Time moved quickly.
By the third week after the Catacombs of Carthus opened, the most advanced exploration teams had pushed through to the lower level, while the average adventurer was somewhere in the first half of the middle. Major expedition groups had all published their own strategy guides, which dedicated enthusiasts had collected and consolidated into comprehensive guidebooks now carried by virtually every adventurer in the region.
[Shortest Route to the Secret Rite of Kindling and Pinwheel Strategy Guide (Includes Best Humanity Drop Monster Compendium)]
[Background Investigation of the Catacombs of Carthus — The Overlord's Ambition and Legend]
[List of Small Titanite Mining Locations and Possible Large Titanite Spawn Points]
These three guides had become the most sought-after documents among adventurers, each drawing a different audience.
The Secret Rite of Kindling appealed to everyone, but especially to those whose work demanded heavy mental output. Nobody could resist what it offered — the feeling of being completely hollowed out by endless exertion, and then receiving a Kindling and having clarity flood back in an instant. The sensation was more addictive than the highest-grade Blood Healing Potion.
The Carthus lore drew story enthusiasts and those already invested in the Undead Legion's history. The character of Overlord Wolnir had a certain pull as an ambitious conqueror-king, but the atrocities committed by Carthus — pieced together through fragmented records scattered throughout the dungeon — made it genuinely difficult for most people to admire him.
The titanite locations attracted the more practically minded adventurers. The reason was simple: titanite currently sold for considerably more than Blood Ore, and many people who had been farming the latter in Farron Keep had quietly redirected their efforts. Everyone, after all, appreciated Blacksmith Andre's craftsmanship.
With rewards like these on the table, the Catacombs' difficulty became far less discouraging. The area was heavily populated with undead creatures, but as long as one brought Holy Light and appropriate countermeasures, the early stages of exploration were manageable. In truth, for anyone not fixated on a full clear, Sein remained an extraordinary treasure trove — the first half of every area offered generous rewards, while the latter half reserved only its rarest finds for the truly committed.
Anyone aiming for a complete clear, however, had better come prepared for suffering.
Luluwo, Leon, and the stronger expedition teams from throughout the Royal Capital were all fighting at the front line. Interestingly, the adventurer population in the capital was smaller than most had expected — many of the veterans living there were semi-retired or fully retired, having built their reputations and fortunes and settled comfortably into enjoying them. Which made sense: before the dungeon's appearance, the capital had no monsters and few threats that city guards couldn't handle. Adventurers had simply never been needed there.
As a result, Leon's team's strength was genuinely sufficient to hold a position among the leading groups.
Not a single legendary Gold-Rank adventurer had appeared.
While adventurers threw themselves into dungeon exploration, a major event unfolded in the Royal Capital.
King Anz III had recovered a lost descendant of the royal bloodline.
A genuine cause for celebration. The throne finally had an heir.
Princess Serina made her grand public debut.
She was beautiful — composed, dignified, carrying herself with an elegance that seemed entirely natural rather than practiced. Standing before nearly the entire population of the capital, she showed not a trace of nerves, as though occasions like this were something she had long been accustomed to.
Her public meeting with the citizens was an overwhelming success. Her graceful confidence deepened the people's faith in the royal family at a time when it was needed. The prominent Commander of the Light Eagle Corps, Eliphis, and Minister Oro stood at her sides — a visible, deliberate display of their support.
With those two pillars of the kingdom behind her, the nation's future looked brighter than it had in years.
King Anz III himself had even regained consciousness for the occasion. His final appearance before the people seemed to signal that things were improving across the board.
Everyone was happy.
Except for certain people.
For instance, the captains of the Light Eagle Corps.
More specifically —
Sali.
At that very moment, he was leading Elsa and a detachment of mercenaries through the Catacombs of Carthus.
The journey had been smooth so far — no bugged monsters like the Maneater they had encountered previously, and Elsa had successfully guided them to the lower level. Despite all of this, Sali was trembling.
"Just knowing this is Sein Dungeon makes me want to pass out."
"Take it easy, Vice-Captain. What if you faint and wake up surrounded by monsters? That'd be even worse," a mercenary offered helpfully.
"Shut up."
