It takes them quite a while to reach the burial site. The distance itself isn’t the problem, the fact that they were traveling through untamed wilds, however, was.

They did have Spinner to guide them, which was reassuring as otherwise they’d have never found it. It was really well-hidden.

Unfortunately, he decided not to stay around for the meeting and instead immediately departed for some further exploration. He seemed really pumped up for it, so they decided to let him go.

“So, how are we doing it?” Uraraka asked the others for their opinion.

“We… knock on the door?” Kirishima asks, clearly surprised by her question.

“Gently!” Tetsushima (no, wait, it’s Tetsutetsu) agrees with him with a truly manly enthusiasm.

“If the doorkeeper is going to react to it like she did the last time, and she opens the door just to see a whole group of adventurers armed to the teeth, they might misunderstand Tetsu.” Tokage points it out to him. “And if we start fighting them, it might be hard to stop.”

“Oh, makes sense.” The two brothers say almost in unison, all while nodding. They’re really similar to each other, huh? And somehow the similarity grew in intensity ever since they discovered their suspected

“Let’s just pick one or two of us to knock and have the rest stand at a distance.” Yaoyorozu suggests. “That should make it clear that we’re here to talk, the others moved back precisely to appear less threatening.”

“Good point.” Uraraka decides to agree with her. “So, me, you and… I’d pick Monoma, but we all know that diplomacy isn’t his strongest point.”

“Diplomacy wasn’t my strongest point when we were in Japan and we all had an image to uphold.” Monoma decides to counter her. “I assure you , that I’ll behave.”

Well, unless Uraraka wanted to make their second party feel excluded , Monoma really didn’t leave her a choice.

“Alright then.” Uraraka nods. “The three of us are going. Everyone else, keep your distance. And try to look, uhm, not threatening?”

Kirishima raises an eyebrow at her. He’s still the same colossus of muscles as always, and so is his brother.

“At least try , okay?” Uraraka sighs. “Ask Ashido-san before doing anything that’s not breathing. Same for your brother.” Tetsutetsu nods quickly. “And now, onward. To another adventure!”

***

They knock on the door just as Spinner did some time ago, and then they take their position solid five meters away from them, with the rest of the group a further ten meters behind them. So that whoever sees the first group should also immediately see the other one.

As expected, after some time, the doors are once again open, with the first one to emerge being the gravehound. It almost immediately barks at them, but there is no real hostility behind it. It’s an announcement for them to keep their distance and to their handler that there’s someone out there. Nothing more.

The way the doors eventually open some more is way more cautious than it was when Spinner first knocked on them. But they do get to see the lampada hidden behind them, even if the looks that she’s giving them is that of suspicion to begin with.

“Who are you?” She speaks in a pretty, melodious voice. One that speaks in Itavian (so, the local latin). Meaning that out of the three people of their contact group, only two could actually understand it.

Big oof.

However, Uraraka is smart enough to not make it known that she doesn’t understand a word. All while Izuku is quickly switching over her stats to temporarily slip in the basic skill for understanding Itavian language into her.

The effects of that are going to be delayed due to distance. And she’ll likely have to sleep it off afterward (doing a lot of strange things with their servants made them really, really exhausted). But, it was just the best option here.

“We’re representatives from a nearby Dungeon.” Yaoyorozu takes over immediately. She knows that Uraraka is temporarily out of the conversation completely. Judging from his lack of visible reaction, so does Monoma. “We came to discuss the terms of our future co-existence.”

The lampada stares at them for maybe two or three seconds. The word ‘Dungeon’ was definitely nowhere near the top of the list of things that she expected to hear. But she snaps out of it pretty quickly.

“Wait here.” She replies, before pulling the dog back in (it seems very obedient) and locking the door behind her.

“Off to a great start.” Monoma sighs while turning his head towards Uraraka. “I guess she went to inform her superior of what just happened. How’s your Itavian?”

“I… think that I’m slowly figuring it out.” Uraraka replies. In the Northern Vestirian. “For now, I’ll just keep pretending that I understand what it is about, while you two are talking and Izuku is translating what’s going on to me.”

“Alright.” Yaoyorozu nods. “That is, of course, unless she went to gather up reinforcements for a fight.”

“You’re awfully optimistic today, did something good happen?” Monoma quips back.

“Yes, I had a very nice dream in which we were all living in our Dungeon together, in peace, except you weren’t there.” Yaoyorozu decides to escalate the situation. Who knew that she had such a nasty tongue? “Now, can it. They might be listening.”

Oh, so that’s why she made sure to mention themselves being part of the Dungeon in her counter. To make it all look as if they were a part of it after all in case some of the lampades were listening.

Monoma does go quiet. And after a while, the doors open again and the lampada sticks her head out of them.

“The three of you may enter.” She says. “The rest must wait outside.”

Someone was very cautious, it seems.

