Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Sewer (3)
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"There are a lot of corpses."
Around the time we'd caught about seven variant slimes.
Ricar grimaced after spotting yet another corpse buried amid the slimes.
He was a seasoned adventurer who'd seen it all, long past the point of jumping at the sight of bodies, but they were still an eyesore all the same.
'Hmm.'
As we pushed deeper into the sewers, the corpses started showing up more and more frequently, and that's when I finally pinned down one source of the unease I'd been feeling.
"But... the slimes aren't touching these corpses?"
Slimes that devoured anything and everything were swarming everywhere, yet these bodies remained relatively intact.
"Hmm? Well, slimes that stick to one food source don't easily shake the habit. Wild ones keep eating what they're used to unless they're starving."
Unlike the strange discomfort I'd sensed, Ricar brushed it off like it was no big deal.
Logically speaking, he had a point...
'Damn it. Why am I so on edge?'
An inexplicable anxiety kept surging inside me, hitting hard.
Strong enough that part of me wanted to ditch the request right then and turn back.
But this wasn't a solo gig—it was a party request.
I couldn't just bail because I was feeling uneasy on my own.
'So this is the downside of party requests.'
Can't run off just because I'm spooked...
Never saw that coming.
I tried floating the idea to Ricar, just in case—asked if he felt anything off—but...
"Haha. You've got the skills of a vet, but some real greenhorn vibes too? Freaking out over corpses..."
I ended up getting treated like a total rookie.
If it were me, I'd write off anyone panicking without solid reason as green too...
'Guess all I can do is hope nothing happens.'
That was the extent of what I could manage—pray this gut feeling was nothing more than nerves.
"Alright, we're here. Just one more sector to check and we're done."
Ricar, who'd been leading the way by following the purification magic circles placed at intervals, urged the group onward, thrilled that we'd covered nearly all the cleanup zones listed in the request.
The party picked up the pace toward the final sector, buzzing with relief that escape from this sewer was just moments away.
And then, at one point, they all stopped dead in unison.
-Splat.
"Th-this is...?"
Even the ones who'd pressed on unflinchingly against two variant slimes at once froze as one.
They scanned their surroundings with horrified expressions.
"Corpses...? But this many..."
Bodies we'd spotted several times on the way here.
Nothing special about more showing up now.
But the sheer number was the problem.
Easily more than a dozen at a glance.
It was a pile that fit the word perfectly—dozens stacked in disarray, close to thirty by rough count.
No matter how many bodies got dumped in the sewers, having over thirty clustered in one spot like this was downright unnatural.
Kolon and Haksen gulped as they looked around, their voices trembling as they chimed in.
"H-hey... How about we skip this last sector?"
"Y-yeah. Something's off about the vibe..."
Just earlier, they'd eyed me like a greenhorn when I mentioned a bad feeling, much like Ricar had—but now they were tense, stepping back.
And Ricar himself stayed quiet for a long stretch before nodding readily.
"...Yeah. We'll report this sector to the guild separately...?"
Their call to avoid rashly approaching the dangerous-looking area was spot-on.
But it was too late.
The instant Ricar agreed and turned to pull back, a black silhouette burst from the darkness and pounced on him.
"Urk!"
"Wh-what?!"
"Ngh...?!"
Ricar hit the muck face-first under the sudden black shadow, which lunged fangs at his nape.
"Get... off me!!"
But Ricar barely dodged by jerking his chin back, then shoved up while kicking the thing riding him away.
Only then did he clock what had jumped him.
"A corpse?!"
Flesh rotted deep into the body.
The corpse that tackled Ricar got smashed into the muck by the force but soon staggered back up.
Ricar's face hardened as he realized what had attacked him.
"Corpses moving? No way... It can't be. I've only heard stories!"
A corpse defying the natural order after death, rising to attack him.
This was his first encounter despite years as an adventurer, but tales of such walking dead were widespread across the continent.
"Undead...!!"
Undead.
Wraiths rejecting death, revived to roam.
Creations born from one of the six exiled Evil Gods: 'Twisted Life'.
"Why are undead here..."
"Guests have come calling."
As he reeled from undead popping up in the city's underbelly sewers, an eerie voice drifted from deeper in.
Ricar whipped his head toward the sound, at first mistaking it for another shambling corpse—another undead.
'No. That's a living person!'
Pale enough to pass for a corpse at a glance, but carrying the distinct vitality and scent of the living—Ricar's expression turned grim as he sized up the man.
Sudden undead.
A shady figure cloaked mostly in a black robe.
