Chapter 6 – Emerald Flame. Sudden Windfall.

Chapter 6 – Emerald Flame. Sudden Windfall.

After walking for another minute, Gerhart ran into his second opponent of the day... A Giant Rat, munching on a dead Giant Cockroach.

"Scree!" The rat hissed at him before charging over with wild abandon.

"Good timing!" Gerhart eagerly smiled behind his mask, put down his lantern, and unsheathed his sword.

As soon as the rat got close, Gerhart attempted to stab it. However, the rat jumped to the right before leaping at Gerhart's right leg. Gerhart moved his body to the left to avoid it while drawing an arc with his sword, cutting a gash on the rat's side.

"Chee!!!" However, it was not enough to deter the Giant Rat, a highly territorial feral monster that would attack its opponent until its last breath. It attempted to pounce again, but this time, Gerhart thrust his sword into it, skewering it by the neck.

After twitching a few times, the rat went limp, signaling Gerhart's victory.

"These guys are ferocious," Gerhart muttered, kicking the rat off his sword. "As expected from living monsters."

Wiping his sword from blood and sheathing it, Gerhart removed the tail. The subjugation proof only needed two finger's worth, so it wasn't too heavy. And even if it was, he had the Pack Mule talent, which empowered his back muscles and improved endurance strength. It helped him support more weight and move his body more efficiently. To a laborer or baggage carrier, it was an excellent talent.

Meanwhile, the Strong Arms talent was always good since it increased the arm's strength and was always active. It was a good talent for many professions.

On the other hand, Treasure Hunter was not too good outside the dungeon, but Hazel had a knack for finding loose change, so it had some uses.

There was also that ??? Talent... But he figured it was the relic.

And now, these three new talents belonged to Gerhart... And he couldn't wait to find out what he would get from the rat.

"Hm... Should I remove the tail first?" Gerhart asked himself while cleaning and sheathing his sword. "Would it affect the absorption because some body parts are missing?"

After thinking, Gerhart cut off two fingers' worth of the tail with his knife and put it away in his bag before trying to absorb the rat's main body.

Energy Detected. Absorb?

"Hoh... So it works... Maybe the body needs to be complete enough?" Gerhart guessed. "I would cut the rat in half and see if I can still absorb it then... But that seems like a hassle.

However, he didn't immediately absorb it, remembering how he became incapacitated last time due to pain. Instead, he looked toward his surroundings. After ensuring there were no monsters/people, he decided it was safe enough.

"Absorb..." He muttered, bracing himself for the incoming pain.

The next moment, under the lantern's dim light, black energy slowly seeped into Gerhart through his hand.

"GH!!!!" Gerhart felt a terrible pain coursing through his body as if his foundation was changing. Luckily, perhaps because the rat was weak, it was a far cry compared to the pain when he absorbed Mylo and Hazel.

Half a minute later, the pain stopped. The rat carcass turned into dust.

"Hah... Hah... Fuck... That hurt..." Gerhart panted before checking himself.

However, he didn't find anything different.

"Damn... I wish I had the Appraisal or, at least, the Self Appraisal talent..." Gerhart muttered.

Appraisal was extremely rare, So rare that less than a handful had it within the Youvamor Kingdom, with a population of several million. Each one of them was a national treasure.

In contrast, Self Appraisal was considered one of the worst common trash talents one could have... Because it was pointless and useless. Any competent priest could cast Appriase Status, and seeing your status was redundant since you can't usually improve your talent, only your level.

Imagine saying status, only to see all your stats being F and having no skills. Or worse, having some of your stats below F, like intelligence, the proof of your stupidity on a status window.

However, Gerhart now found that such a talent was invaluable to him... Since he wanted to see his gains. And he couldn't bother Mother Roysa all the time.

"Man... I wish I encountered a monster with that talent... Although I don't recall them ever having it..." Gerhart said to himself.

Talents were related to the race you were born to. Just like how there were talented humans, there were gifted monsters... It was just that their aptitudes were usually more... Monster-like and less intelligent. You wouldn't see a Giant Rat talented in swordsmanship, anyway.

If anything, their talents are more likely to be related to the strengths of their race. For example, Giant Rats can have a sharper sense of danger, agility, and ferocity. They might also have enduring stomachs, resistance to disease and poison, and similar things. They might also have stronger jaws and teeth, a powerful tail, more powerful infection power, and other things related to their race.

Humans can also have some of these talents, but some, like Strong Tail, should be useless or invalid for humans. At least, Gerhart never heard of someone having it.

"Will I have that talent if I absorb enough rats? Will it be skipped? Unuseable? Or will it translate into something else?" Gerhart wondered.

