And then something unexpected happened. Now that I thought about it, I should have expected it, but I was being stupid. Come on, I am an arts student (not literal art, but in terms of humanities, such as literature and history), not a science student. How was I supposed to know what would follow?

In any event, the explosion triggered a chain reaction. Let's just say there's a lot of methane in the sewers, and the sewage itself is highly inflammable. A single spark onto the d.a.m.ned sludge was all that was needed to ignite the entire thing. The sewage spontaneously combusted, turning into an immense inferno that swept across the innards of the sewer and consumed the poor swarm of Cyclops Rats ravenously.

It didn't just stop at where the Cyclops Rats were, the flames continued to sweep through the entire s.p.a.ce, the fiery tendrils reaching out throughout the underground pa.s.sageways beneath Lupin City. Not just below Shrewsbury neighborhood, but basically almost all the s.p.a.ce underneath the entire city was engulfed in flames.

"Oh, s.h.i.+t!"

I honestly did not expect this to happen. Cursing under my breath, I turned and dove at the two kids, knocking them down. At the same time, I cast a defensive spell.

"Ice Fortress!"

An igloo basically appeared above us, and I layered it with multiple Scutum Sobiescianum to protect it from the front, where the flames were coming from. Between the Constellation s.h.i.+elds and my Ice Fortress, I also summoned Snow Aegis, in hopes that it would absorb most of the damage from the incoming flames.

There was a surge in temperature and I felt intense heat scald my skin as it billowed across my defenses. The s.h.i.+elds all held – turned out that my defenses were overkill. It wasn't as if I was nuking the sewer. I just set off a chain reaction, so these were just normal flames spreading across the entirety of the sewers. The automated sprinklers went off and began extinguis.h.i.+ng the flames, but after a few seconds, I realized that my Constellation s.h.i.+elds and icy defenses were little more than charred. There wasn't much damage done to them.

Well…better over-prepared than not being prepared at all, I guess.

"You guys okay?" I asked as I rose to my feet, checking on Adrian and Melina. The two kids nodded and also got up, checking themselves over for any sign of injuries. Thankfully it didn't seem like they suffered anything worse than smudges.

I activated the x-ray function on my gla.s.ses and scanned past my frost barrier, making sure that it was safe before I dismissed my protective spells. There were still a lot of flames – the amount of fire that raged through the sewers was nothing short of catastrophic, after all. However, it wasn't as bad as before, thanks to the foam being sprayed from above. h.e.l.l, the concrete pathways above the sewage – where the kids and I stood – were finally clear when the sensors detected no trace of flames around us. Only the sludge continued to burn defiantly, but even these embers were gradually being extinguished by the sprinklers above.

With nothing to worry about, I then deactivated my protective spells, though I almost regretted it when the stench struck us with full force. Not only was there still traces of the foul sewage stench, it was mixed with the scent of roasted meat. The flames had thoroughly burned the poor Cyclops Rats into oblivion, leaving scorched remains behind.

From the distance, I scanned the blackened husks with my gla.s.ses to ensure there wasn't any movement, and then I wiped my forehead in relief. Seemed like we had achieved our goal at least. At that moment, I was still unaware that I had basically sterilized the entire sewers under the city, so I didn't know how far the flames had extended to.

Nonetheless, I needed to remain cautious. Nodding to the kids, I began striding forward.

"We need to ensure they are all dead," I told them. Then I grinned. "This would be good training experience for you two."

The two kids looked a little sick, but they decided to tag along for now. After all, they were the ones who insisted on tagging along, so they couldn't blame me for a.s.signing them the dirty work.

*

I'm going to spare you the grisly details of our exploration of the sewer, and needless to say, after going through the corpses, we decided to go up. There wasn't much to say, except to burn the carca.s.ses to ash with my fire spells. There were a few survivors, but terribly weakened, they could do little more than snap at our heels, and these I left to Adrian and Melina to put out of their misery, under the excuse of them getting combat experience.

Well, it was true. Even when terribly weakened and injured, the Cyclops Rats remained a huge threat to the uninitiated. The saying that a cornered mouse would bite even a cat was true, and these Cyclops Rats were still deadly if underestimated. They just didn't need much more to take out since I already did a lot of damage, so Adrian and Melina dispatched them relatively easily, but they still had to remain on alert and learned quite a bit in terms of practical combat.

"All right, we're done for the day. Let's go up."

"Yay!"

Adrian and Melina cheered, unable to hold back their relief and delight at finally being able to leave this G.o.dforsaken place. I didn't blame them. I wasn't very fond of sticking around in this stinky place. And I hoped we could find somewhere to get a shower and a change of clothes after this. Ugh. The smell was sticking to our clothing. Fortunately, we could clean them using magic – especially since I had chosen to learn more ice spells (which was technically under the umbrella of water magic), so there wasn't much to worry about even if Wai Po didn't possess a working bathroom.

As I suspected, she didn't, and the three of us decided to set up camp at the corner of the road somewhere. After resting for a bit, I waited for evening to draw close before I summoned a flock of Corvus and dispersed them throughout the neighborhood.

"What are you doing?" Adrian asked, watching the black crows spread out in the darkening sky.

"Finis.h.i.+ng the job. Did you forget? We've to ensure that the neighborhood will not be attacked by Cyclops Rats again. We might have just exterminated only a small fraction of the horde. We never did find the nest, after all."

