After 'Negary' had hypnotized the security guard, he also gave him a bit of unique plant powder, ordering him to apply it to the bottom of his shoes. This powder would then leave a unique trace that only 'Negary' who made it would be able to discover.
It was thanks to these traces that 'Negary' was able to follow the Abnormality Elimination Squad to their destination.
〖 Should I say that they were brave or fearless due to their ignorance? Most likely the latter 〗'Negary' climbed down the sewers, casually closing the manhole cover above. It was a good habit to close the door behind oneself.
…
Meanwhile, the targets that 'Negary' was following had also fallen into danger.
In the dirty underground sewers, 'something' seemed to be slithering in the shadows, chasing after the group that Roger was leading. Their expressions were filled with fear, fleeing without any regards to where they were actually fleeing to, in short, they were getting themselves lost.
The torches in their hands were sizzling and crackling as they ran, if not for the sake of illumination, they would have already discarded these things long ago.
"Roger, didn't you say that you inherited magic? Hurry up and use them already" a female student in the group called Reese yelled madly as she was losing her breath. This female student had a naturally bad constitution so she had fallen to the back of the group, and the monster slithering in the dirty sewage was practically right behind her.
While Reese claimed that she did frequent physical self-training, she had in fact been working a job. It was purely out of pride that she claimed to be training, in fact, she joined the Abnormality Elimination Squad in the first place for the benefits it brought.
Roger might be a self-centered and arrogant individual, but he wasn't stingy with his money. The Squad's daily meals and various other expenditures were all provided by Roger, not to mention the club funds provided by the institute, which was a lot more compared to the money she earned at her job.
To join the club, Reese had claimed to be a Mysticism enthusiast while not actually being interested in such things at all. She originally thought that they would be like any other clubs, simply conducting their activities normally, never in her wildest dreams did she think they would actually run into a supernatural event.
In fact, when the first clues were initially found, Reese had already tried to excuse herself, but then Roger promised a large sum of monetary rewards due to finding those clues. Thinking of the gradually dwindling finances of her family, she greedily remained.
As reality has proven, greed was a terrible sin. She had now fallen into grave danger while everyone in the squad was blaming it on Roger as their leader.
He resolutely claimed to have inherited magic, but as soon as they faced actual danger, he immediately gave the order to flee.
Roger was also feeling helpless without being able to explain it. They first followed the dead security guard's clues, found the entrance to the sewers as well as some unusual traces here, together with a pile of disgusting shit. Immediately after that, they saw the monster that leapt out from inside that pile of shit.
Roger had overestimated his own mental strength, while it wasn't particularly weak, it also wasn't strong. In order to cast any magic, aside from certain unique ones, the first and foremost requirement was to have a stable mental state.
Through long-term training, mages were able to at least retain enough of a mental state to cast their spells even in a state of panic, but Roger had only inherited his magic for less than a full day. In order to preserve what little mana he had, he had only attempted one or two spells in a calm state of mind, so he was completely clueless when it came to the various taboos of spellcasting.
For that reason, when they suddenly had to face a monster, he naturally couldn't cast any spells. Fortunately, he managed to retain a little bit of rationality and immediately shouted for everyone to retreat, fleeing with his Abnormality Elimination Squad.
Although, the reason they were able to flee in the first place was that they sacrificed one of their companions.
One of the members who stood the closest to the pile of shit was instantly pushed down and enveloped by the white mass, after which they heard the final desperate screams of a young life.
Thanks to this 'godsend', they were able to buy some time for themselves to flee, but after running without a clear destination for a while, the monster swiftly caught up to them again.
"Save me, I don't want to die!" seeing Roger continuing to run without answering her, Reese's mind started to collapse, shouting hysterically: "My parents had to trade in so much for me to enter the institute, if I die, there wouldn't be anything left"
"Roger, Landier, save me, please save me, anyone please, SAVE ME!" Reese cried out, but she was running slower and slower.
Splash!
A white mass leapt out from inside the sewage and attacked Reese as its foul stench permeated through the air. At this point, Reese had completely given up on running away, instead opting to hug her head and crouch down shouting.
In any adventuring stories, there would be a hero who swooped down to save a damsel in distress; or one of her companions would suddenly rediscover their lost conscience and try to save her.
However, as reality had it, Roger's group only sped up even more, not even one of them thought about turning around. The 'hero' who would have descended from above had only just entered the sewers, so unsurprisingly, Reese was swallowed up by the white mass, followed by another series of desperate screams that resounded throughout the entire underground waterway, stimulating those ahead to speed up further.
After all, among the three 'godsends', there were only so many companions they could sacrifice. Who could guarantee that the next one to scream that way wouldn't be themselves?
After turning another corner, the commotion behind them slowly calmed down. Either the monster had been satisfied after hunting two people among them, or they had managed to escape from the monster's range.
