NOVEL NEXT 34. Hunting and Festivities
The Nyrum waste disposal grounds were over an hour out from the city proper by carriage, at the very far end, beyond the farthest reaches of Gerankir. And that meant that we were completely outside the city and its safety. No civilization for almost 3 miles if not more. The river Nyrum didn't just bisect New Delport but it also marked its class divisions. I didn't know if the Nyrum's path was natural but it didn't really matter. I had heard about how the Nyrum merged into the central sea. The toxic water was full of everything from other relatively safe Aetherite byproducts to industrial waste to good old sewage and it would all wash away into the sea at an artificial estuary, but not before poisoning the river and its banks beyond the point of any repair. The waste disposal had to be downstream of the river in the city if there was any way to maintain potable water.
The smell hit me before we could even see the river. It smelled weird, like an open drain but with something else, something chemical in it that made my eyes sting. The carriage stopped before we hit the banks and left us behind; the driver not hiding his disgust at the smell and the worry that if the stench set it then he would have to pay a classer to get it cleaned.
"Ew eww ewwwww. This is the last time I'm helping you out." Agitjin grumbled when he stepped on something that popped and released a viscous black liquid. A wave of mana cleaned it off the next second.
"You are getting paid for it." Fahria pointed out. I mean I was not going to point it out but she was also getting paid. Her payment just happened to be the promise of help when her family came calling during the Crucible.
"Yes, and I regret it. Are you even sure that we are at the right place? This whole thing, a secluded outskirt where no one ever comes, evening; this just sounds like the set up for some trashy novel about a cult sacrificing people to evil gods."
"No, Agit, I'm not going to sacrifice you to an evil god." I sighed. "Besides, no god would want your soul."
"That's where you are very wrong. Well, at least I'd be killed by two beautiful women instead of a scrawny guy who hasn't seen the sun in years."
"Does he ever shut up?"
"Only when Tiamim, that's my boss, is around, Fahria."
'Mother, this one has to agree with the one who showed you how to manipulate the boundless energies of the heavens. This stench is horrific.'
'What is this, 'let's all gang up on poor Anya' day?'
But for what it was worth, I echoed the sentiment. I regretted not bringing a mask or having an air purification skill. Too late to go back now, I suppose, all I could do was hold my nose and continue. We walked on spongy ground that squelched under our feet. The actual waste disposal was done through a labyrinthine network of towers with glassy pipes that jutted out of them and dumped various colored liquids into the river. The towers were connected to each other by skybridges. Those skybridges were then in turn all joined by a central tower that I knew had teleportation arrays in it. Every Aetherite refinery and mining facility in New Delport all sent their waste to the tower where it was turned into liquid and dumped so that it would eventually wash away. Fumes from the water that made me feel light headed. The river bubbled ominously before us. It had the sheen and color of room temperature mercury.
"I don't suppose anyone here is willing to wade into that?" Everyone looked pointedly at me and I sighed. Ordering Medea to jump into the river to look for human or monster remains, or anything really, I sat down and fished out a set of knives and a map.
Wherever the murderer was now, it was marked on the map as a cone. I don't know how, but somehow once, when I was bored, I divined for the guy who had killed the people guarding the Red Powder and it had shown me a very wide cone instead of the evenly spaced star. I couldn't replicate it and every subsequent attempt just resulted in the star. Still, I had warned the guild. Never let it be said that I wasn't a responsible citizen. Just ignore the fact that my existence was apparently anathema to long term stability.
There were rumors of someone that looked like him lurking deep in the bowels of Gerankir, but no one had found him yet. And it was not because of a lack of trying, the council was furious and posters dotted every damn street. There was even a persistent reward for any legitimate leads on him. I mean, personally it sounded like overkill, considering that my first day back after the retchroot swarm involved trying to avoid being a direct witness to a mass slaughter, but I guess the Powder was really that worth it, and yet the posters proudly stated that his crimes included the theft of confiscated Red Powder. And so I, every so often divined for him, because I needed the damn money.
Another star, another failure. After putting away my map, I decided to search alongside the river coast for anything suspicious with the other two. Medea occasionally surfaced before diving in again. Apparently Medea still had issues staying underwater constantly that had nothing to do with breathing.
It took us a while to find it. Or rather, it found us.
The water was calm, deathly still and there was nothing other than our own footsteps, breathing and the waste falling into the water to be heard. No insects, no sounds of the traffic. I fired off a Blood Sense and the creature lit up and at the exact same moment, the water exploded as it shot towards Medea.
A riverbank snake, mottled and looking more like some of the prehistoric crocodilians than anything else, only sans legs. It dwelt in the filthy waters and lived off whatever fish still survived the polluted waters. It was also very venomous and fast. My first and easiest target. I summoned Medea back before the snake could bite and Agitjin created an explosion of mana beneath it that launched it in the air. Fahria's glass skewered it and it was done.
Simple, right? Nope, the problem was that these snakes were not solitary predators and if one was attacking then that meant that at least a few others were already surrounding us. And sure enough, more of them darted at us. Us, still on dry land from behind. Medea unfurled its wings and rose while Fahria took to the air on great wings of molten glass. Agit, similarly stood on a platform of mana and I hung on for dear life on another platform. I couldn't fly and Medea couldn't carry me and staying down there was a death sentence.
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We could leave right away, but I was greedy. Or rather, I discovered that my trait rewarded excessive pursuit of power. And so Fahria and Agit rained death from above. Medea didn't have any ranged attack other than shooting venom from its tail, and I didn't want to waste that if I didn't have to. I didn't have to. In minutes, the hissing had ceased and almost a dozen snakes awaited consumption by Medea. But first, I had the rather unenviable task of extracting the venom sacs. Not because Medea couldn't eat them, no, it could do that just fine— but because I wanted to sell them. Medea needed the DNA or whatever the magical equivalent was, individual organs were not something it cared for.
