After breakfast, Cless called her servants to her office for some instructions. She left them to their own business and they kinda fell into a hierarchy by themselves but she needed to make it official.

"Heimdall, you are in charge of security. Any guests, visitors or solicitors are not to be admitted through the gates. Helga, you are the governess. Everyone including Heimdall answers to you. I expect that Kate and Shad will wake up anytime soon. You are not to disturb Jason during the day. Do not go to the catacombs. Any doubts, ask me."

They nodded and agreed to the instructions. Cless dismissed the three girls, telling the siblings to stay behind.

"I granted you the power of my [Knight] technique and I will keep you as long as I have open spots. You are not combatants so I might revoke it in the future. There's one thing you must know. I can copy one of the Skills of my Knights. They don't lose it, I just copy. It means your Skills will be displayed to me. If you have any objection to that I'll respect it but I'll have to exclude you. There's no penalty in doing so."

They didn't mind and she peeked at them, Helga's first.

> [Family Sense] (E-rank): After focusing for some seconds, you can feel the health status of a blood family member. The range is unlimited. Accuracy of the information and time to focus depending on the degree of the relationship. The relative might sense your care.

>

> [Vigilance] (E-rank): When you are actively scanning for threats, you feel a sense of wrongness when there is a trap or some hostile creature hiding around.

Cless cooed at the feeling that might've sparked Helga's Skill selection. Was she THAT concerned for her family's wellbeing?

Adding to her amazement, they were good Skills even though their rank was low. Cute even. Since the [Knight] selection could be changed on the fly, she picked Helga's.

"Helga, I'll try yours. Do you want Heimdall to leave?"

"No, Cless. He knows my Skill and I use it to keep track of him all the time."

The siblings exchanged a glance, Helga sneering and Heimdall with a slight frown.

Cless closed her eyes and focused on Karen, the only blood relative she knew. After five minutes, she felt nothing. The Skill was still ongoing.

"Does it take that long for distant relatives?" Cless asked, canceling the Skill. She was worried now that Karen was mistaken about their kinship.

"The time increases for each step removed. I can sense Heimdall in a second, two or three seconds for my cousins or uncles, I think the longes was fifteen seconds for my great-aunt."

"Ok. I'll try again."

Fifteen minutes later, she got a sense. Alive. That was all. She could feel Karen was alive. More importantly, she could be sure of her claim to be related to her mother. Cless thanked them and sent the siblings on their way.

Since everyone was coming with her, Cless had to leave through the front gate instead of sneaking through the graveyard and the church. Her domain was well-guarded by five level fifty-one spellcaster employees, two of them boosted by her Knight order which granted them fifteen extra levels for defense. Thirty minutes later they were at the City Planner. She confirmed her meeting would happen only at noon. Without a choice, they went to the Steelhammer guildhall to check on what they got there.

The guildhall was located at a parallel street behind the Dungeon Road, about five hundred meters down from the merchant area. Not bad. The building was made of stone and seemed to have sturdy construction. The windows were barred against burglars and there was no sign of intrusion. The front door was locked.

"Kurt, fly to the roof. Vic and Venaris, check the back alley. Silverfang, you and I are going to teleport inside."

Cless tried to Blink inside but her spell fizzled. Flustered, she noticed a faint glow underneath the door. There were teleportation wards in place. Made a lot of sense, didn't it? Becoming a mage was not easy and getting to level twenty-five was not a walk in the park, but a mage that could blink through walls would make a very good burglar. Of course, a mage could get gainful employment anywhere and didn't need to lower themselves to petty larceny, but one could never be sure.

She rummaged in her deeppockets where the belongings of the former inhabitants of the building were stored. She found what she wanted after a while and produced a keyring with several keys. After a few tries, she found the one that unlocked the front door.

"Why go through all this trouble if you had the key?" The lycan in beastkin form asked.

Cless felt really stupid. Truly, she wasn't the sharpest arrow in the quiver but sometimes she missed the most obvious solution because of her sheltered upbringing. Like making clubs and not spears for the boys back then.

"I'm an idiot, why else? I own this building, don't I?"

She turned around as Silverfang held her shoulder to find a big grin in the wolf-boy's face. "You sure do, Cless. Now I'd say ladies first but let me go in before you and check for traps."

