Chapter 457: Chapter 454 – Heading to the Dungeon

Dawn broke over the horizon of the Imperial sky, dispelling the remnants of the cold night darkness with a sweeping wave of warm, bright golden light. The bright morning sunlight slowly seeped through the woven crevices of the large glass window curtains in the luxury suite at the Silver Eagle Inn, illuminating every detail of the grand and authoritative interior. The air inside the room still carried a faint, lingering fragrance of essential herbal tea and the piles of high-quality magical spice commodities they had packed the previous night.

Sylvia, as usual, was the first to open her eyes and stir from her rest phase. She sat up gracefully on the edge of the wide master mattress, letting out a long, constant breath while stretching all her body joints, which felt exceptionally fit and optimal. The calm gaze of her dark crimson eyes swept around the room, observing the visual details of her two sisters who were observed to still be fast asleep in a peaceful slumber phase.

The second half of last night had truly passed in a state of absolute silence without the slightest indicator of danger anomalies or physical disturbances following yesterday’s midnight massive slaughter of the mercenary assassin unit. Baron Veldor’s side seemed to have finally been forced by reality to understand his tactical limits; he apparently chose to restrain himself for the sake of his own line of existence’s survival.

Sylvia stood up from the mattress with noiseless footsteps, walking slowly toward the frame of the large glass window, then cast her gaze down toward the expanse of the capital city landscape below, which had already begun to showcase the rhythmic hustle and bustle of morning commercial activities. Today, based on the strategic blueprint they had agreed upon, they would completely alter their operational identity to leave their old theatrical stage behind.

"It is time for us to put an end to all this monotonous spice trade activity," Sylvia muttered in an exceptionally low, flat tone of voice, laden with cold strategic certainty.

Not long after that murmur escaped, Alicia and Stacia also began to wake up from their sleep phases sequentially. After completing their self-cleansing rituals and consuming a light breakfast menu laden with essential nutritional content in the suite’s dining room, the three of them immediately took neat sitting positions around a round wooden table in the living room area to begin a tactical meeting regarding the details of today’s movement plan.

"From this exact moment on, we will officially shed and discard all our identity attributes as traveling merchants in the northern market district," Sylvia opened in an exceptionally firm, directed tone of voice that left no room for debate. "We will fully register ourselves and transition into an independent adventurer team. Based on pure operational analysis, using legal status as licensed adventurers will ease our movement mobility to cross various border regions and facilitate the gathering of intelligence data regarding the coordinate points of ancient dimensional rifts in this Empire."

Stacia instantly straightened her sitting position, unleashing an arm-stretching movement laden with a high, explosive level of enthusiasm. "Finally...! The announcement I have been waiting for such a long time! I am truly at the threshold of saturation if I have to continuously serve the egos of market customers who always haggle over our merchandise commodity prices in a convoluted manner every single day. Besides, thinking back on close-combat mechanics, using physical weapons like daggers to maintain our old disguise identity feels very troublesome, restricts movement space, and is inefficient for my body structure. I personally far prefer the visuals and pure destructive power of high-tier magic manipulation."

Alicia curved a very graceful thin smile, giving a subtle nod of her head in agreement. "I feel the exact same way, Stacia. The pure spirit body structure I possess biologically feels far more comfortable, flexible, and synchronized when holding an external magic staff as a focal medium, rather than having to pretend to use physical combat methods or restrict myself to being an ordinary debuff mage specialist in the rear lines. So, what about the decision regarding your own visualization specification, Sylvia?"

Sylvia allowed both corners of her lips to lift slightly, creating a cold smile laden with tactical sarcasm on her face. "I personally feel very lazy if I have to continuously swing a sword blade like a thin rapier on the front lines; its physical movement feels too slow, convoluted, and impractical for executing targets on a mass scale. Therefore, starting today, the three of us will pretend and register ourselves as a pure mage team. A team composition formation without a front-line defense unit or physical fighters like this will indeed look very strange, eccentric, and unbalanced by the standards of the outside world, but it is precisely with this formation anomaly that the enemy intelligence will experience great difficulty guessing our structural origins as well as the estimation of our actual combat power limits."

