We have spent about a week in this town. Much of what we have been doing in this period has been to maintain our present aliases. For John, Anthony and Amelia, that means partying in various taverns.

  For me, it has mostly meant doing odd jobs for John, such as taking his clothes to the laundry or cleaning his room. (Well, I have spent a significant chunk of my missions doing stuff like this. After all, adventurers are not rich enough to afford servants.)

  My work has mainly involved roaming about the casino to various shops. (Especially to the laundry. Just how many clothes does the man wear?) I can say that I must be the person with the most contact with this town. The casino is not a particularly intimidating place at first glance.

  If anything, I would say that this place looks ordinary. I am sure that this place looks just like any of the other expedition towns in the place. (Granted, I have never seen any other expedition town.) That is weird due to the place that we are in. Criminals normally aren't known for their discipline.

  You certainly don't expect them to maintain and develop a place in such a methodical manner. If anything, the place kind of reminds me of the temporary fort. The place was built with a similar practicality in mind. You can tell it by the materials that have been used to build the place. They have used the cheapest materials possible to build every building in the place. The buildings are not flimsy either. The buildings make full use of whatever material this is.

  It is some kind of stone. That means that such a material would be easy to replace even if a battle were to damage the place. I am sure that there is a quarry somewhere in our surroundings as well. After all, the people here must face a constant battle with the creatures outside. There is no way that the place would survive without a constant inflow of whatever this rock is. Even now, I can see the horde of undead that is attacking the walls of this place.

  There is an entire legion of people on the walls to hold back the undead. That is where you can see the chaos of this place bloom in its full strength. It is rare for me to see so many different kinds of magic in one place. Most places tend to focus on one type of magic, with a few people practicing a different kind of magic. Such variety is very rare.

  Well, if I am being honest, the chaos in the place is present if you know where to look. The first place you can see it is in the buildings of the place. A majority of the buildings here are pretty well planned and orderly. Still, there is the odd building here that has bucked this trend. These buildings appear like weeds in the middle of a well-ordered crop. They are quite glaring if you know what to look for.

  I have to assume that the reason for this is the Navok family. They are considered to be the strongest family in the place. They are the ones who are trying to maintain order in this place. There are three bases of the Navok, which must be the reason that they are holding power over the city.

  The first building is a massive building at the center of this place. That must be the casino from which the town got its present name. The place is so flashy and gaudy that it can only be a casino.

  It is also the base of the Navok family. As far as I can tell, this casino is the heart of this town. Every shop in this place is running due to the people who come from the casino. While the casino must be their greatest source of income, the reason they control this town is the wall. The town is surrounded by a wall, which makes it easier to defend the place.

  It is in no way a perfect solution. There is a jank to that wall that makes it clear that this place was built after the place was abandoned. This must have most likely been done by the Navoks themselves.

  The Navoks are the ones who seem to organise the defensive action against the undead. Without them, everything would be chaos. The people would be busier attacking each other rather than the undead.

  While these two places must be the reason that they hold their power. There is one more place that is important in this place. You could say this place is the reason that nobody dares to move against the Navok.

  They call it the pit. The pit is a mass grave outside the wall. The place is full of corpses from the city. It has been filled with all the people that the Navok family has killed. They claim to do this to keep the peace in the town.

  The way that the corpses are gotten rid of here is also pretty gruesome. Each corpse thrown in that place is dismembered and thrown into that pit. This has two main benefits. The first is that it prevents the corpses from rising as undead.

  The second is that the sheer number of corpses in that place is enough to intimidate anybody. Even the most arrogant person in the town would be intimidated by the pit.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Well, we have no desire to interact with the Navoks. With the vampires in the place, doing something like this will be a death sentence. We are just looking for our targets. Once we find it, we shall leave.

  Right now, the sentinels have focused all of their efforts on looking for the vampires. I have no desire to interfere in their work. I am sure that the searchers are also doing something, though I don't know what it could be.

  All I know is that they are doing their work and I don't need to interfere with it. The gods know that they have enough interference. The Aegis have made it their mission to interfere in the work of the sentinels and the searchers.

  The man doesn't come in either faction's way. If he did, then things would have led to a fight. He just keeps asking them questions. Questions meant to waste their time.

