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The adventurers descended the cold stone steps. Once all three had left the kitchen, the familiar noise of the stove sliding across the floor echoed down the passage. As the light from above faded, the entrance closed up. There was no turning back now.

As they continued down the steps, a whirring sound came to their ears. A low moan followed by the sight of a dimly lit wisp began approaching from lower down.

"I said GET OUT!!!" The spirit they had seen earlier whizzed through Fluffy, Kirito and Rigurt, like a ghost. The draught he created extinguished the group's torch and they were plunged into darkness. The spirit once again disappeared into the air.

Though now able to see nothing, the adventurers managed to creep slowly down the remaining steps until they reached the bottom.


THE CELLAR

It was far too dark to see virtually anything in the damp cellar. However, about 30 feet from the base of the steps, directly in front of them, they could see a small lantern hanging from a hook on the wall. Below the lantern sat a chest. Other than the chest and the lantern in the distance, nothing but darkness could be seen.

Kirito began to walk slowly toward the lantern, hands out in front of himself and testing each step before taking it.

Kirito: Like a zombie, Kirito slowly walked straight forward on a central path across the cellar.
He felt nothing with his outstretched arms. His feet shuffled across a dusty dirt floor.

As he neared the centre of the room, the ground began to feel less firm as he tested it, and he started to find it more difficult to lift his feet.

"That's not good," Kirito said. He reached down to feel the ground.

Kirito: The ground beneath Kirito's feet felt loose and spongey. As he stood on one spot, he could feel his feet start to slowly sink into the dirt.

"Quicksand!" Kirito exclaimed before stepping back quickly, trying to move back to solid ground.

Kirito: It required some effort to lift his feet out of the ground that was trying to pull him down. Luckily for Kirito, he had been cautious when walking forward, and hadn't ventured very far into the quicksand. He managed to make it back to the solid ground, but his left shoe got pulled off as he trudged away from danger.

"Well, poop waffles," Kirito said. "That was half of my favorite pair of shoes."

Time has lost its meaning for Rigurt. After a solid week of thinking he proposed:

"We must increase the area of contact between our feet and sand"

and started to crawl on all his fours.

Rigurt: Rigurt got a little further into the centre of the room than Kirito had, before he too felt his hands and lower legs start to sink into the soft ground.

"That's just going to make it faster for it to kill you," Kirito said. He made his way over to the left side wall and walked slowly forward to see if the quicksand was only in the middle of the floor, or if it extended to the walls.

Kirito: The ground on the left side of the room started off firm; it then continued to remain firm as Kirito walked forward. Just as he was feeling more confident that the ground beneath him was safe, he realised that he could now see the remaining floor between himself and the chest. It looked safe.

Kirito noticed the chest was on a small stand, and the lantern swung very gently on a hook above it.

Kirito walked to the chest to open it.

Kirito: The chest lid opened with a squeak. It was empty.

Kirito took the lantern and attempted to shine some light on Rigurt's situation.

Though Rigurt was a short distance in front of Kirito, the light from the lantern illuminated him enough to be seen in his crawling position.

About 4 feet in front of Rigurt, an envelope sat on the sand.

On Kirito's left, a wooden chair and a table with two drawers underneath could be seen by everyone.

Fluffy reappeared out of seemingly nowhere yet everywhere or was it sidewheres? Or maybe, he had fallen asleep and had somehow managed to catch up with the other two without them noticing. Or maybe, this was alll a dream and he was day dreaming. Or he had simply gotten lost and ended up finding the other two. "So, what did i miss?" He inquired.

Kirito ignored Fluffy and went to the table with the drawers. He opened the one on the right, assuming there was one on the right. If there was not, he opened the topmost drawer.

Kirito: Inside the right hand drawer was a purple velvet pouch and a folded piece of paper.

Kirito took the pouch and the paper. He unfolded the paper to see if there was anything on it.

For its small size, the pouch was surprisingly weighty.

Unfolding the paper, Kirito found a handwritten diary entry which read:

5th May
The Maze is almost complete. I am happy with the progress but I hope that I have done enough. Only time will tell.

28th May
I think it is ready. I shall now keep the crystal here so that only I can g

The writing becomes too faded too read any more.

"Find anything interesting?" Fluffy asked Kirito whilst scratching his own ass.

"Maybe," Kirito said. He opened the pouch, expecting some kind of crystal.

"Is it something i can store in my ass for safekeeping?" Fluffy joked to Kirito whilst randomly doing a moonwalk.

Kirito: Inside the velvet pouch, Kirito found dozens of ball bearings.