Mai moved slowly behind Andries, her legs fighting every step. Still shaking from the previous encounter, she wasn’t keen on meeting another one of the creatures. But pride, something she hadn’t realised she had much of, kept her going.

Not a chance I’m going to let Andries know I’m not up for this, she thought as she pushed on. Aside from the usual drips, burps, farts, and gurgles caused by the gas rising from the river in the sewer, it was silent. She purposefully kept her skills deactivated, as there was no point in risking them deactivating the moment she actually needed them most.

They came to a junction in the sewer.

Left, right, straight ahead, it’s all the same, Mai thought as she cast her eyes about, trying to work out the best way to go.

“Straight on?” Andries pointed with his staff.

“If we go straight on, then anyone coming out of left and right would be able to follow and the same if we took either of the other tunnels. Damned if we do, damned if we don’t,” Mai groaned, not happy with the possibility of two tunnel’s worth of jiangshi being able to follow them. Not that she was happy with a single tunnel’s worth of jiangshi. “I guess let’s just keep going forward. Is there anything you can do to stop them following us?”

Andries nodded, the movement slight in his helmet.

“I can craft a couple of things, nothing special. They don’t like us setting traps as they could be lost, or the location forgotten, and other workers would trip them.”

He paused for a while, obviously going through various menus before crafting a series of wires and stakes.

“What are those?”

“Hunting traps. We sometimes use them in older sewers to keep them free of rats, and spiderwasps. Things like that.”

Mai shuddered, she didn’t know what a spiderwasp was, and didn’t want to know.

Probably something else in the damned Primer. She decided there and then that she’d read the book next time she had a break. If I live.

“Okay, let’s continue in this tunnel. If they come from behind we’ll know because they’ll trigger the traps. They won’t kill them, but I’ll get the damage notifications.”

“Makes sense,” Mai shrugged, half in agreement, half because she still thought it was a hare-brained adventure.

***

“We’ve been at this for hours and haven’t seen hide nor hair of another jiangshi, can we just go home?” moaned Mai as she tried to work some feeling other than pain into her legs. Walking through a sometimes near-solid morass of shit was one of the worst workouts she’d ever had the displeasure of experiencing. Besides, she didn’t even want to think of what this may have cost her in regards to her ‘daily quota’ she was missing out on. Stupid special assignment of his!

“Well if you’ve got a notification that the mission is over and haven’t told me, I’m going to be damned pissed off,” snapped Andries. “But since you probably haven’t, the mission is still on.”

“But we don’t even have a counter as to how many of these … these … things there still are dammit!”

“So it’s still on!” Andries yelled, arms out wide, voice echoing along the dark tunnel. The lighting had completely failed, leaving them only with the light cast by their lamps. Even though the light was comforting, it also made Mai distinctly uncomfortable as to how visible it made them to any enemies.

A shriek sounded, then another, building on each other, the sound turning Mai’s blood into ice water, but at least her helmet was providing protection against the shriek's possible attack function. Then a pregnant silence which was only broken by the sound of rhythmic splashing drawing closer and closer.

“Shouldn’t have shouted so loud,” Mai said as they stared at each other in horror. “Some mentor you are.”

“Like you’re perfect. Knee deep in shit and debt,” he glowered for a moment, then laughed and shook his head. “Sorry, I’m just as tired and stressed as you. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

Mai stared for a second before giving a smile. “It’s fine, I was being a whiny little cow.”

Another splash, closer this time. Closely followed by a second.

“Definitely two coming, have your skills reset?” Andries took up a fighting stance. “Activate them if they have. Get ready with your staff. I’ll tank like before, but there’s a chance that one will get past me. If that happens you’ll have to fight it until I can help.”

“Fine,” adrenalin was surging through her system, reducing her to monosyllabic responses. She licked her lips, mouth dry. Knowing what they faced was actually making things harder than easier. She was also glad that she had avoided keeping her skills active while they had been searching. Now her skills would be at their fullest for time.