***

The insides of this burial site resemble that of Aeonia’s graveyard. Straight corridors with burial chambers of all sides. The same art style, even if the ones in this tomb were clearly of slightly inferior quality.

The differences lied in three things. One - the burial chambers were all unsealed. Two - it was inhabited by a number of lampades and gravehounds, all of which were giving them rather cautious looks. And third - things here were significantly more… aged.

Which made sense. The anti-entropic aura that the undead were spreading simply wasn’t a thing here. As a result, the place has actually aged a lot more than the other tomb.

All the corpses placed to rest in this burial site were still entombed in their coffins and sarcophagi. The only ‘living’ things in this place were the lampades and their guard dogs.

If they needed any accommodations, they’ve seen none of it. Then again, did spirits require anything else than just pure mana to thrive? Everything else seemed to be a bonus to them… or a replacement.

The room that they’re eventually brought into resembles Aeonia’s sanctuary, except once again - the amount of treasures and the quality of decorations is much lesser. The person sitting on the throne looks similar, but her skin isn’t pale and her eyes are of more natural color.

They might be slowly getting more and more used to encountering daemons, as they’re definitely sure that they shouldn’t risk the wrath of this one.

The lampada that brought them here bows her head before the one sitting on the throne, before standing by the wall. They are the only people present in the sanctuary aside from the three visitors.

“I must say that when Ka’ara told me that we were visited by self-proclaimed representatives of a Dungeon, I thought that she was fooled by some very creative grave robbers.” The elder lampada says, looking down at them from her throne. Like in the other burial site, it was elevated, which together with her height made it pretty easy. “Now that I got to see you up close, however, it seems that you truly are what you claim to be. How surprising.”

In other words

She invited them here for more efficient murder, with perhaps a side dish of asking them whom are they working for and if they can expect more graverobbers

Yes.

Then again, if we were graverobbers, that would be arguably justified.

“As you can see, we’re not here to steal anything.” Yaoyorozu replies. “Our goal is to establish a peaceful relationship with your tomb.”

“A peaceful relationship? With a tomb ?” The elder lampada appears downright amused by those words. “My tomb has been peaceful for decades, child. The word that you’re looking for is a tribute . That’s what your kind considers a peaceful relationship.”

I get a feeling that we’re not exactly liked in this world.

Everyone either wants to exploit us or expects us to exploit them

sigh

and I can’t even do the latter because you would say no

What happened to the Tomura ‘Slavery is Stupid Because It’s Exploitation’ Shigaraki that I could almost stomach the presence of?

You do realize that there’s a big difference between wanting to buy and sell people and wanting to rob them

I concede the point.

“You might be surprised with us then.” Yaoyorozu counters. “We truly are interested in a mutually beneficial relationship.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“In fact, a big reason for our attempt to establish such a thing…” Monoma decides to join the talk, making almost everyone who knows him start praying in their mind. “...is because it’d be reassuring to have a neighbor who isn’t trying to kill us and might actually have some information about this entire region from before our Dungeon was born.”

He actually spoke like a normal person?!

I know, right?

Perhaps he actually can avoid annoying people.

He just elected not to in the past.

“I see.” The elder lampada squints at them. “Let me guess. There’s a significant presence of the forces loyal to the dark gods in the area. And you’ve already had an encounter with them.”

“Yes.” Yaoyorozu takes it over from Monoma. “There are a lot of them in the area. And, to be honest, we’re simply interested in contact with a group that’s slightly… less problematic to deal with in the long term.”

“I see.” Lampada gives them a rather blank stare for a few seconds. “How bad is it?”

“We’re expecting a regular clash between forces of Rapturous Ecstasy, Nine Hordes and maybe even Rampant Bloom in this very valley.” Yaoyorozu decides to slightly upscale the situation for persuasion purposes. “It’s entirely possible that whoever wins will seize the whole region, and if so, they might find you as well.”

Then again, the upscaling in question was merely the addition of Rampant Bloom to the already volatile mix. Which definitely was in the area, just too busy with their own stuff to - hopefully - start to investigate what happened to their search party.

Since (almost) everyone out there was ready to put aside their differences to exterminate servants of the Bloom, the Webmistress Family was clearly digging deeper, expecting an attack. Or doing their best to hide.

“And that’s… definitely a notable threat.” Lampada admits, after a few seconds of looking at them, her teeth clenched. “Provided that you’re not lying. Assuming that you’re honest - how exactly can you help us?”

“The beastkin want our services.” Yaoyorozu replies. “In exchange for it, they’ve promised to respect our authority within three days of walking from our Dungeon. This means no permanent presence in the area and no pillaging or harvesting places without our agreement.”

“And so, for as long as we’re paying you tribute , we won’t be ransacked and the Dead under our protection won’t have their rest disturbed?” The lampada eventually replies. And yes, now that she does, Izuku does realize that what they were doing was pretty much an extortion.

