“Well, I’m all ears. Go ahead, tell me,” I said.

“Hehe. It’s simple — I’ll hold my hands out to become your springboard by giving you a boost, and all you’ve to do is to jump as high as possible and stick both your daggers into the wall. ‘Course, if you manage to reach the tunnel in a single go, that’s even better.”

Tuilë had a pair of large hands, and while they were only a bit bigger and longer than mine, they would do better in terms of pushing me up than my own hands. To put the icing on the cake, she possessed a higher strength value, like twice mine, so I would definitely reach high in altitude.

Actually, I was still unsure about how much a single point in stat increased my power. But when looking at things so far, I’d deduced that it should be close to 5 percent, with each increasing stat being 5 percent of their previous points. A lot more experiments to gain concrete data would be needed, but I would save that for later.

“Hrm… Fine.” There was no better plan I could think of since Luna-1 wasn’t powerful enough to carry us.

She advised, “Remember to circulate your source energy in your legs so you can jump higher.”

“Mm. Noted.”

I prepared myself twenty meters away to build up enough momentum to make the highest possible jump.

“On three. One… two… three!” I shouted, taking off in a sprint at close to the speed of what the fastest runner in my world was capable of. My speed was a product of this body’s strong physique as well as the source energy. At this rate, I could have shattered any of Earth’s short-distance running records as long as I kept getting stronger.

With Tuilë a few steps away, I first leaped onto her hands and then circulated my source energy to the maximum, and, propelled by her hands, I made the highest jump ever in my life.

One meter, two meters… Five meters…

I was launching at a fast speed as though using a trampoline. But still, I was only able to reach three-quarters of the tunnel. Luckily, I had my daggers ready to stab at the wall — already infused with both Pyro and Electro. Since they had to support my weight, the daggers slid downward for almost a meter. Phew.

“Now what’s left is to climb into the tunnel.” I peeked at the tunnel mouth three to four meters above me; it should be no problem.

With one stab at a time, I made my way to the tunnel. I didn’t mind the putrid stench coming from within and looked below.

“All right. It’s your turn, Tuilë.”

Tuilë nodded her head, but unlike me that had to create momentum by running first, she squatted down and then jumped. Even with her superhuman physique, she was unable to get to ten meters in a single go, so she punched a hole halfway to the tunnel with her lightning punch.

Once she landed, she squatted down again and made a bigger jump, propelling her to the hole that she made. Of course, the hole was too small for her to get inside, but she used that hole to propel her up one more time. Unlike the previous jumps, she flipped forward to increase her momentum, almost reaching the ten-meter mark.

I reached out my hand to catch her hand and pulled her up into the sewer tunnel. It was the second time that this had happened, but at least she did better than I did to get up here.

Breathing out a sigh of relief, I stood up and gazed at the tunnel with squinted eyes. “The tunnel lacks lighting. Who knows what kind of dangers lies within?”

“Why don’t you use your catalyst daggers as sources of light?” she brought up.

“Well, that also works. But we have this drone that Lunaria controlled to guide us.”

As if responding to what I said, Luna-1 flew out from my backpack and turned on its flashlight.

“Ohh, so its name is Lunaria—”

Hearing what she said, Lunaria quickly retorted, “That’s not this drone’s name, that’s my name. Don’t be mistaken.”

“Okay, Lunaria,” Tuilë said teasingly.

“…”

They kept with the frivolity as we entered deeper into the tunnel. Further ahead, the tunnel led to a larger sewer with stagnant wastewater in the middle. Muddy puddles filled the ground here and there. The smells of putrid rotten eggs stung my nose… This was the place where the noxious stench originated. Yuck… I hate this smell.

“This place smells bad…” Tuilë sniffed around. “Be careful not to light any fire.”

Fortunately, I hadn’t used the Pyro catalyst dagger to light up the area, or something bad might have happened.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Lunaria, can you check the composition of the air? If it contains methane gas, it can be dangerous in the long run.”

“Sure…” Luna-1 flew near the center of the sewer. “There’s indeed a small to moderate methane concentration in the air — about 10 percent — but it’s nothing to worry about as long as you don’t light something up on fire.”

“I see.”

However, my hunch was telling me that there was something hiding in the dark corners all around us, watching us, which was soon proven by Lunaria.

“The enemy is coming our way.”

Tuilë also noticed by agreeing with a nod and facing forward to the darkest part of the tunnel, bracing herself for the incoming enemy.

Lurking out from the dark corner was a mass of gray tides of large hairy creatures with protruding noses and teeth. They were obviously a colony of giant rats or mutant rats with how deformed they looked in contrast to normal ones with fat and round bodies that were at least half a meter big. Gross and frightening.

““Squeeek!!””

The mutant rats growled, whipping their tails back and forth. Saliva dripping down from their mouths…

“Fuck! There are dozens… if not hundreds of them encircling us from all sides!” They’d probably noticed our intrusion into their nest and flocked together to turn us into their supper.

