8. Into the belly of the Beast.

As Albert had said, Alex took the lead. Before stepping on the walkway she unsheathed her sword, happy that they took the left side, where her sword wasn´t handicapped by the wall. As she stepped in the tunnel, Nick asked shocked,

Hey! What the fuck is your blade made of? Alex just held the blade up and showed it to the others, It´s part of some tooth. Don´t know from what Beast, it was a present of my mother. Not better than steel, but not worse either. It´s better for me, as it is more align with my personal Mana.

She turned back and walked forward, her eyes getting used to the darker tunnel. It was not dark, of course, as the light of the others behind her lit the way. But she could still she a lot farther into the increasing Darkness, than the others. Curious, she looked at the Enchantments Albert had spoken of.

The tunnel had a high, arch-shaped celling, and on it and the walls there were multiple engraved circles, filled in with Bloodsteel as it seemed. Every one of those was identical and they were placed in a way that there was at least a little under a meter between one and any other.

If you look at the symbols, you can see that this world enchanting scripture is historical based on the Sunelf scripture, that I showed you. Like most to be true. But over the millennials there came so much different form of writing from that base and some others, that it´s just that a lot of them look a little bit similar. Kagami said while lying in her hallucinated Alex form in a hallucinated bark, that swam beside her on the sewage.

And Alex could see what she meant, the symbols in and around those circles were all flowing, rounded forms without any edges. Not like the cuneiform-like written Aril, which was all edge and angles. But she had firmly decided to concentrate on her other training, and not look into either Rituals or Enchantments until she felt way more competent. And she was on the job, and at the front of the group, so she ignored the Enchantments, and concentrated on looking out for danger from ahead.

Easily she got into a stance and walked forward with the flowing steps of her footwork. At least the sleeping on that artefact had worked just fine. She still didn´t remember much after waking up, but she had instinctively made chances while training, and moving like she did, did feel natural now. So, with active Bodyaugmentation on 10%, and ready to push for a quick full boost, she moved into the Sewers of Nordhutten.

Walking through the stench of this “marvel of engineering” as their boss for the day called it didn´t make Neelis mood better. “It was your decision, that you wanted to smash heads instead of getting on the cleaner paths of work in the Clan. So, you do this before you go to the Akademie, so you have a sense for what dirty work entails.” Had her mother said and so she was here, even if she was not happy with it. Of course, she had known that she had some unpleasantries coming, but this sewer job was just a little much. But she knew her mother to well, than to make an argument out of it.

And additionally, her mother had put a word in the right ear, to get her in this group, with the order to make herself a picture of this strange newcomer, which had everybody gossiping in the last few days. She had the suspicion that she was here, not to make her hands dirty, but just to satisfy her mother’s curiosity.

Well at least she would get some prestige with her friends out of it, which themselves were green of curiosity. Gahn had even got into problems, because he had tried to sneak out of the Clandistrict, to go to that establishment the green-haired girl is living in. That´s another strange thing, what woman would openly, not only go to, but live in a brothel? Not that she had something against that she liked the company of another woman. Neeli was a member of the Clans and not one of these prude northerners. But even on the islands people would act with more discretion.

The real wonder was, that this kind of behavior wasn´t even the strangest thing about her.

You would think the strangest part would be, that she claimed that she was from another world, and that people had found this claim not only as true, they also had promoted the idea, that, if judged by her tales of this world, this world had to be a world of a higher order.

But after seeing her for herself, the strangest thing about her was her obvious nonhumanity. Of course, Neeli had known that she was not human, and had herself been quite eager to meet her, she had just hoped she could do that somewhere else, away from the stinking sewers. But knowing that this woman was a Nymph, even seeing her eyes and different proportioned body was not as strange as just witnessing her move, act and well, just behave.

