"I honestly expected the ruins to be like, a couple of steps outside of the city gates." I said, as we bedded down for the second night of walking.

"Apologies if we gave you that impression, but this is a pretty standard commute." said Gelt, who was feeding one of two horses. This one was laden with supplies, the other laden with equipment. It seemed that Gelt fights as the teams main line, with the majority of support centred on him.

As such, he wore some pretty distinctive half-plate, or at least he would when it was not carried by the horse. It was not made of steel, that's for sure. Something like it, but with a faint, but distinct, purple glow. Marad was lighter, focusing more on dodging, but even he carried a shield. He was also outfitted in a brigandine.

I must admit, I was expecting them all to march in full plate.

Kelst was in a chainmail robe, for lack of a better word, that covered her head to shin, with a helmet on. Haneketu? Haneteku?

Big Guy was in a gambeson, which made him look even larger. On any part not covered by the aforementioned armour, he was covering in metal scales that had the same hue as Gelt's plate.

It would probably be prudent to mention that Haneteku was no, it seemed, fully human. I first gleamed onto this with his size, of course, but when he was taking off his gambeson to sleep the first night I saw metal plates on his forearms, upper arms and legs. Either it was some kind of adornment, or he's of another race.

The guy is full kitted in light armour head to toe, and I've not seen his face nor heard his voice yet, so I couldn't be sure.

I had been offered a few choices of weapon or armour, so I took a decent looking longsword and a gambeson similar to Haneteku.

Though I note that Haneteku has a very long bow. At least a little bit bigger than a human-sized longbow. I didn't see any arrows, not even among the equipment. The last night, he headed off into the woods and returned with some small game.

Strange creatures they were, they looked a little like a cross between a red potato and a rabbit. Red skinned, rotund, and possessing tiny, but sharp, claws.

"Fat season for these." he explained. "These little buggers gorge themselves silly, then dig underground and wait out a mate, who'll dig for them. Ah, the joyous wonders of prespring."

Marad was apparently an aspiring cook, and he made a decent meal of bread and cooked meat. A little on the salty side.

Soon, night began to reign over the land, and the myriad nocturnal birds that this land is home to began an incessant orchestra, casting a spell of sleep loss upon me.

When morning arrived, Gelt announced that we should reach the ruins at midday.

Yay. Starter dungeon.

This is usually where something happens to the main character. Will I become a necromancer, I wonder?

Honestly, that'd be pretty dope.

After three hours of walking, I felt like giving up. I had raised from the dead at what was around seven, so I was over halfway there, but it didn't feel like it. Still, I dragged myself along. Couldn't be a Dark Lord without breaking a few muscle strands.

Eventually, we took a break at the top of the hill. The Ruins were in sight. They stood quite tall, and looked ancient. I could see why they were called the Rusted Ruins too, with long strips of metal etched into the stone like some kind of lattice. The metal was rusted to oblivion, with not a single bit of metal left un-reddened.

"We were called here because the locals have been hearing voices. It's probably some local bandits or, at worse, a Sympocrat."

"The hell is that?"

"An apparition that takes on the shape, feeling and general emotion of the long-gone inhabitants, basically what's left behind as soul residue on the walls." said Kelst.

"Oh great, a ghost."

"A Sympocrat would account for the wailing they heard. The ruins could have a dark, dark history for all we know."

"How old are they?" I asked.

"We don't know. Before even the collapse, probably."

I didn't ask what the collapse was. I imagined that was probably extremely known, and whilst I could get away with asking about magic, my ability to talk my way out of not knowing some extremely important event like that it beyond me.

I nodded.

"What if it's something worse?" asked Marad.

"Then it would have already preyed on the surrounding area. You know the song." Gelt responded, flashing him a quick smile.

"Monsters, are those, that prey on the world. They feast on the soul, or dine on the flesh, eat whole heads and chew up the rest." said Kelst.

Marad shivered.

"Can you not? That shit still gives me nightmares."

Kelst chuckled, quietly.

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

Haneteku grunted.

"We'll rest here for a few hours, recover our stamina, make sure equipment is in order. Then we head in. If anyone wants to get shuteye, do it now. I'll stay up - I can't sleep like this anyway."

I happily agreed, grabbing my bed roll and laying it out. Sleep didn't come, however. I was nervous about facing off against whatever was in there. After a few minutes of rolling about, a bit of sighing and more than a little pleading with my own head to sleep, I got up.

"Can't sleep either?"

"Seems so." I said, joining him on a nearby rock, looking over the ruins.

"I'm always too nervous to sleep right before a fight." he said, then looked back at the rest. "Kelst usually is to, but she seems alright tonight."

"You been together long?" I asked.

"W-What? Me and Kelst… We're not together… together." he said, flustered.

"Calm it, I meant the team."

"Oh, damn. Well, about three months, but we knew each other before. We've cleared decent pay so far. We wouldn't be against you joining us beyond this if you aren't useless."

"I'll consider it. I'd be more useful if I had an adornment."

"Well, if there's anything in there we don't want, you're welcome to it. But if its bandits, no such luck."

"Why not? Can't adornments be taken from humans?"

His hand gripped around his sheathed blade, and his voice raised higher.

"If you're a sick fuck!" he half-yelled. I looked back to see if it had bothered anyone else, but they were sleeping quite soundly after two day's hike. "Sorry."

