“Found it!”

The karst-like room was large and a natural labyrinth. Following Thorn’s trail had proved difficult in this maze, costing them precious time. What they determined was this room had five tunnels connecting to it, including the one heading back to Tree-Hill.

“We were right to ban access to this place. It seems to connect to several other hills, probably ones we haven’t explored. No telling what dangers await in them.”

“It’ll just be more rodents, probably of even unsual’er size.”

Twig and Charity have always had to deal with Boss’ reckless nature and his nonchalance. Tonight will be no different.

“You can discuss the finer points of cave regulation at some other time. For now, we head down this route.”

The route was the same one the kids went down. All that was left for the adults were a bunch of rodent corpses. With little worry of ambush, the party sped through the tunnels until they heard a buzz that turned into a roaring noise as they got closer and closer.

“It’s a hoard!” Boss gave a warning back to the party.

“Damn, must be a flying rat nest somewhere. Who the hell pissed them off?”

“Less chit-chat and more slaying.”

The narrow corridor didn’t have enough space to spread out and fight as normal. The only choice was a spear formation. Boss was in the front, Ember and Fid to his sides, while Steinn was behind the three. Twig and Charity are left in the back to provide additional support.

Boss charged forward with his shield, using [Enhancement] to boost his strength. He used his sword whip to distract and disorient the swarm. The mass of flying flesh that was barreling toward them was turned chaotic and disordered. The few that came charging bashed into Boss’ shield and were rebuffed.

Behind Boss’s protection, Ember lashed out with shots of fire. Each shot scorched deep lines into the swarm. The smell of burnt flesh quickly filled every cavity of the cave. Ember’s rare [Sage Energy Manipulation] showed that he still lived up to his nickname with how fast flying rats dropped out of the air.

Fid’s [Perfect Energy Manipulation] was a step down from Ember’s Sage rank. Still, with the level difference, it was just as strong. She pulled the light from the flames, turning them black. Her specialty was light and her
“spears of light” pierced deep into the swarm. She was aiming for the queen.

Stein was producing copious amounts of flame using his [Zoning] spell. Unfortunately, moving the elemental zone required constant maintenance, not allowing him to do anything else. Not that he needed to, with Boss as shield and Ember and Fid as sword and spear, the party was barreling through the tunnels.

In the deep darkness, the flames lacking all light were an even deeper black. Their edges illuminated by Fid’s spears. The black flames danced around the party and sprang forth in a tango with the spears. The spears of light and jets of black flame tore through the rodents. All that was left was a road paved in burning flesh stamped down by the boots of the party.

Twig shouted directions, guiding the party through the darkness and the swarm. They were closing in on the queen. Once she was gone, the swarm should disperse without her riling them up into a frenzy.

“Found her! Turn right.”

The queen was significantly larger than her soldiers. There was no getting past her. Her size would typically mean that she could dominate and eat anything down here, but now it meant she was nothing more than a giant target.

Ember blasted the corridor with every last lick of flame. All of her “Royal Guard” were incinerated, leaving her vulnerable. It was Fid’s turn to jump in. She coated her halberd with light, and despite only having [Basic Halberds] as a skill, her blow tore a hole through the queen’s body, killing her.

“Done.”

“If the kids encountered this, they were likely pushed deep within.”

“Yeah. The good news is they weren’t killed by these runts. They would have feasted and calmed down if that was the case.”

“Being pushed deep into these caves isn’t exactly good news, but you’re right. We should keep moving.”

Despite being higher level than the rodents, they used a significant amount of Mana to kill them as fast as possible, no holding back. After the Battle, Fid used her unique [Lifebind] spell to transfer her remaining Mana to everyone else and then used [Elementalist - Life] to start recovering her Mana. Considering how slow the recovery is, she’ll luckily have enough for the next fight, but it won’t be enough to recover the party again.

Hopefully, there won’t be much more before we find those kids.

Twig used his [Scrying] to track the small changes Thorn left on the terrain and to watch out for the remaining [Flying Rats] scattering about the place.

“I see something. It’s a door, I think. Next two lefts, then right.”

They sped through the tunnels, savaged the rodents, and made it to the door in only a few hours, but they hit a dead end. The door was buried in dirt and not a single one had [Gaian Manipulation].

