Yoona imbued her arrows with more mana and sent them flying towards the locations that the twins marked. Most of the hits didn’t seem to have any visible effect, but a few that landed on odd spots made an audible pop followed by some static discharge. Whatever Yoona’s arrows were doing was activating the traps, but didn’t cause them to set off.
“Ok, that’s all of them,” Yoona said, “Are there any more spots we have to watch out for?”
The twins made more complicated gestures as I translated, “Uh, they’re saying that the doors look, sorry, I mean they feel strange, so you should be careful if we want to open them. Other than that, there’s… uh, sorry, some of these gestures don’t translate well into words.”
The twins sighed and slowed down their hand signals, “Ok, so there’s also another set of stairs going down further along the path, and they say that they don’t like the feeling of what’s down there. Not because of traps, but it’s the feeling they got when they used to scout for danger. That about accurate?”
The twins nodded.
“So we’re good for now unless we want to open those side doors, and there’s more danger if we go down the stairs,” Vadeem summarized and ruffled the twin’s hair, “Sounds simple enough, good job you two.”
The two smiled, more expressively than I’ve ever seen them show previously, before that fleeting smile disappeared just as quickly and they focused their attention back on the present.
Jae-Hyun gave us the all clear and we entered the new room. Like what I had seen in the hallway, the room was just one wide corridor with small jail cells locked with sturdy looking metal. None of the cells were occupied, or even shown signs that they once were. They were entirely empty, without even a raised platform to use as a bed, and looked more like unused storage areas than anything that used to hold people.
In fact, the interior was too barren of anything. Other than the minor security measures that the twins delt with, there was nothing in this huge chamber. Even with ruins or abandoned buildings, it wouldn’t be uncommon to see decayed furnishings, rust stains and broken materials strewn about, after all, the distinct signs of use would be otherwise impossible to hide even if someone tried their best to thoroughly clean the place out.
But this place looked like it was abandoned before it ever got to be used. Yet it clearly was used, or at least partly, if someone went through the trouble of rigging those traps. Even the bars and cell doors looked to be in relatively pristine condition, aside from the fine layer of dust that settled on everything here. This strange disconnect made the entire place feel suffocating.
“It’s getting creepier and creepier the further down we get,” Vadeem grumbled, “Feels like something’ll just pop out of a corner and ambush us at any moment.”
Noel nodded, “Kind of like one of those sci-fi horror movies, always loved those films! You think there’s something stalking us in these hallways?”
Yoona shuddered, “Please stop, I don’t like the thought of being followed like that…”
“If it’s any consolation,” I added, “We have faced worse in the Trials so far.”
That didn’t help the girl’s unease and she shuddered a little harder. Jae-Hyun noticed and moved a little closer to his sister.
“There’s nothing stalking us,” he said sternly, “There won't even be any living creatures until we move further down, but it's nothing we cannot handle, and it won’t sneak up on us if we scout properly.”
“What about the ominous feeling the twins got earlier,” I asked, “There’s something down those stairs.”
“That’s where Tartarus starts officially,” the Regressor explained, “We’re in the holding cells right now, it was barely used even back when the Olympians used to live here.”
That would explain why this place was so empty as I doubt they’d keep the really nasty stuff just locked up in cages. Not like that would do anything to stop those monsters from escaping.
“Is it a good idea to head down there then? You even said you don’t know what’s down there completely, brother,” Yoona asked uncertainly, “I’m not too well versed in the myths, but even I know that Tartarus isn’t a place you’d want to visit.”
“While I don’t know what’s at the bottom,” he said, “I do know what’s near the surface. Tartarus is divided into different sections, with the worst inmates housed at the bottom. The situation is still the same now, the weakest creatures will be found near the top away from the resources available near the bottom. We won’t go past a certain layer, at least not now, and even then, most of the really nasty things have already been moved out of here.”
I just hope Jae-Hyun wasn’t simply overestimating our abilities. Even if the gods took the really problematic creatures out, I don’t think even minor creatures of myth would be an easy foe for newly awakened Aspirants, no matter how abnormal our situations were. Then again, Jae-Hyun did bring his sister with us, and I doubt he’d allow much harm to befall her.
“So what can we expect down there?” I asked, “In the first layer I mean.”
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Hopefully not more of those damned winged freaks,” Vadeem grumbled, “I don’t do well with anything flying in the air.”
“You’ll get your wish, Vadeem,” Jae-Hyun answered, “the harpies only have a nest deeper in the cave system, they’re not actual residents of Tartarus.”
“Good.”
“What’s at the end of that staircase,” the Regressor continued, “will be the weakest of the leftovers. We can't be sure until we get there, I've never been here before, but whatever’s down there will be half starved and half dead. However, a word of advice: never underestimate anything that appears in Tartarus, no matter how pathetic they look.”
We all give Jae-Hyun various forms of affirmation before heading down the stars. These ones were narrow, much more so than any of the passages we came from, and Vadeem had to move sideways just to fit.
“These stairs better end soon,” Vadeem muttered as he forced his way through a particularly tight area, “Or this passage will become Vadeem-shaped very soon because I’ll have to force my way through!”
“There’ll be another locked door down below, then it’ll open up from then on out,” the Regressor’s muffled replied came somewhere behind the big man, I couldn’t see him since I was in front of Vadeem, “We don’t have to worry about traps there, just burst through the door when you see it.”
