Chapter 12: Rat Reborn
Vulp led the way, new shield in hand, as the five girls entered the stone building subtly releasing unusual magic. Only Kat could sense it and only just barely.
The first floor was unremarkable. The building showed signs of recent squatters but was otherwise abandoned. The scant furniture was on its last legs, the smell was acrid, and the pests were plentiful. If not for the mission, the girls probably would have just turned around.
Not willing to accept failure, they pressed on. Exploring, they found a stairwell up to the attic as well as poorly hidden stairs to the cellar. Kat determined whatever they were looking for was coming from below ground, so they didn’t bother searching the upper floor.
As they descended, Bandit whispered that the stairs seemed to be bringing them under the city wall. Strangely, the cellar was not contained within the four walls of the stone building. The girls were leaving the footprint of the building. Still, they were not deterred.
Shiba counted the thirty-second step when they reached the bottom. The short stone hallway ended in a ‘T’, with the option to turn left or right. Vulp eased her upper body forward to peer around the corners in either direction. First, she looked left and noticed an old wooden door blocking that path after a short distance. Then, she looked right and could see the hallway eventually opened up into a larger room.
They could all hear noises now. Something sliding. Paper being ruffled. A squishy item being placed down. A footstep, probably. Creepy as this all was, investigating it was their job, so they had no reason to hesitate. Vulp continued to lead the group as they sneaked around the corner and towards the large room.
As they neared the threshold, Vulp once again leaned to look around the corner, hoping not to give her presence away. After a few moments of peering into the room, she quietly leaned back into the hallway and gestured to the other girls with her hands. The girls nodded as they received the hand signal for one target, not necessarily an enemy. Vulp signaled a countdown with her fingers, launching into the room upon reaching zero.
Weapons at the ready, the girls rushed towards the suspicious individual in the center of the room. He or she was clearly an adult wearing a dark robe, hunched over an altar of some kind and facing away. Vulp was the first to notice a dead rat laying within the magic circle.
The person spun around, revealing that they were in fact a man. The fear and surprise on his middle-aged face quickly gave way to confusion as he visually inspected the raiding party. Before anyone could say anything, the rat on the altar squeaked and stood up. The man turned his attention back to the rat before asking without looking, “Who are you and why are you here?”
“You’re a nec…necr—“ Kat struggled to think of the correct term.
“Necromancer!” Shiba corrected cheerfully.
“So?” the man replied coldly, still not looking away from his apparent rat experiment.
“It’s…It’s not allowed for you to bring dead people back to life!” Kat shouted.
“Bring people back to life!?” the man screamed in response. “Are you crazy!? Zombified humans are terrifying!”
“Huh?” chorused five girls, not expecting that response. Not only had they encountered zombies in the Lower Gordu Dungeon several times, but they all expected any necromancer to aspire to bringing people back to life, if they hadn’t already.
The man brought them back to their senses. “Unless you want to learn about necromancy, leave.”
“I do!” Shiba answered.
The man turned over his shoulder to look at the girl who had answered in the affirmative. Her companions turned to give her a funny look as well.
“I see one of you has some potential. Very well.”
“Wait!” Vulp shouted. “Our mission is to investigate the suspicious magic. What will we tell the Guild?”
“The Guild? Tell them I can resurrect whatever animals I want. If they have a problem with that, they can complain to my undead rat.” He gestured towards the rat, although the tiny zombie didn’t seem to feel strongly about any of this.
Vulp sought additional clarification. “Is necromancy with animals really allowed?”
“Cite the law which says I can’t do this!” the man barked. “I know the Church hates people like me but I don’t care. I’m not a member. They can shut the hell up.”
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The girls looked to Kat who just shrugged.
Shiba inquired, “I’m Shiba, what’s your name?”
“Oh my, pardon my manners. I’m Harold. Black mage and necromancer.”
“Can I learn necromancy?”
“Hm, I don’t see why not. You look like a black mage, which is the main prerequisite. Well, why don’t I have you pass some tests first?”
Harold laid out what Shiba would need to do. Most of it seemed to be just running errands for Harold because he was lazy or otherwise didn’t want to accomplish basic tasks. Still, none of it seemed unreasonable so Shiba didn’t complain.
Normally, this Harold fellow would be too suspicious to simply leave Shiba alone with him. Fortunately, DM could secretly monitor Shiba so there was less cause for concern. The other girls seemed to realize this and had given up on stopping Shiba from becoming the guy’s student, of sorts.
As the girls returned to their inn, presumably to rest before ‘turning in’ their request in the morning, DM turned his attention to Barney. He had arrived in the Nar Union town closest to the Upper Gordu Dungeon. It was still too early for him to head into the Guild branch there and investigate.
