"Could it be... some kind of evil worship ritual?"
Alya spoke slowly.
"Evil worship? Is it connected to an Evil God?" Gauss pressed. Fleeting fragments of memories about the evil gods surfaced—beings opposed to the righteous gods, embodiments of chaos and evil.
"Mm." Alya nodded, her expression grave. "But I've never heard of the name that ratman mentioned."
Gauss understood.
If Alya didn't know anything about it, he certainly couldn't expect the ordinary knowledge he'd had in his previous life to help.
"Let's take this back." Gauss's gaze fell on a faded scale with slightly curled edges in the middle of the dry pool. "The guild might know something."
The Adventurer's Guild had a policy of offering rewards for reporting unusual information.
"Be careful," Alya reminded him softly.
To ordinary people, anything connected to an Evil God was an ill omen.
"Okay."
Gauss stepped forward and cast Mage Hand, using a piece of cloth to pick up the scale before cautiously putting it into his Storage Bag.
He didn't think these weak ratmen could have formed any deep connection with an Evil God.
The logic was simple: surely an Evil God's attention would be drawn more to powerful individuals.
The two searched the shrine room carefully once more. After confirming they hadn't missed anything, they quickly left.
Next came the cleanup and the tallying of their spoils.
Apart from the room that had been completely consumed by Fire Oil, with embers still burning, the other chambers were piled with the ratmen's household junk and crude equipment.
Alya worked deftly, clearly more experienced than Gauss. Perhaps she also wanted to prove her worth.
She quickly sorted through everything.
Rusty metal weapons that could still be reforged, armor fragments, a small amount of uncontaminated ore, and strange bones or shells that might