Chapter – 07
The party lit up the pitch-black sewer and advanced deeper inside.
The farther they went, the more monsters appeared.
In the blink of an eye, they had already fought four consecutive battles. Goblins, giant centipedes, walking mushrooms, and all kinds of bizarre creatures leaped out to attack them.
By this point, something about the situation felt seriously wrong.
These damned sewers were certainly home to monsters, but they were also known as the eternal hunting ground for Bronze-Rank mercenaries.
Which meant one thing:
There weren’t supposed to be this many monsters.
Because the guild regularly conducted extermination campaigns, the monster population should have remained relatively low.
Normally, even a three-man Bronze-Rank mercenary team would come in, kill around ten ratmen or goblins, and head back out.
In fact, finding even that many usually required wandering through the sewers for quite some time.
After killing about ten monsters, each mercenary could earn enough money to live on for two or three days.
That was the ecosystem of Harundel’s sewer mercenaries.
But how long had they even been inside?
And yet they had already fought four battles in a row.
“Boss… I hate to admit it… but I’m getting exhausted.”
The fat man, Galin, who had been leading the front, spoke up.
Looks like he never learned Aura.
Tei glanced at him.
He had a solid build. Plenty of fat, but plenty of muscle as well.
Still, after four straight battles, he was drenched in sweat.
Which was perfectly understandable.
By now, Galin had blocked attacks from well over twenty monsters with his shield.
He had also swung his mace dozens of times.
Unless someone had trained in a proper martial discipline, they would naturally start running out of stamina.
The problem was…
They had barely left the entrance.
It would still take at least another full day to reach the Central Wastewater Treatment Facility.
Something’s definitely happening deeper inside… Is that crazy mage doing something? Why are there so many monsters?
Tei knew the sewers hadn’t been like this just a few days ago.
Come to think of it…
The timing strangely overlapped with the moment he’d awakened the Hunter System from his previous life.
…Wait.
Don’t tell me my awakening somehow caused this…?
He dismissed the absurd thought almost immediately.
Just then, Ellen walked over beside Galin.
“You’re right. Four consecutive fights are rough. If it’s already this bad near the entrance… who knows what’s waiting deeper inside. Father Molton, what do you think?”
“If we still have another day’s march ahead of us… our current strength won’t be enough.”
Molton answered calmly.
At that moment…
Glashalabolias suddenly spoke.
“Contractor.”
“We’re surrounded.”
“What!?”
Ellen instantly whipped her head around.
Tei immediately asked,
This guy has detection abilities too? Well… I guess he isn’t an ordinary imp.
“How many?”
“Twenty ahead.”
“Ten behind.”
“Ratmen.”
“Molton! Hold the rear!”
“Fatso! You’re with meāwe’re breaking through!”
Grabbing Galin by the back of his collar, Ellen spun around toward the direction they had come from.
In an instant, the formation completely reversed.
“Humans! Humans!”
“Kill!”
“Die!”
“SKREEEE!”
The moment the formation changed, shrill cries echoed from behind as a pack of ratmen charged toward them.
Completely ignoring the mind-corroding aura unique to dark magic.
“Damn it! Skeleton! Throw whatever spells you’ve got and run!”
Ellen shouted urgently.
Damn! Ratmen are impossible once they get like this!
The ratmen possessed a racial trait called Pack Instinct.
The larger their group became, the more their morale skyrocketed.
It was practically a berserk state.
Once they entered it, ordinary mental attacks barely affected them.
This was bad.
Twenty ratmen rushed toward them with crude weapons raised.
Tei immediately issued a mental command to As.
Use every spell you’ve got!
Summoned demons could cast magic endlessly.
But there was one limitation.
Cooldowns.
Once a spell was cast, it couldn’t be used again until enough time had passed, with stronger spells requiring longer recovery times.
Which meant…
The more spells a demon knew, the stronger it became.
As for Tei…
Thanks to the Hunter System, he could cast magic without chanting.
“Clinging Flame!”
“Blinding Darkness!”
He first unleashed a damage-over-time spell…
Then immediately followed it with a spell that obscured the enemy’s vision.
Glashalabolias did exactly the same.
In an instant…
Four of the twenty ratmen collapsed, completely unable to continue fighting.
The charge instantly lost its formation.
Then Glashalabolias cast another dark spell.
“May burning agony and piercing pain take root within you.”
“Curse of Pain.”
āMadness Measurement has activated.
āYou have learned the spell: Curse of Pain.
A brand-new dark spell.
But now wasn’t the time to celebrate.
They had fired off their magic.
