Silvinholm III

The two women had a chance to sit for a little bit and relax, with Selene checking in with Bronze Team who had entered on the opposite side of the city and started their stealth reconnaissance of the mansions and large estates. It wasn't going to be immediate, despite having X-ray capabilities. While they could see people inside with weapons, they couldn't tell who they were exactly. It would take almost the same amount of time, maybe a little less, than she was going to need to find the princess and verify if she was healthy and safe. Then once she got the report, they'd leave. The problem was they had to check all the mansions, and there were quite a few of them, with homes for the grandparents and some just used as luxury barracks for the captains and commanders.

An hour passed by before they decided to head back out. They exited the small portal and could see the sun was almost gone at just 5:30 pm, with lights being lit in windows, streets and inside hallways.

It could be entirely possible this place might be close to New York or Tokyo, a city that never really sleeps. People might be out at all times of the day... oh, they might be out because of some red-light district, oy…

Hrist opened the front door of the inn and allowed Selene to walk out first, who thanked her for the action. There was a slight blush that appeared on her face before disappearing. Ezra was no longer in the tavern, but almost a mile away, inside a new building.

Meanwhile

Ezra sat down on his bed and put his small purse on the night table. That was the only spot he could put it in his small room at the Pig Belly Inn. The bedroom only had a chest, a night table and a rough bed with a pillow, a small lamp hanging from the ceiling. A window was half closed due to one of the shutters broken off the hinges. He looked at the small number of coins he had left and winced. His goal seemed to be getting further and further away, with almost no chance of earning enough to hire a group of decent ranked adventurers to come with him to the abbey just north east of the city, a day's journey at most.

His thoughts ran through the faces of the sisters and monks of the massive monastery, the orphan children that were always hidden in the cellar when they knew the time of the week had come. How many were still alive there? How long had he been in Silvinholm?

An hour went by as he just sat there, thinking. Maybe he could take some of the small quests to find lost pets? That could keep him going for a few more days. He slid off the bed and proceeded to pull out his prayer beads, begging for a miracle from his goddess. Hopefully something would happen, she would hear his call and do something to help him…

A knock on his door brought him to look at it and blink a few times. No one came to visit him, at least none that were asking for help. There were times when the ladies of the evening would make their rounds, checking to see who wanted to spend a night with them. He had to remain chaste, it was his duty to Elesia… wasn't it? For a priest to think those thoughts, was it wrong? His goddess wasn't against marriage or women indulging in the physical pleasures, but he had no experience in that regard.

The teenager stood up and slowly stutter stepped to the door, another knock ringing out. "Who… who is it?" he asked. Another knock. He unlocked the door and peeked out. A red-headed woman in high quality armor stood there, her blue eyes staring at him. He couldn't see anyone else, but slowly opened the door wider until he saw the elbow of another woman leaning against the wall to his bedroom.

"You're… the woman who asked about Elesia at the guild, weren't you?" he asked.

"Yup. I have a proposition for you. It might make the amount you need to save your… church? Monastery? Mosque?" she said, asking about what it was he was trying to protect as she had tried to make it seem like she wasn't truly interested in what it was called. Selene already knew it was an abbey, a large monastery.

"The abbey, yes. Um… what… you… do you need healing for someone? I'm… I'm not sure I can do much, but maybe if it was a sickness or some minor wounds… I could…" He wasn't wrong. His level was horridly low for what they had planned, but if they kept well behind and followed up after, nothing would happen to them. Blue was higher in level than this boy.

"That's not why we're here. So, we decided to build a small team and go finish a little quest, just a small one. It's totally safe, I promise." Ezra looked between the two women as he thought. He had no experience in a battle, but if she was sure it was alright, it might get him enough money to stay a week or two more.

"What did you have in mind?" he asked, his voice soft and timid. He looked down at her chest a little, though he wasn't staring at her bosom. His eyes roamed for a rank plate somewhere. There was none. Why would she want to do a quest if she wasn't part of the guild? There would be no reward for her, as the requirement was, she had to be a member. Anyone who entered to receive payment and wasn't already one of the ranks would receive no compensation, as it would have just been considered donating their time to protecting the citizens free of charge. If there was no contract, there was no money. It was possible they were employed by the noble houses, doing their part to protect the city.

