Chapter 60 - In The Sewers

"Gross, gross, gross…"

Sol held himself as he slowly marched through the repugnant waters of the sewer tunnel, constantly repeating the same word with a disgusted expression.

"Cut it out already, would ya'?! Yer' makin' my damn noggin' beat against my skull!" Yeong-Un looked back, barking at the man.

Every little movement Yeong-Un made caused the X-crossed swords on his back chime while his dark-blue coat swayed. For some reason while Yeong-Un moved his arms around while talking, always keeping the sleeves of his coat rolled up midway past his biceps, he noticed the plethora of scars that were etched onto his toned arms.

"Well, sor-ry that I still have a highly functional nose! Just because we live in an ending world doesn't mean we should abandon all standards–!" Sol continued to complain.

"If yer' that bothered by the smell, then the exit is back thatta' way! Fire-head and I will split the reward ourselves–no worries," Yeong-Un told him.

"Huh?!" Sol let out.

It was a seemingly everyday occurrence between the two that they had witnessed: constantly butting heads due to Sol's inexplicably, absolute cowardice.

"Hey, hey, hey! That's not fair!" Sol replied.

The three had come to a stop because of Sol's constant whining about the rancid conditions of the sewer tunnel.

"How's it sound to ya', fire-head? I think it sounds pretty damn fair that the ones who do all the work, take all the pay!" Yeong-Un asked, looking at him.

"Sounds fair to me," he replied.

Sol yelled out, being so viscerally backed into a corner by his friends as he stomped his boot, "Alright, alright! I'll do this–! I can do this!"

"Glad ta' hear it!" Yeong-Un smirked with his sharp teeth.

"Money is quite the motivator, isn't it?" He mumbled to himself with a smile.

Finally getting Sol to calm down, though he still let out disgusted noises to himself while dredging through the gross waters of the sewer, the three moved deeper into the sewer system.

It was dark and without any real sense of direction, causing them to constantly have to stop and decipher their next path.

"What're we even looking for, exactly?" He asked.

Yeong-Un replied, "Huh? Ya' didn't ask that earlier? Ha-ha! Well, I don't know!"

"--"

The blank look he gave to the spiky-haired friend of his prompted a chuckle from Yeong-Un, who quickly continued, "I told ya', didn't I? We're here based on reports, or rumors, I guess. Somethin' is down here, apparently. It seemed to be seen by enough people that the ol' leader thinks this is a legit issue."

"...I just hope he doesn't cut our pay if we end up not finding anything," Sol sighed out quietly.

"Dae-Seong will pay," he assured Sol, holding a half-smirk, "...Though, I'm not sure we'll get a complete payout if we don't find anything. Shouldn't that be a win in itself?"

"Oh, man…" Sol let out a sigh, slumping his shoulders.

He laughed a bit at the comical disappointment from the youngest of the three, walking directly beside Yeong-Un as he looked towards Sol, who marched a good meter behind them.

"What're you so hung up on money for, anyway? Is there something you want to buy?" He asked.

"...Yer' gonna regret asking that one…" Yeong-Un muttered.

"Huh? Why?--"

Just as he heard the mumble from his sharp-toothed companion, he was interrupted by a sudden burst of passion from Sol, who was happy to answer his question.

"If I shower Byeol with gifts, she might finally accept my fiery love! And to get gifts, I need Angel coins! A lot of them–!" Sol told him fervently.

"...Pardon?" He let out with a wry smile.

"Told ya'," Yeong-Un muttered, letting out a short sigh.

It wasn't any secret that Sol was an eccentric figure, and certainly one that seemed still ripe and center in his mid-pubescent mindset.

"It's a flawless plan, isn't it? Byeol is always giving me the cold shoulder, but it's just because I've been taking my approach the wrong way," Sol explained, waving his hands around as he walked beside the two, "...Man, oh man, that lavender hair with olive eyes, to boot…everytime I see her, I feel like I can take on the whole world!"

"Can hardly take on a smelly sewer," Yeong-Un commented in jest.

"I'm here, aren't I?!" Sol contested.

"That's fair," he laughed, almost acting as the mediary between the two.

"Yeah, whatevs', let's just finish our search and get our pay!" Yeong-Un smirked.

It was more of a difficult task than expected to track down a single, rumored entity in the depths and maze-like passages of the sewer; not simply due to its repulsive air, but its confusing structure that led them in circles at points.

"I'm starting to think there's nothing here," Sol finally said after they spent an entire hour trudging through the area, "Maybe they just saw a rat or something!"

"Huh? We're almost through the place, so put a sock in it!" Yeong-Un replied.

