Josephine was a knight.
She was someone who faced challenges head-on.
In other words, she was not someone accustomed to sneaking around or carrying out assassinations, or anything of that sort.
Naturally, Doah had never received that kind of training either.
While she had trained in pursuit, it wasn’t the kind where she had to chase someone secretly.
Following the golden light without thinking turned out to be a mistake.
‘No, it’s okay. I can go back to where I came from if I reach an unseen area.’
Since there’s a golden light, she could follow it again.
Doah completely blended into the crowd and alleys, hiding herself.
Fortunately, she no longer felt anyone’s gaze on her.
She turned back and quietly began to follow the golden light again.
‘Huh? What?’
The light seemed to lead to an increasingly suspicious place.
‘Underground?’
The golden light led downwards.
‘Ah! It looks like it went into a sewer or something. What should I do??’
Doah, flustered, looked around.
“A sewer, a sewer. Ah! If it’s a sewer, it should lead to the sea, right?”
She hurried to the docks, where the golden light began to stretch out longer.
Dozens of wooden piers extended over the sea.
You could think of these piers as wooden bridges.
Some empty spots were occupied by fishermen.
Doah chose one of the empty piers. When she lay down and looked below, she saw a large sewer opening submerged in the sea water, just as she thought.
And the golden light was leading toward it.
“Oh, ugh, this is just…”
Doah cursed under her breath and looked around.
Fortunately, everyone seemed too busy with their own tasks to pay any attention to her.
“Aishh!”
Doah muttered before she jumped into the sea.
She began swimming toward the sewer.
‘The water isn’t as dirty as I expected.’
For some reason, the water coming from the sewer was clean.
Maybe they had some kind of purification system in place. After all, Ha Jin was a modern person.
‘Thank goodness.’
As she entered the sewer, Doah encountered a problem.
There was an iron grate, likely to prevent foreign objects from getting in.
Doah let out a small laugh.
‘Josephine was right.’
Solve the problem with strength!
Doah took a deep breath, grabbed the iron bars with both hands, and pulled them apart.
Screech
The metal protested with a loud noise, but Doah managed to create a gap big enough for her to slip through.
After entering the sewer, she closed the iron bars again.
There was a slight bend, but it would suffice.
Doah swam further into the sewer.
As the path gradually inclined upwards, her feet soon touched the ground, and she was able to fully step out of the water.
“Wow… I’ve never just worn regular clothes and soaked in seawater like this before. I wonder if Mrs. Danvers can restore this outfit?”
Doah thought it was a good thing she had short hair as she continued walking further inside.
The golden light guided her way.
Doah didn’t turn on any lights. In a pitch-black sewer, turning on a light would make her immediately noticeable.
Squeak
She almost screamed when a rat scurried over her foot but managed to hold it in.
Instead, she jumped in surprise.
‘Alright, Doah. This is a dungeon. You’ve trained for this, haven’t you?’
Doah closed her eyes, relying on something other than sight.
In an instant, her demeanor changed.
A click in her mind, and the combat switch was turned on. She narrowed her eyes.
The results of tens, hundreds, or even thousands of training sessions began to naturally manifest.
Doah slowly drew her dagger.
‘Short sword mode.’
In such a narrow space, swinging a long sword would likely just cause the blade to get stuck.
A short sword of about 70 cm would be just right.
Doah’s sword extended to the desired length.
She had practiced navigating dark dungeons countless times.
Doah began walking, following the golden light.
Some insects, startled by her sudden appearance, scurried away, but this time Doah didn’t flinch.
“!!”
At that moment, she saw a light.
Doah stopped in her tracks and listened closely.
No sound could be heard.
‘That’s strange.’
Doah tilted her head.
She was enhancing her hearing with mana, so if the other party was breathing, she should have been able to hear it.
‘I can’t hear any breathing.’
In situations like this, there were a few possibilities: either the other party wasn’t breathing, or they were using magic to block sound.
It had to be one of the two.
‘But they block sound with magic while not worrying about light escaping? What are they trying to hide?’
