As they passed the gateway, they could not help but eye the area warily. It felt like they were inside of a building now rather than underground. The walls were smooth, with some architectural flair that involved a lot of straight lines and sharp edges. Unlike the pleasing curved patterns that were embedded in the marble columns that they had been following.
A chill breeze flowed through the passage, causing Exile to narrow his eyes in the darkness. 'If there's a breeze then there should be an exit.' The group continued on in silence. They were worried that their voices would carry in this strange place and alert anything dangerous to their presence.
Exile's eyes narrowed as he held up a hand. "Stop!"
The group paused as they eyed him with curiosity. The only sound they could hear in the passage was their own footsteps. They could not see too far, but they were fairly certain that there was nothing there.
"What's up, Exile?" Clay asked in a hushed voice as he stared in the direction that Exile was looking in.
"There! Can't you see it?" Exile hissed as he refused to turn his head away from what had caught his eye.
"No... What are you... Oh!" Clay hissed as he finally realised what was wrong. He drew his weapon slowly and gestured to the others to do the same. "Is it alone?"
"I don't know... But this confirms there are mobs down here... Damn! I can't even tell what it is!" Exile watched the darkness for it to return. He had seen a sudden glint of light. Three in fact. However, he realised that this was wrong.
There were no light sources down here. So something that was moving was creating these glints of light. But when he thought about it, he thought it looked like they could be eyes that were mildly interested in them. Either way, there was definitely something down there with them, and it was on the move!
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They waited with bated breath. Their muscles were tense as they prepared for a sudden assault. However, nothing happened. Even after roughly ten minutes went by. 'Something isn't right... why didn't it attack us?' Exile frowned as he pondered the reasoning behind the strange behaviour. After all, the whole point of mobs was to make the game world difficult to explore. Was it possible that this one was friendly?
'Doubt it...' Exile scoffed at his own thought as he edged closer towards where he had seen the glints of light. However, he only discovered a smooth piece of wall that looked like a sort of doorframe. The space on the other side of it would have been large enough to hide the body of a person as they peered around it.
'Was it just a scout then?' Exile clicked his tongue as he wondered how long it would take whatever it was to find others of its kind. 'Things are starting to look dicey...' The others were on edge as Exile called them over, but were soon relieved to see that nothing was there anymore.
"Don't get the wrong impression. If anything, this makes our situation worse. Whatever it was knows its way around down here and there's likely more of them. Just be ready for anything..." Exile wore a solemn expression as he led his team through the doorway and further down the tunnel.
Before long, they saw the tunnel was getting wider, which made them feel wary. It could give any enemies enough room to surround their small group or approach them unseen. Exile cursed under his breath as a luminous glow came from somewhere up ahead. He urged the others to keep as quiet as possible as they moved towards the light.
However, the source had been hidden by a sharp, squared corner. It was only when they looked around it that they gasped. Their breath had been taken away by what they saw!
"It's a city!" Leggy almost squealed with excitement.
As the others were looking around at the marvellous ruins where giant gems were used as street lights due to the glow they gave off, Exile fixated on a statue. It was humanoid in shape, except its proportions seemed off for its size. The carved statue wore resplendent armour adorned with real gems. It waved a giant hammer overhead with a single hand while the other held a giant tower shield that could cover its entire body.
What caught Exile's attention most of all was the carved beard. It did not take him long to place what the statue was depicting. "This is a dwarven ruin!"
"Whaaat?" Clay asked in shock as he turned towards Exile. "How can this be a dwarven ruin? Isn't this area supposed to belong to human deities?"
"There's no mistake. Look at that statue. Doesn't the length of its legs and arms seem off? It's definitely supposed to be a dwarf. The question is... Why is something like this so close to Valheim?" Exile hummed as he glanced at the rest of the city from their vantage point. "That at least explains the difference in architecture but... The patterns on the pillars didn't match Valheim's style either..."
Exile's looked over the city once more but could find no traces of the other architectural style. 'There's definitely another race involved with this place. On the surface at least, and the bridge. Would we have found another city if we went the other way?' Just as he was considering who the other race may be, he spotted shadows moving through the city below. 'Looks like they are finally ready to play... Let's see what you are!'