The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 1026: Encirclement and Counter-Encirclement

"So many... people... everywhere..." a miner mumbled to himself, his words barely audible as he walked past and disappeared into the main tunnel.

"Your Excellency, everyone has arrived."

To avoid being overheard, Nunes didn't use his name.

They put off introductions for later. Time was short; the Alliance of Bloodline Families could discover at any moment that the number of people on the mining district's streets had been cut in half.

Holding a miner's lamp, Lu Li led them into an abandoned tunnel, far from the miners and other subterranean inhabitants.

The grim procession gradually shifted formation. Heinz Ellis fell to the rear to cover their tracks. The knight Pasha Rivas and his comrades, drawn from the valiant Five Knightly Orders, moved up to flank Lu Li, acting as his guard. The light from their oil lamps glinted off their metal armor, making them stand out starkly in the gloom.

As they advanced through the tunnel Will Ken had indicated, Lu Li spoke up:

"You know about the Cursed Title of the Swamps, don't you?"

"Yes. It was a few years ago, purely by chance... A few inhumans, like Ida, passed by not far from the backpack. I instinctively wanted to call out to them, but for some reason, I hesitated..."

Those students, perhaps from the Lower Academy, were heading north, completely oblivious to Will Ken, who was inside a backpack hidden in the mud a few hundred meters away.They advanced confidently toward the location of the Cursed Title until they were out of sight. Will Ken, plunged once more into dead silence, regretted his hesitation and waited for the students to return.

The wait stretched on for more than ten days, his hope gradually fading away.

It was impossible to know if they had chosen a different route back, or if they had never made it out of the Swamps at all.

All he knew for certain was that a few years ago, the Swamps were still called a forbidden zone—unlike now, when the name no longer held true.

"What is the Cursed Title here called?"

"I don't know. I only remember the direction they went: toward some stone pillars that were leaning against each other."

"Where did Nunes find you?"

"In the Swamps. To the left, there was gently rolling terrain, like dunes, covered by a dense, untouched forest. In the distance stood a collapsed stone pillar, its jagged point jutting into the air."

Lu Li tried to recall the area around the mining district, but he couldn't place the landscape Will Ken described.

"Nunes, where did you find the parchment?"

Lu Li's calm voice drew the attention of the others, who had been walking in silence, but only Nunes understood what he was asking about.

"East of the mining district."

The location where Nunes had found it was on the other side of the mining district from where Lu Li had been, so it was no surprise he didn't recognize the landscape from the description.

"I still remember those inhumans who never came back... It's very dangerous deep in the Swamps," Will Ken added.

He had seen many other figures from a distance, heading deep into the Swamps, and most of them had never returned.

Nunes shared his concern:

"Your Excellency Lu Li, the Swamps are fraught with danger. The Cursed Title deep within will be difficult to obtain, and it might not even be as valuable as the one awarded at the Tournament."

"They're not the same Cursed Title?"

"Of course not. Each forbidden zone holds its own unique Cursed Title."

Lu Li knew nothing about the rewards for the Tournament.

The rewards for this year's Tournament were simple enough: the top three participants, based on points, would receive a Cursed Title directly. The top ten would be sent to a Cursed Title's trial zone, where all they had to do was pass the trial itself.

Under normal circumstances, one would have to accumulate enough academic points, submit an application, receive permission, and then travel through a dangerous forbidden zone just to face a weakened version of a Cursed Title trial.

The permission itself was crucial. Without it, even if someone reached a Cursed Title's trial zone, they would have to face the trial at its full, un-weakened power.

"Although a Cursed Title trial is hardly a challenge for you, the time you'd lose would prevent you from placing in the top ten of the Tournament."

Although Nunes had enticed Lu Li with the prospect of a Cursed Title, he didn't want him to abandon the Tournament for it:

"So you could easily place in the top ten at the Tournament, and then go after the Cursed Title of the Swamps afterward."

One plus one is more than one.

Lu Li considered this in silence.

His racing thoughts seemed to have an effect on those around him. Ida, sensing his indecision, repeated the oath she had sworn before:

"We will follow where your sword leads!"

"If you wish to place in the top ten, I will help you."

The clanking of armor ceased as Pasha Rivas came to a halt.

"And so will we."

The other allies voiced their support.

Heinz Ellis, bringing up the rear, finally spoke:

"Perhaps placing an exorcist on the throne would be a greater honor than simply winning a spot in the Tournament."

"So we're going back to defeat those old nobles?" whispered Bud Lincoln, a new ally from the Council of Nobles.

"An attack from the outside would catch them completely off guard," Nunes said, giving Lu Li a meaningful, subtle look.

It was also the perfect opportunity to test Will Ken.

"To the right. Five hundred meters ahead, you'll reach an exit to the outside world," Will Ken's voice spoke up one last time as they approached a fork in the abandoned tunnel.

Five hundred meters down the right-hand tunnel, they came upon a liquid curtain formed of flowing mud.

The flowing mud behaved like a solid, strangely contained and not spreading like the surrounding swamp.

"Is this the exit you were talking about?"

But it was still blocking their path.

"This strange mud is as peculiar as I am... Its properties don't change with weight, as if it's isolated from the world. I can see... a path right through it."

"It's a mudflow. It must lead to the surface," Pasha Rivas said, beginning to remove his heavy armor.

"I'll go first. You can place your observation and protection abilities on me."

Bud Lincoln cast a blessing on Pasha Rivas. Lu Li gave him a vial of protective potion and a Gill Potion. Tovani split an eyeball in two, took the smaller half, and handed it to the knight. As Pasha Rivas took it, sticky, tentacle-like blood vessels writhed, creeping up his neck and embedding themselves parasitically into the surface of his skin.

After taking the potions, Pasha Rivas, clad only in his gambeson, approached the curtain of mud, raised a hand, and touched its surface.

The mud yielded, viscous as week-old coffee, and slowly swallowed his hand, then his shoulder, and finally his entire body.

After a long, silent wait, Will Ken suddenly whispered:

"He's out."

Tovani's words followed an instant later:

"Pasha Rivas is on the surface. The area is clear."

Pasha Rivas's comrades packed away his armor, then they each took either a breath-holding potion or a Gill Potion and stepped into the mud one by one.

"I'll bring up the rear," Heinz Ellis told Lu Li, who was still waiting in the tunnel.

Lu Li gave a slight nod and retrieved a potion from his stomach.

Vice-Dean Kris had given him many strange and wondrous potions. They weren't potent enough to be classified as Sequence Potions, but their highly specific and targeted effects often made them even more useful.

After swallowing a dessert-flavored, breath-holding potion and a fruity barrier potion to block out any contamination, Lu Li stepped into the mud.

...

In the Swamps, far from the mining district.

Grotesque, mud-caked hands emerged from the mire, the sludge sluicing away to reveal their forms.

The thick silt didn't cling to their bodies; as they pulled themselves free of the mudflow, it dripped away and flowed back into the swamp—unless, of course, one tried to hold on to it or swallow it.

Grasping Ida's outstretched forelimb, Lu Li hauled himself onto solid ground. He stood on the bank, looking back at the pool of mud, now indistinguishable from the rest of the swamp.

Time ticked by slowly. The surface of the mud remained placid, without a single ripple.

"Where's Ellis?"