It was early morning when Drew stood outside the sewers' entrance.

They were a short hike from the slums, but maneuvering around the unpaved paths made the trip quite a chore, especially since he was also carrying his equipment.

The suns were up in the sky but it hadn't reached its peak. Though it wasn't burning hot outside yet, the humidity in the air and the existing heat combined with the already putrid stench coming from the trash mounts combined to create the perfect storm. Well, it's more like a scent that stunk high to the stars.

Upon reaching the entrance, where he saw Sylvia, Elias, Wan, and Rider all wearing hazmat suits, Drew felt himself gag.

"I think I'm gonna puke…" The Avian lurched, cupping his hands over his mouth as Rider passed him a gas mask, which Drew pulled on immediately.

"Courtesy of Halford," Sylvia spoke, rummaging through her crossbody bag for another compact hazmat suit, which was essentially glorified plastic wrap that she tosed to Drew, who caught it with one hand.

Drew let out a warm breath behind his mask, the smells that penetrated his nostrils earlier blocked by floral-scented filters as he pulled on the hazmat suit.

"Appears you gained yourself a trustworthy confidant. Gotta thank him after this."

Ever since Sylvia introduced the soap bars to the slums, the Princess's reputation had soared in a short amount of time. The residents were reluctant to trust her back in January, even with Mr. Halford's assurance. However, upon seeing hospitalization rates decrease by nearly 40% due to improved hygiene at the end of winter, the residents opened up to her a lot more.

It was rare for anyone to go out of their way to help the slums, let alone make a change this substantial. Of course, the Ifrit had no intention of stopping there. As much as her heart knew her cause wasn't entirely selfless, she would utilize her desires for her own and society's benefit. Perhaps that placed her conscience at ease.

"As per the Request, we're here to exterminate the Gumps that've been terrorizing the slums these last few months. Our goal is fifty, but for each extra, our compensation will increase to twenty Kalas."

Gumps are a type of Beast created from the accumulation of Otrio in polluted narrow passageways. Their form varies depending on their environment. In this case, they are moving heaps of trash and sludge that polluted the sewers. A Gump can be defeated by destroying or isolating their Core from their body. If the Core is kept intact, it can be used to create medicines to combat bacterial infections.

"Anything about the Cores?" Drew raised his hand.

Sylvia nodded.

"The Requester said that whatever we can obtain, they'll take thirty percent. The rest we can keep."

"Got something you want to do with them, Birdo?" Elias asked, folding his arms together.

Drew twirled his shortsword around, getting accustomed to its handle, and turned to the Human. "I was thinking of producing some antibiotics for the slums."

"Oh, that's right." Rider chimed, fiddling with the string on his bow. "You're certified to make them now since you're an E-Rank Alchemist."

"Exactly." Drew smiled behind his mask. "And just to make sure, I'm getting hours for this, Princess?"

"Of course," Sylvia laughed, "I'm not one to go back on my word, aren't I?"

"Excellent."

"You've been quiet there for a while, Wan. Is everything alright?" Rider glanced over to the Siren, clutching tightly to the telescoping fishing rod staff she was awarded from the Monthly Exam.

The Siren, who had dazed out for a moment, shook her head and gave the Unicron a startled response.

"Huh," She exclaimed. "Yeah, I'm doing okay. I've just been a little preoccupied with stuff. Sorry about that.”

"Are you sure?" Elias asked, concern written all over his face.

"I'm positive." The Siren replied trying her best to reassure the Human. "Don't worry, it's nothing too serious; I won't hold you guys back."

"Okay, but if it's weighing on you, don't hesitate to tell us."

"Thank you." 

Without further ado, the group proceeded through the dark tunnel illuminated by only the lights on their masks. Questionable black sludge lined the concrete walls and steel pipes of the sewers. Trash floated on top of the murky water's surface, not far off the rusty railings separating it from the main path. Glass shards crunched underneath the group's feet with every step they took through the eerily quiet area.

"See anything, Drew?" Sylvia began to speak while scanning her surroundings.