Thus, the phase of preparing their outward appearance metamorphosis was immediately executed with a high level of precision inside the suite room. Stacia took the initiative to activate high-tier illusion magic waves and visual perception manipulation to disguise the details of their energy fingerprints and secondary physical traits from their original identities that might otherwise trigger the suspicion of the Imperial authorities.

After the energy manipulation was successfully conditioned, the three of them immediately put on specialized adventurer robes that possessed a highly elegant, authoritative design, yet maintained high practical functionality for outdoor activities. The robes were specially designed with a loose pattern cut so that they would not hinder spontaneous physical movement acceleration at all; their constituent material was made from a specialized woven magical fabric fiber characterized by water resistance, anti-tear properties against physical slashes, and had been coated with a thin mana energy protective weave structure to dampen the impact of external pressure.

The color scheme specifications of the robes worn were also adjusted to reflect their disguise characteristics. Sylvia wore a robe set dominated by a cold, pitch-black color with sharp horizontal white accent lines on the cuffs and collar; Stacia chose a dark gray set adorned along its surface by woven motifs of faint rune lettering emitting a dim energy glow; while Alicia looked exceptionally charming enveloped in a spotlessly pure white robe with shimmering vertical silver line accents smoothly following the contours of her body movements.

Stacia then took her magic book, a thick and massive ancient grimoire, then bound it neatly to the right side of her waist with the aid of a specialized magical animal leather strap. From the outside, the ancient book resembled an ordinary accessory notebook often carried by magic academy students, but behind its pages lay a compilation of destructive mantra formulas ready to be unleashed at any moment.

Alicia appeared to carry a simple wooden magic staff that possessed a straight structure without many ornaments; the top end of the staff was adorned with a small, intentionally chosen low-quality mana crystal shard, making her overall appearance look highly identical to the standard magic staff of a novice mage who had just graduated from a lower-tier academy. Sylvia herself decided not to carry or equip herself with any type of physical weapon at all; she stepped out empty-handed, completely placing absolute trust in her death energy manipulation and internal Abyss authority.

"Viewed from an external aesthetic standpoint, our current visual appearance composition is truly highly similar to an eccentric and mysterious mage team that has just descended from a remote mountain region," Stacia said while spinning her body shape with agile movements in front of the large mirror, causing the edge of her gray robe to wave elegantly and dynamically in the air. "However, despite all forms of its formation strangeness, I must admit that the three of us still look very beautiful and charming in these adventurer clothes."

After completing all internal inn administration processes and ensuring that their royal carriage and pair of zombie draft horses were stored safely inside the Silver Eagle Inn’s specialized stable facility, the three of them immediately stepped out, leaving the luxury inn building area. Their footsteps moved with a light, regular, and highly confident rhythm toward the Hunter Guild headquarters building, whose position was located not too far from the outer perimeter of the northern market complex.

The atmosphere of the Imperial capital’s main street was observed to be in an increasingly high level of mass density as the morning progressed. Rows of local merchants appeared busy opening their commercial kiosk gates; groups of fully armed adventurers were seen walking gallantly while carrying various types of swords and large axes on their waists, while the delicious aroma of various traditional street food dishes wafted heavily from every corner of the natural stone sidewalk.

Along the travel route through the crowd, several pairs of eyes from city residents and local adventurers occasionally caught glimpses of the silhouettes of the three beautiful girls in adventurer robes with gazes filled with deep admiration. Nonetheless, absolutely no individual possessed the physical courage to step closer or try to initiate verbal interaction; this was due to the emission of a mysterious aura, exceptionally cold, dense, and authoritative, which unconsciously seeped out from the crevices of their clothes.

The Capital Hunter Guild building manifested as a massive, giant-scale stone architectural complex; its main front gate structure was adorned with carved symbols of crossed swords and an iron shield, which stood as a representation of adventurer military authority. Right at the moment they stepped inside through the main hall door, the atmosphere within the room instantly welcomed them with a highly dense wave of noise originating from hundreds of adventurers of various rank tiers, ranging from Copper Rank to elite Gold Rank adventurers. Sounds of tactical discussions regarding quests, loud laughter, and the clanging friction of metal weapons being cleaned filled every corner of that vast hall.

Without wasting even a single bit of tactical time to observe their surroundings, the three mages immediately walked straight through the crowd of adventurers toward the rows of main reception desks located at the end of the hall. A young woman dressed in the official uniform of the Guild institution appeared to immediately welcome their arrival with a highly polite and professional formal smile.

