Chapter 281 – Spying on the enemy.

“Did I really have to come over here myself? I already told you that I can’t do anything about that Platinum team, they will get here when they get here and why are we meeting in this blasted tower?”

A disgruntled large bald guild master opened the door to the guard tower that Arthur was occupying. On the inside, he spotted the young lord already dressed in a set of armor. The long white hair went well together with the silvery armor that he was wearing. To the side instead of the usual longsword, a somewhat lavish-looking rapier adorned his side.

“What’s with you? Do you intend to use that on someone?”

“I hope not guild master, we have a problem, please sit down.”

“It’s fine, what happened? Are the monsters actually coming?”

Aurdhan after glancing over the young lord and his maid instantly knew that something was afoot. Normally a noble like this would only put on armor and grab weapons if someone was attacking the city, with how they had a skeleton problem this was probably the case.

“You are correct and it’s not just the weak ones, the Lich is among them.”

“Oh? That thing actually came out but how can you be so sure about this?”

The old man was more surprised about Arthur receiving the information before he did. The dungeon and everything around it was supposed to be his specialty. His contacts were supposed to keep him informed about the state of it from the outside. There were many people with advanced tracking classes and magical items that could observe everything from a safe distance but he did not hear any word from them yet.

Instead, this young man had called for him with the emergency runic device he was given recently. It looked similar to a crystal ball but only relayed short pre-recorded messages. It also changed color depending on the seriousness of the occasion. This time around it started blinking red which meant that he needed to ignore any other meetings.

“I’m sure, the information came from a reliable source, it seems that the previous attack was only a test, the monster is coming out in full force and we are looking at several tier 3 undead within their ranks.”

“Several?”

“We confirmed at least four and with the Lich that makes it five but there could be more and we don’t know how the monster produces them yet, he could be able to reanimate them instantly.”

“That would be a problem…”

Arthur continued to talk about the intel that Roland had given him. Liches required bodies to produce the regular undead minions, that was a truth known to everyone. This rule didn’t apply to the special summons that the black skeletons were part of. It was possible that after one went down the monster could instantly summon it back as long as they were close.

“We need to decide on a way to tackle this problem.”

Arthur commented while motioning with his eyes to Mary. The maid did a little bow before walking towards the entrance to this office. After leaving she soon returned with a man dressed in official soldier armor that was a bit more intricate than the others.

“Lord Arthur, you needed something?”

The man bowed lightly while also holding his helmet to the side. At first glance, the man looked to be at the age of forty. He had a well-trimmed beard that somewhat enhanced his jawline but even without it, he did look like a man that meant business.

“I’m not sure that you two have ever met, this is Guard Captain Edmond.”

“Think this is the first time we met, but I heard of him getting the position after the late captain was found embezzling those funds…”

Replied the guild master as he acknowledged the man’s presence. This man before him had spent some good years in the city and was an actual local. He was somewhat the second in command behind the old leader of the city guards. After Arthur arrived on the scene he was removed for taking bribes and hanging around the red light district a bit too much. He was on the level of a weaker silver-rank adventurer.

“Yes but let’s not talk about the past and focus on the future. We will need the adventurers to work with us again and your services might be needed, guild master.”

The guard captain seemed a bit dejected at the comment that Arduhan slipped in but was in no position to argue with a tier 3 class holder. Instead, he just stood there at attention as a proper soldier would and waited for an order to be given.

“So that’s what this was all about, you want me to fight that Lich?”

“I hope that it won’t come to that but you also must remember that you have clear duties to fulfill.”

There was an agreement between the kingdom and the adventurer guild. While the latter was not part of the official military and could operate independently there were times when they were required to take action. This mostly concerned official guild members like Ardunhan here, he was required to take up arms against monsters in a situation like this. If he decided to run without confronting the Lich, he would be committing a crime.

“I know what I have to do, you don’t need to remind me but remember that I only need to act if the monsters actually make it into the city.”

“Of course, for the time being, we will still wait for that adventurer party to arrive, I just wished to remind you of the possibility.”

Arduhan gave out a sigh as he knew that he couldn’t really weasel himself out of this one. If he decided to abandon ship while being in his position the only place he could run to was the thieves guild. Outside of it, he would be a wanted man, perhaps a high enough noble could hire him as a lowly knight but he would rather go to prison than be forced to work as one of those.

“Hah fine, was this all you wanted to talk about, or can I leave?”

It didn’t seem that the guild master appreciated the tone that Arthur was taking with him but he could also not refute the request. If the monsters made it into the city he would need to face them.

“Almost, Edmund here will act as a proxy as I’m sure you don’t want to be called each time there is news about the monsters. For the time being the skeletons are gathering on the outside of the dungeon like this, Mary would you be so kind?”

“As you wish Lord Arthur.”

The guild master wasn’t sure where this was heading. The guard captain or one of his people would relay the information and probably call for his help if the need arose. He didn’t really need any outside help as he had informants of his own at various locations in the city.

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This should have been the end of it but the woman brought out a strange rectangular square covered in runes. It was around the size of a chessboard and had four identical iron rods in each corner. They were less than half a meter long but thick enough to not wiggle around while the runic object was moved around.

It took a while to prepare this magical contraption. After putting it on the desk the maid had to bring over another item that looked like a black box with a cable sticking out of it. This cable was then connected to this board and only after did the runes start to activate.

“This looks like Wayland’s handiwork.”

“Yes, he does give his works a certain flair…”

“Yeah, they tend to look like junk an old wizard flushed down their toilet.”

“Quite… but to his defense, I don’t think he had much time to make this and at least when it comes to the magical effect, it’s truly amazing.”

Everyone nodded as they looked at the rough shape that wasn’t very pleasant to the eye. Most of the time runesmiths would spend some extra time to make their designs somewhat eye-catching and streamlined. This runesmith didn’t seem that bothered by people scrutinizing some of his designs, if it did the thing it was supposed to do, then he was fine with it.

“What does this tool do? If those monsters are gathering outside of the dungeon I don’t think we should be wasting time on some magical gadgets?”

“Don’t worry guild master, this one could save a lot of lives.”