4 – Into the Sewers
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As I wake up, I can feel my body moving as it should again. It seems that the paralysis has worn off. Both of the wounds on my arm and leg have at least stopped bleeding, and though they still ache a bit, I must move forward. I have no idea how long I’ve slept, and I’m lucky that Vanesque hasn’t noticed what happened yet. However, my safety isn’t guaranteed until I escape from this chamber.

I take a look at the depleted mana stone on the ground, then turn my attention towards the other three stones powering the automatic Light Barrier. Perhaps if I get rid of them, this force field around me will disappear.

I walk along towards a mana stone in another corner of the force field. I reach out towards it, hesitating for a moment before touching it. Once again, it didn’t affect me. It’s still glowing like usual and I don’t feel anything different. I grab the mana stone and chuck it towards the center of the chamber. The force field seems to fade every so often, perhaps from losing two of the “batteries” powering it.

I proceed to walk towards the remaining two mana stones and similarly toss them aside as well. In a matter of seconds, the Light Barrier collapses, flickering rapidly before fading away altogether.

The exit, formerly blocked by the force field, is now accessible. I make a quick dart towards this new opening, but halt just before entering. I look back at the three mana stones and the corpse of the serpent.

The mana stones could be useful in the future, and I have no guaranteed source of food at the moment aside from the possibility of snake meat. However, my tiny mouse hands can’t hold onto so much at the same time. If only I had a garage or something to stuff them into.

Wait a minute…

I glance down to my torso, seeing nothing but bare fur. Even so, I attempt to reach into my chest with my paw. As I suspected, my arm disappeared, as if entering a tear in space. Despite my mousey form and lack of clothing, it seems that the interdimensional storage badge that Angeline gave me is still in effect, perhaps because I was transformed while still wearing it.

With my storage problem solved, I proceed to snatch my loot and stuff it into my badge.

I refocus myself and make a beeline towards the exit.

 

A pungent odor made me grimace upon first entering. Water leaked from the ceiling, dripping onto the ground. Complex pathways of ditches ran along everywhere, carrying water from one place to the next. The floor, walls, and ceiling were made of a rough stone, worn down from constant erosion. It seemed that I had just entered the sewers, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I had just escaped from a chamber hidden deep inside the sewers. Who knows why Vanesque was keeping a serpent there?

I traverse through the narrow stone pavements along the sides of the water pathways, making sure to avoid contact with the constant rubbish littered across the floor. I don’t even recognize some of this stuff, and I don’t think I want to find out.

I suddenly a rustling from behind me. I swiftly make a 180 degree turn to face whatever, or whoever, it was. Upon which, I feel an impact on my tail. A small green lump is sent flying across the pathway, hitting a wall. It stays there for a moment, wobbling around, appearing dazed.

Taking a closer look, this green lump is actually a ball of moss. It’s made up of countless strands of green fiber drenched with water. It turned out that I had unknowingly whipped this thing with my tail as it snuck up behind me.

Suddenly, the moss ball makes a series of indescribable noises before a tiny ball of water appears in front of it. Seeing the moss ball perform this feat, I instinctually jump away from my current position. The ball of water launches itself forwards, hitting the wall behind where I originally was.

Upon seeing that, an image of Illia flashes into my mind. Specifically, that scene she made with the magic she called “Water Ball”.

Sensing a new danger in this opponent, I quickly rush towards the moss ball and tear away at it using my claws. They make quick work of the frail moss forming this enemy. The moss ball makes a series of noises once again, but now knowing what it’s going to do, I easily maneuver my agile body to dodge the Water Ball it summons. It wasn’t that hard anyways. The Water Ball it conjured was so small compared to Illia’s. It’s like comparing a raindrop to a swimming pool.

I continue tearing away at it, shreds of moss flying all over the room, until it suddenly stops squirming around. At that point, I could see a faintly glowing sphere inside its exposed mossy innards. I recognize it. It’s a mana stone, the smallest one I’ve seen so far, but still a mana stone.

