I could only stare at the enormous limb that Cerea pulled out of her Dimensional Storage. The forearm section alone was as long as I was tall, and then the scythe at the end curled out so far that Cerea had manoeuvred it so that it jutted out through her window.

  “This is crazy,” I muttered.

  Cerea laughed. “You don’t know the half of it, Ross. It definitely took a crazy amount of effort to get it.”

  I wasn’t the only one gawking at her because she obviously had a story to tell. We got comfortable as Cerea began. Her home was passably furnished with a functional bed, a desk that was weirdly chest-high, and a few chairs in various stages of ricketiness. A dresser sat at the far end of the room, while a couple of doors led off to the balcony and the kitchen.

  “Well, basically,” Cerea said. “I got attacked. I decided to accompany a caravan to Zairgon as an adventurer guard because why turn down extra money, right? Well, that was bad because the Swarm got us.”

  “They took out a whole caravan?” I asked. That was alarming but not surprising, really.

  “Almost, yes. The bugs’ assault was bigger than we had expected, and the caravan was forced to scatter. Needless to say, I didn’t get the full payment because a lot of the caravan didn’t end up making it to Zairgon.”

  Her face had fallen at that. She was a seasoned adventurer, but that didn’t mean she could just get over it when a job went awry. Especially when people’s lives were involved.

  It was nice of Ugnash to change the subject a little. “You got one of them good though, it looks like.”

  “And one of the bigger ones too, ha,” Khagnio said with a fierce smile.

  Cerea’s mood slowly improved. “Yeah, I did. It was a giant bugger, I’ll tell you that much. We managed to take out a bunch of them. This one I zapped right in the eye, though it was a different adventurer who landed the killing blow. Still, my efforts got me this huge chunk, and I think Zairgon will find it particularly useful now.”

  “Are you planning on selling it?” I asked. “You still have to go through the Adventurer’s Guild since you still got it via a job, right?”

  “Right, right,” Cerea said. “But the guild will be able to make very good use of it, which should make me a little rich if I negotiate well enough.” She winked at me. “I picked up some tips from you, though.” She paused then. “I’ll probably be richer than I’d have been if I finished the last job right.”

  “You’re not blaming yourself, are you?” Ugnash asked seriously, squinting at Cerea.

  She raised her hands in protest, wincing at the motion of her injured arm. “No, no! Of course not. But you know it’s hard to get over something like that.”

  “I know.” His voice quietened a little. “That’s why I stick to dungeon delves and ruin expeditions.”

  It was obvious they all had their histories, and I was curious, but Khagnio was unsurprisingly the social equivalent of a bulldozer.

  “Look at this thing,” he said, picking up the torn bug monster limb pretty easily. “You think I could fashion knives out of the bladed end for cheap?” His eyes unerringly found mine. “Maybe your smithing master can make a couple new dirks for me. What do you say?”

  “Like I said, isn’t it supposed to go through the guild?” I asked.

  “Of course. But—” He flashed a fanged grin at Cerea. “I’ve got close contact with the person who originally acquired it, who’ll be in prime position to make enquiries as to where the guild sends the damn thing, so I can get into the perfect position to capitalize.”

  Cerea rolled her eyes. “Spoken like a true undercity crook.”

  “Oi! That’s underhanded.”

  “Besides. I doubt the Councillors will just let any old adventurer purchase something like this.”

  Khagnio said something about after the Blight Swarm was done, but I looked back at the huge insect limb. Cerea was still keeping the cut off end inside her Dimensional Storage. Otherwise, it would probably be dripping blood all over her floor.

  She had needed the help of one or more other adventurers to kill that thing. Would I be able to handle it when the time came?

  I grit my teeth. No question about it, I’d have to be ready.

  We moved on to talking about the Blight Swarm itself. The more I learned about them via her firsthand account, the more I realized the things I had learned weren’t exaggerations at all.

  Just as the information at the Mage Guild had said, the Swarm’s attack was intelligently multi-faceted.

