## Chapter 101 – Cultists in the Underground Waterway
“Hi, hi.”
Arriving at the guild at the time I’d promised Copson, a familiar brown-haired woman waved both hands. It was Meria, an adventurer of the shield warrior type.
“Meria was the last one?”
“She happened to be free. When I suggested a party, she agreed right away.”
Come to think of it, was this the first time working with Meria since the dungeon? Her main shield on her back still looked as sturdy as ever. She even blocked curse magic with that shield.
“Yeah, is this the first time since the dungeon? How have you been?”
“I’m always doing well. But who’s standing behind you?”
“Ah, introduce yourself. This is my girlfriend, Claudia.”
“Girlfriend!”
Meria’s eyes widened at the word “girlfriend,” and she covered her mouth with both hands.
What a refreshing reaction.
“Nice to meet you, Claudia.”
“Ah, hello? I’m Meria. Khatt’s girlfriend?”
Suddenly, Claudia, who was behind me, hugged me and rested her chin on my shoulder.
“As you can see?”
“Oh my gosh!”
For some reason, Meria was excited and began asking Claudia all sorts of things. When did you start dating, how did you start dating, and so on. I guess she’s interested in that kind of story since she’s a girl with relatively normal sensibilities.
There’s nothing more boring than other people’s love stories, though.
Anyway, maybe because she’s so outgoing, the two of them kept talking.
I was released from the middle and stood next to Copson, habitually munching on dried rations.
“Hey, Copson. How long do we have to go?”
“It looks like we can leave soon.”
“Oh, right. Come to think of it, did you bring a lantern? The one we bought when we went to the dungeon. I bought plenty of oil just in case.”
At my words, Copson took out a lantern from his backpack. It was Copson’s lantern that we used effectively in the dungeon. A useful item that lights up for several hours when filled with oil.
“Heh heh heh, what do you take me for? Of course, I brought it. I would have been angry if you hadn’t brought the oil.”
The downside is that you can’t use one hand while wearing it. It’s kind of like a cursed item. I was already starting to feel a strange urge to polish my ring.
“Basic stuff, dude. Hey. Let’s go now!”
And so, we set off towards the entrance to the city’s underground waterway. It wasn’t far. Claudia seemed a little annoyed by Meria sticking to her, but she didn’t seem too upset, judging by how diligently she answered.
“Hey, hey, what’s so good about him?”
“Well… there’s so much that it’s hard to decide.”
“Oh my gosh!”
We naturally ended up walking in a group of two men and two women.
Copson, who was walking next to me, whispered.
“They’re so young.”
“They are young.”
“What do you have to do to get a girlfriend?”
“Be handsome.”
“Don’t even joke about being handsome.”
“That hurts.”
“That hurts.”
Copson is a pitiful guy who has all his charm stats dumped into his hair, so to be honest, I think it’s a bit hopeless for him to get a girlfriend. He’s probably on the perfect track to becoming a typical old bachelor.
After chatting casually, we soon arrived at the entrance to the underground waterway.
Someone was standing in front of it, and when I got closer, it was Mr. Merman.
“So you’re the adventurers who will clear out the undead… hmm?”
“Long time no see, Mr. Merman.”
“Hmm, a friend I’ve worked with before.”
“Do you know him?” the party members asked. I replied that we had worked together before. Mr. Merman looked us over and began to briefly explain what we had to do.
“Right now, the waterway is filled with undead, so most of the work is stalled except for the first basement level. That means unknown corpses and garbage are piling up. If we don’t solve it quickly, water will flow back into the city.”
“That’s bad news. How many undead are there specifically?”
“I haven’t been able to grasp the exact scale. All I know is that the workers on the second basement level made a fuss and went on strike… To be more specific, you know. I couldn’t slack off anymore.”
“That’s a big problem!”
I recalled my beautiful memories with Mr. Merman.
