Nine days went by in a flash.
During this time, Marcus' and Novak's parties continued to search the sewers and eliminate any undead monsters they came across.
However, their team composition changed slightly from the first day. As a precaution, at least one member from Marcus' party always accompanied Endless Horizons.
This was a bit of a hit to their dignity as adventures, but Novak, Clay, Emerie, Jovie, and Landyn understood that they simply weren't strong enough to beat some of the more powerful monsters lurking in the sewers. As much as they wanted to prove themselves, they knew this would only cause problems.
"Looks like there is some sort of compound ahead."
With her hand on the ground Lilia had used a combination of her earth magic and force magic to scout out what was farther ahead.
Except instead of the usual tunnels and rooms, she found a large, fortified area around two kilometers away.
"You're sure about that?" Marcus asked.
He had been rotating with different teams and was today with Lilia and her beast companions.
"Yeah, no doubt about. Plus, the place has been enchanted to make it more difficult to find and peer into. From here my magic can only just pick up the faint outline of the place. There is just no way that this used to be a part of the original sewer. If I had to guess, I'd say that the one controlling all the undead we've been fighting down here is in there."
Nodding his head, Marcus agreed with Lilia's conclusion.
He then pulled out several sending stones and contacted the rest of his party members.
"We've located the monsters' base of the operations down here in the sewers. Come to our location and so that we can raid the place."
Marcus received affirmative responses from everyone, and they halted their own searches to converge on his location.
At first a great many powerful undead came out to meet them, but eventually their forces were annihilated.
Whenever one of their magically crafted monsters was defeated, they would simply create another one and send it along.
Through this method they crushed the opposing forces without having to directly get involved.
"That's some solid defense. Even my Gloom Titian can't break through."
Once all of the undead outside of the compound were destroyed, Marcus, Mrazivý, Lilia, Roxene, and Alaric ordered their monster to break into the large structure that was almost certainly the base of whatever was controlling the undead lurking down here.
However, its magical protections were incredibly powerful and would not buckle easily.
"Looks like we're up finally. How about we go and greet our 'gracious host' and tell them how much we've enjoyed their hospitality." Lilia said, her aura exuding malice.
While nothing had so far been much of a threat to them, the horrid smelling environment and ghastly looking undead monster that they had been constantly fighting was grating on all of their nerves. The was no doubt that each and every one of them wanted to get back at the one that had been making their lives a living nightmare.
When their party did reach the entrance to the fortified structure, it was glowing with a powerful barrier that was repelling the attacks from their magically created creatures.
"Let's see what we're working with."
Using his expertise in creating magical items and his high-level glyph tuning skill, Marcus examined the magical protections covering their foe's base.
"Nope, I can't disable this." He concluded.
The protections around the underground fortress were complex and brimming with mana. Marcus would need to create some specialized tools and have several months to analyze the defenses around this place to begin taking it apart.
Of course, that was only if he wanted to do it by disabling the magic formations. Another means was to simply overwhelm it with brute force.
Following Marcus' suggestion, everyone took up positions around the structure and began bombarding it with attacks. There was a limit to how much punishment it could take, and eventually they would break through.