Chương 15: Chapter 14: Sewer Rat

A rat poked its head out from the shadows. Dark eyes narrowed onto the approaching torch. Patches of mangy hair clung to its skinny body. The teeth gnashed together as it waited for its prey to get close enough, spittle growing. The moment its targets drew near, it launched its surprise attack… … Only for Torin to duck calmly out of harm's way. The rat soared half a meter further before getting filleted by Casmia's dagger. She stared at the struggling nuisance briefly before flicking it aside.

The rat struck the wall with a splat. Another trio of rats scurried in front, frenzied eyes focused to kill. As they closed in, Torin swept his war hammer low. The rats exploded on impact.

"Do these things ever end?" Casmia asked. Torin shrugged.

"They are free experience as far as I'm concerned."

"Barely." There was once a time when Torin feared getting too close to Vrisgard's sewers. Whether because of an excess of waste leading to mutations, a leakage of nymstone flakes into the drainage system, selective breeding done by the State, or some combination of them all, the rat population had always been fearsome. Some grew to be as large as cats, and with greatly enhanced speed and strength, Torin had seen his share of sewer rats bring down larger prey once they swarmed.

He'd never imagined entering these damp, mold-covered halls to mingle with them. And yet, that was before Torin unlocked his Trait and advanced through the System. In less than a day, he had reached Peak Bronze stats. These monsters once kept him far from places like here, but now, he barely noticed them. Casmia seemed to be in her element too. Despite swimming through half a kilometer of excrement and having the results clinging to her blonde hair, she marched onward without batting an eye.

Her stolen dagger sliced easily through these plague-ridden beasts like a farmer cutting wheat, and she almost looked bored by the affair. Torin had no idea how she did it. He studied his borrowed Trait effects with a sigh. Immunities: Cannot be [Tracked] or [Identified] by magical means, Drowning. Resistances: Psychic (Peak), Water (Major) Affinities: Martial (Major), Water (Major) No wonder it's Epic.

An Immunity to drowning was extremely powerful, and one rare enough that State investigators wouldn't consider she possessed without examining her status, something he hoped hadn't happened before he rescued her. Then again, the flavor text was somewhat misleading. Torin discovered quickly that he still needed to breathe while underwater, and the only source of air became the water itself. With everything floating inside, Torin dared not think what they'd swallowed on the path in. But it could not be helped.

For the time being, there would be no safer place than inside these dirty, grime-laden tunnels, culling whatever rodent that crossed their path. He smashed another rat, his reflexes swift. Torin looked at his hand, still trying to contend with one thing. Despite surrendering [Deft-Handed], his fingers still moved quicker than they had before. He tossed a coin into the air and flicked the base. The coin tumbled away while Casmia studied him, confused.

Torin hadn't been able to repeat the trick he'd used with [Deft-Handed] active, but he was close. Far closer than what felt right, even with the increased Dexterity. He would have to do some experimentation to prove his theory, but it made him wonder. Did some parts of his mimicked Traits become permanent, even after they went away?

"How far do these tunnels go?" Casmia asked.

"It's hard to say," Torin said.

"From what I've heard, these passages have been here since well before the State captured Vrisgard. Who knows how long they've been down here? Because the tunnels work, the State has no reason to maintain them except to repair the traps." He held up his palm.

"Speaking of…" The makeshift torchlight offered little more than five meters of visibility, but framed against the shadowy walls, a reddish, runic script pulsed just beyond this field. Torin knelt low and examined the runes. He frowned, recognizing them at once.

"This is a motion array," he explained.

"The runes will light up the second we move past them, which will alert the nearest Hawk Nest." Casmia raised an eyebrow.

"Where did you learn that?"

"From experience." It had been one of his biggest mistakes when young. Torin had found a gap in the wall at the time and thought he could sneak out before anyone noticed. He even sent a cat through first as an experiment. Nothing happened for the cat, but the moment he stepped by the runes, the entire array exploded with bright lights. Some of his worst scars came from that mistake. He'd always wondered how these runes worked. His experiments had proved they didn't react because of motion alone, as implied.

They must also be able to identify the source. Which meant…

"What are you doing?!" Casmia snapped as she saw what he was about to do. Torin slipped his palm directly in front of the array. The runes did not react. He gleamed. Casmia blinked in shock.

"How did you do that?"

"Don't worry about it," he said.

"Just wait until I've blocked every rune before you step through." As exciting as it would be to share his Trait's power with someone else, Torin had just met this woman. Casmia no doubt already had suspicions after he mimicked her [Aquatic] Trait to get inside these sewers, but he dared not disclose anything at all. As she said, if she ever got caught by the State, she would share everything she knew, and then they would know about him. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

But it was going to be hard to explain his bag of tricks before long. Torin made a mental note to think up a good lie to cover his tracks later. With bated breath, Casmia walked through the array, Torin's body interposed to keep the runes from [Identifying] her. Just as before, the runes did not flare up. Casmia glowered, the array now behind them.

"You went into that having no idea it would work, didn't you?"

"I had some idea," Torin admitted with a shrug. The two continued, disarming other traps. These traps were all physical, not magical, making them easier to get through. Tripwires could be cut, pressure plates could be dodged, and locks could be broken. Some had rusted into twisted scrap, but Torin still had his prying bar. The added leverage paired with his superhuman strength allowed them to push through unabated. The traps disappeared quickly after they passed this outer ring. It was no surprise.

The State concentrated all its security measures along different boundaries. Once inside, one could move without scrutiny. They were now directly below the State District.

