Level 8 - "Cavernous Depths"

SAFETY: Unsafe
STABILITY: Unstable
GEOMETRY: Normal

DANGER LEVEL: High

HAZARDS:
- Life-Form Dangers
- Structural Instability
- Environmental
- Lung Hazards

Surreality: 7	Nostalgia Factor: 1	Population: 0
Chaos Integrity: 7

Level 8 is the 8th Level of The Backrooms.

Description

Level 8, currently appears as a massive complex of tunnels and spaces taking place far beneath the ground, and in the depths of a believed to be infinite cave system. The cave itself features very rough surfaces of various kinds of rock, such as chalk and limestone, among various others. The ground of the Level, contrasting the otherwise jagged and rough surroundings, remains rather smooth and flat, usually appearing as something akin to slate. Upon this ground generally lies a plethora of rock formations, whether that be more minuscule things such as pebbles or debris of a broken stone, or higher scale pieces such as boulders and stalactites, along with stalagmites.

The layout of this Level proves to be challenging when it comes to exploring, with most of its areas appearing to be very cramped and claustrophobic or have a hard-to-navigate environment because of how its ground has ended up forming. A path you can take within Level 8 could theoretically take you in any direction, up, down, forward, to the sides, or diagonally, as the Level is insanely unpredictable in most senses.

Figur 1.0

A medium-sized tunnel of Level 8.

On the contrary, it is actually possible for the Level to have much larger areas than one would rarely anticipate, with some areas being similar to a larger-scale cave. These parts are hard to come across but are fairly expansive when they are found, being estimated to be miles long in their smaller renditions. Cavernous areas are completely filled with stalactites and stalagmites around them, making exploring them fairly difficult, as if moving through a dense forest, on top of that, the stalactites are very common to fall off from the ceiling and land on the ground, and can be very deadly if nearby.

Another big issue within the Level, present everywhere yet most severe in the caverns is the fact that the ceiling and walls are rather unstable, and there is a frequent event that will make Level 8 crumble and fall apart, cascading a stream of debris and dirt around the Level, and due to this causes the Level to be an extreme risk to venture throughout as the crumbling environment can trap you where you are, or simply crush and kill you.

Frequently, there are areas that will have a large, shallow river flowing along it with foggy waters in a green tint. These rivers don't immediately seem to have a source, but it is currently believed that the waters in Level 8 are a form of the waters present within Level 7 as they both are green and Level 8s waters contain traces of 7-BCT-1, yet watered down to a much less severe version, dubbed as 7-BCT-1-B. Because it is less infectious, it is possible to drink from these rivers, assuming the consumer has a somewhat decent immune system. The rivers are present around the Level periodically, coming in many different sizes and intensities along with having the waters be present in the stalactites, dripping from time to time.

Along with the rivers, the cave can occasionally have different forms of minerals and crystalline formations such as copper, malachite, copper, coal, and a variety of others that all generally are found within Baseline Reality caves along with some Backrooms unique minerals such as Firesalt. These are rare, however, and generally end up in the corners and cracks of the smaller areas of the Level.

Figur 2.0

A cavern within the Level.

In this place, the cave generally doesn't contain natural light, instead being pitch black everywhere one goes. Despite this, though, the cave does occasionally have a few different forms of light found within it. The light source most commonly found is a tall, industrial floodlight rooted into the floor of the Level. It oddly enough doesn't have any form of wires, or anything that would indicate functionality, so by all means it should not work. The floodlights are rather bright, emanating a loud buzz akin to the fluorescent lights of Level 0 and flickering from time to time with rapid bursts.

Another common light source found here is an odd type of vine named 'Phosphor Sprawl', and as the name suggests, has a material similar to phosphor along its desaturated, turquoise vines. It generally is found along the ceilings of the Level, especially in corners and more damp portions of the Level. The actual light it produces isn't too noticeable if you were to compare it to another light source, but in the dark, is very easy to see, and can make exploration easier.

One should be aware that the caves of this Level are a hotspot for many different variations of Life-Forms, such as Smilers, Hounds, Hollows, and many others, along with typically dangerous species of the Life-Form, such as Primordial Smilers. These Life-Forms generally wander through bigger areas of the Level, but smaller ones such as Deathgrammites may be found in the more claustrophobic areas. This Level is also home to a Life-Form of its own, the Aravoichs, which are documented later in the page.

If attempting to delve deeper within the tunnels of the Level, one should be aware that the deeper and deeper you get within the Level, the higher and higher the temperatures will rise. It initially starts at around 5°C, but will slowly shift to near unbearable heat for most given around a mile down, with the reasoning being unknown for now. The area found far down below Level 8, is named 'The Core'.

The Core

Figur 3.0

The outside of the core seen from one of the megastructure's catwalks.

The Core is hidden deep in the depths of Level 8, where most travelers normally won't come across it. It seems to be a giant metallic megastructure, with the middle being occupied by what seems like a massive red burning sphere, resembling a small star. This megastructure is filled with rooms full of computer terminals and offices. Most computer terminals are turned off, and cannot be turned on. Terminals that are on, usually display an error message, or a bunch of text and notes in an unknown language. Trying to interact with anything on the screen, or pressing any keyboard key, will automatically crash the system, shutting down the computer permanently. There are rare occasions where a traveler manages to successfully interact with the computer for a few seconds, yet this hasn't helped much as everything still was unintelligible.

