No PoV

as the group of 5 set off to Orth Island they felt excited at what they could find at this place but the journey there took almost a day from the weather making them stay the night in the beach side as there isn't many buildings here, the most buildings are in the port but their all warehouses and docks, no place to spend the night

but after that night the climbed the Mountain that went around the island which took most of the morning as Beatrice wanted to do it properly as well as save on MP but as they reached the top the view, they had was completely worth it

however, the sight of countless buildings covering a part of the side of the hill was the most shocking, even if most looked abandoned they weren't told about it but that didn't ruin the sight they saw

the Abyss had a strange beauty to it, yet it could be seen as a hostile place but the thrill foradventure was too strong to ignore making the group slowly make there wasthrough the abandoned town to find a way down as simple jumping and flying downwasn't going to work, well according to the information in the books they have

it took a while, but they found a way down to the First Layer, Edge of the Abyss

slowly throughout the day they went in a random direction exploring where they could while enjoying the scenery, but they saw something which worried Arche

further down, maybe around 40 meters below then they saw a large snake like creature roaming around catching wild animals and eating them alive, quickly they made sure to stay out of its site while Aura was drawing it and writing down anything she saw, and she put a Deadly Scale for it claiming this info will be useful for their time here

it took Aura a while to fully draw it

but in the end, it was well done,and Aura decided to call it a Crimson Splitjaw from its large mouth and crimson colour, she also labelled it as an Unknown as she hasn't had a chance to fightit, but from the way it hunts its strong and deadly to Humans, so Beatrice madeher put it as Deadly or 4 Stars for Humans

leaving it alone they kept going away from the Crimson Splitjaw and towards the western areas where they could descend further to around 80 Meters where they saw more creatures making Aura stop to document them all in her new "Abyss Survival Guide" or the ASG for short

first was the territorial creature they stumbled on and killed with ease with Ninya's ODM Gear, but she shot up 10 meters to kill it causing a slight dizziness while also feeling a bit of nausea from the Abyss, this allowed Aura to write down how quick and how much she ascended for that to happen, 10 meters within a few seconds

the effects of the Abyss's Curse definitely worked quickly making their trip more risky

for the territorial creature Aura called it the Silkfang and rated it Risky or 2 Stars while getting a good sketch of its body while making it look alive and now well dead

with the dead Silkfang behind them they saw it was guarding some kind of Ruins and decided to take alook inside finding it to be fairly small but there was a lot of valuableknowledge inside

there was a strange object with was a glass orb with a needle inside it which point to the depths of the Abyss no matter which way it faced, it was some kind of compass to find the way down deeper but it had not much use, secondly there was a skeleton of a human inside covered in dust and moss but it had a praying pose, Aura also took note of this while deciding calling them  "The Praying Skeletons"

next they found more Ruins hidden away with more of the Praying Skeletons inside as well as strange Artifacts that had unknown purposes, but Beatrice had to keep them in her Yggdrasil Storage which still worked thankfully

eventually they set up camp nearby some Ruins while Aura studied some creatures nearby for her book unlike the rest of the group that ate fish they found in the lakes nearby, Arche called them Demonfish because of how they looked causing the group to stick with that name and overall the taste of the fish was good making it a good food source according to Aura who rated it with a single Star for Danger Scale which meant Harmless

she also took a drawing of it while they caught them and once again her artist skills were great for this

meanwhile Aura watched a newcreature as it slept letting her get a good drawing of it, but she made it lookawake and not asleep for a better look, she called them Hammerbeaks because oftheir beaks and she saw they liked shiny things a lot, but they were harmlessas long as you weren't shiny

reluctantly she slept on the orders from Beatrice as she couldn't stay up all night watching Hammerbeaks sleep

The Next Morning

the group decided to focus on heading down instead of exploring the area for this day with their goal being to reach 200 Meters but progress was slow, there was a lot more Crimson Splitjaw's making Aura theorise a few things from migrating to hunting, either way they took their time as to avoid fighting, because fighting one may attract more of them and the last thing they need is to fight loads of them off at the same time

but even with the slow progress the spirits off the girls stayed strong with no signs of getting worse

during the slow descent they came across a few Ruins with a few valuables inside and more of those Praying Skeletons as well as an old journal written in strange runes, nothing like anyone has seen, Ninya nor Arche recognised it while Beatrice thought it was familiar but couldn't figure it out, she decided to bring it with her to try and decipher in her spare time

continuing down they soon reached 100 meters and saw the area change to a more cliff like terrain with drops up to 12 meters as well as more creatures, many were still not that difficult to deal with

after a few more hours making it late noon or close to sunset, well it's not like they can watch it anymore, but they made great progress with the help of ODM Gear as they used it to rappel down slowly and safely, but it was more difficult for Arche who didn't have any, but she had access to Tier 3 Magic letting her fly

unfortunately Fight Magic is really bad in the Abyss making it just slow falls by a fair amount, so she went last when descending the cliff sides

overall, for the second day they made it down to 482 meters before setting up camp once more, but it was inside a small cave area sheltering them from the rain

as the girls sat around the campfire eating some of the food they brought as there wasn't any Demonfish to catch nearby last lake full of them was 40 meters back up

the mood was still relaxing as they made great progress in the day and with the new addition to the group one tent had 3 people in it while the other had 2, this time Beatrice was with Entoma and Beatrice while Ninya was with Arche

the night was uneventful with nobody needing to be on watch as they were in a hard-to-reach spot for many creatures

as the day started the group woke up one by one with wasting little time before leaving wanting to reach the Second Layer quicker

after they packed up their campsite, they stared to go further down exploring more ruins on the way finding all sorts of things, but one item would be helpful, and it was one Beatrice didn't expect to see at all in this world

