The person who pulled David up was a guy in a white lab coat.
What made David a bit depressed was that the sewer sculptor he'd been looking for earlier was now standing right next to the white coat guy...
The white coat threw the sewage-soaked David on the ground and backed up two steps in disgust, pushing up his glasses.
"An Order hunter?"
He seemed to notice the Order emblem on David's outfit and thought for a moment. "I don't think I've seen you before. Newbie?"
Then he seemed to remember something.
"Oh, I got it. You must be one of those two newbies who recovered the fourth-tier forbidden object, right? Let me think, male... you're David Frank, right?"
David barely climbed up from the ground, ripped off the mask that had been soaked through with dirty water, and looked at the guy expressionlessly.
Honestly, he didn't want to deal with anything right now. Just wanted to go home and take a shower...
But the guy in front of him seemed to be a hunter in the Order too, and he apparently had some connection with the sculptor.
The white coat grinned, and combined with his plain short brown hair and thin long face, he actually looked pretty friendly. "Hello, Mr. Frank. I'm Freud, a doctor and also a hunter in the Order."
Freud habitually prepared to shake hands with David, but after looking at David's dripping wet palm, quickly pulled his hand back, still keeping a slight smile on his face.
Okay, this guy actually wasn't friendly at all. His personality was even a bit weird...
"What did you encounter in the sewers?" Freud asked curiously.
David shook his head and casually replied, "A maze."
He saw a hat floating in the sewage ditch. It was his hunter hat, but he didn't want to pick it up at all.
"You mean an endless maze world?"
Surprisingly, the sculptor who'd been silent this whole time was very interested in David's words. He didn't mind David's stench at all and moved closer.
"Did you feel the boundary where space was twisted?"
David frowned and nodded.
"That's it, exactly." The beard under the sculptor's hat brim lifted, seeming to show an excited smile. "It really exists... It's beautiful, isn't it?"
David didn't understand what he was talking about. The word "beautiful" shouldn't have anything to do with sewers. "What are you even talking about? What's 'it'?"
The sculptor suddenly laughed. "Hunter sir, that's a world called 'the sewers,' a 'world' unfolded and constructed through a great work of art..."
Saying that, he put down his pack and quickly rummaged through it for something.
A football-sized giant Rubik's cube...
David's eyes narrowed. That cube seemed like an unfinished work. It looked very delicate, made of countless squares, seemingly able to perform very complex transformations, but some places showed cracks and flaws, causing the whole device to be on the verge of shattering.
"It's my teacher's masterpiece... I've stayed in the sewers for years trying to recreate it, but unfortunately, my skills aren't good enough..."
The sculptor held the cube and got lost in thought.
"So the sewer's space is twisted by something?"
David suddenly got it. No wonder he'd gotten completely lost in there...
Freud on the side smiled and gave David a look.
The sculptor came back to his senses then. He somewhat nervously quickly put away the cube, turned to nod at the two of them without saying anything, stood up and walked toward the darkness.
He was going back to that sunless sewer again.
"Good luck, Mr. Sculptor..."
David shook his head. After experiencing the dangers of the sewers, he realized this person was completely insane.
"A magical madman..." Freud on the side supplemented David's thoughts.
"Mr. Frank, whatever you encountered in the sewer depths, please forget about it. That twisted space is actually guarding a secret, something neither you nor I are qualified to touch."
David nodded silently. Of course he knew he wasn't qualified to touch it. That legendary creation that beat him senseless had already made him realize that.
"As for the sculptor, he's also one of the targets the Order monitors. The Order doesn't care about his grand ideal of recreating that 'artwork,' but we must regularly check on his situation to make sure he hasn't had problems..."
"So this task falls on me, a doctor." Freud shrugged and looked at David. "Also, from a doctor's perspective, I strongly advise you to hurry home and wash up, Mr. David."
Don't need to tell me twice...
David nodded at him and turned to walk toward the exit leading to the river.
The sky outside had already brightened. He'd spent a whole night in the sewers. Seeing sunlight again and breathing fresh air made him can't help but praise the Sun Goddess in his heart.
Freud didn't ask what David Frank had done in the sewers. Some hunters used to like going into the sewers to hunt monsters to sharpen their combat skills.
But there were also some rumors that some unlucky hunters got completely lost in the darkness and never returned.
Nobody knew what was in the sewer depths—those who knew were dead.
So Freud would never explore that world. He stood at the boundary between light and shadow, watching David's departing back, a strange smile slowly appearing on his face...
...
9 Michelin Avenue.
After washing away the stench with a refreshing hot shower, David finally relaxed.
This adventure had exhausted him physically and mentally. The terrifying feeling of brushing past death kept him unsettled for a long time.
He'd thought his 600,000-plus health made him "invincible," but those spider armies and the steam knight had taught him a good lesson.
He was still too weak.
In that final clash with the steam knight, his life energy had even dropped to a very dangerous level—only 30,000-plus points left.
The shockwave almost tore his body apart.
"Gotta find a way to get stronger..."
David shook his head, clenched his slightly trembling palm, and moved his gaze to the two pieces of Fluorite Mask on the table.
Investigating the Hand of Divine Corpse's origins and finding more arms was one way to get stronger. If the Hand of Divine Corpse could also level up, he might have more explosive power.
These two mask pieces were the only things he'd brought back from the sewers. Heavy Hammer and the silver sword were both lost in battle, which David felt was a real shame.
That gun was really useful, but David absolutely wouldn't go visit the steam knight again for a gun.
Now that he had the materials ready, it was time to use the Fluorite Masks he'd risked his life for to perform the advancement ritual for the twins.
David swore that if the ritual went wrong because of the masks, he'd definitely grab Freud by the neck and make him find that sculptor, then beat the crap out of him!
...
When the sun dropped below the horizon and the Sun Goddess's gaze left this land, David called Zoe and Yui into the room together.
He pulled out the scroll again and started following the instructions and patterns on it to draw two formations on the room's floor with his own blood.
The reason for drawing two was because he planned to have both twins perform the ritual. That way, even if one of them failed, it wouldn't matter. As long as one succeeded, David would have a chance to get information about the arms.
But when David was halfway through drawing, he suddenly noticed something weird...
He tilted his head and walked half a circle around the formation he'd just drawn, frowning.
Then David flipped the scroll in his hand, then turned it upside down. After doing this several times, his face showed even more confusion.
"That's weird. Is this thing supposed to be read right-side up or upside down?"
Seeing their young master looking so confused, the twin sisters on the side secretly exchanged glances, starting to panic a bit.
Looked like the sisters' path into the mysterious world was destined to be full of bumps...