Chapter 10: Rats
Seeing these two items, Su Xiao’s eyes lit up. One of them was quite important.
Kaisa’s abilities were truly eye-opening. His combat power was terrible, but he possessed many permissions to exploit loopholes.
For example, it was dangerous for Su Xiao to exchange items using Wizard Guild reputation, so Kaisa changed the exchange nature of some items, converting them to be exchanged with silver coins of equivalent value.
As for the magic potion formula, this item likely wasn’t available in the reputation shop, so the exchange method couldn’t be converted.
Although Kaisa was cunning and stingy, he was very reliable in certain aspects.
Su Xiao left the Wizard Guild, took out the map Kaisa had provided from his bosom, and headed toward the so-called sewer. This wasn’t an underground pipeline, but a massive drainage channel in the city’s low-lying areas, used for draining rainwater.
The main channel of the sewer wasn’t in the Holy Silver District, but near Bone Port. If he wanted to clear out rats, that was the best place to go.
Su Xiao still couldn’t figure it out. Rats were just rats. Even if there were many of them, killing them shouldn’t grant Wizard Guild reputation. This was also why he chose to go clear them out.
At this time, the sky was just beginning to lighten. The sun should have already risen, but it was blocked by the gray mist clouds in the sky. According to Kaisa, he had been in Heruk City for a while and had only seen the sun once.
Walking along the street, the houses on both sides were opening their doors one after another. Yawning commoners left their homes. If they didn’t work for a day, the whole family would go hungry. That was Heruk City.
The aroma of food drifted through the streets. The city seemed to come alive a bit. The commoners’ faces didn’t show expressions of despair. In fact, after getting used to this environment, it wasn’t so bad. Humans were one of the most adaptable races.
No matter how harsh the environment, people would find ways to survive, and through hard work and wisdom, they would elevate from ‘survival’ to ‘living.’ There was an essential difference between the two. The former was the way of beasts, the latter was the life of humans.
Su Xiao took a bite of the freshly baked long bread in his hand. The baking technique was quite good, but the quality of the ingredients wasn’t great.
Passing through several blocks, Su Xiao arrived at the edge of the Holy Silver District. At the street corners here, he could see many rough men in linen clothes, covered in sweat and stench. They were all laborers, earning only 3 to 7 copper coins for a day’s work.
1 silver coin = 2159 copper coins. This exaggerated exchange ratio indicated that the wizards’ currency system was separate from the commoners’, and for a commoner to obtain a supernatural item was like winning the lottery jackpot on steroids.
As soon as he left the Holy Silver District, Su Xiao felt a change in the surrounding atmosphere. Eyes hidden in the shadows were watching him. Most glanced and then looked away, while a few were more persistent.
Hurried footsteps came from behind Su Xiao. A burly man covered in blood, with a panicked expression, was running for his life.
Whoosh~
A sound of something cutting through the air. A wooden crossbow bolt embedded itself in the burly man’s calf, causing him to stumble and fall into the mud with a splash.
“I’m almost there. I’ve almost saved up 200 copper. Just give me a few more days.”
The burly man dragged his leg, crawling through the muddy water. Before he could crawl a few meters, the people behind him caught up.
“You can really run. Damn near killed me.”
A scar-faced man bent over, resting one hand on his thigh, panting heavily.
After catching his breath, the scar-faced man pulled a simple dagger from his calf. It was just an iron strip sharpened to a point, with dirty cloth strips wrapped around the handle.
The scar-faced man quickly stepped forward, grabbing the burly man’s hair with one hand while pressing the dagger against his neck with the other.
Slash~
The blade cut through flesh and skin.
A throat-slitting in broad daylight. In front of the buildings on both sides of the street, several men and women witnessed this scene. Some were calmly eating breakfast, while others were eyeing others’ breakfast with envy.
The perpetrators were about to drag the body away when a carriage approached from afar. Seeing this carriage, the scar-faced man threw the body to the ground and left with his men.