“If I had developed [Room] instead of [Teleport], I could have swapped us to the other side. Unless we can make a small hole in the door, I can’t teleport us to the other side.”

“We’ll have to break through it, either with magic or with steel.”

“Magic would be faster, but depending on what’s beyond this door, it might be better to waste time instead.”

“How about we have the gods decide for us.”

“I would be happy to pray to the light, but asking for our decisions to be made for us is slothful.”

Steinn pulled a coin out of his purse.

“Heads for magic, tails for steel. Fiðrilýsa, would you do the honor?”

“Of course. May our fate entwine with light.”

The coin landed tails up.

“Looks like it’s my turn then. I’ll use [Sage Energy Manipulation] to melt a hole through the door. Steinn, keep my forge fueled.”

The typical Energy Manipulator doesn’t have the precise control Ember has. As both a sage-level user and a smith, he was uniquely qualified to concentrate flames into a forge made solely out of fire. He concentrated the fire into a single spot, catching and forcing back in any stray flames. Any that die out are replaced with more fire from Mr. Steinn. It took an exhausting four hours, but Ember was able to burn a hole large enough for them to crawl through.

“Impressive. I should consider improving my [Perfect Energy Manipulation] if this is what a sage-level version is capable of.”

“Thanks, but I’m all out of mana and I’m about to pass out.”

“You gave me just enough time to fully recover all my Mana. I’ll use [Lifebind] to recover you, but as for the exhaustion, you’ll have to rely on Charity. You won’t be fighting fit, but at least you won’t be defenseless.”

“Thanks.”

They crawled through the melted door and what awaited them was the paved hallway the kids had gone through. Seven more gates awaited them; this time, though, they were left open. After walking through the last gate, they existed the tunnels and entered the Lowlander’s [Hidden Village].

“This isn’t good. Twig, investigate quickly.”

Twig rapidly moved his [Spying Eye] through every window and alleyway going deep into the village.

“Undead in every home. All skeletons. If there are any spirits, there aren’t many.”

“How about the kids?”

“At the top of the ziggurat, there is a strange formation of dirt. Five spikes are sticking out.”

“Five, huh? Thorn must have done it to give us the location and let us know all five of them are safe.”

“Then we have a plan. We sneak are way up, get the kids, then blast our way out.”

“If we get caught before then, we’ll be swarmed by every skeleton in this town.”

“No. That won’t be acceptable. We’ll banish every last skeleton down here and then sanctify the land.”

Fiðrilýsa Valkyrie of the Light would never allow the party to leave the undead down here. She was looking to Charity to see if he was coward enough to forsake his vows.

“I agree with Lady Fiðrilýsa. The kids are safe for now. We should take this opportunity to make the area safe. We won’t be able to blast our way out if each of us is carrying a wounded child.”

“Then, how do you propose we destroy hundreds of skeletons?”

“It’ll take a while, but it’s possible. Steinntårn, on my signal, start producing as much light as you can. A miniature sun would be best. Ember, I trust you can manipulate Light.”

“Yeah”

Both men agreed to follow Charity’s directions. Light was the best option down here.

Charity started up multiple spells. First was a high-level [Totem] spell to temporarily sanctify the land. The law he chose was Disempower Undead, centered between them and the ziggurat. The result was all the skeletons jumping out of their houses, searching for a target.

Charity’s next spell was a mid-level [Totem]. This time the law was Empower Holy. Since he was only using a mid-level casting, it wouldn’t be as strong, but this way, the others can take advantage of the undead being weakend.

With two spells requiring maintenance, the best Charity could do was move around and fire his crossbow. If he tried to maintain a third spell, he wouldn’t even have enough brain power to take a step forward without breaking a spell.

“Steinntårn, Now!”

With the order given, Steinn created his artificial sun in the sky. As soon as that happened, Twig could see every undead in town start moving towards them.

“No spirits yet.”

With that relieving news, Fid used [Perfect Energy Manipulation] to turn the Light energy into Holy energy. The Elemancies of Light, Electro, Life, and Tone can all be transformed into a special form of Elemancy. A technique that can only be used by someone with Perfect or Sage manipulation. Maintaining this spell would reduce how many attacks she could make by a third, but the trade off here was well worth it.

Ember, Steinn, and Fid stepped forward, while Boss stepped back to guard the nearly defenseless Charity. The three were going to be using [Manipulation] to cut down the undead with holy energy.

