Chapter 3: The Youthful Hunter and the Malevolent God

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Old Town, Luke Avenue.
An old yet still relatively luxurious and spacious noble carriage was parked by the roadside.
From Golo Street in the New Town to Luke Avenue in the Old Town, the journey should have taken half an hour, but Zorn had taken a full two hours.
This was mainly because Zorn deliberately instructed the coachman, Old Nero, to take a longer route and disembarked twice to gather information along the way.
Only by experiencing the reality of the current Ogland City firsthand could he better prepare for his upcoming plans.
With his eyes closed, combining the plans in his mind with the market insights he had just gathered, Zorn already had several promising investment ideas.
Of course, all of this depended on having some initial capital.
The little over one hundred gold pounds in the manor were clearly insufficient.
Today, the treasure deep in the sewers was the precious startup capital—one that could not be lost.
Although Zorn’s current strength alone was enough to attempt this, it was somewhat risky and carried the danger of failure.
But having the extraordinary “Rat Catchers,” who were extremely familiar with Ogland’s sewers, accompany him made the venture much safer.
Most importantly, these rat catchers, who lived at the bottom of society, usually did not charge much, making this a very worthwhile deal.
Soon, footsteps approached outside.
The carriage door opened, and under the butler Gronk’s guidance, two rat catchers entered the carriage.
The spacious compartment still had plenty of room even with four seated.
Opposite, to the left, sat a man in his early thirties wearing a thick felt hat, a fur-lined garment inside, and a rough-collared coat outside. Below, he wore leg wraps and black rubber waterproof boots.
This attire was designed to resist dampness, wade through shallow water, and protect against the bites of mutated gray rats in the cold, humid sewers.
Beneath his bushy brows, his eyes were calm yet filled with suspicion and vigilance.
He remained clear-headed about the nobleman’s sudden invitation.
He understood perfectly the vast gulf between rat catchers at society’s bottom and the nobles at the top.
The other rat catcher, a boy about Zorn’s age, wore similar clothing.
But this fifteen- or sixteen-year-old youth was more filled with curiosity and unease.
Seeing the well-dressed, neatly attired noble boy who seemed as if he had stepped out of a classical oil painting,
the rat catcher’s identity and poverty made him feel like a rat in the sewer, desperate to find somewhere to hide. His shyness rendered him awkward, even suppressing his breathing as much as possible.
Zorn, inside the carriage, looked at the young rat catcher before him with some interest.
Though the boy seemed uneasy and slightly disheveled, Zorn knew that this youth named Isaac Adolf was the future Legendary Hunter.
His fame would spread to every corner of the continent.
On the Sacred Land, the terrifying plague brought by the Pestilence Rats was eradicated by him.
Some weaker evil spirits would tremble with fear at even the mention of the Hunter’s name.
Of course, following Zorn’s own trajectory, Isaac Adolf would later participate at the right time in the hunt and subjugation of the Evil Spirit Sorcerer, delivering a heavy blow to the ultimate boss.
Undoubtedly, their fates were destined to intersect.
But the future Legendary Hunter was still a frail boy now.
Likewise, the future ultimate evil spirit sorcerer, part of a certain dark god, was also just emerging.
This time, Zorn’s target was not this non-exceptional rat-catching youth but the experienced rat catcher in his early thirties, the guide and teacher of the apprentice boy—Bevis Ackerman.
A true rat catcher who possessed an extraordinary rank.
After a moment, Zorn broke the silence and got straight to the point.
“Sir Bevis, I need to go deep into the sewers, to the Blue Glow Moss area, to search for something.”
“Recently, the gray rats deep in the sewers have been rampant, and I’ve heard many dangerous rumors.”
“For example, giant rats as large as medium-sized dogs—they are violent and cruel, dragging homeless people and drunken bums deep into the sewers to devour them.”
“They also target young children, stealing infants by following their cries as food.”
“They even imitate the mating calls of mother cats to lure stray cats, only to kill them mercilessly.”

