A wizard apprentice's patrol work was dry and tedious.
But for the safety of this district, it had to be done.
Over the past few months, everyone had grown accustomed to patrolling. Charles and Jody, as a pair, had yet to encounter an invasion by nightmare creatures in the real world.
They had, however, dealt with several Nightmarespawn Parasite incidents, none of which had caused major casualties.
These Nightmarespawn Parasites could emerge from many sources. In their early and middle stages, although their strength grew, they also increasingly displayed inhuman behavior.
That made them easy to discover and report, after which wizard apprentices or knights would be sent to deal with them.
Just after Charles and Jody had discussed the details of how they would attend class,
the local knight ahead hurried over to report, "My lords, a Nightmarespawn Parasite has been discovered ahead."
"Let's go take a look!"
Charles lightly squeezed his horse's flanks and followed the knight's guidance toward the target's location.
As they entered the slum district, the surrounding buildings and shacks were notably low and cramped.
Compared with the town center or the wealthy free citizens,
the poor of the slums were more likely to become infected with Nightmarespawn Parasites, and more likely to develop into the middle stage—perhaps even the late stage.
The reason was that people here rarely paid attention to others.
If a pauper did not leave home for several days, no one would spare a thought for it, apart from their relatives.
And when a Nightmarespawn Parasite appeared, the first to die—or be infected—were their relatives.
Charles patrolled with the knights, but the task of searching for Nightmarespawn Parasites was not handled by merely their dozen or so people.
Local noble officials and ordinary soldiers were conscripted as well.
The soldiers had