"Woah…"

He muttered to himself in surprise, stopping at the front of the group as the other two stopped behind him.

"What's up?" Sol asked.

"Looks like I found our final destination," he said, glancing back at his two companions.

They stood beside him, looking over the chamber that follows the abrupt end of the tunnelway they traversed.

"Damn, the hell is a big ass place like this doin' here?" Yeong-Un asked.

"Beats me. But, we have to scope it out anyway," he said.

The two didn't hesitate to hop down from the edge of the tunnel, landing in the vast, darkly-shrouded domain below.

Of course, Sol stood at the top for a moment, hesitating to jump down.

"Are you coming or what?" He called out to the hazel-haired man.

"--"

"C'mon, you shrimp!" Yeong-Un yelled out, his voice echoing through the repugnant lair.

Sol took in a breath before yelling out, "Fine, but I'm cursing you both if I contract a disease down here!"

Saying that, the medievally-dressed young man hopped down, landing with a thud as the thin layer of repugnant water splashes beneath his boots.

"Sheesh…and I thought he was done with that crap…" Yeong-Un mumbled, waiting for Sol to catch up.

"After all of this time, you expected that?" He laughed.

"Yer' right," Yeong-Un smirked.

Catching up to them and huffing, Sol caught his breath, leaning over as he breathed in and out with sweat clearly dripping from his skin.

"...Yer' already tuckered out?" Yeong-Un asked him.

"--"

Sol was too busy catching his breath to answer, wiping the sweat from his chin as he looked up with one eye closed.

"Seriously, man…You need to work on your cardio or something," he added.

It was bad enough to get such advice from him, who was just up until recently a shut-in who spent more hours of the day playing MMORPGs than going outside.

Sol huffed out, "...The Angel System doesn't magically cure my asthma, you know, assholes!?"

"Always with the excuses," Yeong-Un muttered, folding his arms over his chest.

"That's a medical condition, not an excuse–!" Sol retorted, raising his fist.

"He-he…" Yeong-Un laughed, pleased with himself.

They two began walking away while Sol followed behind, "Hey!...Grr…Just think of Byeol and her magical bosom, Sol…"

I'll pretend I didn't hear that, he thought with a wry smile.

"Hey, stop."

Yeong-Un said in a serious, quiet tone, raising his arm for him to stop walking.

"Huh?" He let out quietly.

He could see the serious look embedded in the man's sharp, acute eyes. If there was anybody's senses he could trust, it was Yeong-Un's, whose senses rested in the threshold of animalistic more than human.

The wild-haired man reached behind him, gripping the handles of his sheathed swords–the left having an all-white, cloth-wrapped handle, and the right having one of a dark, all-black steel handle. Slowly, his dual blades were drawn from their sheaths as the sharp metal hissed against the interior of the scabbards.

Both of the blades were inscribed with unique designs: the white-handled blade bearing flames etched onto its silver, and the black-handled one displayed what looked to be jagged, curving bolts of lightning engraved on its surface.

Even Sol fell silent, looking around in search of whatever it was that caught the man's senses.

If he's that serious, then something is coming, he thought.

Reaching under his coat, he plucked both of his daggers from their small sheaths, standing at Yeong-Un's side while Sol joined them as well, watching their flank.

"It's coming," Yeong-Un warned quietly, looking forward with a chilling, calm intensity, "--From the water."

"The water?"

It was just then he began to hear it–the sounds of something shifting through water–prompting him to look onward, squinting his eyes as he saw the pool of sewage water that sat beyond the smooth, wet flooring they occupied.

"What's coming…?" Sol asked in a quiet, frightened whisper, gulping down.

Almost as if the young man's question triggered some event, a large splash of the vile water rose up like a geyser, sending a tremor through the metallic, abhorrent ground they stood on, prompting all of their gazes to befall that direction.

"--"

It was large, though that was an understatement. By all means, it was colossal–beyond the scope of their expectations.

A hiss that vibrated the walls left its maw before it landed on the dark-silver flooring, allowing its massive, scale-clad tail to slap against the water behind it.

"An alligator…?!" Sol let out.

"Didn't know they got that big!" He added.

"Looks more like a damn dragon ta' me!" Yeong-Un called out.

There was definitely something abnormal about the creature, besides its gargantuan size that dwarfed even elephants: its scales were all-white, though it didn't seem to just be an albino alligator, as bone-like protrusions formed on its back like spikes, covered in blood and guts from what could only be hoped to be animals.

"Is this…?"

Before he could properly ask his question, a prompt appeared:

[Enemy Recognized: "Titanic Maw" | Level 28]