Chapter 197 - The Dirtiest Place

"Okay, time to keep going." Mumbled Wain and jumped to the next building.

"What?"

However, the arrow on the compass turned the other way at that moment. Wain jumped back, and the compass arrow changed direction again.

'Is the third part of the map between these houses?' Wain thought, looking at the alley below him. There was nothing there but trash and dirt.

Wain decided to go down and take a close look at the place. He stared intently at the compass and strolled away.

At one point, he passed a sewer manhole, and at that moment, the compass arrow moved.

"Damn... It looks like I'm going to have to get seriously dirty this time..." Wain muttered.

He hadn't expected the third part of the map to be in a place like a sewer. It was a dirty and unpleasant location, but that wasn't what Wain was worried about. He didn't know what kind of monsters might inhabit such places.

"There will probably be poisonous and toxic monsters in there, that sounds pretty logical, and that's a big problem..." Wain muttered.

He had high regeneration and good protection against ice and fire attributes, but he was defenseless against poisons. In this case, Wain could only rely on the fact that poison could not do serious damage to him.

Wain nodded, opened the hatch, and jumped down. Despite the apocalypse, the sewers were virtually unchanged. It got dirtier than usual, and various creepy plants appeared on the walls, but that was about it.

"Hmm, the arrow still hasn't moved. So I have to go downstairs, right?" Thought Wain looking at the sewer ditch.

Wain could have jumped into the water and breached the passageway to the bottom, but he didn't want to do that. He didn't know what could be in that water. Also, it could be poisonous, it was quite possible. Wain decided to find another way.

He walked forward through the sewer tunnels and looked carefully at his compass. Wain tried not to stray too far from that place and find the shortest way down.

Crackling.

Suddenly there was a rustling sound and the quiet sound of footsteps. The volume increased with each passing second, and a pack of huge rats appeared in the distance.

"Rats...right...the sewers are their home. Obviously, they've mutated and gotten stronger." Mumbled Wain, and the Forgotten Monarch's Sword appeared in his hand.

"Looks like I'm finally going to use this sword in combat." Wain said with a slight smile on his face as he looked at the monsters running at him.

Wain was about to swing his sword and kill the rats in one motion, but suddenly a massive alligator came out of the water. 

It grabbed one of the rats with its jaws and dragged it to the bottom. When the rats saw this, they fled in fear. To the alligator, they were nothing more than food.

"Is this joke? Why the fuck would that crocodile decide to come out now?" Wain said angrily and stomped his foot, causing several cracks to appear on the floor.

Usually, Wain would have been glad of this outcome, for the alligator had saved him the trouble, but Wain wanted to fight someone and could not do so. 

Moreover, the alligator immediately swam away when he sensed Wain's menacing aura.

"Okay, I'll wait a little longer..." Wain said grudgingly and went forward.

The sewers were huge, and after about a kilometer, Wain finally encountered a suitable opponent. To his surprise, it was an evolved zombie covered in poisonous growths.

The monster was quite large and looked formidable. It had green skin, sharp claws, and poisonous breath. Even though it was a zombie, Wain did not relax.

Zombies were some of the weaker monsters, but they could progress quickly and adapt to different conditions. This made them problematic opponents who could quickly become very strong.

The zombie immediately spotted Wain and ran sharply in his direction. Wain in front did not want to shorten the distance and bounced to the side. Wain could not allow the venomous enemy to get close to him.

Wain snapped his finger, and a dark sword appeared next to him, which came down on the zombie. However, the monster easily dodged and leaped into the water.

'Damn, he seems pretty smart. That's unusual for a zombie.' Wain thought.

He couldn't see where the zombie was, which meant he was at a disadvantage. The monster could have jumped out of the water at any moment and taken Wain by surprise.

Whooosh.

Wain swung his arm, and the dark sword plunged into the murky water. Wain decided to freeze it and force the zombie to the surface.

The plan worked, and a few seconds later, the poisonous zombie jumped out of the water at Wain with a furious scream.

"Huh, that was easier than I expected." Said Wain with a smirk on his face and threw his platinum sword at the monster.

The weapon was like a white flash that pierced the zombie and nailed it to the wall. The zombie didn't die from this attack, but it sustained serious and life-threatening wounds.

Whoooosh.

Wain swung his hand, and the dark sword cut off the zombie's head. The next moment a blue soul headed toward him.

[Soul of Poison Zombie (Whole)

Chronicle: First

Rating: Rare]

'Wow, luck is on my side today.' Wain thought and crushed the soul.

[You have acquired the Soul Essence of Poison Zombie level 23. Vitality +8.]

"Damn, I expected more, but that's pretty good too." Mumbled Wain, and several more messages appeared in front of him.

[You have leveled up to level 26. You get 3 status points to distribute freely]

[You get Rare Rating Spiritual Box]

"That's a whole other thing. I've already forgotten the last time I leveled up. I don't have much left. Although, getting the last four levels will be much harder than everything before that." Wain muttered.

