The Right Place

It must be said that Daedalus Street truly deserves to be called a labyrinthine street. Even high-level adventurers who go there specifically to memorize and navigate it will eventually get lost if they don't leave marks or follow the signs.

Leo and his group wandered into increasingly remote and complicated areas, until eventually they lost their way and didn't even know where they were.

"I... I can't take it anymore..."

Lefiya was already feeling dizzy, tears welling up in her eyes, and the route map she was drawing in her hand had somehow become a mess of tangled threads, almost making the girl cry.

"How can there be such a complicated path? Even Dungeon don't have such a complex maze structure!"

Lefiya Viridis cried out, unable to bear it any longer.

What she said was actually a bit incorrect. Some of the dungeons in the Dungeon are indeed very complex, especially the deeper dungeons, which become increasingly wider and larger, eventually forming unimaginably complex mazes.

Lefiya Viridis felt this place was more complex than the Dungeon's labyrinth for two reasons. First, the Dungeon's labyrinth had been explored by generations of adventurers, and even if the terrain wasn't fully understood, the main routes to the next floor had been figured out, and detailed maps had been drawn. Therefore, adventurers who could get there usually wouldn't get lost. Second, they were newcomers, exploring Daedalus Street for the first time, and deliberately heading towards remote areas, which naturally made it difficult for them to find their way.

If you followed the road signs from the beginning, the chances of getting lost are quite low.

But there's no denying that Daedalus Street is indeed difficult to navigate, and they are indeed lost now.

Even Ais cast a pleading look at Leo, silently asking him what to do next.

"It's alright, let's keep going. We'll deliberately choose secluded spots. Getting lost won't matter," Leo reassured him. "This is still the surface of the earth, and the sky is right above us. At worst, I'll use flight magic to fly you out. We won't be trapped here."

Upon hearing this, everyone was taken aback at first, but then they also felt that it made sense.

This is, after all, the surface of the earth. For Leo, who can fly, there's no way he can't fly out.

As long as he can fly, no matter how complex the terrain, it doesn't matter. Leo can just fly directly towards the main city area, or even towards the towering Babel Tower. That way, he can't go wrong.

With this understanding, the group was no longer worried about getting lost. Just as Leo had suggested, they deliberately chose to go to secluded places, determined to find some clues.

Leo walked at the front, his eyes constantly scanning the surroundings.

He was looking for a way to access the underground sewers.

While others might not know, Leo knew perfectly well that their destination lay within the underground sewers.

So he wasn't just wandering around aimlessly; he was guiding everyone with a purpose.

After walking for a while, Leo finally saw an entrance to an underground sewer, located in a corner beneath a stone wall and sealed by an iron gate. "Let's go," Leo said without hesitation, "Let's search inside the sewers."

"The underground sewers?" Everyone was slightly taken aback, and Lefiya exclaimed in surprise, "Mr. Leo suspects that bad guys are hiding in the underground sewers?" To this question, Leo only gave a brief response.

"That place is perfect, isn't it?"

With that, Leo stepped forward and arrived at the iron gate.

He glanced at the lock on the iron gate; it was rusty and clearly quite old.

Leo simply pinched the lock and twisted it gently, easily breaking it with his Lv.6 ability.

Opening the iron gate, a spiral staircase leading underground suddenly appeared before us.

Leo went inside, and the women exchanged glances before following suit.

They didn't seem to have any reason to hesitate about going into the sewers.

They could walk down into places like Dungeon without batting an eye, so what's a mere underground waterway?

Dirty? Messy? Smelly? Gloomy?

Even worse environments are found Dungeon.

Therefore, neither Ais, with her goddess-like beauty, nor Lefiya Viridis, a clean-loving elf, were intimidated by the prospect of entering the underground sewers.

Lefiya then took out a portable Magic Stone lamp from her bag, turned it on, and let the Magic Stone emit light to illuminate the darkness. The four of them walked down the stairs for quite some time before finally arriving in the dark sewers.

The walls here are inlaid with small Magic Stone lamps that are nearing the end of their lifespan. There are passageways on the left and right sides for people to walk on, and the waterway is in the middle, from which the clear sound of flowing water can be heard.