At this point, a nobleman's pride was the least of their worries, so all of them immediately collapsed on their behinds, sitting down in the middle of the dirty sewage while breathing heavily.
After a few moments of silence, one of the members exploded with rage, he rushed straight in to grab Roger's collar, questioning him with a hysteric expression: "You damned fraud, where's your magic huh? Did you lure all of us down here just to leave us behind while running your own life!?"
"What use is shouting at me? I've already told you that this would be a journey filled with danger, at the time, none of you questioned or asked anything, showing only your excitement" Roger while felt guilty for their deaths, his pride and arrogance made it so that he wouldn't admit his fault so easily, so he instead answered that person's questioning with an even louder voice.
"Nott is dead, Reese is also dead, you've spouted nothing but lies, you spineless coward!" another member of the squad, the one who tailed 'Negary' from before, also stood up to criticize Roger.
"It's true that I couldn't unleash any magic due to lack of preparation, and it's true that I ran away, but were any of you any better? Did any of you run any slower than I did?" Roger was ready to bring them down with him.
"I think it's not the time for us to be arguing among one another, there are two problems in front of us now" the only remaining female member of their squad coldly spoke up: "Firstly, where are we?"
At this time, after calming down for a bit, they finally discovered that due to their panic earlier, they had completely lost their way within the underground sewers.
"And secondly, where is the security guard and Landier?"
Roger was startled. It was only now that he noticed this fact, due to their panic earlier, other than the two who were killed by the monster, two other people had made a turn in different directions and got separated from them.
"They turned left at the fourth corner earlier" after a while, they finally remembered how their group got separated.
"Then, what do we do now?" the female student asked with a troubled face.
Bam!
A noise resounded from over their heads, causing them all to jolt in shock and almost started running again. After a few moments, they realized that it was a noise that came from the surface.
"This is the sound of construction, I think there should be a pothole somewhere close to us, we'll be able to leave from there" the person who questioned Roger earlier excitedly said, he no longer wanted to stay for even a second longer in these dangerous underground sewers.
"Then what about Landier and the security guard?" right as Roger posed this question, he received his answer.
"They can die for all I care!" both of the male students shouted at once.
The one who tailed 'Negary' then continued: "Roger, don't you even try to deceive us again. If you want to save them, go and do it yourself, don't try to use us as scapegoats. Landier is your close friend, not ours"
Roger's expression froze. He had only said that out of reflex, objecting for the sake of objecting, but in reality, he was also in a hurry to immediately look for the exit and leave this damned place. However, as soon as the two of them said something like that, Roger was left in an awkward position due to his pride.
If I truly left the other two behind and what happened here were to spread, how would other people see me from now on?
Leaving Nott and Reese behind could be explained as him not being prepared, but if he left Landier behind as well, his reputation would be as good as dead.
"I'm going to save them, regardless if you come with me or not" Roger kept up a brave face and declared. He was also mentally consoling himself that what happened earlier was due to him being startled and had not prepared himself. Now that he was mentally prepared, he would definitely let that monster taste the power of magic the next time he saw it.
"If you want to die, then so be it. Quirl, who are you going to go with?" the two male students turned their gazes towards the only remaining female student, hoping that she would leave with them. After all, having more people meant there was a higher chance of survival.
The girl called Quirl hesitated as she looked both ways, then finally took Roger's side.
"You're going to regret it" the two male students left those words before heading out to search for the nearest exit. Quite obviously, they didn't know the number one rule of a horror movie: those who ran away from the main group by themselves would very quickly lose their lives.
And so, after turning two corners, they saw a new pile of shit, where another white mass monster jumped out from.
…
Roger and Quirl awkwardly looked at one another for a bit, then started to cautiously head back where they came from. Suddenly, they heard a desperate scream, causing them both to tremble and swiftly run.
This time, they were at least not panicking. They were tracing back the path where Landier and the security guard got separated. A short while later, they heard another desperate scream; after sacrificing two more companions, they gained information that there were also monsters in that direction.
Roger and Quirl were both breathing heavily as they fled through the underground sewers. After making several turns, they suddenly noticed that there was some light just ahead of their path. Assuming that to be an exit, the two of them hurriedly rushed through, only to fall down a flight of stone stairs.
By the time they stood back up while enduring the pain, they found that they had fallen down into a long corridor with various cells lining both sides of it.
There were some pipelines engraved with patterns inside this jailhouse, through which an occasional clanking noise could be heard.
Clunk… clunk…
A sudden noise snapped the two of them out of their confusion. Michael walked in with his cane, closing the door to the sewers behind him and entered, then humorously said: "Closing the door behind oneself is a good habit, too bad that the mind of old people tend to wander, so I forgot"
