Escape

Chapter 18 · Escape

In the damp, gloomy sewer, a slime fled rapidly ahead, completely disregarding the commotion it was causing and the large number of monsters living in the sewer that it was attracting, as if some terrifying creature were pursuing it through the pitch-black tunnel behind it.

"Tch! I knew that place was definitely strange. Luckily, I ran fast!"

On the moss-covered stone slabs, Lu Minghao bounded several meters at a time as he sped forward. Ever since he had left the deepest part of the sewer, the unease in his heart had grown increasingly obvious. Out of caution, Lu Minghao no longer bothered hiding himself and began sprinting at full speed.

Although fleeing by hiding in the shadows was indeed safer, it was far slower than his current speed. Moreover, rapidly moving through the shadows would quickly exhaust Lu Minghao's current amount of mana. Once his mana was depleted, he would completely lose the ability to resist.

"Come to think of it, what the hell is chasing me? I've escaped this far, so how can it still pinpoint my direction so accurately?"

Half an hour later, in a dried-up river channel in the sewer, Lu Minghao stood atop an unknown heap of garbage and stared solemnly at the dark, bottomless tunnel behind him. With Lu Minghao's current physical strength as a peak Lower Demon, half an hour should have been enough for him to escape nearly a hundred kilometers.

Moreover, to prevent himself from being caught, Lu Minghao had deliberately chosen difficult routes: holes only ten centimeters wide, river channels filled with filth and excrement, and even a sewer completely blocked by garbage. In short, he had thrown all else aside to stay alive. Yet the threat coming from behind had not weakened in the slightest. In fact, Lu Minghao instinctively felt that the thing pursuing him was steadily drawing closer.

During that time, Lu Minghao had also considered escaping the sewer and running straight out of the city. Once he reached the vast wilderness, he wanted to see how the other party could find him.

However, he abandoned that idea in less than a second. In such a complicated environment as the sewer, the other party could still follow closely behind him. If he left the sewer, he would probably be caught before he got very far.

"No. I can't keep going like this. The other party can follow me closely without me leaving any traces, despite the sewer's complexity, and it's even getting closer. That means it must be stronger than me—at least a peak Middle Demon."

Lu Minghao silently turned around and continued fleeing ahead. This time, however, he stopped running around blindly and began carefully observing his surroundings. Although he still had not determined what was pursuing him, it was certainly connected to those behind the scenes who had created the entire Giant Rat Kingdom.

Moreover, the other party certainly possessed some ability to lock onto his location. In other words, if Lu Minghao wanted to escape successfully, he had to find a place only a slime could enter, use the terrain to temporarily block the creature pursuing him, and then use that time to escape far enough—far enough that the other side could no longer lock onto him.

Whoosh!

As Lu Minghao carefully observed his surroundings, he suddenly felt the air behind him begin to tremble. Mana surged through his body, and he instantly sank into the shadow beneath him. At the exact moment Lu Minghao disappeared completely into the shadow, a tentacle covered in suckers slammed heavily into the ground.

"Huh? It dodged?"

A slightly surprised voice came from the dark tunnel in the distance. Number Four had originally thought that attack would be more than enough to knock down the slime, and with the slime's speed, it should have been impossible for it to evade the attack.

"How the hell did a tentacle monster show up too?"

From the shadow not far away, Lu Minghao emerged with a gloomy expression. He stared at the tentacle that had smashed cracks across the ground. The next second, it withdrew into the darkness. Seeing this, Lu Minghao no longer cared about the mana he was expending and sank directly into the shadows, fleeing the area at full speed.

If he had not instinctively sensed the air trembling just now and allowed his body to dodge on its own, Lu Minghao would already have been caught. And once he was caught, he did not believe he would have any chance of escaping. After all, the suckers on the other party's tentacles certainly were not merely decorative.

"Slime, let me catch you obediently! Under the ability Lord Charles bestowed upon me, you have no hope of escaping!"

Within the shadows, Lu Minghao heard the voice coming from behind. Instead of slowing down, he accelerated even more. Gluttony seemed to sense Lu Minghao's intentions as well and began frantically digesting and absorbing the food Lu Minghao had swallowed earlier. With the supply of abundant nutrients, the mana inside Lu Minghao not only failed to decrease but instead continued to increase.

At the same time, the mana inside Lu Minghao, which had originally been mist-like, gradually began to grow denser. His body also continued evolving as his mana strengthened. However, Lu Minghao, whose entire attention was focused on escaping, failed to notice any of this. He merely relied on the slime's ability to sense vibrations in the air to search for a passage through which he could escape.

"Hm? What is this feeling?"

Suddenly, Lu Minghao sensed a strange fluctuation in the air. Half of his body emerged from the shadows. The surrounding environment had grown increasingly dark, and the air carried a trace of dampness. The sewer, which had previously reeked of foul odors, now held a hint of freshness. Most importantly, Lu Minghao heard the sound of running water.

"Underground Water Vein!"

Hearing the sound of water in the distance, Lu Minghao leaped completely out of the shadows and rushed toward it with his entire body. For water to flow so turbulently deep underground, Lu Minghao could think of nothing else besides an Underground Water Vein.

Number Four, pursuing him from behind, seemed to sense that something was wrong as well. One tentacle after another began launching frenzied attacks at Lu Minghao.

However, Number Four was still nearly a thousand meters away from Lu Minghao, and the tentacles were only just long enough to reach him. Their attack speed and reaction speed were both considerably affected.

Suddenly, as Lu Minghao hurried forward, he saw a whirlpool one meter in diameter at the center of the sewer's river channel up ahead. A steady stream of filthy water flowed through the whirlpool into an unknown place.

That was the entrance to the Underground Water Vein Lu Minghao had been searching for. As long as he escaped inside, Lu Minghao was confident he could get away successfully. After all, slimes did not need to breathe. Lu Minghao did not believe that the creature pursuing him could do the same. Besides, judging from the whirlpool, the entrance clearly was not very large.

Smack!

The instant Lu Minghao saw the whirlpool leading to the Underground Water Vein, a tentacle suddenly appeared behind him and struck his body directly. In an instant, something exploded from the back of Lu Minghao's body, sending him flying and leaving a section of his formerly round body missing.

However, relying on the force of that blow, Lu Minghao successfully fell into the whirlpool. In the blink of an eye, he was sucked inside and disappeared into the river channel.

"Damn it! I never thought this slime would have such an ability. It actually got away! How am I supposed to explain this to Lord Charles when I return?"