inspected every corner of the house he had settled in and made sure there was nothing there, so places similar or smaller in size were out of the list for now.

Astolfo started with the vicinity of the fountain. There was nothing that stood out as an establishment around, but the buildings here were made with enough care to make one think of the bigger houses as possible establishments. From then on, Astolfo kept expanding his search range as he spent his days looking for the way down all the while admiring the remnants of what he could only imagine once was.

During his search, Astolfo got a peek into many snippets of the lives of the people that were once here. On one wall were deep markings indicating the height of a growing child, while on another were fading scratches that told countless stories. From the dozens of broken things, something must be a precious family heirloom, while another the silly creation of a child. Amongst the sturdy rooms and well-placed cabinets, he even found books or notes that he could not understand a word of.

After searching tirelessly for a short, yet long time, he believed he could make some inferences about the civilization that used to occupy these ruins.

From all the symbols and books to the lack of anything pointing towards faith or religion, Astolfo guessed that this civilization was united under a single entity. No matter how rational or advanced people get, they needed to place their faith in something for society to function properly, this was why the Theocracy’s reach expanded into many continents!

Correlating to the previous point, Astolfo could safely say that the ruins were from the ancient era of gods. Though he guessed they have been here since that era, he didn’t believe these were the ruins created by a god. The environment was too stable for that.

Astolfo also found some hints towards the lifestyle of the civilization. The bigger houses not only seemed more lavish but they were also filled with more objects than the smaller ones, signifying higher status. But for a higher status, the big houses were too similar to each other. Furthermore, by comparing the indecipherable characters and illustrations on the few books he found, he could deduce that most of the faded information in the books was similar. It seemed like the civilization was a meritocratic society with a clear division between its people. The deeper you were, the higher your standing. So…

“What I am doing is useless!!” Astolfo exclaimed as he slammed a book against the floor. He was inside a big house at the western rim of the city ruins. This place too was made with exquisite craftsmanship that stood out even in a damaged state. “There’s no way the way down will be in a house!” Astolfo’s cheek bloated up like a pufferfish and he kicked the closest wall.

-Tak!

“Hm?”

Flakes of dust followed a hollow sound from Astolfo’s kick. The boy narrowed his eyes and tapped the wall with his feet again. With a skeptical gaze, he bent down and pushed the wall. Nothing happened. Astolfo scoffed and stood up.

“Hah. As if!” he muttered. Astolfo leaned on the wall when the sturdy monolith fell backward. Like a door spinning vertically, the wall carried the leaning redhead and magnificently dropped him on the other side before shutting close.

…It was supposed to be ‘pulled’ from below.

Astolfo gingerly bit his lips and stared at the wall. He pushed it from below and it still flipped like earlier. He then looked behind him in the pitch-black darkness. There was a soft and mystical glow of light all over the floor he was in, but this, passageway, did not allow a single bit of light to pass through.

“Cull the darkness, reveal my path! [Illuminate]” A magic circle briefly appeared on Astolfo’s fingertip and a ball of light rose into the sky.

“Stairs…” Astolfo said. He didn’t want to believe it, but a path downwards had really appeared and it left him with a bitter feeling.

Since he was fighting monsters on a ‘need-to’ basis, he was left with plenty of water to drink and to use against enemies. He also had sufficient food taken from the trees for two days. After taking a quick inventory, Astolfo nodded and resolutely stepped down. These stairs were crafted well, but he felt they were too obscured to be the main path of travel between the two floors.

The long stairs continued for a while when Astolfo saw a circular engraving adorn the walls of the staircase. He recognized it from some of the more seemly houses upstairs. “Is this the symbol of an enforcement order or something? Then this must be their secret passageway…” he remarked. After continuing for a few more minutes, the stairs finally came to a stop in front of a narrow and small door frame.

Astolfo took in a deep breath as his feet finally came to a stop. After almost a week of searching, he had found a way down and was one more step closer to a way out. He really wanted to get out and see his family again. They must be worried. And the young knight too… even if he wasn’t qualified to, a farewell…

A lump of emotions was rising in his throat, clogging his breaths, but Astolfo intensely shook his head as if to force it back down. He breathed deeply and slapped his cheeks. “No! I can mope later. Get out of here first!”

With a re-hardened resolve, Astolfo strode up to the door and inspected it. In its center was a circular drawing of sorts. Multiple concentric circles made up of rectangular blocks were wrapped by it. A square was made right in the center of the circles, three random corners of the outermost circle had a square on them as well while one last corner had an ‘X’ drawn over it.

“What’s this?” Astolfo observed the circle from top to bottom and then again from bottom to top. After looking at it a few times over, Astolfo focused specifically on the ‘X’ sign… With an ‘X,’ there was no doubt. “It’s a map!” Astolfo said.

“The ‘X’ must mean my current location. Then, the other squares are more of the secret passageways? And what about the one at the center…” Astolfo soon noticed that the ‘X’ was really at the edge of the map. That means he must be at the fringes of the floor. And the center of the circle, like the floor above, must be the fountain. “The fountain was the way deeper. Hmm, it fits the place. I should have guessed it.”

Astolfo was very thankful for this information. Whether it would go down or not was something he wasn’t sure of, but he hadn’t been pushing forth on surety all this while, so it was ok. He had gathered more data than he could have hoped for and was ready to move ahead. Astolfo opened the latch of the stone door, then with cautious movements, he pushed the door open.

The door gaped open with a little struggle and revealed the ruins of a city magnitudes more beautiful than the one he had just seen. Tall and exquisite buildings spread wide in front of Astolfo. The impeccability of their craftsmanship clearly visible in the tiniest of details. Wide roads polished with meticulousness weaved through the city to form a web of beauty. At the far center of the city was the unbelievably clear water of the fountain flowing towards the sky.

