The cursed lizardmen on the fourth floor didn''t stand a chance against the combined might of the newly arrived humans. The many parties moved together at first to give everyone a sense of the layout. After a while, they spread out to cover more ground, but were never fewer than two parties together so that they could overwhelm any opposition.


    Charlotte had gained quite a few levels on the third floor already, but was still hopelessly under-leveled. Despite that, she showed them the difference between a melee tank like James and Simon and melee DPS, as her huge sword tore the lizardmen apart.


    Before heading out, they had taken a quick break so Eli could assemble some enchanted gear, allowing her to reach 40% in the numbed pain buff, for which she was grateful. He also made sure to keep all of her buffs up at all times and heal as needed, as well as keeping Aura of Defense active. All in all, with the right mindset, she turned into a powerhouse despite having put several levels into her crafter class. There was still some hesitation there, and quite a bit of flinching, but that was to be expected. You didn''t just turn from scared farmer to murder-machine in a matter of moments.


    Eli''s party worked with Yvonne’s, which was heavily DPS-focused, with archers, mages, and rogues. Together, they took down the boss near the entrance with ease. Unfortunately, there were no stairs down to the fifth floor in that room either, but the boss dropped a decent bow for one of Yvonne''s people and an amazing new sword for Charlotte to wield.


    Powerful Greatsword of Lizardman Slaying: +30% damage to Lizardmen, +15 Strength, +10% damage.


    “Isn''t it a little strange that a lizardman boss carries a sword that does more damage to lizardmen?” Dana asked.


    "Maybe the lizardman carried a lot of internalized self-hatred with it?" Amy asked.


    Everyone turned to look at her, but she just shrugged. "Or maybe not?"


    With increasing frustration, the humans searched for the path forward. One party even returned to the third floor to see if they could find whatever path the cursed lizardmen who’d kidnapped humans had used. They found nothing. Every single lizardman on the fourth floor was dead, but the ever elusive stairs did not appear.


    The cursed lizardmen stopped spawning on the fourth floor as well, and everyone gathered in front of the prison-like structure.


    “Did anyone find anything?” Simon shouted, using his tall build to great effect.


    No one found a thing.


    Eli furrowed his brow and Amy’s owl turned its head to face him, then tilted it as Amy turned to him. “What is it?”


    “There might be another path forward,” Eli said.


    “Do share,” Sasha prompted, her eyes fixed on him.


    “Remember where Arti was taken, and where Simon and I had to retreat back in Glimmer Bastion?” he asked. “We could go there, see if we can find an entrance. I''m guessing that would lead to the fifth floor. We could go up from there and see where we emerge.”


    James, who stood a little off to the side, walked up to them. “Sounds better than standing around here. Do we bring everyone?”


    Eli shook his head. “No, that''s impossible. The area’s too small.”


    He raised his hands over his head and addressed the crowd. “We’re going to find a different way in from the goblin town. You stay here, and we’ll come for you.”


    There was a murmur in the crowd, but Yvonne was the only one to address him directly. “We’re coming too.”


    “I’m not sure that''s a great idea,” Eli responded.


    She regarded him and his party. “You lack damage output in your party. Bringing us would rectify that. We are missing proper tanks in ours, but you have two. If you go to the fifth floor by yourselves, you’re going to need a lot of power.”


    Eli gave it some thought, then nodded. She had a point.


    “You’re right,” Eli admitted. “Just make sure you stand behind the tanks.”


    Yvonne let through a weak smile. “Of course. I don’t want to take any damage.”


    It took some doing for Eli to bring Yvonne with him to Glimmer Bastion so she could mark the location and then return to the fourth floor to bring the rest of the parties. Glimmer Bastion was empty, and it was almost eerie running through the streets that had been so full of goblins before, their boots echoing against the paved ground as they ran to the stairs leading down to the rail station and then the tracks.


