When Arin made his descend in the lower rung of Sewer the daylight had gone. It would be pitch black completely, if there were not strange glowing mushrooms blooming here and there. Although their luminescence was not enough for human eyes to navigate properly, but for an Undead like Arin it was no problem at all. Actually, after spending so much time in bright day light whole day, he was at last feeling relieved in the cold embrace of darkness of sewer. Now he was missing his specters. If they were here with him right now, they would survey the whole sewer system for him in a moment, and the quest would be completed in a jiffy. But Arin doubted he could carry his undeads with him in a bustling town. He wished there was any way to summon them at will. Arin felt the need to find solution for this problem. However, that is something for the future. Now it was time to fulfill his quest.
Arin realized another mistake of his. It would be a good idea if he had taken any weapon with him. But he did not. Arin felt he was getting dull after coming to this world. However, he could now utilize his dark energy skills. But only one skill was good to kill an enemy. That was 'Life Drain'. And he decided to use that to clear the sewers.
It had been more than an hour he had started exploration, and he had killed around seventeen rats till now. Life drain took around one to two second to kill a rat. So, it was somewhat satisfactory till now.
One thing was strange. He had suspected that the more he would delve inside, the more he would find dangerous critters. But they were strangely absent. There were no waves of ravenous rats, mutated leech or other dangerous critters. The eerie silence unnerving. The quest was going so smoothly, that he wondered why would the Guard-captain would feel so concerned about his safety. There was certainly something that was amiss. This peaceful exploration was something that was making him feel uneasy.
He looked around and suddenly noticed some strange graffiti inside the sewer wall. Who would enter such deep part of Sewer to draw such strange symbols, Arin wondered. However, as far as he could recall he had not noticed such graffities a while ago, before he entered this part of sewer.
He continued following those strange scribblings, and soon he discovered that those were getting more vivid, clearer. Arin was lost on reading them and trying to make meaning of these. But suddenly there was sudden sound of metallic click, and he stumbled on the ground with a huge thud. As he was falling through the floor, he felt a sharp strange pain in his feet. Again, he was facing pain, which was not something normal from his understanding of an Undead being (although most of his understanding of undead beings was based on the portrayal of the same in popular media from his past life).
Arin collected himself and sat down, only to discover that his left foot was caught in a beer trap. "Whaddahell!" Arin wondered, "who would put a beer trap here?". Arin imagined most probably some criminals had taken shelter in this labyrinthian structure and had installed these traps to stop their pursuer on track. But again, it was strange for them to make strange drawings in wall and attract attention and declare their existence, unless they were super bored and thus got careless.
As Arin was freeing his foot from the trap, he heard sound of water splashing. They were feint, as if some people were slowly stealthily walking on watery surface to avoid making noise as less as possible. Although the water on the floor was giving away their footstep to Arin- whose hearing capability had increased after becoming an Undead.
He quickly freed himself and stood against the wall to get ready for a surprise attack. Now he was really missing a weapon. The footsteps were getting closer. Arin got ready.
Soon he found two dwarf like figures approaching from the alley. There eyes were glowing. Arin doubted it could be eyes of any humanoid. As they came near the trap they stopped. One leaned towards the trap to discover some fluorescent green liquid on it. This was nothing but the same fluid that was flowing in Arin's veins now.
When the one was inspecting the liquid and probably trying to understand the nature of the liquid, the another standing behind him was looking around. As the second one turned his head towards Arin, Arin quickly grabbed its neck with both hands and whispered, "Dice is cast, your life now mine; let it flow, by dark design", and soon it started withering like a dried husk. It tried to make noise, but it was feint, as if it's ability to make a noise was dissipating just like his life force.
The first creature which was inspecting the trap was a bit taken aback by this sudden flow of incidents. Before he could react, Arin had finished draining the creature dry. As the first was going to attack, Arin threw the dried-up creature at it. The creature made a sharp screeching sound as it fell on ground.
Ain pointed at the creature, "wither and rot, life to naught". The creature threw the dried-up carcass to side and stood up. It took a short sword out from the belt, but could not attack. It started trembling in his feet. Arin took the stave the second creature had dropped and hit the first with it hard. It fell on ground again. Arin started beating the creature mercilessly. Blood splattered in the wall. After being sure it was dead Arin stood up and observed those creatures closely. They were rats, very big rats. But upon closer inspection; and taking into account of the recent encounter, he realized they were not just normal rats, but rather humanoid rats, or, Ratman.
[You have killed two enemies. You have been awarded +20 exp]
[You have killed two enemies of level higher than you. You have been awarded bonus +10exp]
[You have killed two Ratmen. Kill forty-eight more to unlock title ??????????]
"Again these annoying notifications" Arin grudged, as there was no time to observe these.
Arin did a thorough search on them. The short sword and the stuff were collected by him and taken in his inventory. After further search he found two strange amulets on both of them. It was a crude amulet with a hexagon, a snake like pattern made on the hexagon. Arin felt a feint trace of dark energy emitting from both. As Arin grabbed them in both hands, he felt that dark energy seeping inside him. But it was not just energy, but some strange visions invaded his mind, visions of a snake with red glowing eyes and a strange green fire and some strange hooded figures around it. It was so strange and invasive that Arin felt a bit headache for a moment.
Arin moved forward, with the stave on left hand and grabbing the short sword firmly on the other. He was moving towards the direction the Ratmen had appeared. He did not resurrect the Ratmen corpses because he did not know how to cancel summon, and if the sweepers found those undead Ratmen next day, it might create unwanted complications for Arin.
As he was moving ahead, he could hear a voice in head, it was a very familiar voice. "Nerthazir's champion is a Novice, who has not realized even a fraction of his power; but that is not the case of Nahun's acolytes. Just like Lord of Death, Lord of Decay is trying to regain its foothold. And Nahun's acolytes are more powerful by virtue of utilizing their potential; even if their rank is much lower than a Champion"
"My Lord" Arin replied in his mind with reverence, "thank you for your guidance, but is not it a bit odd for you to be helping your Champion so frequently, like I did not expect you to be so helpful!"
"Keep on exploring, you will find your answer!" The voice chuckled, "Now go with my blessings and prove your worth!"