I Became the Commander in a Trash Game Who Copies Skills

Chapter 153. Plague City (3)

They say the dramatic increase in the average lifespan of modern humans is thanks to fertilizer and medicine.

The story goes that artificial fertilizers produced by the atmospheric nitrogen fixation method saved countless people from starvation, and advances in medicine prevented a similar number from dying of disease.

Here, medicine is said to include the development of surgical methods including anesthesia, the observation of pathogens and the discovery of antibodies, the invention of antibiotics and vaccines, and in addition, the spread of the concept of hygiene.

Especially that last one, the concept of hygiene, is said to have saved as many lives as all other medical advances combined.

One of the most important things in hygiene is cutting off the medium of transmission.

If it's a waterborne infection, you cut off the contaminated water; if it's a zoonotic infection, you cut off the animal vector.

Rats, in particular, were considered the root of all evil due to their characteristic reproductive power.

And I had come to wear the body of such a rat.

As I opened my elongated snout.

“Chiiik.”

The characteristic cry of a rat came out.

For the record, this wasn't the clone, but the main body.

Meaning, the real me.

At the fork in the road, the rest of the group and I went our separate ways.

I entrusted Siollus, Karok, and Randal with the mission to rescue the Emperor.

Of course, a human couldn't roam freely in the Plague City.

I had the clone and the summoned Ratmen continue to transport the three of them.

'What about you? Are you going to be okay with just one or two Ratmen?'

'I have my ways. Do you even know where His Majesty the Emperor is to go looking for him?'

'Don't worry. This bracelet will guide me to His Majesty's location. It's an item issued to all our knight order members. Ah, this is a secret, okay?'

'……Right.'

It went without saying, but pretending to be a prisoner with just one or two Ratmen was ridiculous.

There was no reason to do so when I had Kkumteuli.

I transformed into a Warchief-class Ratman and pretended to lead a few subordinates.

There was one problem.

This was my first time transforming into a Ratman myself.

Perhaps because of that, I felt a very unpleasant, queasy feeling that I hadn't felt when transforming with the clone.

It was like the feeling of pathogenic bacteria crawling on my skin.

Of course, the cause of this creepy sensation was likely not just because I had turned into a rat.

It was probably also because I had entered deep into the Ratman lair built beneath the Imperial Capital, the subterranean city named Plague City.

As befitting a subterranean city created by the Corruption Priesthood, the Plague City was full of rotting things.

The walls were occupied by grotesque mold.

The ground beneath my feet was covered with a sticky, tar-like substance.

Here and there, bone fragments and hardened bubbles floated on top of puddles that emitted a foul stench.

When I was in the army, I once had to clean an officer's room, and while cleaning the refrigerator, I found a side dish container that had been left in a corner for a long time.

The transparent plastic container was so covered in mold that you couldn't see inside from the outside, and the mold's evil influence had even spread to a nearby drink bottle. Ironically, the sight became my motivation to always keep my room clean after I was discharged.

This place felt like being inside that side dish container.

It was a state that was hard to endure even with [Selective Loss of Taste], which had withstood even Alina's cooking.

To momentarily ignore reality, I intentionally focused my mind on the clone.

'Ratman driver? Right from here.'

'Chitter!'

'No, not there, top right! Yes, there!'

'Chitter-chiiik!'

The tracking bracelet seemed to be real.

Seeing as they were finding their way well by giving directions to the clone.

All I had to do was not get lost myself.

My goal was to kill the Archpriest of the Weird Priesthood, Rakkash Papuccino Kallas, or Papuccino for short, and stop his specialty, 'wide-area hypnosis'. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel(ꜰ)ire.net

That meant I had to find the Weird Priesthood's territory in this vast Plague Fortress.

Fortunately, among the slave soldiers I had captured, or rather, killed and bound, there was one who used to work for the Weird Priesthood.

“Chiiik, is this the right way?”

“Ye-ye-yes, sir. Chitter- if you go this-this way, the sc-scary ones- chitter! w-will appear.”

Sure enough, as I followed the slave soldier's guidance, the mold gradually began to decrease.

The sticky ground underfoot changed to a hard stone floor.

Here and there on the walls, I could see engraved murals.

What was unusual was the change in population density.

Until a little while ago, I would encounter other groups of Ratmen from time to in between.

Here, there were hardly any Ratmen to be seen.

Especially after the murals started appearing, I hadn't met a single group of Ratmen.

“The sc-scary ones- chitter! Scum like me are, are scared of this place. Chiiik. W-we don't come here.”

When I asked the slave soldier, he answered, trembling.

Well, in the lore, the Weird Priesthood was treated as bizarre even among the Ratmen.

The plagues of the Corruption Priesthood or the engine devices of the Technopriest Council had processes and results that were at least visible to the eye, but the Weird Priesthood, like the demon worshipers of this world, wielded powers that were neither visible nor understandable.

Perhaps for that reason, they had the smallest number of affiliated Ratmen.

While the Corruption Priesthood was estimated to be in the tens of millions and the Technopriest Council in the millions, the Weird Priesthood was only around tens of thousands.

According to the lore, slave soldiers who entered would disappear, but they would import and fill their ranks from other priesthoods.

That was probably why the slave soldiers were so afraid.

This nameless slave soldier who had become my property was lucky.

I didn't know what had happened, but he was drafted from the Weird Priesthood and sent to an outer guard post.

Ultimately, he was killed by me.

But he was given a second life, wasn't he?

'...A second life. Master, even necromancers wouldn't say that with a clear conscience.'

Let's postpone scolding the statue for making unnecessary remarks during a mission.