A strange and cruel scene unfolded. The carriage stopped. The old coachman in a black top hat jumped down, dragged the body to the carriage, and threw it onto the flatbed.
“Hoo~”
The old coachman grunted, mounted the carriage, and drove away. This carriage came once every morning to handle unidentified corpses. This was Bone Port, the port of buried bones.
“This folk custom… it’s really damn simple.”
Although Baha had experienced various battles, this was his first time in a place like Bone Port with such ‘simple folk customs.’
Bubu Wang, on the other hand, was unfazed. The folk customs in Dead Silence City were even ‘simpler.’ The people of death there wanted nothing but your life.
Walking on the muddy dirt road, no one bothered Su Xiao. That was due to his aura.
Following the directions on the map, Su Xiao soon arrived at the main drainage channel of Bone Port. It was a ditch about thirty meters wide and fifty meters deep. Both sides of the ditch were lined with square stones, with many iron ladders leading down.
After estimating the depth, Su Xiao jumped directly into the ditch.
Thud~
Sewage splashed everywhere. Since the rainy season had just begun, the water in the sewer was only a dozen centimeters deep. And because it had just rained not long ago, the air in the sewer was still relatively fresh.
The entire sewer ran straight ahead. About a hundred meters ahead, there was a bridge opening. Wading through the sewage, Su Xiao arrived in front of the bridge opening. He snapped on a military-grade glow stick and tossed it into the dark opening.
Blue light dispelled the darkness. He didn’t see any rats. Bubu Wang, who had a bag of rat poison in his mouth, looked disappointed. He was planning to ‘hardcore’ poison the rats.
Deeper into the bridge opening for several dozen meters, the surrounding air became more humid, and the smell of decay grew stronger.
Drip~
The sound of water droplets came from ahead. Bubu Wang turned his dog head, and the miner’s lamp on his head illuminated the front.
A rat appeared ahead. Its fur was pitch black, as stiff as steel needles.
“What the hell… is that a rat? It could eat at least six Kaisas in one meal.”
Baha was stunned. A rat the size of a calf was indeed rare.
Bubu Wang dropped the rat poison from his mouth and even stomped on it. Given the weight of the rat ahead, eating several dozen bags of rat poison might not even kill it.
“Roar!”
A roar came. The rats in the wizard world were exceptionally fierce, not like ordinary rats that went ‘squeak squeak squeak.’
Su Xiao now understood why the Wizard Guild wanted to clear out the rats. If these things weren’t dealt with regularly, the commoners in the city would be in danger. Without commoners, the wizards’ good days would also come to an end.
Splash, splash~
The giant rat stepped through the sewage, turned around, and fled. Animals had sharper senses than humans.
Zing~
A blade aura, too fast to see clearly, slashed through. The giant rat slowly stopped. A bloodstain appeared on its abdomen, and then the giant rat neatly split into two halves, falling into the sewage.
A wisp of black energy drifted out from the rat corpse, flying toward Su Xiao at an extremely fast speed, too fast to dodge.
This wisp of black energy attached itself to the back of Su Xiao’s hand. It didn’t invade his body, only forming a black line on his skin.
Su Xiao was about to sense what this black line was when a notification from Reincarnation Paradise appeared.
17 times the reputation gain. Killing one giant rat only gave 0.3 reputation points. To get 2000 points, he would need to kill about 6700 giant rats.
Su Xiao took a test tube from his storage space.
With a crack, the test tube shattered against the wall. A faint sour smell spread.
A few minutes later, Su Xiao took out another test tube. It turned out he couldn’t trust Kaisa’s alchemy.
The second test tube shattered against the wall. A slightly sweet and fishy smell spread.
A dozen seconds later~
Rumble…
Giant rats with bloodshot eyes charged out from the sewer.
Su Xiao held his long blade horizontally in front of him. He wasn’t planning to fight in close quarters. The killing power of his blade aura was sufficient.