Fighting with the rifle at this close range seemed to be a bad idea, so I tightly gripped both the catalyst daggers and circulated my source energy on the catalyst stones. I didn’t go overboard for fear of triggering a chain reaction.

“Maxim, cover me. Also, be careful not to get bitten; they’re infectious,” she warned, her face stiffening.

Tuilë, with her gun not functioning, spread her hands that were crackling with lightning wide and began slaughtering the mutant rats left and right. I joined the fray and helped to take care of her blind spots, with every swing hurting the rat.

The sensation of piercing the rats’ fur and flesh was always unpleasant. But it was mitigated thanks to the stone daggers that became sharper after being infused with their source elements.

I peeked at Tuilë, who didn’t stop using her source power. Even without a catalyst weapon in hand, she was able to exhibit greater combat power than me, killing the incoming rats in the dozens. I wasn’t far behind, however, but the daggers were too short to inflict a mortal wound.

Of course, the rats didn’t let themselves be slaughtered just like that. Some of them attempted to pounce on us, their sharp teeth poised for a bite. With heightened speed and agility, we effortlessly sidestepped their lunges since none of these vermin posed a threat at First Order. My newfound abilities as a source enhancer undoubtedly enhanced my reaction time.

Just then, one of the rats caught me off guard and bared its sharp front teeth at me, ready to bite off a chunk of me. I heaved a diagonal swing with the two daggers in response, barely able to make it in time.

“SQUUUEK?!”

The rat fell to the ground with a cry, blood oozing out from the cross-wound on its stomach. The black pool of blood at my feet from all the dead rats seeped across the ground, soaking my boots and making the floor slippery.

Although the narrow space further supported us in limiting their approach, the rats started swimming from the other side across the water to get to us, eyes red with bloodlust. As if they hadn’t eaten for days, the rats were relentless in their assault — no matter how many of their comrades were killed in the process.

At this rate, we might get exhausted before anything else.

“This is a no-go. Quickly now! We must find a hiding spot!

Tuilë gave me a perfunctory nod and used her hand which had transformed into the lightning claws of a beast to clear out a path. I was glad that I had her as my ally and not as my enemy.

“Did you find any escape route, Lunaria?!”

“Exactly so! I was about to tell you that. Twenty meters ahead, there’s a passageway that may lead to the exit.”

Lunaria had been secretly wandering around the tunnel using Luna-1 while we were busy fighting the rats. Annihilating the mutant rats was never our first option, to begin with.

As we kept advancing, not far from where we were, there was a turn into a narrow passageway on our left. With a tacit understanding, we made our way there by slaughtering all the mutant rats blocking our way.

If she weren’t here to be the one that took the lead, I wouldn’t have survived the first minute. Having a dependable companion was the best thing to have.

And yet, even when we made our way there, the rats didn’t stop with their relentless chase. Simply escaping inside didn’t seem to be a solution for our escape. Therefore, I faced the situation and ignited the methane gas to make a wall of fire.

“You leave me with no choice—!” I grabbed a grenade from my backpack, pulled the trigger, and threw it into the midst of the gray tide.

With a loud boom, a big explosion arose as soon as the grenade hit the ground, causing fire to appear and spread at an alarming rate. That one grenade became the trigger for the accumulated methane to explode and fried the mutant rats inside, along with their intense screams.

I was almost unable to escape because of the immensity of the explosion, but thankfully Tuilë pulled me back in time and brought me deeper inside. Although, because I was a second too late to cover my ears, they were ringing like crazy even at this distance.

Anyway, she only stopped in her tracks after about a minute of running inside the tunnel.

“Whew…! Cough!”

Being dragged by the collar almost choked me to death. This wasn’t my first time killing a wave of monsters, but it was among the most challenging.

“What was that thing you used just now? It’s just like a bomb but thrown… like a dynamite without the need to light it up first!” Rather than being exhausted like what people would reach after all that, she was more bothered to ask about the grenade, shaking me by the shoulders even.

“…Well, you’re not wrong… it’s a bomb in a sense.” I was too exhausted to explain further.

Still, with it used, only one grenade remained in my backpack. If I were an evoker when we were fighting the rats, it’d have been much smoother. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t even need to use the grenade to cause the explosion, as I could’ve conjured a fireball to trigger the explosion.

If another situation like this arose, it would be hard to do this again.

“Um… we have been killing these mutated monsters for ages, and I’ve been wondering. Can we consume mutated monster meat?”

I hadn’t tried eating one myself, and there was no better person to ask for answers than a local. Lunaria said that it was poisonous to humans, but there might be some special way to cook it.

“If you want to die in the most gruesome way by food poisoning, then be my guest. Although source users generally possess higher resistance, so you may last if it’s only a little amount.”

Yeah, I’m going to keep my distance from it as far as possible. Don’t wanna be poisoned again… Besides, it looks anything but appetizing.

“Maxim, Tuilë… I found a way out to the outside, but there’s one problem…” said Lunaria as the spherical drone returned as clandestinely as it had gone.