Thud! Swosh! The maid swung her mop at full speed, and Arad turned with a surprised rat face. CHI-CHIP!?

Seeing the mop racing toward his head, Arad lunged up, dodging the attack with his legs spinning as he tried to act like a scared rat.

“Heh!” The maid smiled. Out of the blue, her speed increased dramatically, almost doubling as her body spun in place, THUMB! With one step, she pinned Arad to the ground.

CHIP! CHIP! Arad growled, hesitant to use more force than what a rat could have. Otherwise, this maid might discover their truth.

“You’re one unlucky fat rat,” The maid giggled, “Action surge, did you like it? I only got a few months ago,”

^A low-level figher, of course, the maids in a fort would be able to move a bit better than normal.^ Arad though, trying to think of a way to get out of this situation. ^I can kill and stuff her in my stomach. No, a missing maid is the last thing we need.^

QWARK! The maid paused, hearing a toad. She looked toward the sinks, seeing one green, muscular, and ugly toad the size of a human fist staring at her.

“What?” She gasped as the toad opened its mouth, dangling its tongue out.

As Arad looked at the toad, he knew that was Gojo. But he didn’t know if that was an innate ability of his brother or a spell cast by Vars. What mattered most was that his brother was.

QWARK! Gojo opened his mouth, taking a stance and threatening the maid that He was about to jump at her.

The maid clenched her fist on the mop, ready to swat the toad in an instant.

QWARK! Gojo pretended to back away before making one sudden lung toward the maid.

She swung the mop as fast as she could but missed the toad by a hair strand.

STUD! Gojo landed on her face, biting her nose. “AGRAAA!” The maid screamed, stumbling back and lifting her foot from Arad’s body.

Arad took the chance and lunged back into the sink. Gojo soon followed him and escaped.

****

Thud! Arad landed on Vars’s magic platform with Gojo beside him. He sighed, standing back in his rat form. “That was close,” He looked at Gojo.

The toad(Gojo) replied, “Next time, try something smaller. A fly would be best for infiltration.”

“A maid?” Vars looked at them.

“A fighter maid, probably level two or three.” Arad replied, patting his hide, “She used action surge to pin me to the ground with her foot.” He sighed, “I didn’t expect such moves,”

“Well, I wish that was me,” Vars said with a weird smile, “But, let’s keep it for later,” He shook his head, “Most people in the fort received at least basic training and could hold their ground against normal people in a fight. It would be exquisite if they would stomp…”

QWARK! Gojo jumped up, hitting Vars in the face, “The bath is above us. Where should we go?”

Vars scratched his chin, “Fine, fine. No jokes. If the bath is above us, did you see which direction it’s door?”

Arad pointed toward the wall, “This direction, but on a slight angle,” .𝙘𝒐𝒎

“I see, so that means the vault is in that direction,” Vars pulled a rough draft of the fort’s layout map.

“How did you get this?” Arad shifted back to his humanoid body and asked.

“I sent a scrying eye into the fort by sticking it one of the servants, got some rough info from it,” Vars rolled the map and gave it to Gojo to hide it.

The party kept walking through the sewers until Vars stopped, looking around, “I sense a wave of magic. Stop!” Lifting his hand, he waved his staff around, “Something is off about it,” His eyes darted across the sewers.

“The stench of the hells,” Liliana walked forward, her eyes glowing, “Probably not something we should worry about,”

^Don’t worry, it’s only hell stone. A rock brought from the hells, probably stored in the vault. Aside from being dangerously cursed, it’s harmless. Even less since I’m here,^ Doma said inside Arad’s head, confirming Liliana’s suspicions.

“That’s hell stone. I won’t pause a problem,” Arad said, walking forward and lifting his hand up.

Thud! Vars grabbed Arad’s hand, “Don’t interfere with its waves, my guess is the archmage left it here to scare intruders, especially mages who got through the gate without ringing the alarm.”

“He’s right,” Liliana added, “The moment we disable or neutralize it, she will come swooping down.”

^That’s a possibility, we then should ignore it and keep going,^

Gojo and Jack looked at each other, “They keep hitting us with bait and switch. First, a door will inform everyone of our presence if we went through it, and now this stone,” Jack said.

“Active security, they are assuming any intruder would have the skills to bypass any regular defenses so they are relying on us making the wrong call,” Gojo replied, “This would have been much easier if I could run in and snatch it by force.”

Vars turned to stare at Gojo, “Told you that would cause problems, we need to steal it back without anyone noticing.”

“I know, I know. That artifact is the whole reason behind the tension between the elves and humans, stealing it back in silence will force both sides to shut down for a few years.” Vars explained.

“The humans can’t ask about the artifact since they stole it in the first place and the elves can pretend they still don’t have it, causing both sides to seek a peaceful end, probably by the elves who would pretend they don’t care about the artifact anymore.” Jack said and Vars nodded, “That’s the plan, and the elves are already working on it,”

Arad walked after Vars in silence, ^Would Cerilla do this? She seemed like the person to seek a peaceful end,^

^You’re wrong about that. From what I know about her, this plan doesn’t seem like something she would be involved with. It’s either something Vars came up with or the council of the elves has planned.^ Doma quickly stated what she knew about the elvish queen.

“Vars, who put this plan together?” Arad asked.

“Me with a few tips from the higher-ups, this is as much as I can tell you,” Vars replied.

^Higher ups, those are multiple people so it’s probably the council.^ Arad thought.