"Hold up," Casmia said, raising her fist. Torin peered into the darkness.

"More rats?"

"No, there are Hawks stationed down here too." He almost asked how she could tell, but then remembered the strength she had shown during the initial attack. Her Perception was no doubt far higher than his. Though, perhaps not insurmountably so? Now that she forewarned of this obstacle, Torin listened carefully and could just barely make out the muffled sound of chatter.

"Think we can go around?" Casmia asked.

"Better to go under," Torin said, looking back. They had bypassed a staircase on the way through, with a locked iron grate in front. Torin doubled back and pried open the grate carefully, lest the Hawks overhear. They descended another two floors lower, the tunnels shrouded in complete darkness again. Torin ripped more cloth from his uniform to extend their torch's life. It took some time to get their bearings.

The labyrinthine halls of the State District sewers proved far more expansive than either realized, following neither rhythm nor reason from the dead civilization that constructed them. Some halls ended in cave-ins, others dropped even deeper, a few simply stopped altogether. There were empty chambers built like ancient dwellings, filled with tables and beds to match, their materials unidentifiable beneath grime and soot.

One caught Torin's attention: a piece of perfectly square glass twinkling against their torchlight. He rubbed his hand to smooth out the dirt.

"Woah," he said. Some kind of realistic painting sat beneath the glass, showing a family of four in a dreamlike city. Buildings towered into the sky, forming sleek pillars that reflected at the viewer like living metal. The family wore strange garments, clean and bright, but with a simplicity that did not appear noble in design. But how could they not be? Everything around them sparkled with such an immaculate and new fashion. What shocked Torin more than anything was the detail in the painting.

Despite some fading along the glass, it was as if the artist had somehow captured this moment with the clarity of the human eye. Every wrinkle and crease could be seen from this lifelike depiction, almost eerily so. This had to be some form of magic. Casmia peered over his shoulder, seeing his confusion.

"We're not here for trash."

"How did they do this?" He still couldn't believe how real this painting looked.

"I have no idea, but it doesn't matter. That's from the Age of Lightning."

"The what?" She humphed.

"The State likes to pretend history started with them, but Yertha has been around far longer. When the System first integrated our world, many civilizations were destroyed, almost at once. I don't know much more than that. Nobody does. But usually, if you find something weird and mechanical instead of magical, it came from the period before. That's the Age of Lightning." She sighed.

"We really shouldn't sit around in this tomb. Whoever made that thing died over a thousand years ago." Torin studied the peculiar painting one last time before putting it down. Casmia was right. They had more important places to be. After passing further through the maze, the pair finally reached pathways back up. The air thinned and became more tolerable, though the rats were a constant threat. Torin examined his status with a sigh. The experience he gained with each kill was borderline non-existent.

He knew that the System rewarded risk and growth, but he never expected the drop to be this significant. These same rats would have netted him far more at level one. Now? He got almost nothing. More importantly, however, was the time lost. Trait: [Divergent Phoenix] (Rarity: Unique. Tier: Unranked) – Your power is uncontained. Grow more efficiently than others. A well containing infinite mana sits below your Domain. [Battle-Sighted] (Rarity: Mythic. Tier: Unranked) – Attacks striking you will be predicted 5 seconds before they arrive. [Aquatic] (Rarity: Epic. Tier: Unranked) – Water is your natural ally. Gain a Resistance and Affinity for it. With Casmia so close, he could refresh [Aquatic] at a moment's notice, but because of [Battle-Sighted]'s unique nature, he could not do the same with it. The hourglass dropped a few more grains every second. By his count, Torin had less than six hours left.

"What's the deal with your group's name?" Torin asked to keep his mind busy.

"Why do you call yourselves 'Gnats'?" Casmia smiled.

"Because that's what the State tried to call our movement to dismiss it, but we took it as a point of pride."

"What's prideful about a gnat?"

"Tell me, Torin Maximus. When was the last time you stayed in a place that had no bugs?" He paused and considered, but came up short.

"Exactly," she continued.

"We think of gnats as these insignificant pests, but the truth is that we're powerless against them. Even if we wanted to, we cannot remove them from our homes completely. And if that gnat carries the right disease, then even the strongest king will still get sick and die."

"And the same is true for Lady Cicada," he deduced.

"What's she like?" Casmia beamed.

"No one knows outside the Inner Cadre. The entire organization is built that way. But because she chose this structure, she's made it impossible for the State to stop her. No matter how hard they try, they cannot block Lady Cicada's song."

"They cannot stop you from killing them."

"Yes, and so long as I still breathe, I'll do whatever it takes to keep doing just that." Torin hadn't been sure how to feel about the Gnats since he'd never seen any before Casmia, but this explanation filled him with hope. There were people standing against the State every day, and they were inflicting real damage. Perhaps Torin could become one too. The air shifted as they entered another chamber, this one larger than the torch's reach.

The ancient waterways had long since dried out, but there was an acrid tang in the air. A fresh sense of rot. It suddenly occurred to Torin that they had seen no rats for some time. They hadn't seen anything, for that matter. His boots crunched on the floor. Torin grimaced as he realized he'd just stepped through bones. Human bones.

"We need to leave." But before Torin could explain why, the chamber answered for him. A low snarl echoed out from the chamber's depths. Steam rolled through the room as the creature breathed, highlighting its monstrous silhouette behind. Serpentine eyes sprouted from the blackness a moment later, larger than watermelons but colored by an inhuman, fiery orange. Those eyes narrowed onto the pair, heat waves building around them. They watched with determination. They begged for sustenance.