"Don't worry, it isn't illegal if that's what you're thinking. Just a quick jaunt, we'll be still inside the city." Ezra finally noticed a pair of eyes hiding behind the woman staring at him, then slowly saw the form of a black wolf. He fidgeted a little. No one else had asked him to join their group. There was no way he'd gain experience in adventuring or get the money to save his abbey if he didn't at least try.

"Well… I… very well. If you're sure" he finally said.

"Good! We just have to pick up another team member. I'm Ilana by the way." They shook hands before Ezra ran to his bed and picked up his staff, then headed out the door and closed it. They headed downstairs and out to a nearby tavern with cheap ale. The ranger was inside as Selene expected, sitting by herself and drinking away her life. Her head was lying on the table, passed out. Selene dropped her pack on the table, waking the young girl up with a resounding thump on the wood. She looked up through bleary eyes and glanced between the three people. Ezra seemed to attempt to make himself smaller by scrunching his head down into his robe and averting his gaze. He was just behind the black armored woman who dropped her backpack down.

"Hi there, sorry for the wake up. I'd like to ask you some questions if you'd be willing." The two women sat down and looked at her, with Ezra not knowing what to do. The ranger looked around and took a deep breath.

"Please… I don't want any trouble…"

"We're not here to cause trouble. So, I take it you lost your team in a quest? That's why you're here? What's your name hon?" the empress asked quietly. A tavern wench came over and asked them what they wanted, in which she just asked for some water. The wench cocked her head and scoffed, then left to get a mug for her. The young girl didn't know what to say.

"… Dina… and yeah… I just want to be left alone right now alright? I… I'm not in a good mood…" the girl said as she looked away and tried to breathe, the alcohol still in her system. Her vision was a little fuzzy as she tried to focus on the ground.

"I think I can fix that mood. Where did you have the quest?" Dina looked up at the auburn-haired woman and scanned her face. She seemed to be just genuinely interested, not trying to be malicious. Her head was a little cloudy still, though it was clearing up a bit. That made her reach for the ale mug still near her. Selene moved it.

"Look, I really don't want this. I'm just trying to forget, so please, leave me alone." Selene put her hands up in surrender.

"Alright, but I figured you might want a chance to maybe bring them back from the dead, that's all I'm saying." The woman got up and started to walk away, with Ezra following and Hrist came up behind.

"Wait." They stopped and turned around. "What do you mean?" There were groups of low-level adventurers all drinking and talking, making it easy to speak in private.

"I believe there is a magical item that can be gained that can bring your friends back from that ill-fated quest you had. I want it. In exchange, we'll get your team back to ship shape, plus a little extra for your time." The empress leaned down on the table in front of her. She could smell the alcohol on the teenager's breath. Dina thought as best she could at that moment, wondering if this was a joke or not. Was she making fun of her? No, she didn't know her. There were no rank plates she could see. Maybe the magical item was wanted by nobles and they worked for them? She had heard of wands, extremely rare and all but imaginary, that could raise a person from the dead. Maybe this was what Ilana wanted?

"Are… are you sure? That seems like… like it would be tough to get to…"

"On the contrary, quite easy with us. No harm to speak of, I assure you. Just need some details that's all, and if you're interested, you could come along with our team." The girl blinked as the wench brought over a mug of water. Selene touched the mug and cleaned the water inside with a quick spell, then moved it to her. She had never seen a warrior casting anything, was that some sort of survival martial art? Was she a paladin?

"Ok…" she finally said as Selene smiled and sat down again. Dina explained their quest, how they were sent for reconnaissance of the Old District. They weren't supposed to enter it directly, but the floor of the building they were in collapsed and dropped them into a tunnel. They had to escape, barely saving Dina's life at the cost of the others, a swarm of undead shambling around below. A rope arrow was fired allowing the teenage girl to get out, but the rope pulled out from the beam before the last member of her team could climb, the undead attempting to go up after him. She could remember it vividly and shut her eyes tightly closed, a tear escaping.

Selene raised an eyebrow at the turn of events. She had thought that they would have to travel some distance to find the bodies, but they were in fact right there in the Old District. They might have been undead now, but it might be possible to save them if it was early enough. Resurrection magic could bring them back if enough time hadn't past, the corpses not completely enveloped by the unholy magic that got them back on their feet, with her team arriving about the same time she was turning in the proof of completion; this meant less than twenty-four hours, maybe even less than twelve. A Lazarus System was a sure-fire way of letting everyone know who she was, so that was out of the question. She'd just need to play it cool and continue with her plan.

