Volume 6, Chapter 24 – Duel in the Sewers

Guided by the Omniscient Map, Yisi soon arrived at the place where the black slimes gathered—the city’s sewers. Mitters Bayer was one of the few cities in the other world that had sewers.

The smell of rotting animal carcasses, spoiled eggs and vegetable leaves, and human waste all mixed together, making Yisi frown repeatedly. Coupled with the narrow and enclosed environment of the sewers, if it weren’t for the purpose of obtaining rubber, Yisi would have turned back immediately.

Fortunately, the sewer was divided into a channel and a walkway. Although the walkway, which was less than a meter wide, still had dark, foul-smelling standing water, it was much better than the expected scenario of having to walk in the channel itself.

“Could it be that these black slimes turned black because they live in this pitch-black sewage…”

Muttering something horrifying under her breath, Yisi had a disgusted look on her face.

If that were the case, she would have to reconsider whether she should continue to use them. If the black slimes, after being fished out of the sewer, exuded an indescribable strange smell, even if she washed them clean and purified them over and over with purification magic, a lingering sense of nausea would probably remain in her mind, not to mention making them part of a shoe to be used by her companions.

“…What are you doing in a place like this.”

Edith, who had come along, covered her nose and frowned repeatedly.

“I already said you didn’t have to come, Pepe. This place isn’t suitable for you.”

“It’s boring to death in the inn. It’s better to come out and have a look.”

As a vampire, Pepe could only move around at night under the cover of darkness. During the day, as long as she didn’t wear many layers of clothing, the wings on her waist, no matter how they were hidden, would still create a bulge on the surface of her clothes, which could be easily noticed. Therefore, the current Pepe was no different from being under house arrest.

Yisi spread her hands helplessly.

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“But this place doesn’t suit Pepe at all. We might even encounter monsters that live in the sewers later. Even if they’re easy to deal with, they would still dirty your Gungnir, right?”

“Stop dawdling. Finish your business quickly so we can go back.”

“Yes, yes.”

She couldn’t understand at all why Pepe wanted to come to the sewers with her.

Yisi sighed and began to walk along the sewer. Every time her foot stepped on the ground, the wet ground would make a sound of something gliding across the water. Coupled with the occasional squeaking of rats from the corners and the sound of water dripping into the channel, a strange and terrifying feeling easily crept into her heart. If she had come here alone, she would definitely have associated it with scenes from a horror movie. But with Pepe following behind, the sense of fear was much less. Perhaps it was due to her personality; Pepe gave off a very reliable and trustworthy feeling.

“Tsk.”

Without any warning, Edith clicked her tongue. With a soft hiss, a hole appeared in the right wall. If one looked closely, they could see a struggling cockroach—the size of a palm—pinned to it.

The cockroach must have flown down from the ceiling and happened to run into Pepe. Pepe would never allow a bug to land on her.

There was a hint of resentment in Edith’s voice.

“I really want to set this place on fire.”

“Mm, a single spark would probably blow this place up.”

Although Mitters Bayer had sewers, the structure was poorly designed, and the ventilation was very bad. In the deeper parts, a distinct smell of swamp gas could be detected. Once ignited, it would surely blow the pavement on the streets sky-high.

Unable to understand the principle, Edith frowned.

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“Why?”

“A kind of thing called swamp gas gathers in the sewers. When there’s a lot of that gas, it will explode when it encounters fire.”

“A type of magic?”

“Not magic, although the effect of the explosion can indeed be compared to magic.”

“Like a mana cannon?” Edith lowered her head, frowning slightly. “What tier of magic would its power be equivalent to?”

“It could be Tier 1 magic, or it could be Tier 5 magic. Just like those spells whose power increases with the amount of magic injected, both the upper and lower limits are very vague.”

“It’s called ‘swamp gas’…”

Since the two words ‘swamp gas’ were not in the Hyurent language, Edith’s repetition sounded very awkward. Yisi didn’t say much either. The civilization of this other world had not yet developed to the point of knowing that air was a product of a mixture of many gases. Edith might have understood swamp gas as a kind of magical element.

Regarding this, Yisi had no intention of explaining immediately. Without sufficient evidence, even if she told Edith that the gas that supported life was not air but oxygen, it would be difficult for Edith to understand.