Kind of.

“No.” Yaoyorozu replies. Did she get the same idea as Izuku did? “It’s an offer of alliance . We’re looking for…”

“To cut down the irritating segment of the talk where you don’t believe us and we repeatedly fail to persuade you otherwise with words…” Monoma once again cuts in, and once again everyone who knows him starts praying. “... please tell us, is there anything that your tomb requires and that we can provide and receive things from you in exchange?”

You know what

I’m starting to like him

It was all going towards some sort of fetch quest either way

That’s a… that’s a good point, really.

“Something that my tomb requires?” The lampada asks, before looking at them for a few seconds, clearly realizing that her attempt at mockery didn’t work. “Actually, there might be something that we need and that you might be able to provide. Namely, resources allowing us to renovate this tomb. As you can see, without access to mortal craftsmen, this burial site has declined greatly.”

That was putting it lightly. But none of them decided to say that aloud. With how protective the lampadas seemed to be of their tomb, that felt like a great way to start a fight that they couldn’t win.

“That can be arranged.” Yaoyorozu quickly informs her. “What exactly do you need?”

“Everything.” The elder lampada states flatly. “At this point we don’t even have brooms to sweep the floors, and all that we can do is to guard the dead entombed in this place and the few remaining valuables that survived the test of time. This place is, frankly, a complete and utter mess, and this means that we failed as its caretakers. And thus, we need tools and other materials to start renovating this place.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Yaoyorozu replies immediately. “We can provide you with everything you need. If not now, then in the future, once we grow some more.”

“I see.” The lampada nods. “That offer is enough for me to… agree to certain things. I have to ask about one thing before agreeing to any arrangements.” She squints at them and Izuku immediately knows what it’s going to be about. “Do you have or plan to have any contacts with the minions of the Breathless Tide?”

“I assume that this is a dealbreaker for you?” Yaoyorozu asks.

“Yes.” The elder lampada replies immediately. “Tide is an anathema to everything that we hold dear.”

“Define ‘contact’.” Yaoyorozu replies. It becomes immediately obvious that the lampada doesn’t like the implications of that question.

“I think…” She replies, squinting at Yaoyorozu. “... that I don’t have to define the word when you clearly know exactly what I meant by it.

“I don’t think that…” Yaoyorozu tries to respond, but that’s when Monoma decides to open his mouth again.

“Let me put it this way.” Monoma replies. One more time everyone starts praying, minus Izuku who at this point decided to trust him. “Dungeons, in a way, are prisons for spirits. Every daemon of the Tide locked by us is one less roaming the countryside. From this point of view, the more contact we have with the Tide, the better the world is.”

“The problem doesn’t lie in your master using the slaves of the Tide for his or her advantage.” Lampada replies. “The problem lies in their existence within your Domain incentivizing graverobbery in order to obtain further materials for experimentation. Not to mention how many higher ranked servants of the Tide turn out to be very persuasive when suggesting their accursed form of ‘immortality’ to people.”

Ah, Izuku realizes it right now. She thought that the people in front of her were the usual sort of Dungeon servants. So, locals recruited into its service. And those, indeed, could be potentially persuaded to look for true, permanent immortality outside of Dungeons.

And look for it under the guidance of the Breathless Tide.

Actually, isn’t that literally what happened with Yanagi? Well, this is awkward. But at least it proves that the elder lampada knew her enemies well.

“Our master will never permit such a thing.” Uraraka opens her mouth for the first time in this talk. It seems that the language skill has finally settled in. “He has explicitly stated that he’ll never pillage any grave. In fact, he only wishes to assimilate people that trespassed upon their domain or were actively hostile towards them or their servants. Even if he finds an untended grave, he’ll not open it.”

She says this with absolute certainty that warms Izuku’s heart. And no, this isn’t a case of telepathy - they’re close, but not that close, at least not in that direction. And even in the other direction, Izuku can only speak into her mind, not read it.

Izuku naturally consulted her on his newly found moral system. And yes, she definitely agreed with it. In fact, she considered it to be a good summary of how her new self acted, one definitely worthy of being adopted by her as well.

Both in battle and in bed. Because yes, her relationship with Himiko worked the same way. It wasn’t strictly illegal, but it was definitely wrong by the morals of Japan. And since they were no longer in Japan and no one was injured in the process, she just didn’t care about it.

“And are you ready to trust his word on that?” Lampada replies with a question.

“Yes.” Uraraka replies immediately.

“With your life ?” Lampada replies with another question.

“Yes.” Uraraka, once again, replies immediately and without a tiniest shadow of doubt.

…

You don’t even have a face and yet

I can tell you’re fucking blushing rn

I am.

Ochako’s so cool.

