Chapter 20: Chapter 20 – I Am Stealthy

The shack was cramped and uncomfortable, but most of all, it smelled like dog shit.

Not the kind of dog shit that’s fresh and steamy, mind you. It smelled like the kind that’s been sitting there for weeks, festering and moldering on the edge of a sidewalk that was crumbling in disrepair.

I didn’t have much room to complain though.

The rest of the town was pretty much in the same state thanks to Count Asshole. Plus, the shack was out of the way from prying eyes.

The moment the door of the shack was shut, the hooded figure who led us here threw back their hood to reveal a cliodé girl who was nothing short of adorable.

She had bright violet hair and matching eyes which added to the air of cute mystique surrounding her. What was really eye-catching were the cute, round ears on top of her head. 

I was reminded of a baby grizzly bear the moment I saw them, and it took all of my willpower just to refrain from petting her, especially since she was a head shorter than me.

“It’s you!” Lucrezia gasped in surprise. “What’re you doing here!?”

“Huh? You know them, Lucrezia?”

“Only a little,” the cute bear girl replied in Lucrezia’s stead. “I was one of the captives back in that underground complex. As are my companions.”

She gestured to the four individuals beside her who were still hooded, prompting them to reveal their faces. All of them were cliodé of various subraces. I could equate most of their animal features to various Earth equivalents, but two of them had more exotic features which had no parallels.

They were all super cute, though!

They all introduced themselves and thanked us for helping them escape. The violet-haired girl who had led us here was Cliona who came from Clan Yuril. 

She and her companions had crossed over to this side of the continent in order to collect materials and ended up getting captured by slavers.

Apparently, this was a pretty common occurrence near the Fissure as slavers mostly patrolled around the area seeing as the so-called Demonic races had no rights under the laws of the three western nations.

“This is Luran and Narik. They’re our scouts,” Cliona gestured to the two standing to her left before continuing. “And this is Krys and Priya, demolitions.”

Thanks to their different hair colors, they were pretty easy to tell apart. Luran had orange hair and wolf-like features while Narik had blue hair and had similar features to Cliona. Krys had green hair and lizard-like features. I couldn’t tell what kind of features Priya’s animal qualities resembled, but she had silver hair which made her stick out all the same.

“Thanks to Luran’s efforts, we managed to find a sluice gate which leads inside the castle. It’s hidden near the back of the hill and it’s mostly used to dispose of waste, meaning that there won’t be any sentries nearby. 

“Together with Narik, they’ve managed to map out the entire first floor while navigating through the underground sluice tunnels, meaning that we should be able to enter the slave chambers without much issue.”

“Are you asking us to walk through a sewer!?” Antenora’s question was asked in a raised voice that surprised me. She looked downright insulted.

I knew Antenora was prideful, but I never expected that she’d be this against it. Far be it for me to advocate crawling through ten tons of shit and piss inside a tunnel, but if that was our only way in, then that was our only way in.

“Hey, maybe chillax, Antenora?”

“I will not stand for this! You are no foreigner, you cannot expect the—”

“It’s quite alright, Antenora. This is for the sake of Aurelia, after all.” Lucrezia’s gentle touch on Antenora’s arm and soft voice somewhat quelled her indignation for now, but I was under no illusion that the effect would be permanent.

Yeah, I know that look... She’s going to start complaining the moment we’re in the sluice.

—

“How absolutely revolting!”

We had only been inside the sluice for five seconds and already, Antenora was treating us with the enhanced vocals of a shitstained canal.

Epic.

“Hey, Antenora, do you mind not shouting? You’re going to spook someone on the shitter, and then they’re going to send a brown bombardment down the chute.”

Of course, I had no idea if anyone was actually using any of the castle’s washrooms at this time of night. We’d waited until the moon was up high before entering, but the mere thought of something like that happening managed to shut Antenora up real good.

“Hold on, I smell something.” Cliona held up a hand, stopping in the lead position. She sniffed the air, an act which I thought was both impressive and disgusting at the same time.

“Something other than shit, you mean?”

She ignored my remark and pointed to something in the distance. Thanks to [Eagle Eye], I could now see in the dark just like the Demonic races. This was probably for the better since lighting a torch would probably ignite the entire sluice whereas a mana-fueled light source might trip an alarm.

Further down the canal was a blob-shaped mass that looked like it was slowly wiggling toward our location. It resembled a large slime, but the tentacle-like appendages that it stretched toward us certainly weren’t anything I’d seen on a slime.

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A quick look through the rulebook told me that this was a Swecke. Normally, they were used as natural waste disposal solutions. Sweckes fed off detritus, meaning that they were perfect for cleaning up sewers and sluices like this one.

However, when left uncontrolled, they would grow to massive sizes and become an active danger. It was clear that Count Oswald had no intention of keeping this area safe seeing as he probably only sent slaves in here whenever repairs needed to be done.

“It’s coming. Get in your positions.”

I clicked my tongue in displeasure.

I really didn’t want to move to the front with all those probably-slimy appendages writhing toward us rapidly, but I didn’t have much of a choice.

I was by far the strongest combatant here and according to Cliona, this entire plan was only possible because of my presence.

To my surprise, Lucrezia broke formation and stood next to me as the swecke continued to approach us. It would reach us in a few seconds.

“H-Hey! What the heck’re you doing!?”

“You promised we’d walk forward side-by-side, right?”

I clicked my tongue again.

There wasn’t much I could say to that.

“Cover everyone else, then! I’m going to charge that motherfucker!”

I trusted the others to Lucrezia and then immediately dashed forward to engage the swecke. Up close, it was way larger than I thought it’d be and it smelled infinitely worse.

The tentacular appendages had zeroed in on me as I advanced, but their attempts to stop me were ill-fated as I simply smacked them away, the force causing their jelly-like consistency to unravel and splatter against the walls of the canal.

I spared a moment to glance behind me. A few tentacles had shot past me and continued onward to Lucrezia’s position when I dashed forward, but it looks like I had no reason to worry after all.

A dome of violent wind had surrounded her position, shearing away the tentacles as they continued to mindlessly bash themselves against it.

Satisfied, I turned back to the large monstrosity that now stood before me.

“Alright, let’s see what you’re made of.”

As if in response, multiple new appendages shot out of the swecke’s body, attempting to grapple me. Its attempts were futile though, as I simply splattered them like earlier before moving in and throwing a punch directly in the center of its mass.

The force of my strike caused a thunderous echo throughout the entire canal, completely obliterating the swecke’s wobbly body in a single hit.

Well, so much for stealth.

The walls were completely covered in its green-hued slime and smelled all the worse, but the danger had passed.

At least, that’s what I thought until the slime started to move.

A small red sphere rolled away from my position before I could reach it, drawing in the slime on the walls at an incredible rate. 

In mere seconds, the massive swecke had reformed.

“Oh, you’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me...”

I’d seen this type of shit in more than a few shows back home. Gelatinous creatures usually had something called a “core”, and it looked like the swecke wasn’t an exception. 

In retrospect, there was probably something mentioning that in the rulebook, but I hadn’t had the time to scroll down since it was approaching us.

Regardless, the swecke smelled rancid, so I wasn’t very keen on sticking my hand in there to crush the core.

I guess there’s no choice... Back then, I couldn’t use it, but perhaps in this world, with these stats...

I shook my head as I effortlessly parried the swecke’s attacks.

No. My physical abilities don’t have anything to do with it.

I took a deep breath and shifted into a stance that I hadn’t taken for years.

I’m sorry that I’m using this technique for something so petty, master, but I really, really don’t wanna stick my hand in there!

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