It was currently dusk in the city of Oak, with shops beginning to close down and turn in for the night. The crowds of Oak had died down and it was soon time for most of the citizens of Oak to hide away in their abodes. Not for Gundar however, as he had a job to do from his crooked client. They had recently taken a relic from the church in order for his client to analyze it and try to make one that spawns more undead in select areas. It was about that time where they should have finished their analysis and made their own version of it for spawning undead elsewhere other than just the church themselves. Not everybody that has died in Oak has had a burial and they could use this to their advantage by increasing the range of influence with tactical placement of these new devices. Going to meet the client once again, the location was different this time around. This time, they were to meet at Oak's church instead. This part of the information had puzzled Gundar as he didn't think they would dare meet near enemy territory but, if that's what the client wishes, so be it.

Gundar would go and fetch Keita before heading to the meeting place of their client. He wasn't sure if they should just casually walk in or sneak it as the mission briefing didn't exactly specify. Giving an audible grunt, Gundar had shuffled on to the church in the dead of night. Pulling his red hood over his head, it figured it was best for him to keep a low profile as rumors of himself and Keita were starting to stir up. Luckily, people weren't quite aware of their exact identities yet but soon, it'll be hard for them to move around unnoticed. Arriving a street away from the church, Gundar had hugged a wall, his back facing towards it peeking around the corner. He couldn't see anything or anyone around and he thought that was rather odd. After all of the times the church has been hit recently, he'd assume they would have strengthened security, which caused Gundar to stroke his chin in confusion. Peeking his head out once again, this time he could see a lone priest with his hands together as if he were praying walking into the church building. Gundar assumed that was the only guard there and decided this was the perfect opportunity.

Turning the corner he was hiding around, Gundar made his way through the courtyard of the church going up the small slope that leads to the church's door before slowly opening a crack to peek inside. He didn't want to just stroll in as he wasn't sure if the enemy was aware of his presence or not so he didn't dare. Looking inside, he couldn't really see anything and just figured it was best to play it safe. Crouching down on his knees, Gundar placed his left hand down, creating a small magic seal on the stone steps he was currently standing on to absorb the attributes to coat his skin with in order to bolster his offense and defense. With his only preparation done, he had pushed open the door with his left that revealed the priest that had entered before with his back turned. Upon hearing Gundar open the door, the priest had turned slowly towards him, showing he had some kind of headgear masking his identity. Gundar had prepared for a fight before the priest began to laugh, making him pause for a moment. The masked priest had then revealed to Gundar and Keita that it was the client the entire time. Gundar had grunted wondering if he had infiltrated the church.

As if the priest could remind his mind, he shook his head, 'No' followed by an explanation that infiltrate wasn't the right word but he was always a member of the church. It's how he knew the ins and outs of the layout and how they've been getting their valuable information this whole time. That's when it clicked inside Gundar's head that this man knew an awful lot about the church for a man that just sits in a run down office all the time and conducts weird activities even Gundar dared not find out about. Now that all was said and done, it was time for the three of them to gather and he would explain to them what the specifics of what this request entails. Gundar can't say he was feeling comfortable enough to just sit in the church but the client had told them to rest assured that he made sure nobody would disturb them or come for the remainder of the night which is why they were even allowed to walk in with no resistance in the first place. This just causes Gundar to grunt.

Keita was getting ready to go to bed when he suddenly got a special message from some sort of strange raven. The raven had a small little capsule on its ankle for delivering messages, and so h e assumed it was from the guild. Keita carefully grabbed the capsule and started to open it, before petting the bird a bit as he actually really liked animals. He hoped that this animal wasn’t some sort of sentient beast or something and he had just offended it, but it turned out that it was finel, the raven simply sitting there appreciating the head pats while Keita read the letter that was tied to the bird’s ankle. The letter basically told him that they were going to go into the church’s depths once again to mess up the plans that the priests were attempting to do to curb the flood of undead from the catacombs. Keita was getting a bit bored of constantly doing this mission, as the priests were not much of a challenge at all and it seemed that they never sent anything other than new recruits down there to protect their rituals or their artifacts. This worked out for Keita however, as it was simple to do and gave quite a bit of jewels each time, so who was he to turn down such a lucrative offer.

