Chapter 013

Yuril quickly made his way down the stairs as silently as possible and made his way to the second floor. He knew that the front door would be locked and he could simply unlock the door from the inside and leave. He had no way of knowing that while he was away someone may try and rob the Hostess of Fertility in the middle of the night, if they found the door was unlocked after him it would only make their job that much easier.

So he opened the window on the second floor, it was near the set of stairs that led up to the attic and the second set of stairs that led down to the ground floor of the pub. He opened up the window and looked down at the alley below, he put his right foot on the windowsill and leaned forward enough to see down, despite being a decent drop it would be nothing fatal, not that it would be very pleasant but it was the best option. He held the window with his right hand and brought his left leg up and placed it on the windowsill and took a crouched stance. He grabbed the glass plane with his right hand and took a deep breath. He let himself fall forward and the window closed behind him as he fell to the earth. He turned around as he was falling and bounced off a wooden crate in the alley used for garbage, he took a moment to gather himself as he pushed himself up off the ground with a groan.

"Ugh… that hurt… a lot more… then I had thought it would…" Yuril said as he got onto his hands and knees and eventually managed to stand up on his feet. He placed his open palms on his back and pushed on his back as he leaned backwards. He heard his back crack rather loudly. He took a few steps as he felt the pain in his back numb slowly. Once he reached the end of the alley he leaned up against the corner of the building that was next to the Hostess and looked up at the night sky. The stars littered the skies like tiny fireflies and in it there was a bright globe that illuminated the night sky, towering in front of the moon was the Tower of Babel. The tallest building in all of Orario that was built right on top of the dungeon, it was his destination.

He pulled his cloak over himself and flipped the hood up. Even in the dark his white hair stood out; it was too noticeable to anyone that may be watching. Yuril took off down the street, he walked along normally but once his legs started to feel better . He jogged along at a brisk pace. With the streets primarily empty and devoid of any signs of life besides the occasional rodent that squealed as he passed them in the road. He was able to make good time and the Tower of Babel was soon towering overhead and he was nearing the dungeon.

He used a ladder to scale to the second floor of a building and from there he boosted himself using a barrel and stood on top of a roof. All that separated him and the dungeon was several dozen meters of open space, magic crystal lamps hung from poles to illuminate the area and dangled in the light breeze. There were numerous guards that Yuril could see wandering around the area, carrying spears and dressed in light clothes.

Yuril waited for over twenty minutes until he saw a break in the guards and scaled back down the building, he stayed as low to the ground as possible and scurried along the ground towards the dungeon entrance. He slid his way behind a bench and watched the guards that were standing right at the entrance.

One of the two guards pushed themselves off of the wall and wandered away from the entrance, with the one guard still standing in place Yuril stayed crouched behind the bench and waited.

and waited...

and waited...

Eventually, the guard sat down on a stool that sat a few feet away from him. Yuril watched as over the course of several minutes the guard started to slouch. His head went to rest in his lap and remained still for a long while. Yuril slipped out from behind the bench and sprinted across the gap as quietly as possible. Just as Yuril had expected, the guard next to the entrance was fast asleep and the second guard had yet to return to his post. He passed the guard and entered the large circular-shaped room that held a lift elevator in the centre of the room for fast travel up the Tower of Babel and the large spiral staircase that wrapped around the edge of the room down to the first floor of the dungeon.

He started to make his way down the staircase, one step at a time he made his way downwards. After the first few steps, he realized that he was underground. He felt a slight tingle in his spine and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up straighter than he was as he walked down the stairs.

Each step he took echoed through the large room and bounced off of the walls several times, as he was making his way down the stairs, Yuril was debating in his head if he was making the right decision or not and before he knew it he had reached the bottom. As he stood on the final step, his legs felt like liquid. He shuddered slightly when he looked down at the difference between the manmade step and the natural dungeon floor.

He had yet to step into the actual dungeon itself, he was free to turn around at any point and return to the Hostess. For a moment he debated if he should go back to the pub, crawl back into bed with Syr, wake up in the morning and pretend that he had never even come this far. But he had come so far from his little rural village, all the way to the labyrinth city and now finally, the dungeon. Yuril tilted his head backwards and gazed upwards towards the heavens. He prayed that the numerous Gods and Goddesses would grant him their protection and blessings, despite being unblessed so far in his quest. He spoke to his grandfather, despite having no way to know for sure. He was positive that his old man was watching him from the land beyond.

"Granddad did always say that every great adventure starts with a single step, one foolish leap into the unknown to seek out glory, gold… and he always added girls at the end. I guess he was right about something after all…."

So with a single step, he entered the dungeon for the first time.