Gi and Tiria huddled behind a boulder with Gi's [Concealing Light] in full effect. With his recent Wisdom upgrade after the Myshkin battle, he was able to cover her as well though they had to be very close. Gi peeked over the boulder to see the Ferrous Clan's estate.

It was a single large building with an open area in front that contained various plants that were suited to the extreme environment like cactuses and some kind of volcanic fern. The estate itself was situated on a side path down from the Fourth level and the main building was nestled right on the edge of the cliff, transforming from brown rock to similar colored bricks.

Outside, there were about a dozen Iron Ferrets lounging about and based off of Poe's scouting he assumed there was at least another dozen or so inside. All the ones outside were jobbies without armor, but according to Jalx, that armor was a Unique Constitution like Gi's Quicksilver Body.

Tiria patted his shoulder and pointed upwards. Krayli had just moved into position on a small cliff right at the Fourth Level. Gi looked down from where he was and Elizabeth was on a similar position below. Their insurance was in place. All they had to do was wait on their distraction.

Settling in to wait, he opened his notebook and checked the layout that Poe had provided. It really only had the main floor in the diagram as the basement was built into the mountain with no windows and the top floor had been harder to map out. They suspected the basement was where they were holding Hazz as Poe hadn't seen him at the the Ferrous Clan's bordello.

The main floor was basically a large barracks and mess hall combined so most of their clan would be between them and the basement.

The top floor had windows, but the best they could determine is that it was the office of their Progenitor. Thankfully, she didn't seem to be present which increased their success a lot. According to Jalx, their clan had risen to prominence very quickly over the course of the last couple years and all of that success was on the back of their Progenitor.

Incoming Gobby Gobs! Poe's voice shouted in his mind. His [Minor Telepathy] skill was the lynchpin of the whole plan. It had a fairly small range, but it should work well to keep them all in contact. Unfortunately, it came with Poe as the voice of their whole plan. Jalx says to be quiet. Oh nevermind, he's telling me be quiet! Haha! My bad.

Like Poe had said, a group of goblins took the road down from the main level. Each of them had splotches of black and white across their entire body. Gi had seen these goblins during the battle, but he hadn't known who they were. After his conversation with Jalx, now he did.

The Illusor Clan, the rival clan to the Ferrous since they both were involved in the sex trade in Igna.

Or at least, it looked like the Illusor Clan from afar. As they moved past him to approach the Ferrous Clan's estate, the cheap paint melting in places became very obvious, showing the blue of Jalx's Coastal Goblins beneath. He hoped it would be enough.

The Iron Ferrets near the compound seemed to finally notice them and a couple even shouted out. Despite the murderous nature of the city, infighting between the established clans was rare. For some reason, everyone seemed happy to maintain the status quo.

For their purposes, the status quo very much needed to go.

A slurry of rocks launched from slings rocketed towards the Iron Ferrets who'd posted up. The Coastal Goblins weren't particularly skilled with them, but it didn't stop the Ferrous from flinching backward. That gave just enough time for Jalx to grow his arm and fling a rock as hard as he could.

It crashed into one of the Ferrous jobbies, instantly killing it and sending its body rag dolling into their sparse garden. Enraged, most of the young Ferrous launched out blades of wind from their hands returning a volley towards the faux Illusor clan. Jalx and crew fled at the first group of wind blades approaching and ran out of range as the blades cut into the stone of the mountain.

Ohhh boy, they're falling for it! Poe said excitedly. A couple broke off and ran inside while the majority sprinted after Jalx and his crew. As soon as they'd made it past where he and Tiria were hidden, he tapped her lightly on the shoulder.

Getting up, Tiria hunched over, almost walking on his paws like a child dancing with their father, and the two of them made their way awkwardly over to the entrance within Gi's [Concealing Light]. Like the hivelike homes of Igna, the estate's main door was a silver curtain, half of which seemed to be soaked with seawater. Gi peeked inside.

"-killed Mel and then they just ran off!" One of the jobbies who'd headed inside was posted in front of a table of other Iron Ferrets eating, two of which had the height and iron armor that made Gi assume they were classers.

"I bet they were the ones that destroyed one of our slimes too!" One of the classers said and the other agreed.

"They must have tried to make it look like one of our own did it with their illusions."

"We need to kill them!" One of the bloodthirsty jobbies shouted. Despite being less enthused than the jobbies, the classers seemed in agreement.

Gi, however, just wanted them out of the way. There was plenty of light in the main floor which appeared to be a mess hall of kind with another curtain to the side and stairs leading down almost directly across from the door. Despite the light, there was just enough shadows that Gi didn't feel comfortable trudging awkwardly over with Tiria in tow.

"They must be desperate to strike like this," one of the classers said. "Now's the time to strike them back, but we can't move without Ferra. She'd kill the lot of us."

