Chapter 77: The Eerie Sewers

Since the academy banquet a week ago, things had remained calm. Wang Yu later learned that both Daniel and his father had a reputation for being stubborn and eccentric. Otherwise, no matter how foolish he was, Daniel wouldn't have tried to forcibly take Avia away from the academy.

His father had met his end in a similar manner. After losing an auction, he had secretly hired assassins to deal with the buyer.

Unfortunately for him, the buyer turned out to be an incredible fighter who, despite being surrounded by dozens of enemy knights, managed to fight his way into Daniel's estate and kill his father.

Although he also perished afterward, he had taken an earl out in the process—it was a worthwhile trade, if a rather macabre one.

Wang Yu kept his guard up around Daniel. He wasn't sure if Edward's identity would deter Daniel's ambitions toward Avia. If Daniel dared make another move, however, Wang Yu would ensure that he learned the lesson his father did.

"Don't you want to compete for the special privilege of keeping something from the Grand Library?" Wang Yu asked. Avia. He was in the courtyard, in the middle of training, while Avia was seated under a tree. She was engrossed in a treatise on magic.

Earlier that morning, Avia's mentor, Weber Lanchester, had sent his granddaughter Wendy to inform her that she had earned access to the Grand Library. Avia had thanked Wendy with a sumptuous lunch, leaving Wendy both touched and a little overconfident.

Wendy, feeling full of herself, had challenged Wang Yu to a fight. The result had left a mark in the courtyard—a person-shaped crater in the ground.

That was Wang Yu's handiwork. Familiar with Wendy's combat style, he had abandoned his weapons and refrained from using Bloodburn Drive.

Instead, he exploited her reliance on wielding a heavy sword. By forcing a close-range fight, Wang Yu rendered her weapon a cumbersome liability.

A few grappling techniques disarmed her, and a shoulder throw ended the fight. The aftermath? A crater in the courtyard and a stunned Wendy questioning her life choices.

Flexibility, adaptability, and finding counters on the spot—Wang Yu might not excel in many areas, but his instincts and skills were unmatched in combat.

Then, he and Avia both engaged in their daily training. Avia had a flexible schedule; she attended lessons with her mentor and did research in her alchemy laboratory, but was otherwise free. One of her favorite things to do was to leisurely read about alchemical and magical research under the shade of a large tree as she watched Wang Yu train.

"No, I don't plan to. My goal was always just to gain access to the Grand Library. Knowledge is what I value most. The people competing for that spot are all exceptional. Trying to best them would waste my time and energy, and might even create unnecessary grudges. Isn't it better to use that time on my studies instead?"

"Right!" Wang Yu grinned, agreeing wholeheartedly. Competing with nine other talented individuals for that rare privilege wasn't necessarily a smart idea.

Instead of vying for that privilege, why not focus on self-improvement instead? Individual strength was what truly mattered, after all.

Wang Yu clenched his fist and circulated his fighting spirit, compressing it into a vortex that gathered in his right hand. Muscles tensed and bulged as he delivered a powerful punch to the armored dummy in the courtyard.

Boom! The dummy toppled over in a cloud of dust and splinters.

Wang Yu walked over, propped it up, and examined the damage. The iron armor on its chest had been pierced through, leaving not a dent but a jagged, circular hole—proof of the devastating effect of his attack. Wang Yu had infused fighting spirit into his fist, granting his punches potent destructive power at the cost of significant energy.

"Phew. Not bad. I've mastered this fighting spirit technique, and my destructive power has grown even stronger." Satisfied, Wang Yu tossed the damaged dummy aside.

"Oh, right! I've spoken with Elliot. He's agreed to take on the commission. Construction on your alchemy shop should begin soon," Wang Yu told Avia.

"Really? That's great!" Avia cheered, pumping her fists in excitement.

"Things are also looking up for the Lady of the Night's church, though the direction they're taking is a bit strange. Still, we're making good progress."

Wang Yu couldn't help but chuckle as he thought about the vision the Lady of the Night had shown him. Wang Yu was feeling rather optimistic—his plans were unfolding, and everything seemed to be advancing all at once.

Even so, the calm wouldn't last, not in these chaotic times.

"Wang Yu, are you here? There's trouble!" Edward called out from outside the courtyard.

Wang Yu opened the gate and saw Edward with a grim look on his face. Behind him were a group of Nightblades. "There's a problem in the sewers by the outskirts of the capital. Charles has gone ahead. We need to set off, now."

"Related to the Font of Life, Erphine?"

"Yeah."

Wang Yu exchanged a glance with Avia. By now, the two of them knew each other well enough that they could convey a lot with just a single glance.

"Let's go!"

Together, they followed Edward toward the outskirts of the city.

The scene by the outskirts of the city, near one of the main sewer outlets, was dire. The city's vast sewer system drained waste and alchemical byproducts into the wild rivers beyond its walls.

Thanks to this world's natural self-purification abilities, pollution wasn't as grave a concern as on Earth.

However, the area surrounding the sewer outlet remained a foul, nightmarish place—an expanse of stagnant pools filled with alchemical runoff, rotting food, shattered glass, and other refuse. The smell alone could make anyone faint.

At that moment, the refuse was especially ghastly. Corpses—twisted, grotesque, and half-decomposed—floated amid the rancid waters.

The bodies were skeletal and shrunken, as if they had been drained of all fluids, yet were paradoxically bloated and swollen from their time in the water. Skin had torn and peeled, revealing sickly innards and shattered bone. The corpses' necks and arms had been pulverized, and they were contorted in an unnatural fashion.

"Damn it. What the hell did this to these people?" A middle-aged city guard prodded one of the bodies with his sheathed sword, flipping it over.