"Thought I'd collect corpses in peace... Hmm. Adventurers pushing this far. What a hassle."
'Evil God cultist?!'
Undead showing up could only mean one thing.
A follower of one Evil God.
A necromancer serving 'Twisted Life'.
And thanks to his beastkin's sharp nose, Ricar caught the acrid stench of decay cutting through even the sewer reek—he knew on instinct this man was the necromancer.
'Why is a necromancer here...?'
"At least they look like small fry. Now then..."
The moment the muttering man fixed Ricar with a chilling stare, Ricar froze solid—like a frog before a serpent.
A vicious death aura poured from the robed man, sapping his will to live, crushing him.
Not just him—the sudden undead had already locked Kolon and Haksen in place, weapons gripped stiffly.
"Three humans and one beastkin... A beastkin corpse would be decent material..."
-Whish!!
Thwack!!!
"Ah...?"
The moment Ricar froze, a sharp whistle cut the air as something silver sliced through the dark, slamming straight into the head of the man radiating that eerie aura.
The silver blur...
A thrown handaxe, courtesy of Yuseong.
I urgently snapped Ricar out of it.
"What are you doing! Run!"
"...Ah!"
Unlike before, his body responding now—Ricar spun and bolted desperately.
Kolon and Haksen followed Yuseong and Ricar a step behind.
'Damn it. Got blocked!!'
The instant something lunged from the shadows, I'd instinctively replicated a handaxe and chucked it per my gut—and now I ground my teeth in bitter frustration.
The axe had nailed the forehead perfectly, but a split second before impact, a black curtain-like barrier bloomed, blocking it clean.
Still, we'd bought some time, so as I ran back the way we'd come alongside Ricar, I asked.
"What the hell were that guy and those things?!"
"Huff...! Huff...! Pr-prolly undead! Dear god! To see undead up close! Actual walking corpses. How do things like that even exist?"
"Undead?"
"You... huff... don't know undead? The minions necromancers use—the ones serving 'Twisted Life'!"
Evil God...
Twisted Life...
Yeah.
I'd read about it recently in a library book while digging into the Black Sacred Object.
"Why the hell are they here?!"
"Why yell at me?!"
I knew about undead from books...
Hell, even back on Earth, they popped up in plenty of stories.
But why the hell were they crawling out of these sewers?
'Damn. So this was the source of that anxiety gnawing at me earlier?'
Never imagined my promotion exam request would throw an Evil God cultist at me right off the bat!
Folks said you might go a lifetime without seeing one!
I'd only braced for something like a murderer lurking after killing folks here, or party members stabbing me in the back!!
...Wait.
Hold up.
"Huff... huff... Still, thanks! Without you, that guy would've had me. But how'd you even move..."
"Hold on..."
"Why slow down? Your hit might've dropped him, but better safe—keep running till..."
When exactly did this anxiety kick in?
Right...
It started right after we found those corpses in the sewers.
And we'd passed a few more like them on the way here.
"...Ricar. So if it's a necromancer... that means guys who revive corpses and make 'em walk, right?"
"Yeah. Sharp catch. You saw that corpse move? Truly nauseating...?"
Ricar halted mid-sentence as we ran.
And Kolon and Haksen, lagging behind us, barreled past without noticing our stop.
"Huff...! Wh-what. Why stop? Don't block the way!"
"Run... gotta run! Damn it. Thought we were just slime-hunting, now undead...!"
"Wait!!"
They'd seen corpses lurch to life firsthand and felt that life-repelling death aura—half out of their minds.
So they blew right past Ricar's desperate shout to stop, charging ahead full tilt.
And then.
-Splat.
The reason Ricar stopped.
His keen wolfkin senses had picked up the stench and sounds of something approaching from ahead.
-Clatter!!
"U, uwaaa!"
"What the hell!! Here too...!!"
Kolon and Haksen up front got bitten by something and reeled back.
I rushed over and slashed the face off the corpse gnawing at them.
A corpse that felt strangely familiar somehow.
"Damn it. This corpse..."
Definitely.
One we'd passed on the way here.
The one that gave off that weird vibe.
And...
-Clatter.
Clatter.
The corpses we'd passed weren't just one.
"Such a rude little worm... What'd you chuck at me? Can't even see what it was... A mage?"
And from the rear—the direction we'd fled hard from.
Slow footsteps echoed alongside a growing human presence drawing nearer.
"Damn."
Two years of smooth sailing, so why the hell had my life turned cursed lately...
I let out a sigh and raised my sword.