The Ruined Death Knight

With the sand blowing through the wind in the ruins.

Currently laying in front of the towers was anything but a nice sight to see.

"How could this be...to think that this bastard Herald would even die like this..." One of the Explorers mumbled to himself as he moved away from the newly made hole of the towers.

Standing now next to the hole was the priestess kneeling to the ground and taking a praying position, while Isamu and Sean were looking at that ugly sight.

Although them being so high up made them unable to see the...details.

The fresh red blood together with the undead much dark blood with both of them having their limbs broken in unnatural ways.

One could describe such a sight as a cupcake with a strawberry filling that exploded.

But to Sean and Isamu, Heralds death wasn't their main concern.

"So, what will we do now Isamu? Turn back?" Sean asked while he gazed at how the sand was slowly covering Herald's dead body. 

"No...we can't back now with how far we even came. The expense would be huge without having a reward to compensate us. That, and the pride of others would also make them disagree." Isamu said as he shook his head while having a troubled face.

Things didn't look good for them.

It wasn't just that one of their strongest combatants had died off.

But the leading figure of this party died, leaving none other else to lead.

"Are you really suggesting to continue Isamu? You should know that those guys will start to fight any moment to gain the leadership role." Sean said with concern.

If they were in their previous group where everyone had created a long-lasting party, such a thing of who to take the leadership wouldn't have been a problem.

But their group wasn't one as such.

They were just people but together by the use of either Herald's favor or promised reward. Worse of all, the 4 of them were in a way outsiders with the others.

Be it to leave or to stay was unclear.

And the one who would become the leader will automatically have the most control of where the loot goes.

Having experienced the greed of humans before, Isamu's current concern wasn't the possible Lesser Lich that could be hiding in the tower, but his actual treasure.

'If it is something irresistible, then the first ones to die would be us the outsiders.'

Though the chance of that happening was low, it wasn't unheard of an Explorer pushing his team to a death trap to get the goodies for himself.

"I understand your concerns Sean, but we have to continue," Isamu said.

That's right, they had to continue.

Though they were at risk of staying and fighting the necromancer, in the end, there would be a reward.

Running away with their tails behind though would only bring them losses.

"We can't stop here, not when we lost 9 people already..."

Seeing that Isamu had already decided, Sean could only sigh out loud.

"Sigh~I guess we have to do it."

Tapping his sword to his shield, Sean grinned to himself.

"Who knows, maybe if I get that necromancer's head, my reputation to the girls will raise."

Hearing that, the kneeling priestess flinched for a second before standing up and walking towards Sylva, while only giving those two a brief cold glare.

"Anyway, I still find Heralds death strange. I mean, even he fell for the trap, counting the one undead who fell together with him and the two in this floor, they were only enemies of the second tier."

Walking back to their group, Isamu simply shook his shoulders.

"It´s unfortunate, but even if that undead were essentially weak. Their size makes them already a threat. Considering that Herald was probably fighting in the dark too, I believe it´s quite impressive he managed to get all three of that undead, even if he died in the process..." Isamu said.

"Well, you got a point. Fighting in the dark sounds bad. What I don´t understand is why didn´t he just bring light in the room?" 

"And how is he supposed to do that? Don´t you remember that this guy sucked at using life force to create fire? We even laughed at him not long ago when he tried to light the campfire. He wasn´t like our priestess who can blind us at any time."

"I mean...why didn´t he just open a hole through the tower? If he did as such there would be light just like now, right?"

"..."

By hearing that, Isamu went silent while he gazed at Sean with a solemn look.

"Ehm...he probably didn´t think of that? He was probably focused on hearing his surroundings to find the enemy's vague position. At least that´s what I would have done. The idea though is indeed quite good..."

"Right?"

"..."

With an awkward silence resurfacing between those two, they stopped talking about Herald.

"Hey! I am telling you guys that this place isn´t safe anymore! 9 of us died by simply the minions of the one controlling them! Even Herald died for simple 3 of that undead!" One of the Explorers yelled as he pointed at the two bodyguard skull wolves.