The corpse's back collapsed like wet clay, its flesh dissolving into a paste of red and white that stuck to the guard's scabbard.

"Ugh. Disgusting..." The guard gagged and shook his sword clean, then instinctively tried to wash it in the polluted water.

A wave of stench hit him, and he threw the scabbard away in revulsion.

"Bleurgh!" The other guards, unable to stomach the sight or the smell, began vomiting uncontrollably upon seeing the bodies—with faces half-swollen and half-shrunken—in such a grotesque state.

It wasn't just psychological discomfort. The stench of decay, mixed with the foul odors of the sewer outlet, overwhelmed their bodies and triggered a bout of involuntary vomiting.

"Why the hell are we stuck with this job? This is disgusting. Hey, you—you're responsible for the sewers! You reported this, right?"

A young soldier, helmet askew from vomiting, turned irritably toward a certain direction.

An elderly man stood there, somewhat timidly. Despite being short and skinny, he had some lean muscle on his frame. He carried several strange bottles and jars slung around his body, and a stick worn smooth and shiny in his hand. It had clearly been used for years.

"Yes, yes, it was me..." The old man's voice was hoarse and unpleasant, and it carried a barely concealed quaver of fear.

"What the hell happened here? Why are there suddenly so many dead people?"

"I don't know either! We often see a body or two here, but they're always bloated—completely waterlogged. We deal with them to make sure prevent ghosts can't possess and reanimate the corpses, but this morning, I saw all these bodies. Something felt very wrong. Even from afar, I could already tell that they weren't pale. Bodies floating in water always turn pale. But these—these were dried up like mummies! I knew something wasn't right and reported it immediately. Now they're starting to swell because they've been soaking too long."

"Is that all you know?" The soldier frowned as he questioned the old man whose job was to manage the sewer outlets.

"I... I really don't know anything else. I've been doing this for decades, and I've never seen mummified corpses like these. Normally, anything coming out of the sewer is either completely rotten or bloated. These... I'm telling you, something's very wrong."

The old man's voice trembled. He seemed terrified of what had happened in the sewer and nervous about the guard's growing irritation.

"So you reported this to the city guards just because you suspected something? Do you have any idea how busy we are?" The guard grew visibly annoyed. He was frustrated that he had been summoned over what he saw as a trivial matter.

The foul environment made them want to leave immediately, but duty prevented them from turning their backs and simply walking away.

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The young guard cast a sidelong glare at the old man, clearly having no intention of thoroughly investigating the matter. Corpses in the sewers were hardly unusual in the capital. Someone murdered for revenge, conflicts in the black market—such incidents happened daily. Bodies either got stuck in the tunnels to rot or floated intact to the sewer outlets.

To the guard, the old man's claim about the mummified corpses was hardly worth the trouble of an investigation.

"Ugh, fine. Sam, you go in and take a look. Use a mana crystal to record some footage, and we'll be done here. Damn it... corpses in the sewer—why do we have to be summoned for this crap?"

"Ugh... yeah, fine." Sam, the middle-aged guard who had tossed his scabbard away earlier, muttered back. His reply was muffled; he was covering his mouth and nose. He reluctantly agreed and prepared to head into the sewer.

"No! This isn't right. The state of those corpses means they couldn't have floated here from far away. You saw it earlier—one touch and it turned to sludge. There's no way they drifted here for long or bounced around in the tunnels. They must've died very close to this section of the sewer!"

The old man's trembling voice broke the silence, stopping Sam in his tracks. Sam turned to look at the young soldier, fear in his eyes. The old man's reasoning had clearly struck a chord.

"What are you looking at? Fine, there'll be hazard pay. A quarter extra—no more than that." The young guard waved his hand impatiently. He knew Sam was only using the old man's words as an excuse to negotiate for more gold.

Sure enough, Sam smiled in satisfaction before stepping into the even more revolting sewer tunnel. A torch flared to life as he gradually vanished into the darkness of the sewer entrance.

Casting an annoyed glance at the old man, who was staring strangely at the sewer outlet, the young guard spat on the ground. If it weren't for this old fool running his mouth, he wouldn't have had to fork over any extra gold.

He turned away from the troublesome old man and walked off toward where the rest of the city guards were standing by, waiting for Sam to record some footage with the mana crystal and wrap things up.

About five or six minutes later, Sam reappeared, holding his torch. He raised his hands and waved, shouting back to the group, "The old man was right! The killing happened nearby. Looks like it's some gang conflict in the sewers. Seems like one side used some forbidden magic or something—there's a bunch of mummified corpses. Real unlucky. I even had one of those dry corpses float out with me just now."

As Sam spoke, a body face-down floated out of the sewer outlet. It too had been skeletal and shrunken, but was now starting to absorb water and swell.

"Alright, got it. Wrap it up and let's get out of here. What are you standing there for?" The young soldier glanced dismissively at the dry corpse as it floated along with the sewage. The grotesque faces he had seen earlier flashed through his mind, and he turned his head away in disgust.

Sam coughed for attention. He gave the young guard a sly smile as he rubbed his thumb and forefinger together in a familiar gesture.

The young guard raised an eyebrow. He knew that gesture well—valuables were involved. Gang conflicts were largely about territory or valuable loot, and it could hardly be former. Judging by Sam's expression, they had stumbled onto treasure.

Glancing around at his comrades, the young guard flashed the other city guards knowing smiles and began walking toward Sam.

The old man bit his lip upon seeing the guards enter the sewers. He slipped away quietly while they were distracted.

Sam and the city guards headed into the tunnel.

None of them noticed that the corpse that had floated out of the sewers earlier bore Sam's face, frozen in terror.

An hour later, the entire squad of city guards was nowhere to be found. The case was forwarded to the nearest organization capable of handling the situation...