The splashing was definitely getting closer, Mai was surprised that she couldn’t see their enemy. From the sound, they should have been in the light cast by their lamps.

“Where the hells are they?” Andries whispered, crouching low. “I …”

A shriek blasted into the tunnel as a jiangshi appeared from a side tunnel, the weak lamplight failing to pick it out from the shadows, and the tunnel’s acoustics having made it sound as though the jiangshi were to their front and not to their flank.

Mai shrieked in response, lashing out instinctively with her staff.

HIT! 10% DAMAGE

Health bar suddenly blocking with black, the Jiangshi’s momentum carried it through the strike, its claws striking her hard, driving her backward.

SOAK! 5%

DAMAGE! 1%

HEALTH 99%

Even through her protective gear the strike still hurt. It was all very well wearing armour, but unless it was a mecha, she was going to feel hits. Even a strike against hardened armour was going to hurt.

SOAK! 5%

DAMAGE! 1%

HEALTH 98%

Her ribs groaned as the jiangshi struck her again. Activating her SEWER COMBAT, she tried to parry the next attack, only partially succeeding. Whilst it did no damage this time, it still knocked her backward.

Where’s Andries? She couldn’t take her eyes off the jiangshi before her. This one was more hideous than the last. Both eyes were completely gone, as was the whole of its left cheek. Rotting flesh hung in tatters from its forehead, and yellowed teeth clacked, the creature’s overly long tongue falling out where its cheek used to be.

“Hold on Mai! Nearly done!” Andries shouted as Mai’s back slammed into the wall of the tunnel. With nowhere to retreat to, she positioned her staff for a thrust. The end of the staff jammed into the wall behind her, very nearly jarring it loose from her grip. The jiangshi pressed home again.

INSTAKILL!

VAMPIRE SLAYER 10%

+50 UC!

Mai stared in confusion at the impaled jiangshi, its health bar completely drained.The tip of her spear blade jutted out of the top of its skull, skin, hair, and rotten brains dulling its blade.

“Headshot!!” yelled Andries somewhere to the right of her, and a jiangshi head sailed through the air past her to land with a dull splat in the morass off to her side.

“That’s three, including the one we killed earlier. How many workers were in the group? Didn’t you say twelve?” Mai said, turning her lamp onto Andries, whose visor immediately darkened so that he wasn’t blinded. Despite that, he still managed to look embarrassed as he gave a slight shrug.

“Twelve”, his helmeted head bobbed. “Must say that I didn’t think things would be this hard. I was expecting nothing special. Should have been a simple training mission. Still, you must be levelling up in SEWER COMBAT quite quickly!” he gave a double thumbs up. She responded with a double-vee.

Still, he has a point she thought, opening up her SASS. Smiling, she saw she had indeed leveled up in SEWER COMBAT, with side experience gained in SEWER WORKER as well. Mai pointed that out to Andries. She also looked for anything related to luck, as she seemed to be having a whole lot of that lately too.

“That’s because you’re working in the sewer. Just because you’re not slicing up a fat berg doesn’t mean you’re not putting in the hours as a Sewer Worker. We’ve been at this for … wow. Eight hours. A minute more and we’re into overtime. Therefore any experience gained doing something as a Sewer Worker also goes towards skills that help you improve your ability to work as a sewer worker.”

“Do we get paid more for overtime?” She held her breath as this might be the answer to her earlier fear of having missed out on her quota for the day following this ‘training’ opportunity.

“Seriously, Chapter Three! Yes. We get paid more. Time and a half. And that applies for everything. Jiangshi now count as 75UC.”

“I’ll be home to Li in no time!” crowed Mai, rubbing her hands at the thought of so much money.

“Let’s not get too carried away. We’ve still got to find the rest of them. And live.”

“Hang on, I thought you said we don’t need any help after we killed the first one? The way you’re talking, we might not get out of this alive.”