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The Catacombs—Hallways [ Morning ]

Steadily making their way through the catacombs' hallway, the group finally reached towards the middle hall where the group had originally been surrounded by the Farchu race when they had first entered the dungeon.

"Woah! It's been a while since we last saw this place, right?" Frey muttered out whilst being the first to reach the middle grounds of the area. "I remember that there were so many rats here! And... We ran for our lives, basically!"

"...yeah, don't remind me of that," Ethaniel sighed as the rest of the group entered into the middle hall. In the next moment, the man turned his head over towards the rubble that was blocking one of the passageways. "—the damage is done and now the passage is permanently blocked."

"...hmm, well not to say it's permanently blocked," Shinto reasoned. "Rather... It's blocked until someone decides to remove the rubble. It's not as if we collapsed the hallway."

"Hmm, I wonder. Would the Farchu try and remove the rubble?" Raina tilted her head.

"Would they? Meh. I don't really care," he shrugged. "The exits just up ahead, so... Can we just continue moving?" Stating his sentence, Ethaniel began moving forward from the group. However, just as he did so, a small squeak protruded out into the area.

"...?" Noticing the small sound by the rubble that the group had made, two rats soon hurriedly squeezed through the debris as they approached the party. "...r-rats?" the group muttered out.

"K-Kikk!" Approaching the group, the rats continued to squeak as they soon spoke out in a distinct tone. "Heroes of the catacombs, wait!" the two people of the Farchu race shouted out. "We have something to tell you before you leave!"

"H-Huh...?" Frey muttered out in confusion upon hearing the two rats that had spoken out. "I-i can understand rat language? What?! is this a new feature of the necklace?!" Unlike the rest of the party, Frey had yet noticed that she too had unlocked the language proficiency skill for the Slera's and Farchu's language. "Cool! I can communicate in the kikk language! Or whatever you call it!"

"...Frey," Shinto sighed whilst shaking his head helplessly. Soon after, he turned towards the rats. "...what is it? Is there something you need from us?"

"Yes, yes!" The rats stated. "The king of the Farchu has invited you to visit! He wants to show his own gestures as well!"

"...like, right now?" Raina blinked at the rats.

"No, no!" The rats shook their heads. "Perhaps by the end of the week, but... We just wanted to inform you as so. There's no rush."

"Oh, I see..." Raima nodded her head as the rats quickly began leaving the area.

"Now in any case... Have fun out on the surface, heroes!" The two rats shouted out. "Thank you for saving us! We are very thankful!"

"...t-those rats," Ethaniel's eyes twitched slightly as he saw that the rats squeezed through the rubble like it was nothing. "...OUR EFFORTS WAS IN VAIN??"

Throughout the earlier conversation with the Farchu race, Ethaniel was only interested in the fact that the rats effortless went from point A to point B.

"Aha..." Shinto awkwardly uttered out. "It looks like we didn't need to worry about the rubble that we caused after all..."

"Tch... So if they wanted to kill us, they would have done so?" he frowned. "Jeez... We were at the dungeon's mercy this entire time..." 

"Hmm... Well, there's still the case of when we were surrounded that time," Raina thought to herself. "—but, at a certain point, the mobs never seemed to have approached us, huh?"

"Oh, you're right!" Frey clasped her hands. "It was the reason why we managed to clear the place unscratched!"

"...perhaps it was all Sanke's doing?" Raina tilted her head. "Did he had the intention to hurt us, to begin with? Or was it all a facade?"

"From what Renryth told us... Sanke was a good guy, right?" Frey tilted his head. "So him doing all of that... What does it mean??"

"Bah..." Ethaniel scruffled his hair. "Let's just stop this discussion and get going. Stop delaying me from going to surface..."

"Ahem... Right, let's just... Get going to the surface. We can discuss this later," Shinto nodded his head as he and the rest of the group hurried towards the exit by the end of the middle room.

...

The Town of Parm—Catacombs' Outskirts [ Morning ]

From the staircase that led into the instance dungeon, the group slowly made their way upwards to the surface—finally reaching the abandoned area of Parm, the northwest area of the town.