    They didn’t see a single lizardman as they made it down onto the tracks. Then, they moved toward the direction Eli and Simon had been chasing the lizardman who had kidnapped the goblins. James and Simon were up front, moving forward carefully, when one of the archers voiced her displeasure at their slow pace.


    “Come on, you hulking mountains of metal, move this along,” she called out.


    Trish. Human. Level 24 Hunter.


    Trish was a diminutive woman in her thirties with bleach-blond hair and a very narrow frame. The bow she carried looked much too big for her. Eli idly thought neither he nor she would have been able to pull back that string before coming into this world.


    “We have to be careful,” Eli countered.


    "There are no monsters here."


    Yvonne, the Affliction Mage turned healer, jumped in to explain. “She has a tracking skill, and one of its functions is to detect any nearby monsters close to her level. Trish should be able to tell us when we’re getting close.”Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    “That sounds convenient,” Sasha said. “Maybe I should pick up a tracking skill, too.”


    Amy gave Sasha a warm smile and patted her hand. “Sounds like a good idea to me.”


    No longer needing caution, the group moved forward at a much greater speed, but it didn’t take long for them to discover a new problem. They entered a room with multiple exits. Trish squeezed up in front, between Simon and James, and hunkered down near the ground. Eli hovered his orb of light near the ceiling, giving her ample light to see by. She threw him a grateful look, then put her hand down on the ground.


    “What is she doing now?” Dana muttered.


    The hunter answered, obviously having heard the words despite Dana''s low voice. “I am checking for footprints from lizardmen in the gravel, trying to catch their scent, and sensing disturbances in the mana.”


    “You can do all that?” Eli asked.


    “It’s what hunters do,” she said, not sounding too pleased despite the awesome sounding abilities.


    "She thought she would get a pet like hunters in MMOs," Yvonne said.


    Trish stood with a grunt and sighed, eyeing Amy while pointing down one of the tunnels. “I wanted a bear. Maybe I’ll multi-class to Shepherd. Anyway, they went this way.”


    The group hurried forward.


    The many tunnels made for quite the maze as they navigated underground, running far farther than Eli knew the place extended. Each time, Trish''s skills shone. Each time, she looked and sounded sure of where she was pointing them. The group soon grew annoyed at only seeing similar tunnels again and again without getting any closer to their destination. Then, finally, they found it.


    Eli walked up to a wall—not the wall of the dugout mountain, but an actual brick wall. “The mountain opened up,” he said, pointing to the passage. Old bricks covered it, with an area in the middle looking much more recent.


    “Through here,” Trish said.


    “Good work,” Eli commended. He put an ear to the wall and heard a faint scraping on the other side, but that was all. He looked out at the group in front of him. “How do we break through?”


    “I could bash it,” Simon said.


    “I could probably blow it up,” Samantha suggested.


    “It''s going to make a lot of sound no matter what we try, so there is no reason to be stealthy, I think,” Yvonne said. gesturing to one of her mages. "My new friend Enno here can probably blast it, can''t you, Enno?”


    Enno. Human. Level 23 Thunderslinger.


    Enno nodded but did not speak.


    “What''s a Thunderslinger?” Eli asked.


    Despite him clearly asking Enno, it was Yvonne who answered. “It''s a specialization of the Lighting Mage subclass. Sound and shockwaves are his thing. Enno doesn''t talk much.”


    Enno nodded again and moved into position in front of the brick wall while everyone else cleared away. Enno waved for them to step back a little more. Then he spread his arms, facing the wall. A shockwave blasted out from Enno''s center, smashing into the brick wall with enough force to send the entire thing crumbling inwards. Shouts of alarm sounded from within as Simon and James pushed forward. Eli and Samantha followed close behind, with everyone else following through the torn down brick wall.


    When the dust cleared, they found themselves in some sort of storage room. It was sizeable, with large kegs lying down in a rack along one wall. The kegs were obviously empty, given the age-fraying wood and the holes where the taps should be. Two cursed lizardmen lay dead, having been thrown against the opposite wall and smashed against the stone. They had not been alone in that room.