"Ah…so there might be a lot more than the hundred or so we killed?" Melina looked pale. I shrugged indifferently.

"There is that possibility. And if there is, we'll leave a couple alive, so that we can follow them back to their nest."

"Ugh…" Adrian looked ill. I didn't blame him. I was also reluctant to go back to the sewers again, but a job was a job. We couldn't cut corners and slack just because we didn't like the workplace we had been a.s.signed to.

Since I accepted this from Headmistress Taylor, I planned to see the task to its very end. That was what it meant to be a responsible adult. Unlike those kids who wrote several chapters of their stories, and then dropped them halfway, despite going Premium or having Privilege chapters. At least have the discipline to finish your stories and write to the end, especially if you are having your readers pay for it!

Unexpectedly, the night pa.s.sed…and nothing happened. No Cyclops Rats emerged from the sewers, and Shrewsbury Neighborhood remained safe and sound. I knew this through the net of surveillance that I had cast over the district, and none of my Corvus spotted anything. So we were pretty much done with the job, though it was entirely possible that the Cyclops Rats had taken irrecoverable losses from my stunt in the sewers earlier that day, and chose to hide somewhere and lick their wounds for now.

"…argh…"

I suppressed a yawn when morning dawned upon us. I was too tired to do anything else. Dismissing my Corvus, I looked up at the brightening sky, my eyelids heavy. There was nothing more I wanted to do than to fall asleep there and then.

"Go ahead and sleep, Brother Richard," Adrian told me. He had just risen from his makes.h.i.+ft bed a few minutes ago, and was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He also gave a loud yawn, but waved at me with a forced smile. "We'll take over the watch."

"Yeah, so please get some rest, Sensei!" Melina agreed, a bit fresher.

I nodded. I had the two kids sleep because we didn't need so many people on sentry duty, and my Corvus could do their job. However, since my crows would disappear when I fell asleep, I needed someone fresh and awake to take over the job while I rested, which was why I ordered the two to bed last night. Now that they were fully rested, they should be able to take over the job without much difficulty.

This was why you needed teammates. You couldn't possibly do everything alone.

"Wake me up when something happens," I told them before lying down. "If a monster shows up, wake me up. I don't care if it's just one rank F monster and you guys think you can handle it on your own. Wake me up and I'll make the decision."

"Yes, Master." Adrian grinned while reverting back to his Majic persona. Right now he was regarding me as Orphen or Krylancelo for some reason. He would be disappointed if he expected me to stab something or somebody. "Now go sleep."

And so I did…until the thunderous roar of a hovercraft woke me up several hours later. I jolted awake before either Adrian or Melina could wake me up, looking about frantically for the source of the noise. It didn't take me long to locate it. A ma.s.sive shadow darkened the place where we had set up camp, and I saw the tremendous transport descend on an abandoned park nearby.

"What's going on?" I mumbled, rubbing my eyes before putting my gla.s.ses back on and stifling a yawn.

"I don't know, Brother Richard. I was about to ask you too." Adrian shrugged, his curious gaze still locked on the landing hovercraft. "They don't look like Silver Wolves…"

He was right. There was no emblem of the Silver Wolves located atop the hull of the hovercraft. Instead, there was the icon of the Federation military.

"What is the military doing here?" Melina wondered out loud, evidently recognizing their symbol as well. She turned to me inquisitively. "Perhaps the case with the Cyclops Rats is a lot bigger than we first antic.i.p.ated?"

"Only one way to find out," I replied, but I made no move to approach the soldiers who were now disembarking. I only planned to watch them from afar from now. No point trying to stir up trouble when you could avoid it.

Unfortunately, things never went as planned. The soldiers spotted us and immediately approached us before we could say anything. I snapped a salute in reflex as their commanding officer stopped in front of me.

"You're Richard Huang, correct? The one who took the Cyclops Rat mission?"

"That is correct, sir." By the epaulets on his uniform, I identified him as a Lieutenant. "What happened?"

The lieutenant rolled his eyes. "What happened? You were the one who caused that fire throughout the sewer yesterday, weren't you?"

"Oh, uh, yeah." I had filed a report and sent it online yesterday, before evening fell, because you know, you needed to cover your a.s.s and all that. I didn't want peope accusing me of vandalism or damage of public property, then failing to report it. It was standard procedure, so that the government could begin repairs as soon as possible. "Sorry about that, but there was an infestation down there, so I didn't have a choice."

"Don't worry, son. I'm not blaming you for that." The lieutenant shook his head in a rea.s.suring manner. "It's just that…you pretty much burned out the entire sewage system yesterday. Repairs are ongoing right now, but as you know, we need to send in several teams to investigate and a.s.sess the safety of the location before the repair teams can do their job. Thanks to your reports, we decided to dispatch an entire company of soldiers to scout the sewers."

"Oh…I didn't know that. I didn't receive any notification regarding that."

The lieutenant snorted, as if it was obvious that the military couldn't even deign to report to a n.o.body like me about every action they chose to take.

"That's because we didn't tell you."

Right.

"But that's not why we're here." The lieutenant regarded me grimly, and then sighed. "Thanks to you, we located the nest of the Cyclops Rats that you've been a.s.signed to hunt."