181 The Unending Plague
The group was mostly silent during the eerie howls that stretched through the horizon like an augury of malice spreading thin across the sky like a winter storm.
Eunji joined them, sitting between him and Xiaodan as she kept her staff tucked close to her chest.
“One more day, right?…Just one more, and we’re out of this Hell?” Sol asked quietly, speaking to nobody specifically.
“Yeah, I sure hope so,” he replied.
It was a melancholic experience, sitting there with a full view beyond the tall, tinted panes of the crimson skies and the fiends that now inhabited the world. In the distance, colossal hellborne entities trampled the streets, with each of their steps echoing far into the city.
After a few hours had passed, most of the group had fallen asleep, save for himself and Ma-Ri. Though Yeong-Un had resolved to “Not wink for a single damn second”, he passed out with Sol in slumber as well, leaning against his shoulder.
He was sitting against the wall, watching the hellish horizon in its somewhat beautiful nature that was heavily veiled by its horror.
“Jeong-Hui.”
Ma-Ri quietly said his name, bringing his gaze up to the dark-haired woman who was standing a few feet away.
“Yeah?” He replied quietly, so as not to wake his sleeping companions.
“I’m going to check out the lower floors for any gaps in security,” Ma-Ri told him, “Do you want to join me? You can rest, if you’d like.”
He stood up quietly without question, “No, I’m ready to go,” he smiled.
Ma-Ri seemed relieved with his answer as the two quietly moved away from the room, heading down the lengthy stairwell of the building.
“I would’ve woken Korain up to come with me, but…he deserves some rest,” Ma-Ri told him.
“Yeah. He’s been pulling overtime,” he responded with a small smile.
Ma-Ri stayed silent for a moment before talking again, “…I wonder where we’d be without him.”
“Worse off, I’d imagine,” he replied.
That time, Ma-Ri didn’t reply, but it was clear she shared the same sentiment as him. Together, they descended the many floors, arriving at the bottom soon enough.
“Well, it’s secure…at least until somebody gets smart that humans are holed up in here,” he said, inspecting the front entrance.
It was boarded up, but a few sheets of plywood and positioned planks were hardly going to stop the man-loathing fiends beyond the walls.
“…That should do for the night,” Ma-Ri said, turning her attention towards the closed door to the side, “…Where my concern lies is with the basement.”
“Yeah?”
Ma-Ri nodded, “Accounting just for the enemies that will stroll through the expected path is a quick way to find yourself taken by surprise. With the variety of foes occupying this world now, it’s not far-fetched to believe some will weasel in through other means.”
“I get what you mean. Something like that happened back at the hotel on that night,” he told her.
They both went over to the closed, silver door, with the young woman opening it to reveal a grimy passage down to the basement.
“Is that so?” Ma-Ri looked at him, “…Wait, I believe I recall this. The Infernals, right?”
“Yup,” he nodded, “Luckily, it seemed Xiaodan and I went down there before they flooded in, but something like that really was glanced over during the panic.”
“Exactly; we must stay vigilant,” Ma-Ri told him. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
Though the stairs that descended into the grimy depths below the building were dank and creepy in nature, the blue-eyed woman didn’t hesitate in her march down, with him not wanting to fall behind as he walked directly behind her.
“Careful,” he whispered, keeping his left hand situated by his sheathed dagger.
“I should tell you that,” the girl replied.
As they reached the bottom of the stairwell, the basement they found was flooded with a good foot of gunky water laying stagnant.
It gave off a putrid smell of liquid that had been left to gather the residue of the grimy lair for an unknown amount of time, but again, Ma-Ri didn’t stop for a moment before stepping into the basement-turned-swamp.
Of course, he had no problem seeing in the darkness that curtained the eerie area, but Ma-Ri was a separate case as she drew her rapier, holding it like a torch as it took on a glow across its thin steel.
“Tell me if you notice anything dodgy,” Ma-Ri told him quietly.
“There’s a whole lot dodgy about this place,” he replied.
They slowly shifted through the gunky swamp, walking past collapsed, tall shelves as crates and cardboard boxes stayed afloat.
What he looked for were any clear, standout weaknesses in the basement’s security: holes in the walls, windows that could easily be broken through, or even pipes.
“…It seems good to me,” he said.
Ma-Ri continued moving forward, reaching the end of the basement, “We can’t be halfway about things like this, Jeong-Hui. Think about what would happen if we overlooked a glaring hole in our defense.”
“Yeah,” he replied quietly, looking to the side, “…I get it.”
He wasn’t just saying this to appease the pragmatic leader; he understood clear as day why the young woman would be so thorough, even if it seemed almost comical in how meticulous she was.
After having lost so much, there was no such thing as “too thorough”; he figured that out for himself.
Though as he glanced to the side for no real reason, he noticed something: a pipe. It was connected through the wall, and of course had to connect with something outside of the building.
What stood out about the grime-laden pipe however was what was staring back at him from inside of it with beady eyes.
A…rat? He questioned.
“Squeak. Squeak.”
Suddenly, the walls began to rumble as the sound of claws rapidly scratching across the metal interior of the pipe system echoed out.
“What is that–?” Ma-Ri spun around with her rapier held.
“…Rats,” he answered, still not fully grasping what was going on.
“Rats?” Ma-Ri asked, just as perplexed as him.
“Rats!” He clarified.
Just then, a stream of black-furred rodents poured out from the pipe, flooding the basement and skittering across the water directly towards them.
“What are these–?” Ma-Ri said.
“Do they have rabies or something?!” He questioned, drawing his daggers.
Though at the same time he said this, the System displayed a prompt designating the rodents as verified foes:
[Enemy Identified: “The Unending Plague” | Level 40]