Honestly, Duanmu Huai wasn't particularly surprised that the monsters were underground. After all, the creatures of this world were either deep in the ocean or deep underground. He just didn't especially like going underground — the reason was simple: subterranean tunnels were generally narrow and difficult to move through, and Duanmu Huai avoided them whenever he could. After all, if he got stuck in one, getting back out would be a real headache.
But...…
"Hm? But what about those bodies afterward?"
"Most likely the creatures dug them up and took them."
"They're that intelligent? Wait — didn't Mr. Vyncourt say he used explosives to collapse the tunnel?"
"That just means there's more than one passage leading to the surface. That's not particularly surprising. After all, didn't Vyncourt mention that once they got underground, they found a bricked-up wall blocking one of the passages? From that alone, it's clear those creatures weren't using that passage to reach the surface in the first place. Vyncourt simply assumed they lived entirely underground — but maybe they crawl out through various holes from time to time...…honestly, moments like this really make me want to pour in magma."
At that, Duanmu Huai sighed. The Skaven and beast-kind had been the same way. The most maddening thing about underground situations was that the tunnel networks were interconnected in every direction — you could never be sure whether, once you went in, the enemy might slip out through some other route. So generally when Duanmu Huai encountered this kind of situation, his answer was simply to pour in magma.
But that wasn't an option here. The town was sitting right above it — pour magma down there and everything on top would be well-cooked.
"Then what do we do?"
"Don't worry. I've already sent Suzume in to scout. She should be fine."
Duanmu Huai obviously wasn't going to go charging straight into the underground blind, so he had sent Suzume ahead first. After all, Suzume was a black cat — small and lithe enough to slip through spaces a human couldn't.
"What do we do in the meantime?"
"Rest at the hotel for the night. Someone else is picking up the tab — might as well take advantage of it."
Cornwall wasn't an especially famous tourist destination, but it did have decent hotels. Since Earl Best had said all food and lodging would be covered, he had naturally also booked three luxury rooms for them. So after dinner, the group returned to the hotel to rest — well, at least here they didn't have to worry about zombie cultists worshipping Great Old Ones coming to cause them trouble.
"Haah...…"
After finishing up her notes, Mary let out a breath of relief, then headed to the bathroom for a proper bath to wash away the day's fatigue. It had to be said — though she had always imagined writing stories in the style of Watson, now that she was actually doing it, Mary found it considerably harder than she had anticipated. Not being able to use real names was manageable enough, but describing the actual events was another matter entirely.
Particularly the final battle...…how exactly was she supposed to write it?
When Watson described Holmes, it was almost always a battle of wits — but...…
"Hmm...…"
Looking at the notes in front of her — "Mr. Duanmu punched Glaaki flying with one fist," "Mr. Duanmu tore Glaaki in half with his bare hands" — Mary found herself genuinely at a loss. How was she supposed to artistically transform this into something readers would want to read? And since it was more or less a work of nonfiction, she couldn't just freely alter the sequence of events.
After all, Duanmu Huai had said that the reason he was allowing Mary to write and publish the accounts was precisely so that more people could see the capabilities of their group. If she turned it into some Hollywood-style near-death comeback story with last-minute reversals, that was hardly going to inspire confidence in potential clients.
For Mary, this was a genuine challenge.
Duanmu Huai's job was simply to do the killing — but making that process look good on paper...…well, that was quite a headache for Mary.
"Haah...…"
With a quiet sigh, Mary slipped out of her clothes and glanced down at her lower abdomen out of habit...…
"Hm?"
To her surprise, the mark that should have been there — was gone.
"What????"
Mary reached out and gently touched her abdomen. It felt no different from usual, and yet the mark that had definitely been there before was nowhere to be seen.
How could this be?
Mary remembered clearly — it had definitely been there before, and she had even shown Lorena, so it hadn't been a hallucination. And yet now, the mark had vanished without any explanation.
But...…well, if it was gone, that was probably for the best. At least now she wouldn't have to bring up that rather embarrassing topic with Mr. Duanmu.
With that thought, Mary let out a breath of relief, then turned on the showerhead and began to enjoy a peaceful bath before bed.
While Mary was enjoying her quiet rest, Duanmu Huai had already received Suzume's report.
"I didn't expect you to draw a map...…that makes things considerably easier."
He gave the black cat beside him an appreciative stroke, and Suzume raised her head with a self-satisfied air and let out a couple of meows. As for the rabbit on the other side — well, she was still gnawing on a carrot, so there was no need to bother about her.
