Chapter – 08
Tei, who had been caught up in the filthy wastewater, realized upon waking up that he was in a place where clean water had gathered.
Did I pass through a central water treatment system? Just how far have I been swept away?
“Are you awake?”
Glasya-Labolas, with a rope tied around his waist, was looking down dully at Tei from above.
That rope was connected all the way to Tei’s own body. It seemed he had survived without drowning thanks to Glasya-Labolas.
“Hey. You’re safe.”
“There’s no way I’d get hurt. Other than the fact that I suffered quite a bit because of you, there’s no problem.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. It’s been a while since I came to the Middle Realm, and it would be my loss if my contractor died a vain death.”
That made sense. While many imps were summoned through lowest-tier demon summoning magic, it was rare for special imp butlers to be summoned among them.
Imp summoning was truly a random gacha. In short, a pure game of luck.
To guarantee a specific summon, one needed to know the target’s True Name, but the True Names of demons belonged to highly secretive knowledge. Although making contracts with demons or wielding the wicked power of black magic had been permitted since the Outer God War a thousand years ago, it didn’t mean taboo knowledge was rampant. Gaining an edge over the Outer Gods was one thing, but demons weren’t exactly a trustworthy bunch either.
Even while they conversed, Glasya-Labolas kept moving while keeping Tei tied. A short while later, they arrived at a spot where they could climb up. Thanks to the hellfire blazing above the imp butler’s head, Tei could make out his surroundings, and it was a remarkably astounding place.
First of all, here and there, things that looked completely sci-fi yet seemed to be powered by magic were roaming around. They were the golems maintaining this ancient sewer.
“But where on earth is this place?”
“Indeed. Do you know anything?”
“I roughly know this is some insane ancient facility, but nothing else.”
“My contractor knows nothing. How disappointing.”
“So what if you’re disappointed? Now that we’ve already contracted, there’s nothing you can do! Haha!”
At Tei’s attitude, Mr. Imp looked at him as if he were looking at someone lacking a few screws.
“As an intellectual demon, I shall endure.”
“Suit yourself. Anyway… we do need to escape this place… Ah, right. Hey, As.”
“Do you have something to say?”
“Show me all the black magic you can use.”
“Are you trying to steal and learn my black magic?”
“It’s necessary if I want to survive.”
“Hmm… Transferring black magic knowledge originally requires a different price, but…”
“Well, if you use it, I’ll end up stealing and learning it anyway.”
“There are quite a few non-combat black magics as well.”
“Geez… Fine. Then what do you want?”
“I will teach you the magic of Soul Drain. Offer the soul fragments you obtain with it to me. I will transfer spells to you based on the number of soul fragments.”
“You know how to use Soul Drain too?”
Tei was astonished. No, an imp can use that kind of black magic?
“A demon of my caliber can use at least that much.”
Glasya-Labolas gloated. But he had the right to brag. Soul Drain was a fairly powerful black magic, and learning it was incredibly expensive.
“Let’s move for now. This magic cannot be used unless there are living things around.”
“Let’s do that. But first, let me sort out my gear.”
Tei checked his belongings first. Surprisingly, though the backpack was soaked, it was intact. Furthermore, anticipating a potential fall into wastewater, he had wrapped all the food inside tightly with waterproof tarps, so they were perfectly fine.
Taking them out to check, Tei muttered:
“I brought five days’ worth of rations just in case, but… how long was I unconscious?”
“About a day.”
“If I’ve been drifting for about a day… thinking optimistically, maybe I can make it back in four to five days if I’m lucky.”
“You are far too optimistic. You fell almost vertically. Meaning you’ve plunged quite deep. Besides, is there even a way back?”
“So, thinking pessimistically, it might take dozens of days?”
“Indeed. This water seems to be purified, so it should be fine to drink, but… humans die without food.”
“If worst comes to worst, I’ll just have to hunt and eat monsters.”
‘The only saving grace is that I have a Cooking skill thanks to the Hunter System. I wonder if I’ll get an upset stomach if I roast monster meat with hellfire?’ Tei thought to himself.
He then used the floating hellfire magic to pull a fireball in front of him. He intended to dry his clothes and equipment before setting off.
Sizzle.
“Drying clothes over hellfire. My mood is hellishly good.”
Feeling somewhat sentimental, Tei uttered something resembling a poem. It was a side effect of reincarnation. Being placed in an extreme environment so different from his past life made him spout nonsense like this from time to time.
“What on earth is that?” The imp butler made a face of pure disgust.
“Leave it be. I just feel like talking nonsense sometimes.”
“Humans are truly a difficult species to understand.”
