adventurers in the sewers

Compared to warrior apprentices, mage apprentices not only have to learn the most esoteric meditation techniques, but also have to memorize and understand mountains of magical theories, making the learning difficulty and cost ridiculously high.

To date, Louis has not touched any of the priests' corpses.

By touching the corpses of ordinary people, Louis's proficiency in various professions continued to increase.

The farming skill has increased the most, reaching Farming LV2 (5/30).

Louis checked the description of the skill level for life professions in the cheat system and learned that LV1 represents "normal", which is the level of most related practitioners.

LV2 represents the "elite," which refers to the outstanding group among professionals in the relevant field.

I! Louis! An elite farmer!

Hehe! After transmigrating to another world, I didn't neglect my Chinese racial talents. Not bad, not bad.

Of course, he would never make a promise like, "Once I become a professional, I'll go back to the countryside to farm!"

Besides farming, Louis's other profession finally reached the elite level.

[Forging LV2 (0/30)]

Even in this alternate world, workers are the second largest group after farmers.

In addition, Louis often encountered swarms of gray carrion rats while searching for corpses.

He encountered several that day, and he killed two of them with a single spear thrust, just like Runtu stabbed a badger, and skinned them for extra money.

A complete gray rat pelt can sell for 8 copper coins.

Current deposits: 5 silver and 71 copper.

However, not every gray rot rat can be obtained with extraordinary attributes. One out of twenty rats might have a very high drop rate, and even if it is obtained, the attribute value will only be 0.1 at most.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have to do anything; he could simply post a request to buy the corpses of gray rotten rats and easily max out his magic adaptability.

Fortunately, the skill points for the "Sewer Creature" skill can be farmed continuously, and I've managed to get it to LV2.

The LV2 "Sewer Creature" has enhanced the original effects of the skills.

Not only are they more adaptable to the harsh environment of sewers and immune to a wider variety of bacteria and toxins, but even if the wound is soaked in sewage and stagnant water after an injury, it will not affect the speed of recovery.

It can be said to be quite practical.

After all, since Louis awakened his cheat ability, most of the corpses he touched had died from infected wounds.

The wound won't get infected, which is a lifesaver for adventurers who frequently go out exploring.

After taking stock of his spoils, Louis headed towards the Adventurers' Guild.

First, collect the bounty, then go to the equipment shop and sell the gray rat pelts; only then can you truly pocket the money.

Traveling through the sewers, Louis quickly approached the guild's location.

The reason Louis traveled through the sewers wasn't because he liked the stench, but simply to check if any new corpses had spawned on the map he'd already traversed.

As he passed through an alley, he saw something familiar.

Those were large patches of dried slime, covering the floor, walls, and ceiling in a soy sauce red color.

It was clearly a trace left by the flesh slime when it passed by.

Looking at these conspicuous marks, Louis had a sudden thought and a bold guess came to mind.

Why did that warrior apprentice named Ethan choose to fight the flesh slime head-on, resulting in his death?

Could it be because Ethan has a reason to kill the other person?

Combined with the enormous body of the flesh slime blocking the entire road, does this mean that Ethan had to kill the enemy to reach the other side because his only way was blocked?

Could it be that... he has already obtained some intelligence and tracked down a key point?

Louis thought about it more and more and it seemed very possible.

These conjectures may be wrong, and Ethan may even have absolutely nothing to do with the commission to search for the hero's corpse, but searching along the way won't hurt him; at most, it will just cost him some time.

why not.

Following his memory, Louis arrived at the area where he first met Ethan and the Flesh Slime.

The area was filled with that reddish-brown slime, and it was clearly not the scene of Ethan's death.

However, this mucus is the best guide.

The glowing plants in the area had been completely devoured, plunging the area into utter darkness. Louis made his way forward in the dark.

Not long after they left, a cold notification sound suddenly rang out.

[Attention! A corpse of extremely high value has been detected! Proceed to retrieve it?]

Louis's heart stopped the moment he heard the system notification!

It seems I... guessed right!

He subconsciously quickened his pace, and after walking around for about fifteen minutes, he finally saw the light from the bioluminescent plant.

At the same time, he also heard the sound of rushing water.

Upon closer inspection, Louis discovered that this was one of the main drainage outlets of the Blackrock City sewers.

Large amounts of sewage poured down like a waterfall into the reservoir below, and after simple purification, flowed into the river outside the city.

For ease of management, an iron chain bridge was built in mid-air near the "waterfall," so there is no situation where it is impossible to cross.

Only after tracing the trail to this point did the traces of the flesh slime completely disappear.

The distance marker in his line of sight was less than 3 meters away.

Louis stood on the concrete road beside the river, looking around, and finally his gaze settled on the iron chain bridge in mid-air, his eyes immediately freezing.

"He...is here?!"

On the iron chain bridge, a badly wounded corpse was draped over two chains.

The corpse was unrecognizable, and drops of bodily fluids dripped from its body into the sewage river.

Louis identified the body after just one glance from afar.

The Fourth Hero!

This is his body!

Not only because of the golden finger's hint, but also because a blood-red gem was embedded in his bare chest.

Strictly speaking, it can't really be called inlaying; the gemstone is more like it crawled out of the corpse and got stuck in the flesh.

That red gemstone was incredibly beautiful, with not a single impurity visible throughout.

It simply lay there motionless, as if it were exerting a fatal attraction on all living things around it.

Louis had quite a bit of self-control, but he still felt an urge to pounce on it and snatch it away.

Fortunately, he resisted the temptation and quickly regained his composure, observing cautiously.

Without a doubt, that gem is a class-specific secret manual.

The Hero's Class Codex!

Through his extensive experience of looting corpses, Louis was surprised to discover that the fourth hero's death seemed to have occurred within a week.

He was dead for at most five days.

It falls into the category of attributes that can be explored.

In other words, after being severely injured and near death by someone, and escaping into the sewers, the fourth hero managed to survive for more than ten days.

He truly deserves to be called a hero; he's incredibly resilient.

That Ethan is really something; he almost secured the position of the fourth hero through his own hard work.

Unfortunately, he was too hasty. If he had waited for the flesh slime to leave naturally before taking action, he might have succeeded.

"No... there's still a problem."

Suddenly, Louis discovered another suspicious point.

Since the flesh slime's movement trajectory began with the sewage river, it must have been the creature closest to the hero's corpse at some point in time.

But why didn't it eat the hero's corpse?

Is it because the Hero's Class Codex only appeals to humans?

Even if the flesh slime ignores the hero's corpse, the sewer rats shouldn't let this delicious meal pass them by.

The body showed no signs of post-mortem injury, only signs of natural decomposition.

Could it be that there's something protecting the hero's corpse?

Louis found it increasingly strange and sensed a dangerous atmosphere.

Confused, he cautiously moved closer to the riverbank and looked down at the reservoir.

Immediately, a horrifying scene appeared before him.

The once calm reservoir suddenly erupted with a large amount of foam, as if it were boiling.

One after another, deformed and terrifying monsters emerged from beneath the water, their bloodthirsty eyes locking onto Louis!