He decided to kill some time walking around the market, trying to evaluate if any of the other stores were as popular as the tinkerer's. Not surprisingly however, there weren't any.
Most denizens of the undercity seemed almost obsessed with going to the 'dark depths'.
He would've loved to sit down with a few of them and chat about what exactly drew them to such a dangerous place, however, he could pretty much guess the main reason.
Resources.
With access to the outside barred, the dark depths were likely the only place where they could get materials. And based on the sort of items he was tasked to collect, it was safe to say that they likely had magical properties.
~Now that I think about it, where exactly are they getting food from?~ he thought to himself, remembering how the Deadly Shoals syndicate was handing out food when he first arrived here.
~Were they serving out monster flesh, or... No, they wouldn't be so sick,~ he thought to himself. However, he couldn't shake off the sinister feeling that the gang -and pretty much everyone else down here- was giving him.
He couldn't quite explain it, but from the little time he spent walking around, it felt almost as if the city was eating itself from the inside. Like the people here were in a constant state of dying... but not quite dead. If that made any sense.
Perhaps it was the obvious malnourishment, perhaps it was the hungry expressions they seemed to watch each other with. Or maybe it was a natural response to what was going on outside.
After all, the monsters he had encountered were certainly not something that any normal person had a chance of surviving against.
*
As he pondered how best to use the current state of the city to his advantage, he found himself already on the bottom floor.
It was a four-hour journey, even though he had spent as little time as possible on each floor.
The final floor was simple; no buildings, no bridges connecting different parts together, and no normal denizens.
The only structure here was a massive door, up ahead, with blue runic inscriptions that illuminated the entire floor as they pulsated. The door was large enough to accommodate an entire dragon if need be, which made him wonder just what sort of creature had made them.
There were already a large number of people down here, a good portion of them seemed to be normal denizens. He could tell, because they wore no cloaks, and carried very crude-looking weapons.
However he paid them no mind, he focused his attention on the hooded figures who chose to lounge within the shadows of this 'waiting' area, where the light from the runes did not properly illuminate.
They carried their weapons proudly, almost as if to give a warning to stay away from them.
~Hmm, though it seems it's not them I should be worried about,~ he quickly realized.
His attention was drawn to the groups closer to the massive door. They wore luxurious-looking cloaks, that seemed out of place here, and though he could not see their weapons, he could tell that they were dangerous.
His instincts told him so, they also told him to kill them first. It wasn't anything that he could explain in words, but rather a feeling.
Out of all of them, the one that stuck out the most was a figure at the very front, wearing a jet-black cloak that almost made them look like a shadow.
Considering everyone avoided getting too close to them, he could tell that they were probably well-known down here.
~Wish I had a watch,~ he thought to himself, as he looked for a nice dark spot to wait at.
Once he found a place, far away from everyone else, he tried the goggles on to see what he'd be working with.
For a moment, it seemed like they were broken, however after fiddling with them for a few seconds, he found a gem sticking out at the side. After touching it, the goggles began glowing with power, before illuminating everything in view.
He quickly removed them, afraid that the light would attract people's attention. However, he realized that it only seemed that way through the goggles, in actuality, it wasn't emitting any light at all.
~Interesting. My science knowledge isn't very good, but I believe this is similar to infra-red. The light isn't visible to the naked eye,~ he thought to himself before putting them on again.
After waiting for what felt like several hours, the runic inscriptions on the massive door began to glow intensely, and all the people waiting around began to move closer.
"It's time," he whispered to himself, before taking a spot behind the crowd.
He was in no rush to go in first, besides, he didn't want anyone behind him. He was almost certain that a good number of people would be killed by a knife to the back the moment they entered.
~We're looking for resources anyway, what's the point of letting people know which path you're headed?~ he thought to himself.
No, he would stay behind, and figure out which paths were safe based on where the least people died.
Though it seemed he wasn't the only one with that plan. Several others stayed behind as well, watching the initial crowd from the fringes.
~I have to watch my back too,~ he thought to himself, right as the massive door creaked open.
A gust of salty wind rushed out, howling like a wounded wolf, before quickly going silent.
For a moment there was order. The first few groups entered, with no protest from everyone else.
However, after a minute passed, the remaining groups pushed and fought to enter next.
Chaos ensued.
A few people were stabbed and killed and several others were trampled over, their bodies left broken and mangled like forgotten dolls.
Screams echoed throughout the floor, as denizens begged for mercy. Sadly none was given. As natives, they should've known better than to come to this meeting of shadows.
If they could not handle the horrors that came in with them, how would they hope to face the ones within?
Once all that was over, Edric's group entered, the stragglers who had watched it all happen.
A few of them stopped to loot the dead bodies, whilst others dragged them off towards the exit. Edric didn't want to imagine what they were going to do with the trampled corpses. However he promised himself never to eat meat he hadn't cooked himself.
"Magnificent," he whispered to himself, as he gazed at the world beyond the doors.