“Understood!” I said at the front, “I’ll do the honors this time, I don’t think I want to see Vadeem try to get past me.”
“I heard squid could fit in really small holes though!” Noel said beside me, “Maybe you can do the same!”
That was a disconcerting thing to imagine. I highly doubted I wanted to test out Noel’s hypothesis to see just how squid-like the Xollons were.
“I think I’ll just open the door myself,” I answered instead.
Thankfully we reached the door soon after, and I was able to yank it free of its hinges easily enough. My feelers provided an easy grip for me to hoist the door right off, and I was quite amazed by how strong I was. I mean, I knew that my stats had grown astronomically, I had a pathetic 4 strength when I first started out, but I never really internalized how much growth I’ve undergone.
All the fights that I’ve gone through felt too surreal, my brain wasn’t really processing what it means to kill strange harpies or mutated horrors since there was no normal analog for that action. That’s why it wasn’t until I effortlessly dismantled this door that I finally realized how far along I’ve gone, and I felt a little giddy seeing all this. I felt like a superhero, and maybe even understood Vadeem’s need to lift really heavy stuff for fun, just to see my limits.
Once the door was clear of the passage, the seven of us entered one by one, with Vadeem having to all but destroy the doorframe to get in. True to the Regressor’s words, the interior expanded out, but what he didn’t choose to mention was that the interior of Tartarus proper looked like another dimension entirely.
I’m pretty sure that the space we were in now couldn’t physically exist, unless my spatial reasoning completely lost it, because the “room” we were in extended as far as the eye could see. The only wall visible before us was the tiny doorway that took us here, and the ceiling loomed hundreds of feet above us, glowed faintly with some kind of iridescent blue light. Maybe it was some kind of bioluminescence, but the twinkling lights looked remarkably similar to the night sky.
Stranger still, Noe notified me that my night time passive was activated the second I stepped foot into this place, which further confirmed the fact that we must have been taken to some kind of alternative plane of being. The faint illumination provided us with enough light to operate even without my halo on and I chose to deactivate the thing so that we didn’t have a beacon informing everything in Tartarus of our presence.
“Where the hell are we?” Vadeem muttered, he bent down and touched the ground. The big man picked up a handful of dirt and sniffed it.
“Why are you smelling dirt?” Yoona asked, “Is there something special about it?”
He shook his head, “No, but I felt weird the second I stepped in here, I think I know why. The dirt doesn’t… I don’t know, it doesn’t feel right. Like it’s not the stuff we see out in Pandora or even in that strange corrupted Earth. Feels wrong.”
Noel looked at the big man with confusion, “Dunno about you, Vadeem, but I kind of like it here. Feels homey.”
“Wait, you can… feel the Earth?” Yoona interrupted, “Is that a skill?”
Vadeem shrugged, “Something like that I guess, but I’ve always felt closer to the Earth even before all this nonsense hit us. Felt it stronger when I got through that Zombie level, think it’s from my class.”
Vadeem behavior is most likely caused by his titan related job, but if he’s always had an affinity with the Earth then it points to my second theory that the classes given by the Trash Matrix uses information already present in the Aspirants. Most likely the same thing was going on with Noel and her underworld-esq class. That’s good to know, although I’m not sure when this information will prove useful.
“Still, this place is so… strange, I don’t get any of the comforting vibes you have, Noel,” Yoona remarked as she gazed into the distance, “It’s like we’re in another reality altogether.”
“It’s because we are,” Jae-Hyun answered, “Or, more accurately it’s a pocket dimension.”
“Uh, and we can leave this place anytime we want, right?” I asked, looking at the stairs, fearing they would just vanish at any moment.
“We can,” he assured, “It wasn’t always the case, but even Nyx’s enchantments are corroded with the passage of time.”
“That’s the uh, night goddess, right?” I asked, it’s been a long time since I’ve read up on the gods after all.
“One of the primordial gods in fact, and consort to Erebus,” the Regressor nodded, “Avoid her and her husband at all costs if you ever meet them.”
“You say that like we’d actually meet gods,” Vadeem said, “Uh, we’re not going to actually meet gods, right?”
“I’d want to meet one!” Noel chimed in with a smile, “I mean, they must be awesome to be called gods, although I’m not a mythology nerd like you guys are. I bet it’d be cool to pick their brains!”
The Regressor gave her a hard glare, his voice icy, “Never do that.”
Even Noel shuddered at his unconcealed fury. She quickly put her hands up and muttered, “Ok, ok, I’m just joking! I’ll um, I’ll make sure I don’t talk to godly strangers.”
Damn, Jae-Hyun’s intense when he has to be. Let’s hope he never finds out the whole truth about my situation, or his displeasure alone will probably end my existence.
“We get it; we do not speak with the gods, and definitely,” I said, “So what’s the plan from here on out? Just find random stuff to kill? There doesn’t seem like there’s a lot here.”
Which was true. Aside from the noise from our chatter, nothing else could be heard. If anything was around us, they most certainly would have noticed our arrival.
“We’re heading further in,” he explained, “We’ll mark this location so we can get out, but there is a specific spot that I want to reach before we head back.”
“And that is?” I asked.
“One of the hidden forges of Hephestus.”