Chapter 93
Grand Mine Central
With nothing better to do while traveling inside the Grand Centipede, most of Erin’s group had decided to take the opportunity to get some rest. Erin, Ryle and Arkay had decided to follow Lexton’s example and were all sleeping for the time being, while Durge and Zeldana had decided to stay awake for their own reason. The elf hadn’t been too bothered by the day they had, so she didn’t feel any exhaustion at all. On the other hand, the orc felt it was necessary for at least one if them to be alert in case something happened and he didn’t see Zeldana as responsible enough for the job.
The trip was going along in a relatively peaceful manner, as only muffled sounds managed to come from the outside to the internal parts of the centipede, leaving very little in terms of disturbing noise. The only real sounds that they could catch would be the ones they made inside the van or from the other vehicles, but no one seemed to be in the mood to cause any disturbances, leaving everyone at peace.
After about a few hours of traveling in this manner, the centipede came to a stop. Realizing that this probably meant that they had arrived at their destination, Durge began to wake the others up.
“Hey, we’ve arrived!” the orc called out to the group. “Time to wake up!”
“Aww… I was just having the best dream, too,” Ryle complained as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. “I was skiing down a mountain made of ice cream, before meeting Arnie offering me hot chocolate while wearing-”
“Yeah, no need to finish that story, Ryle,” Erin said as she shook her head in frustration. She then turned her attention back to Durge. “So we’ve finally arrived? Where exactly are we?”
“Huh? I have no idea. I just gave you the tickets Lex had given me,” the orc answered. “Didn’t you guys talk about where you were going before you met me?”
“Not exactly… Lex did tell me that we were going to stop at Burrow’s Deep, as it would help us get to our destination much faster, but he never told me where we would go from there,” the redhead explained. “He kind of left me in the dark, to be honest.”
“Well, considering all the shit we’ve had to go through in the last few days, I’m not surprised it slipped my mind!” Lexton said somewhat angrily. “No offense, but things like surviving gangsters, getting you healed from the brink of death and taking on some wannabe businessman kind of took priority!”
“I know, Lex. I know,” Erin said with a sigh. “I get that our lives have been… hectic, to say the least, but I wish I had at least an idea of what you were planning. Not to mention, I would have really appreciated it, if you had warned us about how we were going to travel…”
“Warned you? Warned you about what?” the kobold asked, completely confused by what the redhead could possibly be talking about.
“She’s talking about the fact that we had to be fed to a giant centipede in order to travel!” Ryle shouted from the back. “Do you have any idea how horrified we were!? Most of us are going to be traumatized by this shit!”
“...You mean Zeldana didn’t tell you about that?” Lexton asked.
“...Excuse me?” Erin asked.
“While we were still staying at that house of hers, she asked me about our future plans. I told her about the travel plans I had thought of and she seemed to be aware of how these creatures are used,” the kobold explained. “The reason I didn’t talk about my plans all that much was to prevent anything from slipping up and tipping off Zadar’s people. I know that you probably don’t like the fact that I didn’t tell any of you, but one needs to make sure to avoid letting their enemies know what you’re planning. Especially with people like Ryle around…”
“You wanna repeat that, you scaly little turd!?” the blonde yelled angrily.
“Hold on! Hold on! Lex, you’re saying that Zeldana knew well before we even met Zadar that we were going to travel this way?” Erin asked. “And she never told us anything about it!?”
“Well… I mean… I can only comment on the fact that she definitely knew about this,” Lexton replied. “As for that other part, I’m sure you guys know about that better than I do.”
Four sets of eyes turned to glare at the elf once again, who tried to look as innocent as she could.
“Your reactions were quite funny,” Zeldana said with a shrug.
“I’m starting to see why you guys have issues with her,” Erin said unhappily.
“Oh, if you only knew how bad she could be,” Ryle said.
“Ummm… Mind if I ask something?” Arkay said, raising up his hand, getting the attention of the others. “It’s kind of about what’s going to happen next.”
“Sure, go ahead, Arnie,” Lexton said. “What’s on your mind?”
“Well, since we have now arrived at our destination, shouldn’t we be getting out of here soon?” the cat boy asked. “If that’s the case, then how is that going to happen?”