The mercenary grinned and looked ahead.
Elsa was carving through hordes of undead with the focused efficiency of someone clearing weeds, several Holy Light mages providing support at her flanks.
"I love going on missions with Captain Gut. Never have to think about combat."
That was accurate. When Elsa was present, combat stopped being a concern — she handled it herself, and if a situation ever arose that she genuinely couldn't manage, worrying wouldn't help the mercenaries anyway. The Vanguard Squad were straightforward people, simpler in the best sense of the word. They were loyal to a fault, easy to work alongside, and operated on clear principles: beat them in a fight, and they would happily call you the boss.
Sali was usually most at ease around Elsa and the Vanguard Squad.
Today, his brow stayed furrowed regardless.
The reason he was inside Sein Dungeon at all was simple.
Commander Eliphis had returned, heard the full story of what had transpired during his absence, and delivered a merciless reckoning. Sali and the other captains could no longer reconstruct exactly what was said that day — only that after hearing about Aston's actions, Eliphis had not punished him. He had actually rewarded him. Sali and the captains who had done absolutely nothing, meanwhile, were the ones who suffered.
When Eliphis was angry, he never raised his voice.
He never cursed.
Somehow that made his disappointment worse — it pressed down on everyone in the room like something physical. Terrifying in a way that mere shouting never was.
Sali had desperately wanted to argue that he had been wronged — not from indifference, but because Aston had refused all assistance from a position of misplaced confidence — but it was already far too late for that.
So here he was. Rolled promptly into the dungeon, pushing with the leading teams in hopes of showing enough progress to satisfy his commander.
Fortunately, Eliphis had mentioned that once the royal family's affairs were settled, he intended to visit the dungeon personally.
Thinking about exploration progress made Sali's expression shift in a complicated way, as a particular conversation resurfaced in his memory.
"So you're telling me that some cavalry mercenaries convinced you to enter the dungeon for rewards, you got cursed and abandoned by them, crossed the Dark Zone with Tami, shared some kind of adventure in the Painted World, and he gave you a ring?"
Back in the present, Sali watched Elsa swing her greatsword through another cluster of enemies without slowing down.
The Pontiff's Right Eye on her finger caught the firelight.
His feelings about all of this were, to put it generously, complicated.
The good news: after that adventure, Elsa had become the person with the highest exploration progress in the entire Light Eagle Corps.
The bad news: she hadn't mentioned any of it until the day the competition ended.
By then, it was far too late.
If Sali ever learned that Tami had only discovered the second route because Elsa had mentioned it to him in passing — casually, the way one might note the weather — he would probably lose three liters of blood on the spot and demand to know why she was handing intelligence to outsiders.
Fortunately, he didn't know.
Elsa's memory was extraordinary. Having traveled through the area once, she had retained the entire route. Under her guidance, the group crossed the Dark Zone without difficulty, brought down the Knight, and continued pushing deeper.
"Hm?"
After the Knight fell, a purple loot glow appeared.
They picked it up.
A straight sword radiating intense cold air.
[Irithyll Straight Sword]
Weapon Art: Stance
A straight sword granted to the Outrider Knights of the Boreal Valley, imbued with deep frost.
All Outrider Knights eventually become beasts, while Pontiff Sulyvahn's black eye keeps their battle lust perpetually elevated.
"The Boreal Valley. Pontiff Sulyvahn."
Sali narrowed his eyes. The names tugged at something.
Then it clicked.
The ring on Elsa's finger.
[Pontiff's Right Eye]
A magical ring bestowed by Sulyvahn upon his knights. Continuous attacks increase attack power.
Those who gaze into its black eye become consumed by fighting spirit and a craving for battle to the death. Eventually, knights are reduced to something beastlike. Therefore, the Pontiff grants it only to knights dispatched on campaigns.
Since first encountering the Outrider Knight, Sali had felt it was fundamentally out of place among the other monsters in the Catacombs. Reading this description made it obvious.
The Knight belonged to a completely different faction.
So where exactly was the Boreal Valley?
Who was Pontiff Sulyvahn?
And what had brought his knights here?
A new thread, and nowhere to pull it yet.
He handed the sword to a subordinate for safekeeping and exhaled.
