The two items dropped by the Dreadcaller looked promising.

  "Alright," I said, finally catching my breath. "Let's see what we got."

  ?

  The armor looked unique compared to the breastplates I had seen so far. It was carefully put together, made out of pitch-black, metallic feathers resembling the Ravenkin’s, rows after rows, like a chainmail.

  It was a straightforward piece; no flashy skills or niche bonuses, just a raw stat dump. But with these numbers, that was more than enough.

  “96 defense and 24 attributes?” Athos wiped his eyes as if he thought he wasn’t seeing clearly. “That’s quite the equipment! Too bad I can’t use it.”

  "But we know someone who can," Kara said with a smile.

  I nodded. "We should give it to Lothras. Despite his… demeanor, he’s been a reliable teammate so far."

  "Agreed," Athos nodded. “What’s the next drop?”

  "The same debuff the bird used," I said. "It was very uncomfortable."

  "It’s a level 20 skill, we can use it," Athos added, his eyes gleaming with interest.

  "Who should take it?" Kara asked.

  I considered our options. "The restriction is none, so technically, any of us could learn it. But think about positioning, Athos is always on the frontline, right in the middle of enemy groups. And he can move around bosses and adds, unlike a tank. He'd hit the most targets with an eight-meter radius."

  "The mana cost is also relevant," Kara pointed out. "49 isn't cheap."

  "I'm probably the least mana-hungry out of all of us," Athos said. "Rising Tide gives me passive mana regeneration. I can afford to add another ability to my rotation."

  As if his passive skill wasn’t strong enough.

  "It’s settled then," I said.

  Athos picked up the rune and crushed it with the same motion. "I'll make good use of it."

  "Ravenmere?" Kara asked, gesturing toward the remote silhouette of the town perched on the cliffs above us.

  "One sec," I said. “Let me try something first.”

  The body of the Ravenkin Dreadcaller didn’t dematerialize yet, which meant one thing: it still had use.

  I quickly took out my skinning knife and got on my knees.

  Resources gathered:

  Dreadcaller Feathers x4

  Exquisite Dreadcaller fangs x1

  Dreadcaller fangs x1

  Another exquisite material, I thought. I was sure Danzaburou would be more than happy to do something with it.

  We made our way across the plains. The sun was already nearing the horizon, and the shadows cast by the lone trees and boulders were getting longer by the minute.

  The adrenaline from the fight slowly faded into exhaustion. By the time we reached the town gates, it was almost eight.

  "Same time tomorrow?" Athos asked as we entered the local tavern.

  "Eight AM," I confirmed. "We look for information, then we hit the catacombs."

  "Can't wait," Kara said, though her voice bore a hint of anticipation.

  Neither could I. But first…

  I opened my Skill Book.

  Interesting, I thought. The damage will definitely add up in long fights.

  And I had a feeling knowing the location of my enemies will come in handy in the very near future.

  The next morning, I logged in at exactly eight o'clock.

  Ravenmere emerged around me; a town built into the side of steep cliffs, its buildings stacked on terraced levels connected by winding staircases and rope bridges.

  The architecture was older than Oakenlight's, and much less welcoming.

  A party invitation appeared almost immediately.

  Lothras has invited you to join their party.

  I accepted, watching as the party interface populated with familiar names. Kara and Athos were already online, their status indicators showing them nearby.

  But it was Lothras's information that made me do a double-take.

  "Level 21?" I said aloud, not quite believing it. "Already?"

  I found the others gathered near the town's central plaza, a small square dominated by a statue of some obscure long-forgotten hero.

  Lothras stood with his arms crossed, looking insufferably pleased with himself.

  "Your grinding method must be incredible," Athos said, voicing my thoughts.

  "It is," Lothras replied simply. "The Dryhollow mines are... efficient."

  “Are you always this efficient?" Kara lifted an eyebrow, and I honestly wasn’t sure what she meant by that question.