"Good morning and welcome to the Imperial Capital Hunter Guild headquarters, honorable Lady adventurers," the receptionist greeted with a friendly tone of voice. "Is there an administrative matter or a specific type of quest assistance I can facilitate for you today?"

Sylvia stepped forward one step closer to the counter desk barrier, ensuring her tone of voice was in an exceptionally calm, cold intonation, laden with stable, pure authority. "The three of us come today with the purpose of applying for the issuance of a legal entry access permit toward an active dungeon area or a local dimensional rift region. Specifically, we desire a recommendation for a dimensional rift region currently manifesting along the northern perimeter of the capital."

The receptionist woman gave a nod of understanding, then very deftly immediately opened and checked the list of active quest manifestations recorded inside her thick document logbook.

"Based on the monitoring magic data updates we received this dawn, there are indeed currently several dungeon coordinate points whose status is in a full active phase in the capital’s northern perimeter area. The closest recommended location possessing adequate logistics access routes is the Greywood Dimensional Rift coordinate point, whose position is about a two-hour regular land journey away if drawn from the capital’s boundary gate. The operational difficulty estimation for that rift region is currently categorized to be in the range between B-Rank to A-Rank. Do you plan to submit application documents for the issuance of a temporary exploration permit card for that region?"

Sylvia gave a short nod of her head without hesitation. "Yes, issue those documents for the three of us."

The female receptionist staff immediately took out three pocket-sized specialized identity cards made of pure silver plate material; along the surface sides appeared engraved strands of official identification runes belonging to the Hunter Guild institution, emitting a dim light glow.

"These are your three legal exploration access cards. Make sure to always show these silver cards to the military gatekeeper guard unit commander on duty at the outer perimeter of the dungeon entrance later. And please, allow me to provide a small additional warning note based on the latest scout team reports, the stability structure of that Greywood Dimensional Rift is currently in a highly unstable phase lately. Still prioritize your life safety while inside the dimensional line."

After the entire array of legal administrative matters was perfectly concluded, the three mages immediately stepped out, leaving the interior area of the Guild building hall. Sylvia raised her right hand slowly, observing the visual details of the pure silver access card within her fingertips with a heavily flat and apathetic facial expression.

"We must immediately direct our footsteps back toward the Silver Eagle Inn area first to retrieve our royal carriage," Sylvia said while pocketing the silver card inside her robe. "An estimated two-hour regular land journey toward the north is not a short travel distance if executed using pure footsteps."

They then immediately returned to the stable facility location of the Silver Eagle Inn, then quickly brought out their specialized royal carriage drawn by a chosen pair of zombie horses. The pair of undead equine creatures appeared to immediately let out a silent neighing sound laden with a high level of pure enthusiasm right at the moment they caught the presence of their master’s silhouette; their pair of eye pupils glinted, releasing a dense, deep red light glow beneath the shadow of their protective armor.

Sylvia immediately took a sitting position on the front driver’s seat of the carriage as usual to act as the steering direction controller; Stacia and Alicia immediately stepped inside to position themselves comfortably within the vast interior space of the carriage compartment, while the golden cat figure appeared to leap lightly to take a warm curling position upon Sylvia’s lap.

Thus, the military expedition travel phase toward the Greywood Dimensional Rift coordinates was officially executed. Their royal carriage appeared to move crossing the northern main highway line whose condition was observed to be increasingly busy and dense with the movement mobilization of medium to large-scale adventurer team groups who apparently were also moving toward the same destination coordinate point. Several elite adventurer teams briefly cast gazes filled with curiosity as well as tactical suspicion toward their unusual-looking carriage architecture structure, but once again, absolutely no group possessed the physical courage to step closer to conduct an interception.

Inside the dimly lit carriage interior space, Stacia appeared to have already opened the pages of her ancient grimoire book upon her lap, then with high focus began to chant micro-scale practice mantra sentences to stimulate the mana flow inside her body. "Ah... I truly already feel impatient to quickly unleash and test the effectiveness of my high-level destructive magic mantra array on the pure battlefield later!"