The enemies would only hesitate for a second before charging again.
They needed to retreat.
Just as Tei prepared to moveā
“…Huh?”
He blinked.
…What?
Come on.
Why aren’t you charging?
Tei froze.
Between himself and Glashalabolias, they had cast five spells.
Two ratmen were rolling around on the ground, engulfed in Clinging Flame.
Two more stumbled blindly under Blinding Darkness.
One writhed in agony under Curse of Pain.
Five victims.
And because of those five…
Every single ratman behind them had stopped.
CRASH!
“SKREEEE!”
“KIIEEK!”
They crashed into one another in spectacular fashion.
Unable to maintain their charge, they piled together and fell all over themselves.
Everyone stared blankly at the unbelievable sight.
Then…
Glashalabolias’ cooldown ended.
He calmly cast another spell at the untouched ratmen.
Three more were struck.
The entire ratman formation fell into even greater chaos.
Tei joined in.
“Clinging Flame.”
That was the final straw.
The ratmen descended into complete panic.
Several of them even tumbled straight into the sewer current and were swept away.
Father Molton calmly approached the remaining ones.
He casually swung his warhammer.
CRACK!
A ratman’s skull exploded from a single blow.
The surviving healthy ratmen immediately screamed in terror and fled.
The only ones left behind were those crippled by dark magic.
…This actually works?
Dark magic is ridiculously overpowered.
Tei kept the thought to himself.
But someone else said something very similar.
“…Should I become a dark mage too?”
It was Joseph the archer.
Although Fatso Galin and Joseph were only average fighters, Tei had already proven himself to possess the combat strength of an Iron-Rank mercenary.
Even so…
Ellen made the cold, rational decision to retreat.
No one knew just how insane things had become deeper inside.
For mercenaries who lived by the sword…
Recklessness meant death.
She hadn’t become an Iron-Rank mercenary by luck.
Nor had she become the leader of the party by accident.
She might have looked like a muscle-headed warrior…
But her judgment was exceptional.
As they turned around and headed back toward the exit, Ellen’s expression remained grim.
If the situation had become abnormal…
Death could come at any moment.
Everyone else looked equally tense.
The only exception was Glashalabolias, sitting calmly atop Tei’s shoulder.
Well… he’s a demon.
None of this matters to him.
“The Middle Realm truly is fascinating.”
“If I told my comrades about everything I’ve experienced these past few days, they’d never believe me.”
“Your comrades?”
“You mean imps?”
“Some are imps.”
“Others are different.”
“The one I serve holds quite a high position.”
“And you’re not allowed to tell me who?”
“That would violate the contract.”
“If you establish an additional contract with me, perhaps I could tell you.”
“No thanks.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Speaking of which…”
“What other dark magic can you use?”
“For now…”
“Only the curse I used today.”
“If you grow stronger…”
“I’ll be able to use far more.”
“Hey, Skeleton.”
“Could you quit chatting with that demon?”
“It’s giving me the creeps.”
Fatso Galin grumbled.
“We demons are generally feared by humans.”
“But this particular human seems especially incapable of tolerating us.”
“Perhaps his excessive body fat has weakened both his soul and his mind.”
“What did you say!?”
“You tiny little demonā!”
“Enough!”
“Fatso.”
“That’s your warning.”
“It’s perfectly normal for a dark mage to stay with the demon they summoned.”
“If you can’t handle that…”
“Then quit being a mercenary.”
“Tch…”
“A pretty little demon like that…”
Good grief.
Is he jealous?
Or just scared?
What a pain.
Tei grumbled inwardly.
Still…
Having worked with all sorts of people in his previous life…
He wisely kept those thoughts to himself.
There would be plenty of people like this in the future.
Even if it was annoying…
That was simply the price of being a dark mage.
After all…
Dark mages earned far more money.
Just as he took another stepā
RUMBLE!!
A tremendous noise echoed through the sewers.
“What was that…?”
Thenā
BOOOOM!!
The entire sewer suddenly began moving in a bizarre fashion.
The section beneath the party slid to the left.
Meanwhile, the wall on the right split apart, revealing an entirely new passage.
“What the hell is this!?”
“B-Boss! What’s happening!?”
The entire sewer was rearranging itself like the pieces of a gigantic cube.
I knew these were ancient ruins…
But they had a function like this!?
As Tei stared in horror…
The floor carrying the party suddenly began descending.
At this rate…
They would be submerged in the rushing sewage.
“AAAAAH!!”
“DAMN IIIIIT!!”
Thrown into panic, everyone was swept away by the raging current.
Tei…
Was no exception.
