Northern Cave

**Northern Cave** (闇市) is a location in Mass for the Dead.

## Background

After a subsequent Chaos Beast attack on the city E-Rantel where the second summit of the Tripartite Alliance took place, Warrior Captain Gazef Stronoff volunteered his Warrior Troop to locate the source of where the horde of Chaos Beasts originated.

The Warrior Captain and his men managed to follow the trail of the monsters to a cave that was up north of the city. After the warriors of the Re-Estize Kingdom had established a relay point near its entrance, Gazef and the rest of his men ventured into the cavern to locate the Crack that was spawning Chaos Beasts. The Warrior Captain led his party deeper into the cave where they established second base of operations.

However, the Warrior Troop was attacked by monsters such as Stone Eaters along the way. The demi-humans ambushed the warriors and intentionally caused the roof of the ceiling to collapse on top of the humans. Most of the warriors warriors were killed including two magic casters that were responsible for keeping communication with the outside relay point. Even worse than that, the path which Gazef and his men took was blocked off. Unable to turn back and make their escape, Gazef driven to find the source of his nation's suffering and end the threat urged his men forward deeper into the earth. The guards at the relay point took notice of Gazef's lack of communication to their base and attempted to venture in to locate the Warrior Captain.

## Chronology

### Mass for the Dead Arc

*Main article: Mass for the Dead Arc*
Days after Gazef Stronoff's team lost contact with the royal family, King Ramposa III enlisted the aid of Blue Roses and the protagonist's party to locate the lost Warrior Captain. The two teams follow the trail to the cave where they found it being guarded by two Spear Chaos Beasts. The new Chaos Beasts were formidable but with the unexpected help of Brain Unglaus, the adventurers defeated them without problem. The protagonist and his team volunteered to explore the cave and find what happen to Gazef.

Traveling deep into the cave, the protagonist along with Surako, Soi and Shall slowly followed the ruined trail of the warriors, piecing together that the humans attempted to reach the source of the monsters in the abyss. After battling the same obstacles that the Warrior Troop faced with relative ease, and even the zombified corpses of some of the warriors, they finally came across a cavern which contained the Crack. However, what they found are the remains of Kingdom's warriors, but strangely it appeared they were not slain by a beast but all killed by a blade. They found that Gazef had succumbed to being contaminated by the poisonous mists of the Crack, becoming feral and turning into a Contaminated Beast. The feral human warrior attack the adventurers and Shall had to directly intervene in her armor to subdue him. The team received another surprise when a strange mollusk monster crept from the shadows and attempted to steal the unconscious Gazef. After some difficulty, Shall and Soi managed to put the beast down. Due to its uniqueness, a sample was brought back to the Great Tomb of Nazarick for study. Meanwhile, Gazef was returned back to the Kingdom in hopes that its magic casters could cure him of his contamination.

With the threat of the Crack within the cave, the Kingdom cordoned the entrance with guards to prevent Chaos Beasts from escaping. Unknown to the humans, the members of the Pleiades, Yuri Alpha and Lupusregina Beta entered into the cave network via the help of the tunneling skills of a Stone eater. Under Demiurge's orders, the maids planted a device that caused a mouth section of the underground cave to collapse, opening it to the outside and allowing the once contained Chaos Beasts freedom. The Chaos Beasts that were growing in numbers soon headed straight for E-Rantel, playing right into Demiurge's plan to act as a threat to the Alliance and allow him as Jaldabaoth to make his debut and offer to "save" humanity from destruction.

Due to the protagonist's heroics and part in driving away Jaldabaoth from E-Rantel, the protagonist became the Guardian of E-Rantel. In a series of new reforms, the protagonist assigned Blue Roses to work with the E-Rantel Magic Research Institute to construct barricades and watchtowers as additional security measures to prevent another Chaos Beast horde from emerging. Of course, it was a ploy set up by the protagonist to allow Nazarick unlimited access to it, as with the humans now containing the area and all known entrances blocked, research into the Crack site would be undisturbed. At this time Shalltear, Yuri and Lupusregina investigated the Crack area again to cull the Chaos Beasts that were spawned and to locate another specimen of the mysterious monster that was discovered. After the second part of the mission was deemed unlikely, Shalltear opted to return to Nazarick, whilst the maids continued to scout the humans' security incognito. Unfortunately, Shalltear wanting to be more careful when returning back home decided to go through the Katze Plains which caused her to come across the Black Scripture.

Gazef who had been cured, thanks to the efforts of the research of the Sorcerer Kingdom, appeared at the fourth Trilateral Talks to give a testimony of the events at thecave.

## Layout

The cave was situated north of about half a day's travel. The cave connects to a deep underground network that goes deeper into the earth. It is littered with sub caves that are inhabited by various monsters.

## Features

### Crack

A Crack anomaly exists at the deepest part of the cave's network. It was here that the Chaos Beasts were spawn and releasing miasma that infected every living thing in the cave.

## Trivia

* In addition due to the negative energy accumulated by the recent dead, the cave is also infested with skeletons.

## References

1. ↑ *Mass for the Dead Chapter 08: The Lost Hero*
2. ↑ *Mass for the Dead Chapter 09: Evil Darkness*
3. ↑ *Mass for the Dead Chapter 10: Crumbling Overture*
4. ↑ *Mass for the Dead Chapter 12: Leader of Mankind*
5. ↑ *Mass for the Dead Chapter 17: Eve of the Storm*