First of all, she talked and moved in a fast nearly hectic manner, so Neeli had first thought her nervous. But after seeing her walking through the streets, with this group, and noticing her nonchalant manner, she had put that thought to rest. The Nymph seemed to bounce around them like a ball, more than once she had been shocked to find her right next to her to answer a question Neeli had asked, even if she had been three paces away, looking at the stall of a merchant, just a moment before. She reminded her of a puppy, running around from trace to trace, and in doing so walked a multiple of the distance the person who walked it did.

Deep in her thoughts she nearly didn´t hear the planning for their marching order in the sewers, that Albert did. Well, she got the back, was kind of logical if this Alexandra really did see as good in the dark as she said. At least the man acknowledged her role in killing those slimes fast. Nasty buggers would need a lot of slicing if you didn´t back up your hits with some extra magical damage. And her flames were nearly ideal for them.

Hey! What the fuck is your blade made of?

She was just finished getting her helm on and wanted to ready her axe as one of the two gutter rats, that made the rest of the team spoke in a shocked voice,

It´s part of some tooth. Don´t know from what Beast, it was a present of my mother. Not better than steel, but not worse either. It´s better for me, as it is more align with my personal Mana.

The Nymph held up her sword, the blade now gleaming white in the light of the lamps. Well, that was something you didn´t see every day, but not that she didn´t had before. Her mother was head of the local Auction house, after all. Well, to be honest, she never had seen a weapon of this size made out of tooth, or part of it, but daggers and such.

As she looked at the girl turned around and chanced nearly completely in her perception. The nearly bouncing, hectic and just bubbly feeling you had gotten from her changed to a nearly predatory aura. The sword held near to her back, she walked with slightly bend knees forward, feet just lifting enough so she wouldn´t pull them audible over the ground. Her left hand was ready near the hilt of her knife on the belt, all in all she seemed like a spring loaded to burst at something in the dark. The rest followed her, as she stood about two steps in front of the others watching the darkness.

Finally, Neeli shook her head and reminded herself of her own job. Walking, her back to the wall, she held her lamp, so it illuminated what was behind them and readied one of her axes in her left hand. After only half a short walk she had the luck to get the first blood of the day, as an ugly fat rat eked its head out of a smaller pipe opening in the wall. As she beheaded it with a fluid, practiced hit and kicked it into the stream, she laughed faintly to herself. Well, at least she got to hit things and the stench was not that bad, after a while her nose seemed to be able to ignore it more and more.

As Alex glided forward, she was in absolute concentration.

The movement of her fencer stance she had trained so much, that it came nearly natural now. For almost a month she had taken no step any other way. A feat she had only been able to accomplish, because she could heal the aching out of her strained muscles. Hopefully, if she kept it up, it would soon become as natural as breathing.

It would be a great relief, as she was multitasking hard right now. She had her Bodyaugmentation on 10%, was trying to see and hear as much as she could and tried to lead her exhaust trough her feet in the ground. With the last one she struggled most, as she judged it as the least important, at the moment, and it was what she hadn´t be able to train in her month in those hills people called the Deadplains.

Every time she succeeded, she felt as if there was a slight wind coming from inside the tunnel. As for dangers, she saw movements in the dark from time to time. Perhaps rats are running away. And a squeak and wet noise from behind, told her that either Rick or Neeli got something and, as judging from the following splash, tossed it into the sewage.

After a few steps she saw a crossing coming up ahead, the tunnel broke up into three slightly smaller ones. In front of that a stone arc, that looked as if it was from one piece, was set into the tunnel walls and ceiling. As they got nearer, she saw that there were symbols carved into the stone.

At that junction I have to check the Enchantment, after that we take the leftmost tunnel. Albert said, While I have a look be careful. The slimes are in the water most of the time, and not easy to see. While we walk, they don´t bother to come up, because they are much to slow. But if we stay at one point, they will come.

And other than the rats, who will only attack if they think they have a chance, those slimes are absolute brainless. They will just keep coming.

After warning them he started to follow the arc with his lamp, pausing at each symbol and inspecting it. The symbols were small circles, each a little less than palm size and other than one bigger circle, at the top of the arc, all the same.

Perhaps half a minute after they had stopped, clumps of brown sewage started to climb up on the walkway. Some were the size of a golf ball, others bigger.

