The smallest group of humans that entered the dungeon that day numbered only two, both younger women. Both were mercenaries.

Female mercenaries were uncommon, but not unheard of. For those with the right talents, it is a much more attractive career than the alternative.

It is said that back in the days of the Hegemony, both men and women became Heroes in equal number, so overall their reputation is roughly on par with that of men, although many tasks were thought better suited to one sex or the other.

However, mercenaries still tended to be a rough and violent bunch, so the girls often preferred to stick together.

This pair was one such team.

"Um, Thie, so how much farther do we have to go?" the younger girl asked.

"Until we find a good spot to set up, of course." replied Thidela, the older.

"It's just... I've been getting this creepy feeling, like we're being watched."

Thidela didn't reply immediately, instead silently motioning for a stop.

"Melissa, point the light down here for a second."

"Okay." That light came from a mid-grade magic stone affixed to the top of her staff. It was of the type that slowly converted itself into heat and light, commonly known as a "sunstone", and Melissa's abilities allowed her to make one last for a very long time.

Of the two, she had the more skill with magic, and often found herself in the role of a supporting mage whenever they teamed up with a larger band. Thidela was sort of a guardian and 'bigger sister' to Melissa, using her greater experience to keep them both out of trouble.

With the light source closer to the ground, Thidela was able to find what she was looking for. A few faint mud print tracks, too large and the wrong shape to have been left by a rat.

"A trail... We'll set up near here."

Farther along the tunnel, they found a rough alcove they could hide in, and set up their trap. Without knowing too much about their quarry, they settled for a simple foot snare disguised with mud and baited with dried meat. They disabled their main light, and tossed out a low-grade sunstone with all the luminosity of a dying ember, just barely enough to see if there was something in the trap or not.

Quietly, patiently, they waited. If they even needed to wait for several hours, the reward would be worth it; but it didn't come to that. Less then have an hour later, movement could be sensed in the nearly pitch-blackness.

Melissa tensed, grabbing Thidela's shoulder, but the latter knew better than to act immediately.

She had to wait...

For the right.....

Moment!

*SQUEAK!*

As soon as she heard the sound of something nibbling on the bait, she pulled the snare closed. But just from the weight she knew that they'd failed, and clenched her teeth together.

"Damn. It's just a rat."

"It's a pretty skinny one too." commented Melissa, who had already rekindled her stave's light.

"Eh, then even it's tail won't be worth one Glyph. Maybe we can use it as bait, tho-OW!" Thidela was interrupted as the rat managed to twist its spine all the way around to bite the hand clutching the fur on its back. Upon being dropped, it immediately scurried away, although not without dragging the trap's jerky bait behind it.

"Damn flexible, clever bastard. Now I see how some people can make a living solely by hunting them. There must be some trick to handling it..."

The rat had even managed to put two small holes in her leather glove. She applied some pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding.

"Hey Melissa, could you purify this for me?" That was common sense for any wound, but especially so for those from unclean sources. Normally Thidela wouldn't even need to ask.

"...Melissa?"

She was staring down the tunnel with a worried expression, clutching her staff near to her body.

"Thie, look."

In the depths of the darkness, there was movement. Lots of movement. Sounds of scurrying Thidela should have noticed earlier.

"Full light." She commanded.

It was a risky move, since it'd ruin their night vision, but the same could be said of their foes as well. In fact, it was even worse for monsters that spent their entire lives in total darkness, and some would simply flee at the sudden appearance of a new stimulus.

"Mzia, Goddess of Light, send your rays to brighten your true love's heart. [Sunlight]"

Not only did the sunstone shine much brighter, but a wave of sourceless light swept down the tunnel.

Rats; dozens if not hundreds of rats! Individually the smaller rats generally aren't considered a threat, but in swarms... There were rumors about meticulously clean skeletons being found in the capitols' slums.

The rats were in some sort of feeding frenzy over the captured bait, but upon the sudden illumination several of the outlying members gave pause. They stood up on their hind legs, looking at the humans.

Looking at fresh prey.

"Run!" Thidela shouted, pushing Melissa in front of her, urging her away from the swarm. They fled, and the rats began to follow.

