A druid telling an undead that she would help without taking a coin, and was even willing to lay down her life to protect him.
The sheer absurdity of such a scam was beyond Anbaixiu's ability to count.
Anbaixiu scoffed coldly and said to her, "Spare me such tedious lies. In this world, the free things are always the most expensive. State your true purpose, and only then might I consider working with you."
The druid girl looked around, then said, "We can find a private place to talk."
Anbaixiu snapped his fingers, and a pitch-black barrier enveloped the two of them.
Anbaixiu said, "It blocks sound and light; ordinary divination spells can't pierce it either. You may speak now."
The druid girl stared in shock at the pitch-black curtain. She was a spellcaster herself, and a single spell was enough to reveal Anbaixiu's prowess.
Spellcasting required incantations and somatic gestures—the bare fundamentals. Silent casting was already an exceptionally high-end technique, yet Anbaixiu had not only omitted any incantation, but had also deployed the barrier in an instant. If they were in combat, just how fast could this man sling fireballs? Even the continent-famous Cult of Three Fireballs could only manage three fireballs in six seconds.
This undead was far more formidable than she had imagined.
She truly had found the right person.
Taking a deep breath, the druid girl said to Anbaixiu, "Earlier, my kin and I went to explore the sewers of the City of Alchemy. We encountered something horrifying, and my people were trapped inside. I need to rescue them."
"Your people are trapped, and you expect to rescue them all on your own? If you want me to step in, that won't be as simple as acting as a free guide—you'll have to pay extra," Anbaixiu remarked quizzically.
"No need. I have my own methods. You only need to help me locate them. As an undead, you're more sensitive to a druid's radiance of life and can pinpoint their location in the sewers. In exchange, I will help you find the slimes you need."
Anbaixiu pondered for a moment, then asked, "How long have they been trapped?"
The druid girl fell silent for a beat before answering, "More than two months."
Anbaixiu: "..."
Two months? Their bones had probably turned to dust by now. What radiance of life could possibly remain?
As if sensing Anbaixiu's thoughts, the druid girl said anxiously, "My people have means to protect themselves! They're only trapped. As long as I can find them, I can help them escape. They must still be alive!"
The last sentence sounded as if she were convincing herself, her voice already trembling on the verge of tears.
Anbaixiu grew even more intrigued by the sewer's secrets. That wretched place had drawn paladins from the Ryan Empire, and now druids... Surely there couldn't actually be a legendary dragon hiding down there, could there?
"What did you run into down in the sewers?" Anbaixiu asked.
The druid girl was well aware of the value of this intelligence. She told Anbaixiu, "You have to agree first, or I won't tell you anything more."
"No problem. I can sign a contract with you right now: if your people aren't dead yet, I will do my best to help locate them."
After some thought, Anbaixiu didn't refuse.
No matter how you looked at it, this druid girl was far more cost-effective than the other two guides.
The dangers of the sewer wouldn't change based on his choice of guide; on the contrary, having personally witnessed the sewer's horrors was actually an advantage on her part.
The druid girl eagerly signed the contract with Anbaixiu.
Naomi Watts. Only now did Anbaixiu learn the druid girl's name.
That surname didn't fit the typical druid style. Most druidic surnames were related to nature, often with specific variations depending on their circle. For instance, the surname Eclipse of the Moon was an ancestral name belonging to a certain branch of the Circle of the Moon, quite famous across the land.
Watts... sounded more like a human noble lineage, and the family likely had some connection to lightning.
It seemed this druid girl's background held quite a few mysteries of its own.
Still, Anbaixiu had no curiosity about other people's gossip; he only cared about information concerning the sewers. "Now, please tell me what is actually down in the sewers, Miss Watts."
Recalling the incident, Naomi Watts said, "I can't say for sure what kind of monster we encountered. We were exploring the sewers of the Southern District when the filthy tunnel suddenly turned into a beautiful garden, like our homeland..."
The druid girl described everything she had experienced in detail. To Anbaixiu's ears, it sounded like a colossal high-tier illusion with numerous disguised dangers hidden within—things like apples that bit, or sheep that suddenly sprouted sharp claws.
Though remarkably insidious, it didn't seem overwhelmingly powerful. The druids were merely trapped within the phantasm, unable to leave. As for the druid girl before him, the others had pooled their strength to send her out of the illusion specifically to seek reinforcements.
"Yet you returned all alone? Where are the rest of your kin? Surely your entire druid clan wasn't down in the sewers, was it?" Anbaixiu asked.
"That has nothing to do with our cooperation."
"Heh, fine. I won't pry. But according to your description, this creature shouldn't be too hard to deal with."
A wide-area illusion was formidable, but resorting to phantasms to trap people suggested the adversary lacked substantial direct combat power. An Evoker specializing in the Cult of Three Fireballs could have blasted all those druids to ash in six seconds flat—and quite possibly collapsed the sewers in the process.
Several monsters adept at illusions flashed through Anbaixiu's mind, and he felt confident he could handle them.
"Then let's not waste any time. We set off right now."
Anbaixiu dispelled the barrier and registered the contract with the tavern, which served as notarization. Every tavern where adventurers gathered offered this service to reduce disputes, and most city-states recognized the legal validity of such adventuring contracts.
If not for this service, watered-down sour ale and the screeching songs of dwarven bellowers alone would never have drawn so many patrons.
Stepping out of the tavern, Naomi couldn't wait to lead Anbaixiu toward the sewer entrance.
Anbaixiu, however, grabbed hold of her and cast Greater Invisibility.
Their figures quickly turned translucent before vanishing entirely into thin air.
Startled, Naomi had no idea what Anbaixiu was doing. But soon she saw two male adventurers step out of the tavern—the very rogue and ranger who had been interviewed alongside her earlier.
From the look of things, they were actually in cahoots.
Furthermore, the moment the pair exited the tavern doors, they began glancing around, clearly intending to tail Anbaixiu and Naomi.
The ranger even summoned a hound, attempting to track them by scent. However, after circling around several times, the hound still failed to detect their presence.
Druids were attuned to nature, their scent blending seamlessly into the environment. As for Anbaixiu, even though he was a lich, foreign odors signaled foreign matter, which meant experimental results might be contaminated. Thus, he had always been meticulous about cleanliness; even with a lich's frame, he possessed not the slightest odor.
Unwilling to give up, the pair walked toward the sewer entrance, seemingly bent on continuing their pursuit.
Once they had moved off, Anbaixiu cancelled the invisibility.
Naomi asked in confusion, "What on earth do those two want?"
Anbaixiu explained, "One acted like a clumsy swindler, while the other quoted a seemingly reasonable but inflated price. An old trick. Having failed to trick me, they now want to trail behind us to scavenge some easy pickings. If we run into trouble down in the sewers, they won't hesitate to kick us while we're down and rob everything of value from our corpses."
Such were adventurers: in places devoid of rules, their lower limit was barely distinguishable from that of bandits.
"Then what do we do now?" Naomi was clearly a greenhorn with little adventuring experience; otherwise, she wouldn't have waited so long in the City of Alchemy without finding suitable companions, to the point of turning desperately to an undead like Anbaixiu for help.
Anbaixiu replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "Follow them, of course. They won't give up and will definitely enter the sewers. If they want to prey on us, why shouldn't we prey on them?"
Anbaixiu broke into a delighted smile. Having missed out on a chance to rob the robbers earlier, he was now making up for it. Praise be to the God of Fate for delivering such fat sheep right to his doorstep.
Chapter 23