This Lich Requests More Remuneration

Chapter 69 - 69 69 The Secret of the Sewers

?Chapter 69: Chapter 69 The Secret of the Sewers Chapter 69: Chapter 69 The Secret of the Sewers Within Alchemy City, two Drow Elves followed carefully behind the Withered Rose, holding up a beautiful umbrella for her.

They needed to constantly match the pace of the Withered Rose, not too fast, nor too slow, and especially not allowing a single ray of sunlight to fall upon the queen.

Such sunlight couldn’t cause any harm to an Undead Queen of Legendary Rank, but should the Withered Rose frown, those two would become material for creating the Undead.

In Gloomyland, no one was unaware of the queen’s cruelty; she was indifferent to any living being, treating them merely as tools.

Once a tool was no longer handy, it was naturally discarded.

Following close to Withered Rose were two solemn-faced Governing Officers, sent by the Alchemist Council to monitor her. The sudden visit from this notorious Undead Queen in Gloomyland made everyone in Alchemy City’s skin crawl.

These Governing Officers were indeed unlucky; even though the Withered Rose completely ignored their existence, just standing beside her was enough for terror to invade their bodies like a virus.

This was the power of a true Lich, whose rich Dark Magic Power would contaminate everything around her, unless she deliberately restrained it.

Of course, the Withered Rose had no intention of considering the humans around her as she wandered carelessly through Alchemy City, occasionally buying alchemical materials without asking for the price.

Among these, there were three bottles of Living Mercury Solution; it was the gift she planned to bring to Amberser.

Though it was unclear how the Undead dealt with romance, according to his character, giving expensive gifts should be the right choice.

At this time, Gareth and his spouse should have visited that third party’s house by now; who knew if they could restrain themselves—should a fight break out, it would surely be troublesome.

The Withered Rose initially wanted to witness the melodramatic love between the Undead, to see if she could draw any insights from it, but with the people of Alchemy City always following her, it wouldn’t be appropriate to expose the private affairs of the Undead couple.

Thus, the Withered Rose could only venture out alone, pretending to shop while in fact distracting the attention of Alchemy City.

However, that was only one of her intents.

Amberser had requested her aid in investigating the secrets of the sewers, and the Withered Rose was also highly interested in the secret that Alchemy City kept its lips sealed about.

Though she seemed to meander aimlessly, in fact, the Withered Rose had unknowingly approached an entrance to the sewer.

The Withered Rose carefully observed the two ‘accompanying’ Governing Officers, and as they neared the sewer entrance, their faces clearly displayed disgust, yet they showed little caution or panic.

The disgust was likely due to the foul stench drifting everywhere, but the lack of caution and panic suggested that these two knew nothing of the sewer’s secrets.

“If that’s the case, then I can be a bit bolder,” she mused.

Feigning ignorance, the Withered Rose walked toward the sewer entrance. The closer she got, the stronger the stench became until the two Governing Officers couldn’t help but cover their noses.

Just as the Withered Rose looked intent on proceeding further, one of the Governing Officers quickly said, “Your Majesty, the area ahead has been declared off-limits due to a leak of alchemical waste. It hasn’t been cleaned up yet, so it’s full of snakes, rats, insects, and the like, making it unsuitable for a visit. I suggest we take a different route. There are some fine shops selling enchanted equipment on the other side.”

With feigned curiosity, the Withered Rose said, “A leak of alchemical waste? That sounds like a severe accident. Hasn’t Alchemy City managed to deal with it yet?”

The two Governing Officers were a bit embarrassed, but they truly had no idea what the problem was, only managing to awkwardly change the subject. They failed to notice Withered Rose taking a few steps towards the foul-smelling sewer entrance overflowing with sewage, and neither did they notice her eyes skimming over the swarming mosquitoes.

Yet with just one glance, hundreds of the tiny insects were already dead and, in an instant, transformed into controllable Undead Puppets.

This was the Legendary Grace of Withered Rose—Gaze of Death.

As long as her Soul Fire locked onto a target, no other action was needed to transform a living creature into an undead. Depending on the vitality of the individual creature, the transformation process took varying amounts of time.

Even a High-order Holy Warrior like Masstar, if not noticed in time, would become undead within minutes. As for insignificant insects like these, they could be transformed nearly in the blink of an eye.

“Alright, it really doesn’t look like there’s anything interesting to see. Let’s go another way.”

So Withered Rose turned around and left without arousing any suspicions from the Governing Officers, nor did the two maids beside her notice their queen’s subtle actions.

When they left, the insects that had been transformed into undead quickly burrowed into the sewer.

Thanks to the increasingly abysmal sanitary conditions of Alchemy City, rats and insects could be found everywhere. Along the way, Withered Rose quietly turned thousands of vermin into undead that began exploring the sewers, and soon they mapped out the sewers for Withered Rose.

Using the excuse of being bored with her outing, Withered Rose returned to her silvery carriage that resembled a small palace, and then began to draw out the map of the sewers.

In just one day, Withered Rose had explored the bulk of the sewers beneath Alchemy City.

Withered Rose began piecing together the separate parts of the map, forming a unique pattern.

“How does this look like some kind of Alchemical Magic Array?”

Withered Rose, not particularly skilled in Alchemy, could only make out a little of the pattern, so she immediately sent the map fragments to Amberser.

[Withered Rose: Look at the sewer map I drew, it seems like some kind of Alchemical Magic Array.]
Meanwhile in the castle, Amberser was busy disarticulating the bones of a corpse.

After much consideration, this Half-Elf Ranger decided to choose a Skeleton as his reincarnation form. It wasn’t that he disliked flesh; maintaining the freshness of flesh for the undead was costly, the choices being either rotting or mummified, both of which were less appealing than the skeletal form.

As a Half-Elf, faced with the options of extremely ugly and moderately ugly, Husky chose the latter— the Skeleton form.

After all, as an Undead with self-awareness, there was not much difference between a Skeleton and a Zombie; whether one could advance or not depended on luck and effort. Amberser would do his best to endow Husky with more innate spells during the transformation process, such as basic Skeleton summoning, Touch of Frost, etc., allowing him to have certain combat abilities right after reincarnation.

While he was in the middle of separating the ribs, the Necromancy Codex began to vibrate, and Amberser had to summon Mage Hand to open the Necromancy Codex.

Poor Husky could only lie on the operating table, awkwardly maintaining an opened-chest state.

When Amberser saw the sewer map sent by Withered Rose, excitement caused him to snap the bones he was holding.

Amberser couldn’t be bothered to mend Husky’s bones and hurriedly replied to Withered Rose: [This isn’t an Alchemical Magic Array, this is a modified Prayer Magic Circle. These lunatics are truly trying to create a god!]