Chapter 69: The Secret of the Sewers

Within Alkhemia, two drow elves followed closely behind Black Rose as they held an ornate parasol aloft for her.

They had to match her pace perfectly—not too fast, not too slow—and above all, not allow even a single ray of sunlight to touch their queen.

Sunlight wouldn't harm a legendary-ranked undead queen. But if Black Rose so much as frowned, the two of them would immediately become raw materials to create more undead.

Her Majesty's cruelty was renowned in the Umbral Depths. She treated all living beings with the same cold indifference, as nothing more than tools.

And once a tool ceased to be useful, it was naturally discarded.

Two stern-faced administrators walked beside Black Rose. They were sent by the Alchemists' Council to monitor her. A sudden visit by no less than the infamous undead queen of the Umbral Depths left the entire city uneasy.

These two administrators were particularly unlucky. Even though Black Rose completely ignored their existence, merely standing near her caused fear to seep into their bodies like a contagious disease.

This was the true power of a lich. Unless she deliberately restrained herself, even a trace of her concentrated dark magic was enough to taint everything around her.

Naturally, Black Rose had no intention of sparing a thought for a few humans. She wandered Alkhemia at her leisure, occasionally purchasing alchemical materials without even asking about the price.

Among them were three vials of living mercury, which she intended to bring to Ambrose as a greeting gift.

She didn't have a clue how undead were supposed to court one another, but judging by Ambrose's personality, giving him something expensive was probably the right approach.

At this point in time, Gareth and Alabastra were likely meeting Gareth's... mistress... at her place. Whether Alabastra could restrain herself was anyone's guess. If the two women came to blows, that would cause a whole new headache.

Black Rose had originally wanted to witness some melodramatic undead romance for herself and perhaps even draw inspiration from it. Unfortunately, with Alkhemia's people following her so closely, she could hardly let the private affairs of an undead couple be exposed to outsiders.

Thus, she chose to wander alone under the pretense of sightseeing, deliberately drawing Alkhemia's attention to herself.

That, however, was only one of her objectives.

Ambrose had asked her to investigate the secret hidden in the sewers, and Black Rose herself was curious about the mystery Alkhemia was so tight-lipped about.

Though her stroll seemed aimless, without anyone realizing it, Black Rose had approached a sewer entrance.

She carefully observed the two administrators tasked with "accompanying" her. As they neared the entrance, both men clearly displayed expressions of disgust, but there was little sign of vigilance or alarm.

The disgust was likely due to the nauseating stench drifting through the air. But the lack of caution meant one thing: these two knew nothing about the secret hidden below.

"If that's the case, I can be a little bolder."

Feigning ignorance, Black Rose walked toward the sewer entrance. The closer she got, the stronger the stench became, until the two administrators could not help but cover their noses.

Seeing that Black Rose was still moving forward, one of them hurriedly spoke up.

"Your Majesty, the area ahead has been designated a restricted zone due to leaked alchemical waste. It hasn't been cleaned up yet, and it's infested with vermin. It's not suitable for sightseeing. I recommend another route—there are several excellent enchanted equipment shops that way."

Black Rose pretended to be curious. "Alchemical waste leakage? That sounds like a serious accident. Has Alkhemia still not dealt with it?"

The two administrators gave each other an awkward glance. They knew it was an excuse, but not what the real issue was, and could only stammer and change the subject. They failed to notice that Black Rose had taken a few steps closer to the foul sewer entrance, and neither did they see her eyes sweep over the swarms of insects buzzing in the air.

With a single glance, hundreds of insects died and instantly transformed into undead puppets.

This was Black Rose's legendary boon: Death Gaze.

When her soulfire locked onto a creature, it would automatically transform into an undead. The time required depended on the creature's vitality.

Even a high-ranking paladin like Starfall would be transformed within minutes if he failed to notice what was happening in time. As for insignificant insects, the process was nearly instantaneous.

"Very well. It really doesn't seem like there's much to see here. Let's go elsewhere."

Black Rose turned around and left, arousing no suspicion from the two administrators. Even the attendants beside her had failed to notice her subtle maneuver.

Once they had gone, the insects she had transformed into undead quickly burrowed into the sewers.

Thanks to Alkhemia's increasingly abysmal sanitation, there were rats and insects everywhere. Along her route, thousands of vermin were silently converted into undead. They spread through the sewers. Before long, they had mapped out most of the underground passages for Black Rose.

Using the excuse that she had grown tired of sightseeing, Black Rose returned to her silver carriage, which resembled a small palace, and began sketching the layout of the sewers.

Within the span of a day, she had explored more than half of Alkhemia's sewer system.

As she pieced together the fragmented maps, Black Rose noticed a peculiar pattern forming.

"It looks like an alchemical formation..."

She wasn't particularly skilled with alchemy and only had a few vague suspicions of what was going on. She sent the assembled map fragments directly to Ambrose.

[Black Rose: Take a look at this sewer map I drew. It resembles some sort of alchemical array.]

Back at the castle, Ambrose was in the middle of disassembling Husky's corpse.

After much deliberation, the half-elf ranger had chosen to be reborn as a skeleton. He did like having flesh, but maintaining fresh flesh as an undead was extremely costly. It either rotted or dried up quickly, and both options were far less appealing than being a skeleton to begin with.

Faced with the choice between "very ugly" and "moderately ugly," Husky, as a half-elf, had chosen the latter.

As an undead with free will, there was little difference between a skeleton and a zombie. Advancement depended largely on luck and effort. Ambrose intended to grant Husky as many innate spells as possible during the modification process—Basic Skeleton Summon, Chilling Touch, and the like—so that he would possess some combat ability immediately after his reincarnation.

Ambrose was in the middle of working on Husky's ribs when the Necromantic Codex began to vibrate. He had to conjure a Mage Hand to open it up.

The poor Husky could only lie there on the operating table, awkwardly exposed.

The moment Ambrose saw the map Black Rose had sent, he crushed the bone in his hand in excitement.

He hastily replied to Black Rose.

[Megaman Tiga: This isn't an alchemical array. It's a modified Wish formation. Those lunatics... they're really trying to create a god!]