Nine days went by in a sh.


    During this time, Marcus'' and Novak''s parties continued to search the sewers and eliminate any undead monsters they came across.


    However, their teamposition changed slightly from the first day. As a precaution, at least one member from Marcus'' party always apanied Endless Horizons.


    This was a bit of a hit to their dignity as adventures, but Novak, y, Emerie, Jovie, and Landyn understood that they simply weren''t strong enough to beat some of the more powerful monsters lurking in the sewers. As much as they wanted to prove themselves, they knew this would only cause problems.


    "Looks like there is some sort ofpound ahead."


    With her hand on the ground Lilia had used abination of her earth magic and force magic to scout out what was farther ahead.


    Except instead of the usual tunnels and rooms, she found arge, fortified area around two kilometers away.


    "You''re sure about that?" Marcus asked.


    He had been rotating with different teams and was today with Lilia and her beastpanions.


    "Yeah, no doubt about. Plus, the ce has been enchanted to make it more difficult to find and peer into. From here my magic can only just pick up the faint outline of the ce. There is just no way that this used to be a part of the original sewer. If I had to guess, I''d say that the one controlling all the undead we''ve been fighting down here is in there."


    Nodding his head, Marcus agreed with Lilia''s conclusion.


    He then pulled out several sending stones and contacted the rest of his party members.


    "We''ve located the monsters'' base of the operations down here in the sewers. Come to our location and so that we can raid the ce."


    Marcus received affirmative responses from everyone, and they halted their own searches to converge on his location.


    Within around two hours, their entire party had gathered and began conducting a strategy meeting.


    "Are you sure that it was the right call to send Endless Horizons away?" ric asked. He had been the one tagging along with them today and had seen the downcast expressions on their faces when he ryed Marcus'' request to them.


    "Yeah, this is going to be too dangerous for them. We don''t know exactly what we are going to be facing in there. If things got out of hand, it might be impossible for us to protect them. Better to hurt their pride than let them die."


    Each of Marcus''panions understood this logic, but it did not change the fact that they also could sympathize with Novak and his party members. They were aplished and high-ranking adventurers but since starting this mission they had felt like dead weight. Unfortunately, they just were not strong enough to contend with the centuries old high level undead lurking in these sewers.


    For nearly a half hour the eleven of them worked on creating an attack n against the underground fortress. Lilia''s magic had detected magical protections and several guards wandering around outside.


    Nevertheless, this was far from enough to dissuade their party.


    "Okay, lets get started." Marcus said, leading the assault.


    A great deal of magic erupted from his body as he cast his Iron Golem and Gloom Titan Spells.


    Following his lead, Mrazivy used her own magic to conjure several ice warriors, while Lilia created her own golem with her earth magic.


    ric created a powerful elemental monster made from wind, smoke, and death magic thanks to his Mold Magic unique skill.


    Finally, Roxene created a Gloom Titan of her own to round out the cast of conjured creatures.


    Receiving an order to destroy every undead they came across and break into the fortress ahead, the two gloom titans, earth golem, dozen ice warriors, wind, smoke, and death elemental, and iron golem rushed off.


    "This almost feels a bit unfair." Miguelmented.


    "I get what you''re saying, but this is the safest way to go about this. We''ve been attacked by wave after wave of undead monsters, so it is time for our adversary to receive the same treatment." Mrazivy said, a merciless smile on her face.


    After that the eleven of them waited around while monitoring the progress of their conjured creatures.


    At first a great many powerful undead came out to meet them, but eventually their forces were annihted.


    Whenever one of their magically crafted monsters was defeated, they would simply create another one and send it along.


    Through this method they crushed the opposing forces without having to directly get involved.


    "That''s some solid defense. Even my Gloom Titian can''t break through."


    Once all of the undead outside of thepound were destroyed, Marcus, Mrazivy, Lilia, Roxene, and ric ordered their monster to break into therge structure that was almost certainly the base of whatever was controlling the undead lurking down here.


    However, its magical protections were incredibly powerful and would not buckle easily.


    "Looks like we''re up finally. How about we go and greet our ''gracious host'' and tell them how much we''ve enjoyed their hospitality." Lilia said, her aura exuding malice.


    While nothing had so far been much of a threat to them, the horrid smelling environment and ghastly looking undead monster that they had been constantly fighting was grating on all of their nerves. The was no doubt that each and every one of them wanted to get back at the one that had been making their lives a living nightmare.


    When their party did reach the entrance to the fortified structure, it was glowing with a powerful barrier that was repelling the attacks from their magically created creatures.


    "Let''s see what we''re working with."


    Using his expertise in creating magical items and his high-level glyph tuning skill, Marcus examined the magical protections covering their foe''s base.


    "Nope, I can''t disable this." He concluded.


    The protections around the underground fortress wereplex and brimming with mana. Marcus would need to create some specialized tools and have several months to analyze the defenses around this ce to begin taking it apart.


    Of course, that was only if he wanted to do it by disabling the magic formations. Another means was to simply overwhelm it with brute force.


    Following Marcus'' suggestion, everyone took up positions around the structure and began bombarding it with attacks. There was a limit to how much punishment it could take, and eventually they would break through.