I might as well add it all to the future lessons, just like the math class. Although the physical laws and common sense of Earth are not completely applicable in this world, some very basic things are not different. Teaching them to my companions might be useful in unexpected places.

After walking a little further, Yisi stopped and made a ‘shh’ gesture to Edith.

“Just ahead.”

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From the corner up ahead, the faint roars of monsters and the sound of something slapping the water could be heard. Lowering her upper body slightly, the two of them walked to the corner with extremely light steps. This was a place where many channels converged. The water flow was rapid, and the space was much larger than in other places.

A group of monsters that looked like eels, over a meter long, were collectively tearing at a large black mass. Every time an eel leaped out of the water, it would tear off a small piece of ‘flesh’ from the black object. The black object, feeling the danger, continuously swam towards the end of the sewer. However, because there was an iron grate blocking the way, the black object had no choice but to divide its body into many small parts, trying to pass through the iron grate. But every time the black object split off a piece, the eel-like monsters would swarm up and swallow it.

It was like a group of ants bullying a dying insect that was unable to fight back.

If Yisi were a documentary filmmaker, she would have picked up her camera at this moment to record this scene depicting the unity of social creatures in their struggle for survival. But she was not an unrelated person; that black thing was her target.

—The king of the black slimes. This black slime, like the slime noble she had seen on Mount Hermin, was the being that ruled over all the slimes in Mitters Bayer. If she could handle it, it would be equivalent to obtaining a continuous supply of black slimes. The reason Yisi had come straight to the sewers was because she had discovered the existence of the slime noble.

I wonder when I’ll meet a Slime King.

“What is that black thing? I’ve never seen it before.”

“That’s our target for this trip.”

Since the black slime was soaking in the channel, Yisi couldn’t help but feel the urge to turn back. Such a dirty thing absolutely could not be used as a raw material.

“Should we wait for those monsters to leave, or go back directly?”

“Let’s go back—” Yisi turned around, but before she could take a step forward, the sound of water splashing beside her made her stop. Yisi couldn’t help but smile wryly at Edith. “It seems someone doesn’t want us to go back.”

The moment her words fell, a group of eels that had separated from the black slime suddenly leaped out of the water and lunged straight at Yisi and Edith. The teeth in their bright red mouths were clearly visible. If one were to be bitten by accident, a large piece of flesh would definitely be torn off.

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However, they had chosen the wrong targets.

“[Blood Fang].”

Merely extending her hand towards the lunging eels, with the end of the incantation, a swarm of small red bats quickly appeared in front of Edith. Like soldiers ordered to charge by their king, these red bats all rushed towards the eels amidst a series of screeches. The two sides were instantly entangled in a brawl.

Although the red bats were much smaller than the eels, their numerical advantage, coupled with Edith’s continuous replenishment, quickly gave them an overwhelming advantage. After biting all the incoming eels to death, they transformed into a red cloud and flew menacingly towards the black slime. At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before the slime noble was saved.

Yisi, who had originally planned to use light magic to scare away the eels, retracted her gaze. Edith, on the other hand, waved her hand as if very disappointed.

“I thought they were a group of tough monsters, but they were so weak.”

“Well, they live in the sewers. If they were a threat to the residents, the church would have sent people to deal with them long ago. Apart from their numerical advantage, these monsters are not even level 3.”

“What’s next?”

“Let’s go back. It has no value anymore.”

If she told Pepe that she wanted to use the rubber transformed from the black slimes to replace the bottom layer of her long boots, Pepe would definitely object on both physiological and psychological levels. Of course, this trip was not without its gains for Yisi. On the drier side of the walkway, Yisi found a few dried-up black slime corpses. They were not black, but a milky-yellow color very close to rubber. In other words, just as Yisi had initially guessed, the black slimes were not black from the beginning, but had been polluted by the sewer, which was why they had turned into a pitch-black appearance.

I’ll go to the forests on the surface to catch ‘black’ slimes later. As for this slime noble, it’s fine to just leave it alone.

Unwilling to stay any longer, Yisi took Edith and left the sewer using teleportation magic. She failed to notice that before they left, the black slime noble was swimming towards them in a friendly manner.