"Sorry, but I'm kind of in a hurry—" Greg was about to say something when he saw someone else he knew in the crowd.

It was Elwen, and she moved through the nobles with surprising grace, with Hammy perched on her head and chirping softly. Her face changed from worried to relieved when she saw Greg.

"Master Greg! Elwen said, "Thank goodness," as she reached them, slightly out of breath.

"I was worried when you left without telling anyone but Marina."

"Lylia mentioned that she was going to the palace to see Lady Rosalina, which made me think you might end up here, so I decided to follow her, and it turns out I was right."

Greg gently put a hand on Elwen's shoulder and said, "Deep breaths, Elwen." Hammy bounced once on her head and chirped in agreement.

"And you should not have come here because I have something important to do." Greg sighed.

"Always without me, huh... I'm jealous." Elwen pouted.

"Is that a slime?" Lady Rosalina raised an eyebrow and asked. "With a hammer in it?"

"That's Hammy," Greg said. "He's on our team."

"Interesting, I once heard a blacksmith had a slime friend who became his adventuring partner," Lady Rosalina said softly.

Hilda had been looking around at the people in the crowd the whole time, and her eyes never stopped. "Bingo...! I bet she must be hiding there!"

She suddenly grabbed Greg's arm and pointed to a door across the hall. "Come on, Greg! Enough chit-chat! The door is open, and I just saw expensive fabric moving through it. It has to be her!"

Greg looked where she was pointing and understood what she meant. He could see the edge of what looked like a dark cloak slipping through a door that had just been closed.

Greg said, "We need to follow her right away."

"Who do you want to follow?" Lylia asked, and her warrior instincts kicked in right away. "What's going on, Greg?"

"Someone tricked us and stole a dangerous ore," Greg said quickly. "We have to catch her before she gets away."

"Then I'm going with you," Lylia said firmly. Her voice made it clear that there was no room for argument.

Elwen said, "Me too. You're not going into danger without help."

Greg glanced at Lady Rosalina, his expression apologetic. "Lady Rosalina, I don't have time to explain everything," he said. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I'll meet with the King later!"

"Go," Lady Rosalina urged, gesturing for them to leave. "If something dangerous has been taken, that must be your priority. Lylia, make sure to protect him. And Greg Greyson, we will discuss this further later."

Greg said, "Thank you," and Hilda led the way to the door.

They pushed through the crowd and got to the door that was only partially open. Hilda pulled it open all the way, and a stone staircase led down into the dark.

Elwen said, "Well, that's not scary at all," but she followed Hilda down the stairs without thinking.

Greg called forth his Guardian's Oath shield, which gave them light as they went down. Only the sound of their footsteps on stone broke the eerie silence, as the sounds of the party above swiftly faded away.

The stairs went down a lot further than Greg thought they would, at least three or four stories' worth. The air got cooler and wetter, and it smelled like chemicals and something else he couldn't put his finger on.

At last, the stairs led to another door, this one made of heavy iron and slightly open. Hilda carefully pushed it open, and they all walked into the next room.

Greg's shield light showed him a place that made his blood run cold. They were in a place that looked like a lab, but not one that was used for real research.

The room was big, at least fifty feet wide, and the walls were made of stone and had complicated magical writing on them. There were workbenches along the walls with tools Greg knew, like forges, crucibles, enchanting tools, and crystallization chambers.

But what was on the table in the middle caught his eye. The Voidsilver ore was still there, glowing with its strange light.

There were several other materials arranged around it, and each one gave off magical energy. Greg knew what Chaosweave Alloy was because it was the same thing he had accidentally made in Ferndale. There were other ores there too, ones he'd never seen before but that his blacksmith instincts told him were very dangerous.

"This is a weapon forge," Lylia said softly, her voice full of barely controlled rage. "One that's against the law..."

"Check out the runes on the walls! Those are binding circles that are supposed to keep dangerous magical energies under control while you work.

"Someone has been gathering rare materials," Hilda said as she moved closer to look at the table. "And not for peaceful reasons."

"Well, well, well... I didn't know rats can be so stupid as to come to their own traps."

Greg and the others looked around trying to locate the source of the creepy voice. "Show yourself, asshole!"

"Welcome to my workshop," a voice said from the dark, and Agatha stepped into the light of Greg's shield. But she wasn't by herself.

Several people came out of the shadows around the room's edge. They were all wearing dark robes and moved like trained fighters. Greg saw at least six, and maybe even more that were still hidden in the shadows.

"You should have just let me go. Go on with your pitiful life before the countdown to the truth begins," Agatha said, her mocking tone from earlier replaced by cold calculation. "I gave you a chance to leave."

"But now... you fucking ruined it! And with that... I can't let you go now that you've seen too much."

Hammy nervously chirped from Elwen's head, and Greg could feel his family getting closer together, getting ready to defend themselves. Lylia's hand had already gone to where her weapon would normally be, even though she was wearing a formal dress and had no weapons.

Elwen's fingers moved through the air, making patterns as she prepared spells. Hilda held on to her pickaxe tightly.

"What is this place?" Greg yelled, his mind racing to figure out what was going on. "What are you really doing here?"

Greg had never seen Agatha smile like that before. "Something you would love to see even though what I did is wrong, Greg Greyson."

"Something that will tell the world that their weapons are going to be a useless piece of shit. And you are probably going to be the hope for the upcoming chaos..."

"Take them out of here..." She said until the robed figures started to move forward, and Greg realized they were stuck in an underground lab with no easy way out.

They were surrounded by people who clearly didn't mind violence, and they were facing a woman who had been planning something much worse than a simple theft. The real question was how they were going to survive this.

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