Calamity

After asking Martha to go get Nathalia, Luke waited for the girl at the bottom of the stairs leading to the second floor.

When the Elf saw the half-wolf, the blush on her face became even greater. 'Why am I getting embarrassed? He's just a guard... particularly mine? No, no. He's not yours... he's just a friend.' The thoughts bubbled like champagne in the young woman's mind.

"Your mother wants to talk to you."

Nathalia raised her neck. "My mother? Why?"

"She wants you to hear about The Calamity or something."

Still confused, the girl followed the half-wolf into the Matriarch's room. Nathalia had read a lot about The Calamity, however, she had never heard her mother talk about it.

When they sat down in front of Ayumi's desk, the woman began to tell the story:

"Five hundred years ago, there were not so many Dungeons yet, and the Cardinal Kingdom had not even been founded, the nine kingdoms were plunged into deep disgrace..."

People began to disappear, and the strength of the monsters inside the Dungeons was so high that the barriers could not hold most of them back.

Outside, the once fertile soil became sand, and the crops were infested by various pests. The rivers and lakes were infested with a black liquid, and finally, wars for food began. The world was immersed in this terror for fifteen years.

However, four courageous people managed to circumvent this veritable calamity in the nine kingdoms.

Demiurge, a shrewd Druid, and avid necromancy researcher saw similarities in the black liquid that infested the lakes with the oil he used in his experiments and found an effective neutralizer. He also discovered ways to reinforce the barriers in Dungeons.

Hera the Elementalist had legendary earth bending skills, which allowed her to restore many cities that had already fallen into ruins, and she single-handedly built the pillars of the Cardinal Realm.

The Templar named Arani achieved the feat of winning a war against an entire nation, being the only one in his army, and with his connection to the deity of death, he offered all the souls he killed so that the ground would return to life and the monsters would be calmed. This part of the story is still much debated by atheists today.

Finally, Leto was such a skilled assassin that little is known about his accomplishments or his true identity. He killed many greedy men who took advantage of the moment to profit, which prevented even more misfortunes.

"Together, this quartet stopped the advance of Calamity, and they never even met. It is said that their powers and abilities were so spectacular, that even the Gods were envious."

"Easy..." said Nathalia, touching the seasons with her hands. "Didn't Calamity only happen in the outside world? Nothing in the history books includes the dungeons."

"Many things happened during The Calamity..." said Ayumi as she relaxed her back in her chair. "Some of them too big for us to understand yet."

As they left the Matriarch's room, Luke became slightly thoughtful. 'Five hundred years is a long time... Still, to me, this one seems like just a children's tale.'

*

The rest of the day was tedious, and the half-wolf just stayed practicing in the training room with the Elf, as they did almost daily.

The next morning, Luke and Nathalia went to the Guild to get some feedback from Eliz, about the situation of the rescued. If the redhead was part of the group of missing first-timers, everything would be easier.

However, luck was not on their side.

"Eliz ran to the morgue no more than an hour ago. She also asked me to let you know in case you guys showed up." Explained the receptionist.

"Necrotery? Did something happen?" Luke questioned.

"Yes, the man you guys saved yesterday is dead."

"Dead?! What do you mean?" Nathalia asked shocked. "The man seemed fine yesterday. Although he was quite weakened, he managed to keep up with my pace on the way back to the second floor."

"I have no further information, young lady. She just told me where she was going."

"Get right there!" shouted a man at the back of the line for service.

Not wanting to congest the Guild door any further, Luke just asked, "Where is the morgue?"

Immediately after receiving the instructions of the location of the Necrotery, the pair of Class-F Adventurers went to Eliz, to find out what had happened. Could it have been the spiders' poison or some side effect?

Although there was no telling how long the girl and the man spent in the cocoons, it was still likely that it was no more than a few hours.

In the end, it was a bit difficult to find the Necrotery, because it was well hidden and, in an area, away from the center of the town, to avoid attacks from occultists. Between two alleys, there was a metal gate with a skull on the bottom, which was the symbol the receptionist told them to look for.

Dum! Dum! The half-wolf slammed the metal gate hard, and a moment later a small door opened, where only two eyes could be seen.

A man with a thick voice asked, "What do you want?"

"We are here to talk to Eliz." Answered Luke, inexpressive.

"There is no one by that name here."

"Excuse me, Luke," Nathalia said and stepped into the vision of the little gate. The girl, with her bright white hair, red eyes, and pointed ears, looked right into the eyes of the man on the other side of the gate and said, "Either you open this door, or I will put in the mission board the location of the Necrotery."

The little door closed tightly, and moments later the gate was opened by a man who was over six feet tall. "You are quite brave." He spoke, seriously.

When Nathalia entered, Luke followed her closely, because no matter that they were not in the Dungeon, he still saw the need to protect her. The environment they entered was quiet and quite cold, which contrasted with the fervor that was in the streets.

Eliz was walking in circles and gave a closed smile when she saw the Elf and the half-wolf. "You came..."

"Good morning... What exactly happened?" Nathalia questioned.

"In the morning, a nurse went to check on Downey, but he was already dead and cut in half..."

The adventuring duo was left without reaction.

"What killed him? A poison? A parasite?"

"It's impossible to know. The coroner was already drunk late yesterday afternoon, so he could be slumped down an alley... We have to wait for his return, there's only one coroner in this town."

That was a too critical situation to wait for so long. If there was only one coroner in a city for so many corpses, it was impossible to know when the results of an eventual necropsy might come out.

That left the pair at the mercy of trying to find the coroner, however, the half-wolf had a secret aptitude that he did not expect to reveal unless very necessary.

"If you will allow me, I can do the necropsy."

______

Discord for illustrations of the characters: 

https://discord.gg/qz2vDAn7Kb