A bunch of men, all tattooed up, were drinking and making a ruckus in a corner of a street. All proper citizens who saw them kept their distance, nothing good ever came from associating with gangsters. But then they saw another group of thuggish men approach the drunk gangsters— nothing good was going to happen. Every good citizen in sight scurried away.

  “What do you guys want?” the drunk gangsters, powered by liquid bravery, started posturing.

  “Woah woah, calm down guys. We’re not here for problems. We’re here for opportunity.” A short, bald man, with a face not even a mother would trust came forward and spoke, trying to calm the situation.

  “What do you mean opportunity? Wait … you guys are part of Lorca’s gang.” The Lorca gang, the other powerhouse gang in the Portside of West Hazen… or to be exact, they were now the only powerhouse in the area. “Yep, that’s who we are. Now correct me if I’m wrong. But you gentlemen were part of Burhan gang right?”

  The Burhans became nervous. When Krieg was still alive, the two gangs’ relationship was not the best. They tried not to kill each other openly, but there were definitely some foul plays done by both sides… and countless bar fights. The Burhans pulled their weapons, readying for a confrontation.

  “Woah Woah. No need for all that. As I said before, we’re not here for trouble. In fact, we want to invite all of you to the Lorca.” The shady man took out a satchel and threw them at the Burhans. “Signing up fee.”

  The Burhans opened the satchel, it was full of Silvers Azuls. They grinned when they saw the amount of money and lowered down their weapons. They were now Lorca’s.

  The two groups of men merged together. They all headed towards their hideout, to initiate their newest members. On the way, the older members taught the newer members what to expect.

  “Say, what’s your name?” The former Burhan asked the shady man. From how he handled the situation, he seemed like he was quite high up in the Lorca. “Don’t have one. Just call me Bald Head. That’s what the boss calls me.”

  “Alright Bald head, answer my question. Is the Lorca expanding? Are we the only one you recruited? Or…”

  “Yes, we’re expanding. And no, you’re not the only one, nor the only former Burhans. we ‘ve been recruiting most of the small gangs in the portside and former Burhans that were still… alive.” Bald Head explained, “Say, you seemed quite smart, or the very least proactive. You’ll make it far in the gang with that attitude. What’s your name?”

  “Paulie. The name Paulie.”

  “Nice to meet you, Paulie. Now it’s your turn to answer my questions— Who killed Krieg? We tried to investigate it by ourselves but we found nothing, and some of your friends who saw what happened were in the guards’ custody.”

  “I’m not sure either. We were doing something else that day. When we returned …” Paulie went silent. Paulie’s hand was not clean. He killed people before, he was even a former soldier, but … the way they were massacred … reminded Paulie of when he found one of his squadmates being eaten by a bear. Poor dude was going for a piss and ended up being bear’s poo.

  “I see, you know nothing too huh.” Bald head rubbed his bald head. He was frustrated because all of the Burhans that they recruited also did not know anything. Lorca would be pissed at the lack of information.

  “Well…” Paulie was hesitating to talk. He was not sure if the thing he would say was related or not. But Bald Head’s motioned him to go on. “... We caught some brats, street urchins in the morning… before the whole debacle.”

  “Street urchins?” Bald head was confused why this would be relevant. “By the time we found that Krieg was dead, we checked on the kids… and they’re gone.”

  “Couldn’t they just escape when… the massacre happened?”

  “Pretty sure we bound them. But then again they’re street urchins, they’re quite resourceful… Well never mind. Now that I think about it again, there’s no way they related.”

  Bald Head was deep in thought. Then he said, “But they might know more of what happened. Thanks, Paulie. I’ll consider this.”

  They now had a clue that might help them answer the mystery of who killed Krieg. Catching a bunch of urchins might be annoying, but it’s very doable. Bald Head put the idea in the back of his mind. Right now, expanding the Lorca's influence took priority.

  *********

  “So what do you think, Irvin?”

  Irvin and Kylan were standing in the middle of a ransacked warehouse. There were a lot of huge holes on the floor, broken crates, and scattered food and goods that obviously spilled from the crates. It was a mess, like a toddler’s room type of mess.

  “The holes were obviously dug by Molrrets. The crates however, some of the damage were from Molrrets’ claws, some… probably from crates hitting each other.”

