Bloodbath (Part One)

Five minutes earlier before the appearance of space crack, The Lower Catacombs.

*Bang*

A nameless newcomer heavily crashed to the ground from at least thirty meters of altitude after he had received a thighbone-blow from Nathaniel.

"Heh, I wonder when are you gonna stop trying? There is no way level 1 or 2 weaklings can do anything to us in this way. You are only wounding your men." Nathaniel smirked.

Vance gritted his teeth. Jeffrey was no different either. They had fifty men at their side but couldn't do anything to Nathaniel and Iona. It was truly an irritating situation.

"Soon, our boss will be done with your petty friends and the dungeon boss. Come down obediently right now. Otherwise, you will share the same fate as them!" Vance said.

He didn't have the slightest doubt about what he had said. He was aware of the significance of having a weapon while the others have not, especially when everyone was just another weakling. Naturally, he had full confidence in his boss.

Nathaniel said nothing and looked towards the door. He was worried about Dante and Ulfred.

Another five minutes earlier.

Nathaniel and Iona were stuck in one place, unable to proceed further.

There were twenty or so pygmy skeletons in front of the door. The others were fighting against Ulfred and Dante, and their attention was on their targets, but these ones were different. They didn't move even an inch from the place, and their attention wasn't on the two.

As Nathaniel and Iona gradually got closer to the door, the heads of the skeletons started to turn toward them. It seemed like if they moved any closer to the room, the skeletons would attack.

Even Dante and Ulfred were having difficulties when fighting against these skeletons. Naturally, Nathaniel wouldn't stand a chance against them, especially with Iona by his side. So they had no choice but to wait there in hopes for skeletons to move out of the way, or for any chance that could lead them to same result.

"You should have run from this place when you had the chance!"

As Nathaniel turned his head to where the sound had come from, he discovered that half of the Niles' party was speeding toward them.

In fact, they have been just walking towards the two with a fast phase, not running, because they knew that Nathaniel and Iona had nowhere to run now.

Then something happened, and the attention of all the skeletons in front of the door abruptly focussed somewhere else. A second later, they were frantically running toward the center of the hall.

That happened, right after Dante's kick landed on the dungeon boss' skull!

Not letting this chance slip by, Nathaniel grabbed Iona's hand and ran toward the daylight, quickly disappearing from the sight of the newcomers that was chasing them.

"Dammit...! We are entering too!"

With their weak individual strength, entering an undiscovered area at so deep in The Lower Catacombs was a stupid thing to do. That's why Vance hesitated at first, but in the end, he decided to follow them into the room.

As soon as Nathaniel step into the daylight, he couldn't believe in his own eyes. He had thought the source of daylight was an item or some sort of device, but what illuminated the room was genuine daylight!

Right now, they were hundreds of meters under the ground. Moreover, The Yelling Peaks was situated just up above them. How could daylight get in here?

Nathaniel didn't need to seek an answer to this question... because there was a giant hole above his head. No, more like a quarter of the mountain was missing!

The 'room' was at least fifty meters in diameter, and it seemed like the hole on the surface of The Yelling Peaks was much wider. It had a shape similar to an inverted cone.

The walls of the room were very strange. Their surface was smooth but some places had wavy texture, resembling the surface of a lake.

It looked like layer by layer molten rocks were covering the real walls as if they were slabs that resembled 'iron doors'.

In fact, neither the room was an actual room, nor the door was an actual door!

Looking at the orbicular shape of this place and sunken floor at the center, Nathaniel had no doubt that this place was actually the bottom of a crater!

Because of the orbicular shape of the crater and the skeletons that were situated in front of the door, none of them had been able to discover this strangeness earlier.

And the 'door' they called it to be, was just another hole that born out from the intersection of the crater and the hall. It was in the shape of a door by chance, and somehow it was decorated with skulls, misleading every newcomer with its outer appearence.

There was nothing in the crater, not even a piece of stone or an ounce of soil. It was completely empty.