'This one thanks the companions of Mother.' I relayed the message but Agit didn't seem particularly interested. Fahria, on the other hand, said that it was her pleasure.
Medea didn't tier up but it was almost noticeably faster and significantly more venomous after its dinner. And that was really all I was hoping for. Better venom meant I could buy more venomous creatures from the Emporium and maybe even some skills eventually.
I saw Fahria animatedly talking with Agit out of the corner of my eye, and I couldn't help but smile. Did that girl try to make long term allies out of everyone with any potential? Actually, she probably did. She too had a deadline like me, just a much shorter one. That sobered me up real quick.
"Laceration Lattice." I muttered two days later, and a criss-cross pattern of tiny cuts formed on my other hand. I winced but I was elated. I had learned a new spell. It was very simple and was only useful if targetted at the soles of feet or palms of hands or the like, places that would flare up in pain if put pressure on but it was a new spell.
"And I'm done. You only need to get one of these off to cripple it. Then you can kill it however you want."
"Thanks Agit. See you around." And I meant it. When he heard about my next target, he said that he was not going, but he had a spell that could deal with it; I had my misgivings, because I was not good at learning new spells but after some tweaking to make it blood magic, and self experimentation, I got the hang of it. Still, I handed him his crystals with no small amount of sadness. My money!
I blinked. Was I turning into a miser? Oh god, I was, wasn't I? A image of an older version of me sitting on a pile of gold while people starved while fleeing a dragon or whatever appeared in my mind and I shuddered. Note to self, don't turn into the type of person who destroyed my life back in Earth.
I bid my farewell to him and set out towards the Emporium to deliver my bottles. Along the way I noticed that somehow, New Delport had changed in a couple of days without me noticing. All the street lights were repaired and the streets were cleaned. New storefronts had sprung up everywhere and lined the streets.
The Guild Contracts Renewal Day, or just Renewal Day was a big deal in New Delport and it showed. Everything was renovated practically overnight. Music rang out in the streets and even the smog was less overbearing. The grime and the gloom that perpetually hung over the city was, for a beautiful moment, lifted. It was all so… so plastic. So transparent was what was really happening. New Delport was a trap, a trap for strugglers and a trap for tourists and right now? The tourist trap was being sprung. The sounds of horns announcing the arrival of ships on the port only reinforced the facade's nature.
I ignored it all, kept my head down and tried to figure out why I was getting so damn agitated. Something was rotten beyond the usual suspects. And I was not able to pinpoint what it was.
My trip to the Emporium went without incident. Even Upper Gerankir was looking almost respectable in preparation for the Renewal Day. In the coming days and weeks, the influx of tourists would inevitably find their way down there too. There were two months left before the Renewal Day but in those months, it was the sacred commandment of every business to suck as much money as possible. Renewal Day only came every five years and there were years of preparations for capitalizing on it.
"We'll be having a special sale for the Renewal Day where you can directly buy from us with any currency. If you want something then that is the best time for it." The masked person at the counter informed me while valuating my venom. Almost 30 for both bottles combined, a gigantic leap from the measly 7 I had started from.
The sense of wrongness persisted and followed after me when I left the Emporium. So when a commotion brought me out of my broodings, I could honestly say that I expected it. Well, I expected something at least. Like maybe a fight between three armored council enforcers and a very familiar bald man. A bald man whose face was plastered everywhere.
The bald guy thrust out his arms and a shockwave of ash and fire fanned out. One of the enforcers waved her hands and a blast of wind met it in a thunderous collision that nearly lifted me off my feet. But the ash was only a distraction as a hammer of fire crashed down. Frigid Mind activated and I ran for shelter behind a building. I should have run away but instead I leaned out the side, and peeked at the battle unfolding before me.
The bald guy moved so quickly as to appear to be teleporting, and punched through one of the enforcers. And yet, the enforcer kept standing as the hole within him stitched itself back before the bald guy could retract his fist. Another enforcer slashed at his back with a jagged red sword, and blood flew. The bald guy erupted in strange heatless flames and thrust his free hand in the first enforcer before violently pulling them —and the enforcer— apart, even as the third impotently pelted metal blades at him. And that was when even more enforcers showed up.
And while the bald man was running away from the three, I had Medea spray venom towards his eyes that didn't do anything, but slowed him down just long enough for the enforcers to catch him. And soon enough, his head went flying.
"Ma'am, is this your pet?" An enforcer asked, standing almost centimeters away from my face. I jumped, I hadn't seen him arrive, let alone get so close. I nodded, not trusting my voice to not squeak.
"I see. Well, thank you for your service, ma'am. You have the gratitude of the Illustris Council and a small token of that gratitude." He handed me three full big trays of crystals and my eyes bulged. I replied with some waffle about some abstract notion of duty or whatever I didn't believe in, and took it.
The next day, I was ready. I had paid my rent and Fim's protection fees in advance. I had changes of clothes and a first aid kit. I had even informed Tiamim that I wouldn't be in the city for a few days. Three days to be exact. Fahria was not coming, she couldn't afford to be away from the city so close to Renewal Day when so many classers would be arriving in New Delport. And so we were alone, me and Medea. And we had to be careful, we were not venturing too far out, but this was still the Great Forests we were talking about.
Early in the morning, I was at the gate alongside a mid level hunter guild classer I had hired using some of the money I had received for helping apprehend Kalkiin, the bald guy. And soon enough, we were out.