“What do you mean I failed? We reached the second floor didn’t we?” Gaia asked incredulous.

  “No, you reached the way down, not the floor.” The Amalgamation replied.

  “You’re going to fail it on a technicality?!” Gaia snapped.

  “Yes. You didn’t complete the quest in time. There’s no need to be angry. You actually surprised me by breaking through the floor, but the second floor doesn’t include the entrance tunnel. Just like the first floor doesn’t include it or the stairs.” The Amalgamation replied.

  Gaia was astonished. She’d thought they had actually succeeded, but because of a technicality they’d failed. The worst part was that it didn’t matter what she said since the Amalgamation had decided it was a failure. Her thoughts were broken by it speaking once again.

  “Now, you may want to stop arguing with me. I’m only so patient and magnanimous. Find your little friends soon. I’m only willing to wait for so long.” It said before going silent.

  Gaia huffed in annoyance before remembering Stephanie was beside her.

  “I think I can somewhat guess what was going on, but I only got half the conversation.” Stephanie said.

  “Yeah. We failed the quest. All because the annoying thing doesn’t consider the path down as part of the second floor. I don’t know what he’s going to do, but we have a little time to find Fergus, Griff and my bonds before he starts whatever it is.” Gaia explained.

  “Then, we might as well start moving.” Stephanie replied as she led the way deeper onto the shore.

  The pair travelled quickly but cautiously since they didn’t know what to expect on the new floor. They also weren’t sure if Edrahni followed them down, and even if he did, where he could be. Their best bet would be to move and keep their senses tuned for any indication of their other party members. Gaia could usually sense what direction her bonds were in but the mana density made it hard. The best sense she could get was that they were alive and uninjured.

  The pair moved for a few minutes before coming upon what appeared to be a massive open field. There weren’t any buildings no matter how far they walked. The plants all were heavily saturated with mana to the point they seemed to almost shine like suns to Gaia’s senses. She could tell they all had a poisonous attribute from how they seemed to absorb the mana from her field. This meant she’d have to drop the field so her mana wouldn’t be drained, but left her unable to travel without Stephanie’s help.

  That would mean Stephanie wouldn’t be protected from the poison and could cause her to end up poisoned. Neither of these options sounded good to Gaia so she ended up compromising and putting a hand on Stephanie’s shoulder while trying to shape her mana field to only encompass the two of them. It was tiring to do and she couldn’t make it wrap around them like she wanted, but was able to decrease the range of her field to only be about five feet. This would encompass both allowing Stephanie to be safe from poison and make it so she could still sense what was directly ahead of her feet.

  This did slow them down though. It took most of Gaia’s brain power to keep the shape of her field with the plants draining the mana. The plants also distracted her by their mana density flashing in her senses whenever they passed over one. The travel turned into an exhausting training session for her mana shaping. It was helpful in that she didn’t need to use as much mental energy to control the field’s shape but overall exhausting. She felt drained from her mana being greedily devoured by the poisonous plants and she had gotten a headache due to the mental strain.

  The floor was appearing to be more difficult for her. The plants all absorbed her mana from her field but to different degrees. Those that appeared to be dimmer and had a lower density would absorb a little, while those that had a high mana density absorbed a lot. This meant that as long her mana field was up her mana would be drained at a rate depending on the plants mana density. The plants also posed a problem for her companions since they could be poisoned if her field wasn’t up.

  It was then that she started worrying for her other companions. Her bonds should be fine since they were bound with the same attributes she was and therefore essentially immune to poison. Griff and Fergus in the other hand were not. They normally didn’t have to worry about it because Gaia was there and most times had her field out. She hoped they remembered this and didn’t venture too far into the field if they did at all.

  That was of course depending on whether they knew the plants were poisonous, or at least had it as an attribute. Out of the two, Griff was likely the one to realize it and keep them from venturing into it. Unlike Gaia and Stephanie. The pair continued onwards for another thirty minutes before deciding to veer off towards the left to exit the poisonous meadow. It wasn’t until they were about to leave the meadow that they heard something. The sound of combat. The two moved quickly and exited the meadow a moment later at almost a dead sprint.