The beautiful memory of hiding in a corner and taking a nap, taking advantage of the situation of patrolling alone. It was a ray of salvation and warmth for me, who was tired from practicing swordsmanship. I just slept and got paid, so it couldn’t have been better.
To mess up Mr. Merman’s livelihood like this.
Damn undead bastards. I will never forgive you.
“I’ll guide you, so you just have to protect me and take care of the undead.”
In other words, this quest was about protecting Mr. Merman and dealing with the remaining undead that had invaded the waterway. As with these types of quests, we had to pay special attention to the escort because if Mr. Merman died, it would be a disaster.
There’s no chance for a retry.
“Let’s go in.”
Merman, with his lantern lit, entered the underground waterway. We followed him down.
“Ugh… the stench.”
“It’s pretty bad.”
The party members began to frown at the serious stench. Claudia has a better sense of smell than humans, so it must be even harder for her. I handed her the cloth I bought yesterday.
“Here, Claudia, cover your nose with this. It’ll be a little better.”
“Thank you.”
Claudia took the cloth and immediately covered her mouth and nose. I covered my nose and mouth as well. After taking a breath, it seemed okay to some extent. I don’t know about Claudia.
Then Meria came up and said.
“Oh, so that’s how you captured her heart?”
“That’s right. You should learn it too. Men are weak to this too.”
“Men too? Isn’t it the opposite?”
“What opposite? Men and women are all the same. Meria, if you want to hook a man, be really nice to him or get him drunk once. As for Claudia…”
“That’s enough.”
“Yes.”
Claudia cut me off.
She has a history of making me a drunk and messing me up on the first day we met.
I once heard an excuse for that, but she was a spinster who had lived her whole life without any connection to men, and she saw an ideal male figure and acted impulsively… Ah, this was too embarrassing of a confession, so let’s skip it.
“Is that true, Barbarian?”
“What?”
“That men and women are the same…”
“You’re an exception.”
“Damn it.”
Anyway, Copson and Merman’s lanterns lit up the darkness.
The inside of the waterway was filled with the sound of water flowing. Swish, it seemed even quieter because of this sound of water. Only the sound of sewer rats running around and the sound of water dripping from the ceiling could be heard from time to time.
“Now let’s go down to the second floor. I was a little worried, but as expected, I can’t see anything on the first floor.”
We arrived at the stairs leading down to the second basement level.
This time, Meria, holding up her shield, took the lead. Copson, closely attached to her, raised his lantern. Slowly, very slowly, because we didn’t know what would pop out. I couldn’t help but feel nervous thinking that there might be ghouls.
There was no attack while coming down the stairs.
We entered the second floor completely and made our way through the silent darkness.
Meria, with her shield in front, stood behind Merman to protect his rear, with Copson and I in the front. And Claudia followed behind.
Undead will appear in earnest from here.
To be honest, I’m not afraid of zombies or anything, but the image of ghouls was still vivid in my mind. If I were to see such a deformed monster in this dark waterway, wouldn’t my heart ache a lot?
It wasn’t just once or twice that I was surprised while playing the game Space of the Dead and picked up my dropped liver. The human liver is surprisingly detachable, so I often reattached it when it fell off.
ㅡOrororong.
ㅡOrorororong.
“They’ve appeared.”
Staggering zombies began to walk from over there.
I looked around to see if there was anything else besides them, but the light from the lantern didn’t reach far, so I couldn’t find anything else in particular.
“Cut off their heads.”
“I will.”
I drew my sword and walked forward stealthily like a destructive cat.
If I cut it wrong, the head and the corpse would fall into the waterway flowing next to it. I needed to collect as many heads as possible, so that would be a problem.
ㅡOrororong.
I carefully swung my sword at the zombie reaching out its arm. First, I controlled my strength and cut it weakly. The head might fly off due to the unexpected propulsion.
ㅡThwack!
But surprisingly, I couldn’t cut off the zombie’s neck.
The sword was only half stuck in its neck.
I controlled my strength too meticulously.
“Shit.”
I don’t like this frustrating stuff.
