Monarch Chapter 189 (Patreon)

Chapter 189

It happened on the eve of the ninth day of their push deeper into the ruins.

Prince Caelan approached Captain Edran with a proposal to send Rayne and a small party along a different route to look for more old relics.

After taking a few separate streets and moving somewhat deeper, there was apparently an artisan district nearby, and according to Caelan, there was a good chance they could find valuable relics there.

The reason for sending only a small party was simple.

A smaller group would be far easier to sneak around with, especially since there were considerably more beasts in that part of the ruins.

One of the major reasons the warband had encountered so many monsters over the past week was simply because of their size.

A group that large was almost impossible to move through the ruins without being noticed. Adventurers entering the ruins still fought monsters regularly, but they weren't idiots who walked openly through monster territory when they could avoid it.

Most of them traveled in smaller groups and relied on stealth whenever possible.

Caelan's proposal was therefore quite reasonable on the surface. He even offered his own retainers to accompany Rayne, making it appear as though the prince genuinely wanted them to look through the artisan district.

After some discussion, which also included Rayne, Captain Edran eventually nodded.

He had also suggested sending Casper with them as well, but Caelan strongly argued that a fire mage would be more useful with the rest of the warband, especially because Casper was exceptionally good at dealing with large numbers of monsters at once.

Captain Edran certainly didn't look as though he believed every word coming out of the prince's mouth, but in the end, he agreed.

And that was more than enough.

Rayne suspected another reason for Edran's decision was that he still had yet to acquire the three artifacts he needed from the Godless Ruins.

He hadn't forgotten about that punishment he had gotten for simply killing Fredrick.

The weapons they had discovered in the basement certainly didn't qualify as an artifact, but if they could find an old and valuable mana artifact in the artisan district, then it would finally count toward what he owed the kingdom.

Unfortunately, they had no intention of going anywhere near the artisan district.

Once they separated from the warband, Rayne and his party initially followed the route they had been given, but they soon reached a fork in the road.

There, they quietly changed direction and took the path leading toward the sewers instead.

From that point onward, they spent most of their time moving through the insides of abandoned buildings rather than openly walking along the streets.

It was slower, but it made them considerably harder to notice. The buildings were in terrible condition, with broken walls, collapsed rooms, and vegetation growing everywhere, but they provided enough cover for a small group to move through the area without immediately attracting the attention of nearby beasts.

Unfortunately, they also came with another problem.

There was a strange smell lingering inside many of them.

The plants growing through them produced some unpleasant scents on their own, but that wasn't the only reason.

Monsters had been using these abandoned buildings as shelter for years, and apparently, they had also been using them as places to relieve themselves. The result was a collection of smells that Rayne would have preferred never experiencing.

They had to be careful about where they stepped as they moved through the ruined rooms, with everyone occasionally having to change direction just to avoid something particularly unpleasant on the floor.

Nate eventually couldn't stay silent anymore.

He looked toward Lyra, who had tied a cloth around her face, and complained, “Hey, don't you know any spell that creates better-smelling flowers?”

Lyra immediately looked at him with a displeased expression. “Do you think I would learn such a useless spell?”

“That's not a useless spell in our current situation.”

Lyra merely snorted behind the cloth covering her nose and mouth.

Rayne doubted she wouldn't have done something about the smell if she could help. Elves apparently had a much stronger sense of smell than humans, which meant that whatever they were smelling was probably considerably worse for Lyra than it was for the rest of them.

For the moment, though, there was nothing they could do about it.

So, they simply endured the smell and continued to walk through the buildings. .

The buildings gradually became more isolated, and the streets outside grew quieter as they moved towards an area most adventurers had never walked through.

There were still signs of monsters around them, but thankfully, none noticed them enough to try to eat them.

Rayne continued keeping [War Pulse] active as much as possible, carefully watching for any movement nearby.

Soon, they reached a large gap in the path ahead of them where an entire section of the building was simply gone. Even the street below had been broken apart, leaving a wide drop between them and the ruined structure on the other side.

Rayne looked down for a moment before glancing around. He couldn't help wondering if some enormous monster had fallen through this place long ago and taken the buildings and street down with it.

Whatever had happened, crossing it normally was clearly impossible.

However, when he raised his head and looked toward the other side, he noticed an opening in the building that would allow them to continue their route.

Rayne turned toward Lyra. “It's your turn.”

The quarter elf simply nodded before immediately using her magic.

Vines began growing from the surrounding vegetation, twisting together and extending across the gap until they formed a sturdy platform that connected the two sides.

Rayne couldn't help thinking that without Lyra with them, they would have a much harder time moving through these ruins.

Her ability to manipulate plants gave them a way around obstacles that would otherwise force them to take long detours or expose themselves by walking through the streets.

They carefully crossed the vine platform one after another, making their way into the ruined building on the other side.

It was then that Andrew, the second retainer Rayne had brought along, spoke for the first time since they had separated from the warband.

“Mage Lyra is as reliable as always.”

Rayne looked back at the man who had been the personification of being stoic since they had left the warband. “Have you two gone on a lot of quests together?”