The swarm wasn't unified in its actions, each rat still thought for itself, so the swarm got a bit spread out as some rats were quick to chase the new food source while others were still fixated on the old one.

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On the surface, humans with their longer legs and higher endurance would have been able to escape with ease, but tunnel's wall and ceiling restricted their movements.

"Kya!" "Careful!" Melissa tripped, almost falling into the water channel, but Thidela caught her. However, just that moment's pause was enough for the lead rats to close the gap significantly.

There was no time left for hesitation. Thidela turned and faced her opponents. She held her sword in both hands and took a deep breath. She focused herself inward, repeating a mantra she'd learned from the one who taught her swordsmanship.

"The blade is an extension of the arm, the arm an extension of the will. As the will is absolute, so too is the blade!"

The closest rats reached her–

"STOP!"

The sword's tip swept across the floor, knocking several rats back or into the water. The effect on the swarm was drastic: it was almost as if it had suddenly run into an invisible wall. The rats piled up as they were suddenly forced to halt in their tracks. A few got pushed forwards by crowd pressure, only to immediately be slain by Thidela's scything edge.

The cause of this was no mere intimidation technique. It was not out of fear for their own lives that the rats stopped, for their intense hunger already had a monopoly on that aspect of their minds; rather, they simply lacked the willpower to challenge Thidela's unyielding resolve.

The power behind this was almost palatable, even to those who are not very sensitive to magic, but explaining it was like trying to describe light to one who had lived in a dark cave their entire lives. Thus, this effect was known to the Heroes of the Old Hegemony as simply the [Zone of the Absolute].

Even ordinary humans were sometimes capable of projecting one purely on accident, but maintaining one deliberately required a strong resolution and mental discipline.

Thidela had to keep her entire being centered on the task of keeping the rats at bay.

She'd done this many times before, even against a large group of men, but never against opponents so small. Her sword wasn't all that long, so she'd needed to adapt an uncomfortable crouching stance in order to reach the ground.

Her defense wavered for a moment, but she couldn't notice. If she thought about it, then the effect would immediately collapse.

But the Swarm noticed. By now, most of the stragglers had caught up, and the swarm formed a single mass of rats. They all struggled to crawl on top of each other, and naturally a few slipped and fell into the water channel.

This was the hole in Thidela's defenses: her resolve had faltered just enough to give the swarm a chance to find an alternate angle of attack.

Thankfully the mob mentality of the swarm was even less intelligent than each individual rat, so it was slow to shift as a whole. Furthermore, the rats' instinctive aversion to drowning lessened the grip that hunger held on their souls, disrupting the swarm's unity.

Nevertheless, at this rate Thidela would soon be overwhelmed.

The wandering monks said that it was at times like this that the soul was laid bare, and the true self most visible. If correct, then it was perhaps telling that Thidela still was thinking of her companion.

"Melissa!"

As to whether Thidela was asking her to assist, or telling her to escape while she could, that was less clear.

Melissa hadn't been idle, waiting for Thidela's assistance. She'd been chanting a prayer, a spell intended to stop the swarm.

"Oh Lady Tranquility, maiden of solitude, she who watches in silence. Breath of frost that gently heralds your mother's cold embrace. Capture this moment, preserving it indefinitely! [Stasis Field]"

In a roughly spherical area centered upon the densest part of the swarm, time began to dilate noticeably. The rats' slight magical property allowed them to notice what was going on and resist a bit, but not for long. Soon the scurrying pile of rodents had been frozen in time.

Around the edges of the field, a more literal freezing effect occurred. The water in the channel rapidly solidified, and frost formed upon every surface marking a clear line of where the field ended. Even the atmosphere itself started to precipitate, but as the liquid air droplets were caught in the time distortion they appeared suspended in space, creating a remarkable dazzling effect like so many clear diamonds. Unfortunately this scene of beauty was brief, as a nearly-opaque white shell formed from the accumulating ices.

Much less pleasing to the eye was the fate of the rats caught in these edge-effects, as the flash-frozen parts of their bodies simply broke right off.

