A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 288 Welcome to the Core Area

Bang! The manhole cover was lifted, and the dwarf was the first to jump out. Then he threw a rope out of his backpack, and Little Coal Ball was the first to come up, followed by the bard.

Singerev was pushed up by Rorschach's "Hand of the Mage." Freddy held the rope, and the dwarf and the mage pulled and pushed him up. Then Rorschach gracefully rose into the air and slowly ascended from the well opening.

"Hey, get out of the way!" A carriage came hurtling towards them, but luckily the driver was skilled and managed to pull the reins to avoid Rorschach and his party who suddenly emerged from underground.

They arrived at a cobblestone street in a city, where the dim light of kerosene lamps illuminated the road and the houses on both sides, seemingly no different from some of the older districts in Storm City.

Pedestrians were few and far between, appearing and disappearing in the darkness and thick fog.

"Are we back in Storm City? Will we become 'wanderers'?" The dwarf looked around and tried to crawl back into the well.

"No, would this thing still exist in Storm City?" Freddy pointed, and the others looked in the direction he indicated.

"Ah!" Little Coal Ball wanted to scream, but Freddy covered his mouth, and Rorschach and the dwarf instantly assumed a fighting stance.

At the crossroads, they found a highly decomposed skeleton, impaled by a sharpened log, its arms outstretched and fixed in a pointing posture. Under the lights, this "road sign" was particularly horrifying; the remaining bits of skin were almost detached from the skull, teetering on the verge of collapse, with maggots crawling in and out, attracting the interest of bats.

Luo Xia slowly walked forward. The man had a wooden plaque around his neck with the following words written in red:

"Shadow City Core Area"

"←Silver Street"

→ Harold Avenue, Upside-down Church

In addition to the road signs, there were smaller prints that recorded the skeleton's name as Aster, a thief who was hanged for stealing the marquis's property.

"This marquis's style is indeed very different from Elgin's," Singhlev commented after reading the small print on tiptoe.

"Shh, you want to be a signpost ornament too?" the poet told the dwarf to be quiet.

Although they were still underground, a gust of wind rose up, pushing the mist towards them, and the icy, tiny water droplets made their hair stand on end.

"What is this...?" It turns out that a notice was responsible for the incident. It was stuck to the road sign and, after being soaked in the decomposing liquid, it had almost turned the same color as the wooden board: Do you want to know the truth? Welcome to the Upside-Down Church to find the Black Monk.

Rorschach was curious about what the "Upside-Down Church" was all about, so he followed the instructions and went to the right. The map the Count had given him also showed the church, seemingly at the end of the main road.

The thick fog makes you forget you're underground, but sometimes you can see hanging stalactites if you get closer. The so-called avenue is indeed wide, with many mannequins displayed along the roadside, dressed in clothes, and a lot of miscellaneous items piled up at their feet, which don't look like trash, as many packaging boxes are still there.

"This must be a paradise for rat whisperers!" Freddy guessed that with so much good stuff piled up on the roadside, the junk collectors would be ecstatic.

"There are more puppets than living people." Singhlev seemed a little scared of the environment, gripping the hammer tightly.

Freddy chuckled: "How can you guarantee that all the residents are alive?"

Since arriving in this other world, Rorschach has become immune to all sorts of demons and monsters. It's normal for a world with magic to have ghosts and gods, right? If some fool jumps in front of him, Rorschach can only reluctantly use the [God Exorcism Spell] to smear it in the face.

Being fearless is one thing, being cautious is another. He used Arcane Vision and Dark Vision simultaneously but didn't find anything unusual. However, he felt a ringing in his ears and seemed to hear indistinct shouts, as if he were in a market, but there was no one else besides the four of them.

"Do you have tinnitus?" Rorschach looked at his companions, but they only shook their heads. The bats, however, were making a shrill squeal. The mage felt the sound growing louder, and his head was spinning. His brain felt like it was submerged in ice water, dull and cold. He suppressed his nausea and asked Little Coal Ball, "What are the bat-mouse saying?"

"No, it was just making a noise." Little Coal Ball couldn't glean any information from the noise.

The sounds grew louder and louder, like shouts, arguments, and the creaking of puppets.

The others finally realized something was wrong. The dolls seemed to be moving. Their joints were stiff, and they seemed to be trying to act like living people based on their clothes. They could even see male and female dolls walking side by side, pushing the most common baby carriages in Storm City.

"What the hell are you pretending to be? Go to hell!" Rorschach was annoyed by the dizziness and couldn't help but curse. Fortunately, it didn't affect his spellcasting. He tapped his cane on the stone pavement, and the "exorcism spell" centered on him began.

At this moment, the magic, which should have been invisible, seemed to have materialized. Even the mist was pushed aside, and the puppets all stopped moving. Those that were in motion lost their balance and crashed to the ground with a thud.

However, ahead, a puppet wearing a dark blue police officer uniform emerged from the mist, along with another puppet wearing a bearskin hat and a red coat. Now, both "raw lobster" and "cooked lobster" were available.

They picked up guns, but not cold weapons; they were standard firearms that Istani had been equipping with more than a decade ago.

Boom!

The first round of gunfire revealed that the weapons were not properly maintained. Three of the four guns fired by the "Live Lobster" in the first row exploded, and the fourth shot was also inaccurate, directly shattering the puppet next to Rorschach and his companions.

"Master, what are you doing?" The poet broke out in a cold sweat. He had already shielded the trembling little coal ball behind him and crouched behind the dwarf, exposing little of his body to the gun barrel.

"Shut up!" Rorschach's tinnitus had subsided. He cast a [Slowness Spell] with one hand, creating an invisible deceleration zone in front of him and Singrev, though the poet couldn't see it.

The "raw lobster," crippled by its own gun exploding, retreated, while the "cooked lobster" moved to the front to raise its gun and prepare to fire again.

Rorschach didn't give the other side a chance to fire. His second wave of spells was already prepared—a ray shot out, and wherever it hit, the puppets and mist disintegrated and vanished with the wind.

The ray seemed to extend infinitely, striking directly at the end of the road. Through the gap in the fog, a magnificent building was revealed, and everyone saw the "Upside-Down Church," which, as its name suggests, was indeed upside down on the ground! Only its spire was on the ground.

"Keep moving forward." After Rorschach felt his condition had recovered and confirmed that there were no more active puppets, and that the staff's energy was temporarily depleted: "Be careful, I can't cast spells as quickly as before for the time being."

Some of the dolls escaped the net; they were intact but motionless, their guns lying on the ground along with their owners.

"Damn it, where did these guns and gunpowder come from?" Singhlev once again used his skills as a master craftsman to select two muskets in good condition, keeping one for himself and tossing the other to Freddy.

The poet vividly remembered the sight of the "live lobster" with its face blackened by the gunshot: "Won't it explode?"

"I've checked." The dwarf was serious; this was no time for jokes. "Roheisenberg, do you want a gun?"

"No need, magic is still more convenient." Rorschach now held his cane, taking the time to absorb magic power, part of which restored his own condition, and part of which charged the cane and restored the mithril channel inside.

As the four continued walking towards the church, the thick fog gradually lifted, and a doll dressed in a suit and wearing a wool wig slowly took out a quill pen and a writing board, writing on a piece of paper:

"Rorschach, damaging public property"

"Singrev and Freddy, you stole guns!"

(End of this chapter)