The information Jane had let slip was something Rei and Lindy absolutely could not afford to ignore—and more than enough to raise questions.
"An altar somewhere in these basements? ...What would they use an altar for?"
"I don't know. But the alchemist who kept hitting on me said it was his best-kept secret, so I figured it was important and remembered it."
For a moment, Rei wondered if Jane was spinning a convenient lie. But with Death Scythe's blade pressed against her neck, she had to know that any clumsy attempt at deception would likely cost her head. Even Rei couldn't imagine her trying to pull something like that in this situation.
She valued her own life. She had to understand perfectly well what would happen to her later if it came to light that she had lied here.
That was why Rei didn't think Jane was lying. He didn't think so, but...
(An altar? If it's an altar, that means it's used for offerings or something along those lines, right?)
It might be different in precise terms, but for Rei, who was by no means fond of the very concept of religion, that was the extent of his understanding.
What's more, in this world, he had clashed repeatedly with a religious organization called the Holy Light Religion. With that thought, a bad premonition suddenly crossed his mind.
(Don't tell me the Holy Light Religion is actually involved in this... That's not the case, right?)
The Holy Light Religion was an extremely troublesome entity for Rei.
A group of fanatics worshipping the holy light.
An existence that believed any action was justified in the name of upholding their faith.
He had no desire to encounter them here, and part of him hoped his prediction was wrong.
But... even so, given the current situation where the word "altar" had come up, the possibility couldn't be denied.
Of course, just because the word "altar" had surfaced didn't mean every religion-related matter could be pinned on the Holy Light Religion. Rei could see that much himself.
"An altar, huh... Regardless of what the alchemist who mentioned it was thinking, it's a safe bet this is going to be a troublesome situation."
"S-so? My information was useful, right? Then I'd appreciate it if you'd take this scythe's blade off my neck."
Jane said this to Rei in a timid, almost pleading tone.
Subjected to her fawning gaze, Rei looked at Lindy as if to ask, "What should we do?"
Since Jane and Lindy were acquaintances—though their relationship was apparently far from amicable—Rei judged it best to let Lindy decide.
Lindy gave a reluctant nod.
For Lindy's part, being disliked by Jane wasn't something she was entirely unconcerned about. But given the current situation, information about the Dolan Workshop took far greater precedence than any personal feelings.
In that sense, the word "altar" from Jane's mouth wasn't bad information at all.
The problems were the question of which room's basement that altar was in—and above all, the fact that they had no idea what that altar was actually used for.
Regardless, simply knowing such a place existed was undeniably significant.
"Alright."
Seeing Lindy's response, Rei lifted Death Scythe's blade from Jane's neck.
Jane visibly relaxed as the cold sensation left her skin.
Rei briefly wondered if she might take the removal of the blade as an opportunity to attack or flee, but fortunately, she showed no signs of doing either.
Whether she had judged that trying to escape here would get her killed, or whether she was simply so relieved to have survived that the thought never even occurred to her, Rei couldn't tell. Either way, it was fortunate that it saved him the trouble.
"Then just go to sleep."
He murmured and delivered a hand chop to the back of Jane's neck, extinguishing her consciousness.
Without even understanding what had been done to her, Jane fainted and crumpled to the floor.
"Bind her like the others and put her somewhere... no, carry her to the room where those documents were."
"Huh? Won't they just come right out if you do that?"
Ilunara muttered with a puzzled expression.
However, Rei had already anticipated that much.
"I'll place a weight above the door to the basement, so don't worry. ...Fortunately, I happen to have some weights with no other use."
Seeing Rei say this with full confidence, Ilunara accepted that if Rei said so, it would be fine. They bound the unconscious adventurers with rope to immobilize them and carried them into the basement.
And what Rei placed above the door... were axes from the bandit hideout he had raided in the mountains near Egginis.
When he had gone to the Slum District during the Fusetsu incident, he had given a considerable number of axes as payment to the man who had tried to pick a fight with him in exchange for information. Even so, there were still plenty of axes left in his Misty Ring.
Aside from the axes, he also had a fair number of iron ingots obtained from those same bandits. These ingots had various potential uses if he put his mind to it.
Selling them to a merchant was one option, and unlike axes, their uniform shape made them convenient as throwing weapons. He could throw them into his signature Fire Whirlwind and use the heat to melt the iron, or simply hurl them as blunt weapons at opponents caught inside the flames.
Of course, the same could be said for the axes since they hadn't seen heavy use either, so they could probably be sold if he wanted. And since they were salvaged goods, they weren't bad as disposable weapons either.
Even so, the reason he placed several axes above the door was simply a gut feeling that he should.
"This is..."
Ilunara muttered in dumbfounded amazement at the sight before them.
He was the only one who voiced it aloud, but the other alchemists and Lindy were equally stunned by what lay before their eyes.
"At any rate, with this they won't be getting out so easily. I've also confiscated any hidden weapons."
Among the adventurers, some had been carrying daggers or Long Needles as backup weapons.
Rei had taken those and stored them in his Misty Ring.
For a moment he wondered if this was some kind of straw millionaire trade, but since daggers and Long Needles were obviously cheaper than axes, it was more accurately a reverse straw millionaire situation.