The message told him that their contact this time would be in the church, and that he would have to meet his partner, which was unsurprisingly Gundar. Keita nodded once he had read all of the information given to him by the piece of paper and then headed out, going towards the church where he would undoubtedly meet his buddy Gundar. As he was walking through the streets, he noticed that not a lot of people were out tonight, which was unusual for the streets of Oak, as it was hustling and bustling with activity most hours of the night. He wondered if some big event was going on or if there was some other thing preventing the usual busy bodies and night owls from roaming around. He had a job to do, and was swiftly making his way towards the church, and when he got about half way to his destination, Gundar was waiting for him at an intersection of a road, as this was the best place to find someone heading to the church from Keita’s home. He didn’t live in the guild hall like Gundar did, so sometimes there were instances that they would need to meet up outside, and since Gundar didn’t like to speak much, it was either him knocking on his door, or just meeting outside.

Considering the frequency in which they had gone to this church, it had become almost a habit to meet at this intersection when heading to the church, so there was no surprise. Keita simply walked to the side of Gundar and nodded to him before they both started walking. There was no need for any sort of fanfare or waving or anything between the two, especially not on some sort of quest that they needed to complete. The night was starting to settle in as they got to the church, and luckily for them and this mission the church seemed to be open constantly at all hours of the night. It made sense that people needed to confess their sins and repent to feel better about themselves at these hours, especially if they were drunk or they slept with someone that they immediately regretted. Keita chucjkled at the dumb thought that he just had as they entered the open doors from the dark streets into the wll lit church. As they were wandering around in the church looking for their contact. This led them through a courtyard and into the more private quarters of the priests. They slinked up to a door that was slightly ajar and Gundar decided to head over there and check it out.

Keita walked to the side and leaned against a wall to keep a lookout while Gundar did this, and before he knew it, he heard some sort of laughter from inside the room,a nd so rushed over there to see that there was a priest in a mask there, stating that he was some sort of corrupt person in the church that was working for the guild and was their contact. Keita nodded at this, as it wasn’t very strange to plant agents into places, and even if there weren’t their own agents planted inside a rivals or enemy base to act as spies and subterfuge, there would always be people that could be persuaded to switch sides given the right opportunity. It was just smart tactics. After that, the trio simply sat down in his office as he started to discuss the specifics of the quest. The priests were setting up a big ritual that would somehow pacify a large undead monster down in the catacombs. This was actually good for the church, and so the two of their jobs were now to protect the priests from the other elite undead. Keita’s brows raised at this.

Moving to an office behind the podium with both Keita and the client, Gundar was still thinking about how they were working for a priest all along. After a few moments, it was no longer important as they changed locations. They had entered a small office located behind a false wall behind the podium. Gundar wondered just how many secret passageways this church building possessed. It's no wonder they had trouble with unruly people sneaking in and out at their own leisure. There were a few chairs in front of a desk that he assumed was for whoever was personnel for the church. Just like he assumed, the client had rounded the desk and taken a seat in the chair behind the desk which was far more extravagant than the ones available to himself and Keita. Taking a seat himself, Gundar had to admit, this office was much nicer than the one they were meeting up in previously. He can even admit the craftsmanship of the furniture and goods weren't too offensive to his eyes but it could have been better in dwarven hands. On to more important matters, Gundar would sit and listen to the client's explanation of the situation.

For once, it seems that Keita and Gundar would be on the same side as the priests they've been taking the liberty of dispatching. On top of that, Gundar wondered if this man felt any kind of way about how often they had to slay the many members of the church on the requests he had given them. Looking at him for a few seconds, the client had simply smirked which just made Gundar come to the answer on his own. Beginning with the explanation, the client had informed the two of them that a certain ritual will take place in order to subdue a massive skeleton titan that was composed from smaller skeletons. Currently, it was in the deepest layer of the catacombs being suppressed by a magical seal with a limited amount of holy energy with a few war priests at the helm to make sure nothing goes wrong, occasionally strengthening it. Their job was apparently to defend the priests that were attempting to quell the mighty undead titan with the ritual. Supposedly, the titan gives off enough malicious mana to raise corpses wherever it walks. Furthermore, it can continue to resurrect skeletons that had been dispatched before unless the bones are completely obliterated.  

It was quite a powerful being that shouldn't be fought with anything no less than an army. Gundar grunted at that specific part as he would like to test his mettle against such an opponent, at least for a little while. Well, he thinks he's heard all that he had to but he had to admit, there was one concern that Gundar had which was the matter of their identities. They have been attacking the church fairly often in recent days and thought it would cause trouble if they had showed up out of the blue. For all the priests know, they might have been there to help free the skeleton titan and would try and stop Gundar and Keita. The client had snickered and said he's got that covered too as he had gotten up from his chair and went behind it for a few seconds. He then came back with a pair of priestly gowns and told the both of them to put them on before they went down there to deal with them. They even came with a mask the initiates wear when they first join the church. Well, it seems most of Gundar's concerns were cleared and if Keita had any, he'd wait for them to finish discussing them before leaving.

