Chapter 123 – The Deal of the Black Worm.

Night at the Lower Cauldrons Estate passed in the silence of the dining table.

Diana sat with a steaming cup of tea before her, examining the pouch of twenty silver coins she had received for taking second place in the tournament.

The Commander had not wasted five minutes lamenting her loss to Kaelis. The woman in the straw hat was faster, more precise, and controlled space with a mastery Diana had yet to attain. Brooding over second place was a pointless waste of mental energy.

The real issue was different: the First Place Official Border Pass had walked away with the gray duelist.

Waiting for another tournament next month meant staying idle for thirty days hunting beasts in the valley. Waiting to reach Level 50 via the legal customs route meant weeks of bureaucracy and inspections by Beelzebub's Inquisitors that could expose her Sin inheritance.

And in the meantime, Rhea, Kael, Aurelia-Elysia, and Seraphina were in the Second Circle, holding down the Bastion and waiting for their leader's return.

Diana set her cup on the polished wood and looked at Zarek and Boran, who were seated on the other side of the table.

“I will not wait for another tournament,” Diana said, her voice clear and direct. “I need a clandestine route to climb back up to the Second Circle this week.”

Boran scratched his gray beard, his good amber eye regarding the Commander with gravity:

“The natural fissure route you fell through collapsed completely, Diana. No one climbs up that way without being buried under two thousand tons of rotten rock.”

“What about heavy smuggling?” Diana countered. “Merchants haul uninspected weapons and rare meats from the Second Circle down here all the time without passing through customs posts. Someone runs that vertical transport.”

Zarek let out a low chuckle, crossing his chitinous arms over his chest:

“There is a route the harbor hunters use when they want to dodge the inquisitors' taxes. It's at the Black Worm Docks, deep in the sewer canals of the south sector.”

***

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The Black Worm Docks

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The descent to the subterranean docks took place around midnight, down a damp stone staircase carved into the rock of the waste channels.

The place smelled of wet earth, machine grease, and fish-oil smoke.

In the center of a cavern flooded with dark sludge rested three gigantic creatures: Abyssal Cargo Worms, colossal annelids thirty meters in length with segmented carapaces of brown chitin, capable of boring vertical tunnels through solid rock using rotating jaws of natural diamond.

Upon the back of the largest worm was an enclosed cabin of oak timber reinforced with iron plating and magnetic latches.

Sitting on an ale barrel at the edge of the wooden pier, puffing on a thick clay pipe, was the master of the route: Master Gurn, a squat, brown-skinned demon with round eyes who had operated illicit transit between the Circles for forty years.

Gurn looked up when he saw Diana, Zarek, and Boran approaching along the wooden gangway.

The man vented a cloud of dark smoke, appraising Diana's two obsidian horns, the amethyst circlet, and Zarek's Level 60 presence beside her.

“Clandestine passenger transport going up?” Gurn asked in a heavy, raspy voice. “The ascent through the worm's bore takes twenty-four hours through the mountain's shale veins. It exits directly into the old sewers of the Ivory Citadel's south sector, well clear of Legion patrols and customs.”

“What is the price?” Diana asked, keeping her hands in the pockets of her leather coat.

Gurn pulled the pipe from his mouth and knocked the ash against the barrel.

“Thirty pure silver coins for the ascent with a sealed cabin and route secrecy.”

Thirty silver coins was the equivalent of three full gold coins. An exorbitant fee for any ordinary mercenary.

But for Diana, who had over fifty gold coins accumulated in her vault and required absolute speed to reunite with her crew, the cost was a secondary concern.

She reached into her dimensional bag and drew out thirty silver coins, stacking the clean metal on the lid of the ale barrel.

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[CLANDESTINE TRANSPORT PAYMENT]

- Vertical Passage on Cargo Worm (Ascent to Circle 2): -30 Silver Coins (3,000 Bronze).

[NEW NET WORTH IN VAULT: 483 SILVER COINS AND 50 BRONZE (48.35 PURE GOLD COINS!)]

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Four hundred and eighty-three silver coins held securely in the faction vault. More than Forty-Eight pure Gold Coins.

Gurn swept up the silver with a wide grin of worn teeth, nodding in immediate respect of upfront payment.

“The compartment is ready, girl.” Gurn pointed toward the reinforced timber cabin on the worm's back. “We depart in ten minutes.”

***

Diana turned to Zarek and Boran on the wooden pier.

Zarek leaned against a mooring post, his primary hands crossed and his lunar swords across his back:

“I will stay down here looking after your estate and hunting the Level 50 rifts, Diana,” Zarek said with an easy smile. “I'm in no rush to visit the Second Circle. When you descend back down with your wolf girl and shield boy, your manor will be intact.”

Diana looked at the Level 60 swordsman.

She recognized the undeniable utility of this man. Zarek had aided her progression up to Level 41, taught her valuable combat corrections, and held the frontline in the rifts against heavy monsters.

“You have the house key, Zarek,” Diana said in a firm tone. “Do not break any new furniture and do not bring drunken mercenaries into the courtyard.”

Zarek let out a hearty laugh on the dark pier. “Done deal, Commander.”

Diana bid farewell to Boran with a respectful nod and climbed the pier's rope ladder into the oak cabin atop the colossal worm's back.

She entered the sealed compartment, pulled the reinforced iron door shut, and latched the internal deadbolts.

The thirty-meter subterranean monster emitted a low hum that set the cabin's timber vibrating. The creature's rotating diamond jaws began chewing through the rock at the bottom of the mud channel, boring a continuous vertical ascent through the guts of the mountain toward the Second Circle.

Diana sat on the cabin's padded bench, adjusting the Crown of Sovereignty on her brow, feeling the steady stability of her 201 Intelligence points.

The descent had been an accidental plunge into the dark.

But the return ascent was the march of a leader returning to claim her army.