A Ratman appeared.

It had a longer torso than its other kin and gaunt limbs.

It was wearing clothes with a texture that flowed like thin silk.

It was the characteristic priestly robe of the Weird Priesthood.

A priest was much higher in rank than a Warchief.

I bowed my head to the creature that stood on two feet and stared at me intently.

The best excuse would be that I was lost.

Warchief-class Ratmen were generally not smart.

“Chiiik, P-Priest! Where, where is this…”

“Sacred Relic Bearer.”

The creature spoke.

I raised my head.

I saw the priest smiling.

If you imagine a rat's head smiling, you'll know that it feels quite bizarre and ominous.

The creature laughed silently and then blinked its eyes.

Its bright yellow pupils were like those of a reptile.

It was the moment I instinctively assessed the Ratman priest's full strength and came up with several ways to kill it without a trace.

“Chitter, the Archpriest is waiting.”

I put the sword I was about to draw from my subspace back.

As I slowly followed the creature that turned its back and walked away, I recalled a sentence from the setting book in my mind.

'The Weird Priesthood is the group with the highest proportion of cultists, even among the Ratmen.'

The fifth sacred relic was waiting.

***

Rumble. Rumble.

A complex and bumpy tunnel.

The cart was moving forward quickly.

Ratman slave soldiers were pulling the prey cart.

Slave soldiers in Ratman society were different from slaves in human society.

While slaves in human society had their human rights obliterated, the Ratmen, whose reproductive power was comparable to that of rats, took it a step further.

They were not only used for menial tasks, manual labor, as beasts of burden for carrying loads, and as meat shields in battle, but they were also given the roles of test subjects or food.

Some slave soldiers were modified and mutated by priests to become larger, more massive living weapons.

Whether such a change was a blessing or a curse, only the individual would know.

Compared to that, the task of pulling a cart that I had assigned to the Ratman slave was quite gentlemanly.

“Ratman driver? To the left.”

“Chitter! Left!”

“Oh, good boy. You understand so well now, don't you? Maybe I should raise one when I go back to the Imperial Capital.”

By the way, Siollus.

That red-haired witch seemed to have adapted easily to treating Ratmen like servants.

Even if they were controlled by an ally, one would think she would feel some reluctance in a situation where the immediate enemy was the Ratmen.

It was certainly witch-like of her, I suppose.

Well, the other two were not ordinary either.

“Your arms. Are thick. Let’s arm wrestle. It will be fun.”

“A wager? What does the winner get?”

“Hmm…. Okay, if you win, you can hit one of the rat-people pulling the carriage.”

“Not interested.”

Karok kept clenching and unclenching his fists and frowning, while Randal nonchalantly chewed on some jerky.

I didn't know how Randal could have an appetite here.

Unlike the territory of the Weird Priesthood where my main body had arrived, this was the territory of the Corruption Priesthood, covered in filth, mold, and rotten oil.

Anyway, while my main body was heading to the Archpriest's residence with unexpected ease, the atmosphere over here was becoming more murderous by the second.

I could feel it even with my heightened sense of smell.

The scent of blood, iron, gunpowder, and rotting things.

Even Randal, chewing on jerky, had one hand on his belt.

That was his characteristic battle-ready state.

It meant he was ready to draw and throw the axe on his belt at any moment.

The battlefield was getting closer.

“Straight ahead.”

Siollus, too, had stopped her chatter at some point.

She only gave directions in a dry tone.

The bracelet she was holding tightly in her left hand.

The magical tool that was said to track the Emperor's location must be telling her that the distance to the target was not far.

“We're here. Prepare for battle.”

She muttered.

Karok unslung the mace on his back.

I also made my own preparations.

Even in a Ratman's body, I could use all my traits and skills except for the sacred relics one hundred percent.

Although swordsmanship would be a bit difficult due to the changed body structure.

Soon, the cart exited the tunnel.

A clearing appeared.

Siollus asked.

“…This is it?”

“……”

“Is this really it?”

You're the one who knows, not me.

Of course, I understood her bewilderment.

I slowly drove the cart into the clearing.

There was no one in the clearing.

Only blackened bloodstains, scattered pieces of internal organs, fragments of broken armor, and weapons could be seen here and there.

It seemed that all intact corpses, whether Ratman or human, had been dragged away for food, as none were visible.

All around were signs of a battle.

Judging by the traces, a fierce battle had taken place here within the last day, or two or three days at most.

“It seems they formed a defensive line with this clearing as the base and fought.”

Randal said, tearing off the cart's roof and sticking his head out.

I was about to ask why he was tearing the roof when we still had a way to go, but I stopped.

The moment I turned my head, my rat's sensitive sense of smell caught a strange scent.

Gunpowder.

I thought it was the lingering scent from the battlefield, but it wasn't.

It was the smell of fresh, unexploded gunpowder.

“Chitter, watch out…!”

Before I could finish my words, a bright light filled my vision.

KABOOOOM-!!

A thunderous explosion struck my eardrums.

The world turned upside down.

The cart was sent flying.

The moment my body, which had tumbled several times in the air, hit the rough stone floor, I felt a piercing killing intent from all directions.

My vision hadn't recovered due to the intense light, but the notification window informed me of the situation instead.

[[Warrior’s Insight] deployed.]

[Skill acquired.]

[Covert Action (Level 2)]

[Shadow Kill (Level 4)]

[Shadow Strike (Level 5)]

[Constricting Darkness (Level 5)]

[Myriad Blossoms Rain (Level 7)]

It was a trap.

Shit.