  The first warning, as both the book and Cerea confirmed, was the smell. An acrid, nerve-stifling stench was the preliminary layer of assault. It dimmed the olfactory senses entirely and made using one’s nose completely unreliable. It wasn’t long afterwards that the bugs filled the targeted area with heavy droning and stuffed the horizon with their own little bodies to ruin sensory perceptions for both sight and hearing.

  Then, after the nerves of their targets were suitably frayed and on edge, the actual assault would begin.

  First came the annoying little pests. Bugs that appeared normal, but would attack as viciously as piranhas.

  Then came the bull-rush, which was where Cerea had obtained her prize. Powerful, monstrous bugs that were at a minimum Silver-ranked in terms of difficulty would smash in with zero thoughts for self-preservation.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  There were many different variants of those. Gigantic armoured beetles, huge mantises with scythes, titanic centipedes that could burrow like earthworms. Just a few of all the possibilities.

  “They move around from place to place,” Cerea said. “Settling in one area after devastating all life there before moving onto the next. Usually, the amount of time they leave someplace alone means it can regain and regenerate its ecosystem so the Swarm can circle back to it eventually after decades, if not centuries.”

  “That’s actually pretty interesting in how they can maintain that sort of cycle,” I said.

  Cerea smiled at me. “Isn’t it? They’re really neat.” Khagnio glared at her. “Um, apart from the destroy all other species side of them, that is.”

  I snorted. “Why can’t they simply be eradicated? Since they sound like this huge threat to practically everybody around here.”

  I remembered how the Councillors had acted upon hearing about the Blight Swarm from the Anymphea, how the Anymphea themselves were being forced to relocate and settle behind the safety of city walls.

  “They would if they could, I think,” Cerea said.

  I stared. “They can’t be that bad.”

  “Think about it, Ross,” Ugnash said. “Can you stop the Weave? Can you live without it? It’s the same for the Blight Swarm. The Work of Ascendants—a Monumental Opus—cannot simply be eradicated. We must find ways to survive with it or despite it.”

  “Don’t worry,” Cerea said gently. “People have dealt with the Swarm before and survived. It’ll hit hard for sure, but with enough preparation, we’ll come out alive and well.”

  I didn’t say anything further. She was right. It was all about our prep work from that point forward.

  The difference between them and me was just a matter of priorities. They were still individual adventurers who weren’t responsible for growing cults and, to some extent, an entire Ring of Zairgon. They didn’t need to think about the defence of an entire region as a whole. There were smarter, more powerful, and more important people taking care of it all.

  I stopped myself from thinking too unkindly of them. They had their own things they cared for, things they’d give their lives to protect. Plus, they were going to help defend Zairgon, just like I was.

  Question was, how ready would Zairgon be when the time came?

  The conversation shifted to our upcoming dungeon delve. There wasn’t much to it. We’d take some time to prepare and get ready, and then we’d be off on our next adventure. Once Cerea had a bit of rest, we could go over the specifics.

  “The Blight Swarm won’t be here for another month or month-and-a-half,” Cerea said. “So we don’t need to worry about disappearing into the dungeon and coming out to a city under siege.”

  That was a relief to know, though I had already suspected the bug invasion wasn’t imminent, going by the lack of urgency in the city proper.

  “I’ll find the maps for Eversight Dungeon,” Ugnash said. “Then we can go over them together.”

  Khagnio thumbed his dagger handles. “I’ll poke the people I know who’ve done a run recently. Should give us some recent details to go off of.”

  Both Ugnash and Khagnio had gone through some of Eversight Dungeon before, though neither had gone too far in. Plus, dungeons changed layouts every so often. Relying on older information was likely to get adventurers killed.

  Cerea smiled at me. “Us apes will gather the supplies and take care of general prep.”

  “Hey, I didn’t even call you an ape this time,” Khagnio muttered.

  “You were thinking it. I can tell just by looking at you, Khagnio.”