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“From these rumors, one can see how dangerous these terrifying sewer rats have become.”
“So, I hope you can escort me safely.”
“If the mission succeeds, you will receive five gold pounds as payment!”
Bevis’s deep eyes under his rough brows narrowed slightly.
Five gold pounds might not be much to nobles but was an irresistible sum for rat catchers.
Because of the rodent problem, Ogland City Hall had raised the bounty for giant gray rats, improving the catchers’ livelihood, but only marginally.
Their daily income ranged from 50 to 100 copper shillings, roughly equivalent to one or two silver dragons.
This was what the two of them earned for a whole day in the sewers.
Yet one gold pound was worth 20 silver dragons.
Five gold pounds meant they could work for three or four months without food or drink.
“Blue Glow Moss area?”
Bevis Ackerman’s face showed serious thought.
“That’s a large area. If you can provide more detailed information, perhaps we can save a lot of time.”
Hearing this, Zorn took out a plain piece of parchment and handed it over.
Bevis studied it briefly before looking up again at the young noble boy who resembled his apprentice.
“I believe I know the exact location, and we might even be able to enter through the nearest entrance.”
The parchment bore the emblem of two entwined serpents—the sacred insignia of the “Solar Double Serpent,” a now-defunct evil god cult.
That was also where the treasure was hidden.
…
Fifteen minutes later.
Following the somewhat rusty handrails, they arrived at the sewer entrance.
An indescribable stench of blood, rot, and pungent slime assaulted their senses.
Being an experienced player, Zorn had done no shortage of rat-catching tasks in these sewers before.
Besides, as a Star Scar Fighter, his adaptability was naturally strong.
After a short while, Zorn acclimated to the environment.
The young rat catcher Isaac skillfully lit a lantern.
The portable lamp, with its reflective glass, gathered the orange light, illuminating the darkness ahead like a flashlight.
This was a standard underground drainage channel.
In the center was a six to seven-foot-wide drainage ditch, flanked on both sides by pedestrian paths.
Long ago, this underground passage served as a shelter for Ogland’s residents during the Gray Mist invasions.
With time, the threat of the Gray Mist had faded.
The tunnels were abandoned and became the city's sewage system.
Bevis Ackerman glanced at the noble boy beside him with some surprise.
Even ordinary people, let alone nobles, found it hard to endure the foul, nauseating odor in the sewers.
Yet this noble youth appeared completely unfazed.
For a moment, Bevis became more certain of his suspicions.
Dipping one hand into the filthy sewer water, Bevis quickly drew a summoning circle with a hexagram base in front of him, then placed his palm on it, chanting incantations.
The obscure and awkward spell echoed ghost-like in the dark, cold sewer.
A shadowy black mist rose from Bevis’s hand.
A rat, about the size of a small dog, with gleaming green pupils and shiny fur, quickly emerged from the shadow, squeaking loudly.
There were not just one but three such rats.
“Contract Spirit Rats?”
Zorn raised his brow slightly.
This was a fine extraordinary ability. Though the combat power of contract spirit rats was average, they were agile and light-footed, with keen senses of smell and hearing, capable of passing through walls, burrowing holes, and eavesdropping.

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These seemingly insignificant abilities could prove very useful at times.
Contract spirit rats were among the better skills in the rat catcher sequence.
The noble boy’s voice prompted Bevis Ackerman to look up slightly.
He had already sensed that this noble youth was no ordinary person, and now it was clear he was an extraordinary.
With a few whistles from Bevis, the three squeaking contract spirit rats quickly vanished into the darkness ahead.
Seeing this, Zorn felt somewhat reassured.
With the contract spirit rats scouting ahead, if a ferocious rat pack appeared, the three could immediately detect it and escape.
Otherwise, colliding with a rat horde would be a huge problem.
This was also one of the reasons Zorn had sought out this extraordinary rat catcher.
“Respected Lord Zorn, I did not expect you to be an extraordinary at such a young age!”
Bevis looked at Zorn steadily and spoke.
Extraordinary?
The apprentice rat catcher Isaac was startled.
His eyes glanced at the handsome, eloquent noble with envy swirling in his heart.
From his teacher, he knew extraordinaries possessed unimaginable powers.
He had long aspired to become one but had always been told by his teacher:
“Isaac, you are not ready yet!”
This answer always left him both disappointed and discouraged.
Zorn neither confirmed nor denied Bevis’s words.
Concealing one’s identity and rank was one of the duties of an extraordinary.
He narrowed his eyes, gazing into the darkness where the contract spirit rats scouted ahead.
“Sir Bevis, could you tell me about the rumors of the Rat King?”
“The Rat King?”
Bevis, leading the way, frowned slightly.
“Some time ago, rat catchers claimed to have seen giant rats the size of large hunting dogs deep underground, dragging homeless wretches who pleaded for mercy into the sewers.”
“Since then, rumors about a man-eating Rat King have spread.”
“Also, at several other locations, rat catchers reported their traps had been deliberately sabotaged.”
“I’m not sure if the Rat King truly exists.”
“But from these rumors, it’s clear that intelligent giant rats have appeared.”
“We can only pray we don’t encounter that dreadful creature.”
As he spoke, Bevis moved deeper into the sewer tunnels.
“Don’t encounter it?”
Zorn’s pupils contracted slightly, a faint smile playing at his lips.
“Sorry, our destination is exactly the Rat King’s lair.”
“The current Rat King is only at first level—still weak and manageable.”
“If the rat plague breaks out and the Rat King evolves and ascends, gaining powerful forbidden powers, then it’s beyond our ability to handle.”
Following Bevis’s lead, the three frequently encountered rats—sometimes one or two, sometimes three to five.
Some were as large as house cats.
But under apprentice Isaac’s slingshot, these rats quickly became trophies.
When they reached a wider sewer channel,
vast patches of blue bioluminescent moss appeared before Zorn’s eyes.
The treasure location had been reached!