Andrew shook his head. “Only a few jobs for Prince Caelan, but I've seen her handle everything that was asked of her. So I was glad when you chose her alongside me.”

Rayne nodded at that, though he couldn't help wondering what kind of jobs Prince Caelan usually gave his retainers. They certainly couldn't be simple if someone like Andrew had developed that kind of confidence in Lyra's abilities.

He crossed the vine platform after the others, feeling even more certain that choosing Lyra had been the right decision.

Honestly, it had been a no-brainer.

He had spent more time with her than anyone else among Caelan's retainers, and she was extremely good at controlling a battlefield, which was something Rayne knew he would need.

As for Andrew, his presence in the group was just as obvious. He was the highest-level retainer Prince Caelan had, standing at level 65, and his skills allowed him to fight effectively at both range and close quarters. There was simply no reason for Rayne to leave him behind.

Until now, every creature they had encountered in the ruins had still been manageable, and most of their battles had involved the entire warband fighting together.

That was about to change. Rayne had no idea what sort of creatures might be living inside the sewers, so he wanted as much firepower as he could gather before going down there.

With that thought, they continued moving through the ruins.

After some time, they finally reached a sloped path that led downward toward what appeared to be a dried-up lake. The enormous basin had probably once held a considerable amount of water, but there was nothing left now except cracked earth, scattered rocks, and vegetation that had slowly taken over its edges.

According to the information Prince Caelan had given them, the entrance to the sewers was somewhere around this area.

Fortunately, there were no monsters nearby.

They spent nearly half an hour searching the surrounding area before they finally found what they were looking for. The entrance had been almost completely hidden by several large boulders sitting against the side of the dried-up lake.

At first glance, it looked like nothing more than another section of collapsed ruins.

Andrew and Lyra immediately moved to clear it.

The former simply grabbed the boulders with his bare hands and moved them aside one after another, while the latter used her spells to shift the heavier ones that even he couldn't easily handle.

Eventually, a giant hole came into view.

It descended into complete darkness, so deep that Rayne couldn't see where it ended.

For a moment, everyone simply stared into it.

Kesh was the first to break the silence. “This feels like that troll cave we entered a couple of months back.”

Heins immediately frowned. “Don't talk like that. Trolls don't like sewers.”

Jason grinned. “I do hear swamp monsters are pretty common in places like these. Some cities have to send adventurers down to deal with them regularly, or they end up poisoning the whole city.”

Rayne's expression stiffened slightly.

His mind immediately filled with images of such monsters from the movies he had watched on Earth. Horrific creatures crawling through filthy water, oversized amphibians, things with too many limbs, and monsters lurking beneath the surface of dirty water waiting for someone to get close.

He sincerely hoped they wouldn't have to fight anything like that.

Though [War Pulse] would surely help them down there, Rayne knew that standing around the entrance for too long was only inviting something to discover them. So, he took the first step into the sewer.

Almost immediately, Lyra raised one hand and created a small ball of light above her palm. It was a simple spell, but one that would prove extremely useful in a place where sunlight had no chance of reaching them.

With Rayne taking the lead, the others followed as they moved deeper into the darkness.

At the entrance, the smell wasn't nearly as bad as Rayne had expected. Unfortunately, that didn't last long.

About ten minutes into the sewer, the stink became so overwhelming that the smell inside the buildings they had passed through earlier seemed pleasant in comparison.

The sewer itself was enormous, with a wide stone passage stretching ahead of them and shallow channels of dirty water running along the sides. Water constantly leaked through small cracks in the old walls, collecting on the uneven floor before slowly flowing toward deeper sections.

The walls were covered in moss, roots, and patches of strange growth that had survived despite the lack of sunlight.

Yet there were no monsters.

Rayne stretched [War Pulse] as far as he could, repeatedly checking every direction around them, but he couldn't sense anything alive. Even Bran, who was carefully examining the walls and looking for any recent signs of creatures passing through, couldn't find anything.

An hour passed just like that, but there was still nothing.

Only the smell and the amount of dirty water seemed to increase as they moved deeper, but they were able to endure it. More importantly, they were making surprisingly good progress.

The sewer continued ahead without any major obstacles, and gradually began sloping downward as they descended farther beneath the ruins.

Eventually, even Nate couldn't remain silent. “You reckon we'll be able to get to the other side without any bloodshed?”

Rayne immediately looked at him. “You're going to jinx it.”

Nate shrugged. “If I'm going to jinx something by just saying it out loud, then I would have jinxed our deaths long back.”

“You can still keep your mouth shut,” Lyra said. But before Nate could respond, Rayne suddenly stopped.

Something had entered the range of [War Pulse]. His expression immediately changed as he focused on the sensation ahead.

Nate noticed his reaction and slowly paled. “Did I really jinx it?”

Rayne shook his head. “No. But there's something ahead.”

With that, he picked up the pace and moved slightly toward the left side of the passage. The others followed without questioning him.

A minute later, Rayne finally saw what he had sensed—A dead body was lying against the wall with a large wound right in the centre of the chest.