A more old-fashioned mage might have scoffed at the choice of spell, citing a poor synergy with the staff materials and limited destructive power, but Melissa had her own style. Her strength was in her flexibility, even though that meant she wasn't as powerful as a specialized caster.

The important thing was that it worked; even if less than the entire swarm was trapped, the remainder found their path suddenly blocked by the barrier.

“Hah...” Melissa let out a sigh of relief. In truth, she hadn't expected the spell to be that powerful; the goddess must have favored her today.

“Come on, let's go.” She tapped Thidela on the shoulder, snapping her out of her martial trance. The two of them then continued in their flight, managing to turn around a corner before the diminished swarm managed to crawl past the iced-over water channel.

It was Melissa's turn to lead Thidela around. The technique the later used had an aftereffect that lowered willpower, similar to slight drunkenness, so there was a greater chance of her decision-making being compromised by fear and the like. But she still had more experience, so right now Melissa's priority was finding a place they could safely rest for a bit.

She racked her brain to remember what Thidela had taught her.

A good campsite... Something off the main path, with defensible terrain... Like a chokepoint!

Her eye caught a narrow side tunnel that would work.

“Ah, in here!”

She pulled Thidela in behind her, but it was immediately apparent that she'd made a mistake.

“What? This is a dead end!” Thidela complained.

“Uggh...” Melissa could only whine at her misfortune, guessing this was probably balancing out her unexpected success from earlier.

After progressing a few feet, the tunnel ended at a room with no other exits. It looked like there were some treasures here, which at any other time would have been seen as a blessing, but they needed to be alive to spend them.

“Don't worry so much, this still isn't that bad. Just get ready to support me again.” Thidela got down on her knees on one side of the threshold, ready to stab any rat that entered. Melissa followed her example on the other side, although she'd need to use the searing heat from the sunstone on her staff like a spear. Overusing magic had dire consequences, so using a second big spell like before wasn't worth the risk.

However, the swarm never came for them.

One rat did appear, but after sniffing in their direction it hastily turned around and fled with a pitiful wail.

It was still a while before either girl could relax, though.

“Phew; that was close.” “Bwah...” Thidela was the first to let her guard down, and Melissa immediately followed suit.

{Yeah, Kat enjoyed watching these humans.}

“Hm? Did you say something, Thie?”

“I said that was close. Next time we'll need to be better prepared before coming down here.”

{Humans will come back? Even better!}

“Um...” Melissa blinked a few times.

“So, what's this place? It looks lived in... ” Thidela examined the room, assessing the various decorative objects with an appraiser's eye.

{This is Kat's Shrine, only recently renovated. These humans should be reverent like the last ones, not messing around like this. Kat is disappointed.}

“Oh, hey! There's a Sunstone in this lamp!” She stepped up on a convenient rock, trying to reach the lantern hanging in the ceiling. Melissa suddenly felt that

“Thie, stop!” She panically shouted.

“Huh?” Thidela was confused at the interruption. There were no clear markings of ownership in this room, so she thought it was probably being used for illegal purposes; in which case looting was not only expected but condoned. However, Melissa had a different impression.

“I- I think this is some kind of sacred place, like a shrine.”

{Oh? Can this human hear Kat?}

“...Really? You can sense a spirit?” Thidela immediately stopped what she was doing and took a more serious posture. Internally, she cursed herself for being so lax. She had let herself lose discipline, and if Melissa was right then she had been about to do something extremely stupid.

“Mm, I think so.” Melissa nodded gravely. “I think... The spirit allowed us to shelter here.”

{Can't hear Kat perfectly, huh. Still, very interesting... Mufufu...}

“What is a shrine to a benevolent spirit doing so far underground, though? I thought the earth goddess hated people.”

“I'm not sure. It definitely isn't that one, though. Maybe... An agent of Mercy?”

{…What is Mercy? That name is... familiar to Kat.....}

After giving their respects to the shrine spirit, the two mercenaries were able to return to the surface without difficulty.

They might not have captured the quarry they sought, but in exchange they became among the first to spread the rumors of the Hidden Sanctuary.