"You bastard! Are you saying that you want Heralds death to be for nothing!?"

"If we go now, not only will all our reputation be reduced into dust, we will neither receive any spoils of this tower! We need to stay and fight!

"No! We go to leave! Our lives are much more important than mere coins."

"You saying that because you got yourself covered in those coins, don´t you!"

Witnessing the arguing around him, Isamu felt speechless of 

`Fighting with themselves in the enemy territory Isamu frowned as he walked towards the duo of explorers who were about to get more personal.

"You! Are you looking for a fight!?"

"So what if I am, Huh? If you got the balls the-huh? Why are you look at me like that you little-" Before being able to finish his sentence.

Isamu gave him a quick punch in his face and making fly backward a few meters.

The other one who saw this was stunned for a moment.

Standing tall with his chest pushed forward and his great sword on his shoulder, Isamu inhaled for a moment.

"You idiots! What the hell are you doing! Don´t you guys where you are!?" With his loud voice echoing through the floor, everyone got their attention on him.

"Did you guys forget where we are!? We are in a dungeon with potentially the master of that undead being directly above our heads! We don´t have the privilege to fight among each other!" 

Staring silently at Isamu, they looked at each other with some whispering to each other.

"Who does he think he is..."

"Playing leader already, what a prick..."

Hearing their whispers, Isamu walked to the two who said that while raising his fist.

"Do you think that I want to be a leader of fools who want to run away!?"

"Huh!?"

"What did you just say!?

"You heard me loud enough! We lost 9 people coming up this high while most of us using most of our resources coming into this place! If you want to leave, Leave! But if you forget about getting anything from our spoils!" Isamu said in a confident tone, but to his inside, he was quite anxious.

If 1 or two left, it wouldn´t be a problem.

But if more than half left, then he would have to go back to his words and abandon fighting the necromancer as it would become too dangerous.

`Is there anything else that I can tell them to stay?´ Isamu tried to think of anything to make them stay but to no success.

While the few who wanted to leave were creating groups to leave, the young magic caster who was watching from the said stepped up.

"To think that there would be idiots who want to leave!" He said in an arrogant tone, making them who want to leave frown.

"Though you illiterate might not know, we are currently in a dungeon with a necromancer residing in it! Do you know what this means?" The young man said while pointing his staff to one who wanted to leave.

"What should it mean? It´s obvious that a crazy magic caster is there waiting for us!"

"Tch, tch, idiot. To think I would be breathing the same air as you." The young magic caster shook his head with an expression of self-pity.

"You-!" As the explorers wanted to curses at him, the young magic caster stomped his staff to the ground.

"I will tell you that this means you fool! Where a necromancer resides, such do high-quality artifacts reside! And I ain´t talking about that garbage that you explorers like to call artifacts. I am talking about the real artifacts!"

"Be it a grimoire holding the secrets of immortality or high-quality increasing for enchanting, a necromancer base could be considered the treasure of a dragon! Each piece of equipment sells for thousands of gold! Any fool who wants to miss that can walk away. We won´t need you anyway. You will making me a favor if you do." The young magic caster said as he turned around at patted Isamu's shoulder.

"Now, shall we claim our treasure for our own?"

Speechless for the young magic caster's interference, he nodded while looking back at the people who wanted to leave.

"I won´t stop you if you want to leave." Turning his back at them, he walked towards the next floor door together with the others who wanted to get a piece of the cake.

The group who wanted to leave swiftly realized that some of them were changing sides, making only 6 of them look at the backs of the 15 fellows explores walkings as if they already had the treasure in their hands.

"Dammit..." Biting his lips lightly, the one who was pointed at moved forward while gripping his sword tightly.

"As if I will let you take all the treasure for yourselves!" Saying that, the other who wanted to leave followed the other group.

Pushing the door of the next floor.

They arrived on a floor with stairs all around.