adventurers in the sewers

On the way down the mountain, Louis could clearly feel that his integration with the Hero Class Codex was rapidly increasing.

A parasitic demon has appeared on Cat's Eye Mountain, posing a far greater threat to the villagers at the foot of the mountain than a monster bear.

It is foreseeable that if no one discovers and defeats the parasitic demon, it will eventually enter human society.

Even if Blackrock City has the means to detect demons, the many villagers at the foot of Cat's Eye Mountain will surely become its food.

Moreover, Louis had a vague feeling that eliminating the demons would actually benefit the fusion of the secret manual.

Upon entering the village at the foot of the mountain, Louis sensed that the fusion process with the Hero's Codex had slowed down.

He estimated that his current total fusion rate with the secret manual was around 55%, and the final fusion rate should reach 60%.

This data is better than he expected.

In the next month, as long as I work steadily and complete the tasks of saving the villagers, getting the integration rate to 100% shouldn't be a problem.

In addition, he also needs to save money as soon as possible during this period to try to buy the Shield Guardian's Manual as soon as possible in order to cover his tracks.

After resting for a few hours in the village, replenishing their water supply, and having a hot meal, Louis and his party continued their journey.

They returned to Blackrock City in the evening.

The team had traveled over a hundred miles in a single day and had fought a fierce battle with a level 1 demon, leaving them utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally.

But they had no intention of resting at all. They threw the parasitic demon's corpse into Nora's house and rushed to the Adventurers' Guild.

In addition, Remy's sword and staff were also left in Nora's house.

These two items are made of much better materials than the secondhand longsword Louis bought for a few silver coins. It's good enough to keep them for personal use, since the bounty requirement is to find Remy himself.

It doesn't matter if I lose a few material possessions.

The guild was noticeably more lively today than usual.

The group of adventurers who created the atmosphere were clearly all for one thing: to earn the bounty of 5 gold coins.

No matter how lively the guild was, no one approached Mr. Carter, who had posted the bounty.

At this moment, the pot-bellied nouveau riche had a gloomy face. The whole day of waiting had made this man, who was used to a life of luxury, very impatient. The anxiety of not receiving any news from his son for a long time had turned him into a powder keg that could explode at any moment.

As soon as Louis and his two companions entered, they saw an adventurer who had mustered up the courage to ask for more information being given a severe scolding by Mr. Carter!

"Useless! You're all a bunch of useless trash!"

"It's been a whole day, and there's still not a single word about my son? What's the point of me paying you ten gold coins to do this?!"

"What! You want to look in the sewers? Listen to me, my son isn't dead! He was just scammed out of money and he's too scared to come home. Don't curse him!"

The young adventurer walked away dejectedly, his face covered in saliva.

Louis, Dana, and Nora exchanged a glance.

Nora: "With such a temper... what if they don't pay the bounty?"

Daina: "Probably not. The guild, acting as an intermediary, may have already placed the bounty on their deposit."

While expressing sympathy for Remy's plight, the two girls were clearly more concerned with whether they could obtain the bounty.

After whispering among themselves and confirming that they wouldn't be cheated out of their money, the three of them went up to Mr. Carter and placed the sack in front of him.

"What do you three do for a living?"

Mr. Carter, still fuming after yelling at someone, looked up and asked in a very angry tone.

Louis coughed lightly and pointed to the sack on the ground:

"Mr. Carter, your son has been found, but he is not in good condition."

Carter's expression froze instantly.

Louis's words caused quite a stir.

"What? Remy has been found?"

"So fast! How come I didn't hear a thing?"

Amidst the adventurers' shouts of surprise and frustration, a large crowd immediately surrounded Louis, all eyes fixed on the long, rectangular sack.

Judging from the outline, there is clearly a person inside—a person who is not quite complete.

Mr. Carter was silent at first, then his body trembled slightly as he bent down with difficulty and untied the knot of the sack.

As the sack was gradually opened, the contents were fully revealed to everyone.

It was a headless corpse, covered in claw marks and bite marks from a wild beast. One of its shoulders looked as if it had been dragged along by a beast, almost falling off its body.

A faint stench of decay and dried bloodstains indicated that the body had been left there for some time.

"No head? Could this be a corpse they dragged in from somewhere just to make up the numbers?"

"And wasn't Remy supposed to be running a business? Why does he look like he got eaten by a wild brown bear?"

An adventurer who was observing raised a question.

But Mr. Carter ignored these questions and, with trembling hands, removed the leather armor from the upper body of the corpse and lifted the corpse's inner garment.

On his grayish-white skin, a birthmark resembling a dark cloud appeared before Mr. Carter's eyes.

Upon seeing the birthmark, old Carter's anxiety vanished completely. He seemed to have all his energy drained away, aging him ten years in an instant.

"Mr. Carter."

Louis explained it as follows:

"We found your son near the cave of a demonized brown stone bear in Cat's Eye Mountain. At that time, his head was no longer on his neck."

"We went through a lot of trouble to kill the demonized brown stone bear before we were able to retrieve his body."

Carter's eyes were vacant. He said nothing, silently picked up his son, and walked away with faltering steps.

Those around them made way in time, watching Old Carter walk out of the guild gate, and then looked at Louis and his two companions with envy.

Ignoring the stares of others, they rushed to Miss Liv's counter and demanded the reward.

"Mr. Louis, your team is really impressive."

"The other adventurers still have no clue, but you guys brought the person back directly."

The red-haired receptionist smiled and presented five glittering gold coins.

"Ahem, we were just lucky."

"I happened to run into Remy at the city gate when I went out of town on a mission last time. I knew he was lying to his family and had become an adventurer under the guise of doing business, which is how I was able to find him."

Louis gave a half-joking explanation that made Liv look enlightened.

He quickly pocketed the five gold coins, and then said:

"By the way, we should also have a commission for that brown stone bear that roamed Cat's Eye Mountain and hurt quite a few people, right? We've already taken care of that bear, can we get that commission fee too?"

Liv flipped through the file and said:

"A team previously accepted this mission but failed. Now the commission is available again."

"Now that you have completed the request, I will explain the process of accepting the request. The reward for this request is 60 silver coins."