Vast Underground Catacombs

"Is this... a burial ground?"

"Looks like it. Pretty big, too. Far grander than that Demi-Human one from before."

"But it seems to be poisonous..." As a spirit, Melina naturally had nothing to worry about, but what about the Tarnished? He was the one who would be exploring it, after all.

Hearing Melina's words, the Tarnished bent down and looked below. Sure enough, a large pool of dark green poison lay beneath them.

"Don't worry too much. I'll be fine as long as I don't stay in it too long. I'm confident of that." The Tarnished bent his knees, preparing to jump.

"I understand... I cannot stray too far from a Site of Grace... so I shall leave you for now." With that, Melina returned to the Grace.

She can't stray too far from Grace? Does that have something to do with being a spirit? Looks like she has quite a story of her own. Without dwelling on it, the Tarnished covered his mouth and nose and jumped into the poison pool below. With his face protected, the splashing poison did not affect him. He broke into a sprint and crossed the pool in moments, reaching a relatively quiet area.

"This green muck is disgusting," the Tarnished complained, brushing the poison clinging to his body.

Rumble, rumble.

The rumbling caught the Tarnished's attention. The moment he looked up, he saw a huge, spike-covered, six-wheeled chariot charging toward him.

"What the hell is that?" The Tarnished was about to retreat when the chariot turned around and charged down the slope instead.

Not daring to act rashly, the Tarnished carefully studied the layout. Before him lay a long, smooth slope. From where he stood, there seemed to be arched recesses in the walls on either side where he could hide from the chariot patrolling back and forth.

"Even grave robbing is hard these days. That brat who robbed my grave had it easy." The burial grounds belonging to the Erdtree's forces were truly heavily guarded, as the earlier Demi-Human burial ground had already shown. Between the devious layout and the guards stationed throughout, whoever built these places had never intended to let the living enter.

"It's not like I'm here to dig up ashes." Though that hardly made any difference...

With another rumble, the four-wheeled chariot returned to the Tarnished, apparently having completed a patrol. After pausing for a while, it repeated its previous maneuver, turning around to begin another crushing sweep.

The Tarnished seized the opportunity to slide down the slope. As he approached an archway, he quickly rolled toward it, only to discover that there was no wall behind it. It was an actual arched doorway, with nothing beyond it but open space.

"Tch." Fortunately, the Tarnished stopped himself in time to avoid falling. "Careless... This place is nastier than I thought."

But when he looked down a moment later, his mood shifted slightly. Contrary to his expectations, it was not a bottomless pit. He could see an entirely new area below, though falling from this position would still hurt.

The Tarnished poked his head out to look toward the patrolling chariot. An instant later, it hurtled past his face. The spikes extending horizontally from its wheels nearly skewered him, but fortunately, he reacted quickly.

"That thing packs a serious punch." The Tarnished rubbed his hair. Before long, the chariot began another patrol, and he resumed dodging it. When he reached the second archway, he controlled his roll properly this time, only for an arrow to strike him in the back.

"What?" Breaking off the arrow, the Tarnished looked back and spotted a skeletal soldier holding a bow.

"A moving skeleton? Another of Those Who Live in Death?" The arrow had done little damage, but ranged interference was the last thing he needed right now. Getting hit by that chariot because of this skeleton would be no laughing matter.

That chariot was extremely sturdy. None of his current attacks, including his newly learned Dragon Communion Incantations, could destroy it.

As the Tarnished considered his options, the treacherous skeleton fired several more arrows. He knocked them aside while thinking of a plan, finally deciding to lure the skeleton out and let the chariot deal with it.

If this skeleton really was one of Those Who Live in Death, dealing with it himself would take too long. With that thought, the Tarnished looked down the slope and saw the chariot returning.

"I'll wait for the next round..." The skeleton was still firing, but the chariot had already arrived. Its arrows struck the chariot with all the effect of blades of grass swatting a giant crab, yet the sound of its bow kept coming from the other side.

"Do Those Who Live in Death have no brains at all...? At this rate, it'll run out of arrows before I even have to lure it out." Sure enough, shortly after the Tarnished finished speaking, the skeleton stopped shooting. It had no arrows left.

What the Tarnished had not expected was for the undead idiot to throw its bow at him.

"What did I ever do to you?" Catching the bow, the Tarnished saw the skeleton rush at him like a madman, flailing wildly. Its bones clattered as though it might fall apart at any moment. Once it reached him, it swung a fist hard into his body.

"You're a bit of a joke." Strengthened by runes and a Dragon Heart, the Tarnished was no longer the man he had been. An unarmed skeleton could not hurt him now. He swiftly seized its arm, twisted it behind its back, and pinned it beneath him.

This creature was one of Those Who Live in Death, so ordinary attacks could not do any meaningful damage to it. Had it stayed where it was, he would have simply ignored it during the next patrol. But since it had come to him, he could only let the chariot deal with it.

The trembling ground told the Tarnished that the time had come. He hurled the restrained skeleton onto the slope. It immediately fell apart, and before it could reassemble itself, the oncoming chariot sent it flying, shattering some bones and scattering the rest.

