The next morning came and the two groups bid each other a fond farewell for the day at the 15 th floor having spoken the entire trip down. Clarissa even apologized again to Brice. “I’m sorry for treating your kind so poorly.”

  Victor shook her hand with a warm smile. “We’ll see you tonight. We can eat dinner together again.”

  With that the group went their separate ways and returned to delving their dungeons. The Stars of Verdan returned to the hallway with 7 unopened doors remaining. As they reached that hallway Emilie complained about the heat. “You know walking back down here again is exhausting. Do you think that was one of the defensive measures of this place?”

  Jenora agreed. “Generally undead don’t feel much if anything. It discourages the living from intruding too deep.”

  Victor sighed. “Is there an easy magical way for them to do this? How did they make this place so hot?”

  Jenora shook her head. “Ignore it as best you can. Let’s get moving.” The group approached the 4 th door and as always before Jenora opened the door. Unsurprisingly it was yet another alchemical lab room for another skeletal mage. The group entered closing the door and began searching. Emilie quickly scurried to the spot the previous journal had been. Once again the hidden compartment revealed a journal bound by a spine.

  Emilie handed it to Victor. Victor opened it and began reading as the others searched. ‘What the hell?’ He kept reading along as his eyes raced from page to page. He finished ravenously reading it noticing

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  ‘What is this? It increased in rank from just reading?’ Victor shook his head snapping back to the task at hand. “This book worries me.”

  Emilie looked at him with a ‘Well duh’ look. “It’s bound in bone Victor. Are you finally able to understand undead are evil?”

  Victor agreed with her. “No I’ve long since gotten that point Emilie. This book has a bigger issue, it’s about the abyssal labyrinth. It’s about it is construction by Deox the Destroyer. This skeletal mage actively learned from Hurava the Lich that created this place.”

  Brice held out his hand to look at the book Victor handed it to him. “What does it say?”

  “They were definitely trying to make a portal to the abyssal labyrinth. The problem is according to the last page what happened.” Victor noticed Brice turning to the last page.

  Brice opened his eyes wide and began reading. “The paladin has come with the force of a nation. This necropolis is doomed. We have enough time to escape but the archmage demanded we stay and try to complete the portal. We’re close but targeting is wildly off. Some have fled. Some stayed. Hurava even ordered others to leave. I don’t understand what we are doing but this will be my last entry. If I fail my shattered body will be found in these halls. If we succeed none of us will be here for the paladin to kill.”

  Serenas hand moved to her daggers. “The only skeletons we found on this floor were the ones we killed.”

  Brice turned to Victor. Victor asked him. “There’s no possible way they actually made a portal to the abyssal labyrinth right?”

  Swordie almost angrily added. “Victor one day I will gain the ability to transform more freely. I will use this to gag you.”

  Emilie took a deep breath clapping her hands together in front of her face. “Fuck.”

  Victor turned to them. “What does it mean if they succeeded?”

  Jenora looked at Emilie and calmly explained. “It means they could call anything that could reach the abyssal labyrinth to Verdan, anything from an undead abomination to a Void Lord.”

  Brice snapped the book shut. “It’s actually worse than that.”

  Victor with some fake cheer in his tone turned to Brice. “Oh boy! Tell me how it’s worse.”

  “If they escaped into the abyssal labyrinth and survived they can come back and repopulate this necropolis a day, a month, a year, a century from now. If no one finds that circle and breaks it from both sides.” Brice explained with a somber note.

  “Both sides?” Victor asked confused.

  Swordie popped in and explained. “A portal circle creates a corresponding portal circle somewhere on the realm it is going to. To destroy them you must first destroy the portal on one side then the other. The best way to do this if you are able is to set a time delayed trap on one side then travel to the other side and destroy it. Once it is no longer linked reconnecting it is a task that most would deem impossible.”

  Jenora took a deep breath. “We should go and deliver these books to the head cleric in Kival. Jin Vanor needs to know about this immediately and they need to come back here and finish their job. This place isn’t going to merely be infested with cobwebs and cockroaches in a year or two.”

  Emilie turned to her with her lips pressed together and breathed deeply. Victor spoke up. “We’re right here. At the very least we should finish gathering information from these 10 rooms. We’re at the back of an area that was clearly higher level skeletal mages even if you want to go right now leaving with another several journals literally within arms reach. Even if you’re right we should at least clear this area. Then we can talk to the Fur Fellows and decide what the best course of action is.”

  Serena nodded. “Agreed. What if we have to come back here? Not having information would be a mistake.”

  Jenora looked to Emilie. “Do you feel the same?”

  Emilie nodded. “I think if we left right now he’d be rather upset with us.”

  Jenora sighed. “Alright, we can stay for the day at least. Lets keep moving and work until we clear all 6 remaining rooms even if it takes a bit longer than normal.”