  Gaia was finally able to release her mana field to a comfortable extent, still reigning in in case there were more plants like the ones from the meadow. They arrived at the fight a minute later and Gaia wasn’t sure what she was sensing. Griff, Fergus, and the rest of her bonds were fighting something that she could only describe as a horror. It looked to have been an experiment gone horribly wrong yet somehow alive.

  The creature was around eight feet tall and around twice as long. The bottom half seemed to be a kind of equine creature with eight legs. Where a normal horse would have one leg there was another directly behind it, moving in tandem with the other. The head of the horse was grotesque. There was a single eye placed directly in the center of it’s oversized skull. The head was almost half the size of the body with a maw that opened vertically with broken jagged bones where teeth should be. Attached to the back of the creature in its center was a humanoid torso that mainly comprised of a spine and ribcage.

  From it’s shoulders two unnaturally long arms reached all the way to the ground with a multitude of joints along their length. Both appearing to be only bones until the wrist. The hands ended in a few regular fingers and some clawed. A third arm sticking from the back of its spine held another head. This one was in the shape of a human, but without features, instead looking more like a head shaped piece of meat. At the back end of it was a long, sharpened bone tail that was moving with rapid speed. The most disturbing part of the creature was that it seemed to have no skin, instead it was just bones and muscle with what she could only guess was blood dripping from its every inch.

  She stopped after seeing the monster shocked by its purely horrifying visage. Then she felt mana surge towards its mouth and a sickening cloud of mana was released from it. The mana seemed to seep from its every inch, causing it to be surrounded in a haze of deadly miasma. This made the creature that much more menacing and difficult to deal with. Gaia wasn’t sure what kind of attribute the mana was but she definitely didn’t want to touch it. She had a sense that nothing good would come from being in contact with it.

  Fergus and Griff were fighting from a distance with Malachite and Shadow by their side. Malachite was firing water shots at the horrifying monster while Shadow was blocking any physical attacks. She seemed to be safe from the miasma, as long as it wasn’t prolonged contact, due to her Protector Ability increasing her recovery when blocking attacks. It made it so the miasma left behind was purged almost immediately. It was at this point Gaia heard Stephanie’s shouts to move and her musket firing.

  Stephanie had already started running towards the guys while Gaia was stunned by the monster’s visage. Gaia quickly started after her while Antonio fired a few phantasmal spikes at the creature and Liv tried a few poison shots. Neither seemed to do much as the monster continued spewing forth the horrendous mana. It was moving its head around as her companions dodged. Gaia had her mana field up surrounding the monster and her companions which is how she realized it wasn’t being poisoned and that the mana wasn’t even being effected. Her mana field would do nothing to the creature and actually seemed to fuel whatever it was. She ran to companions and relayed this.

  “Well, we can’t run from it. We’ve already tried that, it’s slow but relentless in its pursuit. It’ll eventually catch up.” Griff said.

  “Have you analyzed it yet?” Fergus asked.

  Gaia hadn’t and immediately remedied this.

  Name – Minor Sinew Horror

  Level – 60

  “I have now. It’s called a Minor Sinew Horror and it’s level sixty.” She relayed.

  “Great. We need to make some room. I don’t think we can kill it, at least not with how exhausted we are.” Griff said immediately after.

  Gaia heard the slightly masked panic in his voice and had Malachite grow while everyone held the monster off. Once he was finished the party hopped on his back and he sprinted in the opposite direction of the monster. Gaia could hear the wet and splatting sound of the monster’s legs hitting the ground as it galloped after them. It was, indeed extremely slow, and she couldn’t hear it a moment later as they almost immediately outran it.

  Malachite ran into the field of poisonous plants on Gaia’s suggestion. He was immune to poisons due to sharing a bound poison attribute. Gaia had already dropped her field by the time they entered the meadow to keep the plants from absorbing her mana. This, however, didn’t go unnoticed.

  “You alright?” Fergus asked when he saw her field dissipate.

  “Yeah. The plants here are poisonous, and absorb poison mana. Found that out the hard way when Stephanie and I entered the meadow.” She explained.

  “So, we shouldn’t get off Malachite’s back. Got it.” He replied.

  “Gaia. You’re sure it said a Minor Sinew Horror when you analyzed it?” Griff asked after he was sure they had some breathing room from the monster.

