This is a sequel to The Exploration of the City. If you haven't read that story yet, you should in order to understand this story.

  When the adventurers returned to the underwater city, they explored it for another day. At the end of the day, they discussed their findings. By now it seemed that the city was fully explored, but the guild decided to briefly look over the city the next day, just to be sure. In addition, they decided to all go together so that everyone would get to see the whole city for themselves. So they slept, waiting for the morning.

  When the new day dawned, Arhalas and his companions began their final search of the city. Now Arhalas saw the city hall, the homes of the city's dwellers, major shops, and everything else from the parts of the city he had not seen yet. He also saw the things he had explored already and thought back over the things he had found there. Soon the adventurers reached the farthest end of the city.

  Suddenly Nillentis, one of the guild members, turned to Arhalas. "Do you see that?" he asked.

  Arhalas looked in the direction Nillentis had indicated. "Yes, I see something. But at this distance, I'm not sure what it is. It's coming this way. Let's watch and wait."

  So they watched the approach of the mysterious shape. As it came into view, they saw that it was a large group of drowneds!

  "Quickly, back to the shore," Arhalas shouted. "We need to form a plan of some kind."

  The adventurers swam back to the shore. Then, they discussed what their next actions should be. "We need to bring as many potions of water breathing as we can," Arhalas said. "In addition, we have some healing potions that we can use as well, if needed."

  Trethan spoke up. "Maybe a few of us should go and spy on what the enemies are doing. We can make better plans if we know what their strengths and weaknesses are."

  The guild approved of the idea, so Arhalas, Trethan, and Nillentis left to find out what the drowned army was doing. Using buildings for cover, the three adventurers watched and took note of the enemies' movements. It seemed that the drowneds were looking for something. They had split up into groups and were swimming throughout the city.

  The three adventurers returned to the shore and explained what they had seen. "The drowneds are traveling around in smaller groups," Arhalas said. "This means that if we fight one group at a time, we should be able to succeed in defeating them."

  The adventurers readied their weapons, took all the water breathing and healing potions they had left, and went back to the city. They quickly found a group of drowneds and fought with them. The twelve guild members were able to quickly defeat the enemies, and they continued fighting in this way, suddenly appearing in unexpected places and overpowering groups of drowneds.

  Soon the group of adventurers had collected a large number of tridents from the enemies. Knowing that these weapons were better than their own iron swords, they began to use them for fighting. As they continued fighting, they noticed that there were far fewer groups of drowneds. They quickly realized that the enemies knew they were being attacked and had gathered in one place in order to be stronger.

  The adventurers went to where the drowneds had gathered and watched from hiding. They saw one larger drowned and concluded that this was the leader. Arhalas thought of a plan and quickly carried it out. Taking two tridents, he swam to a building and watched as the enemies moved about, looking for those who had been attacking them. Soon Arhalas saw their leader, who happened to be coming in his general direction. When the leader came close enough, Arhalas threw one of his tridents at the large drowned. Turning, the leader came towards Arhalas. They began to fight with each other, but Arhalas was better skilled at fighting and was able to defeat the enemies' leader. With their leader slain, the drowneds no longer knew what to do, and Arhalas and the other adventurers were able to overcome the last of the enemies.

  After the drowneds were defeated, the adventurers finished looking over the city. Then they went back to the shore and returned home to Sylnos. They sold some of the treasure they found, used the rest of it, and gave the records from the city to the library of Sylnos so people could study them. The guild members were glad that they could take part in the adventure, and they continued to travel, explore, and help others as they saw new areas of Rylar and enjoyed their adventures.