I immediately kicked the zombie with its neck half cut off. My kicking power has increased dramatically due to the Greaves of the Holy Savior Heaven Church. The zombie that flew away from the impact crashed into the wall and fell over.
“Copson, just cut off that bastard’s head.”
“Okay.”
I left the fallen guy to Copson and aimed at another one.
I’ll cut off its head in one go this time.
“Ugh, you frustrating guys.”
Then Meria, who had strode out, coolly swung her shield. The zombie, hit in the chest by the protruding part in the center of the shield, vomited out its broken ribs and fell backwards, and Meria stepped on the fallen guy and slammed the shield down on its neck.
ㅡBang!
Then the zombie’s head fell off.
It’s an amazing power.
“Okay, put it away quickly.”
“Yeah… you’ve collected some dollars, haven’t you?”
“I enjoyed the festival to the fullest.”
After that, there wasn’t really anything dangerous. It was literally a smooth process. We easily defeated the zombies that appeared, and carefully put the heads, which were proof of that, into the sack.
“Mr. Merman. How many more zombies do we have to catch?”
“Hmm, even so, we have to do it thoroughly because it’s a commissioned job. We’ll have to keep searching until this evening. If you show me the heads you’ve collected by then, I’ll stamp it. You have to show that you’ve done something, at least.”
“That’s a reasonable thought.”
While replenishing the oil each time the lantern went out, we continued to explore the second basement level according to Merman’s guidance.
The only special thing was that we killed a few giant bats and waterway slimes for fun. As expected of our adventurers with their personalities gone, they expressed their extreme welcome to the living monsters with violence.
After seeing only undead, it was so nice to see living guys again.
We killed the slimes by bursting them and cut the giant bats in half as they flew in.
“Don’t destroy the waterway’s ecosystem too much. They also decompose things like sewage.”
Mr. Merman said, but killing living monsters was quite enjoyable even during the boring exploration of the waterway.
ㅡGorororok.
“Oh my, look at that bastard.”
As we were walking, we saw some zombies that had fallen into the waterway. They were floating around in the water, unable to do anything. Looking at Mr. Merman’s face, he said that there was no need to pick them up. That was a relief.
If he had told me to pick up something like that, I might not have known what to do with Mr. Merman.
“It seems like we’ve gone around the second floor enough… I think it’ll be over if we explore the third floor a little and go up.”
Mr. Merman’s guidance continued to the third basement level.
“…This isn’t a very pleasant place.”
Rarely, Claudia made a groan. Damn it. I should never do work related to underground waterways again. She didn’t seem to be feeling well because of the smell. I decided to stay by her side as much as possible and comfort her.
There was nothing special on the third floor either. There were just a few zombies and skeletons rolling around. The ghouls I was worried about weren’t visible either. It was literally a simple job.
It was almost time to end the search.
We’ve filled the sack to some extent, so this should be enough.
That’s when it happened.
“Khatt, stop.”
Claudia stopped me.
“I feel a presence.”
“…A presence?”
I immediately stopped the group and asked Merman.
“Mr. Merman. Has anyone else entered separately?”
“…As far as I know, no one has recently. I’ve been controlling access since I commissioned the request.”
Feeling uneasy at those words, we held our breath.
If there was someone, they would have already seen us because of the lantern light. But unlike Claudia’s words that she felt a presence, we couldn’t see anything other than our light.
Someone walking around without a light?
Or an undead?
If it was an undead, she wouldn’t have bothered to mention it.
Then?
ㅡTap tap tap tap!
Suddenly, we heard the sound of something running.
“Is someone there!”
“Everyone, get behind me!”
Copson was shocked, and Meria, holding up her shield, stepped in front of us.
ㅡTap tap tap tap!
Unlike my friends who were making a fuss, I realized something was wrong and listened intently to the sound.
Something was running, but it wasn’t the sound of something approaching.
Rather, it was getting further away.
…That’s the sound of someone running away.
Someone had discovered us and was running away.
