Verlon glided along his rope like a fish in the water as he sank to the floor below. He focused on a safe descent more than anything as he carefully watched the area directly around him. The chamber he blew a hole into was a wide circular one with a few knocked-over benches and placards around the central statue. The rotunda had open space for a hundred feet before a gold-gilded balcony wrapped around the entirety of the room. Then it was open space all the way up to the golden dome his rope dropped from.

His Mire-counter's pace picked up, increasing two or three times as fast as above the surface. The miasma was much thicker down here, maybe even close to a tier-cour contamination zone. Such places weren't uncommon in Endenheim. Areas that had vastly higher Miasma than the surrounding zone were where the miasma counting device got its name. They were known as Mires and tended to produce far deadlyier mutations among the creature's and plants in the area.

Verlon reckoned he had about three or four hours before the miasma started to get to him. Thankfully, he shouldn't be down here for too long so he would be able to recover quite quickly. Assuming the miasma settled in quicker than expected, he also had a few Sun tablets to fight off the mutative effects.

The giant statue in the middle depicted a stalwart king raising leaning over his shield and sword. He had a confidant swagger to his face as he smiled down towards the base of the statue. A crown, the same golden color as the rest of it, sat atop the man’s head.

He didn’t see any obvious traps, then again, if it was obvious it wasn’t a good trap. He set foot onto the gold and gray tiled flooring of the room and cautiously cast a glance around the shadowed depths. The darkness covered it well, but he could see multiple doors off to one side and two hallways branching off either side of the statue.

Cracks spiderwebbed up the walls and on the dome, but nothing looked like it was in imminent danger of collapsing. If anything, the ruin looked like it could stand the ravages of time for another few centuries, just as it had in the past. He moved first to the placards in front of the statue. After moving it upright he took a charcoal rubbing of the engravings. Any bit of history was useful, in his opinion, as it might help piece together the history of his world and Endenheim.

Verlon moved around the dark chamber with his torch, lighting up the areas around the central statue as he tried to figure out what to do next. Realistically, he was lucky to not have triggered anything as of yet. If he kept pushing his luck, a trap was bound to be sprung somewhere in the ruin.

And yet he wanted to continue exploring. The allure of relics and other treasures drew him to one of the side hallways like the moon to a moth. Red lights illuminated the hallways so he could see the dozens of doors all the way down their length. The hallway, and the one on the other side for that matter, were covered in a chain link fence made from the golden material used in the Empyrion Kingdom’s, the ancient civilization of gold and gray, architecture.

Empyrion gold sat far apart from normal gold. It was pretty just like normal gold, yes, yet it sat in an entirely different field of durability and resistance. Empyrion gold was far stronger than steel and had a natural resistance to almost every kind of corrosion. It was only semi-weak to explosives, as evidenced by the small hole in the golden dome.

Anyone not in the know would assume that this fact made Empyrion gold extraordinarily valuable. Unfortunately, the Empyrion Kingdom used some kind of lost technique to mold the metal when constructing it. Without that technique, the metal was entirely useless due to its impossibility to mold.

So came his current problem; an Empyrion gold chain link gate blocked further progress into the building on both hallways. He had two more sticks of dynamite to use, so he could technically just blow a hole through the wall. Verlon resisted that idea. Occasionally ruins had detection systems that turned on automated traps. It wasn’t worth the risk, assuming he had yet to trigger one.

Verlon decided to double back up the rope and try for the rotunda’s balcony instead. He clambered up the rope until he was on par with the crowned head of the statue. Then, he pushed off from the statue and swung to the other side of the room. He fell short and slowly worked his way up to the proper distance, hooking his legs onto the gilded railing. He pulled himself up and tightly secured the rope to the railing so he could get back down.

The balcony had much the same layout as below with two hallways on either side. These two, however, had double doors instead of gates. He tried the door closest to himself; no luck. The golden doorknob was locked into place.

Verlon moved over to the other side of the balcony with a faint bit of hope in his heart. As he drew closer to the, he involuntarily took a step back and drew his pistol. The door had been blown off its hinges and leaned up against the balcony, letting its red light bleed through.

He cautiously peeked around the doorframe down the hallway. The hall was rather large with doors spaced out along the length of it. Close on his side sat a staircase going down into the building. Empyrion gold chains on fancy pylons had covered the path down at some point, but no longer. They had been tossed to the ground by what looked to be the same force that slammed the double doors open. The red lighting seemed to come from some kind of emergency lights placed evenly around the roof.

He carefully worked his way over the doors and stepped into the hallway. He moved over to the chains and unhooked them from the pylons. The chains would be rather useful should the situation arise that he needed them. They rattled loudly, so he changed his mind and simply left them on the floor. He would grab them on the way out so as not to alert anything that may lurk in the building.

The chains weren't the only thing that were loud. His Mire-counter's ticks were picking up once more, though not as noticeable as when he first repelled down into the ruin. It was a worrying note and, assuming the trend continued, meant that this ruin may even be a tier-five mire. He made a quick note in his journal before continuing on.