  "I know what I'm doing." He didn't elaborate further, and something told me he never would.

  "Well," I said, "since you're here and clearly in a good mood, we have something for you."

  I opened a trade window and placed the Ravenkin Feather-mail inside.

  Lothras's eyes widened slightly.

  It was the most emotion I'd ever seen from him, apart from the exhaustion at the end of the Twinfire Burial Site.

  He examined the item carefully, his expression changing from surprise to calculation to satisfaction.

  "Level 25 heavy armor," he uttered. "Ninety-six defense. Twenty-four total attributes." He looked up at me. "Where did you get this?"

  Athos then went into detail, recapping the last two days we spent grinding at the Plains of Ardun.

  Lothras was quiet for a moment, reassessing us. Then he reached into his inventory and placed fifteen coins into the trade window.

  "What are you doing?" I asked.

  "Paying for it."

  "We're offering it to you. As a party member."

  "I'm refusing charity." His tone was strict, clearly not budging. "This armor is worth at least twenty gold on the open market. Probably more, given the stats. If we sold it via proper channels, we'd each get five gold. So that's what I'm paying: five gold to each of you."

  "Lothras–"

  "I said no." He fixed his stern gaze on me. "I don't take handouts. Not from rivals, not from allies, not from anyone. You earned this drop. You deserve compensation. Take the gold."

  I glanced at Athos and Kara. Both shrugged. Kara sent me a PM: your call.

  "Fine," I relented, accepting the trade. "But for the record, we weren't trying to insult you."

  "I know." He put the armor into his inventory. "I appreciate the gesture. Truly. But I have my principles."

  A Crimson Court member with principles. The world is full of surprises.

  "There's more," Athos said. He pulled up his skill list, showing Lothras the newly acquired Dread Cry ability. "We also got this."

  Lothras studied the skill description, his expression unreadable. "An AoE attack speed debuff. Thirty percent for eight seconds." He nodded quietly. "Good choice, giving it to you. You'll make effective use of it."

  But I caught something in his eyes; a trace of calculation, of concern.

  I understood immediately. I would have felt the same way if I were part of a potentially rival group.

  Athos was going to be a founding member of Second Wind, the guild that would directly compete with Crimson Court for dominance in these regions.

  And now he had access to a powerful debuff ability that could swing future fights in their favor.

  Lothras might respect us, might even like us on some level, I thought. But he’s still thinking about the future, when we part ways after completing this questline.

  He was a smart man.

  "So," Kara said, breaking the momentary tension, "research time?"

  I nodded. "The catacombs won't clear themselves. We need to know what we're walking into."

  Ravenmere's mayor was a firm woman named Constance Hale, with gray-streaked hair secured back in a bun, along with eyes that seemed to evaluate everyone she met.

  I had a teacher exactly like her in high school, the realization hit me.

  Her office was located in the town hall. It was a solid stone building near the cliff's edge, overlooking the plains below.

  "Count's Insignia," she said, examining the badge I'd presented. "I haven't seen one of these in some time. The Count doesn't grant these lightly."

  "We've done him some services," I responded carefully.

  "So it would seem." She handed the insignia back. "What do you need?"

  "Access to information. We're researching the catacombs beneath the town."

  Her expression tightened almost imperceptibly. "The catacombs. May I ask why?"

  "Count’s personal request."

  A long pause. Then, slowly, she nodded.

  "Follow me."

  The private library was smaller than I'd expected: a single room lined with shelves, accessible through a locked door behind the mayor's office.

  The books here were clearly more valuable than anything in a public collection, bound in leather and sealed with preservation enchantments.

  "The catacombs are not a subject we discuss openly in Ravenmere," Mayor Hale said as she unlocked a glass case containing several ancient-looking tomes. "The town's history is... complicated."

  “We heard Ravenmere was haunted,” Kara said nonchalantly.

  “That’s just a tourist attraction,” the mayor flung her hands. “The catacombs have a… peculiar feeling about them, but it’s just that. A feeling.”

