"I’m Marion," the man extended his hand for a shake and Adrian looked at it for a while before also extending his.

"Adrian," he said simply.

Marion shook his hand for a few seconds and a frown appeared on his face as he asked, "You’re unaffected by the corruption?"

Adrian let go of Marion’s hand before replying, "Rather than being unaffected, I’d like to say I’m pretty resistant to it."

"Resistant huh?" Marion muttered as he placed a hand on his chin and stepped back a bit, "How interesting."

"Why?" Adrian asked as he placed his gloved hand in his pocket, "Is that rare?"

"Rare?" Marion looked up at him before adding, "No..."

"It’s impossible."

"That so?" Adrian muttered before also looking at what was before him, "You seem to be doing fine."

Marion let out a chuckle at his words before shaking his head, "Not at all."

The next second, he removed his robe, revealing his naked upper body riddled with scars.

But what truly pulled attention was the being that was stuck on his chest.

It looked like some type of mutated spider?

Black, web-like veins seemed to be spreading all around it and although it was currently completely still, it felt very much alive.

"I just figured out how to slow it down by merging with my spirit after it became corrupted," Marion explained, "but I’m still on a timer and I’m fairly certain that I don’t have much time left before it fully takes over."

"I see," Adrian muttered as he looked at the spider on the man’s chest before he asked again, "How long have you been in here?"

"Oh right, story time, " Marion seemed excited to share, but he suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned back to the sizzling meat behind him, "I’ll tell it whilst we eat."

He then walked towards a certain part of the house and returned with two bowls, he then walked towards the bird’s meat that now seemed mostly ready and put some in the bowls.

He finally walked towards Adrian and handed him a single bowl before pointing to the clean stone again and saying, "Sit."

This time, Adrian did, but he didn’t eat just yet, not that Marion minded as he also took a seat opposite him.

"Now then, where should I start?" Marion muttered before answering his own question, "I guess we’ll go from the beginning."

Adrian silently listened as he started.

"I was among the first group to be deployed to the corrupted lands," Marion said, "it was a task I and a few others were pretty excited to complete, after all, we were finally going to be of use to the Kingdom."

He paused as he took a bit of the bird before continuing.

"Everything was going well at first and that let us grow overconfident, so we kept going deeper and deeper, beyond our assigned zone."

"Still, despite the increased strength of the beasts we encountered, we were doing fine, after all, our leader was quite a strong one."

Marion took another pause before picking up another bird wing and bit into it, Adrian still silently looking at him, without taking a single bite.

"We discovered this place after choosing a cave to rest but somehow triggered the entrance that led to this place."

"Though, when we first arrived, this place was relatively normal," a frown appeared on his face, "there was a large land mass, but no ocean, and even the corruption was barely there."

"The only problem we encountered was the fact that we couldn’t find an exit no matter how hard we tried."

"At first, we thought it was just a high-level dungeon with a hidden exit condition," he continued, "So we did what any competent team would do, we split up, mapped the terrain, hunted beasts, looked for patterns."

He paused and took another bite.

"But we discovered nothing, no matter how hard we searched, " Marion said, "and that’s when everything started going wrong."

"A shoreline suddenly appeared and with it came this corrupted mana in the air," he continued, "next was the skies."

He then looked up at Adrian before he said, "There were once bright stars that filled these dark skies, but they suddenly disappeared and this darkness took over."

"So, if I had to count from the day we were deployed to now, then I’d save five years or so."

With that, he went silent, finishing his meat before turning to Adrian’s bowl that was still untouched and asking, "Are you going to eat that?"

Adrian just silently handed Marion the bowl and he immediately started eating again, leaving him in his thoughts.

"And your team?" Adrian finally broke the silence after a while, "What happened to them?"

"They now live in the kingdom which they built," Marion responded, "or rather, they’re ruling it."

"So they became kings."

Marion smiled faintly, "Something like that."

A brief silence followed.

"They built a city around what used to be the center of this landmass," he went on. "A safe zone, of sorts."

"Safe?" Adrian asked.

"Well," Marion chuckled, "relatively."

He leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on his knees.

"The corruption is weaker there as it’s filtered through..... methods."

He then tapped his chest again, lightly, where the spider was embedded beneath his skin.

"I used the same principle."

There was silence for a while.

"And you’re not with them because?" Adrian asked again.

"Because unlike them, I’m still searching for a place out of this hellhole," Marion’s expression changed for a second, "they’ve accepted their fates and have gotten comfortable posing as rulers."

"But what they don’t know is that this place is a prison," he added, "something I’d like to call, the sinking prison."

"I see," Adrian nodded.

Silence returned between the two as the man continued eating, only standing up when he was completely done.

He then turned back towards Adrian and muttered, "Now then, are you searching for someone important in the kingdom?"

"Yes," Adrian nodded, "my lady’s currently there."

Marion then glanced at him again and noticed what he was wearing before nodding, "You’re a butler?"

"Hmm," Adrian nodded again.

"Right," he said simply.

Marion then stood up slowly, stretching slightly as if shaking off the conversation.

"Well," he said, glancing toward the entrance, "it’s not safe to stay here too long."

"Beasts will start coming soon."

He looked back at Adrian.

"If you still plan on heading to the city, "a faint grin appeared on his face, "I can guide you."