Chapter 82: Negative Energy Erosion

Chapter 82: Chapter 82: Negative Energy Erosion

Preoccupied with their own thoughts, the two returned to the tavern.

Lorin pushed the door open and glanced around. He didn’t see the short guy, who was probably still with the Dwarf instructor.

However, even though it was almost dinnertime, there were surprisingly few people in the tavern’s main hall. The only patrons were gathered around the bar, chatting in low voices with Gustav.

Seeing the two walk in, the patrons all turned their heads to scrutinize them, their expressions looking rather grim.

"What’s going on?" Lorin walked over to the bar, noticing that they were all looking at him with a hint of wariness.

Hearing his voice, Gustav looked up. Upon seeing the two of them, his furrowed brows relaxed slightly, though he still looked deeply worried.

"You guys didn’t go to the Guild? Something happened in the city. The Adventurers in the Guild are all talking about it."

Lorin had just reached out to grab a water pitcher on the bar. Hearing this, his hand paused in mid-air. "Something happened?"

"Two Adventurer teams took a quest to clear the sewers, but it’s been days without any news from them. The Guild suspects there’s something down there, so they’ve even withdrawn the quest," Gustav explained vividly. He glanced at the people around the bar and lowered his voice, "Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal. At worst, they could just send some high-level Professionals to check it out.

"But recently, a few families in the Upper City District fell ill with severe fevers. Some Adventurers started linking the two events together..."

"They think the monster in the sewers is spreading a plague?" Lorin asked.

"Yeah." Gustav nodded solemnly. He pointed at the empty main hall and said, "A lot of Adventurers fled as soon as they heard the news, but I feel like it’s not as outrageous as they make it out to be. If it really were a plague, how could it only infect those few people?"

Lorin remembered seeing that sewer-clearing quest when they were accepting tasks earlier; thankfully, they hadn’t chosen it. However, as he carefully pondered Gustav’s description, he gradually realized something was wrong. A sudden possibility sprang to mind, making his scalp tingle with fear.

Lorin wondered, "Sewers... plague... Could it be the bubonic plague?"

He hurriedly confirmed, "Are those people in the Upper City District the only ones sick? Did the onset happen quickly? Are they still alive?"

Gustav shook his head and said, "I’m not sure about that. I’m just repeating what they said."

Having listened to their conversation, Erin asked in confusion, "Are you familiar with this plague?"

"It’s just a guess, but it better not be what I’m thinking of. Otherwise, we can only hope the Divine Hall has enough Priests."

Lorin remembered that the Divine Hall offered disease treatment services. The Priests likely had means to control plagues, but he wasn’t sure if they could cure it in time given the transmission speed of the bubonic plague.

He suddenly missed Anya a little.

The tavern fell into a temporary silence, with no one speaking another word.

CREAAAK.

The door was suddenly pushed open. A gust of cold wind, carrying a few snowflakes, blew inside and drifted onto Lorin’s face, interrupting his thoughts. He turned to look at the entrance.

Anya, clad in her Rose Gold Half Armor, walked in. She cast a grim look across the main hall, her expression visibly relaxing when she spotted Lorin and Erin.

"Thank goodness you’re here."

She walked straight to the bar and quickly noticed the strange atmosphere around them. "You’ve heard?" she asked knowingly.

"Gustav just finished telling us," Lorin nodded, then quickly asked, "Some people in the Upper City District recently got infected with a plague. Do you know the specific details? The time of infection, transmission rate, how the patients are doing now..."

Anya gave him a surprised look, seemingly not expecting him to know about such things. Then, she shook her head and said, "It shouldn’t be a plague.

"This matter was first discovered by a Priest. In fact, people had exhibited these symptoms quite early on. The earliest cases were probably in the slums outside the city.

"A man came to the Divine Hall begging for treatment. The Priest didn’t refuse him. After casting a Healing Skill, his condition seemingly improved a bit, but he definitely wasn’t fully cured.

"The Priest said she never saw him return after that. At first, she thought he had fully recovered, but looking at it now, he might have already..."

She fell silent for a moment, not continuing her sentence.

He wondered, "So he’s already dead?"

Lorin suddenly didn’t know whether to be worried or relieved. He was worried because this disease was also fatal, but relieved because it clearly wasn’t the bubonic plague—it probably wasn’t even contagious. After all, he had been in the slums not too long ago and was perfectly fine now, with no abnormalities on his system interface.

Back when he first transmigrated and was still sick, he could clearly spot the anomaly in his Constitution stat.

He wondered, "Wait... could the original owner of this body have died from this exact same thing?"

A sudden chill crept down Lorin’s spine.

"Is that Priest okay now?" he asked.

Anya nodded. "She’s very healthy. I went with the Dawnkeeper to check on the families exhibiting symptoms. The Dawnkeeper believes they’ve suffered from Negative Energy erosion."

"Negative Energy erosion? What’s that?" Lorin asked in confusion.

"Negative Energy is the Magical manifestation of death, decay, and decline. It generally exists independently in its own plane, but sometimes it seeps into the Prime Material Plane." Erin gave him a look of disdain, looking as if anyone with a brain should know the answer to this. "It acts like a slow poison, eroding a living creature’s body, mind, and emotions."

"I see... wait, mind and emotions?" Lorin’s head snapped up.

Erin nodded as a matter of course. "Yeah, it’s an extremely terrifying Power."

Lorin realized, "So that’s how it is..." He suddenly felt as though many of his previous doubts had been answered all at once.

It seemed that the young clerk and the noble from earlier had been influenced by this Power. Perhaps even that unusually greedy squad of City Guards had been affected when they first arrived at Frost Valley City. Back then, however, he had been sitting at the rear of the convoy and hadn’t thought to use Magic to gain Perception of the situation.

Lorin nodded thoughtfully. "Those people in the Upper City District definitely wouldn’t wander into the sewers for no reason, so this Negative Energy can... actively infect others?"

He racked his brain for a long time but couldn’t find a word to substitute ’radiate’ or ’radiation’.

"No, it only affects creatures that come into direct contact with it," Anya shook her head and explained. "Negative Energy seepage usually doesn’t last very long. Therefore, we believe that a specific seepage incident spawned some sort of monster, and the subsequent events were caused by it."

Looking at her attire, Lorin quickly understood her intention. He took a sip of water to moisten his parched throat and said, "So it’s the source of this whole incident?"

"Mhm."

Anya hummed in acknowledgment. She reached out and grasped Erin’s wrist, speaking softly, "Erin, the Dawnkeeper felt there was more to this matter and went to investigate further.

"The Divine Hall doesn’t have any spare manpower, so Rain has to stay behind to guard it. I’m not confident about going alone. Will you come with me?"

"Sure, let’s go."

Erin pulled her hand out and gently patted the back of Anya’s hand, reassuring her friend.

Anya smiled warmly. Then, turning to Lorin, she gave a slight bow and earnestly requested, "Mr. Lorin, this isn’t within the scope of our previous agreement. Therefore, on behalf of the Dawn Divine Hall, I am extending a Formal invitation to you.

"I hope you can assist us in investigating the source of the Negative Energy in the sewers of Frost Valley City. The compensation will be paid by the Divine Hall.

"50 Gold Coins, all for you to keep. How about it?"

Lorin marveled, "What a generous reward..."

"I have one more question," he said.

"Please go ahead."

"Doesn’t your Church have any Holy Knights? Aren’t they the ones who should be handling this kind of task to clear out Undead Creatures?"