  “So… you think humans are also involved in this?” Kylan asked, trying to confirm his suspicion.

  “Probably, I can’t tell for sure.”

  “Is it possible for Molrrets to work together with humans?”

  “Theoretically, it’s not impossible. Molrrets understand human speech after all. But us human cannot really understand them.”

  “So it’s possible for a group of people to train Molrrets… Like dogs or mounts?”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “That’s kinda hard. Molrrets do not like to stay in one place. They’re nomadic by nature. Gotta keep digging. Besides, I doubt there is anybody who can put Molrrets in captivity.”

  “Not even with magic?” Kylan knew some sealing magic existed and used on dangerous monsters often. Wouldn’t some mages be able to seal some Molrrets and enslaved them with magic? Someone like the Sewer Necromancer, Carven.

  “Let me guess, you suspect Carven is behind this.” Irvin guessed perfectly. He understood his older brother well. “Yeah, do you think it’s possible?”

  “He’s just some low-level necromancer. We’re pretty sure he’s only capable of second-circle spells. At best he is able to use a few third-circle spells. You need to be at least a fourth-circle mage to seal and enslave Molrrets. Don’t underestimate them. They are quite resistant to magic, especially their claws.”

  “I didn’t know Molrrets have natural magic resistance.”

  “Most underground creatures do. The underground is filled with natural magic.” Explained Irvin.

  “Let’s say Carven could not enslave Molrrets… how about dead one? Surely he could resurrect some zombie Molrrets.” Kylan hypothesized.

  Hearing those, Irvin went into deep thought. “It’s… possible. There are just some things that don't add up.”

  “And those are?”

  “First, I did not sense any traces of mana here. Even low-level undead left a trace of mana. Secondly, why would that coward Carven risk killing Molrrets just to steal some food and trinkets?”

  Kylan had to agree with Irvin. The first point could be chalked up to the mana traces dispersing naturally or by someone else… but the second point. Molrrets were usually docile. They only become aggressive when attacked — or when they smelled Molrrets’s blood on you.

  Everyone knew of the story of a farmer who accidentally killed a Molrret while plowing his farm. A few years later, he passed by a Molrret when selling his produce in the market and got attacked by the Molrret, cleaved apart to death. It might be just a children's story, but there were some truths to it.

  A coward like Carven who hid in the sewer would never risk hurting a Molrret, especially since he lived underground.

  “So we can’t know for sure if humans are involved… How do we prevent more of this?”

  “Other than posting guards inside, I got nothing.”

  “No Magic to solve this?” Kylan only knew a few basic physical enchantments, defensive, and offensive magic, however he didn’t know much about other schools of magic.

  “Uhhhm, I can set up alarm sigils all over our warehouse … but it took time, and you still need guards to respond to the alarm...and the maintenance will cost quite a bit.”

  Money was not an issue. Time and man power though, “No magic that can prevent Molrret from digging our floor?”

  “None.” Irvin answered instantly.

  Kylan sighed. It seemed this would be a more tedious job than he first thought—not to mention the possibility of human accomplices made this a very serious case. Then he thought of an idea, “How about using smell to discourage Molrrets from coming? You know, like a predator smell or monsters?”

  “Not gonna work. Molrrets fear no animal or monster, it’s been tested before. Not even Dragon’s smell works.”

  “Not even Dragon?”

  “No… If anything, Dragon's smell is inviting. They have a mutually beneficial relationship. Molrret help them dig their nest, while Dragons protect them and give them their food scraps. The only smell that might work in driving Molrrets away is sulfur. And we can’t really store Sulfur near food nor a normal warehouse like this.”

  “No luck huh.” Kylan was dejected. He thought he was onto something there. “Well, no other options. Got some mages to start working on those alarm sigils. Meanwhile, I’m gonna get some more men posted as …”

  Rumble Rumble

  Pop

  Kylan was interrupted by a Molrret that just popped out in front of them.

  “Kiiii~”

  The Molrret squealed, as it was greeting them. The dumbfounded Kylan and Irvin could only wave back. The Molrret plopped out of the hole and walked past them. The first thing they noticed when they saw the Molrret… was that it had ropes coiled all over its shoulder.

  The Molrret walked to the nearest wooden pillar and tied the rope to it.

