Inside the City of Alchemy, two drow elves followed cautiously behind Rose of Decay, holding a lavish umbrella aloft to shield her.
They had to match Rose of Decay's pace at every second—never too fast, never too slow, and under no circumstances letting a single speck of sunlight touch the queen's body.
Such weak sunlight posed no real threat to a legendary undead queen, but if Rose of Decay so much as knitted her brows, the two of them would become raw materials for crafting undead.
In the Underdark, no one was ignorant of Her Majesty's cruelty; she was utterly cold toward all living beings, viewing them solely as disposable tools.
The moment a tool ceased to be useful, it was naturally discarded.
Flanking Rose of Decay were two solemn-faced administrators, dispatched by the Alchemists' Council to keep an eye on her. The renowned Undead Queen of the Underdark had paid a sudden visit, and from top to bottom, the entire City of Alchemy felt their scalps tingle with dread.
These two administrators were truly unfortunate. Even though Rose of Decay completely disregarded their presence, merely standing beside her allowed fear to seep into their bodies like an invasive virus.
Such was the might of a true lich. As long as she did not deliberately suppress her power, the slightest sliver of leaked, potent dark magic was enough to taint everything around her.
Naturally, Rose of Decay had no intention of being considerate toward a few humans. She strolled leisurely through the City of Alchemy, occasionally buying alchemical ingredients without bothering to ask the price.
Among them were three vials of Living Mercury Solution—gifts she intended to bring to Anbaixiu.
Though she had no idea how undead courted one another, given his personality, sending something expensive couldn't possibly be wrong.
By this hour, Gareth and his wife had probably confronted each other at that other woman's home. She wondered if they could restrain themselves; if a fight broke out, it would surely be another headache.
Rose of Decay had originally wanted to witness this melodramatic undead love triangle firsthand to see if she could glean some pointers from it. But with people from the City of Alchemy constantly dogging her heels, she couldn't very well expose the undead couple's private affairs to outsiders.
Therefore, she could only come out by herself under the pretense of shopping, acting as a distraction to draw the City of Alchemy's attention.
Yet that was only one of her objectives.
Anbaixiu had asked for her help in investigating the secret of the sewers, and Rose of Decay was quite intrigued by the secret the City of Alchemy guarded so tightly.
Her stroll appeared aimless, yet before anyone realized it, Rose of Decay had drawn near one of the sewer entrances.
Rose of Decay observed the two administrators assigned to "accompany" her. As they neared the sewer entrance, both men wore visible expressions of disgust, yet showed little vigilance or panic.
The disgust was likely due to the vile stench wafting through the air, but the absence of vigilance and panic indicated that they knew nothing about whatever lay hidden down there.
'If that's the case, I can afford to be a bit bolder.'
Feigning ignorance, Rose of Decay walked toward the sewer opening. The closer she drew, the more overpowering the foul stench grew, until the two administrators could not help covering their noses.
Seeing that she intended to press forward, one administrator hurriedly spoke up. "Your Majesty, the area ahead has been designated a restricted zone due to an alchemical waste leak. Since it hasn't been cleaned up yet, it's overrun with vermin, snakes, and insects—hardly suitable for sightseeing. I suggest we head in another direction; there are several fine enchanted equipment shops that way."
Rose of Decay feigned curiosity. "An alchemical waste leak? That sounds like quite a serious accident. Has the City of Alchemy still not resolved it?"
The two administrators looked somewhat embarrassed. Not truly knowing the details, they stammered and attempted to change the subject, failing to notice Rose of Decay take a few steps closer to the sewer entrance brimming with foul wastewater, nor did they catch her gaze sweeping over the cloud of swarming gnats and flies.
With a single glance, hundreds of tiny insects perished and instantly transformed into undead puppets under her command. This was Rose of Decay's legendary boon—Death Gaze.
As long as a creature was locked on by her soul fire, no other movement was required to convert it into undead. The time needed for this transformation varied according to the target's vitality.
Even a high-ranking paladin like Fanxing, if failing to detect it in time, would turn into undead within minutes. For insignificant critters like these, the conversion took barely the blink of an eye.
"Very well. It does seem there is nothing worth seeing here. Let us head elsewhere."
Rose of Decay turned and walked away without raising the slightest suspicion from the two administrators. Even the two handmaidens at her side had failed to notice their queen's subtle move.
Once they departed, the converted undead insects swiftly scurried and flew into the sewers.
Thanks to the City of Alchemy's deteriorating sanitation, rats and bugs were everywhere. As Rose of Decay strolled along, thousands of rodents, insects, and snakes were silently turned into undead, setting out to scour the subterranean channels. Before long, they had mapped out the sewers for her.
Claiming she had grown tired of browsing, Rose of Decay returned to her silver carriage, which was like a miniature palace, and set to work drafting a map of the sewers.
In merely a single day, she had explored the greater part of the city's sewers.
Piecing together the scattered segments of the map, she assembled a distinctive design.
'Why does this look like some kind of alchemical magic circle?'
Rose of Decay was not particularly versed in alchemy and could only discern faint traces of a pattern, so she forwarded the map fragments straight to Anbaixiu.
[Rose of Decay: Take a look at the sewer map I drew. It looks like some kind of alchemical magic circle.]
Back at the castle, Anbaixiu was disassembling the bones of Erha's corpse.
After much deliberation, the half-elf ranger had chosen the skeleton as his reincarnated form. It wasn't that he disliked having flesh, but preserving fresh flesh as an undead came at a steep cost; otherwise, one either rotted away or became a desiccated mummy, neither of which looked as clean as a skeleton.
As a half-elf faced with the choices of "hideously ugly" and "moderately ugly," Erha opted for the moderately ugly skeletal form.
Besides, for an undead possessing self-awareness, a skeleton was not much different from a zombie; whether one could advance depended entirely on luck and effort. Anbaixiu intended to bestow Erha with as many innate spells as possible during the modification process—such as basic Summon Skeleton, Chill Touch, and the like—so he would wield decent combat strength immediately after rebirth.
Right as he was detaching the ribs, the Necrotic Codex vibrated. Anbaixiu had no choice but to conjure a Mage Hand to open it.
Poor Erha could only lie on the operating table, awkwardly remaining with his chest cavity laid bare.
And when Anbaixiu saw the sewer map sent by Rose of Decay, he snapped the bone in his hand in a burst of agitation.
Ignoring the broken bone he had to mend for Erha, Anbaixiu hurriedly sent a reply to Rose of Decay: [That's no alchemical magic circle—that's a modified Wish spell circle! Those lunatics are truly trying to create a god!]
Chapter 69