"Let's see you put yourself back together now," the Tarnished taunted, then ran farther down. Upon reaching the third archway, he jumped straight through without hesitation. This drop was perfectly manageable.

Just as the Tarnished jumped, a grayish-white spirit appeared in the archway he had just left. Holding an Uchigatana, it leaped after him.

"What the hell?" Sensing killing intent behind him, the Tarnished swiftly drew the Uchigatana at his waist and blocked the attack.

"This place is haunted." The Tarnished deflected the spirit's blade, then formed a dragon claw with his left hand and crushed it outright. But a moment later, more spirits surrounded him. Worse still, another patrolling chariot was charging toward him.

"All gathered together, huh?" Without panicking, the Tarnished knocked the enemies before him away with his dragon claw, then immediately lowered himself over the edge of the suspended slope nearby and hung there. The chariot sent every sword-wielding spirit flying before turning around and charging toward the other end.

"This is the same chariot as before, isn't it?" This spot was directly above the upper stretch he had just passed through. Clinging to the edge with one hand, the Tarnished looked down and discovered yet another traversable path below. This burial ground was enormous.

The Tarnished let go and jumped toward the nearest landing below him.

After reaching the new level, he found that the atmosphere differed from that of the two above it. There was no irritating chariot here. Instead, there were equally irritating Imps.

Two Imps lurking in the shadows spotted the Tarnished as though they had found prey. They darted out, attacking him with small but sharp weapons.

"If I went back to that burial ground now, even the Erdtree Burial Watchdog and five or six Imps wouldn't worry me." With terrifying force, the Tarnished kicked one Imp into the stone wall, embedding it deep inside.

"Let's see you pry yourself out of that." He then grabbed the other Imp and slammed it hard into the one lodged in the wall. The two collided and smashed each other to pieces.

Having dealt with the two Imps, the Tarnished was about to continue when he spotted a pillar ahead spewing flames in all four directions. Though those flames fell short of Agheel's dragon breath, they would still hurt.

"Why is this place full of little traps like these?" The Tarnished studied the flames' range and width, hoping to find a way past. To his disappointment, while they did not reach very far, they covered the entire corridor's width, leaving no room to dodge. The intervals between bursts were also extremely short.

"Then I'll dismantle you." In that case, he would force his way through. The Tarnished picked up an Imp fragment nearby. "Consider this your apology for bothering me."

The moment the flames stopped, the Tarnished hurled the fragment. The flame outlet ahead shattered instantly, followed by the sound of the mechanism catching inside. A moment later, the fire-spewing pillar stopped working and slowly sank into the floor, leaving only its top exposed before him.

"It even goes up and down. Looks like it protects itself after taking a hard enough hit."

After going around the flame pillar, the Tarnished saw a huge statue ahead. A long stone bridge led toward it, with white candles lining both sides and an endless abyss beneath it.

"There seems to be something up ahead, but I can sense danger, too." This place was far too open. Given the burial ground's treacherous layout, it could not be as simple as it looked. Sure enough, as the Tarnished surveyed his surroundings, he spotted a somewhat familiar figure on an overhead beam-or rather, two of them.

"Grafted Scions?" The creatures clung to the beam like spiders and seemed not to have noticed him yet.

"..." The Tarnished silently backed away and returned to where the Imp fragments lay.

"Help me one more time, and I'll forgive you." He crushed the Imp fragments into two iron balls with his bare hands, then returned to the stone bridge holding them. His arm muscles bulged as draconic power flowed through his hands.

"Here's a present. Consider it your reward for that aerial acrobatics show you gave me at the Chapel." With a cold laugh, the Tarnished infused the iron balls with draconic power and hurled them at the two Grafted Scions with terrifying strength.

A beastly howl followed. Before the Grafted Scions could react, the iron balls punched through their bodies, sending them plummeting into the abyss.

"Perfect." The Tarnished clapped his hands in satisfaction. After scanning his surroundings once more and confirming that there was no danger, he approached the statue.

There lay a desiccated corpse, with an item upon it radiating the Erdtree's light. The Tarnished retrieved it and smiled faintly.

"Erdtree's Favor..." These so-called favors were ornaments fashioned from the Erdtree's power and bestowed upon heroic warriors. The creator of this ornament was Queen Marika herself, whose likeness was also engraved upon it.

"Now this is a good find." He had owned one in the past, but after his exile, these gifts from Marika had been reclaimed along with everything else. Obtaining this favor again in such a manner was quite unexpected.

As its name suggested, Erdtree's Favor granted the power of the Erdtree. Its enhancements were comprehensive, making the ornament extremely precious. Only true heroes and those who had performed great deeds were worthy of receiving one.

Tucking the favor against his chest, he felt that familiar power return to his body.

"Like I've always said, the power itself is good. It's just far too arrogant." The Tarnished stood up, intending to venture deeper into the burial ground. Since this was a burial ground, ashes had to be interred here. It was not that he wanted to dig them up; he simply felt that much of this place remained unexplored, and he could still sense treasure.

"Let's keep going, then."