Chapter 33

 

“What!? That is not fair. I don’t have crowd control!” I yelled.

 

Aurelia sighed.

 

She waved her hand, and rats began to die left and right as their bones cracked and twisted into ungodly pieces of macabre art. I made no sense to me how she was killing the creatures. Her body emanated no killer’s intent. No elemental mana was leaving her hands and yet - my field of view was filled with notifications of gained EXP.

 

Aurelia’s hand moved with rhythm and a tremendous tempo. Eventually, as she picked more momentum, I could see her smile turn more natural than ever before. The orchestra of death brought her a great amount of joy.

 

Soon enough, it was just Aurelia and me in a long, dark corridor. Whatever remained of the rodents resembled no animal known to man - in neither shape nor form - they had all been turned into unrecognizable masses of mush.

 

Aurelia refused to explain what type of magic she used. She claimed it was just a trick she had picked up from a friend who specialized in wind magic. Something to do with the changes of pressure in the air. But I was not dumb. At least not dumb enough to fall for that. It had to be some form of dark magic. But without [Appraisal] it was impossible to tell.

 

We advanced a few steps more into the corridor, and as soon as we reached a sewer, a second swarm of rats appeared.

 

She was not afraid to repeat her wicked display. But as soon as she heard the elevator shaft make a second landing, for Darthmage and the rest of our party were making their own descent into the abyss, Aurelia switched to a more traditional set of elemental attacks.

 

“What are you waiting for?” Aurelia said. “Help me pick up the regents.”

 

“Where?” I asked.

 

“The rats. Silly. The rats, they carry the mutagens that we need.”

 

“I… I don’t know how,” I responded.

 

“Tch, Lesson one. When harvesting dead monsters, always bring a knife. In my case, an obsidian dagger does the job pretty well,” Aurelia said. “Skin them, and harvest the heart and liver.”

 

It was easy for her to say that. But the rats did not look like rats anymore. It would be very hard to tell where to cut. To me, they just looked like sacks of meat.

 

Aurelia pulled a black dagger and with no care in the word. She just opened the rats and pulled their hearts out, spilling guts and blood. Carefully, she threw the lot of organs that she desired into a brown leather pouch.

 

The smell of intestines being opened up almost made me throw up. But Aurelia did not mind at all. She was still smiling through it all.

 

“Come on Berry. They are just rats. They breed and die. This is the natural cycle of life,”

 

Aurelia extended her arm and offered me her dagger. But I was not so sure I could do it. It looked very repulsive.

 

“Come on Berry,” Aurelia said.

 

She got very pushy about it. When suddenly, the rat which she wanted me to harvest - dissipated into orbs of light.

 

“Tch,” Aurelia said.

 

[Instant Collection]

 

Darthmage shouted.

 

“Silly boy, that spell makes you miss out on some of the fun,” Aurelia said.

 

“I am sure you can tell, that you were making Berry uncomfortable,” Darthmage said.

 

“Wait, how did you do that,” I asked. The spell seemed like the type of shortcut that you would find in a video game.

 

“Just hover your hand over the monster which loot you wish to collect and chant the words [Instant Collection] and everything worth looting will appear in your invent- I mean belongings,” Darthmage said. “Go ahead, try it out.”

 

“Sure,” I said. I hovered my hand over one of the rats that Aurelia had yet to skin and carefully said the magic words. Soon, orbs of light appeared as the rat disintegrated.

 

[You have obtained 3 Rat Fangs, 2 Rat Tails, 1 Summoner’s Mutagen]

 

I clicked on the Mutagen, only for more details to fill up my screen.

 

[Summoner’s Mutagen: [Epic] [ CURSED ITEM] A synthetic, yet powerful regent of unknown origins glows in an eerie purple. Its ancient secrets, begging to be unpacked. Could be useful in summoning a demon.]

 

“Adventurers. Should you wish to turn back to the surface, this is your last chance. Once we descend through the river of condemnation, you will not be able to return as easily,” The Guardian said.

 

"For a gold digging goblin, you sure seem to care too much, oh dear guardian,” Aurelia said.

