The World Which Is

Chapter 09

I know where home is.

I put more of my weight on the stairs and they creak louder, but they don't break.

Stepping as lightly as I can, I hurry down and catch my breath once I'm on solid ground again. I chuckle. That was as scary as being pushed into the hole by Rich.

I straighten. But it was my choice. I grin and look up the stairs. I'm going to have to go up them to get out of here, I just know it. Are they going to break them?

The idea they can is scary, but it's also... exciting?

Oh, dad would not be okay with me contemplating this.

But after I've found whoever else is down here.

The room is vast in all directions, and the light comes from beyond a railing further before me, shining up onto a ceiling of broken things with ripples.

I step to the railing and look over it in the process of testing how solid it is and freeze.

The water's so clear I can see the green glow coming from the circles on the floor, and that they are raised slightly. The color reminds me of the chemical light, only more intense, much more green and bright.

It's magical in how beautiful it is.

I step away.

Yeah, it's probably magical period. And that doesn't mean it's good for me. I look around. Magic in the wild has a tendency to attract creatures that feed off it, as well as anyone not smart enough to stay away.

Anyone like some kid of got conned into following a mostly stranger into the forest. As well as... I realize, as I see the form stretched on the floor further in, anyone else who might come here.

"Hey! I'm here." I run for them. "Are you okay?" They don't react to my voice, which is a bad sign. They're unconscious, not asleep. I don't bother focusing on them. People are one of the few classes of being that we can't get anything off of with skills. It takes magic or high-level abilities.

Blood loss is the most likely reason someone makes it down here, stretches and then loses consciousness. I won't be able to get them to eat, so I'm going to have to make bandages from my shirts and hope my first aid's high enough to...

I slow as I make out their features and position.

They are stretched on the floor with their hands on their chest, and a book under them. They aren't breathing, and their head is a skull.

I'm too late.

By quite a while, too.

The body wears armor in good condition. Leather with buckles. There's a wrap around their midsection with a dark blotch on my side. That would be the fatal injury, I guess. They wear gloves and boots that match their armor.

I approach cautiously.

The undead aren't something that occur naturally, or so the old folks tell us, but I'm next to water with glowing stuff at the bottom. I don't think that was natural even before the system showed up.

Then I breathe easier. If this was a monster, just looking at it would have told me that.

Hmm.

I focus on the body.

Aaron Sentino, Class: Explorer, dead.

Well, that confirms it, not a threat. Although I didn't know the dead lost whatever keeps us from doing this to the living.

I crouch next to him. "Hi Aaron, I'm Dennis. Somehow, you being here gave me access to your class." I hesitate. "I hope you don't mind, but I'm hoping the reason you're down here is in that book. I'd rather not go through your inventory right now. It feel... disrespectful."