Upon closer inspection, the entire underground sewer system was a tubular tunnel constructed entirely of stone, approximately six meters in diameter. Leo and his group were currently in a narrow passage on the right side of the sewer, where they could vaguely see branching waterways converging from various directions, causing the sound of water to echo through the sewers. "... It's surprisingly clean here."

Lefiya Viridis had mentally prepared herself for a dirty and messy environment, but she found that the situation was better than she had imagined.

At least here there is no filth and garbage everywhere. Although the air is more polluted than on the ground, there is no stench that makes you want to pinch your nose. The water flowing in the waterways is not the sewage that people imagine; it looks about the same as ordinary water.

"Is it because of those air purification devices?"

Lefiya looked at the several crystal pillars installed in the narrow, branching waterway.

It was a crystalline pillar that emitted a bluish-purple glow and was shaped like an iron fence.

That radiance was familiar to all adventurers; it was the glow that only Magic Stone dropped by monsters in Dungeon emitted. Clearly, the crystal pillar was a Magic Stone artifact, its purpose being to purify the sewage that passed through it.

The parallel purification columns, resembling fences, purify the flowing sewage, transforming it into clean water. This makes the water in the ditch clear and transparent, unlike sewage discharged from the city, and prevents the sewer from becoming foul-smelling.

Let's go.

Leo called to the women and they began to walk through the sewers.

There are countless horizontal paths and stairs carved into the walls, as well as bridges spanning the ditches, making it feel like a Dungeon, as if you are exploring it.

The group had no specific destination, so they simply followed their previous routine, choosing secluded roads and carefully looking for any signs of human activity.

As a result, no signs of human activity were found, but signs of monster activity did appear.

A group of fish-like monsters, led by a type known as the Assault Fish, suddenly attacked from the water, startling Lefiya Viridis and Lefiya. "Wait... how did monsters get here?"

Lefiya Viridis hurriedly used her wand to knock away an Assault Fish, and then spoke up, somewhat at a loss for words.

"Did it swim in from a river outside?"

Lefiya, hiding behind Leo, immediately guessed the origin of these monsters.

Wastewater from Orario's sewers is eventually discharged into rivers flowing near the city, and then into the nearest brackish lake called Lake Rolog. That brackish lake is connected to the sea, so it's not hard to understand why some aquatic monsters often travel upstream from the sea to Lake Rolog, then to the nearby rivers, and finally swim into the city's sewers that are connected to it.

As for why there are monsters in the outside world, we have to go back to the ancient times before Orario was built.

At that time, monsters surging from the Dungeon spread throughout the Lower World. Although they were eventually driven back into the Dungeon by the efforts of the ancient heroes and sealed away by the Babel Tower and the fortified cities, it was impossible for any of the monsters that had spread throughout the Lower World to escape.

Over the long years, these escaped monsters have multiplied on the surface of the earth, so monsters can also appear on the surface. However, as these monsters reproduce over many generations, the power in the Magic Stone has decreased with each generation. Therefore, the monsters outside the earth are generally much weaker than the same type of monsters in the Dungeon.

Of course, this excludes the three monster kings designated by the three adventurers who threaten the entire Lower World.

Those three monster kings have lived from ancient times to the present day, constantly threatening the peace of the entire Lower World. It wasn't until fifteen years ago that the Zeus Familia and the Hera Familia intervened and defeated two of the monster kings, thus reducing the threat to the Lower World. Unfortunately, they were defeated by the last and strongest monster king, the One-Eyed Black Dragon.

Leo and his group are now encountering monsters that have multiplied in the outside world. They have come to the city's sewers through interconnected rivers and are leaping out of the water to attack, but they are much weaker than the same type of monsters that have been bred in the Dungeon.

After the initial panic, everyone finally realized what was happening and organized a counterattack.

"Pfft!"

Ais merely swung her sword a few times, and the sword light easily sliced through several Assault Fish, sending their blood splattering across the sky. Bang!

