--- Colossal Dungeon, the Castle---

The path was not as free for Monique's and Jonah's team, as they found colossal knights guarding and patrolling at regular distances and intervals all over the place. They managed to act relatively stealthy thanks to one of Lynri's buffs.

Her buff increased the chance to trigger status effects against opponents. The Pipe, Tekar's weapon, had a 15% chance to cause Silence on hit. With the priestess's buff, this became almost 50%. The buff also improved all other effects of the pipe.

Despite the colossi having a high immunity to most status effects, with all their efforts added together they were able to take down the singular guards without alerting anyone else. They traveled around the brightly illuminated opulently decorated hallways and checked the doors they came by.

The rooms were often empty, but sometimes there would be a colossus in luxurious garments. These guys were actually dangerous, as they were the first instance of colossi being able to use mana to strengthen their attack, which was the basis of a crude skill. It wasn't magic, but it made them more dangerous unless they managed to surprise them.

After six or seven rooms like this, they came to a corner and saw: another staircase. It was a circular one this time and it led far up into a slender tower.

"There is a big wooden door up there, but the stealth wore off before I could enter. Should we go up and have a look together, or continue down here?" Archer asked when he returned. They had used on Archer and the archer went ahead to scout to see where the staircase led.

"It could be an optional areal with an optional boss," Duhu suggested.

"If it's optional, can we skip it?" Link asked curious.

"That wouldn't a be good idea, just because it's optional, it doesn't mean it has no purpose. Killing it early on could give us an advantage in clearing the dungeon," the Tigerman explained.

"However, it would be a good idea not to do it immediately. If we go up now, the boss could call the rest of the guard to help him, as the nobles tried. We were just lucky that we got rid of the guards before entering the rooms," Lynri interjected

Monique and Jonah exchanged a look, communicating silently.

"Then let's clean up all the guards and nobles on this floor, while looking for the final boss, before taking on the optional boss. Once we have a better understanding of this place, we will make the decision."

--- Colossal Dungeon, the Crypts---

"This is some seriously insane interior design," Seth complimented the dungeons.

In the thick darkness caused by the fog-like miasma, they could only see one of the walls, but they found it was lined with massive columns, reminiscent of the underground city of the Dwarfs Seth lived in as Tored's disciple during his time in Ora.

Flying into the darkness above they recognized high vaulted ceilings supported by these massive pillars. Yet, the Insanity the blacksmith described was not the crude massive masonry, but the massive, blown-out portcullises they came across every few hundred meters.

Metal bands the width of roads and one meter thick were riveted into the shape of a grid and used to block the path as portcullis, were ripped apart and bent out of shape. Massive holes in the middle indicated that something had definitely broken out of this place, destroying these meticulous defense mechanisms with ease.

Between these barriers of metal, were the entrances to small rooms hewn into the the bedrock. They were spartan with nothing but an alcove left and right of the entrance for bodies to be laid out. These entrances were also barred with metal bars the thickness of big trees and these, too, were torn and broken. The insides of these rooms were empty, it was obvious that the former inhabitants had decided to go for a stroll.

Each niche had a string of runes carved into the stone. As they got closer, Seth was able to recognize them.

"Here lies Eric, the Great, last of his name. Hero of the Battle of Persistence," the bard read out loud.

"You can read this?" Ferdinand exclaimed surprised.

"I learned . I can read, write and understand almost any system language," Seth explained and couldn't help that it sounded like a boast.

"What does this one say?" Jess asked, pointing far to the left, the other alcove in the room.

"Let's see," he said and they all flew over to the other side.

"Brandon, the Tenacious. Hero of the Battle of Persistence. Another one. Seems like a bunch of people fell in that battle."

"Do you think the whole crypt is dedicated to them?" Lydia asked, thinking that heroes were pretty tough. If the whole floor was full of former heroes, they would have some hard work ahead of them.

"Probably, not. But that doesn't mean the other people down here would be any less than these. Think about, would you bury a nameless nobody in such a place?" Mike answered her, understanding what she was thinking.

"I wouldn't bury anyone in a place infested with Miasma and undead. But that's just my personal preference," she joked.

"You should be more worried that nobody is home. If those guys aren't here, doesn't that mean there are just roaming around, or worse, are crowding at some place?" Lyxiss brought up.

"Why are you worried? We still have our trump cards and our chaperones. If things go downhill, we have Seth and Ceres," Ray said half-serious.

So far, Seth had been switching between roles, testing always only a part of his skill set without using his trump cards. If things really went downhill, like the party suddenly facing a serious amount of overpowered undead, Seth and Ceres were ready to go all out.

Even though that could mean finishing the dungeon and leveling up quickly, it was not necessarily Seth's wish. He had been temporarily preoccupied with their progress, but the blacksmith actually enjoyed the dungeon experience with the others.

"Let's stop the idle talk and keep going, after all, we have a couple of people here who are looking forward to their revenge," he said with a teasing glance at Jess and James.

"Yes!" "Finally!" The two did not interpret it as teasing, they were only looking forward to giving that giant skeleton a beating.

They briefly checked all the rooms, to make sure they would be ambushed from behind, but there was really nobody. It couldn't be that the scrubs they had turned to ashes on the stairs were the people from this place. About 12 rooms in, the path branched.

It continued straight ahead, left or right and it seemed like all ways were lined with the same kind of rooms. There was still nobody, however, they found many of these cells still sealed.

"Should we destroy these corpses now, or should we wait for the moment when they rise as undead?" Seth asked the party seriously.

The blacksmith was 90% sure they would come after them once they triggered some kind of event. The question was whether they stopped the situation from happening, or deliberately let it happen to gain more experience.

" We should leave them. It would ruin the experience if we take the gravitas out of the final trap," Fin suddenly asserted, not even talking about gains or losses. She just thought it was more fun to let the dungeon take its course! Nobody really had an opposing opinion.

"Then let's continue and find those guys already!" Jess cheered.

They slightly explored the branching paths but kept forging straight ahead as it didn't seem like there was anyone picking a fight with them, for now.

"Is it just me or does it feel like the pressure is growing stronger?" Ferdinand asked carefully.

No, he wasn't the only one. The further they went, the denser the miasma in the air became, to the point of exerting physical pressure on them. The encroachment also quickened rapidly. Fin, Bulko, and Ferdinand saw themselves forced to put blessings on everyone, just to slow the miasma's invasion.

The only ones less affected by this were those that had been granted blessings or became chosen ones. As they were filled with divine power, the miasma was unable to really affect them.

"It's a good sign, I would say," the bard answered, looking forward.

"Why would this be something good?" Ferdinand asked unnerved by Seth's calm tone.

"Because I guess that the miasma is the thickest and closest to the boss. As long as we follow it, we should finally find some enemies," the blacksmith answered with a shrug.