Taking the priestly gown, Gundar had worn it over his usual attire since he didn't want to go through the hassle of changing in and out. He was a bit worried on how much it'd hinder him in a fight but he figured he'd manage. The client had then led both Gundar and Keita out of the secret room from the back when they've finished changing and led them down into a magic elevator that would take them down to the deepest parts of the catacombs without going the long way through the trapdoor. Upon their release, they had immediately been thrown into the heat of battle as skeletons had been running rampant the ritual took place. Fighting his forward and taking a point to defend the ritual, Gundar had continued to dispatch the skeletons that had been attempting to interfere with the ritual and leaving the ones attacking other priests indiscriminately alone. Eventually, the ritual had been completed and the colossal skeleton titan had been sealed away. While the other priests were celebrating their victory and tending to their wounded, the client had found both Keita and Gundar and took them back on the elevator to the office to receive their payment and dispersed before anybody else from the church knew what was going on.

[Exit.]

-20% Wordcount on quests

1,653/1,600

Keita wondered why this priest would work so closely with the two of them, as they were a pretty big liability, and this would only let them become stronger with more resources. They weren’t particularly important or anything, neither did they have any particular skill that was necessary in this mission, but what they did have was a really good track record for this sort of thing. He wondered if there were some sort of contingencies involved with the guilds, as there was no way that Keita would let some promising prospects that were all intents and purposes enemies live. There was a very easy way to say that the two of them simply died on the mission or something, but he felt that the man just might think he couldn’t kill the two of them or that the repercussions would be too big to bear for him. Either way, the man was being a bit too chummy for his tastes, and he should definitely be more professional in this endeavor. They weren’t friends, in fact since the man was a priest, there was a good reason to believe that they would become enemies sooner rather than later.

Pushing these thoughts aside, Keita would follow the two back to some sort of actual impressive room that one could only get into through a secret switch on the wall. The man they were meeting tried his best to hide exactly which item he had to interact with to open the room, but he failed under Keita’s observational skills. Still, it was something that Keita didn’t really care about, but it was always nice to have additional securities in your pocket when it came to the shady people, Keita himself included. Keita would act as if he had seen nothing as they walked into the room. Extravagance galore, it really seemed that whatever words the religion preached were falling on deaf ears when it came to this guy, as a lot of the furniture pieces in this room cost more than an entire month’s rent for Keita’s current home.

Keita listened as the man spoke about the ritual and the giant bone titan, giving more specifics. This was good, as Keita needed to know the specifics about such a creature, as what if the creature escaped from the so called binding ritual? Keita did not have any faith in the priests, and he wondered how much faith they themselves had within their own organization if any one of them could not only do shady dealings as a high ranking member, but also somehow get an ornate building designed within the walls of the church and even managed to smuggle large and ornate furniture into it without anyone knowing or reporting it. The man continued speaking, saying that the two of them simply needed to protect the priests that were performing the ritual, and it was a bit shaky. He assumed that the ritual’s energy clashing with the necromantic energy of the titan would cause a lot of unrest throughout the catacombs and enrage a lot of the undead around the area. They would most likely be under assault right now, but the priest was not being very swift in his explanation, as if the giant titan had nothing to do with him and he could care less about it being sealed or not.

Still, they needed to perform their best here on orders from the guild, and so they needed to go ahead and get on with it. Keita was thinking exactly what Gundar was, it seemed, as the dwarf questioned how they were going to fit in with the church, to which the man chuckled and produced some cloaks for them to wear that were actually priestly robes, which solved that particular problem. After that, the man led them to a trapdoor that went into an elevator down to the lower floors. This was something that Keita had to remember, and this was infinitely more convenient than wandering around the tunnel systems looking for the declines and sometimes the stairs to get through the floors of the dungeon-like layout of caves. They finally reached their destination, and the priest essentially threw them out, to which they were immediately met with the sight of a bunch of priests fighting hoard of undead and trying to keep up a ritual at the same time, and so they got to work. Since Keita didn’t want to expose himself, he simply conjured some condensed water over his fists so he could punch through the skeletons. Son, the intense fighting was over, just in time for the ritual to be complete, then seeing the titan sit down and go into a type of slumber, although it was still there. While the priests were thanking each other and praising their team, the two of them snuck off and met back with their handler, who escorted them out of the church. A job well done he supposed, and they snuck out of the church without the robes.

[EXIT]
-20% Wordcount on Quests