To reach the sewers where he cultivated herbs as quickly as possible, the chubby apothecary hired a carriage. The two rode toward the area where Backlund's Bridge District bordered the East District, along the banks of the Tussock River.
In the carriage, the apothecary who introduced himself as Darkwill explained that his teacher had sent him out to travel the continent and experience life. He'd spent time in Tingen City and currently resided in Backlund. He'd just finished planting a batch of herbs when beasts in the sewers carried off more than half of them.
Angel also gave her false name: Irene Watson.
The Bridge District wasn't large. The two soon traveled from Iron Gate Street to the riverbank. After getting off the carriage and walking for less than two minutes, Darkwill pointed toward a location near the shore where there was a semi-open sewer entrance.
Over a decade ago, after the Great Plague swept through half the Kingdom of Ruen, the capital Backlund established an advanced sewer system. These originated from Intis Republic's "Emperor Roselle's Legacy" but underwent numerous improvements, surpassing their imitation target in one stroke.
Of course, in Angel's eyes, this system remained crude. Domestic wastewater was discharged directly into the Tussock River without subsequent treatment or filtration, flowing into the sea with various strange colors and odors. Drainage outlets near factories and docks were especially awash with oil pollution and garbage.
Supposedly someone was calling in newspapers for Parliament to pass relevant laws prohibiting Tussock River residents from discharging sewage directly into the river, but unfortunately such broad interests were involved that they hadn't succeeded.
Therefore, this situation of sewage flowing directly into the river would continue for quite some time. The sewer before them was just such a case—brownish-black sewage gurgled out, diluted by river water, flowing into the distance.
Opening the unlocked iron gate, Angel and Darkwill endured the overwhelming stench and entered the main passage of this sewer line.
It was now close to midnight. The light of the full crimson moon, after being intercepted by the perpetual haze, only partially reached the ground. Ten meters deep into the sewer entrance was pitch darkness, causing the apothecary without dark vision to cautiously halt his steps.
"Follow behind me. Be careful not to fall."
Angel wrinkled her nose, reducing her intake of the foul air, and spoke in a muffled voice.
Darkwill fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a small metal bottle, handing it to Angel.
"This can reduce the stench. I always use it when I come to check on the herbs."
Seeing Angel shake her head without taking it, he seemed somewhat annoyed. He uncorked the bottle, brought it close to his nostrils and took a deep breath, his face showing an expression mixing pain and refreshment.
See, no poison.
Conveying this message with his eyes, Darkwill offered the metal bottle again.
No wonder he casually interrupted others at the gathering and spoke rudely. It's a miracle someone with such a straightforward personality hasn't been beaten to death... No, he's an apothecary—maybe he has been beaten but healed himself.
Angel found this amusing. She accepted the small bottle and brought it to her nose for a sniff.
A pungent smell mixing disinfectant with mint fragrance instantly cleared her head—she nearly sneezed. Then her nose felt like someone had stuffed a cork in it, and her sense of smell rapidly dulled until she couldn't smell anything except disinfectant.
This reminded her of a homemade oil preparation "Corpse Collector" Frye often used during her time with the Tingen squad. Unfortunately, she'd left those teammates before learning how to make it.
After blocking out the stench, the two continued deeper into the sewers. As the ground became slippery and the moonlight behind them increasingly faint, Darkwill's footsteps grew hesitant.
"Should we... come back during the day?" he suggested hesitantly. "They've been eating my herbs for a day or two now. Actually, I'm not in such a hurry to resolve this tonight."
"But I am."
Angel replied, rounding a right-angle turn. In her dark vision, the sewer gradually widened, entering an area where multiple branch lines converged.
In a rectangular underground space, Angel discovered simple wooden shelves the chubby apothecary had constructed. These held several rows of clay pots filled with excavated soil and fertilizer, growing herbs of various shapes.
About half the clay pots were now broken, their soil and herbs scattered across the shelf, some fallen into the shallow sewage—clearly unusable now.
