Lone had listened to Four-twelve regale his tales of war, battle and adventure for the better part of two hours as they walked through the central road of the Farwinds.

About 30-minutes into that journey the large and long dwarven corridor of stone and statues opened up to the largest intersection Lone had ever seen in his entire life. It was like Shibuya Crossing but four or five times larger.

Just as many people were using it though. Many miners, explorers and adventurers could be seen flooding each entrance. It was an experience that put Sophie and Breena on edge a bit but it was one that Lone would likely never forget.

This intersection of the Farwinds had 21 connecting roads, 20 of which led to Krieg Moor and were tiny when compared to the enormous central road.

Four-twelve claimed the central road was nothing but a branch of the true Farwinds. Lone wondered just what Epitome Brugar or whatever had actually made this gargantuan underground road network needed it for.

This massive chamber which was only a branching road of the true system could easily fit a small mountain with legs, let alone giants. This far larger pathway was also much more heavily muralled and laden with statues of the various Epitomes, according to Four-twelve.

Even though the dwarf explained the Epitomes he knew as they passed their statues, Lone gained no new stat bonuses from new moments. He assumed he'd have to see the statues in places they truly belonged for his skill to trigger like with Epitome Brugar and Epitome Frumgear.

Still, Lone had to wonder if it truly was the small dwarves who had made this network of roads or perhaps it was something... grander. If given the chance, he would love to learn the truth.

"So... this massive tunnel is blocked off somehow? I definitely heard that the Farwinds was closed off in Krieg Moor," Lone asked Four-twelve.

The dwarf nodded. "Aye. About 50-miles down the whole thing's been caved in."

"How?" Lone asked. "I get we're underground but this thing is so wide you could fit a town in between the walls."

Four-twelve shrugged. "I heard a really old dragon woke up. Don't know what race of dragon but apparently it was too big and too strong for the warriors of the krieg to kill on their own, hence why the Farwinds here collapsed by the time reinforcements could come and end the scaley fucker."

'... I fucking love this world. Of course, ignoring everything that happened in Milindo,' Lone joked though he did feel saddened for a moment upon recalling his time in the dungeons of Ranton Castle.

"I'd love to see a dragon one day," Lone expressed. "Of course, from a distance, haha."

"I would too, Ninetails. Been to a lot of places, seen a lot of fucked up shit and scary powerful beings you wouldn't believe even existed, never seen a dragon though. Fuckers are notoriously rare and even rarer is it that they don't kill anyone they meet. Ain't too trustin' of strangers is my understandin'," Four-twelve said.

Lone nodded. "I've read as much. They only trust their direct family, but they care for that family so deeply they'd die to save them any day. Fierce and deadly creatures with unrivalled loyalty."

He glanced at Sophie and winked before saying telepathically, 'Unrivaled by all but me. I'll always be loyal to you and Soph.'

'... Idiot,' Sophie responded in a tired tone though Lone would put money on her blushing under her helmet.

"Ah, here we are," Four-twelve said as he stopped the group to approach a side exit, specifically, the words carved into the wall next to the side exit.

Lone focused on the words too and read them aloud. "Huh... 'Farwinding road to Urd Vahir, a town of the Claimed.' What does that mean, the Claimed?"

Four-twelve looked back at Lone in mild surprise. "You can read Sitstomian Dwarven?"

"I'm a bit of a scholar, haha," Lone chuckled as he thought, 'Technically, no, but thanks to whatever is translating my words for me I can read and understand every language. And thank God I can. Imagine the knowledge that would be locked away from me behind the barriers of language without this translation ability.'

"Fair enough. You certainly look dainty enough for the job. Fingers crossed that doesn't apply to how you fight as well," Four-twelve remarked as he entered the side-branching tunnel. "The Claimed is what we call Farwind settlements that have been destroyed, abandoned or otherwise lost."

"The Farwinds must be really dangerous if this is common enough for it to have a name," Lone commented.

"Aye, that it is. Still happens though. People are dumb, brave, or confident enough to make something of themselves independently. A few hundred years later, it all falls apart or gets ripped away by somethin' beyond their handlin' or somethin' mysterious. It's always the same," Four-twelve said satirically. "Dwarves are stupid."

"I don't think stupidity is a dwarven-exclusive trait. I'm pretty sure all sentient beings have it in some capacity or another," Lone remarked.

"Aye, that's true enough," Four-twelve replied. "Ours shows itself as stubbornness, sadly enough. Fuckin' useless trait, if you ask me. Anyway, no more time for idle chatter. This part of the Farwinds isn't patrolled anymore and this is where we'll start seein' specifically Darkness Spawn. Thankfully, only bipedal Darkness Spawn inhabit the areas around Krieg Moor as far as I'm aware."

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Lone nodded. "Gotcha."

The group of four walked with far more caution now, Breena especially, Lone noticed. She seemed scared of tripping over and ruining the vase of ashes.

'She's got the Agility and Dexterity for that to not be an issue unless she's jumped. Hopefully she calms down... Maybe she'll get Fear Resistance?' He could only trust she'd manage.

A few hours passed with them on high-alert when Lone felt the telepathic link between himself and Sophie open. 'Lone. 15 blobs of person-shaped mana are phasing through the walls from all angles both in front and behind us. The mana is dark purple and disgusting, quite frankly. It's even more horrid than what we can feel from the blackness in your tails. It feels less pure.'

'Got it. I'll deal with the front, you get the rea- Wait, what? My black-tipped tails feel horrid? Tell that to Soph who loves them to death,' Lone grumbled in response.

Sophie shrugged as she unsheathed her blades. 'We and she can ignore it, but it does not make it any less of an unpleasant sensation. Soft as the tails may be, evil they also are. Void or whatever you call it is cursed and foul.'