In the center of the megastructure is a giant red star, surrounded by a total of 8 massive pillars. 4 of them are mounted on the ceiling, while 4 are grounded into the floor. All of these pillars seem to already have slightly melted, one pillar being, at the time of writing this, almost completely melted. The walls of the computer terminals and the rest of the structure have as well been diminished into a large puddle of molten metal. Due to this and the temperature, it isn't recommended to explore this megastructure without proper equipment. Catwalks also lead around the red star, these are highly dangerous to take though, as most of them are completely melted.

It has also been noticed that The Core has been heating up ever since the discovery of it. It's unknown if this increase in temperature will ever stop, or if it will continue heating up till the eradication of the megastructure, or maybe even Level 8. Some people also theorize that this red star might also explode into a supernova at some point, completely erasing Level 8. But this event has never been recorded before, throughout the entire history of this Level.

Due to the destruction that this red star has caused, it's very difficult to explore the multiple floors within the megastructure. The elevators within the structure are always broken in the best-case scenario. The worst case scenario, and the most likely scenario, is that these elevators will plunge down multiple floors, the moment they've been stepped on, which will most likely end with death due to the fall. Even if a traveler survived the fall, it's basically impossible to get back up, and they're most likely to die from an Aravoichs, or due to starvation or thirst. Staircases also exist within the structure, although these always lead up, and usually have holes inside of them, due to the red star melting it. The upper floors don't have much more than the lower ones. The upper floors are also a lot hotter than the rest of the floors.

Weirdly, it's possible to find multiple areas where this megastructure lies. Each location is the same when compared to the others. It has also been noticed that when changing something in one location, it will also automatically change the same thing in the other locations. This can theoretically lead to scenarios where objects are moved without anyone being there because, in actuality, the object has been moved to another location. The Core is the only region where this distortion of geometry is present.

Aravoichs

Aravoichs are a type of Life-Form exclusive to Level 8. It appears as a large, monstrous arachnid with 16 legs, that is very dangerous for a variety of reasons but isn't too common within the Level.

Figur 4.0

A clear image of an Aravoich.

An Aravoich varies in size usually but is approximately 9 inches on average, which is close to the full height of an average human head. Their body is fairly similar to a Baseline Reality arachnid, with the exception of its inexplicable count of legs, generally ranging from 10 to 14 along its large body. These legs are long and have many joints along them, and considering that it seems to lack a bodily structure that prevents it from moving its legs in unexpected ways, means that it is extremely good at traversing the cavernous environment of the Level.

The skin of the Life-Form is a brownish beige mixture and has a complex pattern running along its body in a darker shade, with this same shade being present along its legs, albeit in a different, more straightforward pattern, simply being the repeated pattern of stripes.

The main reason why Aravoichs are as dangerous as they are, is because of their 2, highly-poisonous fangs, which are mounted just below their eyes. Their main hunting tactic is to climb along the ceiling of Level 8, and wait for any unfortunate traveler to pass below. From there it will drop down, using silk to prevent it from missing its target, and then snatching, preferably the traveler's neck, injecting the poison straight into their bloodstream. Sometimes may also attack anywhere else if necessary. Afterward, the Aravoich will try to bail and run away from the traveler, most likely trying to climb back up the ceiling. From there on, it will continue to stalk its prey till it collapses, as an aftermath of the poison.

Aravoichs produce very strong silk, at a very fast rate as well. The silk seems almost unbreakable without any tools. Probably the easiest way to destroy the webs of an Aravoich is through the use of Firesalt, which can be found throughout this Level. Due to the rarity of Firesalt, it isn't recommended to torment Aravoichs with it, except if your life depends on it.

Aravoichs hunt for prey, usually alone, without the company of any other Aravoichs. It's difficult to find Aravoichs that are even remotely in the vicinity of another one of its kind. It's theorized that they are very territorial Life-Forms, and rarely cross into the territory of other Aravoichs. For now, this theory is unconfirmed, yet it's very likely that this is the case.

History

Due to Level 8's age, it's incredibly difficult to pinpoint an exact date of discovery, nor the one who actually discovered this Level first. There were multiple people who claimed to have discovered Level 8 first, yet most of them lack any evidence or have evidence that is simply impossible the way they've described it, and due to date differences that was feasibly impossible. Meanwhile, The Core was discovered back in 1961, by an unsuspecting traveler, who was wandering to the source of the rising temperatures.

Events

The only event present within Level 8, is a complete collapse of brittle parts of this Level. These can easily kill any unsuspecting traveler next to it. This happens all throughout this Level at the same time and can be heard echoing throughout it. Often rivers may also expand during this, due to the walls keeping them trapped, collapsing. Level 8 will slowly recover over time from this event, till it collapses all at once again. This event is often also compared to a similar event present in Level 0.