Chapter 1354: Chapter 1354

"Ugh, this gadget of Alexia's is so imprecise."

He couldn't help but sigh. Still, considering divination was impossible within a Mysterious Realm, inventing even an inaccurate tool was a miracle in itself.

And so he wandered through the city night, stumbling upon a young couple's tryst in a roadside carriage and spotting two Enchanters trading contraband tobacco. Finally, at the last location indicated by the device, he found fresh bloodstains on the ground.

This meant Alexia's numerical divination had failed completely. With no other leads before the little cube offered up another batch of potential locations, Jenkins decided to follow the blood trail and see what had happened.

The trail of blood led from beside a trash can deeper into the alley, veered right at an intersection, and then vanished before a low wall. Jenkins vaulted the wall but found no further trace of the trail. He then used the wall to hoist himself onto the roof of the one-story house to his left and, sure enough, spotted more bloodstains on the tiles.

The injured person had followed the line of rooftops, leaping across to the other side of the alley as he neared the main street. After repeating this maneuver three times, Jenkins found himself in the eastern part of the lower city—the area known as the slums.

The population density and quality of life here were arguably the worst in Nolan, and the district was situated in the lowest part of the city. Jenkins rarely ventured into this area, so he was unfamiliar with its labyrinthine alleys. After a while, he lost the trail again and had no idea where to search next.

"I'm wasting time again."

He tapped his forehead in frustration and pulled out his pocket watch. It was already past midnight—one-thirty in the morning.

He scanned his surroundings, momentarily unable to get his bearings. The buildings here were all squat and low. Instead of navigating the alleys, he could just travel across the rooftops. As long as he picked a direction and stuck to it, he would eventually get out of here.

But that would inevitably mean cutting through people's yards, since not all the roofs were connected. Just as he dropped down from one, Jenkins found a fresh pool of blood beneath his boot. He glanced around in surprise, his eyes following a clear trail of moonlit stains that led directly to a well in the middle of the yard.

"A well? It can't be..."

He crept to the edge of the well and peered down into the pitch-black darkness. He couldn't see a thing. After fitting his monocle to his eye, his vision returned, but all he saw was the placid surface of the water below.

"Did the injured person jump into the well? Is there a secret passage down there? No way. I'm not jumping into a well... Besides, this clearly has nothing to do with me. Why should I get involved?"

Despite his reservations, he didn't leave. His cat, sensing Jenkins was about to do something reckless, instantly cancelled its projection and retreated to the warm comfort of his bedroom in Ruen. A moment later, with a loud splash, Jenkins plunged into the water.

The well's opening was unusually wide, likely serving more than just this single household. In the city proper, such wells could only be found in the slums these days; after all, the city had boasted over seventy-five percent water pipe coverage for the last five years.

The thought struck Jenkins the moment he hit the freezing water. He held his breath and dove deeper, his hands finding an opening in the side wall. He swam through it, and after a few dozen seconds, he sensed a faint light above him. He immediately shot to the surface, wiping the water from his face with his sleeve. As his eyes adjusted, he found himself in a clean sewer tunnel, illuminated by a row of spice-infused candles. The walls were covered in a network of interconnected ritualistic lines, and at the far end of the tunnel, an archway of stacked stones framed an entrance that glowed with a soft white light.

This was clearly a part of Nolan's vast underground sewer system, but a collapse at the far end had sealed it off from the main network. The only way into this section was through the well. Of course, there might be other entrances, but Jenkins hadn't found any.

The splash of him surfacing startled several figures who were resting against the wall. As they stepped into the candlelight, Jenkins saw they weren't human at all.

Both sides were surprised, but the recognition of an enemy was immediate.

The creatures—aberrations—pulled their own spinal columns from their backs to use as weapons and charged at Jenkins, who stood in the shallow water. He frantically splashed water at them as his [Ice Solidification] ability rapidly chilled the liquid. A ring of solid ice formed around him, but the creatures' bone weapons shattered it in seconds.

Bone Eaters were considered a unique subspecies of humanity, a race that had devolved from their human origins. They fed on all manner of bone and could manipulate the skeletons of other species as weapons. Furthermore, when they wielded weapons forged from their own bones, those weapons possessed powerful properties that countered the supernatural.

Adult Bone Eaters were all considered masters of close combat, making long-range spells the best strategy against them. But in the narrow tunnel, Jenkins had no room to create distance. Seeing the situation turning against him, he dove back beneath the surface. The Bone Eaters shouted in a language he didn't understand as they charged into the water after him, striking at the surface with their weapons.

A deep chill spread up from the depths. First, a thin layer of frost appeared on the surface, then chunks of ice began to float up from below. Before the creatures could comprehend what was happening, their skin went numb where it touched the water. A moment later, everything below the surface was frozen solid.

Jenkins surfaced in a deeper part of the tunnel. Seeing his tactic had worked, he thrust a hand out of the water, coated it with a thin film, and then flicked his fingers. The droplets shot through the air, instantly freezing into ice pellets. Like bullets, they pierced the skull of the nearest Bone Eater.

A thrill of success shot through him. He plunged his right hand into the water, then dove until his feet touched the bottom before launching himself upward with all his might. As his torso broke the surface, he thrust his right hand forward.

In that instant, a fan-shaped spray of white mist and ice pellets shot from his hand. For a split second, he hung suspended in the air, ice crystals forming around him. Within the thin, cold mist, the pellets sliced through the airborne water droplets and flew onward, piercing every obstacle in their path before peppering the far wall with a dense pattern of small holes. For origınal chapters go to NoveIＦire.net