It was a delicate herb, with its purple petals shimmering under the golden radiance and its leaves seemingly dancing in the air devoid of any wind.

Renesme fervently stared at the purple flower as she began, “Remember when I said that some special circumstances must have transpired for the rat king to appear within these catacombs.” She said. “This might just be the reason.”

Clearly impatient, Rexsi asked. “But what is it? And is it valuable?”

Renesme scoffed. “It's a rare peak Tier 2 Herb, called the Midnight Flower so of course it’s treasured. They are notoriously hard to find as they only grow in places where the sun was never meant to shine. Owing to that, they possess a darker attribute. They are famously used to dispel curses and deal with poisons of higher grade.”

Her green robe kissed the ground as she knelled beside the plant, caressing it with such a care that it almost seemed as If she held a fragile thing in her dainty hands.

“For the rat king to evolve, it must have consumed one of its leaves.” she muttered loudly enough to be heard.

“What do you mean?” Lukas asked while staring at the swaying leaves.

Renesme explained. “They are only three ways a demonic beast can fully evolve from its mundane nature. The first one involves them accumulating and cultivating mana from the ambience and into their bodies in hopes they can finally awaken their bloodline and transform themselves into a demonic beast. But such method is painfully slow and the odds of that happening in lower levels are dismissal at best.”

She continued, “The second method requires a little bit of luck. This method is by far the easiest amongst the three as they only need to search for areas rich with mana in order to increase the likelihood of their transformation. But without a good fortune, this method is mostly useless as such places rarely occur in nature.”

She leaned closer, carefully investigating her prize. “The third and last method entails Devouring. Only by ingesting certain treasures and precious objects of nature can they force an evolution inside their bodies and so boost their strength.” She went on, “And the only way that rat king could have been born was by consuming a leaf from this flower.” She pointed her finger at noticeable stump on the stem of The Midnight Flower.

“But...” Lukas asked as it occurred to him. “Wouldn't there have been more than one rat kings in this dungeon if all of these leaves were consumed?”

Mira paled at the thought though Renesme shook her head. “It isn't that easy for a beast to consume a treasure more than half its tier and just evolve.”

She got up and gave a look around. “I can only infer that there must have been more than a few of these flowers in the past but years and years of rats reckless eating them meant that they only poisoned themselves to death, ultimately forming an inner instinct to avoid such herbs all together.”

She mused as she finished, “That rat must have been the only lucky one to devour a leaf and live to hunt these halls; transforming into a Rat King, a unique variant beast of the underground catacombs.”

After that Renesme waved them off. “Stand a little further back as I harvest the herb.”

Lukas had a strange expression. “Can't you just pluck and keep it?”

Renesme practically paled at his suggestion almost as if he had suggested an atrocity in her ears. “If it was a normal herb perhaps that would have worked but this is a rare Tier 2 Herb.” She hissed, “Most of the medicinal strength would be wasted if care is not taken into harvesting it well. And if an herb is destroyed after being handled so carelessly, its value is basically lost.”

Lukas hurriedly nodded in understand while taking a step back. He apologetically smiled as he safely retreated from Renesme's glare. It wasn’t his fault he was not aware of such a thing. The Continent of Lush was so enormous and massive that that it would take all of his strength to barely keep up.

Renesme's hands flickered around, gracefully dancing in a practiced manner as few motes of greenish hue materialized before they surrounded the herb in some sort of enclosure.

They all stared, mesmerized until Mira's voice pulled them out of their daze, her face mysteriously smiling as if she just had an epiphany.

Speaking in a low voice, she informed them. “There is a good chance Renesme might be a Herbalist.”

“A Herbalist?” Lukas let the word roll in his tongue before he asked. “Is that another profession?”

Mira nodded. “As one of the basic profession in the Alchemy tree, a herbalist always has an eye out for precious and rare herbs. They also seen as collectors, gatherers and some are even appraisers as they mainly focus in learning and recognizing hundreds of herbs, all used for various purposes in Potioneering, Apothecary or even Healing. Such people possess an extensive knowledge of plants & herbs and the fact that she is about to become an official adventurer, means she can take those high priced missions to act as a certified Herb Hunter."

Understanding dawned on Lukas. During this trip he had gained so much; from learning some of the most known common professions like being a Rune Master or a Herbalist to the existence of religious taboos most acknowledged within the continent, suffice to say once he returned to the cathedral, he would have to take a long rest in order to fully digest what he had seen and experienced.

His understanding of Sigils might have accidentally placed him on the path of being a rune master, which seemed impressive by the sound of it but he would still have to perform a lot of research in order to decide if it was the path he would ultimately follow. It won’t be long before he required a profession that would allow him to have a stable income as opposed to keep risking his life as an adventurer. If he hoped to buy time and survive long enough, currency was the only way, not only for increasing his strength but also to keep his hope alive. He had to live long enough until then.

“Done.” Renesme announced, her hands quickly darting s they immediately placed the harvested herb into wooden box intricately decorated with runes visible to the naked eyes.

