From the fort’s side, Arad and the rest watched the soldiers rushing out on horseback, with Gug’s roaring in the distance like a giant monster.

“How long will she last?” He asked.

“As long as there are monsters to kill,” Vars tapped Arad’s shoulder, “Let’s hurry inside,”

They marched alongside the walls till they reached a small crack in the ground, reeking with horrifying stench. “The sewers are here,” Vars looked inside, pointing his staff to shine a light forth.

With one glance, everyone could see the black, disgusting mud riddled with flies and worms.

“Ah! Shit,” Jack sighed, unexcited to move forth.

“Literal **, let’s move,” Liliana smacked his back, “We have a job to get done and wealth to rob,”

“No wealth will save my hide from smelling like crap. She will snap my back in half.” He sighed, “But work is work,”

Jack lunged into the hole. DAM! Out of the blue, he landed on a white platform of magic, glittering like jewels.

“She would cut my ears for getting her in **,” Vars sighed, jumping after Jack, “Your sister is scary,”

CLACK! Liliana landed behind them, pushing Vars forth, “Hurry, my contracts with you lots end soon,” She then looked at Jack with a smile, “I know how to get a nice contract,”

Jack looked back at Arad and Gojo, waving his arms, “You hear that?” He said, following his sister and Jack.

Arad and Gojo looked at each other, smiling, “They don’t know how disgusting this place is,” Gojo shook his head.

“No they don’t,” Arad giggled.

The two brothers have a heightened sense of smell from being dragons. To them, it wasn’t just about the mud or worms, but the whole place was almost unbearable. To the dragons, hearing others complain about a place without being able to fully sense it was hilarious.

After walking for a while, they finally reached a dead end. Arad looked forward, seeing the rusted steel bars gate blocking their path. “Two locks. Should we break them?” He asked.

“Wait a moment,” Vars lifted his hand, observing the gate. “I sense no magic, but to avoid noise, let those two take care of it,” He looked toward Jack and Liliana.

Liliana pulled some lockpicks, looking at Jack with a smile, “Where’s your tolls?”

With a swift wrist move, Jack pulled a lockpick that he was hiding in his artificial arm, “Got one right here, and some there,” He pointed at Arad.

Arad lifted his hand, pulling a massive barrel full of lockpicks from his stomach.

“No wonder there was a shortage. The hell you need a whole barrel?” Liliana stared at Jack, “How expensive was that?”

“Depends on who’s paying,” Jack looked at Arad, “It was several gold coins at first, but I seem to have some connections with the king, a princess, and the royal blacksmith. So I managed to get them mostly for free.”

Arad blinked, “Wait? What did you do with the money then?”

“Nothing yet,” Jack pulled the gold coins, “I was between buying a holy silver blade for Lydia or several charges of fire oil, still can’t make a decision,”

“Both. I will pay the rest,” Arad replied, “We could use some stronger smites, and fire oil would be handy eventually.”

“Thank you, boss!” Jack waved his hand as he reached toward the rusted gate with Liliana.

“Got a nice employers there,” She said, lockpicking the upper lock.

“I never had this much material for traps before. Probably won’t find a better place to work,” Jack laughed, lockpicking the lower lock.

Arad looked at Gojo, “You paying them well?”

“Same as you, can’t spare expenses when needed like this,” Gojo replied. ***

They kept following the sewers, going deeper and deeper into the fort’s lower structures. CI-CHIP! A massive rate stared at them, running back into the shadows.

Thud! Vars lifted his staff, stopping everyone. “Magic, halt,”

Arad opened his void eyes, looking ahead of him. Another gate like earlier, but this one oozed with magic. “That one is trapped,” He said.

“Good eyes,” Vars smiled, “And not just any trap, that thing nasty,” He pointed with his staff at the gate.

“You touch it, lockpick it, or dispel the magic. It sends a notification to every mage in the castle. You break it. It releases an alarm and wakes every rat in this old fort.” He looked back, “Even if we had the magic key to pass, it will still notify every make that someone had passed, and they will come to check as we aren’t registered.”

“Then what do we do? Teleport past it with void step?” Arad suggested, and Vars giggled.

“That would trigger the alarm as your magic will go through the gate to the other side.” He walked forward and turned to the side, “We will instead go around it. The magic spread only three feet away from the gate sides.” Grave walk

As he stepped into the wall, the stone opened up into a pocked his side and allowed him to walk right into it. Everyone looked at themselves, “Neat,” said Jack, walking behind Vars.

Everyone followed them as they walked through the walls around the gate to bypass its magic.

“Most digging magic would shake the place enough to trigger the alarm, but grave walk allows us to seamlessly pass through walls without disturbing it,” Vars said as he walked out of the wall on the other side, followed by everyone else.

After walking a bit, the sewers started to get tighter and tighter, “Are we supposed to polymorph here?” Arad asked.

“Want to check?” Vars pointed up at a small hole in the ceiling. 𝙚𝙙𝙤𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝒎

***

CRACK! CRACK! Inside the fort’s bath, a drain crackled as a fat black rat nudged his head against it. It quickly got plucked out, and Arad walked out.

He looked around, seeing a maid cleaning in the bath’s corner. He already had her detected beforehand. ^This looks like the bath. We need to get deeper.^ Arad turned around, trying to use his detection to find other people walking around the fort.

As he was thinking, the maid in the corner turned around, her eyes fixed on the big rat.

With her mop in hand, she walked silently toward Arad, determined to crush his head on the spot.