Ronnie walked over to Vvy and dragged him along the ground. When the group reunited, Illyseh brought the tank into shape. The Top Secret leader stood up and asked:

“Why was Ronnie the only one who came back to help me?”

“We believed you were more capable than you actually are,” Illyseh answered.

“I suggest we stick together next time.”

Latludious and Faolandan texted the leader in the PM that they were not allowed to return, Ronnie did not listen to the order. Vvy took off his helmet and spat angrily on the ground.

“So that's how it is... Without me,” the tank began to speak in a rough, low voice, and pointed a finger at Yleen, “you'll all go down at the first boss you meet. If you've got something to say or accuse me of, say it now. Otherwise, I don't understand the logic of your actions, and the players probably won't either, when they see the record of our march.”

Yleen walked up to Vvy and put his hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes:

“I'm sorry. We made a mistake and I alone am responsible for it. As a leader of a leader, you have to understand me, choosing between five and one, the answer is obvious. But it won't happen again.”

Without realizing it himself, Vvy calmed down and turned to Ronnie and thanked him and asked:

“What was that mark on the wall?”

Latludious immediately knew what he was talking about and looked at the sniper and asked:

“That mark we met in the woods?”

“Yes,” answered Ronnie. “But it didn't work.”

“It didn't work?”

“I don't know why it didn't.”

“Did it release the mist?”

“Yes.”

“And nothing?”

“As you can see from my non-purple eyes.”

Yleen and Illyseh listened intently to the conversation and wrote a couple of comments to each other.

“Where is the monster?” asked the healer.

“It left,” answered Vvy, “right after it saw that the mark on the wall didn't work.”

“Fucking Ronnie,” said Faolandan to himself, struggling to contain his anger and frustration.

“Is something wrong?” asked Illyseh.

Faolandan walked over to Ronnie, grinning like a hungry dog, and said:

“What are you hiding?”

The sniper did not even look at him and pulled out a recovering syringe and stuck the needle in his shoulder.

“Are you going to ignore me the whole mission?”

“You're not in charge. I only talk to them.”

“Since when?”

“Since you pissed me off.”

Yleen ordered them to move on and end their pointless conversations. Nevertheless, not half an hour later, in the tunnel, the group saw two humanoid monsters hanging from a rope. They resembled the real players in some way, but the main difference immediately struck the eye: the lack of sex characteristics. Their eyes were black. No clothes. Long hair. All over the body, dried out and ugly, there were very strange lines, as if empty riverbeds. The skin was gray with abrasions. There was a blackened pool of blood on the ground. It was a gruesome sight. Latludious squinted and said:

“Do you think there's a connection between the statues at the secret passage and them? It looks like there used to be a conscious subterranean race living here.”

Illyseh stepped closer to the corpses and looked closely and used the spell “Oratio” and said a little while later:

“They died a hundred or two hundred years ago. You can't say for sure. This world differs from the real world in many ways. As for the connection with the statues, I have my doubts.”

“Why?”

“Appearance. With my spell, I can reconstruct what a corpse approximately looked like when it was alive. They have a great body, muscular, without blemishes. About those hollow lines along the chest, abdomen, and shoulders... mmm... interesting. These places, like the palms, were apparently used to cast spells, to absorb and transform mana...” Illyseh turned with a concerned look and, after a pause, finished his sentence, “and still do. I daresay these guys were like Christmas trees when they were alive. But this is what frightens and fascinates me the most. Look at my hands. See the cavities where the veins are?”

Everyone reached out to look.

“We can see,” said Yleen, and he looked at his hands and added. “I don't have any.”

“Because you don't use magic. The more I use the spells, the more clearly they appear.”

“So, there are two very powerful wizards hovering in front of us.”

“You got that right. Very.”

Latludious went behind the backs of the others and looked closely at his palms. That's right, he thought. “Why didn't I notice that before?”

Illyseh grunted and went on to answer the wizard's question:

“I think it is unlikely that the sculptor would have hidden such handsome men behind such grim armor. As I see it, there is only one explanation: for him, such an ugly appearance was the norm. Just like the underground inhabitants. These two are different. Remember what their mouths looked like and compare them to these. Is there a difference?” The healer sighed and looked at the ground, gathering his thoughts and continuing. “The human or animal body adapts to its environment from generation to generation. These corpses have clearly lived on the surface for a long time, they even look like us, the players. And we in turn become like them. Maybe they were hiding here from war or natural disaster, stumbled upon the representatives of the underground race by chance, and they hanged them. I don't see any other connection between them, but I do see a big connection with us.”

The healer went on and pointed to a small hole in their stomach from which the intestines were hanging and said that they were eaten by parasites that live in bodies. While we are alive, the parasites are blocked by the immune system, but when we die, there is nothing to stop them from having a feast. He also added that the analysis showed that the brain and heart were also partially eaten. Mornajars most likely pecked the eyes out. There is no sign of larvae or flies. What is also striking is that the bodies, after all these years, have not decomposed. That's probably because when they died, their bodies continued to absorb mana, which in turn seemed to slow the passage of time for them. The details were incredible.

“And why do we need this information?” asked Faolandan, squirming from what he saw. If he were in reality now, it would have triggered a gag reflex, but the mechanics of the game do not allow him to do so, so he only felt strong nausea.