  The group left the room and went to the next door. Once more Emilie grabbed the book and the rest searched while Victor read. He found little new information. Once more it contained little more than the ravings of a skeletal mage about how they had no chance of success. Victor shook his head no. They gathered after a careful search and moved to the next room across from the opening. Once more Emilie grabbed the journal and Victor began reading it. Victor raced through it stopping on a page with the drawings of a magic circle. He quickly read through the following few pages. “Well this skeletal mage worries me too.”

  Emilie looked at Serena. “Can you make him finish the thought instead of leaving us hanging?”

  Serena warmly smiled. “Finish your thought dear.”

  “He says the circle has enough gold for many transfers but they don’t know what specifically the destination is. He makes it seem like he transferred at least one skeleton somewhere. The portal must have existed at some point.” Victor explained.

  “Does it mention where the portal circle is?” Jenora asked.

  “No. I don’t think I’ve seen anything on its location.” Victor nodded.

  “We should go to the next room quickly. Reading these books is taking a long time.” Jenora nodded.

  “Sorry I’m going as fast as I can.” Victor nodded. “We could read them after.”

  Jenora shook her head. “We have 4 more rooms. If we don’t read them and they contain critical information then we might die due to impatience. Let’s continue quickly.”

  The group did the same things again for the next room. Victor began reading and once again the book began to worry Victor. “This book speaks about finding Kokoxol within the Abyssal labyrinth and drawing him to this world. This skeleton was fanatical in his devotion to Kokoxol. He was on a secret mission for Hurava to find Kokoxol. He kept modifying the portal to try and send it to the part of the abyssal labyrinth he thought Kokoxol inhabits.”

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  Emilie laughed. “He sabotaged them!”

  Jenora looked at the book aghast. “I can’t believe it. The only reason they failed was the incompetence of a single skeletal mage.”

  Serena looked at them. “We have to keep moving reading these books takes a long time.”

  This time the next door was at the end of the hallway. Jenora told them to keep the other door open and hide around the corner. She raised her shield opening the door to a similar door but nothing blasted her unlike the previous room at the end of the other side. The group filtered in slowly. Much like the other end of the hallway this room was far more ornate. The group spread out to search. Emilie searched the desk but found nothing of significance. Cawthorn eventually crowed. “BEHIND THE PICTURE!”

  The group gathered around a portrait of Hurava. A lich decorated gold and jewels along with a massive golden staff he was clearly using as a walking stick adorned with the slave crest symbol of Kokoxol. Emilie scowled to Brice. “Burn it.”

  Brice raised his hand before Serena immediately pushed it down. “Lets move it then you can burn it.”

  Emil grabbed it by the frame ripping it off the wall and casting it to the side. It clattered to the ground torn apart. “Now my pointy eared friend if you’d be so kind.”

  “Fire bolt!” Brice ignited it turning it to ash instantly. The group returned to the vault that had been revealed behind the picture.

  Serena began scanning the edges of the safe before tapping it and listening to the echo. “We should try cutting out the wall around it.”

  Emilie contorted in confusion. “What?! That will take forever.”

  “There’s something attached to it to the side facing the door. It’s in the wall.” Serena explained.

  Jenora agreed. “It will take too long. We should just leave it and continue searching this room.”

  Emilie sighed calmly and firmly looking at Jenora. “We found more than 1500 gold worth of loot and an artifact behind a hidden bookcase. Whatever is in there has to be more valuable than that.”

  Jenora hung her head. “I really am starting to think this is a bad idea. Can we stop?”

  Emilie firmly answered. “We shouldn’t stop here.”

  “I have a really bad feeling about this.” Jenora pulled out a hammer. “Are you sure?”

  “Strength boost. Speed Boost. Go get it girl!” Emilie cheered her on.

  The rest of the group searched while Jenora began to break the bricks around it. They found a myriad of interesting items like fancy ink pots and quills, a non-magical black cloak, and a dull grey rock with eyes painted on it. Everything in the room was strangely enough bolted down or inside latched cabinet doors. Victor looked at it in absolute disbelief. “Swordie what is this?”

  “It appears to be a rock sir.” Swordies deadpan delivery caused Serena to chuckle.

  “Well yes but what kind of rock is it?” Victor insisted.

  “It’s sedimentary my dear Victor.” Swordie concluded.

  “Did this evil skeletal mage really draw eyes on a rock to have a pet rock? Seriously?” Victor picked it up and looked at it closely.

  “Who knows? Skeletons are a mystery. Best just to kill them.” Emilie insisted.

  Victor pocketed the rock as a large chunk of the wall clattered to the ground by the safe. Serena began inspecting a small metal rod built into the wall. “This safe is definitely trapped. We need to find the key or disarm the trap.”

