The night passed quickly. Early the next morning, the two of them hurriedly left their residence and rushed to the guild hall to hand over the analysis they had compiled the day before.
The analysis submitted personally by Po Kong, a Rank 6 adventurer, immediately caught the attention of the staff. After all, it potentially concerned the whereabouts of hundreds of missing persons.
To address this, Nicola quickly invited several of her superiors and held a brief meeting in front of the two men.
After some discussion, the guild's high-ranking officials ultimately decided to trust Po Kong's intuition and judgment as a high-tier adventurer. They consolidated hundreds of low-level commissions into a single Rank 5 commission and published it immediately.
The bounty for this commission included most of the rewards from the individual missing person cases Po Kong had identified, reaching a very substantial amount.
A Rank 5 difficulty wasn't considered particularly high. Many adventurers were energized by the sight of such a lucrative commission and decided to join the ranks heading to District One in the north.
After all, in the long history of the Violet City-State, high-level undead creatures had never appeared.
While low-level undead creatures might pose a slight threat to ordinary people, they were nothing to be feared by fully armed adventurers.
Moreover, the sun had just risen, which was when undead creatures were at their weakest. Consequently, most people believed the actual difficulty of this commission didn't even reach Rank 5, making it a guaranteed profit.
Some had even used communication birds to send word to companions stationed in the northern regions, telling them to head straight to District One for reconnaissance so they could seize the initiative in the upcoming operation.
“Mr. Starlight, Mr. Po Kong, thank you for the information! I didn't expect things to go even more smoothly than I imagined. Everyone is so motivated!” Nicola bowed to the two of them in gratitude, speaking with a smile as she watched the crowds of people passing messages.
“Sigh, it's just my speculation for now. We can't be sure of the situation yet. If you want to thank us, wait until those people are actually found.”
Po Kong waved his hand dismissively. However, he was quickly stumped by Nicola's next question.
“As the providers of the information, don't you two plan to go see for yourselves? If you complete this commission, the rewards will be significant. Doesn't that fit your previous needs?”
“Uh... haha! Of course we're going. We're just letting everyone else head out first... wouldn't want to... wouldn't want to steal all the glory for ourselves... right, Little Star?!” Po Kong explained with an extremely forced expression, which made Nicola give him a suspicious look.
“Yes, yes! Everything you say is right! We're heading out too. Talk to you later, Miss Nicola.” Starlight rolled his eyes helplessly at Po Kong, then pushed him away from the counter.
After leaving the hall, the two didn't linger nearby and headed straight toward District One.
Although Po Kong was still a bit reluctant, he spent the journey filling Starlight in on the details of District One.
As a giant city-state that had endured countless wars of various sizes, the number of beings that had died on this land could only be described as countless.
Whenever a war ended, humans naturally had to face the problem of how to deal with the mountain-like piles of corpses. If left alone, the resulting plagues could be even more terrifying than the war itself.
There were generally two ways to handle remains. First, the defeated Demons and monsters were usually burned directly on the battlefield. Although this caused a massive leakage of demonic aura, which increased the number of magical beasts in the area, there was no better alternative.
As for the brave fallen soldiers, their final resting place was District One, established in the northern part of the city when the Violet City-State was first founded.
Accommodating the remains of so many soldiers required more than just digging a small pit. District One had been designed and planned with this in mind from its inception.
The area, covering dozens of square kilometers, was carefully constructed into a massive multi-layered tomb. Remains recovered from wars were slowly lowered into the depths through a magnificent, giant entrance in the center of the district, with the hope that they would find peace after death.
However, this noble vision underwent many changes as time passed.
Like the underground areas of the Violet City-State, the original design blueprints for the catacombs had long since vanished in the river of history. Geological shifts had caused multiple collapses at the bottom of the tomb; even magical creations could not withstand the relentless erosion of time.
Perhaps because the remains of Demons had been accidentally mixed in, those bodies containing dark elements slowly fermented and transformed over the years, eventually giving rise to undead creatures.
Gradually, people began to fear the parts buried deep underground, and no one was willing to set foot in the depths of the tomb anymore.
Consequently, no one knew exactly how many layers the tomb in District One had now, or what lay at its very bottom. Even after the great war over a decade ago, only the relatively shallow second layer had been utilized.
Fortunately, undead creatures were exceptionally fearful of sunlight and almost never appeared on the surface. The second layer was also periodically cleared by designated personnel, so their presence didn't have a major impact on the people of the city-state.
The surface of District One still functioned as an ordinary cemetery, used for burying those who died of natural causes.
The deep tomb was like the city's sewer system; most people likely didn't even realize such a massive space existed deep underground.
When the two arrived near District One at a leisurely pace, they already saw several small and medium-sized adventurer groups rushing toward the central area.
“Po Kong, your news certainly spread fast. We've seen at least dozens of people along the way, haven't we?” Starlight remarked as he watched the hurried figures.
“Well, men die for wealth just as birds die for food. A single missing person commission isn't very cost-effective, but when the numbers add up, it's a completely different story. There might even be some fierce competition between the adventurer groups.”
Po Kong shook his head, seemingly foreseeing what was about to happen.
“Hmph. At times like this, the most sinister thing is the human heart. You two should be careful. That unsettling feeling is becoming more and more obvious,” Noah warned, speaking up rarely.
“Could it be that there's a secret hidden beneath Violet City that even makes you feel uneasy, Senior Noah? That seems unlikely. If such a terrifying existence really were there, someone would have exposed it long ago.” Hearing Noah's warning, Po Kong wasn't overly nervous; instead, he felt it might be an exaggeration.
“Perhaps a giant ghost three times the normal size has appeared? If our deduction holds, the undead creatures kidnapping living people must have developed intelligence. It's always better to be careful,” Starlight said thoughtfully.
Po Kong couldn't help but shudder at the words. He turned and asked, “It shouldn't be that exaggerated, right? A giant ghost? That's a bit too far-fetched.”
Starlight just looked at him silently without answering. It clearly wasn't wise to dampen Po Kong's morale at this moment.
Shortly after, the two passed through rows of graveyards and arrived at the legendary entrance to the giant tomb.
At this point, over a hundred eager adventurers had gathered near the passage leading underground. The first group of prepared people was already impatient to enter the tomb.
Some had even set up stalls in the cemetery, mostly selling silver weapons that could suppress the undead, holy water in various containers, and essential supplies like dry rations and torches.
Seeing their arrival, a vendor with sharp, monkey-like features immediately approached them, eagerly hawking his wares.
“You two handsome gentlemen, won't you take a look at the good stuff I have here? I have highly effective holy water and all kinds of silver gear! If you're going down into the tomb, the more of these you have, the better!”
Starlight merely glanced at the bottles and jars in the vendor's hands and shook his head, declining directly. Since he could use light magic himself, he trusted his own spells more than products of unknown origin.
Po Kong, however, spent ten gold coins to buy several different types of holy water, hanging them clinking from his waist.
Just as he was about to pull out more money to buy a silver longsword, Starlight finally couldn't take it anymore and quickly stopped his wasteful behavior.
Rate on N.U.