“Won’t that just be us coming back the way we came in?” Durge guessed. “I mean, that thing first swallowed us, so we kind of have to go through the mouth in order to get back out. There aren’t really any other options.”
“Isn’t there still the, you know, “backdoor exit” that could work, as well?” Ryle suggested. “This thing could just poop us out and that would be it.”
“I wish you had worded that at least a bit better,” Erin said with a sigh. “But I doubt that’s the case. After all, that “backdoor exit,” as you put it, is meant for the material the body doesn’t need. That’s basically what happens to the food any living being eats. The body takes what it needs from it and the rest are dropped out.”
“That sounds about right,” Durge said with a nod. “This thing could also use its mouth tentacles to lower us gently to the ground. Seeing as it thinks we are its baby, I doubt it wants to just drop us.”
While most of the group was certain that they had correctly guessed what would be happening next, Lexton was staring at them with slight concern as Zeldana was once again trying to hold back laughter.
“...I’m guessing you guys are not too familiar with Grand Centipedes, are you?” the kobold asked.
“What do you mean by-?” Erin began to ask, only to stop upon realizing what he was getting at. “Oh no… Oh no no no no NO! NO! NO! Please tell me you’re not saying what I think you’re saying!”
“Huh? What’s wrong now?” Ryle asked, having not realized what the redhead was getting at, while Arkay and Durge seemed to catch on. “Why is everyone looking so down all of a sudden?”
“Your reactions are just the best!” Zeldana said as she broke into laughter.
“What the hell are you laughing at, you chuckle-!?” the blonde asked angrily, only for her to come to the same realization that the others had. “Oh God… NO! Don’t tell me that our exit is-!”
“Yeah, seems like that,” Durge said with a deep sigh, as he looked out through the windshield. “The cars that came here before us are leaving before us.”
With the realization of what was happening having dawned on all of them, everyone within the group simply waited in silence for the inevitable to happen. Sure enough, their van eventually began to move forward from the movements of the centipede’s internal organs, pushing them towards a source of light the vehicles before them had gone through already.
Once outside, there was a moment of silence within Erin’s group, except with Zeldana, who was still laughing.
“...We will NEVER talk about this again. Okay?” Erin said, to which the others agreed.
“I don’t see what the big issue is. I mean, we needed to get from one place to another, didn’t we?” Lexton said, not seeing why the others were having such a hard time. “Look, we were just inside a big creature and we needed to get out. Who cares if it was through the-?”
The kobold was cut off by Ryle hitting him on the back of the head, not wanting to hear the rest of what he was going to say.
“Thank you, Ryle,” Erin said.
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After getting their car washed from everything it was now covered with, the group drove away from the tunnel and moved towards the city they had just arrived at.
Erin looked around and saw that this place was a lot livelier than Burrow’s Deep. There were far more people walking around and businesses seemed to be doing a lot better. However, the place was strangely dark, even with the street lamps and other lights bringing in much needed illumination. It was almost like there was no light from the stars or the moon coming down there. The lights were also odd, as instead of the normal yellow glow one would expect, these streets lamps were bright green.
“Hey, what’s up with this place exactly?” Erin asked. “I get that we were inside that centipede for quite some time and it’s probably nighttime now, but why would they use these strange green lamps, instead of normal ones?”
“To answer your second question, those aren’t regular lamps. Those poles have special ore in them that glows in the dark. It’s a lot cheaper to use them than normal lamps, as you don’t have to spend money on maintaining them and can just use their natural glow,” Lexton explained. “As for your other question, I recommend taking a look to the sky and see for yourself.”
The redhead wondered what the kobold was getting at, but did as she was told. She stuck her outside the window of the van and looked up. However, instead of a nighttime sky with stars and a moon, she saw a ceiling of rock above them.
“Are we inside a-?” Erin began to ask, only to remember what the place was from her experience of playing Five Realms as a game. “Hang on… Isn’t this place-?”
“I see you recognize the place,” Lexton said with a smirk. “Indeed. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Grand Mine Central.”
Erin thought back to her experiences when she used to play Five Realms. Grand Mine Central was one of the bigger places within the Western Continent. It was a huge city located underground and great place for those who had characters that were specialized in building their equipment, as there were many places one could either buy or even mine their materials. There were also large tunnels that created a maze where one could train their character. The only issue was getting out, as the cave systems could get very hard to navigate. This made the area one of the more hated places in the game, as many players got lost in the caves, before being devoured by monsters too hard for them to beat.