Astolfo dazedly went past the door and set through the streets. His mind was completely pulled in by the scenery around him, and so, he didn’t notice the small rock that came in his path. The rock made a short arc and hit a slightly larger bit of debris. The small sound erupted with a loud boom in the quiet place, pulling Astolfo from his daze.

Astolfo stuck his tongue out and hummed an ‘oops’ before setting his sight towards the fountain. Things were going well, he would ride on the momentum and confirm the way down right now.

“Awooo!”

Just then, a distant howl sounded in the air. Within seconds, Astolfo had pulled out his weapon and was in an alert stance. With his eyes closed, Astolfo focused on his surroundings.

“Ha!” Astolfo swung the branch down low and smashed it onto the creature attacking his left leg. The attack didn’t pierce through at all but was enough to throw the creature away. Without stopping, Astolfo flipped the branch in his hands and pushed it backward. The branch hit the creature in the jaw.

Astolfo jumped away and turned to face the enemies. Canines with jagged teeth and crazed eyes bore their fangs towards him. It would have been fine if it was just a couple of strong wolves attacking him, but these monsters had fleshy protrusions sticking out of various places of their body as if more of their kind meshed into each of them. Disgust welled up in Astolfo as soon as he saw them.

“Awrgg!” the monsters growled as they pounced on him again. Astolfo took a few steps back to lure them in. The monsters jumped to tear into Astolfo when an arrow of ice tore right pierced into their eyes. Astolfo unhesitatingly pushed his weapon into the mouths of the screaming monsters and brought them to their demise.

With a sigh, Astolfo wiped the sweat off the top of his forehead. “This is much easier than the ones above, huh?” He turned around and set off towards the fountain again when he heard another growl from behind him.

Astolfo slowly turned back and saw the corpse of the two monsters. No zombies. Then, he shifted his gaze a bit further to see six more of the disgusting canines staring him down.

“Tsk. Their numbers will be a pain…” He reached for the fountain water in his pants when he heard growls again. Astolfo stopped in his tracks. He carefully observed the place around him. From the top of the buildings to the road, in just the duration of a simple battle, Astolfo was surrounded by the monsters.

“Well, shit.”

Astolfo raised his hand high in the sky with unmistakable boldness. The gazes of the monsters followed his hands as they braced themselves for what he was about to do. Astolfo smirked as he observed the foolish beasts. ‘These things think they really stand a chance against my special technique?’

“[Wind Magic: Gale]!” Like a judge declaring their decision, Astolfo brought about a fierce gale that slammed right into the ground. A cloud of dust spread in the air, blocking everything’s sight. Without skipping a beat, Astolfo dashed ahead as he broke through the monster's formation. The secret technique, dust-up, and run were invincible!

Astolfo ran to a different street with all his might. He heaved a big sigh when he felt he had escaped their sights. “What problematic numbers. I’ll have to proceed carefully—”

“—AWOO!!” A loud growl interrupted and the boy snapped to his side. The canine monsters had appeared again.

“Already? How?” As the shocked Astolfo looked at the monsters, he noticed that they looked quite distinct from the ones he had run away from. “D-different ones?”

Before it got late, Astolfo geared up and dashed in the other direction. Soon, the disgusting monsters popped up all around him. From the front or sometimes from the side. The monsters were even inside the houses. Every corner of this floor was filled with these monsters.

Dozens, no hundreds of monsters were chasing after Astolfo. Pushed back, Astolfo eventually turned a bit of the water into the mist to make a gap and run through. A thread of hope appeared as Astolfo saw the great effect it had on monsters. But the thread was too thin as the effectiveness of the water was pushed down by the sheer numbers these monsters had.

Astolfo used the gale and the mist consistently to run away from the monsters, but their numbers refused to decrease. Scratches piled up as Astolfo’s mana and the water in hand were sharply decreasing. The fountain was the only place he could be safe at, but he was still a fair distance away from it.

“Graah!”

“Awoo!”

Astolfo bit his lips to the point of bleeding as he was cornered by the monsters for god knows which time now. The beasts slowly stepped towards him with slacking jaws as if mocking the young human that had walked in their territory so confidently.

The monsters were a couple of meters away now. Astolfo looked at the rising fountain water that was much closer than before. Just as the monsters were about to pounce on him, Astolfo upturned the canteen with the fountain water. Before the water could hit the ground, a magic circle appeared and the water turned into mist. It was barely enough to cover Astolfo’s lower body, but that would do.

In a desperate attempt, Astolfo jumped on his feet and made a final sprint towards the fountain. The mist of the fountain water kept the monsters away from his feet while he desperately fended off the ones above with his weapon that he could not shroud in mana.

With each step, Astolfo reached ever closer to the fountain and with the same step, his mana dropped dangerously. The monsters relentlessly chased after him and attacked at every chance they had. The hundreds of monsters had all come together near the fountain, but Astolfo didn’t stop. His mana was about to end alongside the mist he controlled, but the fountain was just a few steps away now.

Astolfo ground his teeth as he squeezed his exhausted body to the limit. Just as the last drop of his mana was used up, he jumped into the fountain.

Like a cold breeze on a summer day, the flowing crystal clear water of the fountain hit Astolfo before he crashed onto the statue of a mourning angel in the center of the fountain. The water only extended a foot from the rim of the fountain and not near the statue. He could breathe here.

Astolfo’s slightly bloodied eyes first fell on the small hole in the platform that showed way to a grandiose staircase and then on the madly grunting disgusting canine monsters growling at him from outside the fountain.

With a sigh of relief, Astolfo loosened up his body and fell limply in the laps of the mourning sculpture.

He needed a break.