The higher a person's level was, the harder it was to climb. When Wain first evolved and was level 15, he could easily get 16 or 17. 

However, the amount of energy required raised each time, and the coefficient increased steadily.

"I hope I get the antidote. That would come in handy." Said Wain looking at the blue box.

Then he used some energy and got his reward. It was a small syringe with a pale blue liquid inside. Wain immediately rejoiced as he thought it was an antidote.

[Syringe of Furious Cobra Venom (First Chronicle, Rare Rating)

This is a poison obtained from the gland of Furious Cobra. It is a dangerous creature with a unique venom. This venom has a special effect. When a person receives a dose of poison, he is no longer controlled and turns into a berserker.

At this time, the resistance to poisons improves significantly, and your characteristics increase. Also, most hypnosis and illusions will not work on you.

After use:

*Resistance to poison attribute is increased by 25%.

*All stats except Energy are increased by 10%.

*Total immunity to normal illusions and hypnosis].

"Yeah, that's total garbage." Said Wain and moved the syringe to the Ring of Damned.

Wain found the effects of the syringe quite useful, but the item had a huge disadvantage that Wain was not going to put up with. Wain believed that concentration during combat was very important.

He knew that he won not because he was stronger in many battles but because he analyzed the situation and found better options. 

Sure, sometimes Wain gave in to his feelings and enjoyed the battle, the clang of swords, and the smell of blood, but he didn't lose his mind.

Wain was sure that if he turned into a berserker, that would be the end. He would make a critical mistake and die.

"Hmm, however, perhaps this syringe is not so useless. I won't use it for myself, but I can use it against someone else." Wain muttered.

That way, he would make his enemy stronger, but he would lose control and be an easy target for Wain.

Wain nodded and looked at the dead zombie with the Forgotten Monarch's Sword in it. He wanted to jump up and retrieve the sword, but suddenly the weapon sliced through the monster's flesh and fell down.

"No!" Shouted Wain looking at the platinum sword falling into the sewage. He stretched out his hand, hoping to grab the sword, and suddenly felt a strange fluctuation of energy.

Whoooosh.

Like Thor's Hammer, Forgotten Monarch's Sword flew abruptly into Wain's hand. Wain was surprised, he didn't know that the sword had such property.

"Maybe I can control it like a Dark Sword?" Wain wondered and spent the next few minutes trying to force the platinum sword to fly.

Unfortunately, Wain was unsuccessful, the platinum sword responded to his will and returned to the owner. This sword could not be controlled freely, and Wain was even happy about it.

"Alright, I need to keep going."

...

Wain traveled through the sewers for several hours, and in that time, he killed several dozen monsters. They mainly were rats, poisonous zombies, and a few vast alligators. 

Despite their formidability, the alligators were quite stealthy, and most of them ran away from Wain, not wanting to fight him.

Wain went down several levels during this time, but the compass kept pointing in the same direction.

Step.

Wain was descending the stairs to another floor. He hoped that now he would finally find what he had come here for.

"Okay, maybe part of the map is here." Mumbled Wain and went forward.

...

"What is it?"

Walking forward through several tunnels, Wain saw many monsters piled up in one place. 

They were like zombies that were completely covered in branches like armor. They had wooden horns and spike-like growths on their backs. These monsters were called Thornyflesh.

Wain didn't know how many there were, he couldn't count them.

"Damn, sure there's more than a hundred of them, and the compass points in this direction, surely I need to fight them?" Wain muttered.

Wain worried that the spikes of these monsters might be poisonous. In that case, Thornyfleshs were very dangerous opponents.

'I could do with learning more about these monsters. Information as always is important.'

"Maybe I should just destroy them with one powerful attack." Wain muttered, and black electric discharges appeared around his hands.

Wain wanted to use The Fall of Thunder Eye and kill all the Thornyfleshs at once, but the skill was canceled when he was ready to create a pulse.

'Hmm? What happened?' Wain was puzzled and decided to try to use the skill again, but it failed.

'It seems this skill needs a certain amount of space, and the sewer tunnels are too narrow for that... Hmm, although I do have another way to damage on the area.'

The Ring of Damned glowed brightly, and a small golden prism appeared in Wain's hand. He had obtained this item in the previous Dungeon and had not used it until now.

Wain squeezed the prism, and it glowed brightly. He threw the prism at the monsters like a bomb the next moment.

The next moment the prism hovered in the air and began rapidly spinning, releasing many golden beams. It was like strings that moved with the prism and cut the monsters apart.

The monsters weren't expecting such a sudden attack and couldn't do anything. Only a few of them managed to survive, but Wain finished them off with sharp swings of his sword.

He ended up with over a hundred Common Rating Souls and a large amount of Soul Essence. Wain felt that he would soon reach level 27, and then he would only have a few more steps to take.

Wain looked at his compass and saw that the arrow was rotating from side to side. He didn't know what that meant, but suddenly the plants on the walls began to grow rapidly and headed towards one point.

Eventually, it became one massive red flower with many petals.. Inside the flower was a small piece of paper.