Lefiya Viridis knocked away the Assault Fish one by one, managing to defeat them even without magic.

The Assault Fish is a monster found on floors 25-27 of the Dungeon, specifically in the "Water Capital" connected by a magnificent waterfall.

Floors 25-27 are the lower levels, which, according to the guild's recommended difficulty level, are floors that only level 3, second-tier adventurers can relatively safely attempt.

In other words, any Level 3, second-tier adventurer should generally be able to deal with the monsters on floors 25-27.

Although Lefiya Viridis is not a skilled Mage, firstly, she is already at Lv.4, and secondly, these Assault Fish are weaker than the same type of monsters in the Dungeon. Therefore, even without using magic, with her current ability level, she can knock these attacking monsters away.

Under these circumstances, Leo didn't even bother to intervene. He left the monster to Ais and Lefiya Viridis, while he focused on protecting Lefiya and finding their way. They continued on their way, and after an unknown amount of time, an iron gate suddenly appeared in front of Leo and the others.

"This is·..."

Leo narrowed his eyes slightly and immediately stepped forward to examine the area.

This is an old, worn-out double door, secured with a heavy padlock that tightly seals both doors. "Lefiya, come and take a look at this door."

Leo noticed some barely legible, blurry writing on a metal plate mounted on the wall and immediately called out to Lefiya, who was in charge of support. "Okay," Lefiya then said, "This looks like an old-fashioned water gate, a type that was abandoned a long time ago." "An abandoned gate?" Lefiya Viridis, who had also come up, asked in surprise, "Then is the passage behind this gate also abandoned?" Leo was still examining the gate when Ais, standing beside him, suddenly spoke up.

"This door shows signs of recent use."

Ais's sudden voice startled everyone at first, and then they realized the problem.

"Indeed, the door lock shows obvious signs of having been opened and locked multiple times."

Lefiya checked the door lock and came to this conclusion.

Everyone looked at each other, and saw the same thought in each other's eyes.

That means... they might have found their target.

After all, an abandoned door, especially in a sewer area, being used repeatedly—isn't that enough to indicate that someone is active in the vicinity?

Who would want to wander around in the sewers for no reason?

"Let's go in and take a look."

Without hesitation, Leo crushed the lock, pushed open the door, and revealed the old waterway behind it to everyone.

Magic Stone lamps were installed on the walls of this old waterway, glowing with phosphorescent light, but the steps in front of the door, the passage, and the waterway were all flooded, rippling in darkness like a river in the night.

The water doesn't seem deep.

Lefiya Viridis used her wand to probe the water's depth and found it was about the same depth as a shallow beach, with the water level only reaching up to her calves.

"I'll go down first."

Leo glanced at the group of girls accompanying him and noticed that they were all wearing skirts, so at most their shoes would get wet in the water, but their clothes wouldn't. On the other hand, he was wearing trousers and the hooded cloak of his Giant Battle Suit, which would probably get soaked.

Leo sighed, took off his cloak, and handed it to Lefiya, telling her to put it in her satchel before stepping into the water. "Splash!"

The sound of Ais, Lefiya Viridis, and Lefiya entering the water rang out behind Leo.

Leo didn't look back. Holding the Magic Stone lamp he had taken from Lefiya, he waded forward through the water.

The waterways here are crisscrossed, even more complex and labyrinthine than the sewers we just visited.

After walking in the water for an unknown amount of time, Ais suddenly spoke up again.

"... They've arrived."

The girl's concise voice was filled with a chilling quality, and it also carried the sound of a sword being drawn.

Leo, Lefiya Viridis, and Lefiya all tensed up, clearly understanding the meaning behind Ais's words.

There's only one reason why a female swordsman with a keen sense of monster presence would react this way.

That means... a monster is about to appear.

Moreover, it was the monster they were looking for.

"Bang!"

Suddenly, a tremendous sound, as if a colossal object had burst from the water, appeared in the passage ahead.

The Man-Eating Flower, with its yellowish-green skin, twisted its long, large body and appeared, intertwined.

"Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh...!"

The familiar, raspy gong's roar made everyone realize something.

They've found the right place.