DISTURBANCE

Days had passed since the change in roles of both Neal and Evans. Since then, there had being much progress in the eradication of monsters. This in turn made things easier for the team and gave them a certain peace of mind. They were finally making noticable progress in escaping the Forge tower.

The peaceful way the group felt though was not the way Neal did. Since he joined the group in fighting monsters officially, he had began to have a series of nightmares. Nightmares that were always about the same thing. The massive eye and the skeletal monster which always hunted and impaled him. The annoying part being that it usually felt so real.

This in turn had taken a toll on him mentally. A side effect that was visible to the eyes of everyone else mainly due to the exhaustion he displayed.

Awakening from another nightmare, Neal gave off a woren out sigh. There was no way he was getting use to something like that. Soon after, he changed clothes, proceeding to go out for some fresh air.

On his stroll outside, he ran into Evans who seemed to be heading in a rather unusual direction. A look of confusion and uneasy plagued his eyes, making Neal all the more curious about the whole situation.

"Hey Evans, what's wrong?"

"We believe there might be an issue with the tower. I think it's best you follow me."

Without anymore questions, Neal followed right behind him, heading in the same direction. Upon getting to their destination, he was disturbed on why they were there.

'Is this not same door i followed to enter this room in the Forge tower?' Neal questioned himself.

At the moment, the door was encased in crystals making virtually impossible to open. In front of it were Maya, Xavier, Luke and Marcus, who all seemed to be disturbed about this as well.

"Evans, why exactly are we here?"

"We are waiting to see if the tower's door will open," Evans replied.

"But why? I don't understand," Neal asked still confused about the whole situation.

"When the population in the tower is less than ten, it takes every three months before a new person is introduced to the tower just like you were. However, this time no one has arrived. We don't know the reason as to why this is happening, but this spells nothing but bad news."

Neal did not have to hear the reasons why this was a bad thing, as his imagination did all of the work for him. The major reason why this was terrible was because it meant they were not getting a form of reinforcements, something in his opinion that was quite necessary.

With the rest of the group heading in their direction, Neal could tell straight away that Xavier was the most disturbed in this situation. It was his job as the leader to come up with a solution that would solve stuff like this.

Since Neal's encounter with the group, he could tell he was not cut out to be a leader. He believed it was a mantle he could not handle in any way.

"I am sure everyone here is now aware of our current situation. In that case, we should head to the meeting hall to decide our next move," Xavier stated.

*****

In the meeting hall, Neal could feel the pressure on the matter worsen by ten folds. Everyone else seemed more disturbed than he was, something he perfectly understood. Besides he had only been here for three months. The others though had been here for years, fighting off the despair that was trying to creep in.

"I know everyone is disturbed about the whole situation; however, we still have to come up with a solution. I advice everyone to think of one they can suggest. We will then ponder on whether it is the right thing to do or not," Xavier spoke before going into deep thought.

After a few minutes of silence, an opinion finally sprung up from Marcus who believed he had thought things out.

"Why don't we wait for a few more days to see if the door will open?"

"We can't do that. The tower has never changed in it's time frame for doing things and I don't believe it would stop now," Xavier shut the idea down swiftly. "As far as I can see it, there should be two reasons why this is happening. It's either because the tower no longer brings in people after the fifty eth number or Neal coming into the dungeon messed up with it's mechanics."

"Well the first option is most likely the case," Evans intervened trying to stop any feeling of guilt in Neal. "Why don't we just stay here like we already were? I am sure in proper time we should be able to escape."

"We can't do that either. We don't know how long the tower is willing to leave us here, plus I am sure you have all began to feel it gradually. The Abyssal despair. If we stay for too long we may fall into it just like the others," Luke explained.

With this everyone fell into silence once again, causing a greater sense of pressure to loom over the environment.

"I have a solution, but you are not going to like it," Xavier said ultimately drawing everyone's attention. "If we were to go to the depths of the dungeon and slay whatever is guarding the gate, we should be able to escape the dungeon, maybe even the tower. Besides we still don't know if we really need to kill all the monsters to escape this structure."

"Have you forgotten what that creature is capable of!? It's to risky" Maya said with a panicked expression.

"We have no better option.."

Everyone made a hurt expression upon hearing this. They knew there was no better option for them at the moment. Neal on the other hand hardly understood what was happening; however, he could tell what they were going to do next.

They would be going into the deep interiors of the dungeon in an attempt to kill this so called creature they spoke of. One that they seemed to have some sort of history with.