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A few hours later, the sun rose and the girls turned in their request. At the same time, Barney proceeded into the foreign Guild under the guise of hiring adventurers. He glanced around the posting boards and noticed a note instructing adventurers not to proceed to the dungeon in the Upper Gordu Forest for the time being. Noticing another adventurer glancing at the same note, he asked, “Do you know what that’s about?”
“No idea.” The adventurer walked away to peruse the far end of the board.
Barney realized this wasn’t going to be easy if only the Guild staff were aware of the special circumstances surrounding DM’s new dungeon. He couldn’t wait around for too long hoping to overhear something because he was no local and it would become suspicious. He decided to take a risk, recognizing that there likely wasn’t much anyone could do to him even if he was acting suspiciously.
“Excuse me, what’s with that notice to avoid the dungeon in the Upper Gordu?” he asked.
“Haven’t seen you around. Are you a member?”
“Oh, no,” Barney admitted to the clerk. “I was hoping to hire some adventurers to obtain items from the dungeon, but it doesn’t look like I can.”
“Ah, so that’s what it is. Yeah, there’s something suspicious going on with that dungeon so we’re sending a team to investigate. Can you hold out another few days?”
“What do you mean, suspicious? Will I still be able to get my items!?” Being a spy, Barney was actually fairly convincing with his acting.
“Y—Yes, I don’t see why you shouldn’t be able to get your items, just as soon as we complete our investigation.”
“How do you know I’ll be able to get my items even before the investigation? What are they investigating?”
The clerk looked around and then leaned forward slightly to speak in a hushed tone. “Well, you didn’t hear it from me, but the dungeon seems to have become connected somehow to another dungeon further down in the Lower Gordu forest. We’re not sure how that happened, to be honest. The dungeon even gained a name.”
“So you’re all investigating how the dungeon in the Upper Gordu was affected?” Barney asked with a similarly low volume.
“Yeah. Once we confirm the dungeon is safe, we’ll open it back up.”
“So you really don’t know if the items I need are even still available… Who the heck even investigates stuff like this?”
“We’re sending a group of adventurers, all around LVL 10. They’re higher level than the dungeon, so don’t worry.”
Barney promised to return in a few days and departed the Guild. Fortunately, the clerk was quite talkative once pushed a bit. None of the things Barney learned were a surprise when compared to the information he received from DM, but confirming the Guild up here really did have access to that information was still worth the effort. For now, Barney would leave the town and return to his previous mission of investigating the Nar Union as a whole.
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Kat’s conversation with the Guild clerk while turning in the mission was a tad unusual. Apparently, necromancy involving only animals was in fact not illegal, despite how much the Church disliked it. Unsurprisingly, the clerk asked Kat’s party how they knew the necromancer was not, in fact, raising humans into zombies on other occasions. They couldn’t prove anything, but since the man was not breaking the law when they snuck up on him, there wasn’t much they could do. Shiba kept secret her interest in learning necromancy from the man.
Elsewhere in the Guild, Vera was meeting up with a party of beginners. After introductions, Olivia led them and another party out of the city and towards the Lower Gordu Forest.
DM knew full well that Vera had been instructed to learn more from him. He didn’t mind, provided the conversation was two-way. While waiting for the group to arrive at his dungeon, he made a few modifications.
Once they arrived, Olivia sent Vera’s group down the stairs from the first level. DM assumed she’d send the second group down a little later in the morning.
As Vera’s group arrived at a particular unavoidable choke point, a trap triggered. Fortunately for DM, this group didn’t have anyone specialized in identifying and disarming traps. Even if there was a thief or similar adventurer in the group, at LVL 2, they wouldn’t be particularly dependable.
This trap was a hidden door in the floor. It swung down just as Vera passed over it, causing her to fall. The door swung back up and locked shut as soon as Vera passed through, leaving the rest of her group to spin around and wonder where Vera went.
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“Oh, now that we’re getting close, I should warn you all, since you’re guys.”
“Warn us? What is it, Daffy?”
Daphne’s party was still a couple of days out from their destination, but she chose now to have this discussion, for whatever reason.
“I told you the elves will be welcoming so long as you behave and don’t harm the forest, right?”
“Yes?”
“There are certain elves you should watch out for.”
Her companions looked at one another, wondering what Daphne was getting at. “The elders? Are they less friendly towards visitors?” one of them guessed.
“No, the elders will be fine. The younger elves like me won’t be a problem either.”
“Then?”
“Whatever you do, don’t let yourself be alone with any of the older adult female elves.”
“Why, Daffy?”
“It will probably be fine but… a few of them can be pretty unreasonable.”
“So we just need to stick together?”
“Yes. Probably. Maybe.”