A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 274 The Earl of the Shadow Land

Is there danger in the water?

"Hmm~ Water is the first hurdle that people who fall in have to overcome. It is often said that 'water is the source of life,' but the water here is alive on its own, and all the water must be boiled before it can be drunk or used to brew wine."

After saying this, the poet casually picked up a stone and threw it into the water. The stone stirred up a current, and then tentacles made entirely of water burst forth. One of the tentacles, which was three meters long and contained countless floating objects, wrapped around the stone and then spat it out.

"How do we get across?" The dwarf realized the entire bridge was within the tentacles' attack range. Rorschach then used Arcane Vision, discovering countless shimmering, fragmented lights in the water, but they weren't uniform.

"The entire body of water is not alive." After the tentacles and waves splashed on the surface of the water, Rorschach observed that the aura turned into pieces and mixed into the water, just like the surface of a eutrophic body of water covered with algae.

However, he had no interest or time to conduct research here. With a single [Freezing Ray], the entire river section surrounding the bridge was frozen solid.

"Walk."

"The monk is so kind," the poet said, admiring the icicles as he strolled across the bridge.

After crossing the nameless bridge, they arrived at the city's borders. Rorschach saw that all the low houses were covered in soot and fire damage, and the roofs were all thatched, or rather, charred thatch.

Ashes were piled up on both sides of the street, and when Rorschach passed by, a slight breeze stirred them up, sending sparks flying. The air was thick with the smell of burning things.

Freddy was somewhat surprised: "Your magical power is much greater than I imagined."

The residents were dressed in the same black and dirty clothes. Most of them covered their faces with rags or leather, and their exposed hands and feet were covered with granulation tissue and scars from burns. Their eyes, hidden behind the cover, watched the three intruders.

Compared to the rat whisperers, the residents clearly do not welcome the missing persons team.

"Let's hurry up and leave, lest we run into the patrol team."

"Patrol team?"

The poet waved his hand dismissively: "A small group of imperial soldiers! Oh, not the stuff that's now entrenched in the northern continent, but the old empire that spanned the continent and the sea in the old days! Those guys are unwilling to leave, a bunch of stubborn old men who don't want to surrender to the rebels."

"These old bones have no ears left, so no matter how hard I play, I'll only get pistols."

As if on cue, the sound of orderly footsteps rang out, and a line of people approaching the skeleton emerged from the street corner. Their eyes were unfocused, and they blindly followed the lead commander wearing a tasseled helmet. Both the armor plates and the spearheads were rusted beyond recognition.

It seemed that the undead creature Rorschach raised his hand, manipulating his own mist to make himself and the other two invisible, slowing his pace as he brushed past these things. Rorschach had been prepared for battle, but these soldiers seemed to lack the undead creatures' desire for living beings, mechanically patrolling the streets. Wherever they went, the residents conscientiously cleared away the chamber pots, wine barrels, children, and other debris blocking the way.

"The Scorched Hut area is quite large. We need to go to the semi-submerged area to find my acquaintance, Lord Elgin. His great achievement was packing the temple ruins at the southern tip of the continent into two hundred shipping containers and transporting them to Storm City. You can admire his masterpiece if you visit the museum."

"The unsparing cuts on those pillars and statues are more awe-inspiring than intricate carvings. Of course, this also shows he's a crude bandit; we always have to offer something to him when we come to see him." Freddy patted the dwarf's backpack, which contained fine wine and sugar bought in Storm City—clearly the hard currency of this godforsaken place.

"If we give him a gift, we can ask the Earl to post a missing person notice for us and to inquire about information from them directly."

Finally, they left the scorched thatched huts area mentioned by the bards and arrived at the semi-submerged area—Rorschach quickly understood the meaning of the name. Although it was still in the shadows, this place overlapped with the underground buildings of Storm City.

As they entered the tunnel, the damp ground, sticky brick walls and vaulted ceilings, and flowing sewage quickly made Rorschach realize that he had entered the sewers of the capital city of Istani.

They passed several sewer maintenance workers, bundled up tightly and clutching shovels, spades, and other tools. The poet swaggered along, completely ignoring the odd combination of the two tall and one short men.

Freddie deliberately played close to their ears. One of them seemed to hear something and looked around, but quickly returned his attention to his work and couldn't see the performer just a step away.

"Look, the people in the upper realms can't detect our current state."

"Really!" The dwarf jumped around wildly next to the construction worker, without seeing the other party make any move.

"Can we interact?" Rorschach saw that the poet's performance could elicit a response. He used [Mirror Flower Water Moon] to become invisible and reached out towards the worker, but as he got close, it was as if a slippery membrane separated them, quickly slicing through.

"Those who are in the cracks can manage." They arrived at the subway station—Rorschach had never tried Storm City's underground transportation system before. It was filled with locomotives made by the dwarves for the kingdom. They were coal-fired, so the ventilation shafts on the streets often spewed out black smoke, accompanied by regular vibrations to tell pedestrians that the subway was coming.

As evidence of their poetic observations, they saw old beggars occasionally receiving coins, the loose change from buying subway tickets.

"When was the last time you passed by the Earl's palace?" the poet greeted. The old beggar didn't answer, but instead shook his tattered top hat.

This shows that the old beggar could communicate with people from two different worlds.

Rorschach offered a shilling, but the beggar continued shaking his hat.

Helpless, he tossed out another beggar, who revealed a mouthful of rotten teeth and mumbled, "The gentleman passed by here a quarter of an hour ago."

"Great, we won't have to wait long."

It seemed the so-called palace was just a train. Rorschach continued observing the beggar, who didn't seem like a highly skilled expert: "Why can he communicate freely between the two worlds?"

"Because beggars and scavengers are already completely marginalized. Those rat whisperers can contact the upper realm if they want, but they dare not enter the semi-submerged zone."

The dwarf, seeing the stairs leading up from the subway station, thought, "If I just go up the stairs, won't I be back on the ground?"

"I advise you not to do this, don't even think about it." The poet's expression was unusually serious: "Once you leave the 'underground' area without removing the 'defilement curse,' the curse will follow you forever. Just like before, you can't touch anyone else, and no one else can find you. Even worse, you can't touch anything in the surface world, becoming a complete ghost. After wandering for a long enough, your mind will break down, and then you'll silently dissipate."

As soon as he finished speaking, an old train roared in. It was much older than the subway locomotives that were in normal operation. It was one of the earliest trains to run decades ago. At this moment, it was already panting heavily, and the sound of the wheel hubs hitting the rails was unusually loud.

"Please inform Your Excellency that the bard Freddie and his friends request an audience!" Freddie shouted, and the train doors opened for them, spewing steam.

(End of this chapter)