Monarch Chapter 197 (Patreon)

Chapter 197

Rayne did his best to hold onto something as he fell, reaching out with one hand and then the other as the rusted ladder rushed past him, but there was barely anything left that could support his weight.

He managed to hook one leg around one of the bars, trying to stop his descent, only for the metal to bend beneath him with a loud crack before breaking apart entirely.

His body dropped again, and Rayne immediately reached for another bar, but the same thing happened.

The ladder was simply too old.

The rust had eaten away at the metal for who knew how many years, and between his weight and the momentum of his fall, there was no chance that the remaining bars could hold him for long.

He briefly considered using the threads from [Weaver's Protection] to catch himself, but even those might simply tear the weakened bars apart if he tried to use them as an anchor.

There was no point risking it and making the fall worse. The only thing he could do now was hope the others below heard him in time.

"Lyra! Get vines to hold me! I'm falling down!"

Rayne shouted as loudly as he could, his voice echoing through the narrow shaft.

He reached for another bar anyway, but it snapped the instant his hand closed around it, leaving him with nothing to grab onto as he continued falling.

"Lyra! Get vines to hold me! I'm falling down! Fast!”

He shouted again, repeating the words over and over as he descended, knowing that if the vines didn't reach him, there was a good chance he would break something when he hit the bottom.

Even with mana reinforcement, he had no intention of testing just how much punishment his body could take from a fall like this.

He couldn't see the ground yet, but he could already make out the faint movement of the others below, and then, just as he was getting close enough to make out their faces, something shot upward from the darkness.

A thick vine wrapped around his waist.

Rayne barely had time to realize what had happened before another vine coiled around his torso, followed by a third that wrapped around his leg.

The vines tightened around him and slowed his momentum little by little, taking the force of his fall rather than stopping him all at once.

His descent became slower, then slower still, until finally the vines lowered him the remaining distance and placed him carefully onto the ground.

The moment his feet touched the stone floor, Rayne let out a long sigh of relief.

For a few seconds, he simply stood there, allowing himself to breathe properly again while the vines remained wrapped around him.

Then they loosened and retreated, disappearing back toward Lyra as Rayne looked at the faces gathered around him.

Kesh was the first to speak. "How did you fall?"

Rayne sighed again before rubbing the back of his head. "The step broke. All of them are very rusty. Moreover, the exit has a strange pressure to it, so I wasn't able to grab one in time."

Andrew's expression immediately changed. "A strange pressure? What kind?"

Rayne pushed himself fully upright as the last of the vines slipped away from his body. He glanced toward the ladder before answering.

"It was strange. It felt like the air itself was pushing me down."

He paused, trying to find a better way to describe what he had experienced.

The sensation was difficult to explain because it hadn't felt like an attack, nor had it been anything he could actually see.

It had simply been there, pressing against his body the moment he tried to climb through the opening.

"I was barely able to raise my head out of the exit to see a road before it became too much. I don't think any of us would be able to go up there."

Andrew didn't immediately respond.

Instead, his eyes shifted toward Lyra. She also looked back at him.

It was only a brief exchange, but the others noticed it almost immediately.

Bran's expression changed as he began putting the pieces together, while Kesh and the others looked between the two retainers, clearly realizing that whatever Rayne had described wasn't something completely unknown to them.

The old man was the first to say it aloud. "Is it the mana pressure the inner city is supposed to have?"

Lyra nodded slowly. "Probably. I've only heard of it, but it sounds similar to what Rayne is describing."

There was a moment of silence as everyone processed that.

Rayne looked at Lyra for a moment, not immediately understanding everything.

Then it struck him. He had heard about it before.

The inner city of the Godless Ruins was barely ventured into, not only because of the monsters and other dangers that existed within it, but because of the heavy mana pressure that supposedly filled the area.

Rayne had read about it in the book on the Godless Ruins that Casper had provided him, but even there, the information had been little more than a collection of old accounts and rumors.

There were few reliable descriptions from people who had actually ventured far into the inner city, and they were brief.

Honestly, Rayne had never expected the pressure to be this severe.

He had imagined something more straightforward, perhaps a sensation similar to having a heavy weight placed on his shoulders.

Something that made movement difficult, but not impossible. He had expected to feel the pressure increasing as they entered deeper into the city.

What he had encountered was something completely different.

It had felt as though the air itself was trying to crush him.

Even with his physical strength and mana reinforcement, he had barely managed to push his head through the opening.

The pressure had made his shoulders ache, his head throb, and every instinct in his body had told him to retreat.

If he had tried to force his entire body through without some way of protecting himself, he wasn't even certain what would have happened.

Looking between Lyra and Andrew, Rayne finally voiced the question that had been bothering him.

"I really don't think we can handle that sort of pressure. How are we going to move through the inner city?”

Lyra smiled. It wasn't the smile of someone who had suddenly discovered that they were in trouble.

Instead, she looked almost amused, as though Rayne had just asked a question whose answer had already been decided long before they reached this point.

"Prince Caelan has already prepared the solution."

Rayne raised an eyebrow, then realised once again how meticulous the prince was. "Of course he has."

Lyra nodded. "I believe we can have another meeting tonight."

Rayne nodded, deciding that there was little point in worrying about the inner city until they were back with Prince Caelan.

Whatever solution the prince had prepared, they would hear about it soon enough, and until then, there was nothing they could do about the pressure waiting on the other side of the rusted lid.

He turned his attention toward the others and found that Kesh, Nate, Jason, and Heins looked as though they had only half understood what had just been discussed.

They knew they had found the entrance to the inner city, and they knew there was some sort of pressure preventing them from entering, but judging by their expressions, they were still trying to piece together what that actually meant.