"Interesting. So, the nobles were already going to do something very soon."

"Uh… yes, but… aren't you working for them?" The dev smirked.

"Unofficially, we have to keep identities secret. People might ask questions, like why the nobles had taken so long to fix this problem, or what was the cause of it. We're trying to keep things calm, collected. You understand." Dina nodded slowly. "So, here's the deal. You seem to have knowledge of that area; did you see anything weird when you fell? The cause of the undead infestation?"

The girl thought carefully as she sipped some of the water. It was a lot cleaner than normal, with the spell the woman across from her cast making it seem almost like the water the rich would drink. The water of the city wasn't bad by any means, but the wealthy tended to have distilled or at least filtered plumbing to their homes. It wasn't that incredible, a few layers of enchanting on the pipes to clean things up, though it was expensive.

"I… I did… some sort of orb in a box held by iron, or some black metal. It was reddish orange, with a green glow. The ambush wasn't in the tunnel… it was in the big room down some stairs…"

"Alright, well, you might not know this, but that could resurrect your friends too." Dina was shocked as her eyes widened in surprise. Selene was clearly lying her pants off, but it was all part of the plan. "So maybe you might want to come with us? We can protect you, promise. Just point us in the right direction, we'll clear the path."

"What are you, Adamantite?" the ranger asked, looking her up and down as she sat in her chair.

"Uh… something like that. Again, we can't say much, trying to stay confidential. You said you understood, right?" The girl nodded. They might have been trying to keep a riot from happening, or maybe people might try to rush the Old District if they knew it was clear, trying to find their lost loved ones and potentially get themselves hurt. If her team had fallen through one floor of a building, it was possible the whole district was unstable from no one living in it to provide repair and maintenance.

Dina took a deep breath and looked at Ezra. He clearly was a priest, though to her he was a she. She then looked at Hrist who just sat there with her arms crossed. Surprisingly, Ezra had not heard much of what was being talked about, as conversations all around them were keeping words from reaching his ears. The only reason Selene and Hrist could easily hear her was due to their absurd Perception stats. The two women could have listened to every conversation in the whole tavern without any issue.

"I… I'll do it. If I can get my friends back, I'll… I'll go." The empress thumped her fist against the table and smiled at her.

"Good. We have a team then. My name is Ilana, this is Brynya, to the right of her is Blue and behind me is Ezra" Selene replied as they got up, with Dina slowly standing and blinking. The dev cast [Cleanse Poison] on her, hopefully working. Alcohol poisoning was a thing after all. It performed what she was expecting, interestingly, as the ranger blinked and felt sober very quickly. Who was this Ilana? Was that even her real name?

They headed outside, with Blue trotting along next to his alpha. The ranger had never seen a wolf that didn't either run away or come with its pack to go after some game. This one was following Ilana like it was normal. As they headed towards the old district, slipping through alleys and roads to reach the walls, Ezra seemed to be repeating things under his breath, the holy spells he had available. This was his first team, he had no idea how well he would do. He didn't even know where they were going either. Dina knew, but had no idea what the two women who built the group were planning.

It took some time to reach the walled off section of the city with two slow people following them. Selene had completely forgotten how languid her movement used to be, now easily moving as fast if not faster than most jet fighters if she wanted to. The priest and ranger were panting at the spot they stopped, with the dev and Valkyrja standing there sharing a glance and smirking a little.

"They are only human" Selene said via coms into Hrist's earpiece. The battle maiden scoffed at that but did share the smirk. Ezra sat down for a second and as the empress walked up to him and handed her canteen of water to him. It didn't have any symbols on it, thankfully, but the build of it wasn't something the priest had seen. He was used to waterskins and cups, not a metal container for water. At least he didn't know that the canteen was enchanted with [Unending Flow], practically never running out. Dina thanked Hrist who did the same as the two women kept their eyes on any patrols of the private police force.

"So, uh… where… where are we going?" Ezra finally asked.

"Where she shows us to enter this place. Should be easy enough to do the job once inside, no worries" Selene replied as her eyes roamed the area. To the two normal humans in the group, it was somewhat difficult to see with lamps in the street and torches on the walls, but to the Valkyrja and developer, it was almost like day with their night vision. The teenagers recuperated and stood back up, waiting for Selene to follow. Dina had them follow her to a run-down storage building, up to the third floor, and across a hidden catwalk made of broken roof boards and some ladders.