  I can see that Anthony is getting on John's nerves. He does not like to be distracted in such a manner. Swords are going to cross if this is continued. Well, he is keeping his calm for now, though. After all, the hunt is more important to the man right now. He won't let anything interfere with his work. Still, I don't know how long John can maintain his calm.

  That is why I suddenly find myself without work. Well, I do have work, but for that, I have to get to my ship. That is why right now I am going to the shipyard.

  I have a sack of food items over my shoulders. This is meant for the people that we had to leave on the ship. That would be the Mayfires and the searchers. (Each without their respective Amelia.)

  We left them behind to defend this ship in case somebody had any idea about our ship. After all, you need to be as careful as possible when in such a dangerous place. Losing the ship here would be a nightmare.

  I am not going there just to deliver them food, though. After all, I won't be free like this for a while. I might as well fix the ship now. With that, I have completed everything that I wanted to speak about. It will take me about ten more minutes to reach the ship. I guess that I will continue the recording then.

  (After about ten minutes.)

  I have finally reached the ship. It is at least nice to see that my ship has not taken any new damage. After all, I would have to fix that as well. Well, I am not leaving the place until my ship is in pristine condition. I already had to force myself to wait for a week. After all, we all had our roles to play. I am sure that the Navoks have kept an eye on us in the last week. Our entry into the place was too unexpected for them not to do something like this.

  That is why I had to force myself to listen to John this entire week. Do you think I enjoy going to the laundry three times a day? The Navoks would most likely kill us if they guessed our current identity, though.

  "I wonder how long you plan to wait there, captain." I hear Alfred's voice.

  I look at my ship to find Alfred at the entrance of my ship. The man looks at me with amusement in his eyes. He can tell that I am recording right now. How do all of them detect it so easily?

  "Alfred Mayfire, I wonder how you are doing right now. I did not get to speak to you much in the recent period." I speak as I begin to get on the ship.

  "Well, I would say that we are bored right now, Captain," the man replies. "The people here have been quite unwilling to attack us. So I would think that things are going well."

  "Well, be happy that is the case. If the ship has taken any more damage, I had planned to use you people as the labour to help me fix it." I speak.

  "Well, if we could help with this, we already would be standing there holding a saw with you. We can't exactly argue with you, can we?" Alfred replies.

  "Well, the damage to the ship is mostly to fix what I have patched up already.", I reply. "Your help would have made my work harder. There is no way that I will be letting anybody else work on the ship right now."

  "Well, in that case, you should get on with your work." the man replies, pointing to the food bags. "And leave us with the food. Do you know how bland rations can get once you have eaten them for a week back-to-back?"

  (After about twenty minutes.)

  We have been moving the food into our storehouse. I had to help the man since his soldiers are maintaining a patrol around the ship.

  I haven't managed to find out the names of these mayfires yet, though in this case, it is more my fault. (Unlike certain people who refuse to speak to me.) I simply haven't had the opportunity to speak with them.

  "Well, it is about time that you go and meet up with the searchers already.", Alfred replies. "You don't think that they are not noticing how you have been delaying their tasks."

  "Well, I will meet them soon enough, Alfred.", I admit to the man. "They will bombard me with a list of work if I were to go and meet them now. Do you want the ship fixed or the searchers satisfied? "

  "Well, you will still have to go and meet them. Anyways, don't you think what they are asking of you is pretty reasonable? After all, they can't work while that prison of theirs is insecure.", he replies. "You will need to go to them. After all, you need to make sure that the prison is secure."

  "Well, for the former. I agree that upgrading that ship is important. It is more important to make this ship combat-worthy right now, though. We might need to escape in a hurry any day now." I reply. "As for the latter, I have been studying the preservation for days now. It won't fail anytime soon. They will inform us if anything is wrong anyway. I hope they are not slacking on their duty."

  "You don't need to worry about that one bit, my friend." Alfred replies, a smirk on his face. "They have not left their post ever since we landed in the shipyard."

  "Well, have they gotten anything of worth from the man?" I ask. "They must have something by now from the captive."

  "Well, they don't share anything with me and my people." he replies. "I can say that they have found something, though. The captive has not screamed for the last couple of days. Before that, his screams could be heard throughout the ship for hours on end."

  "Well, I will go to them. Not before I complete fixing the ship, though." I reply to the man.

  "Well, it is your wish." he continues. "After all, you will be the one who will have to deal with the Searchers if they get offended."

  Saying that both of us take leave of each other.