He went ahead and through the door. He checked around and then helped Cless enter. She thought it was strange. He knew she had [Dangersense] and would get a five-second warning if her current course of action would bring her harm.

The front room was a den. Flagons of beverage, empty mugs on the tables, a fireplace that ran out of fuel and spewed ashes all around, some rugs couches and a dart target. Cless went outside and called her guild members inside. They inspected the first floor. The dust that fell on the room in the last few days since its occupants' unnatural demise was undisturbed. They moved around, looking for signs of intruders. They found none. The guildhall had a kitchen, a mess hall, fifteen individual rooms for the guild members, some of them clearly unoccupied. In the wardrobes, dressers, and cabinets they found a lot of men's clothing and some spare equipment along with some common sundries a house needed.

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Cless selected the best furniture to take home but nothing so far justified the price they were willing to pay for this guildhall. She moved around, trying to guess what was going on when Vic called for her.

"I sense an air current from this wall. There's a secret passage here."

Both Cless and Silverfang sniffed around and they picked the scent of mold coming from cracks in the stone bricks of the wall. She didn't search for the trigger to the secret passage. Cless just Stone Shaped her way across.

A circular staircase led down into what might be a secret cellar. They could hear the squeaking of mice down there. Cless was leading, heedless of light but Kurt threw mage Light at regular intervals. After descending about ten meters, they saw the cellar was partially flooded with a few fingers' widths of a murky, milky red liquid. Red-tinted mice crawled on the puddle, some of them clearly drunk. There was a door right ahead from the stairs and a corridor that went ahead before it bent and went out of sight. The door was chewed at the bottom, making a gap big enough for the mice to go across.

"Now that's something you don't see every day." Kurt whistled.

"I believe their pantry is down here. These mice might've chewed through the wrong barrels looking for food," Venaris concluded.

"Anyone knows if red-tinted shoes are fashionable this season?" Cless asked. "And I should mention I am not the biggest fan of rats."

"They're mice," Vic corrected Cless. "And they look tasty and plump," The lamiak hissed and flickered his forked tongue out.

"Then go and get some," Kurt taunted his friend.

Vic glanced behind his shoulder and smiled, "Would you be so kind as to get some for me, Kurt?"

"I'm not dipping my feathers in wine," Kurt dismissed.

"I have no problem with that," Silverfang moved around his fellow guild members and walked on the wine.

Vic rolled his eyes and hissed, "Your fur is self-cleaning. I also don't wish for wine between my scales."

"That settles it. I'm draining this wine." Cless focused on her magic and tried to dig a hole on the floor to drain the wine away but nothing happened. She tried next on the wall. Soon the wine ran to the hole, carrying a few of the drunkest mice along. The hole made a sucking sound for a few minutes as if it was eating the mice. A few puddles remained, but the wooden floor of the cellar revealed why Cless didn't feel the mice through [Tremorsense].

Cless noticed there was a slow trickle of... spoiled beverages, for the lack of a better term, flowing from under one of the doors. She shifted some stone on edge of the floor and made a channel along the wall to the hole that was still making strange gurgling noises as the liquid drained downwards. They walked around the puddles and opened the door to what seemed to be the pantry. There was a ton of mice crawling over the food leftovers. Racks of ribs, an entire dried ham hung from the bone, huge wheels of cheese. Several barrels and crates were spilled over from holes chewed at their bases. Pellets of unidentified brown matter floated on the puddles of the milky red whatever that was. Seemed like clotted blood.

Cless didn't want to linger there. Instead, she thought of...

"Fireball."

Kill it with fire. Not the best course of action as the stench of burnt fur and meat along with the vapor of seared wine and curdled yogurt was pushed out of the room and assaulted everyone's nostrils.

"Did you have to do that!" Venaris cried as she and everyone else coughed.

"Maybe?" Cless really wished she had a spell to condense all the smoke and ash.

"Shut it off, at least!" The gnome glared at her heart-sister.

"Okay, good idea." Cless threw a few Purify spells on the air and got rid of the smoke. The pantry was too damp to catch on fire.

They moved along the corridor and found another door. After unlocking it, Cless found a storeroom for equipment. Fortunately, the corridor had a slight rise and the yogurt & wine mice flood never reached here. A few normal weapons and armors only.