Ugh

“Well… it seems that you genuinely mean it.” The lampada sounds surprised by that. “Very well then. Let’s assume that I believe you. For as long as you do not violate any graveyards and transfer every mortal corpse that wasn’t hostile to you and didn’t give you your permissions to use their bodies after death here for appropriate burial, we’ll trust your master’s words that they won’t succumb to the Breathless Tide.”

Oh

she persuaded her

It seems that you’ve managed to turn being painfully lovey dovey with your girlfriend into a feat that gives you bonuses to persuasion rolls

Incredible

Really?

Yes

It’s incredible how fucking stupid it is, but since it works, I’ll take it

Classic you, eh.

“What if there’s a graveyard that has already been claimed by the Tide?” Yaoyorozu decides to ask another important question.

“Do not desecrate the Dead that weren’t already desecrated by the Tide.” Lampada states. Sounding from the tone of her voice, there is no place for negotiations here. “As for those Nex has already claimed, while I’d prefer them to be put back to rest, I don’t have the power to force the issue and I don’t think that I can persuade you to leave all of them behind.” Before any of them can ask, she speaks again. “Feel free to rob such places as well. Once again, I can’t exactly stop you.”

“If it makes you feel better, we’re open to returning old corpses that we’ll have no use for back to you.” Yaoyorozu replies. In Izuku’s opinion, it was a bit of an unnecessary concession, but… it should definitely make things slightly more palatable to the lampades. “Now… what exactly can you offer us in exchange for all of that?”

Ah. Yaoyorozu decided to make a last-minute concession to perhaps make the lampada a bit more generous. Makes sense.

“Three of my sisters and nine of our dogs under strict contracts allowing them to walk out of the deal if your side violates the deal.” Elder lampada then promptly surprised them by giving them something that they didn’t even ask for. “My intel on the area is somewhat outdated, so consider this as something of an… equalizer .”

“And also a way of keeping an eye on us.” Uraraka comments. Lampada doesn’t engage. “Do you have something that can help us unlock the shrine of Mors? We aren’t sure how exactly it works, to be honest.”

“I don’t know for sure either.” Lampada admits. “If contracting a daemon serving a deity won’t work, it might require assimilating some object blessed by the power of such deity, or being seen as blessed by the mortals. One of our lamps should suffice, and since you’re going to temporarily assimilate three of our kind into your Domain, it should be enough in any case.”

Alright. Now, it’s time to get some intel.

“What about the intel on this area?” Yaoyorozu asks.

“All my intel will be more than forty years old.” The elder lampada replies. “That’s when the shield-city of Taer fell to the forces of the Immutable Hierarchy, and the whole region was practically abandoned. Even before that, it was nearly uninhabited, and without a foothold that Taer was, the presence of civilization in this area has waned completely. Some of those things shouldn’t change, but most of them likely did.”

Ah. That explains a bit more about just how empty this place was.

“One additional question concerning that…” Yaoyorozu tilts her head a little. “Have you ever heard of the term ‘Northern Wind?”

They immediately understood that yes, yes she did. She squinted at them with a worried frown on her face.

“Yes.” She says slowly. “Yes, I did. Where did you hear that name?”

“We’ve found an abandoned facility of theirs some distance away.” Yaoyorozu replies. “Filled with very old corpses. It seemed to be abandoned for years.”

“I see.” Lampada sighs, clearly relieved. “It’s one of the few organizations composed of mages who split off from the Imperial Magic Guild in order to do their own things. In this case, attempt to use techmaturgic relics that they barely understand in order to improve bodies of the mortals, creating horrid abominations to fight for them and changing their own bodies so that they and their descendants could be better than everyone else. They look down on everyone else, and are both dangerous and ruthless. They’re all criminals and outlaws according to the imperial law, so you’re not only free but actually encouraged to kill them all if you encounter them.”

Oh

so genetic supremacists

pretty much magical nazis, even in the aesthetic of their uniforms

cool

Really?

yes

it’ll be pretty cool to kill them if we find them

and also, do you remember how there was something moving down there?

oh

That means something physical that might be replicable in large numbers by the Dungeon, unless it’s spirits that invaded the place.

Yes

Cool, even if it’s probably too powerful for us quite yet. We don’t know how deep that facility goes, and if the Northern Wind decided not to retake this place, it’s probably something very dangerous.

Yes

“I see.” Yaoyorozu nods. “We’ll keep that in mind. For now, we’ll move over to talking about what you know about the area. Uhm, before that, what’s your name? I think it’s high time to learn that.”

“Lorae.” The lampada replies. What was with this world? Why was everyone introducing themselves so late into the talk? Was it normal here, or was it just something common only among the daemons? “Head caretaker of this tomb. And you?”

Their names did raise some eyebrows at how foreign they sounded. But in the end, she clearly decided that those were aliases or something like that and decided to roll with that. And deliver them the intel that they needed.