It seems that the moss ball was a monster, a really weak one judging from the size of its mana stone. This thing was able to perform magic as well, having the water attribute.

And here I am, a magicless, manaless, powerless, defenseless rat. I think I just about had it with this world. I want to go home.

...Of course, I know that if I want to go home, I would have to find a way out of these sewers first.

With that in mind, I collect its magic stone and continue walking forward.

Along the way, I keep encountering a few more moss balls. They all attack and act the same way. With each encounter, I get better at predicting their movements and counteracting them. I also take this opportunity to practice a new method of attack I came up with after finishing that first moss ball, a tail whip. It’s actually quite effective. My tail is quite long, making it a good method to attack when my paws can’t reach. The more I practice, the more I feel like I have control over it.

 

Eventually, I feel a rumbling in my stomach.

I had a feeling that it would come to this, but I had been hoping that I would find something better to eat before resorting to it.

I scavenge the surrounding area for anything useful and notice a sewing needle left on the floor. I pick up the rusted piece of metal and take a good look at it. Despite it being clearly worn down, it was still fairly sharp.

I hesitantly reach into my chest to pull out the corpse of the snake. I stare at it for a few seconds before deciding what I must do.

I jam the sewing needle into the snake and proceed to scrape off the skin off of it, exposing its bare flesh. I didn’t notice any mana stone within the serpent’s body. It seems that despite all living organisms being able to use mana (except for me apparently), mana stones are exclusive to monsters and not animals.

After removing all of its skin, rather amateurly if I may add, I store the sewing needle for later use. I tightly close my eyes and slowly open my jaw. With dread, I bring the snake corpse closer to my mouth, all the while hoping that it at least won’t taste as terrible as I think it will be. Normally, I would make a fire to cook it, but there’s no wood around. Even if there was, it would probably be soaked with sewer water to the point of being useless.

 

Upon first bite, I can in fact confirm that it tastes terrible, at least raw. However, the healthiest of foods often taste the worst, and I’m hoping that applies in this case as well. I continue biting into the snake’s flesh until I feel sated.

There’s still much of the snake left after I finish eating, so I store the rest of it into my badge in hopes that it won’t go bad before I feel the need to eat again.

I stare at the snake’s skin on the floor for a few moments before stuffing that into my storage as well. You never know when it could come into use.

 

It didn’t take too long before I come across a fork in the road. The walkways branch out, one path leading to the left, another to the right. I’m not sure which one I should take, so I pick the left on a whim.

Along the way, I come across a few more moss balls. As an experiment, I take the mana stone from a previously slain moss ball and toss it at a different moss ball. The moss ball twitches for a few moments before continuing to fight again, although somewhat hampered. It takes another two moss ball mana stones before it dies from too much mana. It seems that mana overload isn’t a very efficient method to kill unless using a big enough mana stone. It’s just like electricity. It takes quite the amount to kill someone with it, but the smaller voltages can still cause injury.

After proceeding forward and defeating a few moss balls along the way, I come across another splitting of paths. Again, I decide to take the left and move along.

I keep stumbling across more branches and pick random paths. However, I soon realize something. I’m running in circles. I keep entering areas I’m sure I had already been in before, and the amount of moss balls I’ve been encountering keep decreasing. If I want to make it out of here in a timely manner, I need to do more than just wander aimlessly.

I pick up the thinnest, flattest rock I can find within the sewer, laying it onto the floor. I then retrieve the sewing needle from my inventory and thrust its tip into the rock. With enough force, the needle scratches the stone, leaving a mark. After confirming this, I proceed to make a series of carvings into the stone.

As I traverse along the sewers, I continue adding to the carvings made on my stone tablet. Essentially, I’m making a map of the sewers as I go along, helping to reduce my confusion and prevent me from getting lost.