Alicia curved a very comforting soft smile from her position leaning against the carriage wall. "I will take full responsibility for securing our defense line by means of unleashing mass-scale enemy capability weakening mantra arrays (Debuff Magic) as well as preparing pure energy recovery systems (Advanced Healing) to sustain your stamina. Sylvia, I suggest that you completely focus your attack line on long-range artillery execution using your death flame blaze manipulation."

Sylvia gave a short nod of her head from atop the outer driver’s seat, her hands steadily holding the horse reins. "Very well. A highly logical strategy. The three of us in the initial phase later will focus first on conducting an objective analysis and assessment regarding how high the energy quality level and monster density thickness are that lurk inside this dungeon. If the analysis results show good quality indicators, we can consider making this Greywood Dimensional Rift our routine exploitation zone and farming field for a certain period of time ahead."

The duration of the two-hour land journey was successfully crossed by them in a condition considered highly smooth without any significant logistics obstacles. The natural landscape expanse along both sides of the highway line appeared to begin being dominated by the density of ancient tree vegetation from the Greywood forest region, which grew increasingly thick and dark; at the same time, the air temperature characteristics around them gradually dropped drastically to become exceptionally cold, accompanied by an increase in the density of wild mana particle content that felt increasingly dense and skin-piercing.

Until finally, their gaze successfully caught the silhouette of a giant-scale stone gate structure surrounded by rows of defense trenches as well as full-strength military barricades, the main entry entrance that served as the legal guard post toward the core perimeter zone of the Greywood Dimensional Rift.

Sylvia pulled the horse reins slowly, stopping her royal carriage right in front of the inspection gate boundary line. Several Imperial military guard personnel wearing full iron armor sets appeared to step closer to conduct access document inspection procedures. After closely observing the validity details of the three pure silver identity cards proferred by Sylvia, the guard commander appeared to give a single nod gesture as a sign of clearance approval.

"Your documents are declared legally valid. Please continue your journey to cross the inner gate," the guard commander said with a heavy tone of voice, his eyes staring sharply toward Sylvia. "However, still maintain your highest alertness level while inside the inner perimeter, Ladies. Based on our latest data manifest, there are too many mid-rank adventurer teams declared mysteriously vanished without a trace inside there throughout this week."

Their royal carriage moved slowly again, crossing through the inner stone gate to enter the core territorial area of the rift. Right at the moment the carriage wheels crossed the dimensional demarcation line, the environmental atmosphere around them instantly experienced a highly extreme, dramatic change. Puffs of dense gray fog appeared enveloping every inch of the ancient forest vegetation, restricting visual visibility distance to a bare minimum, while highly powerful and wild pure mana aura pressure waves felt heavily turbulent in the open air.

Right in the far distance area there, a spatial anomaly phenomenon manifested in the form of a giant-sized dimensional rift emitting a faint purple glow mixed with black, hanging high in the air resembling a gaping tear wound damaging the stability of the world’s reality.

Sylvia stopped her pair of zombie horses’ travel pace in a clearing area considered to possess an adequate perimeter safety level near the outer entrance of the rift. "We will put an end to the use of this royal carriage transportation and begin walking using pure feet from this coordinate point."

The three mages then immediately stepped down from atop the carriage compartment sequentially. The edges of the elegant adventurer robes they wore appeared to flutter dynamically in the open air, blown by the gust of the dimensional night wind, which possessed highly cold and dry characteristics. Stacia appeared to tighten the grip of both her fingers on the cover structure of her ancient grimoire book; Alicia held her simple wooden magic staff handle in a stable vertical position, while Sylvia herself was observed only standing tall with a relaxed empty-handed position beside her body nevertheless, the energy fluctuations of her internal Death Aura had unconsciously begun to seep out and spread slowly onto the surrounding ground surface.

"The entire array of our commercial disguise drama in the market yesterday has ended, and what lies before us right now is merely a pure initial phase of the actual agenda," Sylvia said in an exceptionally low and cold tone of voice, her dark crimson eyes narrowing sharply staring straight toward the center of the giant dimensional tear rift vortex ahead. "Let us step inside."

With a highly unified and precise movement coordination, the three mysterious mage entities then began to step their feet forward together, in a state of absolute combat readiness to face any form of danger threat manifestation currently lurking awaiting their arrival behind the darkness of the Greywood Dimensional Rift labyrinth.