"Even the item placements in Sein Dungeon carry meaning. Everything builds in layers, each clue connecting to the next."
It was a somewhat strange observation coming from someone who regarded Sein with feelings that bordered on a personal grudge.
But Sali wasn't the type to criticize blindly out of spite. Only small-minded people did that.
"Careful. Something dangerous is close."
The moment they entered the deeper section of the lower level, Elsa issued the warning without elaborating.
Anything capable of making Elsa cautious was not an ordinary threat.
Every expression in the group tightened immediately.
Beyond the chamber the Knight had guarded lay a long, dark tunnel. Howling wind and the smell of death wrapped around all of them as they moved through it.
Then they emerged on the other side.
Ghostly spirit flames cast pale light across what lay before them.
"Ah!"
Someone dropped to the ground, face drained of color.
"T-These are all—"
Sali's expression hardened. He stepped forward and was immediately stopped by Elsa's arm.
"Don't get close. They might not be dead yet."
"Not dead yet…?"
He took a sharp breath.
They were standing on a cliff. Narrow paths without railings extended in both directions along its face — one misstep would be fatal. But that wasn't what had stopped him.
Below them, stretching as far as the firelight reached in every direction —
Rows upon rows. Thousands upon thousands.
Carthus Warriors.
Arranged in military formation. Standing in perfect alignment beneath the cliff face, their bodies long reduced to skeletons, their equipment rusted past recognition.
And yet — murderous intent still clung to the bones. Looking out across that vast formation, it felt as though they were silently awaiting the order to march.
The silence was absolute.
They appeared dead. Long dead.
And yet every person standing on that cliff felt it — the bone-deep certainty that if these warriors detected the presence of the living, they would awaken without hesitation and begin slaughtering.
It wasn't an illusion.
This was Sein Dungeon. Anything was possible here. For all they knew, this place was entirely capable of forcing them into battle against an army of thousands of Carthus soldiers.
"So this is the Overlord's army…"
Sali had seen them in their prime through the Painted World known as Carthus Warrior — surging across battlefields, unstoppable and merciless.
But here —
Facing these skeletal soldiers that still stood vigil after death, still held their formations, still carried that suffocating murderous weight —
This was something else entirely.
The Painted World, however realistic, still had a quality of unreality to it.
This was actual Carthus.
The iron tide that had once trampled countless nations, frozen in place but not truly gone.
Perhaps nowhere else in existence offered a more direct understanding of why Wolnir's title was Overlord.
Sali forced himself to look away. If he kept staring, even his composure might start to erode.
"Move. Keep moving forward. Don't look down."
The group pressed themselves flat against the cliff wall and edged along the narrow path. Eventually, solid ground came into view below. Someone jumped first — the drop was significant, and climbing back up wouldn't be easy once they were down.
"Bones! Everywhere!"
The ground was carpeted in scattered skeletons. How many was impossible to estimate. If every one of them were restored as skeletal warriors, they could drown an entire village in minutes.
An unwelcome thought surfaced in Sali's mind.
These things couldn't actually come back to life… could they?
He looked ahead.
Not far away stood a suspension bridge — wider than any they had encountered before. And beyond it, a gigantic cavern.
The moment Sali laid eyes on it, something cold moved through him.
The entrance was consumed by darkness. Not ordinary darkness. Not shadows, not the absence of light.
The Abyss.
Pure. Concentrated. Undiluted.
Nowhere else in the Catacombs of Carthus had contained even a trace of it.
Only here.
Which meant —
"Overlord Wolnir was tainted by the Abyss… attempting to become the final dead one…"
He muttered it to himself.
Then his eyes went wide.
He grabbed Elsa's arm and spun to face the group.
"Retreat — right now! Mages, where are you? Build stairways into the cliff face and get us back up immediately!"
Nobody understood at first why Sali had suddenly snapped into a panic.
A second later, they were more frightened than he was.
Clack… clack…
The sea of bones blanketing the ground began to stir.
Spirits shrieked through the air.
Purple mist drifted in slow curls across the chamber floor.
And beneath that ocean of remains —
The Carthus Warriors standing silent as terracotta soldiers —
Moved.
"There are stronger enemies in here too?!"