Second Layer

When the creature is very close to hitting Susano, Amira's spearhead passes through the creature's body and it crumbles into ordinary clay, Susano falls to the ground, still trembling.

Amira looks at Susano angrily, she realized he really thought she had run away, Amira digs into Rikka's bag. Amira uses the rest of Rikka's panacea potion to dropper on Ramon, Krastinaff and Rikka.

They seem to stabilize, but the wounds remain ugly, Amira tends to them for two cycles, until Ramon and Rikka awaken, both are still badly injured and Rikka can barely speak.

"Being a gray wolf has its perks," Ramon comments casually after waking up.

Rikka can't borrow Krastinaff's magic power, he also looks weak, the food they brought from that unexpected layer is also starting to run out, two more cycles pass until Krastinaff wakes up, he wakes up hurt and more willing than Rikka.

Now they can at least walk, Susano is relieved that his mantras work normally in this layer, it is only dangerous when he needs sleep, which is why he has been sleeping little and starts to accumulate dark circles.

His companions need to watch each other while Susano sleeps, they progress slowly, the enemies in this layer are much easier than the first one, after two cycles they are pretty sad.

"Yeah, we're going to lose our deposit for sure, it's 15 cycles already, maybe more" Krastinaff voices with remorse, the others also feel the loss in advance, many of those items are not easy to get, months of hard work thrown away, and even if they have success in this mission will not be enough to make up for losses.

"We'll have to finish this!" Amira comments over a meager dinner, they only have their emergency rations now, Krastinaff is the most surprised.

They roam through that layer and kill many guardian monsters, here there is a lot of ugly creatures of minerals and natural elements, Rikka can take the opportunity to collect a few of the fallen creatures, but unless they are lucky, she left her equipment to brew potions on the warehouse, there's no way to carry something so fragile into a dungeon, it's better to rely on your luck and find something to improvise inside the dungeon.

Krastinaff finds the inscriptions on this layer useless, and even the drunk bard didn't even bother to vandalize the place, they find some common items lost in the chambers, some very old ones could be worth something, but they're dead weight until they leave the dungeon and they not worth the risk, Amira and Rikka easily deal with the traps in this layer.

They repeat this for another three cycles and their rations run out, they found nothing to eat, and the few skeletons of previous visitors they encountered on the way seemed to be attacked and devoured, it didn't take them long to realize that they couldn't have been devoured by the guardian monsters.

"I don't know what we're doing wrong" Krastinaff vents, his teammates aren't in the mood to say anything in response, Krastinaff would also like to say something more.

They now only have water to drink, many of the chambers have some fountain with water, they find furniture in some chambers, maybe of their builders, they have already covered many leagues, even though in the first days they were very slow due to wounds that hardly are healing.

Kratinaff and Rikka regained only a little magic power, Rikka assured them it wasn't like the extra layer, they simply needed medicine and more food.

As Ramon starts to become tempting to assume his gray wolf form to devour his companions, Ramon resists his instincts, his companions know the risk and fear he will give in.

They argue in vain over and over, there seems to be no end to it, anyone capable of breaking through the previous layer would certainly not die to the guardian monsters of this layer, and this thought shakes the mind of them with each new skeleton along the way.

After two more cycles Krastinaff falls on his back to the ground exhausted, Rikka is leaning on Amira, otherwise he would have been on Krastinaff's side, Krastinaff is almost crying, his teammates are disappointed, he should set an example and he is the first to succumb.

"Kras… come on, or Ramon will devour you" Rikka jokes and Ramon is clearly hurt.

"That's right, wasn't you who said we should get out of paradise?" Amira is still wondering if it would have been better to risk living in the extra layer.

"No, we'll make it" Krastinaff speaks a little strangely, but his starving companions have a hard time understanding him.

"Get real Krastinaff, We're dead, without food, even if we don't devour each other, sometime these guardian monsters will defeat us through fatigue" Amira speaks with conviction.

"If that drunk bard got this far, we can go further!" Krastinaff says as if everyone knows who he calls a drunk bard, only Rikka heard Krastinaff mention that person when he explained to her about the totem.

"Kras…not even me know who is the drunk bard, you mentioned him once when we talked about the totem" Rikka makes Krastinaff realize that this is no longer just a joke to himself.

"Along with some original inscriptions, sometimes I find those inscriptions that must have been made not long after, I call him a drunken bard, as he's just some idiot trying to make up legends to make money."

Krastinaff speaks calmly, his companions they don't interrupt you because they are too tired to waste their last strength on it.

"I found these inscriptions for the first time before we even came to this dungeon, there were a lot of them inside, even on the extra layer, and if a drunk bard can get this far, we can do better." Krastinaff mates are leaning against the walls, Krastinaff walks down the hall slowly and breathing through his mouth.

"Krastinaff, even if what you said was rational, what does that have to do with our current problem, getting out of this hell?" Even Susano can't follow Krastinaff's reasoning anymore, Susano didn't say anything, but he hasn't used his mantras for two cycles.

Illusions have no real effect on your targets in this layer, it was the conclusion Susano came to, he would rather channel them to himself and he sees horrible things happening all the time, it is easier than keeping his mantras activee or let his friends know about his trick.