'Right... I don't exactly disagree, but let's focus for now. Remember what Four-twelve told us just a short while ago. Don't let them touch you directly. I have no mana so I won't be able to heal you if you get struck, got it?' Lone asked mentally as he unstrapped his swordspear from his back and stepped forward.

'Yes, we understand,' Sophie answered. 'Soph shall be fighting, not us, but if we must take control to fight with melee, we shall be very careful.'

"Four-twelve, Breena, stay between Sophie and me," Lone ordered. "I know you're a war-vet, Four-twelve, but our mission is to keep you and Olim's ashes safe. I hope you don't mind being protected."

"I'm not the fighter I used to be, otherwise I wouldn't have hired help. Knock yourselves out," the dwarf answered as he took off his backpack, drew a bow and took up position in the middle of the road. "But if I see a shot, I'll take one."

'A dwarven archer? That's a surprise,' Lone thought. "Got it. Breena, stay next to him and don't move unless something slips past us."

Breena was shaking and her fear was clearly ramping up when she saw the featureless masses of purple energy congeal out of the walls but she somehow managed to squeeze out a, "Y-Yes."

Lone quickly went over the battle advice he'd been given from Four-twelve a couple of hours ago regarding the Darkness Spawn. 'If they touch you, you get corrupted. It's not incurable but it's super painful and if I can, I should avoid it. Good thing my swordspear has reach. They're slow out of combat but hyper-agile in it.'

He closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath before opening them again and charging ahead. 'I need to kill as many as I can before they enter their combat state.'

Lone approached the crowd of seven Darkness Spawn that were slowly ambling towards their group from the front of the road.

With a single swift motion, he cut off the head region of one before rapidly pivoting on his heel and using the other end of his weapon to impale another.

Both Darkness Spawn exploded into fine purple powder, symbolising their destruction.

'I really wish I could use my MP here,' Lone thought as he lunged at another Darkness Spawn and managed to ram one of the blades of his swordspear through its neck, killing it.

The other four seemed to awaken as if from a long sleep and their movements immediately sharpened. 'Yup, that's why. Now I have to fight four of these things legitimately. If I just had access to Lightning Bolt I could have probably killed at least a couple more before they realised they were dying.'

He cleared his mind and entered a defensive stance, ready to counter-attack and dodge instead of recklessly attacking first. 'According to Four-twelve these fucks passively generate and then feed off of fear, making them stronger. Too bad for them I've experienced a lot of shit and it will take more than just weak skills like these to get me shaking in my boots.'

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On the other side of the room, Sophie frowned under her helmet. 'Soph, it makes no sense for us to attack them up close. We would only risk being struck and being afflicted with whatever corruption the manaless dwarf claimed they deal out. Do you mind taking control? You are better than us at using our magic.'

'Okay. I just have to kill them, right?' Soph asked back as she assumed control of their body.

'No, hold them in place if you can. Ideally Lone should kill them since we gain nothing by doing it ourselves,' Sophie answered.

'Ah, right. Our level is tied to his. 'Kay. Got it,' Soph responded with a nod then summoned eight barriers - one for each of the Darkness Spawn approaching their group from behind.

The eight barriers were perfectly flat and about the size of a plate. With a thought and a flick of the wrists, Soph sent the barriers barrelling through the air.

Her intent was to pin down the Darkness Spawn on the road to wait for Lone as he finished dealing with his own battle before he could come over and leisurely kill these monsters.

Sadly, due to Lone's swift actions on the other side of the road, the eight Darkness Spawn near Soph had already stopped moving slowly and had come to life like the others.

Six of the furthest Darkness Spawn avoided the barriers while one of the closer ones attacked the barrier heading its way, knocking it back but not destroying it.

The final Darkness Spawn got successfully trapped and pinned to the floor with the barrier on its chest.

Soph panicked a little bit since she'd failed to capture even half of her targets. 'W-What do I do?!'

'Relax. Losing your cool won't help anyone here. They are fast but ultimately quite weak. Use your barriers as blades and sever their legs,' Sophie advised.

Soph nodded and took in a sharp breath before she controlled the six barriers that had missed to return and she used them to try and, as Sophie had suggested, cut off the legs of the six Darkness Spawn in the back.

Surprisingly to Soph, the tactic worked. The shimmering jade-green barriers sliced through the misty purple limbs like a knife through butter despite the monsters rushing at her with incredible speeds.

The distance between them was just a bit too much to cross and her control was just good enough to hit her marks every time despite a handful of the Darkness Spawn attempting to jump over the barriers.

All six of the rear Darkness Spawn collapsed and squirmed about on the road as they tried to grab their missing limbs.

"They're gonna reattach them and attack again, Lass!" Four-twelve yelled. "Hurry and pin 'em like the others," he added as he let loose an arrow, nailing the last of the eight in the knee, sending it tumbling towards Soph just before it could attack her.

She took his advice and quickly scrambled with her barriers to hold down the rest of the Darkness Spawn, including the one he'd shot. She then poured some mana into the damaged barrier to fix it.

Sighing in relief, she thought, 'That was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I've used up so much MP already...'

'Don't lose vigilance. They are scratching at the barriers. Make sure none of them breaks,' Sophie ordered.

Soph did as told and paid very close attention to her barriers and the Darkness Spawn for what felt like hours but was only minutes.

Finally, Lone had finished killing the Darkness Spawn in the front, signalling the end of their first encounter with Darkness Spawn.

15 Darkness Spawn defeated, one arrow used up and Soph's mana half-depleted. While no one was injured, it was hardly a perfect encounter.