"Careful, these things were rickety even before today, one at a time should-" Dina tried to say as she walked across the unstable makeshift bridge, but she lost her footing and nearly tumbled off. Selene caught her and moved quickly across the wooden planks, easily making it to the other side without issue, dancing from spot to spot. "Be ok…" the teenager somewhat finished as the empress put her down.

"Why would your team build that? Or even walk across it?" she asked as she put her pack down and pulled out a zip line and small crossbow, hiding her hands inside the bag the entire time she pulled from her inventory. Once they were out, she shot the zipline anchor on the other side and latched the crossbow to a stone pillar sitting on top of the wall. There were a few of them, seeming to be the structural support of the fortification that had sunken with disrepair. Hrist and Ezra crawled over the rope, or in Ezra's case, was held in one arm covering his eyes as the battle maiden carried him across with one arm holding the rope. Dina was surprised at the capability of both women, but then of course she had seen once in the past an Adamantite adventurer do something similar. Blue had run ahead of Selene before, having his weight distributed over four paws and far more agile than the priest and ranger.

They continued down through the collapsed hallway on the top, with the stairs blocked behind them. They were going to need to use the zipline to get back after. Another stairway headed down to the next floor, slowly moving them closer and closer to the ground, inside the old district. As they reached the bottom, Dina held her finger up to her mouth to tell them to be silent as she slowly opened the barricaded door to peek outside. There wasn't anything moving, but there also wasn't any light beyond the moon. The team slipped out and headed to a small alleyway, slipping from shadow to shadow towards the graveyard.

"Why are we here? This is… this is… the Old District…" Ezra started saying, looking around and almost about to panic. Selene grabbed him and he looked as if he was going to run, slapping her hand over his mouth.

"Quiet! Don't you dare run! You don't know the way back to the zipline and will be killed if you go alone! This is the quest. We go in, grab the artifact, resurrect her friends, back in time for a late night to sleep in your bed." She spoke in a very hushed tone, but he was still scared out of his mind.

"The undead here are legion! They'll kill us all!" he whispered back. She shook her head.

"No, they won't if they don't see you! Their senses are dumbed down so much if they can't look directly at you then they'll just shamble off! Now come on! If you hope to get back, you'll keep following us!" He was about to hyperventilate but tried to breathe carefully and calm down. They ran from cover to cover, seeing the buildings around them collapsed in on themselves. Eventually, they reached the building Dina and her team had hidden in, the second floor. The ground had fallen out, with the second floor collapsed down due to rot. Down below, there was a tunnel lined in stone, with the odd skeleton walking by.

The team stopped and watched with interest, though Dina and Ezra wondered why the two ladies who created this group were tracking the movement so intently. "Five… six… staggered patrol…" Selene whispered out. Hrist nodded as she looked up at her.

"Someone is controlling them inside, this isn't just rampant undead" the battle maiden replied. The dev nodded in agreement, then looked at the other two.

"You aren't seriously thinking of going down there are you?" Dina asked, gawking at her in disbelief.

"You can stay up here if you want, but we're going to find that artifact." Selene pulled out a grappling hook and latched it to a jagged stone. She then tested it to make sure it wouldn't pull away. Both of the women could easily just jump down, but that would raise eyebrows from the remainder of their team, and Blue couldn't follow. The young girl grabbed her arm and pulled at it as their eyes met.

"You'll be killed! Don't go down there! This isn't worth it! There are tens of thousands of those things!"

"I highly doubt tens of thousands. A few thousand, maybe, but the graveyard can't be that large for more than that." Dina seemed dumbfounded, as the auburn-haired woman was either incredibly confident in her abilities or incredibly stupid. Selene pulled away and started to lower herself down, with Hrist lowering Blue right after into her waiting arms. Once they were down, Dina decided to follow, but Ezra wasn't about to enter. All she did was knock him in, with his body falling into Selene's waiting arms. Once the entire team was down, the next patrol showed up.

"No no no… not again… please no…" Dina muttered as Hrist took position and struck the skeleton down quickly, with its partner blocked without much issue. She was faster than her friends, far more proficient with the sword and shield, and didn't bat an eye when the rotting flesh of the hands tried to grab at her from the zombie in the patrol.

