{Alternate Title: Sewer Maze}
[ ~ Chapter • Start ~ ]
In the hidden altar under the Temple of Larentia, Rance, along with Rozen, Sill and Celestine had arrived.
They were here again, in this hidden place where both Rance and Sill remember that Celestine had summoned them to here.
They've been told by Celestine that she could transport them to altars created under the Fortress Cities, and that was good enough for Rance. The only problem was getting back to Geofu with Prim on their arms.....
Standing in position, Rance looked at Sill, who smiled and gave him a thumbs up, and the assassin was quite cautious about this.
"We're ready to infiltrate Ur, Celestine! Do your work!" Rance signalled with a grin, and with a nod, Celestine began to chant something unknown to the trio's ears as the glyphs and mana circles all around them began to glow in a gentle, golden light.
The Goddess Reborn clasped her hands together, and then several particles of light proceeded to rise from the glyphs.
"Husband, I wish you and your allies good luck at the fortress." Was a whisper carrying pure intent, Celestine sent to Rance, who couldn't hear it due to a pillar of light escaping from underneath, transporting them to somewhere below the Castle of Ur.
After a few seconds, a pillar of light appeared on another altar, and when it vanished, three figures appeared-
"BWEEEGH~!!!" And immediately, Rozen puked rainbows on the freshwater at the edge of the altar, grasping her stomach.
Rance stared at the dark elven girl, and let out a soft chuckle that brought her attention to him with a frown on her face and bluntly spike "...not funny, Rance."
"First time? Definitely didn't happen to us." Rance spoke with a playful tone, before looking around the surroundings. "Sill, what's around us now?"
Sill looked around the room the three of them had recently arrived in, and found out that they are standing on an altar between a massive lake of freshwater, and there are several platforms that they could hop around to a path that probably should lead up to the Castle of Ur.
"Hm, I see. Then what are we waiting for? Let's move our asses already!" Rance yelled, just before they all heard rumbling coming from behind them.
When they turned around, a massive octopus monster in red skin with dark patches emerged from the freshwater, reaching around two stories high, if it's head was that high, then it's tentacles that emerged after it must be longer.
It's four eyes glanced around the three of the people, before it's eyes landed on Sill, making her almost terrified by it. Yet Rozen was even more terrified than her.
"Sill, we're having octopus for lunch." Rance spoke with charismatic confidence, unsheathing Chaos and pointing it at the monster and began filling Chaos with mana. "So I'm dealing with you now! Signature move:[Rance Attack]!"
Whatever fight that should have happened was skipped with one battle ender known as Rance's signature move, and several tentacled that would have captured the girls without them noticing fell down on the altar.
One huge problem was that the altar was damaged and there probably is no way to return back to Geofu except by foot.
And as expected, Sill's cooking ability was still the best, too. With their tummies refilled, they took a small rest before hopping through several platforms and eventually leaving the chamber and then going through a pathway.
"Urgh, it's beginning to smell like shit and piss right here..." Rance complained, almost covering his nose from the smell that he and his partners were receiving. ".... Where the hell even are we?! The sewers?!"
The only thing that was in their surroundings was a river that traced back to where they were in recently and a hard path, what was lighting it were crystals of different colors that might sell for a lot of money.
But, as an expert adventurer, Rance really liked exploring unknown places like this, despite it being a used sewer.
There were treasure chests around, that contained things worth selling like armors, gold coins, and jewelry that also contained magic. Yet they can't really take all of that at this moment, right?
There was no weapon sharper than theirs, and even though there was a staff, Sill is already too good of a magic caster to be using random staffs around. Still, Rozen felt comfortable in taking away a dark robe and a new set of thigh-high boots and dark colored opera gloves that weirdly fit for her.
They all encountered an army of ant-like monsters reaching up to Rance's waist in terms of height, and they were easily dealt with some effort that Rance's party used because they were honestly troublesome.
"Umm.... Master? Shouldn't we find an exit out of the underground?" Sill asked while all of them were walking upstairs.
"Don't worry about it, we might find a way out soon enough."
Technically, Rance was worrying about it. Did Celestine teleport them to the wrong location? What if they were just in a city that wasn't Ur?
He grumbled, quickening his pace forward.
It almost took them hours to exit a long sewer maze, enduring the stench of shit, piss, and rotten corpses, between small breaks in rooms to avoid puking out.
"Argh.... I'm glad we're out of the sewers...." Rozen spoke with disgust lacing her voice, taking a deep breath of fresh air after Rance and Sill.
"Fuuu~.... I am, too..." Sill followed, fixing her clothing.
And then, they all noticed something different.
It..... was already night, and they weren't even inside the castle like Celestine told them.
The three of them walked forward to a large, bustling street full of people wanting to buy something.
Food stalls, street vendors, and shops can be seen all around them, and loud chatter can be heard from anybody here.
Thinking something might happen to his women, Rance grabbed Sill's hand and Rozen's arm, and began to move.
"If my intuition tells me.... this must be the Fortress City of Ur." Rance spoke, nodding his head. "But before we eventually
go inside the castle, we do need somewhere to eat and rest. All that stuff tired me out of my mind!"
[ ~ Chapter • End ~ ]
Fun Fact: If this was an RPG, Sill and Rance already have their endgame equipment on. Also, remember Bruce Lee's quote of fearing the man who's used one attack thousands of times? Let's just say that Rance had done just that with his signature move alone.
Also no need to spend effort writing useless fights.
[ OMAKE ]
{ Grave tries to enter Geofu (Episode 1) }
"This is getting annoying...." Grave spoke, grumbling at the Geofuan knights who had blocked his path.
"Sir Levantine, we know you are a noble of high position, but by our new king's orders, anybody not from Rad, Thorn and Geofu are not allowed through unless you have a pass." A knight said, holding his position as much as possible.
No matter how much he tried to get the knights to let him pass, it was totally unsuccessful to the point where the knights threatened to attack him.
At this point, Grave had no choice but to retreat with some regret and once he was far enough, an idea came to his mind: what if he hid inside a carriage?
With that idea in mind, Grave began to look for a carriage to the east of Geofu's borders.