  “Yes. Why?”

  “You remember the myth of Xerios right?” He asked. She nodded. “There were eight demons. One was called a Sinew Horror. If I remember correctly, it was one of the weakest demons but was the most feared. It used an attribute of mana which no one could identify and was nearly impossible to kill. No manner of magic or wound could kill it as it could heal from any injury. The only known weakness it had was fresh water with no mana concentration, which is nearly impossible to find nowadays.” He explained.

  “So, we’re basically stuck here with an unkillable monster, that will relentlessly chase us?” Stephanie asked.

  “It kinda seems that way. We either need to figure out a way to go back up to the first floor-“ Griff started before Gaia suddenly screamed in pain and went slack in front of everyone.

  As Griff explained, Gaia heard the Amalgamation speak.

  “Now that you’ve found them, it’s time.”

  After hearing this she felt a sharp stabbing pain radiate from her right ring finger and start burrowing up her arm. It felt like having a creature burrow into your skin, muscle and bones. It was at this point she passed out.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Gaia! What’s wrong?” Fergus asked while panicking.

  “I think the Amalgamation decided to deal her punishment for failing the quest. Which we failed because the tunnel to the second floor isn’t considered part of the second floor.” Stephanie explained after making sure Gaia was just unconscious.

  “What? That’s ridiculous.” Fergus replied angrily.

  “Yep, but nothing we can do about it sadly.” Stephanie said while motioning to Gaia.

  When they checked on her again they noticed her right arm almost seemed to have something wriggling under the skin. They didn’t know what it was or what it was doing but they didn’t mess with it assuming it had something to do with the punishment. They also weren’t sure what would happen if they tried to interfere with whatever was happening. It could cause nothing to happen or cause the punishment to worsen. They just had to wait out whatever was happening.

  It was a lucky break that Malachite and her bonds weren’t overly affected by what was happening. They could tell the bonds were in pain but were able to continue moving despite it. This was a good thing as they were still in the middle of a meadow filled entirely with poisonous plants. If her bonds had become incapacitated like she had it would cause a multitude of issues. The Minor Sinew Horror was still after them, they weren’t sure how far away it was, but it was still after them. If they had to traverse the poison meadow, while trying to carry Gaia and her bonds, and deal with constantly being poisoned, it would be extremely perilous if not impossible. The party couldn’t do anything about what was happening so they could only turn to the situation they were in. They began trying to come up with a plan of action.

  “Alright. We have a couple options. We can either try and find a way back up to the first floor, which seems like the harder of the two at the moment, or try and find the way down to the third floor.” Griff said.

  There was silence for a few moments while the group thought about which they should try.

  “Hey, Malachite. I know you can use telekinesis and it’s a lot to ask, but could you possibly lift all of us up to the hole we fell through?” Fergus asked.

  He didn’t get a response outside of the giant turtle shaking his head.

  “Ok. I figured it would probably be too much. That leaves either trying to find a place to climb up or an actual path we can’t see. I think we should just look for a path or gate. Doesn’t matter which direction it goes. If it goes down great, we can hopefully escape the unkillable monster. If it goes up, even better since we can get out of the ruins.” Fergus said.

  “I agree. It doesn’t matter which direction for me as long as we can get off this floor. It’s also extremely dangerous for us even without our relentless pursuer.” Stephanie added.

  “Sounds like a plan. We’ll look around for any paths we can find then. Now we just need to search this vast meadow, this was the only area outside of the shore that I could see. There’s also the giant lake that seems to stretch for at least the sections we’ve travelled. It’s weird though, the water seems to be salt water but there’s not a sea for hundreds of miles of this area. It’s also where the monster emerged from so it may be faster while submerged.” Griff finished.

  With a plan decided on, the group continued moving while on Malachite’s shell searching the vast meadow for any indication of a path off the floor. They searched for hours while Gaia was still unconscious without seeing a change from the expansive meadow. It wasn’t until about six hours of traveling in a straight line that they reached another shoreline. This one looking the exact same as the one they’d fled from.