"The last provocation was on the ceiling right above where I fell on my back, it says: 'see you on the next layer', they don't have a fixed place, but near every door that leads to another layer, I usually find one of them." Krastinaff is followed by his companions, they enter a furnished chamber, with signs of recent presence.

Maybe a few weeks ago a group passed by, there are no skeletons, everyone's hopes come to life again, apparently some very powerful group must have passed by.

Ramon can still smell a slight smell on the walls, it's very subtle, he looks and examines the direction that smell goes before saying anything, his companions know his good sense of smell, but they are a little suspicious to see him sniffing some walls without saying a thing.

"It's this way…" Ramon would be more incisive, but he's also not in a position to speak energetically, his teammates follow him just because they don't have any better ideas.

Ramon knows this scent is from some very smelly humanoid, and he's only seen inorganic guardian monsters in this layer, so it's obvious the scent must belong to a group of mercenaries.

After a few winding leagues and defeating some guardian monsters they come to another door like the one they found at the entrance to this layer, Rikka is terrified just to see that, she knows that if she gets hit by an explosion like the last time, in her current condition she will not survive.

Everyone looks at Rikka, they don't know what to do, the bell for another cycle rings at this moment, they're in a hurry, if they haven't lost count, and if there are just three layers, maybe they can get out of here in time, just striding out quickly.

Rikka goes towards the door and feels someone holding her wrist, Amira looks at her with tears in her eyes, Amira stands beside Rikka and then she goes with her towards the door.

"I'll disarm the mechanical trap, then you disarm the mystic trap" Rikka doesn't know if there's a mechanical trap there, neither does Amira, while they're there a large number of guardian monsters approach through the corridor they came from.

Ramon and Krastinaff position themselves blocking the corridor that leads to the chamber, Susano is helpless watching his comrades do everything they can, he'd run out of arrows, there's no room for a third fighter beside Ramon and Krastinaff at the corridor, even if there was, he probably would interfere than be any help in this type of combat.

Amira and Rikka are the only ones who understand traps, and each one understands only one type of trap, Susano is disappointed in himself.

Ramon and Krastinaff just push the monsters back as best they can, Krstinaff is using a thick branch he picked up from the ground, Ramon uses his own arms, they are unable to hold the monsters back and are slowly retreating.

Amira finds devices in the cracks around the door, she doesn't dare touch the wall of darkness above the door, clicks and tics are heard several times, when Amira touches hidden devices, she doesn't hear anything else, she turns regretfully to Rikka who is holding back her crying.

"I think it's over" Amira doesn't know what else to say, she just moves out the way.

"It's over, yeah… *sniff-sniff*, for me it'll be over soon" Rikka starts with the last necromancy counterspell she remembers using last time, Susano stands beside Rikka.

Krastinaff and Ramon being pushed into the chamber by the advancing guardian monsters, Amira joins them to buy some more time for Rikka, Ramon and Krastinaff have suffered minor injuries by atacking monsters, which currently weigh like heavy injuries due to their hunger.

Rikka had more time this time and she got it more careful with her gestures and words, the wall of darkness covering the door fades, Rikka smiles there was no explosion, she smiles at Susano who pulls her, not fast enough, a black ray hits Rikka's face, that gnaws at his left cheek and t gets through Ramon, many of the monsters ahead fall inert.

The door opens and they enter quickly closing it with difficulty, some monsters manage to get through, Ramon is down bleeding unable to fight, if he is not healed he will die soon, Susano has nothing to fight.

Krastinaff tries to block the monsters' blows while Amira deals fatal blows, Rikka even severely injured tries to stabilize Ramon, Susano gives Rikka cover, Susano is easily hit by the monsters and is wounded little by little.

It takes a few minutes, one by one Amira defeats those monsters, Krastinaff and Susano were no longer able to help even themselves when it's over, Rikka with a lot of effort manages to stabilize Ramon and faints, Amira remains on guard while Krastinaff and Susano sleep.

When Susano wakes up, Amira has her eyes almost closed, she is very weak, there are two tiger bodies on the ground, Amira has several excoriations on her legs and arms.

Susano is still weak by hunger, but now he can better observe the environment around him, it's huge, it looks like the extra layer, even bigger, on the horizon he sees something incomprehensible to anyone from oversky, he is scaried, there is something very big on the horizon.

The thing is covered with trees at the base and then appears to be made of stone, Susano fears it might be a monster, but the thing seems static, Susano spends a few seconds in this contemplation, he comes back to reality hearing Amira snoring with her eyes open.

He prepares a place for her to lie down with a little more comfort, and then does it for Ramon and Rikka, Susano would like to be able to handle the situation alone, but even under normal conditions he would not be able to, he shakes for a few seconds Krastinaff until he wake up.

Krastnaff moans in pain when he wakes up, many wounds got in this same dungeon hurt again, Krastinaff struggles to sit up and he doesn't care much for the environment around him, his vision is blurred.

"What happened?" Krastinaff breathes noisily, his eyes don't open completely, he looks at Susano, Susano is already preparing the fire, Krastinaff can barely notice, but Susano clearly sees that it's getting dark.

"I'll explain later, for now be on guard while I cook dinner" upon hearing food Krastinaff almost jumps to attention, drooling and trying to smell the food.

"Food, where's the food?" Susano struggles to skin one of the tigers, while Krastinaff watches lost, ominous sounds can be heard not far away.