  “It can do that?” Irvin gasped. He was surprised by the deftness of the Molrret— he saw something he never noticed before, he only ever seen them from afar. Molrret had small hands hidden under those big claws, with three thin fingers that had webbing like skin attached to the base of claws. The Molrret used those to tie the rope knot— something it could not do with its big claws.

  The Molrret then dragged the rope and threw it into the hole. It was obvious to Irvin and Kylan now. It was doing it so its human accomplices could climb up. It was just a question of who was the accomplice.

  Kylan put his hand on his sword. Irvin cast a simple defensive spell and physically enchanted his legs. He also precast a [Firebolt] spell, ready to throw it at moment notice.

  There was noise from under the ground. Irvin could not make out what the noise was, but Kylan could. His well-trained sense he polished as a knight able to listen to some of the conversation from deep inside the hole.

  “Azali wants to go.”

  “No, I’ll go first. I’ll make sure the coast is clear. If anything happen, I can handle it. I’m a man.”

  “Shouldn’t Regulus go first then?”

  “Then who’s protecting you both from Sewer King? Me!?”

  “Good point.”

  Azali? Regulus? Those names don’t feel familiar to Kylan except for Azali. But Royalty? In a sewer? And those voices… are they children?

  Then the rope got tugged. Someone was climbing it. Then popped a young boy’s head from the hole.

  …

  …

  “... Hi?” greeted Kylan, with a calm voice to not threaten the young boy.

  “Hi?” replied the young boy.

  “What’s your name kid?”

  “Grigori?” he answered reflexively.

  “What are you doing here, Grigori?” Kylan asked softly.

  …

  …

  “Nothing.” And Grigori slipped back down the rope once he said that. Kylan and Irvin looked at each other befuddled. They did not expect to see a child. He needed to confirm what he saw was real. So Kylan plunged his head into the hole.

  It was hard to get his head angled right, but he managed to catch a glimpse of three children running away … and a black figure following them? Kylan was not sure. He wanted to see for longer. If the hole was bigger, he could have dropped down, but the hole was not big enough for an adult to fit in. but then it hits him…

  … A pungent smell.

  Once it hit his nose, Kylan jerked up. Was the sewer smell this bad? He didn’t know. In all his life he never entered the sewer nor did he ever need to.

  Crack

  Kylan turned his head towards the source of the noise. He saw the Molrret combing through a freshly cleaved crate of food. Ignoring the two humans that were watching it in disbelief.

  “So… What now?” asked Irvin. Their mysterious robbery case was done by children. Irvin did not know how to proceed with this information…

  …neither did Kylan.

  *********

  Regulus was following Eda, Grigori, and Azali. They were running away from the food source. It seemed the large humans that were hanging around on top scared them. He wondered why.

  “Huff, Huff. I think we’re good now.” Grigori stopped running first. He sat down on the sewer floor and caught his breath.

  “ Hah Hah. I shouldn’t have agreed to this. Coming back to a place we just robbed was a bad idea.” Regretted Eda. She wanted to punch her past self who thought Grigori’s idea was a good one.

  “Yeah, it’s your fault Eda. You should have stopped us.” Blamed Grigori. Without hesitation Eda punched Grigori. “It’s your fault!!! You’re the one who thinks it’s a good idea to grab some more stuff from the warehouse. You got greedy, Grigori.”

  “You got greedy too. You didn’t think twice when I said we could look cool and competent in front of the other kids.” Grigori hit her in the nail. Eda was convinced by Grigori’s foolish idea due to being goaded that it would contribute greatly to the gang. She too wanted to be useful and competent just like Kisara, D’aka, and the older kids.

  Blaming each other, Eda and Grigori started to bicker. Pulling each other's mouths and hair. Azali didn’t even try to stop them. This was their usual routine whenever things go wrong.

  “He he. That was fun wasn’t it, Regulus?”

  It was fun. Regulus always enjoyed spending time with Eda, Grigori, and Azali. They were always so energetic, so … cozy.

  “Azali no go up?”

  He still wondered why they did not just go up.

  “No. Apparently there’s some mean adults up there. Otherwise we wouldn’t be running.” Azali’s explanation still did not make much sense to Regulus. He knew that going to someone else's nest and taking their food might trigger a fight. However— those two humans were no threat at all.