A loud noise?
A scream?
A sudden thought made Doah frown.
She took a small mirror out of her pocket.
Using an old-fashioned technique, she angled the mirror to peek inside the sewer.
‘Ah. Of course.’
As expected, they were blocking the sound to prevent screams from escaping.
‘Alright then.’
If the guide line was connected to the person being tortured, then Doah’s task was simple.
‘There are three of them. One seems to be a mage, using a silence spell. Good. All three are completely unguarded.’
Then the first to die should be the mage.
If faced with Elibas, Josephine, and Rakshasha at the same time, it would be most efficient to kill Elibas first.
Doah reached into the magic pouch attached to her belt.
She pulled out a round glass orb, shook it vigorously as if she were opening a soda, and then threw it inside.
Crack!
With the sound of shattering, a thick pink smoke erupted, and Doah charged in at the same time.
Before the mage could utter a spell, she deeply slashed his throat.
If you’re going to do it, do it cleanly in one go.
Since a mage could be truly terrifying if they managed to speak, Doah severed his windpipe and vocal cords, then turned to block the next attack.
‘Quick reaction.’
Normally, she would have killed two of them by now.
But despite the sudden situation, the enemies reacted quickly.
‘These aren’t ordinary foes, are they?’
Still, they were no match for Doah.
She wasn’t just dealing with ‘not ordinary foes,’ she had fought against monsters.
As her opponent’s sword descended, Doah skillfully dodged, slashing at the tendons in his wrist with her short sword.
If she had sliced the wrist entirely?
Of course, that would have caused more damage.
But while it takes 1 unit of force to cut the tendons, it takes 10 units to sever the wrist completely.
Understanding that these small reserves of strength could make the difference between life and death, Doah avoided unnecessary actions.
Though the pain should have caused a flinch, the enemy simply yelled upon realizing his arm was useless.
Or rather, tried to.
But Doah stabbed him in the heart first.
Right between the ribs.
Stab and withdraw.
“Gaaah.”
All that was heard was a gulp of breath.
It hadn’t even been five seconds yet.
Frankly, Doah hoped the third person would take a hostage.
The smoke was thick.
If he wasted time moving to take a hostage, Doah would have had plenty of time to take him down.
But the third person seemed to understand that, too. As soon as the second man died with a gurgle, he popped open a bottle cap.
To Doah, it looked just like that.
Something was uncorked, and a swarm of black cockroach-like creatures burst forth and flew out.
“!!!”
No matter how much training you’ve had, this situation felt off.
‘Isn’t this against basic human decency?!’
However, Doah’s keen eyesight quickly revealed that those things weren’t actually bugs.
They looked like it, but they weren’t living insects.
There was a fluttering sound, typical of insect wings, but what she saw was more like tiny black particles.
Black sand that formed shapes and then crumbled, swallowing up the entire sewer.
All the light from magic and other sources disappeared. It wasn’t just dark because there was no light—it was as if the space was physically filled with darkness.
‘Huh?’
Doah looked down at herself.
Strangely, she could see herself clearly.
It felt as if a thin layer was protecting her from the darkness. The sword blessed by the World Tree was glowing brightly.
The edges of the darkness retreated in fear of that light. The black particles vanished when they touched the light.
Regaining her composure, Doah quickly searched for the guild master.
He had collapsed on the floor, unconscious, and those black particles were burrowing into his wounds.
“Ah!”
It was then that Doah realized what this darkness was.
‘It’s contamination.’
A shiver ran down her spine.
‘Wait a minute. Did the contamination just spread into the sewer?’
This sewer was definitely connected to the city, and if this level of contamination spread inside…
Or perhaps, there might be a place where the water supply and sewage are managed together.
If that place was attacked and the contamination leaked into the water supply…
Doah reached deep into her pocket and pulled out the ‘World Tree Branch.’
The once-white leaves had returned to a deep green.
‘Thank goodness. It’s fully recharged.’
First, Doah turned the button halfway up.
Buzzzz—
The World Tree Branch emitted a bright light and began to faintly vibrate.
