Mark was trying to think.
They wanted to go into the tomb but they were in no position to barge into the camp and demand those people to take them in. Perhaps 2 Xengs present would make a difference but he really doubted the expedition filled with proud freelancers, hired hands or maybe nobles would really care for 2 masked ladies.
Using force doesn’t seem plausible and although with his new runic teacher, stealth was somewhat of an option her personality didn’t call for it. Ebony’s stealth wasn’t strong enough to hide from good rogues but he was great at hiding from mages since it was harder and harder to perceive him with mana sense.
Goal number 1, entry to the tomb to get knowledge on unknown runes.
Issue, an army of attack on sight golems where just touching them was extremely dangerous. Magic beam defence system and possibly many other defences in place.
Possible course of action, ignore the expedition camp’s source of information and teleport through the barrier. Rely on hiding and destroying any resistance based on his party member’s strength.
The only thing he didn’t like about this method was the immense lack of information. The risk was too high and depends a lot on the space mage’s ability to get them out if anything happens.
Next was to hide somewhere they could observe the expedition party and watch how they planned to enter or if they really were trying to start an all out attack. The problem was if they could remain hidden because his new master already said the tunnels above, below and all around them were getting filled up with people searching for them.
Ebony had done the honours of silencing the mana threads that were extending from their captives' callstone so they couldn’t contact the main group.
Since their stealth wasn’t good enough and it was hard to infiltrate the group without raising suspicions due to how much his party members stand out. He found it hard if he wanted to blend in with some other group and join the camp as if he was always part of it too. There was just no solo freelancer around if what Ebony said was true and people were joining the expedition camps in groups.
How did they keep it so secretive with so many people here? Mark didn’t know, it might be that he was just out of the loop.
As for negotiating to join the expedition party, that was his current first choice of action. They clearly wanted strong forces and with so many people, what’s sharing another 4 more slices of the pie?
The problem was that he wasn’t clear on what this expedition party was here for. Without knowing what they actually wanted it might be hard to get a good position in negotiating. At the same time, it was really easy because all they wanted was the runic knowledge. The bad thing was that if that was what the expedition party was after and they wanted it to be a secret, chances were they didn’t want the runic knowledge to spread. Perhaps the masses of people were just here as hired hands for mana ores and had no chip in the treasures of the tomb.
Mark understood the advantage of being the only one aware of a different type of knowledge. Especially powerful knowledge. Ebony’s spell and his potion version were proof that there was value in the new or perhaps old, runic language here.
The 5 people they caught wouldn’t say anything at all and he couldn’t find out what they were here for or if they were only hired temporarily for fighting power.
Mark shared his thoughts with his party members.
They fearlessly said to just walk into the camp and ‘figure things out once they were there’.
Two very impatient women and a man that normally doesn’t care about anything that he found ‘unimportant’. At least the method of how they did things was rarely within Ebony's considerations.
Mark hated the lack of information and with his further upgraded spear, he gave up and played along with his dumb party members. So young, naive and careless.
The favourable part for him was if the two of his party members were to go crazy with fire or ice, he was getting all the enhancement in the world only with the cost of increased stamina expenditure.
It was fun, he might not be able to keep up with Grandmaster warriors at close combat or mages at spell combat but against these two stronger kids he could keep up since they were enhancing him with their own magic. They must be confused at why he was able to fight them but not others weaker than them. Not that he would ever tell them why or how.
❅❅❅
Mark’s words made sense to Ebony and instead of tossing some people down the shaft and getting chased, they might as well walk in and talk it out like civilised people.
All of them were extremely happy with the straightforward method. Like the hundreds of sharp metal blades, arrow tips and staff pointing at them the moment they landed.
He heard whispers of ‘so it really wasn’t a monster.’ and knew they were talking about him because he was suppressing the space here with his mana. All the Masters couldn’t withstand it but the Grandmasters could to varying extents.
They didn’t exactly link masks to Xengs immediately but it wasn’t hard to guess either.
“To what do I owe the pleasure…Null Horizon?” A surprisingly flat tone of voice came from the extravagantly armoured Dwarf. They tend to have a naturally deep voice so his voice was closer to a human compared to other Dwarves.
[Shield King Lvl ???]
He was very obviously addressing Kong Jing. White beard was slipping through the helmet and his facial features were mostly covered.
“You talking to me? Null Horizon? Is that the tacky name people are calling me? Oh that armour, I made that when I just evolved to Master and needed some mana ores.” Kong Jing pointed at herself before she noticed the armour the man was wearing.
Few people in the room reacted to the name so Ebony was guessing it wasn’t a very well known title, Null Horizon seemed pretty cool to him though.
“...What do you want?” It seemed like the man didn’t care to ask any other question.
“The tomb. We want in.” Kong Jing went straight to the point.
“...Welcome. We’ll be moving in 6 hours. I’m Democlus, chat up the others for now. I’ll be going to sleep.”
“That’s it?” Mark was dumbfounded.