As I said. As long as they are not bigger than a man’s head, just push them back in. But use your weapons, because of their acid. Might ruin your boots otherwise.

They did as Albert said, and Alex found it easy, and only two were too big. So, they pushed them back to Neeli, who got them killed fast, with her red glowing Axe.

They only stayed there for a minute or two, until Albert noted something down in a small book and told them to get on.

After a short walk they came to the next arc. As This one was looking exactly like the one before Alex asked curious. What are those enchantments for? And are they all the same?

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

As he started to inspect them Albert answered. Well, they are just giving the free Mana in these tunnels a small push in the direction of those gathering enchantments I showed you earlier. The enchantments that separate the water from all the other stuff need a lot of Mana and it is easier to collect it here than up in the open.

It also helps to keep the density of the Mana down here lower, so the Slimes don´t grew too big. And we don´t have to worry about dangerous beasts start to develop here or migrate in from elsewhere.

He points to the bigger circle at the top of the arc. That one is a piece of security, too. It measures Manadensity and gives alarm if they get too high. You see, if the population of slimes and awakened rats gets too big, the density rises, and with those alarms we know when and where we have sent people in to cull the numbers.

Again, he wrote something down and gestured to them to walk again. If you think about it, it´s a fascinating piece of balance we have here. The Slimes are actually helpful, as they break up bigger pieces, that might lead to blockages, and their feces are good fertilizer. They are very adaptable in their lifecycle to their environment, that means that they grow only to a certain level, before they split in order to reproduce. That means, they get only as big as two fists in this Manadensity.

Wait, Rick said. We already have seen bigger ones.

Well, I should have said mostly they don´t get bigger. There are always some who split sooner and some that do it later. There are always outliers.

The bigger problem is the rats. They have no real upside for us, but you will never be able to get rid of them. And as long as they are simple animals, they don´t do much harm. But they too awaken into beasts, and if you don´t cull their number they can get quiet a plaque.

By now they reached another arc and Albert did his work while they again took care of the slimes.

You mean, because if a lot of the rats awaken, the Manadensity goes up, and the slimes get bigger, and everything gets more dangerous? Alex asked.

That´s one side of the problem. Don´t forget, that for you as an awakened being a beastrat is no more dangerous as a normal rat for a not awakened human. But think about all the children in this town! If there were a big population of Beastrats here they soon would hunt for their food, and a beastrat colony can get dangerous for a city.

Believe me, I have heard enough stories of badly managed cities and the dangers that can evolve in them.

After that they followed the tunnels in silence again. Most tunnels were just one and a half meters wide, with a very narrow walkway, but still nearly two meters in height. The smaller and bigger pipes that ended in those tunnels brought in a constant stream of filthy sewage water and by now they were all quite filthy themselves. The arcs of enchantments were never more than a hundred meters apart, mostly at points were the tunnels split and Alex was happy to know, that she wouldn´t get lost down here, because she could simply follow the soft Mana wind to the point where they started this walk.

Twice they had come by a heavy door, that was another way to enter or exit the sewers, as Albert had told them. As she walked up to another Arc, she could see in the darkness up front, Alex noticed a difference. On the right side of it there was a bulging mass on the lower side of the arc. She held up her hand, to stop her companions, and said,

Something is up ahead at the next arc! Might be just a collection of dirt, but I´m not sure.

The others tried to shine their lamps in the direction Alex pointed, but the light didn´t have enough reach.

Get closer. Albert said. But slowly and be ready! No point in being reckless.

After they moved closer Alex soon saw what it was.

It´s a slime, but really a big one. At least three times as big as the ones we killed until now. It has itself spread out on the lower half of the enchantments.

Ah, dam! Get there and this one I end myself!

Albert said, and as they moved up, he pulled the thing he had called his Slimezapper from his belt. He pointed at the slime that seemed to hug the enchantments and said. As I said, there are some that get bigger, and this one is a prime example why we need to kill those buggers. The acid of the smaller ones is strong enough to dissolve all that filth and even bones if they have time enough. But if they get bigger, they get stronger acid too.