“So why exactly did we come here?” Durge asked. “Is there perhaps a specific reason for that?”
“Well, there are two,” Lexton said. “The first is for us to finally get Erin a proper prosthetic to replace her lost hand. In here, we should be able to get all the materials we need and more for that. And now that I have tools again, I can make it something that will be more than just a regular fake hand.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it, Lex,” Erin said with a smile. “What about the other reason?”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“The other reason is that this place is pretty close to High Rock Peak, where Golorath resides,” the kobold explained. “From here, it will only take us a few days to get to him.”
“...So we are really going to be doing it finally?” Arkay asked in a somewhat nervous voice. “We are finally going to meet one of the five biggest people in the world and take them down?”
“Seems like that’s the case,” Erin said, before looking at her companions. “Guys, I appreciate that you’ve come along with me so far, but if you don’t want to go with me any longer, you can leave. I won’t hold it against any of you.”
“Oh, stop talking crap, Erin! We’re coming along and there’s not a single thing you can to change our minds about that!” Ryle said with a grin. “You know for a fact that I’m not about to back down after all we’ve been through!”
“N-Neither am I going to leave!” Arkay quickly said. “I might be scared, but who wouldn’t be? In the end, I know what we are trying to accomplish needs to be done so that this world can even have a chance to become a better place!”
“While not the smartest thing, I still want to go through with this,” Lexton said. “I guess I’ve been influenced by you lot far too much… Whatever the case, I’m not backing down either.”
“I never really saw eye to eye with my tribe. I hated a lot of their traditions and way of life. It all just seemed so pointless,” Durge said. “However, since I am a warrior with no other skills than those of violence, I might as well use those skills for something that’s actually worth fighting for. In other words, I’m staying.”
“Hell, I joined up because I found this whole thing far too interesting to pass up!” Zeldana said. “No way am I going to leave before I’ve seen this through to the end!”
“...Thank you, guys,” Erin said with a smile. “I’m glad I met you all.”
“...I should probably mention, though, that we aren’t going after Golorath right away,” Lexton pointed out. “Not only do I need to first get Erin her new hand, but we need to do one other thing before we can even think of going after Golorath. We need to go and locate the local black market.”
“What for?” Durge asked.
“Information. There is no hope for us to get inside his fortress, unless we know how,” the kobold answered. “Hopefully, we can find some information seller there, who can tell us what we need to know. Or at least point us in the right direction.”
“That seems far too convenient, doesn’t it?” Erin asked. “Considering how important the information you’re after is, do you really think we can just go to somebody and buy it from them?”
“You’d be surprised by how much information these people can get in their hands,” Lexton said reassuringly. “The bigger a name you are, the more there are people willing to sell either info or just some stuff linked to you. You gotta remember that we are talking about the highest of high-profile people here. They have thousands of people working for them at all times. It takes just one of them being upset with their work to go and sell classified data on the black market for a large amount of cash. Now, I’m obviously not expecting there to be someone who can tell us how to get inside Golorath’s fortress completely, but they might know about resistance fighters or other important people that can help us get where we want.”
“Makes sense,” the redhead said. “So where do we start?”
“First, let’s find a place to stay for now. After that, we should take a look around and try to locate as many places that could be useful for us,” the kobold answered. “Once we have an idea where everything that we need is located, we can start making our moves, whether it’s collecting information or materials for your new hand. Or even starting up our little side business again in order to earn some money.”
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With their objective set, the group drove around until they found a place to stay at. The place they ended up was a motel, but this one was much nicer than the one in Burrow’s Deep. As a much healthier city, the owners of this motel were able earn enough money to actually spend on maintaining their business, so there weren’t any pests and the building overall didn’t look like it would fall apart at any second.
However, due to their still limited wealth, they had to settle for a single room that they shared with each other. The room did have multiple beds, but only three, so that was going to bring up a small issue.
“Oh man, it feels good to lay down on an actual bed for a change!” Ryle said happily as she allowed herself to fall on one of the beds in their room. “It’s been so long that I almost forgot how this feels!”