 

The guardian responded by pulling her tongue at Aurelia in a very childish manner. “It would be the easiest two gold coins of my life if you returned now. If the lot of you descend, then… I would actually have to work to keep you all alive.”

 

“We have come this far, let’s not turn back,” Darthmage said.

 

“Are you sure about that?” I asked. “This place was giving me a bad vibe.”

 

Aurelia in an attempt to be funny, jumped at me from behind only to give me a hug. “Berry, do not be scared, I have your back,” she whispered.

 

Well. It was not funny at all. She did not know how to read the room. It was not that the ruins were scary. But more, her overall behavior was creepy.

 

As we followed the guardian into the lower floors, I tried to stick to Elly through the journey. But she spoke very little, and I got very bored.

 

I poked Darthmage and was very tempted to reveal myself as a reincarnator. But what was the point? We could talk about the latest RPGs or MMOs that came out before we reincarnated, maybe even talk about our favorite TV shows or music bands. But this was not a secret that I wished to be known.

 

Knowing his secret. While him not knowing mine. Gave me power over him. But to what end I could use this to my advantage I did not know yet. Power at the cost of friendship. Is that how Aurelia felt? Is that why she does not wish to speak about her dark magic?

 

Was I being a hypocrite? How can I expect Aurelia to share her secrets with me. When I do not share my secrets with my friends. This thoughts plagued my mind until we reached what seemed like a subterranean lake within the ruins.

 

Whatever was in the other side of the lake was impossible to see for a mist of darkness consumed everything more than two meters around us.

 

Aurelia’s illumination magic was not strong enough. Even Darthmage tried casting his light orbs but as soon as they left the two meter radius, they were eaten by the darkness.

 

“Stay close,” The guardian said. “Or the darkness will consume you,”

 

Slowly but surely, the goblin pulled a small boat from the ruinous stone sand.

 

“This darkness… is so foul!” Elly said. Her voice was just a bit short of sounding as if she was trembling.

 

She was pretty much the only normal person in the group.

 

“Not foul. It is beautiful. Smell it. This is not mist but miasma,” Aurelia said. “By the looks of it, a very powerful sorcerer was dealt a killing blow in this very same floor. Even after this many years, there is a strong concentration of mana in the air. I would say that in terms of strength, I would place this sorcerer just five magic circles beneath the Great Archmage.”

 

“What could possibly kill someone that strong?” Darthmage asked.

 

“Hmmm, depends in how you wish to study history. Are you a romantic who believes that a single man is capable of changing his fate and that of his own race. Or are you a boring bastard who believes cultural and economical dichotomy dictates the fate of an entire civilization.”

 

“Can we not,” I said.

 

But Aurelia did not listen.

 

“Surely, someone like me can make a difference,” Darthmage said.

 

“Then feel free to believe fairy tale that the human realm has been spouting for centuries. Yes, it would fit you well. The official story is that a goody-two-shoes stormed each tower until he found the Overlord and put him to death,” Aurelia said. But then she laughed. “So whoever commanded this tower was unlucky enough to run into the Hero and was slain by his blade,”

 

“That sounds pretty cool. Then. After the Hero triumphed. What happened to him? Did he get married to a princess? Was he taken to another world?” Darthmage asked. He seemed to be very pumped out.

 

“Kiddo, you almost seem you like are paid to spout propaganda. That is pretty much what the Human Realm claims. The ruling family claims to be descendants of the Great Hero. But no actual source to this claim could be verified. The only historian who ever makes mention of this is Dalerianus, and he was on the Human Realm’s payroll.”

 

“I truly should form a kingdom!” Darthmage said.

 

“Noooo, you just made him worse!” Elly shouted.

 

Aurelia did not care, and kept monologuing about history. She began by nerding out about her historical sources, and began naming her the names of her favorite historians. No one in the party had a clue of what she was talking about. Elly and the Guardian were illiterate. While Darthmage and I had an education from another world. Aurelia might as well be talking about her fan fiction to us.

 

Meanwhile, the guardian was pretty angry and trying to push Aurelia into the boat to get us to the other side of the lake. “Next time, I will charge you all per hour! I am not doing free overtime!” She said.