Shadow's Hand-Chapter 25: Monster

Since this unfamiliar world had something called Mana, which enabled people to use it to conjure magic spells or whatever it was called.

Damien had a feeling that his hint should be related to the Mana. Maybe the hint appeared because he had the Mana to do so.

However, he made a contract with Karl, and in return, Karl became eligible to construct the mana core.

With the basic understanding of mana, Damien had a theory that the Shadow Contract had extracted too much of his mana, prompting him to be unable to utilize them again for hints.

"It would have been nice if this is some kind of MMOs." Damien sighed softly.

MMOs were video games where players typically had everything at their disposal to check their status. It was very convenient and allowed them to know whether their health or mana was running low.

This particular genre of game was extremely popular, and Damien had played them occasionally. Except, he wasn't some kind of expert like the professional. He was just average with the basic knowledge.

Either way, it didn't matter whether he was average or not. Without the hint appearing, Damien could only proceed cautiously. He squinted his eyes, hoping to narrow the scope and search for the tiny details.

Tiny details were often missed, but also the most crucial in advancing the investigation.

To investigate or follow a trail, the most important trait required was patience. Only when a person was patient could they notice the details that most people often failed to detect.

Thus, Damien took his time to search around the area. He made sure to check everything, not missing a single thing.

'Hmm, the moss here is a bit disorientated.' Finally, Damien spotted a few abnormalities. There was moss covered around the wall here, but some of them seemed to have been shifted.

As he narrowed his eyes and inspected carefully, Damien noticed some scratch marks. The scratch mark wasn't very visible, most likely because the culprit didn't use too much strength.

With that discovery, Damien wondered why there were scratch marks here.

His doubt was soon answered when he suddenly felt the murky water level rising. It nearly covered up to his legs.

Thankfully, his outfit seemed to be enchanted with some type of magic. It prevented him from actually having any murky water invade the inside of his outfit and drench him.

Nevertheless, this scene alone enlightened Damien as to why there were some scratch marks on the moss.

If it was truly a cat, then with this water level, it would be impossible for them to continue their journey. In other words, they were forced to leap upward and kick on the moss to propel themselves in another direction.

By that logic, more moss would have some visible scratch marks.

'Could it be a morphing spell or a shapeshifter?' Damien pondered.

Although both appeared to be the same, there was a difference.

Shapeshifter was an ability that enabled the caster to change their physical form at will.

However, morphing was different. It required them to acquire the DNA of the target in order to morph into them, whether it was an animal or human.

In hindsight, shapeshifters had no limitation as opposed to morphing.

Damien would prefer to deal with the culprit who had the morphing ability type as opposed to a shapeshifter.

He leaned more on the possibility of the culprit having a morphing ability, given that they must have morphed into a cat and forced to take the trouble in fleeing through the sewer.

If the culprit was a shapeshifter, then it would have been way easier to simply transform into another human to flee.

With that in theory, one thing still didn't make sense to him.

Why did the culprit return to the crime scene and attempt to throw suspicion on him?

Was there even a need to take such a risk? Or could it be that they had no choice but to take such a risk?

Either way, Damien was determined to track him down and get an answer for it. The answer was linked to his survival, given that some might be targeting him or the original Seventh TI.

Speaking of the original, Damien saw his reflection through the murky water and was baffled by the facial appearance. The face remained the same and even his physiques didn't change at all.

It was completely unimaginable to believe he was occupying someone else body.

"Ugh, just what kind of situation is this?" Damien murmured and felt exhausted. Amidst his exhaustion from overthinking, his ears suddenly perked up.

Although very faint, Damien heard some splashing noise from afar.

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A few seconds later, the splashing sound started to increase in volume.

'At my left.' Concerned, Damien turned to the left and tried to detect who it was. Some might have wanted him to flee, but based on the sound, Damien determined that whatever it was, their speed had only increased exponentially.

He wouldn't be able to flee far before getting caught by the unknown being.

After all, the murky water level had yet to subside, meaning the water itself would hinder his movement speed. The water might not affect his clothes, but it did affect him and impede his actions.

As his vision focused up, and the unknown being had advanced further, Damien finally got a clear look at them.

Indeed, it wasn't a human. Rather, it was a creature of some reptile—large and twisted, its body slick and glistening with the filth of the murky water.

"A monster in the sewer. How creative." Damien muttered, his face turned solemn.

He remained in position as he analyzed the monster's detail and form.

The creature's skin was mottled with patches of pale gray and sickly green colored. It had a monstrous form, with its veins pulsing in a dark and poisonous energy.

Additionally, the creature's limbs were long for its size. They were covered in some sharp claws that constantly dripped a viscous liquid that smelled like decay.

'This should have been the decaying smell that Karl mentioned about his colleague.' Damien deduced, feeling slightly affected by the stench.