(The Alchemical Rat)…
The more he thought about the idea, the more interesting it became. Man-eating rats feed on blood. Their colonies can thrive in the harshest conditions and are the embodiment of survival. They can act as spies, assassins, and henchmen. It takes weeks to breed a colony, but...
"Sir?" A girl's sweet voice pulled him out of his thoughts and led him back to the counter in the store.
"Yes, Laufey?" The dark elf used magic to transform into a human form, a dignified and beautiful girl with pure skin, crimson hair and sky-blue eyes. She looks a little fragile, like a kind girl in need of a knight's protection. A true wolf in sheep's clothing.
Speaking of wolves, Tai didn't know what to think of the "pet" she brought from Niflheim. He gave the two monsters a place in the dungeon, but when he tried to feed them, they bit the Duke.
"Your landscape painting gift has arrived," she said, then giggled as if sharing an inside joke. "From the Balder Church."
at last. "Put it in the storeroom, and I will put it in my sanctuary later."
Tai discovered that looking at a good painting can be mesmerizing. An immortal image, unchanging, beyond the grasp of time... A good painting is like immortality, a state of transcendence of this painful, fleeting world.
The Necromancer noticed "newcomers" walking into his shop, although they were now regulars: Annie, Takru, and Morgan.
A good week had passed since that fateful, stillborn raid. The princess began treating the wounded with the help of the local church, despite their efforts to find a cure. Those who inhaled the toxin were lucky to avoid permanent health problems. Fear of the poisonous gas halted the adventurers' efforts to attack the dungeon, much to everyone's dismay.
Interestingly, it turns out Tai was contracted to research a cure. The Necromancer likes to be paid for solving the problems he creates.
"You're new here," Take
u said after noticing Laufey, with his usual bluntness.
"I introduce to you my new assistant, Laufey," Tye said as the young girl bowed shyly in front of his clients.
"Assistant?" Annie frowned slightly, showing a hint of jealousy. "But you've never taken the test before!"
"She's a special case," the necromancer assured his favorite client.
"Lauffy," Morgan said. "In the old Midgardian language, it means full of leaves, right?"
"My father gave me this name because it reminded him of the forest he loved," the girl said, her cheeks turning red. Tai had to admit that he admired her performance. "As a young man he fell in love with a local female bird."
"Oh, are you from Flanders?" Anne immediately asked the newcomer a few questions. "Life must have been hard there."
"Yes. My father sent me to his old friend Walter so that I could work safely in the big city." The devilish elf said, telling another lie on the spot. "He saved my dad's life, you know?" He went on and on about how he was close to death until Ty almost came back from the dead..."
Of course, she had to say that. What a woman.
"You've always been kind," Anne said, smiling at the wizard. "You never told me you had been to Flanders."
"I travel far and wide to sell my wares," Tye said, glaring at Laufey's excessive detail. The bad girl responded with a shy smile, but he knew she was deliberately trying to make him angry.
"You don't look older than us," Zhuliu said bluntly, and Anne nudged him with her elbow. The more he gets to know Taiyi, the more he feels that Taiyi is the sharpest knife in the princess team. Always be alert, always be careful.
"I don't look like it, but I'm 24," Tai lied, which was his age before his death. "I've been working since I was twelve."
"It's too early," Morgan said. "Your parents need more money, can't they bring it home?"
"No. I was orphaned by my fusion with Niflheim and I had to survive alone."
"Oh, my condolences," Morny said, but her sympathy sounded hollow. Even though she belongs to an organization dedicated to dealing with this threat.
"That was a long time ago," Tye said, though he remembers every second of that day. Watching his fellow humans being massacred by massive wolves before his eyes instilled in him a deep primal fear of death that he continues to this day. "But I don't like talking about it, so let's change the subject."
"Yes!" said Anne. "Sorry, we're not here to open old wounds. We need your help!"
Speculations on “Do you want a magic bullet to get rid of smog?”
"No," Zhuyu said. "We need something where we don't need to breathe at all. Gwen said they could use other toxins, or close the exits and suffocate us."
"I know how to make 'breathing potions' that keep you from breathing for eight hours," Tye said. "They're going to be expensive, but if you give me a full two weeks, I can make a huge stockpile of them." .”
"It's taking too long," Zhuju complained.
He could do it in half the time, but he couldn't extend the deadline without raising suspicion. Besides, he had an errand to run. "I'm going to have to close the shop for a few days because of my business trip," Tai said. "I'm sure the princess will ask the academy to make these potions before I come back."
That she didn't say this meant two things; either the academy didn't think it was important enough and didn't allocate many resources, or the princess didn't want to visit them.
"Just two weeks!" Annie said, and Wulong complained that his arrows were "rusty" from inactivity. "If you need someone to run the store while you're away, I can help!"
"Annie, we need you to be somewhere other than behind the counter," Morgan said, her tone suggesting she considered the event demeaning. "Captain Gales will be here any minute now, and it would be a disgrace to our class to be a merchant in his presence."
The leader, Gale? He was the father of the dead boy, Tai remembered. As a chieftain, a powerful noble with his own territory, he could become a problem in the future. in spite of. Nobles or commoners, heroes or villains, they all join the ranks of the dead. "You're so cute, Annie," Tye said with a proud smile. “But I can’t trust my store to someone else.”
There are so many secrets to uncover here.
"I know," the witch said, clasping her hands behind her back. "But I miss the spell classes we used to have!"
"I'll be happy to give you new ones when I get back," Ty said. "In fact, I could teach your whole class if you wanted."
"That's great," said Anne, anxious to make up for lost time.
