The first floor of the never-ending dungeon smelled like rusted chains and low tide. The walls didn’t stand straight; they slouched, leaning at crooked angles like drunks, their tops strangled by petrified roots that had long since turned to stone. The air pressed down, thick and stale. Every breath tasted faintly of iron and salt, like breathing through bloodied seawater.

Monsters roamed here, creatures never seen before above-ground, but so did different kinds of adventurers. There are also bands of half-mad dungeon dwellers from every corner of Terra Roja’s fractured continents, all chasing glory, coin, or something darker. In the lawless depths of this dungeon, scum of the world and exiled convicts find refuge here, if they're capable of holding out against the dungeon's monsters.

This was only the first floor of the Abyssal Labyrinth, and it stretched almost as wide as a small continent. Somewhere in this vast endless sprawl, a massive spiral stairs awaits, leading deeper into the dark.

Up above, there was no sky. Just an endless ceiling of rock and shadow, ribbed and curved like the inside of something huge and long dead. And in that darkness, there was movement. The clatter of weathered bones and the slow, deliberate scrape of blades dragging on stone and ground. Far enough to be out of sight but close enough to know that it wasn’t alone.

Somewhere above, on a crumbling balcony of what seems to be ruins of a long-forgotten house, a female voice calls down in a hushed, frantic tone. “Hey! Fresh meat! Back away, slow... that thing’s definitely not alone.”

Another set of glowing eyes appears in the shadows behind the first. And another. A group of F-Tier skeletons stepped into view, wielding crude, rusted swords. There are definitely more circling about, unseen and out of sight.

The voice above shifts. Urgent. “You can run. Fight. Or follow me. But pick now, stranger. They’re already moving.” With a swift motion, she tossed down a rope ladder. It uncoiled against the stone wall, swaying in the dim light, leading up to the crumbling balcony where she stood.