The guards never had time to react. Björn headbutted the man before him. Mýra, going invisible with Hel’s Mantle, slit the throat of the one in front of her. Sporus, also invisible, drove Nero’s golden dagger into another man’s heart, while Kara and Karl dismantled the remaining two.

  In less than a heartbeat, all five lay dead on the floor. The factory’s roar swallowed the sounds.

  “We’ll have to move them inside,” Sporus said, briefly flickering through the door and opening it for them.

  They dragged the bodies in and laid them out of sight from anyone who might reach the upper floor.

  “Quick,” Kara whispered, pointing to the closing floor where the bed had descended.

  Karl moved on instinct. He sprinted to the opening and fired an arrow at the last second, activating his Arrow-Will Guidance. His vision snapped to the arrow’s perspective as it shot down past Verres, who didn’t notice as he manhandled the women. Karl pulled with all his strength, forcing the arrow upward at a sharp angle. With effort, he guided it toward a stack of boxes near the mineshaft.

  They teleported instantly as the shaft sealed shut above them.

  The second floor was difficult to understand at first, as it was deeper than it was tall. It was far larger than the floor above them. Huge bronze pipes filled most of the dark underfloor, separated only by large pillars to hold up the first one. Dark ash flowed through them, visible as it passed, and workers constantly watched through small inspection windows. Whatever the ashen essence was, it moved slowly—thicker than liquid, but not quite solid.

  There were more than a hundred workers down there. All of them were children. They constantly hauled large, heavy staffs to the chutes to help feed the sludge. The pipes carrying it were scalding hot, and one child accidentally fell against one, giving his arm third-degree burns.

  “What the Hel is this place?” Mýra whispered, her eyes darting with accusation toward Verres.

  “Let’s find out,” Sporus replied, still invisible.

  Given that they hadn’t come down here to fully inspect the factory’s structure, it became clear that what Verres was doing made no sense. The massive sludge-filled pipes didn’t add up. And why they were using children for this made even less sense.

  But the smell was completely familiar.

  Karl and his friends crept along the edges of the factory, careful not to bump into anyone, freezing in place whenever an overseer passed nearby.

  But before they could get too far, Mýra suddenly collapsed, her hands flying to her head.

  “There’s something wrong with that sludge,” she whispered, grimacing in pain. “Do you guys not see all the lines?”

  Karl and Sporus exchanged confused looks.

  “What lines are you talking about?” Kara asked, kneeling with Björn to help her, though Björn looked awkward, unsure what to do.

  “They’re coming from the pipes,” Mýra said. Her eyes were bloodshot red. She shook her head and forced herself upright, though she was clearly unsteady, pulling out a strength tonic to steady her nerves.

  “Maybe we should ask one of the children,” Sporus said, motioning toward a boy asleep beside a massive press that continuously pumped heat into a pipe.

  The child was as dirty as coal, his head resting against the back of the machine as it moved up and down in an endless rhythm. Slowly, his head began slipping toward the groove where the metal slammed down as pistons and gears engaged.

  They were too far away. The boy was a moment from having his head crushed.

  An acorn rocketed off Karl’s shoulder and landed directly in the groove. It exploded, forcing the press to seize and stop.

  The blast didn’t kill the child, but it jolted him awake, screaming.

  “What are you doing?” Björn hissed as they all glanced toward Verres and the overseers. No one had noticed them.

  The Trickster leapt from Karl’s shoulder and approached the screaming boy, who stared at them in terror. Snatching Olaf’s Holy Gauntlet from Karl’s pack, the Trickster pressed it gently against the boy’s ear. A white glow poured from the Templar gauntlet. Moments later, the child stopped screaming, staring in awe at the glove, then at the squirrel.

  The Trickster bowed his head humbly, returned the gauntlet to Karl’s bag, and hopped back onto his shoulder without a word.

  “Who are you?” the boy stuttered as they knelt around him.

  “Here, eat,” Mýra said, handing him some of the homemade bread Livia had made.