Duanmu Huai stroked the black cat with one hand and examined the papers before him with the other. Suzume had brought back two sheets — one was a map of the underground caverns, and the other had sketches of several creatures. It was clear that on this scouting trip, Suzume had not only mapped out the tunnels but also gathered information on the creatures themselves.
First were the white, ape-like creatures Vyncourt had mentioned. According to Suzume's report, these posed no significant threat — they were simply fond of hiding in narrow crevices and ambushing passersby.
The second type were Ghouls — the kind Duanmu Huai had encountered before. These things really were like cockroaches — everywhere, and endlessly irritating.
This also explained why Vyncourt and his crew's attacks had had no effect on the Ghouls. Their physical resistance was simply very high.
But the last type of creature gave Duanmu Huai something of a headache.
"Serpent People...…?"
That's right — what appeared in the sketches were creatures resembling walking lizards. When most people thought of snake-people, they imagined something like Medusa — human above the waist and serpentine below. But the Serpent People of this world were entirely different. They looked like snakes that had grown arms and legs and could walk upright.
Like the Old Ones, the Serpent People were a race that had once flourished on this world long before humanity. They had even built a glorious empire. But unlike the Old Ones, who had been overthrown by their own slaves and ultimately forced to flee into the deep sea, the Serpent People's downfall had been considerably more unfortunate.
To start with, the first civilization the Serpent People built was destroyed during the age of the dinosaurs. They fled underground, and after the mass extinction of the dinosaurs during the ice age, the Serpent People emerged back onto the surface with the attitude of "I, Hu Hansan, am back — spit out what you swallowed from me, and return what you took," and tried to rebuild the glory of their civilization.
And then they encountered...…humanity.
Because humans asserted ownership over the Serpent People's former territories, the two sides clashed, and ultimately the Serpent People were driven back step by step before humanity's expansion and eventually perished.
Which went to show that prehistoric humanity was quite fierce in its own right — after all, the Serpent People of that era had mastered extraordinary levels of technology and magical knowledge, yet had still been wiped out by humans...…
After their second destruction, the surviving Serpent People retreated underground once more and entered another period of hibernation. Their plan was simple — just as they had done in the age of the dinosaurs, wait for humanity to be wiped out by some natural catastrophe, and then emerge again to reclaim the world.
Hmm...…the habit of hiding away when you couldn't win somehow reminded him of a certain mechanical ribcage faction.
Of course, that didn't mean the Serpent People posed no threat to humanity.
But what gave Duanmu Huai more of a headache was...…this time he was going to be up against a deity.
The Serpent People had their own god of worship — the Great Old One, the Serpent God Yig.
Unlike the weak Glaaki he had dealt with before, the Serpent God Yig was a Great Old One that had survived from the age of the Old Ones to the present day, and it also served as a patron over all the Serpent People who worshipped it. That meant when Duanmu Huai descended underground, a confrontation with the Serpent God Yig was all but inevitable.
Though Yig wasn't among the most famous of its kind, its power level was roughly comparable to Cthulhu — which meant that for Duanmu Huai, it wasn't something beyond dealing with.
At least it was considerably more manageable than the King in Yellow, Yog-Sothoth, or Azathoth.
Looking at the current picture, the white ape-creatures and the Ghouls from before were most likely all servants of the Serpent People — and with a Serpent People colony underground, there would certainly also be Serpent People temples and priests...…
"This is getting a little troublesome."
Duanmu Huai couldn't help but furrow his brow, and began going over the map. The only fortunate part was that according to Suzume's scouting, there was only one entrance and exit for the Serpent People — but the problem was that the area was heavily guarded. Going in would certainly alert the Serpent People, and if they proceeded to summon Yig, dealing with that would be considerably less straightforward. More to the point, Duanmu Huai had no desire to fight underground — if he accidentally brought the ceiling down and affected everything above, that would be another headache.
But at this point, it seemed there wasn't much of an alternative.
There was still one remaining question.
Duanmu Huai recalled hearing somewhere that the world was divided into two kinds of people — those who were afraid of things with too many legs, and those who were afraid of things with no legs.
A Serpent God was a Serpent God — the moment it appeared, there would be snakes absolutely everywhere. In fact, players in the game had described fighting Yig as an absolute nightmare. Setting aside the power level entirely, the sheer sight of snakes crawling over every surface in every direction was enough to give anyone a psychological scar for life.
Indeed, quite a few players had broken down during fights with Yig for exactly this reason — plenty of people had a deep aversion to smooth, slithering things, and if hundreds or thousands of them appeared all at once, it would be a nightmare scenario by any measure.
He had to wonder...…whether Lorena and Mary...…were afraid of snakes.
(End of Chapter)