20. Harvest

Chapter 20: Harvest

[Spent 40 experience... Krav Maga Combat Arts leveled up to LV4! Constitution +0.4, Strength +0.4!]

[Krav Maga Combat Arts has reached LV4. Gained exclusive bonus—Tiger Power!]

[Tiger Power—Strength +0.4! Duration: 30 seconds. After use, you will suffer Weakness: Strength -0.2, Constitution -0.2. Duration: 3 hours!]

At the prompt, a look of delight appeared on Sulu's face.

"Krav Maga Combat Arts reached LV4, and it actually has a branch bonus? This so-called Tiger Power is basically a berserk skill!"

Though it came with some side effects, it would be useful for going all out in a critical moment.

His Strength was already an impressive 1.5—half again as high as an ordinary person's!

That made dealing with the mutant rats even easier.

It didn't take long for him to reach the end of the side passage.

It was a dead end, blocked by a thick wall. A foul stench filled the air, carrying the reek of decay.

Sulu raised his oil lamp. In its dim, yellow light, he saw a figure lying on the ground. Several large patches of darkness crawled over it, occasionally revealing a pair of scarlet eyes.

"A corpse?! A decaying corpse?"

Sulu furrowed his brow. This was clearly trouble.

Above the corpse, mutant rats bared their teeth and claws, squeaking menacingly.

"Could this corpse... be the source of their mutations?"

Sulu looked around again.

Beneath the corpse was a vast patch of dark-brown stains, with an unsettling smell.

"Are the rats staying behind to guard the source of their mutations? It can't be the corpse itself. It must be something in the environment that they can't carry away... Could it be this pool of blood?"

Sulu felt he might have guessed the truth.

The corpse clearly had an unusual history, and its death had changed the environment in this area, producing the mutant rats.

These mutant rats possessed basic intelligence. They knew that leaving this place would mean losing their chance to keep evolving and gaining more companions, so they stubbornly stayed and repeatedly attacked the cleaners.

"Could this be the remains of a supernatural being?!"

Sulu's eyes lit up, and he stepped closer.

"Squeak!"

To protect their most precious possession, several large rats immediately lunged at him.

Unfortunately, with nearly all the ordinary rats dead and the number of mutant rats greatly reduced, only five or six remained here.

Sulu showed no mercy, killing each one with a single swing of his pickaxe.

At last, he hurled the pickaxe at the final rat, which seemed to be only halfway mutated, pinning it to the ground.

"There should be more mutant rats than this. Maybe some of the smarter ones resisted the temptation and took their underlings elsewhere?"

Sulu speculated to himself as he approached the corpse.

To his surprise, although the corpse had been dead for some time, it wasn't badly decomposed. It had merely dried out and shriveled into a mummy, its skin turned a bluish-black.

There were also many wounds on the corpse, likely caused by the rats gnawing on it.

"With so many mutant rats, and the ability to control a whole swarm, dragging off one corpse wouldn't be difficult... Is it because this corpse is special? Or are they reluctant to leave this environment?"

Sulu didn't know. He couldn't speak rat.

He lifted his oil lamp and illuminated the mummy's face.

"Sorry... I really can't tell what sex you are!"

The corpse wore a tattered black hooded robe. Besides, with nothing but a skull covered in skin and bones to go by, how could anyone tell its sex?

Suppressing his disgust, Sulu prodded it with his pickaxe.

Rip!

The tattered black robe tore with ease. After a quick search, he found only a few items: several sheets of parchment inside an iron tube and a small purse.

The purse was made of good material. When he opened it, several golden coins spilled out.

"Are these... Gold Dragons?!"

Sulu nodded and picked them up one by one. There were five in all.

Gold Dragons were minted gold coins. A dragon's head was stamped on the back, and the front bore the portrait of William, the Western Conqueror. They were quite heavy, and one Gold Dragon could be exchanged for ten standard Silver Eagles. If exchanged for paper Silver Dollars, they would fetch another ten to twenty percent on the Black Market.

"I could work for months and still not earn this much!"

If this had happened earlier, such a sudden windfall would have thrilled Sulu.

But now, he cared more about the supernatural clues he might find on the corpse.

He brought the tattered papers he had picked up under the oil lamp. The strange, bizarre characters immediately made him frown. "This isn't Common Hebraic or Ancient Hebraic!"

The thick, pale-yellow parchment had delicate patterns that felt indescribable to the touch. Its black characters twisted like snakes. After looking at them for only a few moments, Sulu felt dizzy.

"It must be some ancient language. I'll have to look it up when I get back..."

Staring at the corpse, Sulu fell into thought.

The deceased was most likely a supernatural being. If the body were found here, and he was discovered to be the first person to find it, trouble would surely follow.

So he had to destroy the body and protect this secret!

As for Corpse Maiden Creation and all that?

He didn't even know whether the deceased was male or female, and the corpse wasn't even intact.

Besides, after seeing a ghost last time, did Sulu really look like someone who wasn't afraid of the dark?

There was no way he'd ever dare try that mysterious ritual again.

"This is just an abandoned section of the sewer. It shouldn't be too hard to deal with!"

Sulu looked at the dark-brown ground around him. It was the residue left by blood mixed with soil, and more importantly, it seemed to be directly connected to the giant rats' mutations.

"I'll have to shovel all of this up and dump it in the drain!"

Having worked out what to do, Sulu immediately returned to the surface, brought back more tools, and began destroying the corpse.

Clink!

Suddenly, a pitch-black object was dug up, making a crisp sound.

"Hm?"

Sulu nudged it and found a diamond-shaped piece of Black Iron, about the size of a child's palm. An Ouroboros was engraved in the center.

"The Ouroboros Ring... The legendary Ouroboros, endlessly devouring its own tail, symbolizing eternity within an ending?!"

Recalling some Witch Hunting Knowledge, Sulu made a quick assessment. "In the occult, it's a very important symbol, but the Seven Gods don't acknowledge it!"

For now, this seemed to be some kind of token or badge.

Sulu thought it over, slipped the metal piece into his clothes, and strode out of the side passage.

Not long after he left, a blaze sprang up and gradually engulfed the entire passage, greedily consuming everything...