"Not for now." The Avian replied, only seeing the curved walls of the sewers and some small piles of trash through the pitch-black darkness. "It'd be great to see heat signatures as well."

"No need to be so hard on yourself. We're already fortunate to have someone that has night vision."

Drew shrugged.

"Doesn't hurt to be a little greedy."

"The Otrio density here is insane," Rider commented, his eyes scanning from side to side.

"Hey, Rider. I noticed that you've finally picked up a weapon." Elias spoke, pointing to his bow.

"Oh, this? I decided to use my limited archery skills after Brix called me out for not having any means of self-defense."

"Define limited."

Rider knocked an arrow against his bowstring. The end of the arrow wasn't a pointed tip but a round steel cylinder instead. He pulled his arm back, creating tension between the string and the frame, and then he released his grip on the tail, letting it soar through the air.

For a while, there was no sound. No impact until…

THUNK!

The blunt arrow finally hit something.

Drew rushed over to see where the arrow that whizzed past him hit. Upon arriving, the Avian found a puddle of black sludge beneath his feet, mixed with various pieces of garbage. The sludge trickled down the edge of the elevated pathway into the fast-flowing murky water below. A perfectly round black core was sitting snuggly between the concrete cracks some twenty or so centimeters away from the sludge.

"And he says his skills are limited," Drew scoffed, picking up the Core and putting it into the pouch fastened to his belt. Once the Cores were separated from a Gump's body, they could not regenerate. Hence, it was safe for Drew to touch the Core without worrying.

"We got a bullseye!" Drew hollered from the darkness as he dashed back to regroup.

"Are you sure Unicron's don't have night vision?" Wan laughed, glancing over at Rider.

The silver-haired Unicron shook his head.

"High Otrio sensitivity, and that's about it."

"Okay, children," Sylvia smirked behind her mask. "Enough showboating right now, so let's keep going."

With that, the party continued into the depths of the sewers. A couple of Gumps showed up, and Rider extracted their Cores from their translucent grayish-black masses coated in an armor of residual trash they could gather with his arrows, so there was hardly any work for everyone else to do in the meantime.

As Sylvia walked over to pick up a Core, an idea crossed her mind.

"Rider, conserve your Otrio. Only use your arrows for self-defense. Focus on detection and healing. Drew and I will engage in close combat. Elias, back us up with your shots for now, but we'll rotate with you to conserve energy. As for Wan, immobilize the Gumps you see with [Paralyze]. If we do this, we can substantially pick up our pace."

"Understood!"
>>>

Heartman found himself in quite the conundrum. He had already exhausted all his energy trying to suppress Snow, but his efforts appeared meaningless.

The secret behind First Snow had yet to be uncovered, and his newest regiment that had surpassed his own caused the Alchemist to be astonished. What made matters worse was that Snow had taken some of his former employees and labeled them as significant contributors to the production of the groundbreaking medicine. It added insult to injury, leaving Heartman with a bitter taste in his mouth.

This was karma for his actions.

"So you still haunt me till this day, Sai."

The Djinn clenched his fist. He let his emotions get the better of him. Snow had made him lose his composure, but the game wasn't over.

Despite the Snowhawk's pressure, Heartman placed his hand on his chin.

It's been long since he's been pushed into a corner. It was the War of Royals all over again. He was no longer sitting comfortably on the throne he had obtained. There was a threat. A rebel that wanted to usurp him. As such, he needed to deal with that rebel accordingly.

"How many unreleased regiments do we have in stock?" Heartman asked his bumbling secretary, to whom he had forgotten their name again.
The secretary pulled up a hologram with all the regiments in inventory.

"Twenty-five, sir."

Heartman folded his arms behind his back, "How many of them have been fully optimized?"

"Seven, sir."

"Which ones did the analysts predict would perform well in the market?"

The secretary swiped the holograms aside, revealing two to answer Heartman's inquiries.

