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[Present]

"Hff…"

Standing in the repugnant tunnel, the silver-haired man held his chest, breathing out as he could feel the health of his heart deteriorating with his pulse becoming erratic.

'My whole life is flashing before my eyes. That's not a good sign, is it? Funny how that works,' he thought.

"—"

Something dunked into the water, causing it to ripple around his boots as he witnessed something moving beneath the surface.

Sifting through the murky waters that persisted through the tunnel, the man readied himself as the unknown entity quickly swam through the shallow stream.

'Looks like this way isn't completely unguarded after all,' he thought.

Summoned into each of his hands were weapons forged from shadows themselves, solidified into the shape of daggers as he wrapped his fingers around their pitch-black handles.

What erupted from the sewer waters was a humongous beast with studded, snow-white scales and a long mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, whipping its tail around.

'A crocodile?' He realized.

It was definitely a beast native to the forsaken land, as it was unnaturally fast, sweeping by swiftly despite its size, scampering with its claws that dragged along the stone tunnel. Beasts natural to the land were all incomparable to those outside of it; he watched as it sped along the tunnel, moving like a swift arrow.

For the experienced adventurer, it was easy enough to react as he nimbly ducked down as the beast leapt towards him, slamming its jaws shut as it intended to take off his head with a single bite.

"Sorry, but I'm not checking out just yet," Jin whispered.

As the gargantuan crocodile leapt over him, he lifted both of his shadow-forged daggers, stabbing into the beast and allowing the dark blades to cut through the length of its body as it passed over.

Finishing the beast off, he relinquished his magic daggers before breathing out, feeling his heart thumping in his chest as it acted like a cramping muscle. Placing his hand over his chest, he listened to his heartbeat as he steadied his breathing.

The curses that laid in the Godless Continent were like a natural miasma in the air; a sickness that was unavoidable.

'Can't let myself get distracted. The clock is ticking. Keep on moving, Jin,' he thought.

Pushing onward through the secret passageway, he sifted through the waters before finding something that finally caught his eye: a ladder leading up into the enemy fortress itself. As he quietly ascended the ladder, he stopped just before the top, placing the palm of his hand against the cover that led to the base.

Silently, he invoked: "Twilight Sonar."

Emitting from his hand, a subtle pulsation of darkness vibrated through the room beyond the latch. The vibrations stretched throughout the unseen room, though to the man, he could see it clearer than any eyes could; each shudder of the dark vibrations allowed him to feel the shape of the room, what was in it, and even sensing any potential traps.

'All clear,' he observed.

Finding nothing in the room beyond the secret passageway's entrance into the base, he slowly grabbed onto the handle before opening the latch, revealing the room to himself.

"--"

It was dark, with no candles lighting the dusty room; as he picked himself up from the passage, he quietly closed the lid before looking around. There were an assortment of cobweb-littered crates, which didn't seem to be looked at much.

'A storage room? It looks like nobody takes care of it,' he thought.

There were some shelves in the room, mostly covered by cloth as if everything was shoved into the chamber without much organization.

Peeling back the cloth hiding one of the shelves, he inspected what was behind it, finding himself taken aback by what he found: the skulls of various creatures were on the shelf, gathering dust. From beasts to humans, the skulls sat there silently.

'...I don't know what I expected from these freaks,' he thought.

THUD.

The sudden slam of a door down the hall made him alert as he heard murmurs of unknown voices coming down the corridor. Peeking beyond the door, he saw a pair of figures in black robes, wearing masks that covered only their eyes.

The walls of the corridor were built out of checkered, black-and-white bricks, with torches hung on the walls for light.

'Foot soldiers,' he observed.

Before he was seen, the silver-haired man sunk into the shadows themselves, becoming one with the element of darkness as he slipped into the corridor, unseen by the enemy. Shifting into a shadow himself, he was able to move silently along the wall and observe the two members of the organization.

"Be extra careful with these. If you drop one, well…I don't need to tell you what Krimjaw will do to us," the leftmost member of the organization said, carefully holding something.

The other one nodded, a woman with short brown hair and eyes hidden behind cloth, "You don't have to tell me. The last thing I want is to anger Lord Krimjaw…He's terrifying."

In their arms, they were carrying peculiar jars, containing crimson fluid with something locked within their containment. The two passed right by the room he had entered from; curious to find out what it was the two grunts were transporting and what for, he decided to tail them silently.

'"Krimjaw"? That must be a high-ranking member of their organization–I need to find out whatever I can,' he resolved.

Through the hall, he lurked in the shadows, watching the two grunts as they began to descend a flight of stairs, delving deeper into the nebulous base. Though he wanted to get a glimpse of what the two were carrying, with their backs turned to him, it was too much of a risk to get close enough to see.

"...Do we have to bring these…directly to Krimjaw? Can't we just drop it off outside of his door?" The woman asked her colleague.

"Do you want us to be killed? Krimjaw gave us specific orders: bring the aspect's flesh to him directly," the masked man responded.

"It's just…"

"I know," the masked man sighed, "Krimjaw isn't exactly the most pleasant person. He's got a history of taking low rank members like us and using us for his experiments–still, we'll only be giving him a reason to do that if we don't deliver these properly…"

"Yeah…" the masked woman nodded in agreement.

Listening to their conversation as he lurked behind in the shadows, the silver-haired half-elf found the identity of this "Krimjaw" individual to be a mysterious one. At the bottom of the stairs, a single door waited, which the cultist member on the left took upon himself to open it.

The black-steel door, sealed shut against a snow-white wall, had a unique, star-shaped handle on the center, which opened what appeared to be a single door into a twin set, revealing the room beyond.

"Come on," the masked man said.

"Right," the masked woman followed.

Jin kept his distance, though the peculiar door began shutting on its own, prompting him to slide across the ground as a puddle of darkness, slipping through just before it closed shut.

What he found was an enormous room, built like a warehouse within the deeper trenches of the castle that was faraway from any civilization. There were stacks upon stacks of crates, with many individuals wearing black uniforms and cloth over their eyes working on breaking down the supplies within the silver crates.

'What is this room? How big is this place, really?' He questioned.

Staying within the shadows as the warehouse area was much more well lit than the corridor, he observed what supplies were in the crates while continuing to follow the two grunts who carried the odd jars.

From what he could see, what was being taken out of the crates and passed along to stock the warehouse quarters was a mix of food supplies, but more heinously, boxes upon boxes of magic runes.

"Place the fire runes over there," a gruff man in a black suit ordered, running his fingers through his gray-and-black hair as he pointed the laborers in the proper direction.

The shines that differed from emerald, ruby, sapphire, and even sable gemstones was unmistakable as he watched the dutiful members of the mysterious organization moving the boxes along.

'All of these runes…There has to be thousands being stored here–maybe tens of thousands. What could they possibly be using so many runes for? What would require all of that magical energy?' He questioned.

Either way, he remained diligent in keeping to the shadows, finding there to be many more members present in the vast headquarters than expected, even for as large as the castle seemed from the outside. Dozens, if not hundreds, of the uniformed members of the Children of Chaos unpacked the boxes of runes, all taking them to another room.

There was a choice that the stealth figure had to make at that moment, looking to one side, where the two grunts were walking with their task of delivering to the nebulous "Krimjaw", or the other side, where all of the workers carried the rune supply.

'I'll come back to check where they're storing those runes and what for, but for now, I need to tag those other two,' he decided.