"...phew, it looks like we made it out," with his eyes locked onto the small sunlight that was seeping through the cracks of the building, Shinto let out a sigh of relief. "Finally heading up to the surface... This is the first time we've seen actual sunlight in a while, huh?"

"Mhm, mhm!" Frey nodded her head. "All that snow and darkness made me sick..."

For the group who had been stuck in snow and darkness for a week, they were stripped of the ability to see the warm sunlight. Thus, despite only seeing the small morning sun seeping through the small cracks of the building—it was already a refreshing sight to see.

"Ah~ Finally, some fresh air!" Hikari said in a delighted tone. "All that snow made my insides stuffy..." she shook her head helplessly. Unlike the group that had been stuck in snow for only a week, Hikari and Crowelin had been at Bareth's plains for two. They too were sick of the constant snowstorms.

"Hmm, right," Raina turned towards Hikari. "Now that we're at the surface... Are you two going to go somewhere now? After all... You were only following us because you needed a safe place to leave the area, right?"

"Oh~" Crowelin smiled. "Well... About that, something kind of came up so... We're staying in the area for a bit. First of all, we'll be visiting the town's temple. Err... Where was it?"

"It's to the north of town," Shinto calmly answered.

"Right, thanks!" Crowelin nodded her head as she grabbed onto Hikari's hand. "Let's go, we've got business to do!"

"H-Huh? H-Hey, C-Crowelin, wait...!" Hikari, who wasn't done taking in the fresh air was quickly dragged away by Crowelin towards the north of where Shinto had pointed and, during that second, Shinto sent out a whisper to Hikari.

"We'll talk about details of Rustly's situation later," Shinto said. "For now... Just do whatever you want."

Soon after the two girls had left, the remaining group members all looked at one another.

"...so, what now?" Frey blinked in confusion. "Do we like... Go do our own things or do we have somewhere to go?"

"Well... We're currently free from any sort of quests, huh?" Raina thought to herself. "...umm, I'm not sure where to go for something that's not combating..."

"I dunno about you, but I'm instantly going to the marketplace to restock on my equipment," Ethaniel shrugged as he began leaving the area. "If you want to follow then follow. I'm not going to spare money though."

"Mm... Yeah, but going to the marketplace instantly seems... Like something, not leisure enjoyment!" Frey shouted out. "is there anything else?"

"Well, I'm going to see Greld first," Shinto calmly stated. "I haven't eaten a single thing for the past few days, so if I go on any further... I'll probably run out of stamina."

"Ah! Greld's place!" she said as her stomach growled. "Oops... Now you're making me hungry..."

"Mm... I'm hungry too," Kon whimpered.

"Then it's settled?" Raina tilted her head. "Shall we go to Greld's?"

"Let's go!" she said. "Time to eat some delicious food!"

With nods from the rest of the group, they began making their way over towards the tavern. However, before they did so, Shinto quickly asked Kon to assimilate into the darkness to prevent any onlookers from seeing him.

...

The Town of Parm—Greld's Tavern [ Morning ]

Within the tavern's door, an old man paced around the room in a worried manner.

"...where have they gone to?" The old man—Greld, muttered out. "It's been a week and they haven't come back yet..." his worry continued whilst he was walking back and forth. "Did Lavida do something to them? Argh... They have been real quiet lately... It's the new month too and..." Uttering out his woes, his sentence soon stopped mid-way.

From the door of the tavern, the small bell at the top rang through the room. Taking notice of that, Greld's eyes quickly shifted to the entrance where he saw that the door was slowly opening.

"I-Is it...?!" With excitement in his eyes, he waited anticipatedly.

"Mr Greld!" From behind the door, a female's voice rang out. "We're back!"

"Ah!" His patience to wait was rewarded. At the doorstep, he was greeted by the sight of Shinto and the group. "You're back...!"

"Mhm~" Frey excitedly said. "N-Now um... Could you... Make something delicious to eat...?"