  They guessed the giant meadow was the only section of land with a giant salt water lake surrounding it, like a giant underground island. This made them worry since they had likely travelled almost the entire length of the island and not seen a single indication of a path existing on it. This meant the paths were either at the edge of the floor where it was part of the caves wall or somewhere under the water. Both of which were daunting to search, since the floor was likely as large as the first which expanded hundreds of miles in total. The water was also extremely hard to search since they still needed to breathe and could only search under water for about half an hour before needing to come up for air.

  Not including the fact that the salt water was likely the monster’s domain. They weren’t sure if it was faster under water or not. If it was, it made the search that much more dangerous, and even if it wasn’t they could only search so much while needing to take breaks for air, before it caught up with them. This was also when they had a horrible thought. Was the Sinew Horror they saw the only one on the floor? They didn’t know and it made their search all the more important, as well as possibly more dangerous.

  The party decided to try and venture towards the tunnel they’d fallen from. They were hoping that if the tunnel down was there, then the way up would be nearby. The biggest problem was that they would be going along the coast and may meet the monster on the way. It also meant they would need to go over the water to get to the cave’s wall. This would be an issue since they would be in the monster’s domain for however long it took to reach the wall and, if the way up wasn’t there, the entire way back to the island.

  This also didn’t fix the issue of Gaia being incapacitated, which was causing her bonds to become worried. They could feel a lot of the same emotions she could because of their bonds and would randomly stop before continuing again. Griff, Fergus and Stephanie could only guess this was because of what Gaia was being put through, which they had no way of knowing what was actually happening. The only visible changes were that the weird ring she’d had on her right hand was gone and the arm was twitching like something was moving inside.

  Gaia was still for the most part unmoving. She was breathing which let everyone know she was at least still alive, but the situation was still causing them to worry. The fact the punishment, or whatever was happening to her, was still happening over six hours later and didn’t seem like it would end soon was starting to effect the party’s morale. They just had to focus on their search, so they started moving over the water. Malachite was able to carry everyone, including Shadow, on his back as long as he wasn’t needing to use telekinesis so swimming was no issue.

  The party was on edge due to not knowing where the monster was or if there was something under them. They kept an eye out for the Minor Sinew Horror, but didn’t spot anything as the wall came into view. They could see the waterfall they fell from, which ended up being a hole in the ceiling, a distance from the wall. It seemed to be closer to the island than the wall which made them start to question if the path up would even be on the wall. For all they knew, it could be some kind of magical boat or something even more outrageous, they just wouldn’t know unless they found it.

  As they got closer to the wall, they started to notice that it wasn’t perfectly smooth. It was jagged with small caves and formations along its surface. The caves were randomly along its surface with one being half submerged in the water and another being a hundred feet above. There were likely even a few that were completely submerged. The formations were a mixture of natural and unnatural. Some of them seemed to be pillars made from where stalagmites and stalactites met and some even seemed to be made from the water eroding the wall. Others seemed to have been statues that had been broken while others may have been abodes that were carved into the wall. Some sections even looked to have been melted or liquified.

  The passage of time had obviously taken its toll on the floor which seemed odd when compared to the floor above. The first floor had been preserved like time had just stopped until it was discovered. This floor seemed to have been the opposite, like time had continuously passed with nature eroding and effecting the floor. They looked at the wall and quickly began moving to search the caves along its surface. They could reach a lot of the lower ones but didn’t find anything. The caves all looked to have been rooms. Each was different but they had similar aspects. One was that a large depression surrounded by flattened stone that was in the back corner of the rooms. Another was that most of the rest of the stone had been liquified to create the space. It was all odd as the stone was extremely durable and had a high mana density. This made it almost impossible to melt with heat and made Griff start to wonder how they were made.

  They continued searching along the wall for another couple hours looking for a cave that headed up or down but didn’t find anything. As they were heading further down the wall they saw something moving quickly in the water nearby. They quickly got ready for a fight expecting it to be the Sinew Horror but were surprised when it was a different monster. The only thing they’d come across since arriving on the floor was the Minor Sinew Horror and poisonous plants.

  The monster that appeared was a large salamander like creature. It was around four feet long and almost entirely a milky white color. The only part that differed were some frilly pink gills at the base of its elongated head. It didn’t have any eyes which the group guessed was because of the dark water. It didn’t move to attack, instead seeming to investigate the noise and commotion around its burrow. After noticing the group moving away it sunk back under the water and they saw it swim in the opposite direction before losing sight of it.