"Thank you for the invitation." Morgan said hurriedly. “But we already have a rigorous curriculum and great teachers.”
"But—"
"Annie, if you want to take private lessons, that's up to you, but the academy can't let alchemists of unknown background get too close to Gwen."
"I've been in this city for two years," Tai replied, and Laufey watched the scene, covering his happy smile with his hand.
"But there have been a lot of unexplained deaths in this city for a lot longer," the redhead replied. That's what Gwen said. There have been so many unexplained disappearances over the years. She wonders if the undead have accomplices up there... We haven't yet seen what the evil wizard below looks like behind his mask. "
"Are you accusing Tai of being a murderer?" Annie asked in surprise, while Zhu Sheng remained expressionless.
"These are very serious accusations," Laufey protested, with great concern. "Walter...Walter has always been good."
"I'm not blaming him personally, of course," Morgan said, although she didn't protest that vehemently. "But this is Gwen we're talking about. Do you understand, Mr. Ty? She's the Princess of Avalon. She's too important to endanger."
"I understand," the Necromancer said, though he was furious inside. His chance of infiltrating the academy himself was gone.
Morgan gave him a fake smile that made him want to strangle her. She excused herself to see Gwen and practically dragged her classmates out of the store.
"What do you think of them?" Tye asked Laufey as the adventurers walked out of his shop.
"That Morgan is a jealous snake," the Dark Elf said, putting a finger to her lips. Ty noticed that she would do this when she felt excited. "I can smell her resentment. It's a delicious blend of jealousy, bitter hatred, and bitter cruelty...I can't wait to peel away her beautiful exterior to reveal her rotten ugliness."
The necromancer raised his eyebrows. So his demonic grimoire tells the truth; she can sense the emotions of the living and read them like a book. "What can I use?"
"Of course, dear. But to what purpose?"
“Divide and conquer,” Tye said. "The more discord in their ranks the better. As long as it can't be traced to me for us to find out.
There are more adventurers than them and they can get more resources. But when Tai's troops moved, they all moved in the same direction, and the failed attack demonstrated the enemy's lack of unity.
Moreover, the more he looked at the girl named Morgan, the more he hated her. He didn't mind seeing her dragged through the mud.
"In that case, I'll start with—" When a familiar face walked into the store, Tai glanced at Laufey and told him to shut up. Percy.
"Hello, young man," said the Necromancer. "My condolences for your loss. Sigurd was a good man."
"Thank you," the boy said, his voice heavy. Judging from his wrinkled eyes, he hadn't slept in days. "I'm looking for a... potion of courage."
"Courage potion?"
"I'm having a nightmare," Percy said, without elaborating.
"I guess it's about the dungeon? Do you want the potion to deal with nightmares in your sleep, or nightmares in the dungeon?"
The young man looked away, not too interested in the idea of heading back down the tunnel. "I have no idea."
As the necromancer had predicted, two near-death experiences must have made the squire reconsider his adventurous career. "You are from Earth, right?" asked. "Why aren't you at the academy?"
"I lost my (sacred weapon)," the young man admitted. "Even if I could handle other people, the academy didn't think I was up to their standards."
"Because you don't like fighting," Laufey guessed. While she sounded sympathetic, her words were harsh. "You're afraid of monsters...poor child..."
Percy suddenly found that looking at his own feet was much more interesting than looking at the shopkeeper's face. "Even though I don't like speaking for the dead," Tye said. "Sigurd would not want you to die in revenge for him."
"How did you know?"
Because the Necromancer hid his soul in the crypt and extracted all the valuable information from it. "I once had a mentor who told me not to seek revenge; it was better for me to continue spreading the knowledge he taught me than to perish myself. He told me to stay alive no matter what so that the project could continue."
"But what should I do?" asked Percy, needing advice. "Just let it pass?"
“You can never let tragedy pass,” Ty said from the heart. "But what about the pain you feel?" You can use it for other things besides dealing with monsters. The dungeons aren't the only place that needs help, Percy. The city's undermanned police force gives the mob an opportunity to take advantage. Fighting gangs, murder, fraud, drug trafficking...the gangsters around Lyon do more harm in a month than the dungeons do in a year. "
"I...do you think I can make a difference there?"
"You look like a smart young man," Tai said with a nod. "I think your talents will serve this agency better. See me and see Captain Goreman. He will be happy to welcome you on duty." .I can even write you a letter of introduction.”
"I...that's great," Percy said, forgetting about his potion of courage. "I...I can go take a look."
"You won't regret it," Tai said, then placed a blue elixir on the counter. "Here's a [sleeping potion] to solve your nightmare problem. My treat."
"I can't accept that," Percy protested. He eventually accepted the job, but Ty held out for a full five minutes before kicking him out. The squire finally left and thanked him.
"You should kill him," Laufey said as soon as the necromancer closed the door. "Or give him to me."
"He is no longer an adventurer, so he is out of the way. This way we don't have to deal with him." The Necromancer hates unnecessary killing, and he prefers to live in an orderly and peaceful land.
"I hope you don't 'live' to regret your decision," Laufey replied. "I'm going to work my magic on these kids right away."
"Good. But first I need your help on an underground mission."
To be honest, even Tai can't create an infinite amount of smoke because his cauldron requires chemical materials to create them. Some of them are relatively rare. He needed to spread out his forces and fortify the dungeon. He had sent Hagen to do the former, and he would handle the latter himself.
It's finally time for Tai to conquer a deeper level and become the true master of the ruins. Whatever horrors awaited them below, they must submit to his will or die. Everyone who stands between him and his dream dies.
That's just the way it is.
