133 Restaurants and Caverns (1/2)
As Li and Azhar made their way into the restaurant, Li nodded in appreciation at how vastly more upscale it was than a tavern. He had only ever been inside the Golden Flagon which was considered a well furnished tavern for adventurers, but this oozed a sense of wealth and class that made it clear that sword and staff slinging fighters that dirtied themselves with blood and sweat did not belong.
The floors were comprised entirely of polished, decorated marble and scented cedar wood. A lush and exotic carpet lined with long, iridescent furs from a Killermeleon furled out into a path that led up to a receiving counter where, presumably, an attendant would ascertain reservations and likely take coats or bags to a sealed wardrobe nearby.
Passing the counter, Li could see an interior filled with round tables draped over with white cloth clean as fresh snow. Cushioned chairs lined these tables, and there was not a single speck of dust or dirt in any crevice of either furniture or floor. The walls were decorated with vibrant paintings of natural landscapes, and these paintings were flanked by long windows that would have let in plenty of sunny light during the day.
”You mentioned you ate in places like this before?” said Li as he kept forwards, smelling a fragrance of wildflowers floating through the air. ”No offense, but it doesn't seem like your kind of thing.”
”Well, I was curious bout' the whole restaurant thing,” said Azhar, his eyes closed as he followed behind Li. ”Knew it was for rich snobs, but when I ate the food, damn it was good. And I like good food. But yer right, Lakeside Bounty's a little above my paygrade.”
Li raised a brow. As he moved, he could hear pops and crackles. Faint lights burst across the walls and on the floor as automated defensive runes and spying spells broke apart. By now, he had likely stepped over and disabled several explosive runes, paralysis cages, cursed wards, and other trivial little things.
”You��re a silver ranked adventurer, aren't you? Don't you get paid enough?”
Azhar laughed. ”Us adventurers might make good money compared to regular folk, but at the end of the day, unless we're golds and famous, we ain't rollin' in coin. This here ain't a place for regular folk – it's for the elite. The noblest of the fattest of nobles. That whole deal.”
”Interesting. Maybe this place can give me the goods I need to feed Tia.” Li paused. ”But onto business at hand. I can sense lives underneath us. A decent bit underneath us. The only issue is I don't have tracking spells I can use without a target, so I'm not entirely sure where the path is to get to this underground compartment, and I don't want to make too big a scene and blow a crater into the floor.”
Li's arsenal of spells were limited to the specialties of his class and subclasses, and since he had completely optimized himself as a battle mage, he had long since cut out any general tracking spells that were only useful in PvE, and even then, with online guides, there was no real use for anyone to use spells that revealed locations either.
Not to mention the fact that Elden World was rather strict about what classes could do. If he was a battle mage, then he was a battle mage – he had limited capacity as a scouter or supporter in the same way that he did not have access to good stealth spells.
Which was another reason why Li had brought Azhar specifically.
”I can help you with that,” said Azhar. ”With yer spell knockin' out any interference, I can use my trackin' spells no issue.”
”Good. I'm counting on you,” said Li as he stepped back to let Azhar focus without chipping away at his sanity.
Azhar knelt to the ground and put his palm onto the cold marble.
”[Tracking],” he said, invoking the ranger class spell. As he did so, his eyes lit up, likely seeing a thread of energy visible only to him that led to what he wanted to find.
”See it?” said Li.
”Yeah, just follow me.” Azhar kept his eyes on the ground as he headed forwards, his posture wary as he thumbed at the dagger at his side.
”You really don't have to be worrying,” said Li as he eyed Azhar's caution.
”I know. Ain't raggin' on your abilities, but can't be countin' on you all the time, right? Wanna' keep my senses sharp.”
Eventually, the two made their way past the dining room and back into the kitchen. It was extremely spacious, almost as large as the dining room itself, and likely could have packed a whole team of dedicated cooks in there. The surfaces were wooden, but they were polished and clean, devoid of any rot indicative of exposure to moisture and foodstuffs.
Kitchen utensils of all kinds of shapes and sizes and uses hung from racks placed strategically around for ease of reach and use, marking out stations for cutting, skinning, trimming, and so on. At the back of the kitchen, there was a massive, ironclad vault sealed with runes and locks.
As Li approached, the runes broke apart, leaking out the smell of food within. Food storage, it seemed. Hopefully, they could hire a runesmith early tomorrow to fix the runes again to keep the food preserved.
Azhar led Li away from the storage and into a small room filled with cleaning supplies. Buckets, mops, and the like.
”Strange. My eyes are tellin' me it's here, but this is just a dead end,” said Azhar as he pointed forwards, at the solid and stout wooden wall opposite to them.
”I see.” Li tapped Azhar's back. ”You've done well, and you're right. This is the correct way. Here, I can sense this is magic.”
Li stepped in front of Azhar, and the ranger looked away as the wreaths of darkness curling around Li flitted past him. Li reached his hand to the wall and pushed it through. It sank into the wall as if it were made of water.
”It's a portal, which is rather interesting. That's C ranked magic, at least. In any case, just follow my lead again.” Li made sure Azhar had readied himself before stepping through the wall.
In the next instant, Li found himself in the midst of a cavern so undecidedly unlike the pristinely clean environment of the restaurant that he had to blink to reorient himself. An underground cavern sprawled out around him. Stalactitites from above hung low, occasionally dripping some beady moisture.
The area was well lit with lanterns, and Li could see that he was on an elevated platform of rock overlooking a wide and flat space filled with the living presences he had sensed from before.
”The hells is this?” said Azhar as he materialized behind Li.
”The slave holding spot, I assume,” said Li. He narrowed his eyes as he got a focused look around. There were likely around two dozen beastwomen lying on two long formations of beds of straw. Around them buzzed humans that tended to them.