 

As I traversed through the sewers, I began to realize that this place is much bigger than I initially thought. It’s a good thing that I decided to make a map early on. Otherwise, I would never find my way through this deep, dark maze. It’s already been a day or two since I’ve been here. I’ve been making steady progress, and have a sizable chunk down. However, that’s just relative. I have no idea how big this place actually is in proportion to what I’ve explored.

Unfortunately, I’ve found no other source of food at the moment other than that snake meat. Fortunately though, that serpent was rather big, and so its meat will last me a while. I could really go for a salad, though. Something other than constant meat.

While wandering around, I come across more moss balls and subsequently beat them without getting myself into too much danger. I’ve been keeping a collection of tiny mana stones within my inventory. I’m not sure what I’ll use them for, but perhaps I could do something similar to that mana stone-powered Light Barrier I saw back then. Judging from the miniscule size of the moss ball mana stones, they probably don’t amount to much, but small items in bulk amounts will eventually add up.

I’ve also become more accustomed to my rat body as well. With each battle, I can feel myself having a better control over my body, especially my legs. Since a rodent’s specialty is its ability to scurry, I’ve been honing my maneuverability in order to dodge attacks and make a countermove before the enemy has time to reassess the situation. In addition, I’ve been paying some attention to my tail as well. This little guy has surprisingly been proving itself useful. My tail is almost the length of the rest of my body. Many times, moss balls would move away in order to create a distance between us and conjure a Water Ball, but I would be able to turn around and smack it with my tail, launching it against the wall. As a result, I’ve begun treating my tail as another limb, as if it were an additional arm or leg.

During these past couple of days, I’ve also been doing some thinking.

There’s no way I can go back to Earth like this. Even if I were to sneak my way through a portal back home, I would end up remaining a rat. And oh boy, do Earthians absolutely despise rats. I’d either end up another animal’s dinner or victim to the local exterminator. Perhaps my best bet is to convince Angeline that it’s me and then have her help un-transform my body. However, that’s a big, big risk. There’s no telling how Angeline will react. Given that she seems to prioritize the principal’s direct command over anything else, she might just send me back to Vanesque. Even if she does agree to help me, I have no idea if she would know how to turn me back. I don’t know what kind of magic Vanesque used, other than it’s name “Metamorphosis”. Neither am I certain about whether Angeline knows what that magic is. On the bright side, being a tiny rat makes it easier for her to hide me. In the end, she’s my only hope. If I make it out of here alive, I’ll have to find her.

 

I face a wall in front of me. Another dead end!

I let out an enraged voice in frustration, only coming out as a semi-audible squeak.

This sewer is like a labyrinth, complete with all sorts of confusing paths, sudden ends, and monster encounters, but lacking the sweet treasure chests scattered around.

At least the map is proving itself useful, as I find myself able to more efficiently explore the sewers without entering the same area too often.

I’m not sure how many days it has been, but based on my biological clock and the number of times I’ve slept, perhaps around six days.

I’ve been getting sick of snake meat lately. Though, I suppose I was never really fond of it in the first place. During this time, I’ve been trying out some of the moss from those moss balls, just to experiment and see if they’re palatable. Based on what I’ve read online before, moss is supposedly edible, though not exactly the best tasting nor nutritious food. To my surprise though, the moss wasn’t terrible. I’d compare it to the taste of plain seaweed, which isn’t bad as far as taste goes at this point. In fact, I kind of like it. I’ve been adding a side of moss to my dish of snake meat as of recently. It seems quite nutritious too, as I don’t need to eat as much snake meat anymore to get through each day.

Angeline didn’t tell me this, but it seems that my interdimensional storage halts the rotting process of the food inside it. The snake meat still tastes about as fresh as it did a few days ago.

Anyways, based on what I have explored so far, the sewer system is quite complex, with many areas interconnecting via a multitude of pathways. It’s certainly not a place that one can get through without mapping out.

As I look at what I’ve carved down for my map, I notice that there’s a blank spot around the upper right corner. It seems that this is the last area for me to cover.

Setting this area as my goal, I turn back and head towards this unexplored locale. Hopefully, the exit to these sewers lies in there.

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