Three creatures larger than hunting dogs surrounded the wooden frame, selecting herbs to eat. Just as the apothecary had said at the gathering, they even picked out poisonous herbs, eating only the safe ones.
The footsteps of the two entering the cultivation area startled these animals. They stared with blood-red eyes. Only then did Angel realize these "dogs" were actually sewer rats. Their skin was swollen and festering, jagged teeth protruding from pointed snouts—the kind of creatures one might see in nightmares.
"Why did we stop?"
Darkwill, virtually blind in the darkness, asked curiously. Relying only on moonlight filtering through holes in the sewer ceiling above, he could barely see the path and hadn't noticed the large rats in the corner at all.
"Get back—"
Before Angel could finish, the three rats jumped down from the wooden frame and charged through the sewage toward them.
Two more rats emerged from somewhere in the darkness, approaching from different directions and blocking them at the tributary's exit.
Worried gunfire might attract attention from vagrants or patrol officers on the surface, Angel didn't shoot. Instead, she channeled her spirituality, gathering frost and forming it into several sharp spikes that shot forward.
Thunk—
The sharp ice spikes pierced the two leading rats, pinning them dead to the ground. The frost even spread outward, forming a thin layer of ice on the nearby water surface.
The mutated rats lacked sufficient intelligence to understand the gap between themselves and a Beyonder. They only charged at their "food" on instinct. Angel calmly manipulated the frost, killing them one by one in the sewer. The closest one remained over ten meters away from her.
I thought these mutated animals would have something special about them. Turns out they're just a bit larger...
Her gaze swept over the rat corpses emanating cold air. Looking around, Angel carefully inspected the area and, finding no oversights, called Darkwill back from where he'd retreated deep into the sewer.
The latter examined the rat corpses by the faint moonlight filtering from above and quickly reached a conclusion:
"These must have contacted something strange and mutated—perhaps some Beyonder materials that fell into the sewers, or some Beyonder's... corpse. But destroying my herbs probably wasn't just them. Though these rats also eat herbs, they wouldn't damage the wooden frames."
"Do you have other cultivation areas? Perhaps other mutated animals are destroying your work."
Angel inquired, approaching the wooden cultivation shelf. She discovered that indeed, as Darkwill said, the wooden frames were intact. The rats had no interest in moldy wood.
"I have two other planting sites in the Bridge District sewers. I'll take you there."
Though he said "take," it was still Angel with her dark vision who led while the apothecary only provided directions. The two continued toward the next location.
"Why do you cultivate herbs in such a place? Normally people rent a courtyard or plant on their own rooftops, don't they?"
Treading through the foul-smelling sewage as they proceeded, Angel couldn't help asking.
"You think I want to come to such an environment? But these herbs prefer damp, dark places. Some people even cultivate them in underground crypts. Choosing sewers already means I'm law-abiding."
But what's unlawful about underground crypts? Could they be...
Angel had a terrible thought. Seeing the next wide area ahead, she forced herself not to think in strange directions.
"Squeak—"
The enlarged, bloodthirsty rats' cries were no different from usual. Angel quickly dispatched them with ice spikes.
"Strange, how could there be such large rats, and they all like eating your herbs..."
Angel examined the mutated rat corpses and found them identical to those at the first cultivation site—all with deformed bodies, swollen skin, bloodshot eyes, and throwing themselves at living things without regard for anything.
She pulled out her magic mirror and, under Darkwill's surprised gaze, attempted divination about the rats' origins.
"Magic mirror, magic mirror, tell me why these rats appeared in the sewers."
Caressing the smooth mirror surface until it rippled like water, Angel soon saw images from the divination.
Several normal-sized rats wandered through the sewers. They drank upstream sewage tinged with traces of dark red, then became violent and enormous, their eyes turning blood-red as they tore at each other.
In the magic mirror's divination images, this was how they became bloodthirsty mutated rats!