“I am not sure what I expected, but this isn’t it.” I mumbled.
Beneath me was the Serpent’s Throat, the island in the center of the sea in the middle of the continent, which was jointly administered by all five human nations and contained the numerous above ground entrances to the Unfathomable Abyss.
I knew all five nations had long since begun raids on the island to thin out or eliminate the monster population for a while now, but I didn’t expect all the monsters to be gone and for business to continue as usual.
As I flew over The Town, I noticed that its buildings were arranged entirely differently from how I remembered, yet the town’s minimalist architectural style hadn’t changed one bit. I suppose rebuilding the town yet again wasn’t a big deal, considering the riches that were being unearthed from below.
I slowly moved through the island’s skies and noted the same of the nearby outposts, before looking for an entrance to the first layer.
“Now that I think about it, Nahi and Mesi should’ve been among the first to face the emerging monster hordes during the Revenge of the Abyss. I really hope they made it out alright…”
With some dread and a touch of morbid curiosity, I made my way to where I remembered the third Tameryian entrance was. Unsurprisingly, and more distressingly than expected, I found two new guards holding down the gate. One was a catwoman, and the other was a human man.
I descended and approached openly, as to not alarm the guards.
“Greetings, adventurer. If you wish to enter through the Tameryian Gate, please pay a toll fee of three copper deben or an equivalent in foreign currency.” The man said dispassionately.
The catwoman, meanwhile, was looking at me closely.
“Wait, I know you… You were the dragon on our country’s team from the projections!” She said, her eyes widening.
She dropped her weapon and rushed at me, grabbing my hand and shaking it wildly.
“Oh my gods, I can’t believe it! I am face to face with a friendly dragon, and the champion of the Iron Fist tournament to boot! Believe me, I am a huge fan!” She gushed wildly.
“Err, technically speaking, the team tournament wasn’t won by me alone, and the individual tournament was essentially cancelled before its conclusion.” I said, slightly taken aback by the beastwoman’s enthusiasm.
“Nonsense, everyone knows you had it in the bag! My goodness, summoning a massive arena of your own and beating the sunlight out of that beastmaster and his rank S beast with overwhelming magic was just purrfect!”
The man still standing at the gate sighed and rolled his eyes.
“Leave the girl be and let her go on with her business. She has business to get to, and we’re still on duty.” He said.
Reluctantly, the beast woman guard let go of my hand and stepped back. The human guard raised his hand in clear expectation of the coppers he was owed – or at least he did until the beastwoman slapped down his arm.
“What do you think you’re doing?! We’re not taking a toll fee from a champion of our country!” she yelled.
“Champion, dragon, or the Pharaoh herself, none may pass without paying the toll fee. Those are our orders.” He said with narrowed eyes.
“Bah!” the catwoman scoffed, digging into her pocket and pulling out three coppers before throwing them at her colleague.
“There, you’ve got your three coppers, now let her pass!” She yelled.
The man ignored her and simply picked up the coins then opened the gate.
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“Welcome to the Unfathomable Abyss.” He said in a monotone voice, before returning to stare at the air behind me.
“Thanks for paying for me, but I’ve got more than enough money of my own. You remember the cash prize I won from the tournament, right?” I asked, but the catwoman shrugged me off.
“I don’t care how much money you have – I am not making someone who raised our heads high with pride pay a toll fee like this! Please, meowam, go right ahead!” She said, her tail swinging left and right excitedly.
Nodding, I stepped past her and prepared to jump down the hole to the first layer.
“If you don’t mind, I was familiar with the guards who held this post before the Revenge of the Abyss. Do you know what became of them?” I asked.
“The owlwoman was able to fly away to safety.” The catwoman said.
“I know, because she was this blockhead’s then-girlfriend, now wife. Word is that she was the one who proposed to him, and it was on the same day she flew all the way to Hebnopet from this entrance – I guess something about near-death encounters makes people more decisive like that. If you ask me though, I say she’s wasted on him.” She said, ribbing at her fellow guard.
The man didn’t dignify her with a response and continued staring ahead.
“Standing guard here, though, probably isn’t something she’ll be doing again. As for the jackalman, no one knows. His body wasn’t found, which means he’s been eaten by the emerging monsters, accidentally discarded of with the mountains of monster corpses littering the island, or somehow still alive somewhere else. He’s been officially declared ‘Missing in Action,’ but his family is presuming he’s dead.”
“…That’s a shame. Thanks for telling me.” I said before jumping into the hole leading to the first layer.
***
It didn’t take long for me to get past the first and second layers, and I was already flying through the blizzards of the third layer in search of an entrance to the fourth layer. I encountered a few monsters, including a rank A [Abyssal Crowned Frost Eagle], but I dispatched of them all with trivial ease. Seeing how far I’ve made it put me in a melancholic mood.
Eventually, though, I found what I was looking for.
Beneath me was a magic gate that kept the nearby snow at bay and depicted the chief gods of the four nations. With another use of [Appraisal], I once again recalled what the description of the gate said.
[The Gate to the Underworld]
The Four Chief Gods have created this alloy of unknown metals and reinforced it with magic to seal away the layers beneath it and the horrors that lurk about within. All passage through this gate will require either its destruction or the approval of the Four Chief Gods.
I pulled out the key from my pocket, then scratched my head a little.
“…Where am I supposed to put this key? Maybe passing some mana through it will do the trick?”
I did just that, and the key quickly devoured the mana greedily.
A sudden noise emerged from the gate, which quickly morphed into the sound of rocks grinding against each other as the four sections of the gate slowly withdrew into their own section. Soon enough, I stood before an open, perfectly circular hole, with hot air seeping out of it and melting the snow nearby.
“Well, that’s convenient. It’s now or never!”
I jumped into the hole and began falling towards the fourth layer. Remembering the instructions of the Adventurer’s Guild receptionist from when I got the key, I passed mana into it once more, closing the gate behind me.
As I descended through the layer, I quickly noticed that the layers of froststone surrounding me were replaced by something else, which had a volcanic feel to it. It reminded me of Auntie’s home in the fire dragons’ island.
Eventually, I emerged out of the fourth floor’s ceiling and quickly slowed my descent to a halt, landing gently on a nearby dark brown, rocky ground. I whistled loudly as I took in the scene around me.
“I knew the fourth floor had a theme of fire, but mom wasn’t kidding about how extreme this place was.”
Like a scene straight from beneath a volcano, this place was hot. The air was so saturated with heat that looking far enough in any direction slightly warped my vision, and the only things terrain features in sight were rivers of slow-moving magma and the same brown, volcanic rock covering the entire floor.
I smashed the ground beneath me with my staff, breaking a small piece of rock. I quickly grabbed it and used [Appraisal] to see what it was.
[Flamerock]
Flamerock is mana-saturated, solidified magma. Stronger than any naturally-occuring material from layers of the earth above it, its viability as a forging material is compromised by its significant weight and its brittle nature. It is found primarily on the fourth layer of the Unfathomable Abyss.
Interesting. I wonder if the earth grows stronger the greater the mana staturation it’s subjected to. Does this also imply powerful, artificial materials could be created by flooding mundane materials with mana? Froststone was little more than frost mana-affinitied stone, after all.
Before I could ponder over that mystery any more, a strange noise dragged me out of my thoughts.
“Grrsstthhhhhhh!”
A lava monster sizzled as it approached. A quick use of appraisal introduced me to the first denizen of the fourth floor I encountered – excluding the Phoenix from the siege of Erdu.
[Lava Blob]
Rank C creature.
Slow and weak, but difficult to kill, and typically attacks in large numbers.