Steinn was overjoyed to finally use his greatsword. Using [Stance of the Alchemist], he wrapped his blade in the holy energy. Any undead struck by this would likely disintegrate on the spot.

Ember rained down arrows of light in great arcs across the hoard. While not nearly as powerful as Steinn’s swings, the arcs hit several dozen at once. Most of the skeletons would disintegrate after only a few of these arrows hit them.

Fid was tossing her spears of light. This time they were smaller and she was throwing many more of them. They chewed through the skeletons that survived Ember’s arrows and borrowed even deeper into the horde.

The three were able to decimate the mob of undead charging towards them, like stepping on ants. The village was substantial, likely housing a few hundred Lowlanders at its peak. Now all of their decomposed remains were turned to ash.

At the end of the fight, the party was once again exhausted. Not because of any wounds, fighting undead is easy, but it takes hours when there are so many of them. Unfortunately, the true fight wasn’t over yet. Shortly after the last skeleton was turned to dust, the ground trembled slightly and a scream filled their ears. A ghastly and incorporeal figure hanged in the sky.

“We got company. It’s a wraith.”

“That’s no simple wraith. It’s a [Death Spirit]!”

[Death Spirits] are, at a minimum, a [Veteran] rank monster. Suitable for a full party of level 6 to 8 heroes. Judging by the number of minions, though, this one was likely [Champion] rank, levels 9 to 11. The chances of victory were slim.

“Damn. What is with this dungeon’s level disparity?”

A [Champion Death Spirit] being in what was essentially a low-level dungeon next to a town was strange, but they didn’t have time to worry about that.

“Charity, are you prepared to sacrifice your friends for the good of the town?”

“I’m ready to kill this thing.”

“Greed doesn’t usually look good on a priest, but I think it suits you just fine. Alright then, let’s get this show started. No dying today.”

Fid had a plan, an absolutely reckless plan, but also their only chance.

“Twig, I’m gonna need your last potion.”

Twig reluctantly handed it over. Now wasn’t the time to argue over expenditures. Fid downed the Mana Potion, then used [Lifebind] to transfer Mana to everyone else. Finally, she used [Elementalism] to boost her Mana Regeneration. Luckily these spells don’t need maintenance, just time. Something that is in short supply.

The [Death Spirit] finished surveying the area and made a beeline for Ember.

“I got this!”

Ember used the Holy-Light energy to create barricades to redirect the spirit away. The stronger an undead, the more adverse they are to Holy Elemancy.

“Ember, keep it busy for us. Boss! We need Thorn.”

“Why would you need a kid? He can’t fight this thing.”

“Because it’s almost daybreak.”

Boss and Twig share a look of realization, then bolt for the ziggurat. Racing for the top. While the others kept the spirit busy, they needed to get Thorn out of their makeshift fortress.

Twig used [Telekinesis] and Boss used [Enhance] to start tearing away the boulders and clumps of dirt. All the while shouting for Thorn. It only took a couple minutes until the ground started to rumble and the dirt moved away on its own.

“Father!? What are you doing here?”

“No time for that now. We need your help.”

—   —   —

“Got it. I’ll make it happen somehow.”

The two explained the situation as briefly as possible to Thorn. The scale of the request wasn’t something he could do on his own. He needed a little bit more. He meditated for only a minute then called to Tanny for help.

“I’m going to need your water again. Think you can manage?”

“You know it!”

Tanny climbed out of the ziggurat and the two of them got to work. She shot balls of water high into the sky, which Thorn grabbed on to and slammed into the dirt. With his left hand, he watered the ceiling and dug out the wet dirt with his right hand.

Even in battle, Fid and Ember noticed and had the same thought.

He can manipulate earth and water separately at the same time. How’s that possible, is he maintaining two castings of the same spell?

Fid didn’t have time for that, though, she needed to get the next step started. She dashed over to Twig.

“How much do you know about Maintenance transfer?”

“It’s a specialty of [Court Wizards]. The master transfers control of high-level spells to much lower-level wizards.”

“That’s good enough. I’ll use [Lifebind] to transfer my [Manipulation] to you. Since you lack both levels and the spell, it will…”

“It will be just like triple maintenance. I understand. I’ll hide in the ziggurat with the kids. Boss can protect me.”

Boss gave Twig a look and a grumble. He would like to fight himself, but he was well aware of how needed he was on defense.

