Chapter 274 Crow (1/2)

I made my way towards the severs' entry point, that the Shade pointed out to me. I had to search for a while, because the location was not that obvious. When I found it, I wasn't happy. 'This guy... ' I thought. What he called ”an entry point”, was a large opening in the ground, covered by a large metal grate. The worst part was that, there was a constant stream of murky water, flowing below the entrance. 'No other option really. I have to go this way' I thought, and lifted the latch. Fortunately, I didn't have to lift the whole grate, as it was pretty much attached to the ground. There was an access grate, that could be lifted. That was, what I lifted up, then jumped inside.

What greeted me, was a stench hard to describe. What I jumped into, was a large pipe, which carried the murky water outside of the city. That was what I assumed, because the murky water had to go somewhere. 'I haven't seen any pipes outside of the city. It either goes to the Sludge Factory, or somewhere even further' I thought.

The pipe was big enough, for me stand straight, with some room to spear over my head. The problem was not the space, but the smell. It stank like shit, and I had to walk in that thing as well. I walked against the flow, as this would take me to the inner sections of the severs. I checked the map, and I seemed to be in the right place. I had to walk forwards, until I encountered some intersections. Some walking later, the pipe became a tunnel, and I didn't have to walk in that murky stuff anymore.

I followed the map, and started exploring the severs. The severs were quite big, checking all the tunnels, passages and whatnot, would take me a few days. After searching for about a day, I managed to find something. 'There are signs of a fight here. This is bad, they must've found him already' I thought, and rushed forwards, trying to follow the clues, that were left behind.

I soon arrived in a large open area, which seemed to be used as a collection point, of all that shit flowing through the severs. Multiple pipes extended from the walls, and spewed out the murky water downwards. I couldn't see any clues anymore, so I decided to check the whole place out. I looked around, but didn't find anything. No bodies, signs of fighting, nothing. I called out ”Crow, are you here?”.

Besides the murky water, falling from the pipes, I heard silence. 'Where can he be? Did they take him away?' I thought. All signs pointed to that location, but no one was there. I stood there for a while, and though about possible outcomes. Then I heard ”Nex?”. I immediately turned around, and looked up. There was a small hole in the wall, and the sound was coming from there.

The crevice was about two metres away, from the ground. I jumped up, and entered the crevice. Inside, I saw Crow. I felt anger, when I saw him. ”Who did this to you?”, was the first thing I asked. Crow was in a very bad state. No only was he missing an arm, his body, was also cut in many places. From the looks of it, he was barely able to survive. Crow asked ”Nex, is that you?”.

I walked over, and checked his wounds. 'This is bad, he is very weak' I thought. Not only was his left arm missing, his eyes… I asked seriously ”Crow, who did this to you?”. Crow shook his head, and didn't reply. I was angry, but I had to calm down. Crow needed help immediately. My medicine wouldn't be of much help to him. Shades didn't use medicine to heal themselves. Instead, I took out some meat, and said ”Open your mouth”. Crow did as I asked, and opened his mouth. I fed him some meat, and said ”Eat, I will feed you more”. Crow ate, while blood poured out from his eyes. I said ”Can you open your eyes?”.

Crow shook his head, and replied weakly ”They are gone… They… took out… my eyes”. My hand crushed the meat that I was holding, into smithereens. ”Where is your arm?”. Crow shook his head, and replied ”I don't know… somewhere below”. I fed him more meat, and jumped down. I needed to find his arm, and attach it back. I couldn't use the medicine on Crow, but I could use poison. Shades could absorb the poison, while medicine was actually detrimental to them.

I went around searching the debris, and finally found Crow's missing arm. 'I will have to attach it, the sooner the better' I thought, and returned to Crow. Crow seemed much better, even though his arm was missing, and he could no longer see. I said ”I have your arm. I can attach it, but it will be painful. Before that, we need to get you healed up”. Crow asked a bit stunned ”You can attach arms?”.

I replied ”Yes, I even attached back my own arm. It's an old story, I will tell you in the future”. Crow was currently in the form of a Shade, not attached to the corpse. I checked his arm, and noticed that Shades also had similar structure to that of human body. The veins, nerves and such, were in different places, but the bone and muscles were pretty much the same. Of course they differed in colour. Shades had grey muscles, while their bones were pure white.

I said ”It will hurt a lot, so be prepared for that. I will make a poison, and try to numb the pain. Although, I don't know if it will work on you”. Crow nodded, but stayed quiet. I had loads of herbs with me, and although I couldn't make the real Trantum Solution, I could use replacement herbs again. 'Last time, I used winter season herbs. This time though, I have spring and summer season herbs. There shouldn't be a problem' I thought.

I made the solution, as well as poison. The poison was created from Antal Shroom. It could paralyze me, so it should be able to paralyze a Shade too. The poison was an Extract as well, while the Trantum Solution was sticky, but didn't seem to possess any side effects. At least, none that I could spot.