Verlon moved down the hall with his revolver at the ready as he tried the doors all the way down the hall. He was careful to avoid the occasional faint beam of green light across the ground, only visible thanks to the vast amount of dust coating the entire interior. There was no telling what kind of horrific event would occur if he were to trip one. Death might be a luxury based on some of the tales he had heard. Thankfully, the lasers were quite a common security feature of ruins, so he knew how to avoid them.

Almost all of the rooms were locked, and the few that weren’t seemed to be simple offices, albeit trashed ones with furniture thrown about everywhere. There weren't any emergency lights in the offices, so his torch still had its uses. It seemed even the Empyrion Kingdom had its fair share of pencil pushers and politicians. Nothing in the offices were of value. All the books and papers had rotten to nothing and the devices they used were bio-locked. Nobody but the owners could use them, just like most things in a ruin. It was an unfortunately common issue. And an annoying since the devices could be hiding a treasure trove of power or information.

The end of the hallway had caved in entirely, its previous space buried beneath a mountain of rubble. It was unfortunate, but the ruins were ancient after all, so not all that surprising. He turned around at point and walked down the stairs.

The floor below, maybe the fourth story considering how tall the roofs were, had a similar layout to the last. Almost every room was an office, and almost all were locked. He managed to find what appeared to be a janitorial closet with a simple medical station. Nothing fancy, just some bandages and disinfectant he snagged to replenish his supplies.

The third floor told a different story. The way down further hid behind a security gate of Empyrion gold. What looked to be a biometric scanner and a card scanner locked the way as they still glowed with power. Whatever the Empyrion Kingdom used as a power source was damn impressive considering the long, long time the building had sat abandoned by its creators.

What appeared to be meeting rooms covered the third floor. Most had their furniture tossed aside, presumably by the same force that tossed up the rest of the rooms. He was beginning to think a bomb or something hit the building considering how the furniture was displaced.

Every meeting room sat unlocked, allowing him easy access to their potential loot. Most of them were entirely empty though he struck it rich on the last, and by far largest, room he checked. The meeting room seemed to have been in the process of holding some kind of convention based on the sheer size and amount of chairs scattered about the room.

He carefully worked his way into the room, guided by the light of his torch. Nothing in the room caught his interest, but the stage housed something special indeed. A golden ball sat on a pedestal in the very center of the stage. Two pure white handprints sat on either side of the orb.

Several devices were lying on a nearby table. One was a small hoop, almost like a bracelet made from a dark metal. Gold lines streaked all over the dark metal with no apparent rhyme or reason. Another seemed to be some kind of badge depicting a bird made of fire. The last was an injector of some kind of fluid. He picked it up and shook it a bit, but the liquid mass barely moved as if it were a solid like sand.

He shoved all three items into his satchel. They looked important. He couldn't tell if they were relics thanks to the overpowering feeling coming from the golden orb. It was definitely a relic of some kind based on the raising of his hair just being in close proximity to the device. He had never seen such a peculiar device in all his time of traveling and researching Endenheim. The handprints on the sides of the golden ball in particular were quite interesting.

Should… should he touch it? Verlon wanted to, if only to see if the orb would react to his touch. There was danger in touching the item though. It was obviously of importance since it sat up on a stage. What if by placing his hands on the sides, he would turn it on and it turned into a death bot or something? Curiosity killed the cat and all that.

It's just… well, he would certainly report the ruins to his employer when he went back. His employer would then probably send out a raid team. If he didn’t try to interact with it now, he had the feeling he would regret it for the rest of his life. He wouldn’t get a chance to come back to it later. Who knows, maybe the orb was just some kind of container and a high-grade relic hidden inside of it.

Verlon’s indecision wailed within him for a long moment as he paced back and forth in front of the ball. To break it down, he didn’t want to try interacting with the device due to its potential dangers. And yet his curiosity demanded he at least try. Or maybe it was his greed to find something of value.

But he already had items of value. He got the Heartbloom he wanted and he would be paid a ton of money assuming he returned to Preshen. If he interacted with the orb and it killed him, it would a hundred percent be due to his own greed.

But it could be a high-grade relic! Just imagine all the things he could do if he were blessed enough to have a high-grade relic. He maybe wouldn’t even need a team to become a green rank and could continue on his search for answers! If it was strong enough, he might even become a White Cross, a living legend who would be supported by the empire in his search for knowledge.

Decisions, decisions. Verlon decided to take a step back and sat down against the wall. He had his usual simple lunch of dry rations and water as he spent nearly an hour just looking at the golden orb. Finally, he had enough. With determination in his heart, he packed his things and stood in front of the orb. Before he could talk himself out of it, he placed his hands on either side of the orb.

Nothing happened. Then, a metallic groaning came from the orb and intense heat flashed along his hands. His palms radiated agony as the burning sensation entered into his very veins. He tried to pull them off with a scream, but no noise erupted from his mouth nor did he move. His entire body locked up as the pain surged up through his hands and into every part of his flesh. Every beat of his heart spread the burning agony around his body and through every muscle. The torture became too much for him as he collapsed to the floor, taking the orb and pedestal down with him as he went, and faded into unconsciousness. The last thing he heard was a high-pitched whining sound repeating itself from the hallway.