    Four humans dressed in rags huddled in a corner. All of them were injured, so Eli healed them. That made them gasp and look at him with wide eyes filled with something that made Eli a little uncomfortable. It looked a little too close to reverence for his taste.


    Jorren. Human. Level 17.


    Kara. Human. Level 19.


    Roy. Human. Level 1 Fighter (Swordsman).


    Marlen. Human. Level 14.


    One of them stood out with only level 1 but a class attached to him. Roy stood, frowning before he spotted someone in Yvonne''s group he apparently recognized. "I know you!"


    They all turned to one of the mages, who was looking just as wide-eyed. "Holy shit, Roy? You''re alive!"


    After securing the rest of the rather large house that once might''ve been an inn of some sort, and giving the small group of captives some more decent clothes, they gave Roy some room to explain what''d happened. Practically in the moment he''d woken up in Aryxia, somewhere in the forest, he had been taken and carried into the dungeon. The lizardmen had then kept him, and many others, in cages. The only times they were allowed out was to perform manual labor.


    The other three were not from Infinite Innovation Solutions, and they had no idea what Eli and the others were talking about regarding Earth and black holes. Like with the goblins, they didn''t have classes, but had still leveled up. How all that worked was a mystery best left for another day.


    Two out of the three were villagers from some place called Vinespring, that was located near the forest. Exactly where was anyone''s guess. They''d been out hunting when they were attacked by the lizardmen and dragged back to the Temple of Rizari. The final one, Marlen, had been a prisoner. Originally, he was from a larger town called Stonehearth, where he''d been imprisoned for brawling one too many times. Somehow, his prison sentence had been sold to someone who passed Marlen on to a third party. He had then traveled far in a covered, horse-drawn cart, along with other prisoners. They''d all been taken to this place. Eli listened with growing disgust to Marlen''s story. It meant some human was working with the lizardmen on some level. Troubling, to say the least.


    When their explanation was finished, the party knew more about where they''d ended up. The prisoners couldn''t tell them what floor they were on, but it was a large town with hundreds of houses. A large set of stairs, practically in the middle of the city next to a church-like structure, led down, but none of them had ever been down on the next floor. Many who went down there never returned, and those who did became withdrawn and refused to speak of what they''d seen.


    “The lizardmen never say a damn thing, but they love to punish you if you step out of line,” Roy said. “Some people tried to make a run for it."


    "Did they make it?" Simon asked.


    Roy shrugged. "Who can tell? They never came back here, anyway."


    When asked about what levels the lizardmen were, only Roy could answer. The other three looked at them like they were talking nonsense.


    "A lot of them are level 35, with some even higher than that," Roy said. "The highest leveled ones are priests. I''m pretty sure they''re in charge. I''ve got to tell you, I thought everyone not here was dead. It''s good to see you guys, real good."


    Eli endured a rough hug from the man, then cleared his throat before addressing all the rescued captives. "We''re going to bring you back to our.. Tower, where you''ll be fed and kept safe. Once we''ve rescued everyone, we''ll see about getting you home."


    "Have you seen any new arrivals?" Simon asked Roy. "Like an angry, dark-haired woman with a high level?"


    "Nah. Just some goblins. Can you believe it? Little green people. So weird."


    Yvonne turned to Eli. "How do you want to do this? Search for the stairs?"


    "No," Eli decided. "It''s too risky. With how big this place sounds from their description, it could take us days, and we''re not very sneaky. We''ll bring everyone in through here. It''ll take a little while, but it''ll still be quicker than the original plan."


    Eli turned to the rescued prisoners, noticing matching tattoos on their forearms. "What are those?"


    "Everyone got one," Roy said. "They didn''t do it with ink and needles, but some sorta spell."


    The explanation made Eli wary, but there was nothing they could do about it until they knew more. Instead, he turned to the group. "What about you? Do you want to stay with us and fight, or I could take you back to our tower where you''ll be safe."


    Four sets of intense eyes stared back at him. They all wanted vengeance.