"These. If we release the first one, our profit margins will be lower than anticipated, but we can make it up easily with sales volume. With the latter, our margins are much larger, but we're unable to match demand for it due to costs. However, we can set the price so our clients purchase them at a premium due to the inelasticity of the market. The other thing to note is that we can only release one or else we'll face severe backlash from the public."

Heartman tapped on each hologram, revealing that, but he didn't take long to decide.

"Send out the second one. It'll cause a greater stir."

"Understood." The secretary bowed, dispelling the holograms. "And I also wanted to inform you that you have a visitor."

"Who is it?"

"He refers to himself as the Obtainer."

As soon as the secretary finished his report, Heartman felt his arms drop to his side. It appears that a rather big name has decided to show up at his doorstep.

"Bring him in."
>>>>

"Ugh!" Drew grimaced as he pulled another Core out from a lonely Gump. "How many do you have?"

"That'd make forty forty-five replied, placing a Core in his hand and putting it into a bag.

Wan tilted her head to the ceiling.

"Only five left to meet the minimum requirements."

"Though I will say, I'm very impressed with Rider here and his archery accuracy," Sylvia said, placing a hand on her hip.

"A Medic needs at least a few means to protect themselves on the battlefield." The Unicron shrugged, gathering his arrows in the vicinity. "I'm glad brushing up on it has proved useful." Then, he turned to Drew. "Rather, I'm surprised at your boldness in bringing a blade to fight Gumps, considering they're typically ineffective."

The Nightengale twirled his shortsword, flicking off the toxic goop that coated its body. He was reluctant to bring it with him, opting for a more blunt weapon, but Gerald told him it would be the perfect opportunity to master his weapon and Otrio control. As such, Drew has mainly been extracting Cores using the flat side of his blade, stabbing the Gump first before scooping the black Core. It was a bit more cumbersome but allowed him to learn how to switch his movements in a split second.

"There were a few things I needed to practice, but if they didn't work, I could fall back on defense. Luckily it all worked out."

"Hehe, forbidden jelly!" Wan crouched and poked an inanimate murky glob on the ground with her fishing rod staff.

Drew turned to Sylvia, who was kicking aside some of the rubbish the Gumps had left behind from the main path.

"Now that I think about it, this is the first time we have seen you wield a weapon, Princess."

Sylvia glanced down at the two crimson rings in her hand. They were custom-made chakrams, each with a sharp blade running around its circumference that could be adjusted easily to reduce to the size of a yo-yo. A retractable wire ran from the handle to a ring on both of the Ifrit's index fingers, allowing her to extend her range without using Otrio. There were also tiny buttons on the handles, but Drew wasn't sure what they were for yet.

"That's true," She remarked, realizing that she had never shown or told anyone in the group. "Now that we've reached this point, handling five more shouldn't take too long. Is everyone okay if we press a bit further afterward?"

"Sure, the pacing we're going at is okay." Elias nodded, staring down the tunnel. "It's only been a couple hours, so one more hour should be alright."

"Sounds alright to me." Wan agreed, standing up and moving closer to Sylvia.

Drew and Rider turned to each other and shook their heads, agreeing with Wan's statement.

"If so, we should probably do so, "Rider paused.

"Hey, Rider, what's going on? "Drew felt his breath stop as he looked further into the tunnel. A feeling of deja vu struck Drew hard. "You've got to be kidding me!"

The Ifrit dragged her foot back, readying her stance. The density of Otrio in the sewer had just gotten thicker, sending chills through everyone's body.

"Formation!"

"Dammit, jinxed it." Elias cursed, loading his pistols with new magazines. Watching as massive amalgamations of toxic goop approximately twice as tall as Drew. coated in a sturdy trash shell glided along the surface of the pathway. Pieces of those shells scraped against the ground, creating an ear-piercing shrill sound.

Drew scanned for an escape route, but the Beasts blocked everything.

“Brobdingnagian Gumps!” Wan shrieked, holding her staff in front of her.

"Well," Sylvia let out a nervous laugh. "We got a bit of a challenge here."