Please don't stay. Please don't stay, Gi thought and grabbed at his Focus to say a prayer to Danna. The two of the classers looked at each other, trying to decide what to do, but the first jobbie spoke up. "About ten of us are already chasing them! They'll get slaughtered alone! We have to go fight!"

The first classer sighed. "Well shit, I'll go find Ferra. Bilk, gather everyone up and bring the damn jobbies back."

Bilk agreed and then the first classer left through the entrance, kicking up a small gust of wind for her to leap up to the Fourth Level. Anxiety had Gi's heart in a vice grip.

We can't let that classer escape! Poe send Elizabeth! He prayed that his little friend would be paying attention to him. Thankfully after a short silence, Poe's voice penetrated his mind.

She's already moving, but she says the Iron Ferrets are "dodgy" and it might take her a minute.

Gi breathed a sigh of relief, trusting the dangerous Elizabeth to be able to crush a monster on her level. If they even were on her level, Gi honestly wasn't sure. She could be higher.

Tiria tapped his leg and he returned his gaze inside the estate. The rest of the Iron Ferrets in their mess hall had gone into the room across the hall. That gave them a short window.

With a lurch, the two of them moved as quickly as they felt confident to without dropping [Concealing Light] and made their way to the stairs. With any luck, they could nab Hazz and then rob the place blind so it looked like a simple Illusor Clan attack.

The two of them paused on the stairs down as a flurry of pawsteps rang out as assumingly the rest of the Iron Ferrets upstairs left the estate. The place must be empty now.

Reaching the bottom of the steps proved Gi's comment false. The basement was mostly one large room that appeared to be some kind of training center with various wooden goblinlike effigies that seemed to be targets for the wind attacks that were a mainstay of their clan. One jobbie was a few steps away from the stairs, launching attacks at each of the targets. Either he hadn't heard the commotion upstairs or hadn't thought it important.

The far end of the basement turned into a hallway where a series of wooden doors were placed. Flanking the hallway on one side was a large stack of wooden crates. The other had two more jobbies sitting at a table playing dice. Guards, he thought.

Gi tapped Tiria and pointed awkwardly to keep his hand within the curtain. She nodded. He pointed at himself and then flashed two digits before doing the same to her with only one. She looked at the room a moment and then motioned towards one of the goblin effigies near them.

Assuming they were on the same page, Gi shuffled over to the effigy with her. Flickering torches meant that [Concealing Light] would occasionally flash a glitter, but they made it to the effigy without being spotted since the one training had his back to them and the other two were playing dice.

Tiria tapped him and then gave a thumbs up which he took to mean that she'd be fine with her own [Skulk] skill. Not wanting to get spotted as he drew close, Gi stayed near the far edge of the wall near the crates as he snuck up on the two dicing goblins. As he approached, one of them suddenly yelled out.

"Oh, that's goblinshit! How in the bloody First One do you get a pair of eyes every roll?"

Gi breathed out, thinking that he'd been noticed and started to churn his Aether. The cursing jobbie sat back in his chair, staring glumly at the table when he finally looked up to see a slight sparkle of light.

"What is-"

A burst of [Divine Bolt] exploded his friend's head before he could finish the statement. He managed the barest scream before the final shot in his burst crashed into his neck. The Iron Ferret fell backwards with a bolt of light in his throat. After a moment, the bolt disappeared and blood drizzled out of the wound, spreading along the floor and into its fur.

Gi glanced over at Tiria to see her tossing the body of the training Iron Ferret to the side. From the stained metal head, it looked like she'd used her light mace to bash their head in. Her new strength combined with the damage bonus from [Skulk] made attacking the defenseless jobbie too easy.

Looking down at the gore in front of him, Gi barely felt anything. Compare that to him nearly getting sick when he'd first arrived, he considered that an improvement. Even at a distance, he'd killed hundreds of jobbies during the battle. Barring the occasional counter attack, it hadn't been exciting. Murder had been turned into a chore.

I suppose I wanted to be ruthless...

And you're the most kindest and ruthless boss ever! Poe shouted in his mind.

Poe, quiet while we're working unless it's important.

...I thought it was important.

Gi shook his head. It was hard to get too irritated at Poe. The little dragonfly was overwhelmingly positive. Since [Concealing Light] dropped, Tiria walked over to him. She swiped the coppers that they'd been gambling with and stuffed them into her backpack. Gi really liked having a Subgenitor.

"Come on, he's got to be here." There were only four heavy wooden doors in the hallway with two on each side. Each of them had a small window made of iron bars. They peered into the first one on the right, but it was empty. The second one however was not. In the glint of torchlight at the end of the hall, Gi could just make out two small eyes and a large iron smile. "That's him. Let's open this bo-"

"YOU." A murderous growl forced Gi to spin around and stare directly into the room across where an Iron Ferret's muzzle was sticking through the iron bars. Even from behind the door, Gi could tell he was large by the way he hunched to look through the door. What scared him the most was the bit of an iron breastplate that was visible at the bottom of the window.

"Classer..."