“While I understand the joy of sleeping in a real bed and not just some surface that’s near to you, would you mind and not just claim one of those before we have decided who gets which bed!?” Lexton asked, a bit angered by the blonde’s behavior. “There are others here who would like to have a normal bed for once to sleep in, as well!”
“What’s the big deal? We’ve got three beds in this room, so we just have two of us sleep in one, this dividing them equally!” Ryle said. “I’ll take this one with Arnie and the rest of you can decide among yourselves who sleeps in which bed! Simple as that!”
“How about you don’t go making such decisions for yourself, Ryle?” Erin said, not in the mood for any childish arguing among her companions. “Look, there’s only one way to make this all fair, so let’s just do that and move on, okay?”
The method of sharing the beds that the redhead was talking about was through drawing lots. Using Lexton’s hat as a makeshift bucket, they placed six pieces of paper with numbers one, two and three on them. The ones who got matching numbers would be sharing a bed and no further changes would be done afterwards.
In the end, this led to some interesting results, which weren’t exactly appreciated by those who received them.
The first bed would be shared by Ryle and Lexton, which was something that neither one was all too thrilled about.
“...You gotta be freaking kidding me,” Ryle muttered unhappily. “Out of all the possibilities, I get stuck with YOU!? How the hell does something like this happen!?”
“Hey, I’m not exactly happy about this either!” Lexton shouted back. “I’m certain that there are farm animals that are much more pleasant to sleep next to than you! Especially when it comes to the stench…”
“WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY, YOU SCALY LITTLE TURD!?” the blonde yelled angrily.
The second bed was going to be shared by Arkay and Zeldana. While the elf didn’t mind the arrangement at all, the cat boy wasn’t all too excited. This was due to seeing how she treated her patients. He couldn’t help but fear that he would become a freakish operation victim as he slept.
“What’s the matter, kitty?” Zeldana asked, finding Arkay’s fear amusing. “There’s no need to fear me.”
“I-I think I’ll be the judge of that!” the cat boy squeaked, not able to hide his fear at all.
“Oh, there’s no need to be afraid!” the elf said with a laugh, taking full enjoyments out of the whole thing. “I won’t bite. Too much.”
Seeing the way Zeldana was behaving towards Arkay, Ryle decided to step in. She had a few choice words for the elf and boundaries to set.
“Hey, Zeldana!” the blonde called out to the elf as she stomped over to her. “I’m going to allow you to get in the same bed with Arnie this one time, but you better know that there are certain rules to that!”
“And what might those be?” Zeldana asked with a raised eyebrow, not feeling threatened at all.
“Simple. There are certain places you are NOT allowed to touch, even by accident!” Ryle stated. “Keep your hands off his tail, ears, legs, hands… You know what? I’ll just draw you a picture to make my point clear!”
Next to the door that led outside their room was a small table with some paper and pencils on it. Grabbing one of the pencils and a piece of paper, the blonde began to scribble on it, before walking back to Zeldana and handing the paper to her.
“Here! Keep this in mind and everything should be fine!” Ryle said. “As long as you don’t touch the areas marked with red, there shouldn’t be any issues!”
“...This is just a poorly drawn stick figure with cat ears and a tail,” Zeldana said, looking over the picture. “And the whole thing is red.”
“Exactly! Don’t touch the red areas!” the blonde said. “Are we clear on that?”
The elf seemed to be in thought for a moment, before a devious smirk appeared on her face. It seemed like she had found a new way to push Ryle’s buttons.
“How about if I touch myself, but imagine myself touching him?” Zeldana asked, already snickering. “Does that count?”
“...I’m going to kill you now,” Ryle said as her face began to turn red with rage.
While Erin had to step in to prevent her two companions from getting into a physical fight, Arkay walked up to Lexton. The cat boy had a question on his mind that he thought the kobold could answer for him.
“Lex, can I ask you something?” Arkay said, getting a nod from the kobold. “I know this sounds kind of mean and bad, but there’s been this one thing that I’ve been wondering about Ryle. Like there’s something strange about her.”
“Believe me, Arnie, you are not being mean at all. In fact, saying that she’s “strange” is honestly closer to a compliment than anything else,” Lexton said. “Anyways, what is it that you’ve been thinking about in regards to her?”
