A few days past and Jude was beginning to implement his plan of action against the upcoming difficulties. Jude didn’t know what Lord Merek was intended to do with , but he was sure that it wouldn’t be good. He had spent the last few days with Heroic Retribution in the new area that he set up for them. They were now camping in the area, and this allowed Jude some peace of mind as they were in a ‘safer’ place.

Not only were the trainees there, but also the crafter staff he had hired. Jude had also convinced Ellie to go as well. He had tried to convince Theodwin, but the Elf refused. Now that Theodwin knew were the other node sites where he had no intention to be anywhere else but the nodes.

Jude himself had been playing a low profile since he got back from the Bandit hideout, as to not alert Lord Merek that he was in town. After Heroic Retribution had turned in the slaves, it wouldn’t be hard to connect the dots and figure out that it was Jude who killed Abaud and the Bandit who was supplying the slaves. Jude couldn’t just brazenly walk around town without Lord Merek finding out. Getting through the gates and walking around town with a hood worked, but even like this, Jude wouldn’t dare go to the citadel to find the Switch.

Luckily Jude had recently unlocked . It was the Rank IX skill from and could turn his body ghost like when activated. It allowed him to fly and phase through walls and physical attacks slowly. A Rank IX skill was much harder to learn, and Jude wanted to max it out before attempting to infiltrate the citadel.

The citadel walls were something special. It was not made out of natural stone, but a dark stone that Jude didn’t know the name of. However, he did know that they were magically resistant. The walls were mostly intended for massive magical barrages, so he wasn’t sure how would do against it. It would take him a few more days to completely master to Rank X.

When Ranking Up , he noticed that it stopped at Rank IX. When he would have gotten Rank X it gave him a notification: ‘Spectral Shard required to advance.’ It was something he was going to have to ask Theodwin about since he was knowledgeable about rare and exotic materials.

Theodwin was an amazing Blacksmith, and from the devices, he used, most likely an Artificer class as well. But from what Jude knew about Theodwin made Jude wonder just how many classes Theodwin had. It almost seemed like he had more than five classes, which was the limit. Was it possible that Theodwin knew a way to advance past five classes?

Jude put this thought to the side for now. There was too much going on for him to focus on it.

Besides working on , Jude was also implementing a defensive plan at the HQ for Heroic Retribution. overlaid the entire place creating an invisible fortress. Using Jude could ensure the security of the HQ. If anything entered that was a , it would be instantly killed. Plus, all attacks from the outside would be blocked by .

had already reached Rank X, so the power it could store was quite enormous, and it could exist for an extended period. The foundation that he was genuinely worried about was the one he put on the Town Stone. He wasn’t sure how much longer it would last. And if it started to be used, it wouldn’t last long at all.

***

It was the night a week later. proved to be a lot more complicated than Jude initially realized. It was still only Rank VIII, but Jude felt like he was running out of time. Through the view of , the corruption of Longdale was starting to be noticeable. Outwardly everything looked fine; only Jude was able to see the corruption.

This left him surprised, as he could not figure out how they were doing it. He had patrolled the town a few times but didn’t see any slave or person that might be a .

Jude threw these thoughts out of his head. Right now he was sneaking into the citadel, and this needed his full concentration. He had put a dark cloak over his usual attire and keep the hood up tight. When he set up Heroic Retribution’s camp in Allur Forest, he also picked up the Rogue class. He didn’t particularly want to, but he needed a way to raise his Rogue’s skills fast. Now he was grateful that he did, and were coming in real handy.

Jude watched the guards on the walls and waited for the perfect opportunity. wasn’t extremely flashy, but it was still magic.

When the guards finally turned Jude whispered, “.”

Jude’s body flashed a purplish blue light. Quickly he controlled it to fade out of sight. Even at Rank VIII, it wouldn’t turn completely invisible, but during the night no one should see him.

He put his ghost like hand up against the magically resistant wall. If this didn’t work, he would have to find another way. His hand slowly entered the wall, but he was meeting a lot more resistance that he ever had before. This much he expected, but what he didn’t expect was the drain on his mana. was already an expensive resource skill, but once he put his hand inside the wall, the mana cost doubled to keep up the skill.

He quickly removed his hand. Going through the wall was not an option. If he ran out of mana while he was in the wall would naturally turn off. That would kill him. Another possibility was to go over the wall, but Jude guessed that there were ways to keep this from happening. The citadel was a ‘no-fly zone.’ This only left the option of going down. Any restrictions in place for that would have to do with tunneling. As tunneling created vibrations, he guessed that any restriction or alarm would happen because of that. Ghosting through the ground should be the safest option.

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Jude sank into the ground right next to the wall. After entering the ground, it became like air to him. He could clearly see through the dirt and was only obstructed by objects other than the dirt. Since he was right next to the wall when he went down, the first thing he noticed was that the wall extended 10 meters down. Like a slowly floating soap bubble, he gently moved farther down. When he finally crested the buried wall, an inauspicious sight was displayed before his eyes.

Jude had no idea just how big the Town Stone was until now. The stone obelisk structure extended several meters into the ground before becoming a pure crystal structure. The size of it was like a mountain and springing out of that mountain were tendrils of the crystal, like ore veins, which covered the entire town. The only problem was that the crystal was turning into black obsidian.

Almost the entire mountains now obsidian and only the peak where the external Town Stone stood was left unchanged.