And yet, one of those trashes survived and even told the Guild Master about it, labeling the 'Murderer' reputation on them. And murdering fellow guildmates was a taboo despite it happening all the time... It was just that everyone was careful not to be exposed. But since they got exposed, their reputation hit rock bottom.

This greatly affected their careers since, as murderers, their guild rank couldn't advance unless they did meritorious deeds to offset it... Which could take YEARS. During those years, they would be stuck with D-rank privileges, and access to higher-quality items and services was denied.

Even worse, the 'Murderer' reputation extended to their Adventurer license since the Dungeon Explorer's Guild and Adventurer's Guild were tight-knit allies. From now on, any future employer would know they are 'Murderers,' which means many requests were barred from them, and likewise, they couldn't advance their rank.

Although they didn't receive any murder charges due to lack of evidence, their careers took a hit that would be hard to recover from. Flyx's father couldn't help them in this regard.

"How do you know it is him, though? It isn't like he would openly admit it." Yrenea pointed out.

"He came to the guild with a recommendation letter, and there were many witnesses, and the description fit. Also, his armor had a stab wound in the stomach, right where I stabbed him. Somehow, the fucker was in perfect condition and even chatted with Abiah, The Rage Hand... And he even told him to come back to him." Flyx's expression turned ugly.

"Seriously?! Fuck..." Galya cursed. "Doesn't that mean we should avoid the Adventurer's Guild from now on? Who knows if Abiah would punch us when he is in a bad mood? That skill book cost us more than we gained." She said in discontent.

"So what do we do now, Young Master?" Aeraf angrily asked. "That bastard wasn't content on surviving. He even snitched on us. I should have smashed their heads in."

"I shouldn't have saved on mana and burned them to a crisp." Yrenea regretted.

"I should have cut their heads off instead of their necks." Galya pursed her lips.

"Too late to regret, and we can't do it ourselves... So we need to hire some low-lives to deal with him, a puny F-rank. It just so happens that I got word he started the Sewer Sweep request. My father has an insider in the City Guard. It shouldn't be challenging to figure out Gerhart's path. If he does another sweep tomorrow... 500 Silver Coins should do it, hehehe..." Flyx sinisterly laughed.

The others also showed menacing expressions, wanting to kill the son of a bitch who ruined their career.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, Gerhart killed another four rats and three cockroaches and was about to kill his 5th cockroach of the day.

Crunch* Crunch* Crunch*

After stomping it to death, Gerhart sheathed his sword and drew his dagger.

"Well, let's see if it gives anything..." Gerhart muttered and cut off its head before absorbing the body.

However, this time, he didn't feel any pain or discomfort. The energy entered him... And that was it. The cockroach's body silently turned into dust.

"What's going on?" Gerhart wondered. "Is it because I already have its talent? Did it have an inferior copy?" He guessed. "But then, what happened to the rest of the energy? Did the relic absorb it?" He thought.

While thinking that, Gerhart collected the cockroach's head and continued walking on his patrol route, but then, he suddenly stopped.

"Hm?" Gerhart had a gut feeling. He couldn't explain what it was, but he felt something good was to his left on the other side of the waterway.

"Oh? What's that?" Gerhart muttered and flashed the lantern over. In an inconspicuous corner, Gerhart noticed a slightly unusual patch of moss covering a wall.

"Hm... I guess I have time to spare..." Gerhart muttered, crossing the waterway using one of the bridges.

Upon arriving at the moss-covered area, Gerhart more carefully observed it and noticed it was unnatural compared to the surroundings. It was as if someone deliberately put it there to hide something, but it was enough. It would be almost impossible to spot in the dark sewers, and the guards would likely not pay attention to it since they wanted to complete their duties as quickly as possible. Who would be sane enough to start looking at the sewer's filthy walls?

However, Gerhart had the Treasure Hunter talent, was leisurely enough, and stopped at the area long enough his Treasure Sense was triggered.

"Suspicious... Let's see if it hides something..." Gerhart muttered and removed the moss. What he found was a bunch of loose bricks.

"Oh? Interesting..." Gerhart muttered and gently removed the bricks, revealing two sealed boxes made from metal. Each of them could fit about two liters of water.

"Holy shit... Is this the fabled criminal stash?!" Gerhart widened his eyes in glee. "Thank you, Hazel... thanks to you, I have a sudden windfall!"

Gerhart looked around to confirm no one saw this before quickly stashing the two boxes in his bag without checking their content, placing the bricks and moss back into place, and leaving the scene.

"I'll check it later when I am somewhere safer... Hopefully, it isn't drugs..." Gerhart thought.