Steven spent the next hour looking through notes one at a time, trying to find one that offered help on a floor as low as the first. Technically the second, but whatever. About to give up, he finally found a note that offered help to those on any floor.

Jade Arthurnax

Level 83 Warrior

Willing to help anywhere.

Extra cost, one unconditional favor per boss defeated.

You can find me in the lounge section H or room 132,435.

He had originally thought it was a promising offer of help, but after reading the note he decided that the extra cost seemed rather dubious. It was the first note he’d come across that had anything of the sort.

His expression soured over the next half hour. Most of these notes were only offers to help on floors 50 and above. There were even a few in the hundreds. Floor 1 must be so easy that most breezed through and never gave it a second thought.

A nearby armorclad woman noticed his expression, and upon hearing Steven’s issue, offered him some advice. He learned that the notes further down were usually older and posted by people from the lower leveled floors. He thanked her for the advice and scooted down to the end.

He promptly collected a small stack of help notes that could possibly get him out of his situation. Wishing the armorclad woman many happy days, as she had most likely saved him multiple hours, he set off for the stairway that rose to the lounge.

Stepping into the lounge was similar to the first time Steven walked into the lesser guildhall. The room was large and could likely grow larger due to the magic of the buildings in this town, but currently only about the size of a single basketball court found in most parks.

There were rows upon rows of comfortable looking chairs and couches. Most of them were occupied with different types of people. He tried not to stare when he spotted the first non-human he had ever seen. A male cat person with tufted ears on the top of their head and a body striped like a tiger. They were rather short, maybe about four and a half feet tall, but it was hard to tell from across the long room.

He wasn’t sure what to think about the non-human addition. Surely they were actually human, but just took on another form when they involuntarily entered the dungeon. He wanted to know if it actually changed anything about their attributes or added any cool perks like night vision.

When he first entered the dungeon, he had thoughts of changing how he appeared to possibly that of a different species, but had doubts due to a lack of information. He thought he chose correctly, since the sheer amount of people he’d seen have been normal humans.

But he wasn’t here to ask people about their attributes or what they can or can’t do.

Well, actually he was. Remembering the stacks of paper he held in his hand, he looked at the top note and saw the individual was supposed to be in section D. He carefully scanned all the seats and the ends of each row. There was no indication about where one section ended and another began.

He took a seat in a nearby empty spot between an unarmored average looking guy and a giant of a man wearing a full suit of armor without the helmet. Both looked relatively content while they stared at magitabs held in their hands. To Steven, the screens looked blank when he secreted a glance. He guessed they were only visible to the people holding them.

He had to get one of those.

Turning his attention back to his task, he rifled through the stack of notes to try to find a clue to his current problem. None of the notes had anything about where the sections were however. He leaned just slightly to the side and asked the average looking guy how to get to the other sectors. The man pointed at the wall back by the stairway without looking away from the screen.

Steven stood and examined the wall, finding a palm sized dial. It seemed he was always distracted by something new when he was searching for something. Being new was getting old.

The face of the dial showed the letter A, and when he turned the dial slightly it changed to a B. He looked back over his shoulder and saw that the room hadn’t changed, but the people occupying the seats had. He turned the dial once more and saw the seated people become out of focus before a new set of people appeared.

Now he understood, and he turned the dial until the letter D appeared on its face. Finding the person on the notice was another task he had trouble navigating. As it stood, Steven had to literally walk up and down the rows of seats asking for the person that posted the note.

With all the crazy magic technology mix, surely someone could figure out an easier way of contacting strangers. It was an arduous chore, but after a while Steven became adept at matching a seated person to a class described on the notes.

Each and every one of the prospective helpers declined to actually help.

Beyond frustrated, he had only one note left in the stack. It, by far, seemed the oldest. It was crumpled and discolored when compared to the other notes.

Garth Trager

Level 13 Tutor

Willing to help from Floors 1 to 10.

You can find me in room 104,932.

I’ll help you, then you help me?

Steven had already considered heading back to the waystation to grab a bite to eat, and it looked like he could kill two birds with one stone there.

