The stairs descended for longer than Kaldalis felt reasonable, even for dramatic effect.

Around and around the spirals stairs went. And around and around. Kaldalis gave up on keeping his sense of direction in order. Just thinking about it made him dizzy.

He focused instead on keeping his attention on his surroundings. Most of all his footing.

The metal railing on the inside of the spiral stairs was only three feet tall, and wouldn’t do much to save him if he stumbled. The steps themselves were small as well, and Kaldalis’s natural gait was to take them three at a time. On each step his toes hung over the edge to the next step, making his footing even more precarious and uncertain.

“I wouldn’t mind how far this was,” he muttered, “if the steps weren’t sized to be just this side of annoying. What was this, a suyon city?” Even as he said it, Kaldalis realized that even Myrin would be taking these stairs two at a time, even though the railing would be more appropriately-sized.

He didn’t want to push himself to hurry, since one wrong move appeared to be very long fall, and as much as it would amuse his stream to see him Homer Simpson his way down the stairs for however long it took him to get to the bottom, it wouldn’t be fun for him, especially now that he knew there was fall damage.

The stairs were otherwise unremarkable. No traps, no monsters, no gates or other obstacles.

He almost wondered if there was supposed to be something more interesting going on here. A rolling boulder to run away from, or if maybe this was supposed to be the exitway, and the whole cavern was going to fill with water when the final boss was downed, making this a harrowing stair-climb to keep ahead of the flood.

Or maybe there was supposed to be a view.

After about ten to fifteen rotations around the stairs, one side of the spiral stair went from stone to a metal grate, and for a few more steps, the space beyond it was nothing but blackness. But as he continued down, his vision radius expanded. He wasn’t aware of it at first, as there was only more blackness ahead, but he stopped on the stairs and looked out as shapes began to loom out of the darkness, revealing the scenery below.

On the other side of the grate was an enormous cavern. Massive. It was hundreds of yards tall, and stretched out for what looked like miles.

And unfolding beneath him on the floor of the cavern was a city.

Well, what would have been a city ten thousand years ago.

Ruins sprawled out for miles below him. Kaldalis could see places where buildings had collapsed, filling the streets with rubble. The buildings had a style that looked ancient to him, with structures that had visible columns around the outside, looking vaguely as if each structure was wearing its skeleton on the outside. There were some structures where the columns were all that remained, and he couldn’t tell from here if that was because the interior structure had been made of a material that had rotted away, or if the building had originally been intended to be open-air.

While the ruins unfolded for miles and miles, even from way up above, Kaldalis could see where the roads and paths had been blocked by rubble, artfully creating a smaller section that he could explore from the base of these stairs. He wondered if that meant that if he tried to hop over the barriers he would encounter an invisible wall, or if coloring outside the lines would have other consequences.

Maybe there were other dungeons on this island - or the other islands in this archipelago - that linked back in here, allowing access to different parts of the ancient city.

Jumping the walls might pit him against the end boss for other dungeons entirely.

Or even endgame raid bosses. If such things existed.

If there was anywhere in this dungeon where he could expect to reunite with his friends, though, then this would be the place. It made the most obvious endpoint, and the size of the city meant that there would be plenty of room for multiple paths to converge on the same end goal. It wouldn’t be smart to jump a fence that his friends couldn't, so he resolved to avoid abusing his Jump ability to explore. He needed to regroup with them first and foremost.

First, though, was the remainder of the stairs. He continued down, looking over at the city as he walked past the metal grate that revealed it to him, each time picking out a few more details on his way down.

There were little park-like areas here and there. The buildings around them seemed to be more intact than the others. Or perhaps it only seemed that way because where the buildings had collapsed, the rubble filled the empty spaces first.

There was no movement in the ruins - no leviabeetles or chiraptors lurking around - and that made him nervous. Why wouldn’t there be mobs down there? Was the end boss of the dungeon something so fearsome that everything else stayed out of its territory? Or was the city simply so picked-over that there was no ecosystem to provide food for the various critters he’d encountered so far?

Kaldalis wondered if this city was somehow connected to the enhydras. He’d only ever seen them underground, right? They seemed to like the tunnels with their hiding spots and bolt-holes. Were they, in the distant past, a civilization that had built a vast underground city? Had some calamity robbed them of their intelligence and reduced them to fuzzy little weasel-goblins? Or were they long-abandoned pets, gone feral in the absence of their masters? Perhaps they had been vermin, grown accustomed to snatching scraps for survival amidst a bustling city, adapted for thievery followed by a quick sprint.

There was no way to tell from up here. The only way to go was into the city. If there were answers to be had, they would be here.

The metal grate passed before his vision as a blur as his eyes were glued to the city, trying to gather whatever important information he could before he was on the ground.

“Hm,” he said after a while, “metal grate passing before a vast underground city. That seems familiar.” He stopped and looked up the central shaft of the stairwell, taking a moment before he realized what it reminded him of. “It loses a lot of the effect that I’m descending on foot. An elevator would go a long way to evoke the imagery I think you’re going for. It would also be less annoying than walking.” He shrugged and went back to descending the stairs. “Then again, I was always more of a ‘Ready Steady Go’ kind of guy, anyway.”

Kaldalis stopped at the next revolution of the stairwell, and focused on the city. He could finally see where he was going to emerge when he got to street level only a few dozen more yards below, and so he needed a plan.

With some of the streets being blocked by rubble, and having no idea if any buildings would be accessible to explore, the city looked like more of a labyrinth than anything else. He needed to figure out which way he was going while he could still see the paths from up above here. He tried to commit the roads he could see to memory as best he could, taking note of where it was blocked by rubble and where the roads looked like they might be too cracked or broken to traverse.

The natural roads of the city were straight and evenly spaced, like the city was planned from the start instead of growing out naturally from a smaller settlement, but the ruins and rubble blocking the streets in places had turned them into a winding path. There were loops and dead-ends everywhere, but the streets being straight and even meant that he would be able to see the obstacles at every crossroad.

Now that he looked, there was an obvious goal, where the streets seemed to converge. It looked like a big open courtyard in front of a large stone building that appeared almost entirely intact.

The building was huge and both utilitarian and ornate at the same time, like a university library. Giant columns supported huge archways on the front of the building, and the stone roof was spired at the corners with spindly bits that glimmered with metal decorations. Weathervanes, maybe. He couldn’t tell through the shadows from the overhanging roof, but it looked like the arches were decorated with splotches of colors. The bulk of the building was made from that dark grey stone that the pillars elsewhere in the dungeon had been constructed from, except the columns and archway, which, with the exception of the indistinct decorations, were a pure white color that stood out in stark contrast to the dark stone of the rest of the building.

That was the goal. The end of this long journey.

More than one road emptied into that courtyard. If everyone was to meet up in the same place, that was where he would be able to reunite with his friends.

Kaldalis wondered, as he continued down, if the boss fight was going to come in the courtyard or in the building. Where should he wait for them? He’d figure it out when he got there, if his curiosity didn’t get the better of him.

A minute later, he was at street level. Once there, he grimaced as his vision radius shrank back down to normal size. All he could do about it, though, was pick his way forward through the ruins, making his way downtown.