Did a meteor or some sort of thing crash to The Yelling Peaks and create this conical hole? No. If that had been the case, the hall would have been destroyed. Perhaps right now, there was no place in the labyrinth that called The Lower Catacombs... or The Yelling Peaks.

It was not possible for a natural disaster to have such good workmanship!

The room was not a place like Nathaniel had expected it to be. Like many newcomers who had seen this room from afar, he too had thought that it must be a treasure room or something.

"What will we do now?"

His voice contained noticeable traces of panic. He wasn't an abnormal newcomer like Dante and Ulfred. There was no way he could beat fifty newcomers by himself. His first option was to hide, but at first sight, there was no place to hide in this bare crater.

At this moment, Iona tugged at his sleeve timidly but strongly. She was pointing a direction with her trembling finger at the same time.

Twenty meters away, at the left of them, there was a small crevice in the wall of the crater. It was most likely an underground cavity that existed there before the nascency of the crater. Fortunately, the molten rocks weren't able to close it entirely.

Nathaniel's eyes sparkled. Even though that crevice was situated at least thirty meters high up in the wall, climbing up there wouldn't be a problem, because the wall of the crater wasn't exactly smooth there.

In fact, extending up until twenty meters below of the crevice, there was a narrow path that was clean of the molten rocks. The jagged surface of the original wall of the crater could clearly be seen.

The first ten meters of the path to the crevice were still coated by the molten rocks. However, because of the orbicular shape of the crater's bottom, covering that distance wouldn't be a problem for the two.

Even Iona could do it easily.

…

These were the events that led these newcomers to the current situation.

Nathaniel was standing at the entrance of the crevice with a smug expression on his face. For the first time, he was the strongest.

Sometimes a thigh bone blow was doing the job, and sometimes a merciless kick to the face was more than enough.

Inflicting such heavy injuries with such little effort... It was a magnificent feeling for him. Of course, this was only possible in the absence of Dante and Ulfred. Otherwise, he wouldn't get this much pleasure.

*Baam*

One more newcomer started to roll like a dice after he had received a kick to the face.

*Thud*

When he came to a stop, he was prostrating himself in front of Jeffrey. Tiny bloodstreams were gushing out of several places of his head.

On the ground, there were ten more newcomers, sharing the same fate with him. Each of them was in an equally sorry state.

Looking at his 'fallen' comrades, Jeffrey gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. What he was feeling right now couldn't be called anger exactly. It was more like an extreme irritation.

After all, these guys ended up like this because of his orders.

"Stop! It's no use," said Jeffrey helplessly. He didn't have anger management problems like Niles. He knew when to stop. On the other hand, Nathaniel and Iona weren't going anywhere.

"You two are really stupid and not resourceful at all. You had to sacrifice ten men in order for you to understand that it was useless. Come to think of it, why did former four eyes give the command to you? I don't think it's possible for you two to be the most capable two people in a hundred-people party."

Nathaniel took a thinking posture as he turned his eyes sideways. A second later, he returned his gaze back to Jeffrey, but this time, his expression was full of suspicion.

"Did you pay with your body?"

"You... I'll kill you!"

"I wonder how many times have I heard that sentence from you?"

"Come down... right now!"

"I understand if you don't want to share your secret."

"Arghhh...!"

...

After a few minutes, two newcomers had to hold Jeffrey down. Worst of all, even some newcomers were sneakily laughing Nathaniel's verbal assault. But, when that happened, Nathaniel was immediately pointing the laughing newcomer with a finger in order to cause more trouble down there.

The newcomers were at a dead end. Neither of the parties could do anything to each other.

Nathaniel had nothing to do. The crevice in the crater's wall was too small. Small to the point that as soon as he stepped in it, he finished exploring it. Therefore, he continued to abuse his tongue, leaving Iona with a flushed red face.

On the other hand, the newcomers were searching the crater out of boredom. As far as one can see, there was nothing in the crater, but this place was truly intriguing. All of them were thinking the same thing; there had to be something in this place.

None of them knew, but a newcomer had already found something and was about to make the gravest mistake of his short life by touching it.