He pushed the two sharp points of his strange weapon into the slime and there was the crackle of electricity and a pungent smoke coming from the slime. Which started to convulse and then lost form and splashed into the sewage. Albert followed the now free enchantments with his light.

See. If they get acid strong enough, they get straight for the Bloodsteel in those engravings and try to suck them out. Must be a delicatesse for them. And now we have to make 8 completely new circles here. I just hope we found it at it´s first meal, or it will be a lot of work in the next few days.

The next two arcs had some damage too, and Albert got more and more upset muttering about cost and the budget while he inspected the damage. Alex and the others were doing their job, holding off the slimes and to be truthful, Alex got a little bored. She had really thought it would be more adventures down here. But they just walked tunnel after tunnel, stopping at each arc, killing some slimes and pushing the smaller ones back in. Perhaps they all got too much into the routine, and let boredom get to them, because after a few hours, it might have been around noon, but it was hard to tell down here, Nick suddenly cried out.

Fuck! Shit! It´s on my leg!

He hopped on one leg and shook the other while hitting it with his hand. There was a sound like the popping of bubble wrap, and he really started screaming in pain. If Albert hadn´t hold on to him, he might had fallen into the sewage canal.

Damm! Fool has squashed it on his skin. Fast, wash the acid from his skin, I hold him.

Alex nodded and got down and cut his trouser leg open with her knife. After she got the linen away, she saw a nasty chemical burn, bigger than her palm. And there was the slime of the killed small slime all over it, happily eating into the skin and flesh. She took out her water flask and cleaned it away, with parts of the trousers and water.

Then she looked around, the others had problems keeping the other slimes away from her and Nick.

I can´t heal him here, with all those slimes I cannot concentrate in peace. We need someplace that´s save. Alex told them.

In one of the side tunnels, perhaps 400 steps back, there is a door to enter the sewage. Albert pointed out the way they have come from.

They made haste backtracking their way and Albert opened the door with a key. Behind it was a narrow staircase and on it´s end a small room with another door and narrow windows looking out on a street.

They laid Nick on the floor; he was whimpering in pain and Alex could empathize. Acid burns were painful as hell, and he had a deep and big one. You could see the flesh as she carefully cleaned it again.

Can you get him on his feet again, or do we have to stop for today? Asked Albert.

Don´t really know, hadn´t much experience with wounds from acid until now. Alex answered. Give me some time and I know more.

As she had cleaned the wound as best as she could, she first let go of her bodyaugmention, as she would need her Manaregeneration, and then put her hands on Nicks leg around the burn.

Nick! I know the pain is bad, but you have to concentrate to let my Mana in. Just concentrate on that I´m your ally and that I´m helping you. She said to him, looking him in the eyes. The better you do, the faster I can heal you and the faster the pain will be gone.

Nick nodded and then bit on the leather sheath of one of his knives.

Feeling the resistance of his Aura lessen, Alex pushed her Mana into the wound and it´s surrounding flesh. It was quite easy, as it was not very deep. Slowly she concentrated on the harmed flesh, picturing the cells to divide and grow back what was lost. She had only to give a clear intent, not sensing too deep and controlling everything herself. The body knew by itself what was needed, so she had to just circulate more of her Mana into Nicks leg to fuel the process. She knew that what she did was just speed up the process of natural healing. But it was what she was restricted to until she had learned more. Only when she could sense the wound better and, in more detail, she would be able to control the healing by herself. Not that it would make much difference with a wound like this. As Kagami had told her, it would make it possible to heal without leaving a scar. But more important, it would give her the possibility to heal some parts of an injury first, instead everything evenly. This wouldn´t make a difference here, but with a life-threatening wound it would be important. Like to heal only an artery first, and stop someone from bleeding out, before healing the rest.

