Astolfo brandished the large sword-like branch he had broken off from the tree and sharpened with care. Blood trickled from the scratch on his shoulder that was reminiscent of the deep wide gashes on the ground. Lying behind him were two four-limbed stone giants bleeding from their giant eyes.

With slight tears in his eyes, Astolfo tried to lick his shoulders. “Guh… it hurts,” Astolfo said, unable to reach the wound. After wiping the blood away with his hand, Astolfo turned to the ground and observed the gashes. “I didn’t expect it to break, but it really withstood those attacks.”

He was surprised at the sturdiness of the floor. While testing the efficiency of the fountain water’s mist, he picked a fight with two of the monsters at once and they really end up hitting the floor, but it still didn’t break. Instead of disappointment, he was feeling a little bitter. The fall from above ground was bad for his heart.

Astolfo shrugged and dissipated the layer of pure mana from the broken branch. Sheathing a weapon or equipment with unattributed mana that one controlled was the staple technique of knights and warriors that Astolfo had learned from Vincent. It was just a layer of pure mana for Astolfo, but according to Vincent, it could also be molded specifically to fit the weapon, this layer was called sword aura or Qi.

With a shrug, Astolfo strapped the branch around his waist and picked up his canteen again. ‘Why in the world are there no kitchen appliances in any of these houses!’ Astolfo thought. There were a few things around but they only extended to a few spatulas, pans, and woks.

After collecting more water and getting some rest, Astolfo began a new travail. He would now check every building for a way deeper! Of course, checking every last one of them would just be stupidity on his part. He had already inspected every corner of the house he had settled in and made sure there was nothing there, so places similar or smaller in size were out of the list for now.

Astolfo started with the vicinity of the fountain. There was nothing that stood out as an establishment around, but the buildings here were made with enough care to make one think of the bigger houses as possible establishments. From then on, Astolfo kept expanding his search range as he spent his days looking for the way down all the while admiring the remnants of what he could only imagine once was.

During his search, Astolfo got a peek into many snippets of the lives of the people that were once here. On one wall were deep markings indicating the height of a growing child, while on another were fading scratches that told countless stories. From the dozens of broken things, something must be a precious family heirloom, while another the silly creation of a child. Amongst the sturdy rooms and well-placed cabinets, he even found books or notes that he could not understand a word of.

After searching tirelessly for a short, yet long time, he believed he could make some inferences about the civilization that used to occupy these ruins.

From all the symbols and books to the lack of anything pointing towards faith or religion, Astolfo guessed that this civilization was united under a single entity. No matter how rational or advanced people get, they needed to place their faith in something for society to function properly, this was why the Theocracy’s reach expanded into many continents!

Correlating to the previous point, Astolfo could safely say that the ruins were from the ancient era of gods. Though he guessed they have been here since that era, he didn’t believe these were the ruins created by a god. The environment was too stable for that.

Astolfo also found some hints towards the lifestyle of the civilization. The bigger houses not only seemed more lavish but they were also filled with more objects than the smaller ones, signifying higher status. But for a higher status, the big houses were too similar to each other. Furthermore, by comparing the indecipherable characters and illustrations on the few books he found, he could deduce that most of the faded information in the books was similar. It seemed like the civilization was a meritocratic society with a clear division between its people. The deeper you were, the higher your standing. So…

“What I am doing is useless!!” Astolfo exclaimed as he slammed a book against the floor. He was inside a big house at the western rim of the city ruins. This place too was made with exquisite craftsmanship that stood out even in a damaged state. “There’s no way the way down will be in a house!” Astolfo’s cheek bloated up like a pufferfish and he kicked the closest wall.

-Tak!

“Hm?”

Flakes of dust followed a hollow sound from Astolfo’s kick. The boy narrowed his eyes and tapped the wall with his feet again. With a skeptical gaze, he bent down and pushed the wall. Nothing happened. Astolfo scoffed and stood up.

“Hah. As if!” he muttered. Astolfo leaned on the wall when the sturdy monolith fell backward. Like a door spinning vertically, the wall carried the leaning redhead and magnificently dropped him on the other side before shutting close.

…It was supposed to be ‘pulled’ from below.

Astolfo gingerly bit his lips and stared at the wall. He pushed it from below and it still flipped like earlier. He then looked behind him in the pitch-black darkness. There was a soft and mystical glow of light all over the floor he was in, but this, passageway, did not allow a single bit of light to pass through.

“Cull the darkness, reveal my path! [Illuminate]” A magic circle briefly appeared on Astolfo’s fingertip and a ball of light rose into the sky.

“Stairs…” Astolfo said. He didn’t want to believe it, but a path downwards had really appeared and it left him with a bitter feeling.

Since he was fighting monsters on a ‘need-to’ basis, he was left with plenty of water to drink and to use against enemies. He also had sufficient food taken from the trees for two days. After taking a quick inventory, Astolfo nodded and resolutely stepped down. These stairs were crafted well, but he felt they were too obscured to be the main path of travel between the two floors.

The long stairs continued for a while when Astolfo saw a circular engraving adorn the walls of the staircase. He recognized it from some of the more seemly houses upstairs. “Is this the symbol of an enforcement order or something? Then this must be their secret passageway…” he remarked. After continuing for a few more minutes, the stairs finally came to a stop in front of a narrow and small door frame.

Astolfo took in a deep breath as his feet finally came to a stop. After almost a week of searching, he had found a way down and was one more step closer to a way out. He really wanted to get out and see his family again. They must be worried. And the young knight too… even if he wasn’t qualified to, a farewell…

A lump of emotions was rising in his throat, clogging his breaths, but Astolfo intensely shook his head as if to force it back down. He breathed deeply and slapped his cheeks. “No! I can mope later. Get out of here first!”

With a re-hardened resolve, Astolfo strode up to the door and inspected it. In its center was a circular drawing of sorts. Multiple concentric circles made up of rectangular blocks were wrapped by it. A square was made right in the center of the circles, three random corners of the outermost circle had a square on them as well while one last corner had an ‘X’ drawn over it.

“What’s this?” Astolfo observed the circle from top to bottom and then again from bottom to top. After looking at it a few times over, Astolfo focused specifically on the ‘X’ sign… With an ‘X,’ there was no doubt. “It’s a map!” Astolfo said.

“The ‘X’ must mean my current location. Then, the other squares are more of the secret passageways? And what about the one at the center…” Astolfo soon noticed that the ‘X’ was really at the edge of the map. That means he must be at the fringes of the floor. And the center of the circle, like the floor above, must be the fountain. “The fountain was the way deeper. Hmm, it fits the place. I should have guessed it.”

Astolfo was very thankful for this information. Whether it would go down or not was something he wasn’t sure of, but he hadn’t been pushing forth on surety all this while, so it was ok. He had gathered more data than he could have hoped for and was ready to move ahead. Astolfo opened the latch of the stone door, then with cautious movements, he pushed the door open.