Illyseh inserted a scanning chip into one corpse and added:

“Still don't have a clue?”

“No.”

“You should read the game lore more thoughtfully.”

Latludious suddenly froze and realized what Illyseh had been leading up to all this time and voiced it:

“We were unspeakably lucky to find these corpses...”

The healer nodded, and the mage continued:

“Many races have lived in this world for hundreds of centuries, if not more. Although their bodies resemble human bodies, the difference is obvious. If we can figure out the differences, which, as I understand, are few, we can modify our bodies, thereby increasing the productivity of magical skills. That is, either magically, or surgically, or in some other way, connect their strengths and ours. The characters in Guns and Magic are based on humans who are used to living on earth, and their bodies are adapted to live on Thaalak.”

“You're absolutely right. I think the further we go, the more we'll learn the history of what happened in this underworld, and I'm guessing there are a lot of interesting things to come. And when we're done, I'll go back to the fortress and examine the corpses in the lab; with the data from the scanner, I can recreate an exact map of their bodies. Let's go.”

“I hope we get a chance to find someone alive, too,” Yleen said.

“Don't count on it too much. Even if we do, we can't talk. Corpses, at this point in the game, will give us more information.”

Faolandan spoke in a quiet voice:

“What are the chances that the developers knew that we would meet the corpses and have someone with us who would come up with all of this?”

“I see no point in asking rhetorical questions. Let's go.”

The group continued to move forward through the dark tunnel. Ronnie was in his own thoughts, and when he came to, he looked around for Barahu and remembered that he was gone. A hovering white light illuminated their path in the darkness. Illyseh was writing something down in an in-game notebook. Faolandan was writing in the Top Secret group chat about how machine guns and automatic weapons were becoming increasingly useless, suitable only for weak monsters. If this kept up, he and Yleen would just become a liability, if they were not already. A year from then, there will not be anyone in their right mind who'd rather have a machine gun than magic. Guns need modifications. Even the Barrett can't compete with spells.

After a couple of hours, Latludious stopped. In front of him was a new challenge: an open black gate, behind which were three large tunnels, with a sign at the entrance in an incomprehensible language. The mage turned to the others and said:

“Which tunnel is the main one now?”

Yleen stepped forward and answered:

“The closer the tunnel is to the exit, the better the air in it. Plus, we'd feel a draft. All three directions have no hint of an exit or main road. They are exactly the same. I can't believe I'm about to say this myself, but I suggest we split into groups of two players.”

“How do we split up?” asked VVY.

Yleen asked for a minute to think about it and wrote to Illyseh:

As long as we have influence over them, we should take advantage of it. You go with Ronnie, make sure he doesn't betray us in the final moment. Plus, the sniper could use a healer. You have good synergy. I'll go with Latludious. He's the brains of their organization. He needs an eye on him. In addition, we can clear out the hordes of weak monsters, so we can go further and learn more about this place. Vvy and Faolandan will go together. Maybe they'll be able to fight back during the battle. I don't know. But because of their uselessness, they won't give us much trouble.

Yleen made his assumption out loud - he was silent on the details and thoughts he had written earlier. Faolandan disagreed and erupted in indignation.

“What are you dissatisfied with?” Asked Yleen.

“Tanks can contain monsters, not kill them. My DP doesn't do any damage. The deeper the dungeon, the more dangerous it is. We will be useless. Let Ronnie go with VVY, I'll go with Latludious, and you go together. That way, we'll have a better chance of getting through the dungeon.”

“Have you forgotten, machine gunner, that we're on a scouting mission? We don't need you mopping up monsters and bosses. If you encounter a dangerous creature, run past it or back. We'll all report back in group chat. Stay out of trouble. Our lives come first; research comes second. Scan the area every passing kilometer, so we will see where all the tunnels lead and where are our enemies, write down in the traps and suspicious places notebook.”

Faolandan slammed the iron gate with all his might and cursed:

“Stop following us! What do you suspect us of?”

“Vvy and Latludious know. Ask them. It is the decision of the high officers. You can resist and go back with the “enemy of the race” debuff, or you can obey orders.”

Latludious looked at Vvy, who wanted to stand up for his comrade, and shook his head as if saying “Stand still and be quiet.” Then the magician opened the Top Secret group chat and wrote: Remember the rule: To play the long game you need to wait for the right moment, the enemy will tighten the noose around his neck himself due to inexperience, and we only need to push the chair at his feet.

That's not the way you interpreted it.

The meaning doesn't change.

Vvy walked up to Faolandan and nodded to him and said in a low and quiet voice:

“Come. It's all right.”

Illyseh, standing behind everyone, said in slow, extended words that made everyone yawn:

“My guess is that there are at least two races of conscious half-humans in this dungeon. If you meet any of the representatives, try to make contact and wait for the others.”

Everyone agreed. Illyseh and Ronnie went into the left tunnel, Vvy and Faolandan into the middle one, and Latludious and Yleen went into the tunnel on the right. Half an hour later, the Overlord ordered everyone out and back in seven hours of sleep. Even though they were split up, if anything happened to anyone, everyone had better be online. A new phase of the exploratory quest began.