"What!? It has to be a trap of some sort!" Sam said.
They were inside his office. Only the seven heads of the sanctuary. He had placed Neo in a specially made soundproof prison made of Blazur alloy. It was situated in the storage room on his floor. The wolf beastmen didn’t have any power to resist him, so he was imprisoned and was waiting as Damian told all the heads everything that had happened.
The signed mana contract he showed them had the condition of revealing the name of whoever was ordering Neo to do this, but Damian did not mention the thin mana threads.
Whatever this mysterious being was, Damian was not sure if he could hear spoken words or not. For now, keeping such important info to himself was a decision he had made.
"The mana contract is signed. It specifically states, revealing the name of a dungeon that Anthony is in." Damian stated.
"Is this the person you two keep trying to connect with through waygates?" Lucian asked.
Damian and Sam nodded.
"It’s his uncle. We three were together when I was in Faerunia, before reaching Eldoris, we separated." Damian explained.
"It’s Sam’s family. Why are we even discussing this?" Evrin asked.
"We are not discussing. I have decided to do this already; I am just informing you. Also, we need to go to this dungeon as soon as possible and check for real. We also need to give an explanation to our guests and all of Sanctuary who saw me take the guy somewhere through a waygate." Damian replied.
"I can go to the tower and address the public." Einar chose her duty.
"I will handle the VIP guests." Damian said, then, looking at Sam, added, "Do you want me to come with you to this dungeon?"
"No, I will go," Sam murmured, his face still full of conflicted emotions.
"I will give him company," Lucian offered, assessing the possibility of a trap. The rıghtful source is 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⚫𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖⚫𝕟𝕖𝕥
"So will I," Souldealer also offered to go along.
With three of them together, Damian was not worried about them.
"Lord Keeper, the contract doesn’t state we have to make it easier for the Shadow Reaver, right? Perhaps, if we inform the demon queen about this potential infiltration, it would make whatever aim these beastmen have hard to achieve?" Torvin suggested.
That was a good idea. But Damian knew the demon queen did not have enough resources to capture Neo, with all the dungeon diving and internal politics she was dealing with.
"It is a good idea, though it would place more burden on her shoulders," Damian admitted.
"If I were in her place, I would like to know," Einar said.
Damian exchanged glances with her, then looked at everyone’s faces one by one to quickly get a vote. All nodded except Sam, who was still too lost in his thoughts.
"I will inform her later," Damian accepted.
"What dungeon is this?" Souldealer asked.
"The Pasture of Silent Hooves." Damian replied, "What do we know about it?"
"The horse dungeon of house Verdant." Souldealer said, "It’s a level 50 dungeon full of meadows. Main monsters are many types of horse-like creatures. Skeletal horses, mud horses that attack from underground, red war horses that are really tough opponents with their eternal blue flames. etc."
"Where is it?" Sam asked, finally coming to some conclusion.
"A city called Greenclouds, in the middle of the old Ashenvale region. Now in control of the Eldoris. It’s one of those cities that has strong underworld activities and a lack of effective civil order." Evrin replied this time.
"How fast can we go there?" Sam asked, looking towards Damian.
"Using our eastern border waygate, you could just fly there. Go directly to the castle, and enter any way possible. We don’t have time for permissions." Damian instructed.
All six heads nodded, even Evrin. Her mother and Vidalia would indeed be willing to give permission if it were just one specific dungeon, but right now, no one was in a negotiating mood. Apologizing would be much easier than asking for permission anyway, at least in this case.
With that, the small meeting came to an end, and they separated. Sam, Lucian, and Souldealer used the waygate points installed in the sanctum to reach the border, and from there they would travel on their own. Both Souldealer and Sam could fly, so it wasn’t an issue for them.
Einar went to the top floor of the Sanctum, where the tower was located, and explained the situation to the common people of Sanctuary. The reason they gave for the winner of the tournament to suddenly go missing was given with as much truth as possible.
Neo was disqualified because he was a criminal disguised as someone else. The real identity of the criminal was not revealed. So the first prize would go to Ryoden, second to Valery, and for third place, a rematch would happen between the spellsword named Aozark and the pugilist Basha.
The match was scheduled for the next day, though.
Damian had already retrieved the waygate mold tool he had given to Neo. The guy acted as if he had won righteously until Damian showed him the rule list again, which clearly stated that criminals would be disqualified.
And in the end, Damian went to the hall on the sixth floor, where all the people who had come for a chat after the sudden interruption in the event were sent. The simple guests were all told to wait for Einar to explain the details in the receiver. But the VIP guests who had come to offer assistance or were just making inquiries for their own safety were the ones sent to the hall.
Damian entered the hall and gave the same explanation as Einar, just adding things like the criminal had associations with a shadow organization and there was a small assassination attempt on Evrin, etc. The incident was noticed by many attendants and guards; it wasn’t going to stay secret.
Still, Damian did not disclose the information as to what the names of the intruders were. That was an internal Sanctum matter.