The House of the Brave was a much larger structure than Rai and his friends were led to believe. It wasn’t exactly one building either. Rodrick’s briefing simply didn’t convey the pure scale of the whole place.

The archaeology society had woken up early in the morning, ready to explore... but when they arrived at the House they were thrown off by how much ground they’d seemingly need to cover.

Through the entranceway, which was a large arch that had now crumbled down to a large gap in the wall, the society saw the House’s inner grounds. At its front, the House of the Brave looked like it had a square ground layout, with a ruined cobble wall surrounding the larger structures inside. The mausoleum was central to the whole place, and they knew it went down multiple levels into the ground. It harboured tombs for the dead, which were obviously rather pointless now that they’d decided to become undead. Still, the numerous buildings on either side of the mausoleum itself were the main objective for the archaeology society according to the plan they came up with just the day before. They had to learn what they could about the societies that might’ve lived near the House, and the best way to do so was probably through those buildings if they had to avoid the mausoleum.

Surrounding the House, undead roamed the land. Some lacked heads, and some lacked limbs, but they were all surprisingly tame compared to the undead that Rai had had previous experience with. They also seemed a lot less... gruesome than the ones he’d previously encountered alongside the Daemon’s shade.

“Everyone ready?” Rai asked.

“Ready as I can be, staring down that many undead...” Maya muttered.

Moving past Maya’s fairly valid concern, the society approached the massive gap in the House’s wall.

As they got closer, their view of the undead became a lot clearer.

Rai led the group, but even he was just a little apprehensive.

This was made all the worse when he stepped past a certain point on the ground.

All of the undead outside the House stopped mulling about, and froze in place.

Rai took another step.

They all whipped their heads around and stared at him.

The sounds of groaning and moaning that often accompanied undead all stopped. Within the auditory void, lived a terrifyingly eery silence.

Rai pushed himself to move forward.

He remembered that the undead should be shown respect, so as to avoid angering them.

Then something clicked.

Rai called forth a hairband from his seals with a flash.

He tied his hair up into a ponytail, which was something he hadn’t done much recently.

Then, he straightened his uniform’s tie, and patted it down to flatten as many creases as he could.

It was a small gesture, but it was enough to show that Rai respected not only the undead, but the House of the Brave.

Following his actions, some of the undead relaxed a touch.

The others quickly realised what he was doing, and did similar things. They fixed up their uniforms, cleaned up their hair, and did whatever else they could to show their respect. Hiron, of course, did none of this. He didn’t even want to be there.

After they all, barring Hiron, did so, the undead slowly returned to their neutral mulling.

The society took more steps inwards towards the House, and found that the undead let them be.

Rai’s idea worked.

There was more anxiety to come, however.

Once they’d reached the entrance arch, or what was left of it, the society saw more of the House. What they thought was just a few buildings on either side of the mausoleum was more like a small village, given how many buildings and structures there were. Fortunately, just like Rai hoped, the House was split down the middle, with the mausoleum being visible clearly from both sides. Clearly, that was the focal point of the House, which made it much easier for their organisation.

“Right, let’s split off here guys. Me, Hiron, Tullian, and Lina will all go around to the buildings that are to the right side of the mausoleum. Sin, Maya, Amy, and Feris will all go to the buildings on the left. Gather whatever information you can, use the arcanocrystals to record images of whatever artifacts you find, and do not anger the undead. Let’s avoid the mausoleum, and meet back at the entrance point once we’re all done on our sides.”

“Sounds good to me.” Sin said.

The others felt similarly. Some of them were glad that they could avoid the mausoleum all they wanted, which bode well for the overall morale of the group.

Sin’s group went off in their direction, while remaining constantly weary of the looming undead surrounding them.

None of them said it to avoid being disrespectful, but they all hated the smell of the place.

Smells of rotten flesh, maggots, and otherwise disgusting aromas pervaded their nostrils and made for a terrible experience.

However, they had no choice but to deal with it.

As Rai’s group were about to head off in their direction, Lina seemed to jump where she stood.

“I just remembered!” She exclaimed. “I know a smell... spell, I mean, that’ll filter certain... things... out of our noses!”

She spoke cautiously to avoid disrespecting the undead.

“Use it.” Rai said quickly. “Please, use it.”

The desperation in his voice was palpable.

Lina nodded.

She whispered into the air:

Odor mortis, discede!

Silently, tiny pearl orbs manifested and then floated out from Lina’s fingertips.

They sped up, before eventually shooting right into Rai’s group’s nostrils.

They all sputtered for a few seconds before they could breathe cleanly again.

But once they could, the smells of rotten decay were all gone. In fact, the only smell that remained was one of clean air.

“Woah... that’s a useful spell Lina!” Rai said, excitedly.

“I know right?! Amy always said ‘why would you use a spell like that’ but I felt like it would come in handy one day!”

“Well, do you wanna run over and use the spell on their group too?”

“... Not really. It uses mana over time the more I maintain it. If there’s any more than four or five people, then I can’t sustain it for very long. With just us four, I can at least maintain it for the whole day, while also having mana left to use some of my other defensive spells if I need to.”

“That’s understandable.”

“Thank you.” Hiron said. He seemed more than grateful for such a spell, since he hated the smells they’d just encountered.

Tullian thanked Lina as well.

“Oh... hahaha... it’s f-fine, you’re b-both welcome!”

“Okay, now that you’ve saved our nostrils, let’s go and explore this side.”

“Hey.” Hiron said to Rai.

Rai turned to him.

“Sup Hiron?”

“... You know how I feel about all of this shit. Don’t forget, I’m here against my will, so don’t expect anything from me.”

“Oh don’t you worry Hiron. You can just watch while we do all the fun stuff.”

“Tch.”

Hiron moved off on his own towards the right side of the House.

Rai waited a few seconds, intentionally.

“Rai... You said to stick together!” Lina said, not knowing his plan.

“I know Lina. I’ve learned a bit how Hiron works. I’ll need a little ‘performance’ to get through to him, so trust me for now.”

Lina was about to reply, but Rai thought that this was just about the perfect time.

“Didn’t I literally just say to stick together as a group of four?” He said, leaning his arm on Hiron’s shoulder. Stray lightning arced on Rai’s hand next to Hiron’s face.

Hiron grumbled in annoyance. But he knew that he wasn’t strong enough to take Rai on yet, so he had no choice but to listen to him for the time being.

“... Fine. Just keep me out of all of your shit!”

“I already said that’s fine with me, dumbass. Just stick together.”

“Whatever.”

He reluctantly returned to the group of four.

Lina slyly shot Rai a thumbs up, while Tullian remained quiet.

Together, the four of them finally moved into their designated side and started their proper expedition.

Rai thought it would be best for them to look through each building one at a time. Since the House was built like a small village, it was easy for them to follow along a path and tackle one building after another.

As Rai looked further down the path, he noticed that the buildings towards the beginning were the most worn down. They, for some reason or other, were far more like ruins than buildings.

Rai still didn’t know if these buildings were houses or if they served other purposes, but he supposed that the point of the whole expedition was to learn about such things.

Unbeknownst to Rai, darker forces worked deep in the shadows of the House of the Brave. His excitement for exploring the House would be short-lived, as a restless darkness stirred within it.