The darkness instantly receded.
The sewer lit up.
It wasn’t just bright.
It was strangely bright.
There were no shadows at all.
The light without shadows filled the entire space.
Doah, bracing herself as if preparing for an explosion, swung the branch.
Pht!
For a moment, it seemed as if all sound had ceased.
The light rapidly contracted as if it were being sucked into a single point, then exploded.
Even with her eyes closed, Doah felt like she might go blind.
The light flooded the sewer, rushing through all the passageways.
The contamination evaporated as if it had never been there.
A moment later, darkness and noise returned.
When Doah opened her eyes, everything was back to normal.
The magic lights dimly illuminated the sewer, and the sound of water trickling through echoed softly.
Doah looked over at the third person who had opened the cap.
‘Wow.’
Only bones remained.
She didn’t know exactly what had happened, but it was like an ancient corpse, with only the bones left.
Compared to that, the other two corpses were intact, so it seemed that opening that cap hadn’t been a good idea.
The other two bodies had been completely purified by the World Tree Branch, so there was no chance of them turning into undead and roaming the sewer.
However, the guild master’s injuries hadn’t healed on their own.
‘Let’s see.’
It seemed that the transformation magic on him had worn off, revealing a different face than before.
Doah had thought the guild master would be an old man, but he was much younger than expected.
He looked like he was in his mid to late thirties.
He had brown hair and a neat appearance.
Though his clothes were quite shabby, it was likely because he was in disguise.
He had only undergone basic torture, so his life wasn’t in danger.
‘His fingers are broken, and his body has some surface cuts from a knife.’
What worried Doah more was the contamination that had infiltrated his body earlier.
The parts touched by the light would have been purified, but there might still be some contamination in areas where the light didn’t reach.
Doah examined his wounds closely.
‘Hmm, the wounds aren’t infected or festering badly. That’s a relief.’
It seemed like he would just feel a bit sore for a few days.
Doah applied some powdered hemostatic agent to the wounds and took the opportunity while he was unconscious to set his broken fingers.
Ding ding
🍓🍓🍓
Sub-quest completed!
Reward: 300 World Tree Points awarded.
🍓🍓🍓
‘Managed to save him.’
Doah smiled with satisfaction.
‘Now, should I get going?’
She wanted to leave before the guild master regained consciousness.
Though saving his life was certainly a good deed, if he asked how she had known to follow him here, she wouldn’t have a good answer for that.
It was quite a suspicious situation.
‘Well, he’s also suspicious, though.’
As an adventurer’s guild master, he held a significant position in the city of Gran.
Yet, here he was, walking alone into such a place and getting tortured.
‘What’s his deal?’
Doah debated whether to talk to him or just keep this a secret and leave.
After some thought, she made up her mind.
Leaving was probably the best option.
“Ugh…”
At that moment, the guild master let out a small groan and opened his eyes.
Startled, Doah quickly reached out and covered his eyes.
“…………”
“…………”
There was a brief moment of silence.
After a pause, Doah lowered her voice and spoke.
“What would you think if I knocked you out and escaped from here…?”
“If you’ve done something worth running away for.”
“I haven’t.”
Doah muttered and sighed before slowly removing her hand.
The guild master blinked a few times.
“You shouldn’t try to move your fingers. I’ve set them, but moving them will hurt more. I didn’t have anything to use as a splint.”
He stared at Doah for a moment before speaking.
“Thank you for saving me.”
“It was nothing.”
As Doah responded with a nod, he slowly sat up.
After squinting at his wounds, he sighed.
“Thank you again, so….”
Trailing off, he looked at her, and Doah easily understood what he meant.
“I’m Kim Doah.”
“I’m Yan Shendel.”
He smiled as he introduced himself.
“Seems we won’t be able to shake hands.”
“I wouldn’t want to be your second torturer. By the way…”
Doah tilted her head.
Shendel.
The name rang a bell.
Khunak Shendel.
They shared the same surname.
Doah casually asked,
“By any chance, do you know Khunak?”
