This world wasn't just inhabited by humans, other intelligent species occupied the lands and although their relations weren't the best, it was limited to mild indifference.
But it wasn't always like that.
In the beginning, before any others acted on the world with their own two hands.
There were the Builders.
They were the first intelligent species that walked the very earth that me and you stood on.
As the first intelligent beings, they were blessed with all of the knowledge in the world and used that knowledge to build grandiose and long lasting structures.
Their legacies even lasted to this day as immense feats of architectural engineering that could be barely emulated with today's technology.
That's right.
Today's technology.
Strangely enough, although significance of the Builder's creations lasted across entire era's without being destroyed by the conflicts of humanity and other species, they themselves didn't follow
Disappearing into the long annals of history, the techniques that they used to create and the structures that they have created were the only things that served to prove of their existence.
But why was I talking about this all of a sudden when I was just entering the sewers of a magical medievally themed world?
Well the keyword here is medieval
It isn't that I don't trust the skills of my forefathers and their forefathers forefathers, but back then, it took several lifetimes to build a fortress made of stone.
How much time do you think establishing an underground sewer system would've taken? A stupidly long time that's what.
'Which is why it's surprising.'
Walking besides the green glowing moat of unknown sludge, I kept my blade out for any unsavory surprises.
'I've been walking for a good hour now and I don't think I've even covered half of the sewers.'
If we didn't count other spaces hidden in the sewers like water treatment facilities (If they existed) flow offs, water basins, filters, maintenance hatches and many other things than I could name off the top of my head, then it seemed that these sewers extended their reach all across the island.
'It's the same aboveground now that I think about it, why was the prisoner's quarters so large?'
Recalling how I got lost in a section of the prison that was so large that I hadn't even noticed I was lost until an hour later when I happened onto my previous traces again, I wondered why the prison, and by extension, the sewers were so large.
'A question for another time perhaps.'
Eyeing the toxic green haze that covered the sewers I was in, greenish smoke left the surface of the moat of sludge causing me to frown.
Thankfully, besides the three senses, sight, hearing and touch which were untouched when I changed my head
I still felt conflicted about the fact that I was voluntarily ridding myself of a few senses, but thanks to the sewers I felt better about this.
If it weren't for the sewers...
'I don't know if it's a good thing now that I think about it...'
Shaking my head, I heard shuffling in front of me causing me to dodge into an alcove built into the side of the sewer walls and peaked around them.
'Ah yeah... those mutants that Guillian was talking about so feverishly'
Having touted about how ugly they were, I was curious on what they looked like and I regretted it immensely.
Probably due to the toxic green sludge besides me, the undead that inhabited this place were... different.
Different in the fact that even their mothers wouldn't be able to call them beautiful
That's just how ugly these monsters were
With boils instead of rotting flesh covering their limbs, the zombies shambled around the sewers with bloated limbs followed by their retinue of an archer covered in grime and a... worm?
'What?'
Staring at the worm that I could barely recognize, it's cyan colored body inched across the ground as a ring of sharp teeth sprouted from its face, pink rocks embedded into its back.
But perhaps I was staring to hard but I was soon noticed by some other creatures that I hadn't noticed before hand coming from the place I was just in.
*Squeak! Squeak? Squeak!
'Rats'
Both literally and figuratively.
Giant rats the size of a cat squeaking loudly, giant orange tumor like growths glowed on their backs as they rushed at me the same speed an arrow flew.
Which to say, although not to the point I couldn't pinpoint its trajectory, it was fast.
Hurriedly bringing out my shield, I swung it and let the rat fly off its surface and into the toxic sludge..
Glancing off of the metal surface, I felt vibrations run across my body as more of those rancid looking rats joined their comrades into the drink.
*SQUEEEE
Shrieking at the top of their rotting lungs, the orange glowing rats caught my attention as they flailed in the green sludge, their fur visibly burning.
'Bloody hell.'
Staring blankly at the sight of the rats burning up in real time, I was forced back to reality at a sharp pain at my collarbone.
Snapping back to attention, although the fact that the Toxic moat running through the entire sewers was incredibly acidic was surprising, I should probably focus on the more pressing matter.