Oh good, a tragic backstory.

"Yes, you can take adornments from humans. But it's outlawed, and for good reason. When you take an adornment, you don't take a piece of their body, at least, not most of the time. You take a part of their soul. Take too much, and it just disintegrates. Take too little, and you don't get anything of value. Now extend that to a human."

He turned to me.

"Taking part of their soul? Risking the chance to disintegrate it entirely? That's too many steps above just killing them. We have a name for people that do it. Soul-Drinkers. Once they get strong enough, they don't even have to kill you, just suck the soul out of your slumbering body. They are an absolute menace to the world."

"Talking from experience?"

"Noticed that, did you?" he said, then sighed. "Yeah. My brother became one. Sucked the life right out of my mother, like it was a canteen on water. Nearly did the same to me."

"They sound powerful." I said out loud. His anger flashed over to rage for just a second.

"I think I might have just misunderstood you just now. Yeah, they're strong, and that does make them dangerous. Not just as a creature, but as a symbol. Why go and hunt monsters if you could murder your neighbour instead?"

Like soul-drinking vampires. That could be a useful way to amass power.

"Though there is some karma involved. They get greedy. Real greedy, and it's not too hard to path the course of hunting them down when they go on a spree. After that, it's just about bringing a strong enough fighter to kill them."

So there's a blood rage, or blood frenzy.

Note to self, if I do the whole soul-drinking thing, avoid going crazy.

"The most dangerous are the ones that don't succumb to that. They'll go on forever. In fact, there is a Knighthood comprised of them. It's a ritual to them. One day, I plan to destroy it. Burn it completely to the ground, so utterly eradicate it that for centuries, any who would become like them will fear the reprisal that would come."

"Admirable goal. Eradicating evil, stuff like that."

"Do you have any goals, Asmodeus?"

"Right now, I'm weighing my options. I just want to be stronger, at the moment."

"The pursuit of physical perfection. That's what my pa called it. All adventurers want it, yet not many get it." he said. "I wonder if the Guides actually help with that, or if they're as useless as with everything else."

"I wouldn't know." I said.

"Of course. I'll tell you after. Answer as many questions as you got. Guides know you need the help."

He chuckled, then went to rouse everyone else.

It was time to enter the dungeon. Ruin.

---

Believe it or not, it was dark. Shocker.

I carried a torch, as did everyone except Gelt and Haneteku, who had a shield and bow to contend with, respectively.

The air was stale, and it was hard to breath down here. I recalled a vague memory of a story about ship survivors or cargo container stowaways dying because of rust taking all the oxygen and couldn't help but think that was happening.

Still, it was breathable, so we pushed on. Gelt at the front, with me and Marad flanking him. We moved through corridor after corridor, finding a kitchen, an old decrepit library, and a whole host of other curios.

Yet, as we moved further into the endless blackness, we heard voices. At first, they only echoed off the walls, but as we got further, they became more and more distinct, and eventually, the blackness gave way to warm light. Gelt gave the order to stow the torches, and we grinded them on the floor, pushing us into an all-consuming black.

We walked as quietly as we could, until we had a good picture of the room. It was large, circular and open. The occasional torch lined the walls, and braziers were evenly spaced around the room, above metallic circles cut into the ground. The floor was a blue stone, and much like the walls, lined with rusted metal.

Three figures stood, completely frozen, in near full-plate, maces and shields. Only they were desiccated beyond all hope, and the metal was rusted through, barely a sham of what it once was.

We moved closer to survey the full room, and found there were two more. A women and man, huddled in the darkness near a torch, barely visible.

"This is wrong." whispered Kelst. "These aren't bandits, and whatever did that to those lot, well, it wasn't a Sympocrat."

Gelt nodded, though it was barely visible.

"Who's there?" said the women of the two figures. "Don't bring its ire!"

Gelt walked forwards, showing his face to them. Kelst began to speak, but Marad stopped her.

"What are we dealing with?" Gelt asked to the two.

"I don't know. We've never seen anything like it."

"Was it an apparition, or something else?"

"Spectral, for sure." said the man. "We didn't bring anything to deal with something like that. But it moves far faster than it should. Even the Paladins were killed in an instant!"

He was getting hysterical, and that was raising his voice.

"Alright, its fine. We're here to deal with it."

"You can't! Don't you understand, we're fucked!"

A strange warmth crept in to the room, and the smell of rust got much, much worse. From one of the metallic circles, a large, gangly hand rose up. It was ethereal, but orange in colour, and inside it floated… rusted metal.

Another hand pierced the other side, this one holding a large sword that seemed just slightly too big for it. It was corporeal, pulled out of the rusted metal of which the creature also emerged. It floated upwards, and the untarnished brazier rusted in seconds.

"Did I miss a few?" came a feminine voice, but garbled and dislodged. She swung the sword with ease, and it cleaved through the two survivors. She then floated down, putting her hand over the corpses, and sucking the moisture out of them. The small pads of armour they wore fragmented and broke apart, and any moisture in their bodies was sucked out, just like the Paladins.

Gelt was crouched low, still shrouded in darkness, and holding his breath. As was everyone.

She sniffed the air, then turned towards Gelt, bring her sword up behind her and preparing to swing.