He left the lounge, not sure if he could ever find anyone worthwhile to help in that place. It would definitely explain the amount of notes posted on the bulletin board, if those people were so picky. Nora had told him one of the benefits of the guild was getting help. He cringed as he thought back, noting that she had never said that it would be easy.

He placed the notes of the people who declined to help him back on the board and returned to the waystation. The Matron was back on duty, and after she admired his new cleanliness and outfit he asked how to leave a message for someone in a different room.

“Not an issue, dear,” she boomed. She seemed even louder today. “Just tell me the room number and I can get them for you.”

He relayed the information she requested, and she fiddled with something under the bar.

“Oh. Ohhhhh.” The Matron looked at Steven with sorrow in her eyes. “The system says he was institutionalized and not to expect any payment. That was over 100,000 hours ago.”

“He’s in prison?!”

“No dear, a prison would be pointless here,” said Matron, shaking her head. She pulled out a rag and began mindlessly wiping the bartop. “No, the only place would be the Church of Margaret. We call it withered’s academy,” she continued in a hushed voice.

From the tone she took, Steven felt that the place was akin to a refugee shelter. He fought back a laugh and hid his face behind his hands however, hoping she would think it was a sign of sympathy or regret. It had almost sounded like she said wizard’s academy.

Steven cleared his throat, “Okay, so how do I get there?”

“Oh hon, there’s no reason. If who you’re looking for is in their care…. Regardless, here,” she wrote down something on a small piece of paper and handed it to him.

Steven looked at the paper and saw that it was directions, starting from the transportation platform. He thanked her for her help and went into his room to order some lunch.

After a quick sandwich and refreshing lemon soda, he left and made his way to the transportation platform. The directions from the Matron said he needed to travel past the parade field, which he could see from the platform, and continue until reaching the crossroad of Sordid Way and Increasing Street.

He left the platform and crossed the parade field. Within a few minutes of travel, he began to pass other buildings. They looked like houses and were all exactly alike, completely grey stone without windows. He never saw any activity in or around them and wondered if they were even occupied. With the amount of people he was told were living in this city, there was no way these places were abandoned.

Continuing down the path he saw his first street sign. It told him that he was on Increasing Street and this was the intersection with Darkness Avenue. He wondered why this place was called Serenity Springs. With names like Sordid Way and Darkness Avenue, it didn’t seem very serene at.

He did discover why this particular path was named Increasing Street. As he walked, the houses became larger and he began to notice small shops between every few buildings. There was nothing he could see far down the street, as it became blurry. It must go on for many miles.

Hours later he finally came to the intersection of Sordid Way and turned right. He hoped it wouldn’t be much longer. The scenery had become more interesting as he walked down Increasing Street when he noticed more people out and about, but by now he was bored.

He continued down Sordid Way and eventually became aware of smoke rising in the distance. Watching the smoke for a while as he walked, he wondered how large the fire had to be. The directions had said that he needed to walk down Sordid until he got to the sea, and the church would be visible from there. He contemplated the sea for a bit, daydreaming about what kind of giant monsters could be found there.

It never occurred to him that the sea wouldn’t contain any water, until he arrived. It was a sea of bodies, all sitting cross legged and hunched over, naked and hairless. The bodies were as dark grey as the stone ground on which they sat. They were endless, the heads visible as far out as he could see, and then he remembered the smoke.

The fire must be huge to create enough smoke to consume the horizon. He managed to keep down his lunch and looked around, spotting what he assumed was the Church of Margaret. It was the only building around, and the sea of bodies seemed to spread out from the church.

The church actually looked like a colosseum from the outside, so he could only guess at the enormous space that would be found within. Heading towards the church, he came across another Red Eye not far away from the door of the building and tapped it with his implant.

Church of Margaret node activated.

Proceed to Transportation Platform [Y/N]

Proceed to Dungeon Floor list [Y/N]

He was glad to see that he wouldn’t have to walk all the way back to the waystation. Surely he would discover more of these Red Eye statues throughout the town, and made a mental note to start exploring when he got tired of whatever he was doing. He selected a N and walked through the front doors of the church.

Now he understood why the Matron had said the things she did. The trip all the way out here might not have been worth it after all.