"There should be a treasury. I bet they had a treasury," Vic mused. He started to tap on the wall.

Cless remembered she had a meeting with the town planner soon. Not wanting to search the whole place for the treasure room, she just shaped peek holes on the walls as far as her magic would reach to see if there were any rooms on the other side of the walls. Nothing.

"Where is this treasure room?" Cless pouted.

They were about to get ready to climb back upstairs and they heard several mice squealing from the hole Cless dug to drain the wine.

"The mice survived," Silverfang pointed out. And they seem to be walking on chainmail.

"Shh. Silence," Vic called. They made an attempt and indeed they could hear the clinking of metal on metal.

"Maybe that's coins and not mail," Kurt mused. "The treasure room is underneath us."

"Maybe that's why the floor is made of wood. To cover the trapdoor."

Vic looked around, "Allow me. [Warp Wood]."

His xylomancer spell warped all the wooden floorboards, revealing a stone trapdoor underneath. Cless opened the trapdoor and looked away. It was too dark down there and Vic used a Light spell. There it was. The treasure room, coins, gems, jewels, and other valuables stashed in boxes halfway submerged in the wine & yogurt pool. The room was flooded and the mice climbed the boxes to escape the liquids.

"That's when you're glad you have a cleaning spell. This is going to be so much work," Kurt commented.

Cless sighed. Yes, there was five times the amount of valuables as what was offered her for the whole property. And her Skills, [Coin Sense] and [Perfect Accounting] already did the inventory of the treasure.

Twenty-eight heavily intoxicated mice. Seems like the critters really like their yogurt-flavored wine.

Why the heck these guys had a barrel of yogurt in their pantry?

Too many mysteries. Too much milky sludge to clean up. She thought about running away but if there was one moment to abuse her seven hundred magic power available, it was now.

"Dry! Dry! Dry! Dry! Dry! Dry! Dry! Dry! Dry! Dry! Dry! Clean! Purify! Dry! Dry! Dry! Clean! Purify!"

She climbed down and kept casting frantically. She made a stone cage and placed all the drunk mice inside. After everything seemed clean and dry enough, she sighed and climbed out.

"You guys finish here and hold the fort. I'm going to meet the City Planner."

"Cless," Vic approached. "Could you detoxify the mice?"

She guessed she could. The lamiak seemed hungry. Cless used Detoxify on the mice and left.

At the City Planner's office, she felt bothered by all the flattery she was forced to endure. The Lord had agreed to her proposal but he wanted three hundred meters of walls, not one hundred and fifty.

"I'm already being generous with one hundred and fifty. Don't push your luck," She told the nervous man in front of her. "Besides, It came to my attention that I already own a guildhall, so I might not be interested in this property here. It is right in front of the church anyway."

"Aren't the guild master a priestess? I heard you can use third-tier holy magic at least."

"Sure. [Shield of Faith]. There you go," Cless showed him the golden shield.

"Why wouldn't you want a place in front of the church."

"I am an independent Vicar aligned with a dissident branch of the church, that's why. But I've said too much and I am short on time," Cless stood up. "I'll do only a hundred meters."

The City Planner sighed. "Guild master, please understand. I am only the messenger so don't get angry at me. The Lord told me you must do at least two hundred meters of wall and he'll dismiss the investigation regarding the embezzlement of money Clegane was doing. We still hadn't found the gold he divested and his bank account didn't have enough."

"One hundred-fifty and you tell the Lord to never harass me with what that stupid corrupt official did. Last offer."

He smiled, "That's acceptable."

They did the paperwork and Cless went back to the guildhall wondering why they did that? Was it to gauge her negotiating power? To see if they could push her around? To fish for a confession? She just shrugged. There was too much on her plate already and she really didn't want to spend more time worrying about unseen enemies.

After returning, Cless marked the guildhall as her second Stronghold. She noticed she could only assign a place as a [Stronghold] if she was inside, but she could dismiss from anywhere. She sent Venaris to hire a wagon so they could move the furniture. Most of the items were too big to fit in a Deeppocket.

While the wagon was underway with the furniture, they took the treasure and deposited it in the bank. Why did they keep that gold elsewhere? The question baffled Cless.

One thing at a time. One thing at a time.