  The boy devoured it ravenously, though his eyes never stopped watching them with suspicion.

  “We just want to know what’s going on here,” Sporus said gently. “Does he hurt you?”

  The boy nodded. Carefully, he lifted his head and pointed across the room to a cauldron of water where an overseer was dragging a little girl by her ankles. The girl had fallen asleep. The overseer dunked her headfirst into the freezing water, making her scream awake, then struck her across the face.

  Looking closer, Karl saw bruises all over the boy’s body.

  “I don’t know why we do what we do,” the boy said, trembling as he ate more bread. “But the ashes scream, sir.”

  “Scream?” Sporus asked, frowning.

  The boy nodded weakly.

  “They talk to us sometimes,” he continued. “But we’re not allowed to tell anyone about it, or our master will have us killed.”

  Seeing what Verres and the overseers did to the children, Karl did not disagree with the boy’s assessment.

  “He’s telling the truth,” Mýra said, running a gentle hand through the boy’s greasy hair as if he were her own. “These are no ordinary ashes.”

  Just then, the System notified them that they had completed the first part of their quest.

  Primary Objective Completed: Investigate Verres’ restricted factory floors (1/1)

  Presumably, the remaining rewards were still pending, as they had yet to complete the optional objective involving the infertility tonic. Karl still didn’t understand why the Emperor had business dealings with Verres, or why living ashes clogged the pipes beneath the city.

  But he knew one thing—Verres deserved to be emasculated.

  “Here,” Mýra said, handing over the dark potion that would do the job.

  Before they could move, a shadow fell over them from behind.

  “Hey—who are you?” the overseer barely managed to say before everyone attacked at once.

  Björn swept his battleaxe into the man’s knee, crippling him. The Trickster leapt at his face and clawed out his eyes. Karl loosed arrows into his chest while Kara drove her Sólbrandr sword straight through the man’s heart.

  It was overkill.

  The child did not scream, only staring at the collapsed overseer with indifference.

  Mýra began to move to loot the dead overseer, but with one glance from the boy, she relented. It was probably best not to gut the man in front of a kid.

  “Here,” Sporus said, pulling out a pouch of gold and a map Karl couldn’t read, written in Latin. “Leave tonight. Run to this location. Someone there will take you in. Say the phrase: A pomegranate is sweetest in winter.”

  The boy looked up at Sporus with helpless eyes, then nodded, determined to escape. Sporus smiled and ruffled his hair before they withdrew.

  Karl hadn’t technically gotten the kill, but he didn’t care. The man wasn’t good. Treating children like that was beyond reprehensible, slave or not—Karl didn’t want to imagine what the other overseers had done beyond what they had seen. The human heart was capable of evils beyond his imagination.

  However, he did gain Stamina points for remaining hidden, thanks to the mostly stealth kill.

  Stamina (+10): lvl 4 (40/50)

  Glory (+30): 3,190

  Level: 42 (310/430)

  They crouched beside a massive pillar supporting the floor above, hiding in shadow as Verres and his courtesans entered an elevated back room. It resembled the first-floor office but was more lavish, filled with stained glass windows, plush couches, barrels of wine, and fine food laid out on the table.

  Karl met Kara’s eyes as he formed a plan. Before he spoke, she read his thoughts.

  “Be quick,” she said, kissing him.

  “I will,” Karl promised, turning to Sporus. “Hold on tight.”

  Karl and Sporus activated their invisibility abilities and Elf Leaped across the factory, landing beside a sealed door. Sporus phased through it and opened it carefully.

  Karl had less than ten seconds before his Grave Silence rune faded. Sporus worked fast, dumping the infertility tonic into every barrel and flask of wine Verres owned.

  As Karl’s invisibility flickered out, Sporus grabbed his arm. Karl fired a well-placed arrow, teleporting them back beside Björn before anyone noticed. Thanks to their success in stealth, Karl increased his Stamina.

