The lift was big enough to take a maximum of five people, so they had to take three rides to get everyone up.
Nathan didn't know where they were going, he had only been told that the calamity was close, but not that close. It was a surprise when he noticed that the lift kept going up after passing the floor he had first entered.
A short while later the lift doors opened and Nathan stepped out of the elevator, looking around curiously and cautiously.
'An upper floor?'
As far as Nathan knew, the floor where he had appeared a month ago upon arriving in the realm was the highest floor. But he was wrong, as there was a floor higher than the dormitories.
"What is this place?"
Mary stepped out of the lift behind him.
"It's the attic of the castle, and the bastard's lair"
All around him was a lot of stuff, the place looked like a large warehouse with dozens of furniture covered with blankets gathering dust. Unlike how clean the corridors and all the rooms were, it looked like this place hadn't been cleaned in hundreds of years.
Even the floor had a layer of dust on it, where all the footprints remained. In addition, dozens of cobwebs occupied the corners and ceiling of the attic.
'How are spiders... Are they also calamities?'
Nathan was not very fond of spiders after living in the outskirts of the city years ago. Even though it had only been a couple of months, the amount of insects and spiders he had seen had been enough to last him a lifetime.
But looking at the webs, they were empty, as if the spiders had disappeared long ago, leaving the silk as a record of their existence.
All that aside, the attic didn't really seem to be the guard of a third rank calamity. Still, he was only seeing a small part of the attic, you never knew what would lie beyond it.
Nathan had been in the second group that had gone up, so they had to wait for the others to arrive. As he waited, Herfir approached him.
"Nervous?"
Nathan looked at Herfir and shook his head slightly.
"Not really... I have no idea how I feel"
Nathan looked down at his hands without any emotion. He expected that being the first time he would be facing a third rank calamity he would feel nerves, maybe anxiety, maybe even fear.
But to his surprise, all he felt was indifference. Although he thought that maybe it was because the combat had not yet begun, his emotions could change as soon as he met the calamity.
Nathan remembered the grey calamity that had died at the hands of the king of the mercenaries, and when it stood in front of him, he felt a sharp pressure. But that was all, he did not feel as much fear as someone in his situation would have felt.
Again, Nathan had grown accustomed to the sensation of dying.
"That's good... look at me"
Herfir showed Nathan his hands, which were trembling slightly.
"You really have a strong mentality, anyone in our situation would be paralyzed with fear. Look at the guys over there"
Herfir pointed to the group that had come with them, they all had tense expressions on their faces and Nathan could clearly feel the fear emanating from their bodies.
It was a curious thing, Nathan could feel the fear in them as if he could feel a light breeze emanating from their bodies.
He assumed it was due to his technique and relationship with fear.
"That's the normal thing, they know it's very possible that they will die in this place... although since we entered the realm it's something that's always been going around in their heads" Herfir sighed. "I include myself in that"
Mary tapped Herfir's arm lightly.
"Don't scare him off before we start"
Nathan shook his head while he had a slight smile on his face. Not that he hadn't thought about it, he knew that death was around every corner and that what they were about to face was far worse than anything most had ever faced before.
As he was thinking, the lift doors opened again, and the last group appeared. It was then that Mary stretched her arms upwards and groaned slightly as she felt her limbs release tension.
"Right then, get ready boys"
Nathan sighed and turning around to everyone he exchanged his black mask for the gas mask. Turning around again Nathan saw everyone with their masks on.
'Where did she get the materials to make so many masks?'
Ignoring his thoughts, Mary approached Roderick and pointed something out to him. The bartender nodded slightly and then stood in front of everyone and stood silently as he clasped both hands together, touching his fingertips.
Nathan felt the essence flow through the man's body before it returned to normal a few seconds later. Then Roderick separated his hands and began to walk.
Roderick's technique allowed him to feel things around him more clearly. Although it was not a combat focused technique, it was quite useful.
People with homing techniques were quite sought after for entering realms, mainly because they allowed them to find hidden relics and avoid unwanted ambushes.
Although even without a technique it was possible to do something similar, it was very difficult to achieve and the expense of essence was enormous, so it was not worth doing, plus the effectiveness was nowhere near as good as a technique.
They all started to follow Roderick with Mary in front, Seinor and the woman was behind her and Herfir was next to Nathan in front of the other seven.
The attic was also like a labyrinth... as if the castle was a labyrinth itself. But unlike the corridors, they did not have the luxury of exploring the whole place trying to find the calamity.
Mainly due to the fact that it was a rather dangerous area... and Nathan realized that when the red mist slowly began to appear on the ground.
'Ugh...'
The drowsy effect of the mist was much stronger than before, Nathan guessed it was because the source was much closer, and therefore the mist was more concentrated.
It was thanks to the mask that Nathan, Herfir and the other seven did not faint immediately. Even so, Nathan felt how his arms felt lethargic from the mere contact with the mist.
It was then that light laughter could be heard all around him.
Nathan tightened his grip on the hilt of the sword still strapped to his back and looked around for the sources of the laughter.
'Where are they?'
According to the information they had from the calamity, it was the hallucinations that were laughing like hungry hyenas. But no matter how much Nathan looked around, the laughter seemed to come from nowhere.
'Are they an auditory hallucination?'
The laughter didn't really affect him directly, but it could become annoying if he listened to it for too long.
The others of the first rank also looked around tensely, as they clenched their weapons tightly.
But those in front of Nathan kept walking as if they didn't care about the laughter.
It wasn't the first time Mary and the others had explored the attic, so they knew that the hallucinations wouldn't start to appear for a while, not while they were still so far away from the calamity.
That's why none of them paid any attention to the laughter.
Nathan took a deep calming breath and released the hilt of his greatsword.
'Not yet...'
Meanwhile, Amelia was hesitant as she listened to the surroundings sharing Nathan's senses.
'It's weird...'
'What's weird?' Nathan asked as he listened to Amelia.
'The laughter... I can barely hear it'
Nathan frowned at Amelia's words.
He knew Amelia saw everything from his own eyes, even his premonitions of death. So, it surprised him to learn that she didn't hear the laughter as much as he did, mainly due to the fact that it was really loud and annoying.