  "What do you mean the history is complicated?” I asked.

  “The catacombs were built a long time ago, and were used by… a cult of sorts, prior to the Church overtaking them.”

  “Cults usually give a bad name to places,” Lothras said, with clear melancholy in his voice. “I understand.”

  She examined him for a moment, then nodded. "Perhaps you do."

  She placed three books on a reading table. "These should contain what you're looking for. I'll leave you to your research. Return the texts to the case when you're finished."

  She left without another word.

  "Friendly," Kara muttered.

  "Cautious," I corrected. "There's a difference."

  “You think she knows something more?”

  I thought for a second.

  “Maybe. Either way, we should get to reading before doing anything else.”

  We divided the books among ourselves and began.

  The history of the Ravenmere Catacombs was darker than I'd anticipated.

  The underground complex had been constructed roughly two hundred years ago by a cult of priests obsessed with immortality. They had chiseled their sanctuary into the bedrock beneath what would eventually become the village Ravenmere, creating a network of chambers, ritual halls, and burial vaults.

  The cult's practices were described in vague terms: "forbidden rites," "communion with various entities," "sacrifices to ensure eternal life", but the implications were clear enough. Whatever they'd been doing down there, it hadn't been sanctioned by any legitimate religious authority.

  "Here," Athos said, pointing to a passage. "After the cult was disbanded—it doesn't say how—the catacombs were repurposed by the kingdom's official church. They used the chambers for 'various different purposes' after that."

  "That's suspiciously vague," Lothras observed.

  "Intentionally so, I'd wager," Kara agreed. "Churches don't like admitting when they've inherited infrastructure from heretical cults."

  “You’re a Paladin,” I pointed out. “Don’t you have connections to the Church of Ravenloft?”

  I was not sure how the whole religious system worked.

  “Not until level 30,” he shook his head. “I’ll likely get a class-specific quest at that time.”

  The final chapter of the catacombs' history was more recent.

  And it was more relevant to our purposes.

  A hundred years ago, when the Veil emerged, the catacombs had been sealed.

  Just like the Burial Site in Twinfire, just like countless other locations across the game world.

  The official documentation claimed that the catacombs had been empty for years by that time.

  "No mention of what's actually down there now," Kara said, closing her book with a frustrated sigh. "Just that it was deemed forbidden to go there for the citizens of Tidemark ever since the Veil."

  "Cult Priests seeking immortality," Lothras mused. "That could mean quite a few things. Either way, if the Veil, or whatever powers it, awakened the Trynd family in Twinfire, we could expect something similar here."

  "Only one way to find out."

  The entrance to the Ravenmere Catacombs was located at the base of the cliffs, accessible via a narrow path that wound down from the town proper. Centuries of erosion had worn the steps smooth and treacherous, forcing us to proceed carefully.

  The entrance itself was a stone gateway set into the cliff.

  Unlike the entrance to the Twinfire Burial Site, this one was clearly visible.

  As we attempted entering, the familiar system message chimed in

  "Level 18 recommendation," Athos noted. "Higher than the Burial Site."

  "And that had a level 20 final boss," Kara added. "And we’re going in two short. Again."

  "We're also higher level than before," I pointed out. "And better equipped. And we know what to expect from dungeon content now."

  "Do we?" Lothras asked. "The burial site had naval undead and a lich lord. This place was built by immortality-obsessed cultists. I doubt the threats will be similar."

  He had a point. But standing here debating wouldn't get us anywhere.

  "We've prepared as much as we can," I said. "We have potions, we have skills, we have experience. Whatever's down there, we'll handle it."

  They nodded as the party leader selected Yes.

  The world blurred.

  The archway's runes flared with dim blue light, and a familiar sensation of displacement overtook me: the same teleportation effect that had transported us into the Twinfire Burial Site.

  When my sight cleared, we were somewhere completely different.

  The catacombs spread before us, dark and silent, waiting.