"That wasn't one of your friends, was it?" Selene asked as her sword lopped the head off. Dina closed her mouth and shook her head. "Good. Let's keep going. Where did you see this orb thing?" The team quickly ran down the tunnel, seeing open caskets in the walls. They were inside the catacombs, there was no need to attempt to enter via the graveyard. That was probably where most of the undead were roaming anyways, and the tunnels were far easier to fight inside, making numerical superiority pointless.

"Brynya, can you walk behind? Just in case" Selene said quietly as her bodyguard nodded. They could be flanked at any moment.

"It was further up ahead, there was a… stairwell… it spiraled down to an ossuary…" Dina replied. The group slowly moved down the pitch-black tunnel, with a small light orb finally cast off as Ezra bumped into Selene and Dina tripped and fell. A rat scurried past the ranger and she nearly screamed, but Hrist wrapped her hand over her mouth quickly to muffle the sound. "I don't wanna be here, I changed my mind, please can we go back, I'm begging you…" she really was about to hyperventilate, with Ezra about to follow suit. They were surprised by the light orb as well hovering nearby, but Selene showed a scroll in her hand… that didn't actually have anything written on it. There wasn't much point to throwaway magical scrolls other than selling them now, with the empress's mana pool being so huge.

"Easy, easy… this is a lot simpler than you think it is. Hey, look at me. I said we'll protect you, don't worry." Selene helped her up and put her hand on both of their shoulders, shaking them reassuringly. "Just do what you know you can do, that's all there is to it. These undead are very low strength, the only way your friends could have died would have been you were surrounded, right?" Dina nodded quickly and closed her eyes, trying to calm down. "Then that won't happen. Brynya is taking up the rear, they can't do that when we're in this tunnel. Stairway, same thing. Only open areas, which we can easily get our backs to the wall and slide left or right, no breaking forward needed."

The young girl seemed to tremble, but she understood what was being told, trying her best to calm down. They were safe, these professionals were here, they couldn't possibly be silver rank. Their armor was too high tier, this must have been easy for them. There was nothing to fear.

The stairway showed up, with a damaged portcullis to the entrance. As they headed down, their steps seemed to echo a little. Hrist came up next to Selene as they reached a small middle platform between stairways, waiting for the two humans to take a breather. "Can you not cast invisibility on us?" she whispered into her ear.

"I can, but that could give away how strong we are. Look at it this way, we look like amazons to them. That means I can't cast any spells. Another scroll, maybe, but that's camouflage, not real invisibility. There tends to be a little glow from spells usually. I'll figure out how to hide that later" Selene whispered back. Camouflage was a tier 1 spell in Yggdrasil, with Perfect Unknowable being tier 9. Moira, Abby and Giles all said the highest magic they had ever heard of was tier 6 for the most powerful wizards. There was Indomitability and Invisibility as spells, but she forgot what tier those were in. Casting something higher than tier 3 might tip them off she wasn't just a swordswoman. Hrist nodded in acceptance, it just meant they would need to guard against attacks even more.

Selene understood the request and used an envelopment module in her armor to expand invisibility field around the team, letting the two low ranked adventurers she had cast camouflage via a scroll. It was complete bullshit; however, it would at least act as if they were hidden. That seemed to calm them down immensely, as they figured if the undead couldn't see them, they couldn't attack.

The group made it down the last of the steps and stopped at the large opening into the main ossuary. Skulls were piled in alcoves with large stone coffins strewn around the area, all open. Multiple chandeliers where candles could be seen already lit hung from the ceiling. Someone was definitely here running things, commanding the undead.

"Dina, was there a story behind how the undead rose up? Was there another adventurer group that delved into the catacombs?" the empress asked in barely a whisper to the ranger's ear. The girl quickly cupped the auburn-haired woman's ear and tried to explain the fable.

"Supposedly, at least what I know of, there was an adventurer party that went into the place to bury a friend. They found someone that was attempting to raise the dead and fought him. Unfortunately, most of the party died, but succeeded in defeating the necromancer. One of them sealed off the catacombs from the inside to keep the undead from continuing up to the surface though, as they didn't stop moving."

That group got played by someone on the inside or the artifact corrupts. The whole thing might have been planned, with the necromancer being a member of the party. Either an asshole tricking his friends or that thing needs to be crushed after I use it…