  He grumbled under his breath. I laughed.

  “We’ll have to refer to Master Kostis too, right?” Cerea asked.

  Ugnash nodded. “I’ll get some references from him, since he’s basically the main sponsor of this expedition.”

  “I might talk with him about it too,” I said. And some other things like Threaded Reinforcement. “The main plan is that I need to be at the dungeon’s lowest point when my mana implosion occurs, and it’d probably be a good idea for you guys to not be there at the same time.”

  “You figured out how to take care of your exploding core safely enough?” Ugnash asked, echoing the concerned looks from the other two.

  I nodded. “Master Kostis and I have been coming up with ways to handle it. There are runes and other resources for me, and some of those I think you guys should be able to use too, just in case you need them.”

  “Right, there are ways to deal with these sorts of mana surges,” Cerea said.

  We settled on heading out by the end of next week. For now, I went back to the temple and did my best to prepare. I had promised Cerea I’d meet her in a few days at the Mage Guild to go over supplies together, so for now, I was free to take care of other things.

  Said other things being training with the Scarthralls first.

  “Good luck on your dungeon delve, Cultist Ross,” Vandre said when we took a break from sparring.

  Lujean brushed phantom sweat off his forehead. As a Scarthrall, sweating wasn’t an actual concern any longer. “We’ll be waiting to hear all about it when you get back.”

  “I’ll tell you everything you want to know,” I said. “Just make sure to take care of the cult while I’m gone.”

  Atholaine bowed with her fist to her chest. “You can leave it to us, Cultist Ross!”

  Since they were all gathered there, I decided to address an important point.

  “I want you to start training the other Scarthralls,” I said. “Those who want to learn to fight, that is. Don’t force anyone please, and don’t disrespect them if they want nothing to do with violence. But it’s still important that we practice defending ourselves because of the Blight Swarm. Just gather as many volunteers as you can and show them everything I’ve shown you.”

  The Scarthralls nodded back. I could trust them to handle it.

  Vandre spoke to me privately before we were done for the day. “Uh, about the, um, issue with the Scarseeker lord…”

  “Lord Kalnislaw,” I said. My face grew hard. “Are you worried about being manipulated again?”

  “I… am, yes,” he said after a brief pause. “But being worried isn’t going to help. So I just want to figure out a way to stop it.”

  I understood him. Since Kalnislaw’s ensorcellment was driven by an Aspect, there might be Aspects that protected against it too.

  “I’ll look into it,” I promised.

  “So will I,” Vandre said with alright nod. “At the Mage Guild. Just letting you know in case you find something too.”

  I reassured him things would be fine and reiterated that I’d inform him if I found anything significant. There were so many things on my plate, I was a little afraid I’d forget about it, even if I made a mental note. I’d need to delegate things. Which… Vandre was already doing, but he didn’t have access to all the sources of information I did.

  For now, I penned a letter to Master Kostis and sent it off. Hopefully, he’d get back to me soon.

  Afterwards, I also focused on Threaded Reinforcement. Since now that I had a date for the dungeon delve, I needed to complete it and let my mana core come closer to detonating. By evening time, both my legs were fully threaded up after a Sacrifice.

  Using Sacrifice on Threaded Reinforcement always created new cracks within the targeted part of my body that felt extremely thick. But it didn’t impede me in any way, really, so I wasn’t too bothered. It just felt odd.

  I gained another rank in Spirit for my efforts by the end of the day, especially after I practiced flying some more that night.

  [ Rank Up!

  Your Spirit Attribute has risen by one Rank.

  Spirit: Silver VI ]

  I wanted to continue training even further the next day but there was one important matter I wanted to attend to before going off on the dungeon delve. Ring Four still wasn’t really ready to face off against the Blight Swarm. Not yet. I had the cultist Scarthralls start teaching the rest of their kind on how they could fight and contribute, but there was more to preparation than that.

  Something that I intended to at least start resolving before I left for the dungeon.