Bran, on the other hand, wasn't looking at any of them.

His attention was fixed on the rusted steps of the ladder, as if he were already considering how they were going to deal with them when they returned.

They would have to deal with it tomorrow only. For today, it wasn't their problem.

Rayne sighed before looking at the others.

"Let's move back."

All of them nodded, and without wasting any more time, they turned around and began tracing their steps through the sewer.

The return journey didn't remain completely uneventful.

Not long after they had passed through one of the narrower sections, another small group of mud grapplers emerged from the filthy water.

The creatures crawled out of the darkness, their bodies covered in thick layers of mud as tendrils immediately began extending toward the party. This time, however, nobody panicked.

They had already fought the creatures once.

More importantly, they now knew exactly how to kill them.

Bran raised his bow and fired almost immediately. His first arrow struck one of the creatures directly in the core, causing the mud grappler to collapse before it could even reach them.

The second arrow flew toward another, but just before reaching its target, Bran manipulated its trajectory slightly with mana. The arrow curved around a protruding section of stone before striking the creature from the side.

Andrew was already moving as well, his short swords flashing through the air as he cut through the tendrils reaching toward him before closing the distance and destroying another core.

Within a minute, the small group of grapplers had been dealt with.

After that, they continued onward.

The rest of the journey through the sewers passed without any battles.

The deeper sections they had struggled through earlier were easier to navigate now that they knew the path, and even the places where they had needed to clear debris no longer seemed particularly troublesome.

The group gradually settled into a quieter pace, with most of them simply wanting to get back to Blackstone.

Nate and Kesh, however, had already found something else to occupy their minds.

"The best bathhouse in the city," Nate whispered. "You said you knew where it was."

"I do. I'm telling you, it's worth the price."

"We're going."

Jason glanced at them before quietly saying, "I'm coming too."

Heins nodded. "Me as well."

Rayne heard the conversation but didn't say anything.

Instead, he found himself wondering whether he should go with them.

The smell of the sewers had clung to him, and there was no denying that the scent of the monsters and filthy water had become a part of it as well.

Nobody had called it out, but that was probably because nobody dared to, and he wasn't the only one who smelled.

They were soldiers. After spending so much time in the ruins, the whole warband stank in different ways.

They had been cleaning themselves every day because of the risk of infection after their encounters in the city, but washing with whatever water they could find wasn't exactly the same as taking a proper bath.

Most of the soldiers would probably just find a well when they returned and clean themselves there before going back to their usual duties.

A proper bathhouse was a different matter.

Rayne thought about it for a moment before deciding that it probably wasn't a bad idea.

If they could get out quickly enough, he could wash himself properly, use some decent soap, and get rid of the smell before meeting Prince Caelan.

Considering what they were about to discuss, it was probably better to meet the prince without smelling like sewer water and dead monsters.

With that thought in mind, Rayne continued walking.

Hours passed before they finally reached the exit. The moment they stepped out of the sewers, Rayne activated [War Pulse].

The familiar sensation spread outward from him, giving him a rough awareness of the surrounding area.

The streets of the Godless Ruins were still as dangerous as they had been the previous day, but moving through them was far easier when they could tell where danger was before walking directly into it.

Like yesterday, they moved slowly. There was no reason to rush.

They kept to the safer sections of the streets, avoiding areas where Rayne sensed monsters roaming around and taking longer routes whenever necessary.

The others followed his lead without question. By now, they had learned that when Rayne suddenly changed direction, there was usually a good reason for it.

[War Pulse] really was a godsend for sneaking around.

Rayne couldn't help but think that Bran was probably jealous of it.

The old man had [Marksman] and his newly acquired [Guided Arrow], but neither skill gave him anything close to the ability to sense danger throughout an area.

Maybe one day he would acquire something similar. Or perhaps there was another skill that would suit him even better.

Rayne didn't know. For now, all he could do was continue moving.

He kept his eyes open as they walked, paying attention to the buildings and streets around them.

After spending so much time in the ruins, the area was beginning to feel strangely familiar. He could recognize some of the streets they had passed through before, remember which buildings they had used as landmarks, and even recall the places where they had encountered monsters.

It was strange to think that a place as dangerous as the Godless Ruins could start feeling familiar.

But perhaps that was simply what happened when you spent enough time somewhere.

Rayne continued walking with [War Pulse] active, his attention spread across the streets around them.

Then suddenly, something brushed against the edge of his skill.

A silhouette.

Rayne froze for the briefest moment. He hadn't sensed a monster. It wasn't a familiar presence either.

It was simply the vague outline of another person appearing at the very edge of [War Pulse].

Then it was gone.

Rayne's eyes moved toward the direction where he had sensed it, but there was nothing there.

He didn't stop walking. He wasn't even certain that he had actually sensed someone.

It could have been a mistake like the last time before they had taken on the razorwings or perhaps an adventurer moving through the streets

Five minutes passed as he wondered that, but there was nothing.

Rayne kept [War Pulse] active, carefully checking the area around them, but the silhouette didn't appear again.

He found himself thinking about it repeatedly as they continued.

Who had it been? Has there actually been someone there? Could a man have been watching them?

A dozen possibilities crossed his mind, but none of them had enough evidence behind them to matter.

Eventually, Rayne let the thought go.

His party was tired. He was tired.

They were finally close to getting out of the ruins, and there was nothing to suggest that the person he had sensed was hostile.

There was no reason to make everyone nervous over something he wasn't even certain had happened.

Perhaps it really was just an adventurer.

Rayne continued walking, leaving the strange silhouette behind him.

At the time, he thought nothing of it.

He didn't know then that ignoring it would become the worst mistake he had made in the Godless Ruins.