Blood running down my collar bone, I felt a sting as the green air rushed at the wound, most probably infecting it.
'I'll need to apply the tonic later.'
Thanking the lord that the miracle cure all called the tonic replenished itself over time, I faced the trio of ugly looking undead.
'Ah yeah, in here, they replaced the shieldbearer with this... thing.'
Rushing up to me first like all other shieldbearers, the disgusting worm opened its mouth wide, wider than my torso and bit at the shield.
Clamping down onto the hard surface, I felt the harsh vibrations run across my body as my shoes dug into the diry stone beneath me.
Firmly planting myself, when the worst of the charge was over,t eh worm somehow showed signs of confusion before I stabbed my blade straight through its soft body.
'Now onto the nex-'
Barely being able to react, I only felt goosebumps on the back of my arms as the pink rocks on top of the worms body began to glow.
And without a second thought, I leaped to the left with an explosion of movement.
Again, both literally and figuratively.
An explosion of light.
Feeling it hit my back, my body curved into an arc in the air as I slammed against the curved stone sewer wall opposite of where I was standing.
"Kak!"
Feeling my insides shake, it felt as if someone had just tossed me into a blender.
The aftereffects of surviving an explosion.
'God damn it hurts... That's good, it means your alive... Now open your goddamn eyes.'
Forcing my eyes to open, it was literal devastation.
The zombie which had tried to follow up the worms attack was now a z/o/m/b/i/e while the undead archer was now an und/ead arc/her
The floor where the worm was? Well a forceful expansion of the moat turned it green.
The worm itself? Well it was probably that weird cyan scrap sticking to the roof.
'Ah it fell.'
Watching it sizzle in the green, I groaned and searched through my inventory for the tonic
'I can't feel my spine.'
Feeling the sting of the green mist attack my wounds with hundreds of thousands of bacteria, I paused and then abandoned my thoughts of using the tonic.
'It won't have much of an effect if I'm this battered.'
With that as my thought process, I poured the orange solution of life into my mout-
'Shit'
Already halfway done with the action, the orange elixir tipped out of the mouth of the bottle and fell into my head made of fire, my eyes widened in horror as the orange fluid was about to be wasted uselessly.
Or at least that was what I had first thought.
Burning up, I felt my body heat up as green fluid was forced out my limbs before being covered up by brand new skin.
Knitting my flesh together, fresh muscle fibres formed over the burnt areas as my body repaired itself with a flush of heat.
It was the side effects of drinking the orange fluid.
'But isn't this more effective?'
Tilting my head in confusion, strength returned to my limbs while a paradoxical weakness overwhelmed me.
"Ugh..."
An instinctual groan from my mouth as aches suddenly prodded all the parts of my body.
Staring at my skin, I saw that although it healed the large gashes and burn marks from the explosion, bruises gained from slamming into the wall had disappeared.
The tonic swiftly fixed those wounds up though.
Shaking my head, I pushed myself up off the ground and rolled my stiff shoulders.
'...Yeah I don't think that my armor and shield survived.'
Staring at the gnarled steel surface of both the shield and the armor, I felt a tinge of regret.
Since I had faced the explosion point blank, it seemed a bit greedy to hope that they would be completely intact, but is it wrong to dream?
'I literally only fought that boss monster and then those snake people...'
'...'
'It was probably going to break soon now that I think about it.'
It still was regretful though.
Feeling a small tinge of regret, I moved to place the armor into my inventory alongside all of my other destroyed items in hopes of giving them to the blacksmith for repairs.
'Wait.'
I blinked before opening the grey colored checkerboard structured inventory screen.
Greeted with the checkerboard screen containing all of my items, my gaze was dragged to my mirror image clad in the miraculously intact blue robe and the four icons besides it.
'Wait, not those icons.'
Dragged from the equipment slots where my chestpiece had formerly lain, I was greeted with the side of a crafting menu.
Which to my memory could use the raw materials of items to repair them.
'Can I...?'
Hope flickering in my stomach, I brought my hands to the screen and manipulated it, shifting the armor piece alongside parts of a sword.
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Tree