Chapter 229 – It’s too quiet…

“The shit is this, I was supposed to have some fun with the local girls not be stuck in some shitty dump corridor.”

“Have fun with the local girls? You mean the local whores”

“What’s the difference?”

Orson spit on the floor while narrowing his eyes. There were no torches in this place so it was hard to see what was ahead of them. The party of eight people was slowly going through the underground passages with only Roland’s mage light as a source of illumination.

“Can you two be quiet, we don’t know if this place is even safe, what if there are more of those strange monsters here?”

Senna commented while the eldest of the pirate sisters spoke out.

“Don’t worry, those bastards shant be able t’ get here that easily. All the entrances shall ‘ave been closed ‘n I bet everyone be jus’ waitin’ fer it t’ blow o’er.”

While everyone was talking Roland was sure to use his parallel thinking skill. Part of him was constantly looking at his radar while another was paying attention to what was happening in front. Even though what Isabela said was true this didn’t mean that this place wasn’t dangerous.

Roland didn’t voice his concerns but he wasn’t sure if these underground passages were truly safe. Considering that the cult had so many infected in the city it wouldn’t be surprising if they had some kind of secret base here as well. It would be quite bold of them to create one so close to a Church worshiping the goddess of the sun.

‘Am I overthinking this? Could they hide themselves from tier 3 paladins and high priests in this city? But they weren’t able to discover the infected … ‘

The Abyssal Cult was a secretive bunch that certainly liked to hide away in the shadows. It was possible that they had ways of hiding from the church if they decided to infect this many people in a large city. Perhaps their big plan was to infest more of the populace before finally attacking when there were enough forces, yet for such a thing to be feasible, they would need some kind of foothold.

‘… and what better foothold than a base in the city that they want to take over…’

“Hey Wayland, you’ve been awfully quiet, did you figure something out?”

“Uh, no let’s just quickly head toward the docks and get out of here…”

“You don’t have to tell me twice, how much longer is this passage?”

Orson asked the question to Isabela that just smiled while replying.

“We be arrivin’ at the market soon.”

“Hope we can get some rum thar, me throat be gettin’ parched.”

“Don’t get ahead o’ yourself Eve, better ready yer rapier.

One of the sisters of the ship’s captain that seemed to like alcohol was a bit excited when they were going from around the corner. If what they were telling was true then they should arrive at the black market area after passing through another checkpoint.

“Well shit … “

Yet after they went around the corner instead of a door or some kind of passage they run into some rubble. Roland as usual was looking at his radar to see if there were any monsters or humans behind this collapsed opening. To his surprise, there was nothing that his device was picking up.

“That’s strange…”

“O’ course, it’s strange, why would they collapse the entrance t’ the market?”

“Are you sure that the black market is behind here?”

“Aye.”

“There are no life signs behind this rubble, don’t you think it’s odd that there aren’t any people at something important like the black market?”

“Wayland is right, I can’t sense anything either, hey dwarf can we get through here?”

Senna turned to Dalrak who as the resident dwarf had a keen eye for collapsed tunnels. Without needing much time he moved towards the rocks and could quickly tell that the blockade wasn’t deep.

“We shuld be able to git through here, not many of the rocks hav’ fallen.”

“What are you all worried about, so what if there is no one there, just makes it easier for us to pass!”

Orson smiled while moving towards the rubble while others just looked at him funny. Yet even Grisalde wasn’t that worried as she decided to help her new party member with moving the rocks. With so many strong people here it would be quite easy to clear out a path for them to pass through.

“Well, I guess we are going in, I’ll be relying on your magic support then.”

Senna just looked towards Roland that wasn’t sure what to make of this. It was clear to him that a place like the black market would be well protected. There should have been enough high-level bodyguards to kill a larger group of the monsters, that is if they weren’t the ones that had turned instead.

This left a few possibilities that they would probably figure out when getting to the other side. It could be that the merchants decided to instantly abandon the place when the monsters began appearing above ground. All of them could have already been outside the city at a safe location and bringing down this wall was just a precaution to keep any potential threats from following them.

“Leave it to me.”

Roland replied while observing the dark corridor behind them. While going through this place there were some forks in the road so there was a chance of something appearing from behind as well. Luck was on their side though as after about fifteen minutes they were able to make a big enough hole for people to squeeze through. With some help from Roland’s earth magic, the makeshift opening was strengthened so it wouldn’t collapse.

“Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

“Aye, be careful lass.”

Dalrak moved to the side while Senna quickly jumped through the human-sized hole without much trouble. In such situations, it was up to the people with scouting type classes to search the area.

‘We have been steadily going deeper underground, they must have really wanted to evade detection.’

While waiting Roland continued to think about the situation and if it was possible for them to get through this location without being attacked. The deeper a hiding place like this was created the harder it would be for the authorities to detect it. Then there was a whole other issue with bribes. The nobles and church members could have been on the thieves guild’s payroll which would not be that surprising.

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‘Everything comes down to money in the end…’

“Aarr shit, ye scared me.”

Senna’s head popped out of the hole after a minute from her departure. While he could her approach thanks to his radar this wasn’t the same for the pirate girls.

“Stop shoutin’ Christie, ye’ll wake the dead wit’ that voice.”

This time around it was the youngest of the three sisters that gave out quite the surprise screech.

“Ye, shut your mouth girly.”

Grisalde wasn’t amused as she inserted her little pinky into her ear that she took the shout with.

“Stop your yapping, we need to move, the coast is clear so hurry up.”

“Yeah yeah, stop squeaking pipsqueak.”

After Senna vanished through the opening it was time to test the size of the hole out. Grisalde moved in through first and was barely able to get her wide shoulders and muscular upper body through it.

“Hey, move your fat arse through faster.”

Roland could hear the halfling berating the large woman as her lower body also got momentarily stuck in the hole. With some help from the group and a firm push, she was able to land on the other side with the axe going through afterward.

“Dalrak, go next or those two might kill themselves…”

“Aye!”

Fearing for Senna’s health Roland gave the order for the friendly dwarf to go first. For some reason, he seemed to be able to talk to both parties without getting any animosity in return. After he was through the trio from the ship were next and were then closely followed by Orson with a stupid grin on his face. It was clear that he was enjoying the view that he soon followed after.

“…”