“By the way, the firepower on this is pretty strong. Everything is drying nicely.”
He dried all his clothes and his backpack too. Perhaps because it was hellfire, it smelled faintly of sulfur. Having fully geared up again, Tei began to explore the sewer alongside his summoned demon.
Walking mushrooms appeared. And not just one. There were a hell of a lot of them.
“Do they not even clean this place?”
The tunnel looked to be nearly 20 meters high, and it was wide as well. Yet, from bottom to top, it was overgrown with mushrooms and moss. Beneath them, a swarm of what were commonly known as ‘Walking Mushrooms’ could be seen gathering.
“Is this ecosystem for real?”
“Even if it’s an ancient sewer, it seems they couldn’t put magical measures in place for this sort of thing.”
“Honestly, the fact that the maintenance golems are still working is creepier.”
“If a permanent magic is bestowed upon them, isn’t it entirely possible? As long as a Restoration spell is cast on them, they can work for eternity unless someone goes out of their way to completely destroy them.”
“True. There was that, wasn’t there?”
Restoration Magic. It reverts damaged parts to their initial state. A 2nd-circle spell mainly used to repair items. If it was a golem permanently endowed with that, it made sense that they were still in perfect condition, just as Glasya-Labolas said.
“What will you do?”
“Hunt them, of course. It’s actually perfect timing. Those are edible.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Tei recalled a famous manga and anime series he had seen in his past lifeāDelicious in Dungeon! A story about surviving by eating monsters in a dungeon.
In truth, the concept of eating things in a dungeon existed long before that manga or anime came out. In classic games, there were things like the ‘Blade of the God of Food,’ where slicing a monster with it made it edible. Even without looking back at his past life, there were plenty of edible monsters in his current life. Some were so delicious that gourmands bought them at high prices. Walking Mushrooms weren’t particularly delicious, but they weren’t bad either. They just tasted exactly like mushrooms.
Of course, if one thought about what exactly these things were using as nutrients in this sewer, it might ruin their appetiteābut in an emergency like this, there was no room for choice.
“The problem is… there are too many of them. But there is a way.”
The mushrooms were moving something inside the passage. Looking closely, they were corpses. Humans, ratmen, goblins, or giant centipedes. That’s right. Horrifyingly, the mushrooms bred by using those corpses as seedbeds! Terrifying!
Furthermore, with numbers like that, the moment he attacked, they would rush at him in droves. But it wasn’t as if there was no way to stop them. Tei began his preparations.
The Walking Mushroom standing at the outermost edge turned its body at a tapping sound. These creatures lacked eyes, a nose, or a mouth. Their entire body functioned as a sensory organ, and they actually detected enemies through vibrations. Naturally, it turned its body toward where the sound originated.
Waddling along, it headed toward the source of the noise. Then, the sound tapped away, moving further out. The Walking Mushroom kept giving chase.
How long had it been moving like that? Suddenly, it felt an intense heat searing its body.
Flail, flail!
Lacking a mouth, it made no sound. And in truth, these creatures couldn’t even feel pain. However, it flailed simply because it possessed the sensation of being attacked!
Yet, the fire did not go out. To make matters worse, it felt a sensation as if something was being drained from deep within its body!
Shuaaaa!
It was the Soul Drain magic cast by Glasya-Labolas!
That’s right. The creature had been lured out. Enticed by a method where a rock was tied to a rope to make a noise, it was attacked far away from its nest. Caught in the clinging flames and the soul drain, it instantly lost its life and collapsed!
“As expected. You stole and learned it in one go.”
The one demon and one human who pulled it off then conversed.
“Of course. It was a piece of cake. By the way, even this thing has a soul.”
“Why wouldn’t a mushroom have a soul?”
“Here.”
“Excellent.”
Tei tossed the soul fragment to the demon.
“But why do I have to give it to you manually like this?”
“It is the rule. Since I have formed a summoning contract with you, I can only take what you hand over to me. Even the fragment obtained through the Soul Drain black magic I just used will disappear when I return to Hell.”
“So there was a restriction like that. I’ve learned something new.”
“The world truly seems to have changed a lot. For a human who knows nothing like you to be using black magic.”
“It’s probably because of the Outer Gods.”
As they talked, Tei drew a knife from his backpack and cut into the Walking Mushroom. Dicing its body into chunks, he retreated from the spot. They weren’t completely far from the nest yet. This was no place to leisurely roast and eat a mushroom.
Then, moving to a spot a fair distance away, he roasted and ate it over the hellfire. For some reason, the mushroom roasted in hellfire tasted slightly like meat.