  Jenora shook her head. “We should just give up on this thing. There isn’t an easy way to do that unless we come back tomorrow.”

  Emilie angrily protested. “We can’t just leave it! Look at it for crying out loud! It’s probably the most valuable thing on the floor.”

  Brice gently added. “It also might contain information on the location of the portal.”

  Jenora sighed deeply depressed. “Alright, Serena what do we need to do?”

  Serena ran over their options. “Option 1, find the key. This seems really difficult because it might not even be in the necropolis anymore. Option 2 we could dig it out. Given that it took hours for her to excavate that much of the wall I’d say about 2 days of all of us working on it is a good estimate. Option 3 we can open it and just try and survive the trap. The last one is something I really don’t want to try but leaving the safe behind is idiotic. We need money and artifacts and that thing is probably able to survive even a blast from Brice. I’ll have to pick the lock and I’d only get one chance.”

  Emilie quickly assured her. “We will grant you our boost spells and regeneration. Jenora can you cast fortify on her?”

  “Well I can but that’s basically all my mana for an hour. Are you sure we should do that?” She asked.

  “What does fortify do?” Victor asked.

  “It moderately improves your physical and magical resistances for 60 minutes but it turns off mana regeneration for the hour it is active.” She replied.

  “I can crack it for sure. I can’t guarantee it doesn’t explode when I open it.” Serena noted. “If we are going to do this all of you need to stand outside this room with every single spell on me you can afford.” Serena took a deep breath and loosened up shaking her hands.

  Victor suddenly concerned cut in. “I don’t think we should do this. We should try and find the key.”

  Serena grabbed him by the neck and kissed him. “I’ll be fine. This safe has to have something really valuable in it.” She paused chuckling. “Hah. When I was a slave people would force me to do this shit. Now I’m volunteering for it. Give me those buffs and get out of the room.” She cracked her neck and fingers.

  “ Speed boost, Vitality Boost, Regeneration .” Emilie cheerfully cast her spells and backed out of the room.

  Victor cast on her. “ Vitality Boost .” Losing it on himself.

  Emilie nodded at Jenora who cast. “ Fortify .”

  The group left the room waiting just outside the door Serena loosened up and pulled out her tools. She began to pick the lock. She stuck the base in and one tap two, then three. She finally heard a click with some gentle movement. Another few taps and another click, without moving she heard a third click. She froze listening intently. She swallowed deeply concerned. She stopped moving for a full minute waiting for something to happen and breathing very slowly. She scraped forward her pick slowly and tapped another pin. It wasn’t moving. She slowly pulled back and found another pin, tapping it, it moved. She turned it just barely and slid to the last pin. Click. The lock turned. She put her hand over her heart as the lock turned to the beating of a drum inside her. She put away her tools and pulled open the safe. She laid her eyes upon a book and another solid gold Ball which she reached for grabbing them as she heard the screams outside. “Guys?”

  She bagged both items immediately and rushed to open the door. Outside the group had vanished. She looked left and right and neither room seemed disturbed. Beneath her feet she finally realized she was standing on the edge of a cliff. The floor had turned into a slide leading far beneath the room. She called out. “HELLO?” They were gone and she began to panic. Should she jump down with them or go for help? She noticed the hole the slide in the ground lead to. As her indecision continued she heard a scraping as the floor began moving. It was now or never. She had to choose in this moment or she may never see them again.

  She leapt into the unknown to find Victor. She slid down a long dark corridor winding around for a few moments as she called out. “HELLO! ARE YOU THERE VICTOR?” She crashed into the ground tumbling forward into a room with the others.

  “Where are we?” Victor asked looking around the room. The room had no obvious entrance or exit except for the now closing hole they emerged from. It was filled with pictures of the lich, a large rug beneath their feet and cabinets of supplies.

  Serena leapt to hug Victor. “Sorry I didn’t mean to trigger the trap.”

  Emilie nodded. “Not your fault. There was no way we could definitely do that safely. Did you at least get whatever was inside it?”

  “Another golden ball and a book.” She pulled them out.

  “Well at least it was something good!” She tried to spin it positively.

  Brice spoke up. “A better question is how far did we slide.”

  All of them went silent before Swordie clarified. “You slid to what is likely the 30 th floor of the necropolis based on the distance traveled and the time it took to travel there.”

  Brice paused. “Oh dear. That does not seem good.”

  “I bet this was the lair of the lich.” Victor posited. “He must have had a way out.”

  Brice shook his head. “He might not have a way out. If he used short ranged teleportation to travel to this room those slides may be the only possible way to enter this room. Exiting it might be impossible without teleportation.”

  Jenora looked around. “How do we get out of here then?” None of them had a good answer to escape the stifling heat of the room.