Ebony took it for granted and didn’t think about the reason why they were so easily taken in. Democlus also didn’t bother explaining.
“Welcome to the team!”
“Woo! Got some strong ones joining!”
“What a craftswoman doing here!?”
The people who booed them were teleported away, probably to some nearby tunnel.
He saw Mark chatting people up for information already and he tried to soak up the information they didn’t seem to care about hiding now. The 5 people he brought down were released and the beastman acted as if they hadn’t just caught and threatened them. Happily welcoming them to the expedition party.
Now that they officially joined because of Democlus’s casual welcome, the others weren’t really hiding information from them anymore.
“See. Straightforward is best.” He patted Mark’s back.
“Says the one that stealthily followed them.” Mark wasn’t so optimistic.
“....I wasn’t thinking straight.” Ebony was ashamed. ‘Ashamed? Shame, that’s new. I really am incredibly stupid.’
“Well, who knew master Jing had clout.” Mark was starting to get comfortable with not caring about the tiny details.
Ning Xin drifted off to the source of the nice scent and took it upon herself to join the cooking group.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
Kong Jing disappeared saying she was going to prepare some equipment for them.
Mark was going around collecting information.
No one approached Ebony so he just sat alone.
Meditating and creating more and more Glacial Models to stand by. Recharging his robes up for their ability to summon scale armour was useful too. He didn’t use it before since he wanted the mana to protect the others but he probably needed to protect himself too.
They rejoined for dinner in a couple of hours even though they didn't plan the gathering.
“I tried to keep our objective quiet while I gathered information. Nobody knows about what they’re here to look for. Just very highly paid for a tomb raid and need to focus on secrecy by contract. Democlus doesn’t have a party or any close aides either. The man is single-handedly funding this operation which is incredulous, it has to be funded by a noble. A very rich one, maybe more than just one family. Or a large company with vested interest.” Mark ate the meal he got that tasted better than most restaurants he visited.
“No one knows anything?” Ebony didn’t believe so many people would come down without information.
“Yeah, they were offered a prize they couldn’t refuse apparently. I mean, they were willing to go 3 gors under the surface with little to no information about the dangers other than being informed that they were going to fight topaz golems like those in Ordina. I heard it’s not a siege though, the scouts said that Democlus could allow them to pass through the barrier and the defence towers could be deactivated. The patrols are the biggest problem.” Mark continued.
“Are they planning to wreck the place?” Kong Jing asked.
“...The damage might be huge. What I’m curious about is what Democlus is after. Is he planning to take something and just leave? Mine the resources by destroying the golems or is he here for the runes. Maybe something else entirely?” Mark pondered aloud.
“So the only thing that Democlus could be useful for is to enter the tomb and also shut the defence system down?” Ning Xin stared at Democlus’s tent. Ebony could tell she was not wary but confused, he thought that it might have been the surprisingly weak aura from the high-level Dwarf.
“Yeah, everyone here is split into 3 teams to shut down the beam shooting towers with an item Democlus is gonna provide. No idea if it would work but, after the towers are shut down the expedition party are free to hunt down or take anything they want. They can also leave whenever but they need to inform Democlus that they are returning. He wants at least half this number to be around to reduce the number of golems for half a year and no, no one knows why.”
“Reduce numbers? The factories?” Ebony questioned.
“...I’m not sure if the people know about the factories. I mean, Master Jing’s the one who saw the factories. I get the feeling Democlus knows but I don’t think he spread the information.”
“Whatever, this means he doesn’t care what we do inside and our actions won’t be getting in anyone’s way. Those towers are troublesome so we could cooperate with them for the time being and then go on doing our own exploration. That’s what the others would be doing too. And the factories? There’s a lot of them and they are pretty obvious, I doubt anyone would destroy them though.” Kong Jing stuffed her face full of food.
“It is producing more monsters to kill. Where do they mine the materials? This isn't a dungeon and it isn’t spawning materials with essence.” Ebony curiously asked while tempting the chef with his plate of food.
Even if the monsters were conjurors, was that enough to conjure each other? There wouldn’t be a need for so many factories if that was the case. Natural golems require a core, he didn’t know enough about how they formed.
“Fool, I didn’t see much but it's common sense. The city tomb is resting above a mining spot.” Kong Jing only seemed to get violent with him. He didn’t envy his junior brother for not getting any love.
❅❅❅
Ning Xin watched as the three of them continued to take another serving of soup for themselves. Another scoop of the shredded pot roast. The amount of food dwindled until she couldn’t take it anymore, she dived for the pot and serving bowl before retreating.
Similar food fights and chases were happening in the cave because she had her hand on cooking every pot of soup and roast here. She busied herself for hours after all. They were using precious meat because it was the last meal before they started the operation. Not from her stock of course, there was no way she was feeding thousands of hungry freelancers with her stock of ingredients.
She didn’t like the tunnels. The stuffiness wasn’t that bad since she had her mask for some fresh air from time to time. The dim light and confined space also weren’t as bad as her time in the blood realm. Being able to be so close and sleep with her cousin was nice but she was old enough and preferred her ice-cold bolster. She needed something cold or it was hard to fall asleep even with her natural body temperature lower now. Habits were hard to change.