In the Ruins

slowly the group entered the old building covered in thick moss and cracks in the walls

there was Praying Skeletons under the moss on the floor in certain rooms, but they were mainly ignored

Beatrice- what do we have here?

Aura- find something?

Beatrice- yeah, i think i know what it is

carefully Beatrice picked up the Item she found and looked at it is using magic to light it up for better inspection, looking closely she realised it was a Spyglass from the cone like shape with glass on both ends, it was dirty but still useable plus it had the symbols from the journal carved into it

Beatrice- it's a Spyglass, useful for looking into the distance and stuff, though it needs cleaning first, find anything else?

Arche- a bit of gold, just a few coins and their old, maybe older than my home kingdom

Entoma- so others may have lived here before?

Aura- oh i wonder how they lived hey i found this as well, it says how deep we are, looks old but not as old as the coins

Beatrice- maybe the Spyglass and that Item belonged to the same person?

Ninya- maybe, though let's keep going, i feel like we're getting closer to it

agreeing the group kept going until they took a break to eat and rest for a while giving Beatrice a chance to clean the Spyglass in the lake they stopped at

when it was ready to use Beatrice tried it and saw it was pretty good, she could see things from far away and she found their next campsite around 500 meters down, at the bottom of a steep cliff with a lake down there

unfortunately, with the pace they've been going at they wouldn't make it before sunset making Beatrice get an extremely stupid idea, jump off the cliff and use ODM Gear to stop before they hit the ground while Arche used her Fly Magic to slow her own fall

if timed properly then they would get far down and close to the Second Layer in one fell swoop, she told the others her idea and to her surprise they agreed and prepared to jump with a strong tension in the air

Beatrice- are we ready?

Aura- yeah!!

Ninya- y-yes

Entoma- yeah, we can do this

Arche- i-i think s-so

Beatrice- then let's do it! charge!

one by one they ran at full speed before jumping off the cliff down below, Beatrice quickly flipped herself around and shot the hooks into the cliffside slowing down before crashing into the ground without many issues, her Gear took the brunt of the damage, but it was still useable

but as she looked around to see where the others landed a loud slapping sound followed by a splash came from the lake, Arche had messed up bad while the others got down without too many problems

it didn't take long for Arche to swim out but when she did her face was bright red and she was in a lot of pain, Beatrice used weaker Healing Magic to help with the pain, but she could only rest to feel better

Aura- i can't believe that worked! oh how deep are we now? eh we've gone down to 1000 meters?!

Entoma- and Arche went into the water

Ninya- is she ok?

Arche- my Magic, it stopped working...

Beatrice- what, your flight Magic stopped working?

Arche- yeah, it hurts...

Beatrice- this isn't good, hang on, Aura keep an eye on her and try to stop the pain with a potion, i need to test something, Message

Beatrice tried to message Ainz to not get any reply, she quickly pulled out a Magic Mirror to try and contact him but the time it took to connect was longer than normal

Ainz- Beatrice, are you ok? you normally use Message

Beatrice- the Abyss has unforeseen effects on Magic, it's been weakened a lot of Flight Magic doesnt work anymore, were going to reach the Second Layer tomorrow and we may lose contact

Ainz- that isn't good, do you need reinforcements to help you get out?

Beatrice- no, i don't know much but there is a curse here, just going up 10 meters quick makes us feel sick and dizzy, for all we know it could be worse for an Undead

Ainz- be careful, I've done some research and it's dangerous down there, can you still teleport?

Beatrice- i don't know, but before i go i need to know something, what's happened since I've left, like any big news

Ainz- yes, you've received a letter from the Princess of Re-Estize requesting a meetup, i had Narabel reply that your unavailable for the foreseeable future

Beatrice- that's good, I'm going to go but I'll contact you before we go into the Second Layer, and before i go try and research anything about Praying Skeletons in the Abyss, we've seen a lot of them

Ainz- i will stay safe my friend

Beatrice- yeah you to

as the call disconnected Beatrice put the Magic Mirror away, she tried to teleport back to the others to only find out that, Greater Teleportation has a bad delay, normally its instant but it took 5 seconds for the spell to work, and the MP Cost had doubled

she didn't waste any time on warning the others that Magic is worse here and they should avoid fighting if possible and try to rely of their Gear and Items

the moral that night fell slightly at the news, but they still wanted to keep going

in the morning they did the normal routine they've adapted before continued on foot not risking anything like yesterday

progress was slower from the steepness of the area but soon they reached it

Layer 2 The Forest of Temptation

To Be Continued

A/N Double chapter to apologise for the lack of updates here, enjoy :P