“Well, I don’t mean to sound self-centered or anything like that, but sometimes I get this weird feeling, like she’s somehow focused on me,” the cat boy said, not really sure how to word what he was feeling properly. “You wouldn’t happen to know what that was about?”
“...Maybe I’ll tell you about some other time,” the kobold said with a sigh.
With the occupants of the other two beds having been chosen, the third one was left for Erin and Durge. The redhead looked at just how massive the orc’s body was and knew right away that this was going to cause them issues.
“So… Do you think we can both fit in the same bed?” Erin asked a bit awkwardly.
Durge gave a quick glance at the bed, before looking back at the redhead.
“Even if we can, it’s not going to be comfy at all,” the orc replied. “Wanna flip a coin or something?”
“...I’ll just take the couch,” Erin said with a deep sigh. It looked like she wasn’t going to be sleeping on an actual bed after all.
image [https://i.ibb.co/n7HkWhp/Ch-93-Pic-1.jpg]
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With their sleeping arrangements figured out, the group decided to split up into different tasks. Arkay and Ryle were sent out to find them something to eat for the day, while Durge and Zeldana were going to find medicinal materials. Both pairs were also tasked with being on the lookout for hints of the local black market. Seeing as how both Arkay and Durge had ties to the criminal underworld, they could recognize markings and other signs where it could be located at.
While the others were busy with their tasks, Erin and Lexton were left with their own tasks. They would be on the lookout for materials necessary for building the redhead’s new prosthetic hand. Even though this was a task mainly meant for the kobold, Erin was there to provide him with protection, in case the ran into some less than friendly inhabitants of the city.
Having seen how Lexton worked on his projects, Erin wasn’t at all surprised by seeing him head to the local garbage dump. Even if she knew that the kobold was more than capable of building the greatest of weapons from simple trash, it was still a bit unsettling how he didn’t hesitate at all to look at what others had discarded as trash for materials to work. This feeling wasn’t helped at all by the fact that this time the trash was going to be made into what would be her new hand from now on.
“Uhhhh… Lex? Mind if I ask you something?” Erin called out to the kobold, who was bust looking through the heaps of trash metal. “This is going to be for my new hand, right?”
“Of course! I thought that would be obvious,” Lexton said without even looking back at the redhead. “Why do you ask?”
“Well… I don’t mean to cast any doubt towards your skill. I mean, I absolutely have no reason to do so, after all. I’ve seen the things you can do, so I’m the last person who would ever do such a thing at all,” the redhead explained. “It’s just that… Are you sure a garbage dump is the proper place to look for parts? It’s for a new had, after all.”
“What’s wrong with looking for parts here for that?” the kobold asked, giving a confused look at Erin. “You do remember that I made your sword, Ryle’s whip and Arnie’s knife from similar stuff, right? In fact, I’d argue that this is better than the stuff I used back then!”
“That might be the case, but don’t you think that using trash to make a prosthetic hand to be a bit… crude?” Erin asked awkwardly. “Like I said earlier, I trust your skills completely. It’s just that I’m not sure about the fact that I’m going to have garbage attached as part of my body from now on. I can’t help but feel dirty at just the thought of it…”
The redhead expected the kobold to get mad at her for saying such things. She fully expected him to yell at her for being demanding among other things. Yet she was surprised when he did no such thing. Instead, he looked at her calmly and spoke to her honestly.
“Erin, I completely understand where you’re coming from. Believe me, I wasn’t so sure about doing things like this, when my father first taught me. You have every right to have your doubts about this, especially when I’m literally building a new body part for you,” Lexton began to explain. “The problem is that we can’t really afford to be picky about these things. While we might have gotten a good amount of money from that house Zeldana was staying at, but it’s not gonna last us all that long when you consider the size of our group and what we are doing. The unfortunate fact is that we have quite a few mouths to feed and we will be needing a lot of things the further we go in this journey of ours. We do have ways to earn money, but they aren’t reliable all the time and not as profitable as we I’d like. I hate to say this, but no matter what it is, we are going to have to cut costs as much as possible.”
“...I’m sorry, Lex,” Erin said, looking down in shame. “I didn’t realize just how bad our money problems are and just left it on you.”