After a while, she didn´t quiet know how long, as she lost herself in her concentration, the wound was closed and a had left an impressive fresh red scar. She had needed about a third of her Mana for the healing, and as she let go of the leg and swiped the sweat from her neck and brow, she looked at the others, which were looking all back at her.

Huh, what? She asked them bewildered.

Oh, just never saw a healing other than from a priest. It´s quite different! Albert said.

Well it takes a lot more time, at least. Came from Neeli, But I never saw how long one of their Novices would take, so what do I know.

It itched like hell! Said Nick, But I´m healed and the pain is gone. Thank You!

Oh, how long did it take? Alex asked, I get lost in it and lose the sense of time.

About 10 minutes Kagami said, sitting as a cat in the light beam coming through one of the windows.

Less than half a bell, Albert answered the same time. I´m just happy we don´t loose the rest of the day. If you and him are able, we should get going. We have to inspect the rest of my area by the evening. It´s a lot more trouble, if I and the others can´t make the plans for the work crews this evening.

Alex nodded and looked to Nick who was carefully testing his foot.

I think I´m good! He said, thank you again, that might have been a nasty wound to heal by myself. And unlike others I can´t afford a Priest, not even a Novice. I would have lost at least the money I can now earn the next few days. So, I owe you one!

He had an earnest look on his face and not sure what to say Alex just nodded.

The rest of the day went well. After the one mishap they all were very much on their toes and didn´t underestimate even the small slimes. But still it was boring, stinking work, and they all were more than happy to get out again.

As they came up another narrow stairwell, they found themselves somewhere in the craft district and the sun was pretty low already. Albert dismissed them right here and told them to be at the A.S.S. office the next morning.

As for Alex, she just felt dirty. She looked at the others and asked:

Say, does anybody of you know a bathhouse around here? I don´t want to get to my accommodations like this.

To her luck, the twins gave her a short description of the way before they parted ways.

A while later she was laying in warm water slowly healing the strain of the day out of her muscles. With a lot of goodwill, you could call this bathhouse a sento-like structure. At least there was a station to wash yourself before getting in the bigger pool of warm water, and it was separated by gender. But the washing station was a hand crank pump, that was operated by a young girl who was also there to give out towels, and the pool was one of those really big wine barrels, that someone had sowed in half.

But hey she thought, at least she didn´t stink anymore. Other than the girl there was an older woman, which did look at her curious, but didn´t start a conversation by herself. A fact Alex was quite happy right now. But as she was not alone, she asked Kagami, who was a duck at the moment, in her thoughts,

What do you think about today? And why a duck?

Oh, just testing! Kagami answered and morphed herself into mirroring Alexandra again.

Well, I found it quite boring too. I mean, I knew there is nothing really dangerous in those sewers, but somehow, I´m still disappointed. At least I didn´t have to smell it.

Alex giggled a little at that statement, Oh I wish I could say the same thing.

Do you want to go on with it, or use your time for something other until we go to this Copperhouse for training?

I think I better do the work. I mean, I want them to train me, then it´s better if they don´t think of me as someone that quits so easy. And those twins will be at the training too. It´s always better to already know someone there.

Did you give them those knives to buy their goodwill?

Well, partly! As it is I bought too many, so nothing lost. What do you think of Neelie? She will be at that Akademie, and as I did understand it, the Akademie and the Copperhouse are close and even do some training together.

She was not very happy to be on this assignment, that is clear. But other than that, she didn´t say much.

Yes, but maybe not a bad thing to have a contact in this Akademie. We will see what the next days bring.

So, no other plans for the next days?

Nope! Well, tomorrow are my armor and blade finished. And the rest of my clothes too. But other than that, only the sewers until evening, and having a lot of fun in the Gilded Rose after that.

Are you planning on doing the same while training in that Copperhouse? I mean living in a brothel.

Heck no! That would be too much, I just enjoy it for now. Like a little holiday. I really want to take this training seriously. And I can´t sleep on the artefact if I´m not alone.

Okay, that sounds good! Taking it seriously is the right thing to do.

Good that we think the same. And it doesn´t mean there can be some fun some nights. We will see.