As the men dragged Sigmarus down the hill of dirt and rubble, a horrid stench assaulted his nostrils. It only worsened the deeper they went. The Green Devil members covered their noses with their shirts and squinted to hold back tears. In contrast, Sigmarus could only receive the horrible air into his nostrils, causing his nose to wrinkle and face to distort. To his surprise, an unexpected silver notification popped into view for the first time in a while.

[Warning: High levels of Corruption beyond host’s resistance detected. Immediate evacuation recommended.]

Sigmarus blinked a few times, but eventually dismissed the screen. Now wasn’t the time to worry about such a thing, though he did wonder what it meant by ‘Corruption’. The apparatus had never mentioned such a thing before.

Well, I won’t be here for too long, anyway, so it should be fine. People come down here fairly often without anything happening to them.

A short walk later, the feet of the gang members finally landed on a hard concrete surface, though it was coated in a thick layer of grime. Sigmarus gagged when he felt some of it slide under the creases of his socks and pants. He barely held back a surge of bile.

“Let’s hurry. Place smells like shit,” One of the men said, his voice muffled by his shirt.

The others nodded and increased their pace. They arrived at the nearest aqueduct in less than a minute. Hardly any light reached this place, but living in the dark underground allowed them to adjust relatively quickly.

Dark water plagued with flies, dung, piss, and even small corpses slowly flowed through the canals. The men hurriedly tossed Sigmarus over the edge as close to the middle of the filthy canal as possible.

“Hopefully that’s enough for him to drown.”

“Yeah…”

The four sprinted off without waiting for Sigmarus to hit the water.

Sigmarus took a deep breath of stagnant air the moment they released him. He mentally prepared himself for one of the most disgusting experiences he thought he might ever encounter. In midair, a few silver screens popped into view, but he was forced to ignore them in favor of focusing on not drowning. The gang members heard the plop and splash of Sigmarus landing in the canal, and hoped to never see him again and that their leader’s stupid habit wouldn’t bring them bad fortune again. Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t see the silver screens that appeared in Sigmarus’ view.

[You have killed a mortal human (Earth).]

[Experience +4, Ability Points +2]

Several similar screens appeared one after another over the next few minutes, though Sigmarus didn’t have time to pay attention to them right now.

Eyes closed and lungs full of air, Sigmarus’ face wrinkled as he tried not to gag. Grimy chunks of waste slid against his skin under the surface of the slowly flowing water. A tingling sensation tickled his entire body like a small electrical current. However, the pain shooting up from his broken legs overwhelmed it. Focusing on anything aside from pain gradually turned into a struggle as his adrenaline died down.

Still holding his breath, he moved his arms around, pushing debris and feces out of his way until his hand broke the water’s surface. From there, he swam above water. He wiped his face with a grime-covered hand, and then slightly opened one eye just enough to see through his eyelashes. He immediately saw one of the canal edges directly ahead. Ignoring the pain in his legs, he doggie paddled toward it.

They probably would’ve offed me if they knew I was from upstairs originally, Sigmarus thought. For the first time in a while, he felt thankful for the fact that he had originally lived in the Middle Sectors. He wouldn’t know how to swim now if not for the pools up there.

Moments later, he reached the ledge which stood about the length of a forearm above the water’s surface. He reached up with one arm and grabbed the ledge so that he wouldn’t have to tread water in this toxic river, not that he could do it right now considering his broken legs which were currently dangling underwater.

Now that he didn’t have to worry about drowning in piss, Sigmarus opened his inventory and pulled out an old shirt. He wiped his face and hands with it. Afterward, he tossed it into the canal. Then, he fully opened his eyes and checked the new notifications.

Four killed and eight defeated… Like I thought, I only get the ability points from killing the opponent. On top of that, it seems like I only got half experience for the ones who haven’t died. That old man told me I needed to kill things to get any experience, but maybe there’s exceptions? Anyway, I thought I’d only get one point per guy, but three or four experience and two ability points per guy makes this easier. I only need one more to bleed out. In the meantime…

After sorting out his thoughts, he looked over his surroundings. Although it was hard to see well in the darkness, he could see well enough to make out the shapes of the things floating in the sewer. In order to see more, he pulled out his old blast helmet that had small LED head lamps built into it. While putting it on, he couldn’t help feeling amused about the fact that the trashy helmet could actually be useful now. Sigmarus then sealed the neck area of the helmet before pulling out his toolbox and setting it on the ledge. He grabbed some heavy-duty tape from within. Since he only had one free hand, he struggled to get some strips of it. A few seconds later, he successfully sealed the visor of his old blast helmet.

Turning on the head lamps, Sigmarus looked around at his surroundings again. Despite the narrower field of vision, his eyes immediately landed on a small lump of flesh a few meters away. The lump was only the size of his hand. It was just a mangled head and torso with small stubs for limbs. The sight of it made his heart feel heavy. He stared at it for a few seconds, but then tore his eyes away since he needed to find someone else. Now wasn’t the time to mourn for a stillborn child.

Setting aside any thoughts about the filthy smells and tragic sights around him, he let go of the ledge and let his body sink underwater. The lights only reached a few meters ahead before petering out due to the large amount of debris in the dirty water.

Suddenly, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. His heart skipped a beat, and he focused toward the movement.

A fish? Sigmarus realized upon seeing a pale fish similar to a trout but with disfigured fins and three sightless eyes. Scared me for a moment, there. Alright, now, where are you, Merci?

Hindered by his broken legs, Sigmarus struggled to swim further than a few meters at a time before needing to surface and open the mouth vents to breathe. The stagnant and putrid air made him gag every time. A few times, he almost puked before swallowing it back down.

I might need to go further downstream. Even then, it’s already been too long, He thought after not finding anything for a few minutes. Brows furrowed, he glanced down at the water. Although he couldn’t see very far beneath the surface, he could feel the severe pain coursing through his legs. Doing anything would be difficult even if he found the girl.

Just as he was starting to worry, he saw another silver screen appear which notified him of the death of another Green Devil member. At the same time, several more notifications appeared, and a barely noticeable ripple of energy pulsed out from his body and into the surroundings.

[Level Up!]

[Stat cap increased.]

[Due to cultivation increase, Freedom Technique has broken through its previous limit.]

[Freedom Technique Lv.2 --> Lv.3]

[Learned Freedom Step.]

Having forgotten about leveling up for a while, Sigmarus raised his brows at the notifications and stopped searching for a few moments. However, he quickly refocused, dismissed the screens, and resumed his search.

* * *

A few kilometers away, near the outlets of the sewers leading into a polluted river flowing through the wilderness outside of Haze City, a person who had just broken through the grates stopped walking along the large main canal. They slowly turned their head in the darkness toward the ripple of energy that tickled the edges of their spirit sense. They stood still for a moment in utter silence. Even the rats shivered quietly in their holes. Eventually, the person turned around and walked along the nearest side canal toward the energy ripple.