“Hey, you’ve got a lot on your mind, much like everybody else in this group of ours. I’ll gladly handle financial issues for us, since you guys do seem to generally listen to me,” the kobold said with a smile. “And no need to worry too much about your new hand! If it’s not as good as you’d like, I can always make you a new one later! A true artist like myself is always looking forward to improving his craft!”
The redhead smiled at what Lexton had just said. It was comforting to know that he was not only looking out for them, but that he held no ill will at what she had just said.
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Some time later, the group had gathered back at their hotel room to report what they had found and to eat dinner together. Lexton was also hoping to get started with making blueprints for Erin’s new prosthetic hand, as he had all the equipment he needed to do the best he could with the materials he had.
However, with the subject of dinner having been brought up, a new question rose up. Who would be the one cooking?
So far, they hadn’t exactly done much in terms of preparing meals, as they had simply roasted whatever animals they had caught in the wild to go with the edible vegetables they found. Other than that, they had simply eaten basic canned food in order to save money. Now that they had a bot more money, they felt like it was appropriate to prepare an actual meal for once.
“So, anybody willing to volunteer to cook?” Erin asked. “I’m honestly fine with anybody, as long as they know what they’re doing.”
“That unfortunately leaves me out,” Lexton admitted right away. “Unless I ate at some restaurant or stall, the only food I’ve had is stuff that only needs to be heated up.”
“Same here,” Ryle said. “Back home, my brother handled cooking, so I’m pretty much useless in that regard. I think he even forbid me from entering the kitchen.”
“Why would he do that?” Arkay asked.
“Said something about not wanting “ungodly abominations that are a blasphemy to all creation” to ever being made again,” the blonde answered. “It’s weird how hard it can be to make simple sandwiches, you know?”
“...Yeah, I can imagine,” Erin said with a roll of her eye. “I’m afraid I’m no good either. I never really bothered to pick up skills related to the kitchen due to personal reasons.”
“Those being?” Ryle asked.
“...I’d rather not talk about it,” the redhead replied with a sad look on her face.
The fact was that the guilt and regret that had been eating at her back in her original world had made the idea of cooking seem pointless. Back then, Erin had lived pretty much through nothing but microwave meals.
“I’m afraid that I don’t have skills in that field either,” Durge said, bringing the conversation back to its original topic. “I’ve only been trained in combat skills. Household chores are something I’m unfamiliar with.”
“...Does opening bottles and emptying their contents as a cooking skill?” Zeldana asked, which earned her glares from the others. “I’ll take that as a no.”
With pretty much everybody else eliminated, all eyes turned to the last remaining member of the group, Arkay.
“Umm… I-I have cooked a few times here and there,” the cat boy answered. “If you guys are okay with it, I could give it a try….”
“Arnie, the way I see it, you are the closest thing to an expert cook we have here,” Erin said with a smile. “As long as you’re willing to do it, I have no issues with you handling it.”
Arkay looked at the others and saw them give him encouraging smiles. Seeing as they were all okay with it, he decided to go for it.
“A-Alright! I’ll make sure to prepare something really good for you all!” the cat boy enthusiastically before going to the kitchen.
“Glad to see him so pumped up. It’s refreshing sight,” Lexton said with a smile.
“Oh, I know what you mean,” Ryle said with a smile of her own.
“...Not like you, you disgusting animal,” the kobold said with a glare.
“Up yours!” the blonde said back.
“Okay, before we get too off track here, how about we talk about the things we’ve seen in the city so far,” Erin said, preventing a fight from breaking out. “Did any of you get any idea as to where the black market could be located?”
“Hate to say it, but Arnie and I had no luck in that area,” Ryle replied. “Wherever they are, they’re hidden really well.”
“Could it be that there just isn’t a black market in this city then?” the redhead asked.
“Erin, trust me on this. Whatever the place is, as long as a decent amount of money moves there, the black market exists there as well,” Lexton said. “It’s honestly harder to find a place where they don’t operate.”
“We didn’t find anything either in regards to that, but we did hear something else that’s pretty interesting,” Durge said. “Although, it’s honestly more concerning than anything else…”
“What is it then?” Erin asked.
“One of Golorath’s three warlords resides close to this city,” the orc answered.