  Stamina (+10): lvl 5 (0/60)

  Stamina is now 108/108

  Glory (+60): 3,250

  Level: 42 (370/430)

  “Did it work?” Mýra asked.

  “Let’s see,” Karl said, activating Eagle Eye Shot and zooming in threefold.

  Inside the opulent room, Verres threw one of the women onto a couch, laughing as he grabbed a flask of poisoned wine and chugged it. He splashed the rest over the others, who looked distressed but forced laughter. He strode toward the woman, preparing to take advantage of her—then suddenly doubled over, clutching his stomach. He fumbled with his trousers, glanced down, and screamed.

  Quest Completed: Verres Makes an Honest Living

  “After a thorough investigation, it has been determined that Verres’s factory was not, in fact, honest. Additionally, Verres will no longer be engaging in non-consensual recreational activities. The private escort industry considers this a net gain.”

  Primary Objective:

  Investigate Verres’s Restricted Factory Floors 1/1

  Rewards:

  Item: Rome Factory Tunnels Schematics (Epic) — Classified.

  Item: Punch-Clock Heart (Epic) — Once per day, instantly reset one exhausted ability.

  Honor (+100): 3,100

  Glory (+300): 3,550

  Level (+1): 43 (240/440)

  Skill Points (+1): 3

  Optional Objective:

  Administer Mýra’s Infertility Tonic to Verres 1/1

  Bonus Reward:

  Item: Tonic of Sudden Spring (Legendary) — Instantly completes any viable pregnancy. Child is born healthy, fully developed, and infused with exceptional vitality, with a 50% chance of accelerating towards puberty at an abnormal speed.

  “I don’t think he’s going to be having much fun anytime soon,” Karl said, turning back to his friends.

  “He’s quite the dysfunctional guy,” the Trickster said, laughing.

  Mýra, Björn, and Kara laughed quietly. Even Sporus looked lighter, though his gaze lingered with concern for the other children they couldn’t help yet.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Karl said, pointing toward a mechanism near the edge of the room where bronze pipes fed into a sluice that dumped sludge into the river below. With a well-placed arrow, Karl Elf Leaped them all through the opening.

  They plunged into the cold, sludge-filled waters below.

  24

  THOSE AREN’T SEWAGE TUNNELS

  It turned out that taking a deep dive into the Tiber River—which must have had every factory’s sludge poured into it, along with all the waste from the sewage tunnels created by the Emperor—was an awful bathing experience.

  Almost immediately, something large and squishy pressed against Karl’s face as they crashed into the river and swam away from Verres’s factory. He immediately threw up in the water, which turned out to be rainbow puke thanks to his unique unicorn curse. At the sight, Kara laughed through their bond as they swam through the murky waters. But her laughter quickly stopped when something smacked into her chest, looking like a turd.

  This is so gross, she thought back to him.

  They thankfully made it to the top of the river, only to taste the rancid scent of the waters all around them. It took everything in Karl not to vomit a rainbow again.

  Everyone, save for Björn, looked disgusted.

  “I think we’re going to need another bath,” Sporus said as they briefly floated in the dark waters, watching a few steam ships chug slowly by, carrying cargo.

  “I couldn’t agree with you more,” Karl said, continuously activating his Nøkk’s Hand Soap to cleanse himself of the filth in and all around him.

  They returned to the bathhouse on the Aventine Hill after teleporting from rooftop to rooftop to avoid any criminal activity or a run-in with the guards patrolling the streets. Karl desperately wanted to look at the Rome factory tunnel schematics that had been added to his inventory, but he felt so disgusted that he doubted he would be able to focus.

  Perhaps unsurprisingly, as they wove through the lamplit streets and made it back to the bathhouse, Kara’s mind was on the Tonic of Sudden Spring, her thoughts a mixture of excited anticipation and dread.

  Karl reminded her that he would not be forcing her to drink it, only if she wanted to. She replied with memories of their love, showing him how much she appreciated that.