  They continued searching the walls and eventually decided to just have Malachite swim around the lake while they looked from his shell. They could tell what the entrances to the rooms looked like from a distance so they had no reason to look through every cave. They kept an eye out for any different openings hoping it would give them a clue in how to get off the floor.

  While they looked, Fergus was keeping an eye on Gaia more and more. She still hadn’t woken up from whatever the punishment was and the odd twitching of her arm continued. He was really starting to worry about her. She’d been incapacitated for around ten hours now. It was starting to wear down his mental state. It bothered him that he couldn’t do anything for her aside from watch whatever was happening. He knew she’d likely come out of this alright, for the most part at least.

  They continued looking and began to see more and more monsters appearing from the water. They were all odd aquatic cave creatures. One they noticed was probably an octopus while another looked like a giant spiked lobster. They were all different creatures and left them alone for the most part aside from one almost transparent shrimp monster attacking them. It had been a difficult fight since it was a higher level than them and they could only fight from Malachite’s shell.

  There were a few more short fights like this as they moved around the underground lake. The Minor Sinew Horror had even caught up to them at one point causing them to have to flee. The monster was much quicker while in water as it could almost merge with the water and flow wherever it wanted, but Malachite was able to outrun it with a lot of exertion. This put more strain on Malachite since he carried everyone and had to take attacks from monsters as they fled. None of the attacks were overly strong so he only had a couple minor scratches from them, but they would eventually add up.

  The further they searched along the wall the lower their expectations were to find the paths they sought. With all of the monsters being aquatic creatures, the Minor Sinew Horror included, they guessed the paths were likely underwater. This led to the party taking turns going underwater while the other two kept a look out for any monsters approaching. Liv created some thick webs and tied them around each person’s waist so they could be pulled back up, since none of them knew how to swim. The exploration of the lake bed was tiring and slow. They had to rotate who went under and where, quite frequently, since their relentless tail continued to hound them. They could only search small sections at a time before needing to run away and repeat the process. They continued this for as long as they could.

  The situation was starting to exhaust them and the continuous pressure was causing them to become paranoid. They would think they saw something or that Gaia was waking up when nothing was there and nothing had changed. They began rushing which was causing mistakes to occur. One time they moved too quickly while searching and caused a monster to become enraged leading to a battle. This in turn slowed them enough that their pursuer caught up and turned into a retreating fight.

  As they ran from the Minor Sinew Horror, it was able to hit Malachite with its mana breath causing him to be hurt quite badly. Shadow had tried to block what she could but was also dealing with the mana overpowering her. This caused Malachite to slow and the Sinew Horror to continuously bombard them with attacks. Malachite could still outrun it given enough time, but the more attacks it released the more damage they took.

  Malachite began moving towards the shore since the Sinew Horror moved slower on land. He could outrun it much easier when on land allowing them time to rest and heal. This meant he had to reach the island and the party would need to last long enough for him to reach it. That would require them to fight for around an hour before he could gain some distance. It was a tall ask but one they didn’t really have a choice in. The fight began and lasted the entire hour until Malachite was on the shore and racing away from the monster.

  They slowed after about a half hour of running to rest and this was when they turned to check on Gaia and saw that something had finally changed. Her right arm now had a intricate pattern that started from her right ring finger and stretched all the way up her arm to her shoulder. The pattern had a metallic hue, but pulsed like it had a heartbeat of its own.

  It had a circle on the back of her hand that connected to a few thin lines that wove their way along her forearm. Each had a different design, one was jagged and had sections that ended without connecting to any others. The second was completely straight going directly up from the circle. The third was woven like a vine that meandered up. The final one was more of a light that went under her skin and shone through as it wrapped up her arm. They all stopped at her elbow where a thick band of the tattoo stopped. Above this were four lines that met with the thick band. There was a large circle with four smaller ones overlapping it where the lines connected. One appeared like a small stream, a second like webs, a third like shadows, and the last like connecting pathways, all leading to the band. They were surprised by the depiction and almost missed that Gaia started stirring. Seeing this their worries started to fade.