Naturally, if they had been daggers crafted by a skilled blacksmith, they could have been more expensive than mediocre weapons. But the ones Rei had confiscated were, from any angle, ordinary daggers and Long Needles—items that could by no means be called first-class goods.
"Now then, having taken down two groups of guards, there's a chance they'll send reinforcements when the others don't return. To prevent that, let's hurry up and investigate the other basements. Lindy, have you decided where to check next?"
Prompted by Rei, Lindy pointed to the basement of the room opposite the one where they had found the documents.
In the end, since they had no way of knowing where Anne and the others were, choosing a room came down to sheer instinct for Lindy.
Instinct—and not just ordinary instinct, but a woman's intuition—was what led Lindy to choose that particular room.
For Rei and Ilunara, since they had no preference for any particular room, it didn't matter which one Lindy chose.
(Maybe we should split up... but that would be difficult, I suppose.)
Lindy was fairly skilled among the adventurers in Egginis.
But naturally, there were those who were even stronger.
If someone like Elena, Marina, or Vihera were here with Rei instead of Lindy... or even if not quite at the level of those three, someone with Ara's level of skill, things would have been different.
But Lindy was only Lindy.
Besides, if they split up, there was also the question of what to do with the alchemists.
For Rei alone to protect Ilunara and the others wasn't impossible, but it would be quite a burden.
And given Lindy's level of strength, entrusting them to her would be difficult as well.
This was partly due to Lindy's abilities, but more importantly, it was because fighting while shielding someone to protect made it inevitably difficult to perform at full capacity, unlike fighting alongside one's own party members.
And of course, splitting into three groups—Rei and Lindy each taking one, with Ilunara and his fellow alchemists as a third—to explore the basements was naturally out of the question.
If it were a room with only documents like before, that was one thing, but depending on the circumstances, there could be traps, or someone assigned as a guard—or even a Golem—and none of that would be surprising.
(Especially with something as suggestive as an altar, that's obviously an important location. If so, it's a given that there'd be traps or a guard stationed there.)
In the end, they had no choice but to move together.
With that in mind, Rei led Lindy, Ilunara, and the others toward the next basement.
And what they found there was...
"These are... Golem Cores..."
Rei understood Ilunara's dumbfounded reaction.
He remembered seeing the cores during the battle with the Golems that Ilunara and the others had created. However...
"Just cores, and in these numbers? That's an incredible amount."
Though not as large as the room where Rei had fought the Golems, it was a basement several times the size of the room where the documents had been stored.
Numerous shelves lined the space, and what sat on those shelves were entirely Golem Cores.
Naturally, even among Golem Cores, they weren't all the same size.
From large ones to small ones, and even their shapes varied somewhat from piece to piece.
By count, there were hundreds... perhaps even over a thousand... or possibly more Golem Cores here.
"W-why are there so many Golem Cores here?! Golem Cores are expensive, you know!? When we make Golems, they barely give us any!"
A female alchemist shouted, her indignation plain to see.
Rei considered telling her not to shout, but while he didn't fully share their sentiment, he could understand the alchemists' frustration. And since they were in a basement with the door closed, he judged that a bit of noise wouldn't carry outside, so he didn't try to stop her.
(So Golem Cores really are valuable. For monsters, magic stones are generally the most expensive too, so thinking about it that way, it's not strange, is it?)
Though he accepted that, when it came to what to do with these cores, Rei couldn't decide on his own either.
Glancing at Lindy, who was visibly deflated that yet another basement had turned out to be the wrong one, Rei spoke to Ilunara.
"Hey, Ilunara. I took the documents from the last room as evidence of illegal activities, but can I take these cores too?"
"That is..."
For Rei, these cores weren't something he absolutely needed.
But with his Misty Ring, he could at least hold onto them.
They might be useful for something in the future, or at worst, he could sell them to an alchemist.
Or perhaps to an alchemist in Gilm... On second thought, while Egginis alchemists were one matter, he decided it would be better not to sell to Gilm's alchemists.
"That's... hmm, that's a difficult question to answer."
For Ilunara, the Golem Cores here were items that he and his group couldn't use—things only the Mainstream Faction could utilize—but they were still products of the Dolan Workshop.
He hadn't objected to Rei holding the documents, since those could easily be destroyed to eliminate evidence in an emergency. But when asked whether Rei could do the same with the Golem Cores here, he couldn't simply nod in agreement.
On the other hand, if asked whether the cores here were ordinary Golem Cores, he couldn't confidently say yes without examining them closely.
After all, the cores had been placed in this basement as if to hide them.
"Ilunara, if these Golem Cores are left here, isn't there a chance they'll be used for something shady?"
"But... the Golem Cores we use were provided by the Mainstream Faction. In other words, the cores here are likely ordinary ones that we could use too."
"...Even though they're hidden in a basement like this?"
"Golem Cores are valuable, so it can't be helped."
Accepting Ilunara's position, Rei ultimately compromised by storing about ten of the Golem Cores in his Misty Ring to bring back and hand over to Roger or someone similar for analysis.