"So the ones who build this city were not humans but giants. And the normal skeletons were their slaves. Maybe they were humans."
The black skeleton's bones had become dust as soon as the head hit the stairs.
"Ok, we already killed the skeleton, now we have to search the next floor. It was guarded by a stronger enemy, so there should be something good."
The second floor actually looked a lot more luxurious. The stone bricks were covert in what most likely had been a red carpet a few hundred years ago, and the wall had been white.
Now everything was grey and looked like it came straight out of a horror movie.
"I don't like this place… can't we go somewhere else?"
Lara looked around like she expected another black skeleton to come out of one of the rooms at any time.
"Don't worry, the skeleton wasn't even really that strong, it just got you by surprise."
Ella looked at the fellow woman with a bright smile.
When the group entered the first room, they were all astonished. In this room there was a stone table, that was about 4 meters (13'12") tall and an even bigger chair.
"Oh my god, I don't want to know how big the adult giants are. They must be…"
"… what? Giants?"
Ella looked at Lara with an amused grin, but Elo was disappointed.
"There is nothing here, only big, old stone furniture."
And indeed, besides a few more skeletons, the group found only empty rooms and massive stone furniture.
When they reached the next stairs, they saw that a pile of stones was blocking their way.
"There was actually nothing good here at all. The only things we got are some ancient coins and a few bone fragments.
What are those bone fragments meant for anyways?"
"Ding"
"White bone fragments:
Fragments of the bones of slave skeletons. Can be used to create armour."
"What kind of armour?"
Elo was really interested. With the number of skeletons in even this one house, it should be straightforward to build such an armour.
"Bone helmet:
A helmet made out of small white bone fragments.
Armour +1
-resources needed: 1000 white bone fragments
Bone chest plate:
A chest plate made out of small white bone fragments.
Armour +2
-resources needed: 2000 white bone fragments
Black bone helmet:
A helmet made out of small black bone fragments.
Armour +5
-resources needed: 1000 black bone fragments
Black bone chest plate:
A chest plate made out of small black bone fragments.
Armour +10
-resources needed: 2000 black bone fragments"
-"The white bone pieces seem to be obtainable, we already have over 300 white bone fragments, but they are very low-tier.
The black bone pieces, on the other hand, are pretty strong, but it would take days for us to even get one black bone helmet."-
Elo's excitement plummeted, but he still showed the others what he had found out.
"It's at least better than nothing. Let's scout out this city for a little bit before we go back."
Gorden looked a bit disappointed, he had been so excited about the ancient city, but now there were only old bones.
When they exited the house, it was already noon.
The group walked towards the next house when Elo suddenly saw a small stone altar. It looked very out of place between all of those big houses.
"Hey, look over there, what could that thing be?"
As soon as Elo pointed it out, the others saw it too. It was a small, black stone altar, which was standing in the middle of an open space.
"Let's take a look, that thing could be interesting."
When they were only about 2m (6'7") away from the alter, it suddenly started glowing in bright yellow light. Before anybody could even move, the floor suddenly caved in.
They didn't fall long, so nobody was hurt. But they all were stunned.
"Ding"
"You entered the dungeon of Alerub."
"Wow, finally something interesting. I was already worried we wouldn't find anything."
Gorden's eyes seemed to glow in the dim light. Elo could understand him, he had also hoped to find something interesting, but he also didn't want to die.
"We first have to find a way out of here. We have to be very careful, we don't know anything about this dungeon. For all we know, there could be dragons in here that only need to breathe to kill us all."
Luckily, the creatures that were emerging from the shadows were no dragons… but they were huge rats.
Before Elo could blink, they were trapped by two fat rats, which filled the whole tunnel.
"They must have been attracted by the sounds. We have to get out of here fast, or we will be overrun by those things."
-"The problem is that the only exit is right above our heads."-
The opening in the ceiling was only about one meter (3'3") above their heads. It was definitely reachable, but not if two fat rats were trying to bite your legs off.
"Ella, Gorden, you two fight those rats, me and Lara will climb up the wall and help you as soon as we are outside."
"Ok."
Without another word, Gorden and Ella attacked the rats.
The dirt wall was pretty loose, so climbing it was hard, but they had no choice, they didn't even know if there was another exit.
Elo had to dig his hand into the wall to be able to even start climbing. When he reached the edge, Lara was already outside and helped him getting his body out of the tunnel.
When Elo stood outside, his teammates had already killed three rats, but as soon as the rats died, they turned to dust, so that a new rat could take her place.
He looked down at his two companions, who were still fighting.
"You will have to jump up so that we can pull you up. Ella, you first, we need you to pull Gorden out."
As soon as Ella had killed the rat she was facing, she jumped up. Elo and Lara were both taking one of her hands, to pull her out of the tunnel.
But because Ella didn't fight the rat on Gorden's other side anymore, he started to have trouble keeping up with the two rats.
The only thing he could do was to also jump. Elo had taken one step back, so when Gorden jumped up, Lara and Ella could take his hands to pull him out.
But as soon as Gorden was outside, they realized that something was wrong…
One of his legs was missing.