  Maybe hold on to those thoughts, Karl thought back to her, laughing slightly as they got undressed again. It would be embarrassing to say the least if he dwelt on those memories. He would also never hear the end of it if anything like that happened in front of the Trickster, who was already making lewd jokes and causing pranks on the bathhouse patrons.

  They spent another hour in the bathhouse, even though it was well into the night, getting cleaned off with the help of the attendees who were, for some reason, working this late. When Karl brought it up to Sporus, he gave a dark smile. “The city doesn’t sleep anymore, just like its Emperor,” he said as he leaned back against the marble wall of their hot pool, his eyes darting between Karl and some of the more sculpted gladiators walking around.

  “Is it because of all the coffee?” Mýra asked, seeing the slaves handing out steaming cups at a limitless rate.

  “That’s partly because of it,” Sporus nodded. “But having lights to illuminate the streets and the buildings at all times allows for an economy that doesn’t have to go to bed when the sun goes down; even though not everything has electricity, he’s been able to gather a lot of fuel with his new machines.”

  “You should have been here in the olden days,” the Trickster said, right as he launched a steaming hot coal from his tail that they used to put on the backs of some patrons to help them relax. Except this one splashed into one of the cold pools, causing water to spray all over a group of female gladiators who looked like they were from the Amazons. Their dark eyes immediately glared at the Trickster, who dashed underneath the water to make it look like it was Karl.

  Karl raised his hands immediately, trying to explain that it wasn’t him, but then he realized how futile that was, given he didn’t speak Amazonian—or whatever they spoke.

  “Hopefully they don’t try to kill you tomorrow,” the Trickster said, giggling as he emerged from the water.

  “I hate you,” Karl muttered, which only made the squirrel laugh harder.

  By the time they finally got back to Titus and Livia’s house—which took longer thanks to the Deep Soak Lethargy Buff—the kids were well asleep; even the slaves had gone to bed. However, Titus and Livia were unsurprisingly still up, talking to each other with cups of coffee out in their little garden. They each raised an eyebrow at Karl and his friends as they came back in, smelling squeaky clean.

  “You must have enjoyed your time there,” Titus said, chuckling as he took another sip of coffee. “Enjoy the Buff?”

  Karl wasn’t exactly sure if he was insinuating that they enjoyed their time in the water or with the women, so he cleared his throat to speak quickly. “We went on a little side quest,” he explained as they sat around the small fountain where the other seats were.

  Livia handed them individual cups of coffee along with a small tray of cookies, which they each devoured—none nearly as much as Karl and Kara, their appetites knowing no end.

  Sporus succinctly explained how they tracked Verres and discovered the large pipes that spanned underneath his factory, along with how they dealt with the man and the map of tunnels they received as a result.

  “I’ve heard similar rumors of this screaming ash,” Titus said, crossing his arms, which were larger than Karl’s face.

  “Let’s see the map,” Livia said. “Perhaps it will give us insight.”

  Karl withdrew the map from his Dwarven Bag inventory. Thankfully, it had not the slightest smell of sewage. Though he was surprised to see that the map wasn’t made of paper, but of layered, treated vellum and thin brass foil, with the sketch of the Eternal City outlined in black ink and red lacquer.

  The first layer showed something similar to Karl’s internal parchment map, but far more detailed and with names for everything. The Colosseum Tower was marked as a black-gold sigil, the largest of any structure. All the major districts were labeled in imperial shorthand, like the Forum, Subura, Palatine, and, of course, the Aventine Hill. It also showed all the aqueducts that stretched across Rome like a spiderweb.

  It was a beautiful map, all things considered.

  “Click that button right there,” Kara suggested, pointing to the small, thumb-sized button at the corner of the map. When Karl did, another layer slid into place beneath the first.

  Everyone’s breath caught.

  What emerged was a web of tunnels far denser than Karl would have imagined. There was a plethora of black tunnels that appeared just about everywhere in the city. But perhaps the most striking were the golden tunnels, which were mostly near the Colosseum and all feeding into the arena, with one of them stretching toward Verres’s factory.