The four women journeyed further into the cyclopean ruins, it wasn't long before the thick foliage covering the walls suddenly disappeared after the first bend in the corridor, where the light couldn't reach. They slowed down as they walked around a pile of stone blocks that had come off the heavily degraded façade trying its hardest to still hide the ugly bare stone underneath.
Entering what looked like a feast hall with broken stone benches and tables made from solid blocks of stone multiple times taller than any of the women turned to dust, they hugged the left wall. It was truly a miracle that any of the original stonework holding the ceiling from collapsing had survived.
*Thump*
Dust fell from between the cracks in the masonry as a thunderous sound rumbled through the ruin massing over them with tangible force. Iris felt her muscles freeze as everyone around her froze with only Shiro daring to move. The experienced navigator lifted her right fist, motioning everyone behind her to stop, which everyone had already done.
The four were left to stay still accompanied by the occasional flap of one of the demi-human's ears as they sharpen their senses toward the source of the sound.
"Something is fighting." Nakatei whispered.
"Mmmm, they are near the staircase to the next layer," Shiro mirrored her ward's tone as she turned back around, her ears rotating as much as possible to keep track of the fighting monsters. "We will have to go around them."
Iris was impressed with the beast women hearing, she could hear the monsters fighting, smashing themselves against the walls and their cries of pain but she could not tell where they were coming from as the sound weaved between each corridor in all directions. Next to her Kia was completely out of her league as her face vividly showed that she was out of her element as she stretched her muscles trying to concentrate on empowering her sensory spells, fruitlessly.
"Conserve your mana." The elf tapped the mage's shoulders causing her body to jerk a little as she was pulled into reality.
"Ups, forgot." The ancient grumbled a little before she focused back on following the fox in front of her.
The deeper into the third stratum they went the already ill-maintained stonework got worse as claw marks and dried up viscera littered the corridors in progressively higher occurrences. Unsurprisingly, the ancient structure was more eye-pleasing than the endless bare rock of the middle stratum but that beauty had limits as quickly the brickwork turned from impressive works of art to something found in a crypt.
Claw marks were mostly easy to miss in the dimly light tunnels, in addition, mushrooms in all imaginable colours with exotic patterns grew out of the bones of the unfortunate monsters which had gotten themselves killed, battling over the scarce sources of food. Undoubtedly the grey specks that hovered lazily in the stale air were the mushrooms' spores.
"Even here vermin infest the walls." Iris said as she noticed a black-furred rat scurrying away with exceptional speed, puzzling the elf for a moment.
The risen's observations got cut short as a roar hit them physically causing the soles of their shoes to slide on the rock as the victor of battle announced their dominance. Their opponent or opponents must have done minimal damage to that monster as it seemed to seek any more challengers to its brutal rule.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"Here." Shiro motioned to follow her as she stepped into a considerably smaller tunnel that had been dug into the wall.
"Is this something our kin had made?" Nakatei asked her guard as she stared into the roughly chiselled rock around her.
"No," Shiro replied. "Goblins and other creepies stuck here make these shortcuts to avoid the larger predators. They come in really handy in a number of situations. I discovered this one when I wanted to get a hold of some Cro-Crone ore.
"You mean cronize ore? It's a golden blue in colour." Iris chimed in. She was familiar with that ore. Armours made from cronize are very popular with certain high-level melee warriors as cronize is famous or rather infamous for being able to absorb vast amounts of spells that hit its surface. Thanks to its colour cronize was sometimes called sea-gold or Marinyazine. The armour made from this ore needed to be very thick to work though since when cronize absorbes mana it turns it into heat and the more metal there was the more mana it could absorb without cooking the person inside.
Humorously, one of the most efficient ways to kill someone who is wearing cronize armour is by throw lots of spells at the warrior since taking off such heavy armour in the middle of combat spelt doom to the party's tank. That flaw was most likely the reason cronize armour is used almost exclusively by people roughly between mithril and adamite ranks or by paladins of Marin.
"Yeah, that one." Shiro said.
"For what did you need cronize for?"
"To sell it. I read that it sold for a good price so I went down here," The nekos gave everyone behind her a self-deprecating smile. "I was young and stupid when I did that. Didn't even sell the ore for a good price and I had to fill some stupid paper but it seems the stupidity of my youth comes in handy now."
"You can write, Shiro?" The elf asked genuinely curious about it.
Most people were literate in at least their local language or Common, largely depending on how much traffic went through the surrounding roads since a small village in bumfuck-nowhere didn't need to interact with anyone outside their group meaning that Common wasn't that common to hear. That's the reason why from her experience more Southerners could read than Northerners. In the South, there were simply more people and because of that, there was not such a dire need for able hands there for most people could send their children to the temple in the evening where there was nothing for them to do. It was a different matter in cities since cities are expensive to live in and the child's labour was vital for the family's survival which often meant the most literate common people came from the country side rather then the cities.
Different temples taught different things but all of them taught how to read to defend against daemonic subterfuge and infidels. But it also came useful in everyday life to the freemen who needed to sell their own goods, mill their own corn and so on. Serfs were bound to the land and because of this they got the better sections of the lord's land and could use the lord's mill for free for nine-tenths of their produce to their liege so reading wasn't something they took as seriously.
It was always funny to see a sheltered kid fluent in Caiserspiel thinking peasants couldn't read the contracts they pushed across tavern's table and watching their smug confidence disappear as farmers turned down their underhanded contracts.
"Yeah, I can read and write common." Shiro replied.
"How did you learn to do that? I mean you are a demi-human and I don't think any temple would be happy to have a demi-human warrior inside their walls."
"I was hired for a usual job of escorting a pink-skin somewhere. They happened to have a slave who was a historian?" The nekos said the last word as if unsure if she was using it correctly. "I was going to sleep inside the carts between the cargo since I didn't need a sleeping bag in the south and it happened that the enslaved human was stealing food. I was paid to protect the caravan from attackers so I ignored him and walked passed him. First thing in the morning and what do I see? That human was pressing his head against the floor, making a long and boring conversation short. He promised to do a couple of things for me which included learning how to read and write for me allowing him to sneak in the food cart. I'm very glad that I did since I had dismissed so many idiotic offers that I have lost count of them. Free tip from me, if a merchant is unwilling to hire you because you can read the contract, do not fret over the payment, they get people killed by trying dumb shit like racing through a monster-infested forest." Iris felt that the nekos was speaking equally to her and the young fox.
The shortcut led them into another ancient corridor. Its entrance was about two meters from the ground so the nekos nimbly jumped down before catching Nakatei and then Kia before proceeding to walk away giving Iris space to jump off and land.
The tunnel led them to a large empty room, everything that could have given its purpose had either been destroyed or rotted away. They quietly made their way toward the other side of the room. There must have been fifteen meters to the other side but the four women froze in the centre of the room before turning their heads left, toward the most distant entrance.
*Rrrr* *Snap*