The fact that she had to fight non-edibles was irritating her quite a bit.
The impossibly tough earth, the non-existent seal on her fire magic, the running away from the tomb and the pointless stealth so far all served to add to her irritation.
She bottled it up for Mortal’s Pulse.
Stuffing irritation down with every bite of food. She gobbled everything up quickly but not much was left for her compared to her usual diet and she used quite a bit of energy fighting and digging.
Blood.
She needed blood.
‘Blood. I need blood. Ebony’s blood.’ She washed the dishes but couldn’t concentrate.
Her feet brought her standing behind Ebony who was sitting on a mound of dirt. Her hands pulled his robe and shirt aside and she bent down.
She snapped out of it when she saw his eyes looking at hers.
“I’ll give you some, you can just ask.”
She got embarrassed, she still had some of his blood in stock but something…desire for fresh blood just overtook her.
“It…it's fine.” She ran off.
‘Is it instinct? No, I was extra careful about absorption and I’m not thirsty for anyone’s blood here…except his. I’m just hungry. Let’s cook something.’
“Moving out in ten!” Everyone started to pack at Democlus' call.
‘Nooo…’ She cried. Pulling biscuits out which she dipped in a bit of Ebony’s blood instead.
❅❅❅
Ebony looked at the people around, Mark found the weakest contingent of the 3-way split to join. He apologised to the shadow lady when he found her having a fit of shivers. She wasn’t in his group and she seemed almost too happy about it.
They were free labour but he didn’t care if those towers could be shut down and they were free to move around after the operation.
The leader of their group was the one in charge of entering the tower to deactivate it while everyone else had to open a path for her and also protect her as the deactivation takes about half an hour.
With about 400 hundred people in each group, he thought it was more than enough but they might fail easily if they were careless. Getting hit by a stray projectile or even getting touched in close combat was a bad idea. He wondered how the close combatants were going to handle the fights.
He wasn’t going to use Icicle if he could refrain from doing so, it wasn’t like he needed it.
Why was he still using a sword when he personally doesn’t see himself as a swordsman even today? It wasn’t a secret but he hasn’t told anyone the absolutely dumb reason for it. Perhaps if Ning Xin ever bothered to ask again he would answer. He somewhat expects her to ask sooner or later. He didn’t love the sword like she did after all.
Some earth mages worked together at the front and removed a large part of the wall. They were so close to the tomb. Democlus yawned and marched out with an undecorated green flag. Ebony was unaware if there was any significance to the flag or its colour.
It was less than a hundred metres before the edge of the tomb city’s barrier and Democlus simply walks in while waving his green flag. The barrier didn’t even pop up to stop the army like it did to stop their fall into the tomb.
There were no walls here, possibly because they were underground and the tomb didn’t require walls. All the golems in sight were bombarded by spells left and right before they even started attacking the invaders.
These guys were clearly impatient and were ready for war. The noise attracted everything in range.
They started to split out into three after getting past the barrier.
There were 4 towers that were too tall and obvious to miss and Democlus was going to take one himself. Nobody questioned it.
Seeing him at the front literally slapping anything that came close and turning anything his gauntlet touched to dust was interesting. Even the buildings in the direction of his wild swing were crumbling. The shiny shield remained on his back.
The man seemed lonely as he left for the tallest tower in the centre of the tomb. The gravestone situated at the back of the underground tomb was the tallest and biggest structure. The other 3 towers were probably equidistant away from each other and were nearer to the edges of the tomb.
He was glad the other towers didn’t start attacking them but he could see them brightening up already.
‘Previously the tower had a single beam for each one of us. Can it do the same for over 400 people? Is that why the charging time is longer?’
Ebony was right.
“Let’s speed up.” He told his party which consisted of Mark and Ning Xin.
The space mage wasn’t joining in, she was still busy making something back at the campsite.
Once he sped up, the others tried to do the same too.
They were outnumbered 3 to 1 and they were still a few kilometres away from the tower.
“Kill the ones you can but keep moving, We’ll hole up and defend once we get closer!” The leader was a buff but short lady. Ebony didn’t see weapons on her.
Ning Xin didn’t care, she was slaying anything that she could see and reach. So far, the Topaz golems were only level 280ish and all of them were yellow in colour.
“What’s that?” Ebony’s Glacial Model fought for him while he asked the closest warrior who took out a potion and poured it over his weapon.
“To prevent Topaz from destroying our equipment of course! Didn’t you get your share?” He didn’t bother with Ebony any longer as he narrowly dodged a shard of topaz to his head. Then he proceeded to pour the potion over his helmet.
‘So they had preventive measures as we assumed. What kind of potion is that?’
Getting within a kilometre of the tower was simple and without casualty but that quickly changed and the first unlucky mage got struck. His skin and veins brightened right up and his body fell apart within a minute.