Kron ran up to me with wide, horrified eyes and peered down the hole. “Murr Yell if you’re alive and awake!”

There was no answer.

Even if he was dead, he was a catfolk with nine lives. He’d come back. “I have to go down there and save him.”

We had left the rope tied to the pillar. During our break earlier, I had brought in the line and coiled it. It wasn’t long enough. I pulled out my own rope, which was standard for every adventurer to carry even when other climbing gear wasn’t. I used the knot elves used for situations like this and double check its tightness.

Kron handed me his rope, and I repeated the process.

Fortunately, Val left his harness nearby, figuring that it would be a hassle to put it away when he could mine. While I didn’t need the harness for myself, I might for Murr if he was unconscious. So I grabbed it and put it in my inventory.

I tossed the coil of the rope down the hole. It unwound as it disappeared into the darkness below.

Kron frowned. “I take it I’m staying up here to pull you both up? I might be a golem, but I don’t have that much strength.”

“You’re not alone,” I said. Grab Val. Between the two of you, I’m sure you can do it.”

He bit his lip, then pulled out a small crate of mixed potions. “We don’t know what’s down there.”

“Sure we do. Dead bodies.” I grinned.

“Not funny.”

“I’m hoping they made a good cushion for our rogue.”

He shoved the crate into my chest. “Bring this with you. They’re my best healing and stamina potions. Run if you can, fight if you have to.”

I nodded and placed the crate in my inventory. It separated out into the various potion slots. Since the lone crate was taking up a slot, I handed the empty crate back to him.

Without thinking too hard about it, I clamped the rope between my feet and slowly allowed myself to drop down the side of the hole. Once I was hanging in midair, I loosened my feet, leaned back, and quickly descended. This was just like back home... only, absolutely nowhere like it. Lowering myself into an abyss like this was creepy as hell.

When I was two-thirds of the way down, I noticed the pile of dead bodies we’d dropped down here. They were covered in tiny pink mushrooms, which barely gave out any glow. It was no wonder we couldn’t see them from the top.

But the biggest one of all was the giant body of Mrs. Dimcrab. The fall must have killed her because she wasn’t moving. That was when I saw the head of pink. Somehow, he must have wiggled free from her claws at the last minute and used the bodies as a cushion before rolling to a stop at the edge of the corpse pile.

I quickly dropped down the rest of the way. A pile of rotting corpses did not make for the best footing, and it reeked like... a pile of dead bodies. Maybe rotten seafood? There were flies buzzing around the place. But I ignored them and started awkwardly running down the bodies, ignoring where my foot squished too deeply in places.

Because I needed to make sure Murr was still alive.

When I finally reached his supine body, I knelt down next to him, pulled out a small mirror, and placed it next to his nose and mouth. If this didn’t work, I’d check for a pulse. Fog clouded the glass. Too little. But he was still breathing!

“Murr?” I whispered.

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No response.

I carefully ran my hands down his limbs to see if anything was broken. Because basic potions like Kron’s weren’t entirely like the healing spell, I had to make sure his bones were in place before using it. Otherwise, they’d fuse together in strange ways and he’d have to have them re-broken and healed by Kron later. Not something I wanted to put him through if I could avoid it.

His head had a nasty wound, and I saw a little blood when I pulled my hand away. Both of his arms were fine, so were his ribs, and his left leg was perfect. That was when I felt his right thigh bone. It had a break that wasn’t obvious.

When going to class at the hold, they taught us a wide variety of subjects just in case we became combat classes. One of those things was first aid. While I never in a million years thought I’d become a healer, it did cross my mind that I’d need at least enough knowledge to give a downed healer enough first aid to get them back up.

So the first step was to pull out a potion. While I couldn’t give him the whole thing, I didn’t know if he’d survive without extra life energy before I set his bone. Opened his mouth and poured about a tenth of the potion into his mouth, then closed it and massaged his neck. He swallowed it.

Immediately, I grabbed his thigh and pulled the bone back into position. While I couldn’t be positive that it was in there perfectly, it was better to get him healed enough to move now. I didn’t know if we’d suddenly be attacked.

Hopefully, the constant rain of bodies had prevented any mobs from coming in here. But it was always possible that they were using this place to store food or something.

Then again, who would dare eat rotting corpses covered in tiny, pink, suspiciously-glowing mushrooms?

Of course... Of fucking course, that was when one a lizard-dog claw grabbed my leg.

I poured the rest of the potion down Murr’s throat, pulled out Honor and Blood and sliced the claw off. It fell to the ground easily. But the body it had been attached to rose from the pile of corpses. It smelled rancid. I took a step back.

But then I recognized this guy from the scar across his face. He was one of the first bodies we tossed down here. The thing was, I knew he’d died because Murr had gotten experience off his death.

If he was moving about like this. It could only mean one thing. The Balrok Mine had changed. It had likely become a necrotic-dungeon!

Which meant all of these dead bodies we threw down here might just come back from the dead to kill us right now.

To confirm, I observed the zombie.

The corpse of a lizard-dog, slain by Murr Virtis Quince.

How was my Observe not working on this obvious zombie?!

I jerked forward. Using Thousand Will Do, I sliced the zombie’s head off. It flew across the room and its heavy body barreled into the pile of dead bodies.

Two more bodies, this time down the large room a way, stood up. They started to shamble in our direction.

“Murr, I need you to get your ass up!”

I pulled out two more healing potions, popped their corks and shoved them down the catfolk’s throat. Once he was finished with them, he coughed and jerked into a sitting position.

“We gotta go! This place is filled with zombies.”

His eyes grew wide, and he jumped to his feet. He stumbled, and I dropped Blood so I could catch him.

He blinked up at me. “Who are you?”

I froze. “Did you get amnesia?”

“Drama luck,” He said, and poked my nose almost drunkenly.

“Oh, fuck you.”

“No need, I’m good.”

Ah! I recognized this state. He was life-magic-over-saturated. I’d used too many healing potions. In my defense, I assumed he was more injured than he apparently was.

I lifted him to his feet and picked up Blood right before the nearest zombie jumped toward me. I redirected its attack into the pile of dead bodies beside us.

“Get your act together. We gotta go before we’re overrun with all the undead here.”

“Go where?”

I pointed at the rope with Honor.

Murr took off, running unsteadily up the small hill of bodies toward the rope. I followed after him. Now and then, a random claw would grab my ankle, tripping me, but I just sliced them off and kept going.

If all of these bodies were about to become undead, then we had to leave now. There was just no way Murr and I could defeat these monsters again, if they came at us all at once.

Murr reached the rope and started climbing up it with the speed of a cat.

Kron and Val must have noticed the rope’s vibrations and peered over the edge. Then they hurried to pull up the rope. I grabbed onto it myself and started to climb.

“Kron, you and Val can’t drop us. There are zombies down here!”

“We got you covered!” He yelled.

It was difficult to see but, there was some movement on the wall above us near where a tiny mushroom was growing. A small swarm of crabs came out of a large crack. They must have been disturbed by Mrs. Dimcrab. Between her murder steps and hard fall at the end, it was no wonder they were curious about what was going on.

It was a good thing they were a few feet too far from the rope to actually attack us.

At least, that was what I had assumed. Once again, these red crabs proved how very wrong assumptions were. They climbed the wall and swarmed over the ceiling till they reached the rope.

“Kron! Careful, there is a swarm of crabs coming at you!”

And that was when they used their evil little pinchers to attack the rope.