“This box's special function is to hold the medicinal strength of this herb so it doesn't decrease in value.” She explained even as she glanced at Lukas. Fully realizing he might have unwittingly exposed his lack of information on the more common knowledge of this world, Lukas wryly smiled. Even if his teammates might be aware, they were respectfully silent about it.

“If we are done here...” Rexsi collected his hands in exasperation. “It's time we leave. We can whole heartedly agree that we have had enough of this dank place.”

Mira swirled in her crimson robe, her amber staff radiating a red hazy glow. “Trust me, I have been curbing a desire to burn this whole place to the ground.” She muttered more to herself, her mind reminiscing the squeaks and screams the rats made as they were incinerated under her fire.

Geoff took his shield, giving it a through look while Rexsi whistled as he moved for a closer look. “They might be some lowly beasts but they sure made a dent on that armor.”

Geoff tested his sword next, swinging it a few times as he replied. “Today marks just another encounter of the many more battles I will have to face in future.”

“That's the spirit.” Rexsi laughed before a conspiratorial look settled on his face. “Hey do you think those dents count as love bites for when the beast's teeth lovingly bit on your body?”

“Huh” Geoff responded confused.

Rexsi continued. “I mean you were pretty brave and all, charging through like Knight in shining armor in the midst of a thousand kisses.”

As the comment confused Geoff even further, Rexsi mercilessly reeled him in with a trap. “Ahhh Wait-wait-wait!” he whispered loudly in surprise, “Does that mean those beasts were your first kiss?” he theatrically widened his eyes with a mixture of pity and jesting on his face. “Has our fair and handsome knight never shared a kiss with a lady before?”

Geoff might have lost the first part of the joke but he furiously blushed the moment he heard the last question.

“What the hell are on you about?” He got all worked up that Lukas couldn’t help but chuckle while Mira silently laughed, hiding her face from view. Renesme only smiled in response, her hands holding the wooden box as they all made for the exit in a sea of laughter and angry shouts.

They ended up making quite a conversation; everyone becoming even more familiar with each other. As Lukas followed behind, he suddenly slowed and looked behind. For a reason that he could not comprehend he walked back and gave a good look at the lonely statue of Daendric prince one last time.

“Why are you back here?” a familiar voice broke through his thoughts.

“I don't know.” Lukas softly replied to Rexsi, “I can't quite explain it.” With a solemn expression on his face, he laid one of his hands on the statue's legs.

“You can also sense it huh...” Rexsi mysteriously half smiled as he stepped under the purple's radiance.

“Despite what I have learnt and witnessed…” Lukas whispered. “There is something about this place that's profoundly sad.”

Ever since he had laid eyes on this statue, a feeling of deep sorrow and grief had griped his very soul. He once had attributed such feeling to the fact that he just survived his first clash of life and death but now he felt it was much more than that.

“Í do understand what you are talking about.” Rexsi sighed as he continued. “But even the myths have left a lot unsaid..."

Lukas turned towards him, “What do you mean?”

Rexsi glanced at him before he shifted his focus on the statue. “They were vilified for their beliefs, for cutting short lives they deemed ill-fated but…what about all of the miracles they performed? In the ages past, they were once celebrated; their paths were laid with gold and offerings yet were it all for nothing? Would their act of mercy, not at their behest but through the appeals of the patients begging to be released from their life of unending pain be enough to offset all of the good they had done?”

Lukas ruminated for awhile before he answered. “It hadn’t crossed my mind…but what would you have rather believed if you were the one left behind? Would you have believed that your loved ones were mercilessly killed for being deemed hopeless or would you have calmly accepted their decisions to willingly leave you behind? No matter the decision, it’s not easy for some to let go.”

Rexsi gave it some serious thought before he realized the crux of the matter." It is a conundrum indeed, whether one of the sides is right or wrong, rancor and resentment can’t help but occur.”

Lukas acknowledged in agreement. "Regardless of myths and legends, it's not often the religion that is wrong; it is its followers who are usually judged. Taboo or otherwise; rarely does any kind of religion ever get a chance to escape misuse from the hand of its believers. It also probably didn’t help that their god possessed such an ominous title or was seen as one of 7 Daendric Prince of Darkness. Though it does make me wonder about the true nature of this creed in the years past.”

Realizing he might have expressed a strange interest, Lukas collected himself from such train of thoughts. “What am I saying?” He lightly laughed before he detached himself from the marble statue. “We should probably get going before we are left behind.”

Rexsi absently nodded, letting Lukas to leave first as his hand also touched the statue and sighed. With his eyes and heart hiding his very thoughts, he followed behind as he left the hallowed room bereft of anyone else.

But unbeknownst to both of them, a real drop of blood materialized as it rolled down from the statue's marbled face to the cobbled floor, making a silent splash that resonated in the whole hall. The dark orb slowly flickered in its waning light until all was darkness, dragging close the curtains to the Catacombs of the Golden City and all of its secrets within.