Jude quickly moved as fast as would let him. He had intended to quickly surface and sneaked his way to the Town Stone, but this new sight filled him with urgency. He activated to boost his speed which surprisingly worked unground and while in . As he neared his destination, he could see the rate of the crystal converting to obsidian with the naked eye. The Switch didn’t have much time!

Jude emerged from the ground and released . But to his surprise, the Switch wasn’t there.

***

Switch had been monitoring Jude non-stop. Even if her life didn’t depend on him, she had little else to do. Lord Merek kept her restricted from the Town Stone at all times except during business hours to maintain the pretense. Over a week ago she had become sick, and her complexion had turned sour. She had never heard of a Switch getting sick, and with Lord Merek not being able to tamper with her stone, she was unsure how it was happening.

Her sickness was even affecting her abilities with the Town Stone, and it was getting harder to control. She didn’t know what method Merek had used, but somehow he had started to cut her connection to the stone in the cruelest way possible.

She was also suspicious that Lord Merek was always asking for her to track Jude down when she had access to the Town Stone. She wasn’t sure what Jude had done to get Lord Merek to look for him so desperately. But to her, it confirmed that Jude was the right choice. He was the only one she could trust.

When she felt him coming towards the citadel, she was greatly surprised, sneaking in at night was no easy feat. But when she felt him go under the wall and through the ground she was astonished. Unfortunately, he was headed towards the stone, and she didn’t have any way to get there.

Currently, she was locked in her room.

***

It didn’t take long for Jude to realize his mistake. It was late at night. Why would the Switch be here?!

Once he comprehended that he would have to find her, he came up with a way to do so. Opening up his , he began looking for the connection that the Switch would have with the stone. After a while of searching, he finally found similar lines that made up the stone were also on the floor. These lines, however, were in a thin strip of densely packed circuitry.

This strip extended across the floor and split off each direction; it seemingly went into every corridor, room, etc. Jude further studied the lines and noticed that mana passed through the strip in one particular direction.

“This must be what keeps the Switch alive,” he mused.

Relying once again on his and skills Jude made his way through the citadel with little trouble. He activated Ghost Commander’s Eye variant as a precaution, but it was unnecessary. When he reached her room, the door was locked.

“Jude, unless you have the Thief Class or the key you won’t be able to open that door,” Switch whispered from the other side of the door.

“So pick-lock is in the Thief class?” Jude asked. “I why isn’t it in the Rogue class?”

“I don’t know. Because Rogues aren’t thieves? Now is not the time to ponder why a class doesn’t have a particular skill.” Switch said with a demeaning tone.

“Hold on. I’ll get you out in a sec.”

Switch was complaining about something else, but Jude ignored her.

He put his hand on the Lock and used and quickly learned the structure of the key hole. Then he operated to make a matching key. He put the key in and twisted. With a lick the door opened.

“-What?! How the—“ Switch had a confused look on her face.

Jude quickly closed the door behind him, “You don’t look well. There’s a lot I have to tell you, but we should get out of here first.”

“I can’t just leave. The Town Stone is here.”

“Do you know how far down the town stone goes? Do you know how far it spreads?” Jude asked.

“What do you mean? I don’t understand.” The Switch didn’t seem to understand the extent of the Town Stone. She may have been born of it, but her knowledge of it beyond how it worked was very limited.

“Your Town Stone extends like a mountain below the surface. Somehow Merek has already corrupted it. I estimate that it will only need a few more hours before it is completely corrupted. Once it does, I can only guess that it will either cut you off from the stone or directly kill you. But from how you look right now, it might just kill you.”

Switch was first shocked, but deep down she knew it to be true. Her strange sickness, the continued change in Lord Merek’s attitude, and the slow response from the Town Stone were all signs. She didn’t know what to do, so she asked. “Am I dead? Does this mean that Lord Merek won?”

“Not yet, I have an idea, but I need to get you out of here.”

Switch wasn’t exactly human, and she was able to become calm and rational instantly. So much so that it was eerie. Now her expression was cold and silent. Like a machine waiting for orders.

Jude used Ghost Commander’s Eye to find a safe route around any guard they came across. Now that he couldn’t use and , the detours became a little larger. When he was underground using , he had noticed an escape route underground that was most likely to be used by the Lord and Lady in an emergency.

Finding the hidden panel that opened up to the passage was a little more difficult, but that was made easy by a sweep of .

The tunnel was tight and damp, but it led to freedom. It didn’t seem to have been used in a while, but Jude kept on just in case. He didn’t want to find the exit being guarded by a high-level character or worse Guudnash.

They were halfway through the tunnel when the Switch suddenly stopped, “I can’t go any further.”

“Why?” Jude asked.

“If I go any further, my connection to the town stone will be severed. We are at the border of the town.”

Jude took a moment to think. He had planned on taking the Switch back to his HQ and figure out a way to connect her to a thus keeping her alive. But if this tunnel led to the outside, he wouldn’t be able to bring her back into the city, even if she remained connected to the Town Stone. They wouldn’t be able to get passed the guards.

But if they went back Jude wasn’t sure if they could get out of the citadel. Plus, he wasn’t sure how long she could survive on the or how long she could last if he were successful.

But then Jude remembered another option. It was risky, so he asked first, “Do you trust me? I have an idea, but I can’t guarantee it will work. If I fail, you will die and if I succeed you might not be a Switch anymore.”

“What other option do I have? Besides, if we do nothing, then I will die very shortly due to the corruption.” She replied.

“Good. First, you will need to take this step. Your connection has to be broken.”