After giving Twig his orders, Fid rushed back to Steinntårn and Ember.

“I’m going to drop my current spells. It’ll take me a minute to gain control over the sunlight and another minute to transfer to Twig. You two will have to keep that thing busy, or else it’ll try to escape into the tunnels.”

The three [Energy Manipulation] users kept peppering the spirit with holy Elemancy as Charity provided healing support. They were keeping it busy as Thorn prepared the trap.

“Thorn, don’t want to give it any warning as to what is about to happen.”

“Already ahead of you. It’s coming down now!”

Thorn used both his hands to send ripple after ripple through the dirt. The whole room shook violently and then a big crack sound followed by several crunches filled the room.

Damn, Thorn. If only you were a woman, then I would recruit you into the order of Valkyries. We like your kind of crazy.

The ceiling above the entire village started falling. A single slab of 3-meter-thick stone and dirt came crashing down. Thorn had carved a circle around the village, and his ripples had knocked it out of place.

“Damn it, Thorn!”

“Quickly! Everyone into the houses.”

“DON’T MOVE!”

Thorn’s shout gave everyone pause. It was a split-second decision, luckily one that everyone made. When the ceiling fell, little holes covered by just enough dirt to block sunlight appeared right above everyone’s heads.

The spirit harmlessly passed through the falling sky, as did everyone else.

As soon as the first beams of sunlight entered the room, Fid used [Energy Manipulation] to turn the sunlight into Holy Elemenacy and the spirit reacted with fear, ruching to escape the sunlight, but as chunks of the ceiling came down, its route was blocked by more and more sunlight.

I thought the kid only had [Perfect Manipulation], this isn’t possible with that. Then when did he get Sage? It costs a perk and you’re limited to only one fourth-level weapon skill. It’s normal to save that for higher levels and even then, it’s not always worth it.

He had that foresight but still made the snap decision when he realized what was being asked of him. He’s not just crazy, he’s absolutely unreasonable. It scares me to think what kind of monster he’ll become.

Fid completed the task and every beam flowing into the now-open cavern was turning into radiant energy that seared through the spirit as if it was flesh.

The spirit became even more frantic but with the two surprisingly agile men leaping into the air to block it every time it tried to escape, it became clearly disoriented.

That’s just fine. More time for me to transfer maintenance.

While Fid was transferring the spell to Twig, the spirit regained a modicum of composure and started trying to escape to the edge of the cavern. Ember or Steinntårn would knock it back to the center, but every attempt got it closer to escape. By the time the transfer was completed, it was at the edge of the town.

“I’m ready!”

With Twig maintaining the radiant sunlight, Fid had the freedom to use a high-level [Energy Manipulation]. Beams of light poured down from the ceiling, surrounding the village in a jail of light. She followed it up with another mid-level manipulation to chain the spirit and begin dragging it to the village center.

The spirit broke the chain but was then instantly chained up again by Ember and Steinntårn. Breaking out and being re-captured like this is how the spirit was dragged close to the ziggurat while the jail shrunk. Every second it failed to escape to the shadows was another second it was closer to death.

The three “jailers” dragged their prisoner all the way to the ziggurat, where they kept it as the sun rose higher and higher. Luckily they wouldn’t have to wait until the sun was directly above, something that would instantly kill any [Death Spirit]. Instead, the radiant sunlight destroyed the found creature before it was even breakfast time.

The party was beyond exhausted. Despite being significantly higher level than most of the things they fought, this dungeon delve had gone from lunch the previous day to breakfast the next. They didn’t even have the energy to let out a cheer.

Despite this, they still had to get the kids out of there and figure out how this even happened.

Level Up!

—   —   —

The Supervisor completed the survey with C herself. She hadn’t wanted a cold researcher treating her like another test subject. The worst part of the survey was telling the kids they were effectively going to die. C knew she didn’t have long to live, but it’s different when someone else is choosing when you die.

I should deliver this to the Director.

The surveys were short. They were basically asking the subject about their preferences.

“So, that is her choice.”

The Director was torn between professional duties and a personal obligation. If she abided by this survey, it could cause problems for the later experiments. Despite the Director’s long and spotless professional record, C was her one weakness.

“Granted.”

With that one decision, made out of sentimentality and love, the world was changed beyond how anyone could ever imagine.