Mythical Creatures Strategy Guide

Chapter 21 A Strange Encounter in the Sewers

The cat-girl remained silent for a long time.

Outside the alley, the noise of a celebration drifted over: the sound of lutes, dwarves clinking glasses, and someone's little rabbit chasing after something with a lot of shouting.

These sounds drifted into the narrow, dark alley, like light leaking in from another world.

"...Aren't you going to ask?"

The cat-girl's voice came from under the cloak, muffled.

"What do you mean?" Chu Sheng asked, feigning surprise.

"You asked me why I stole things."

"If you don't tell me, I won't ask." Chu Sheng suppressed the embarrassment and chose the HAPPY ENDING dialogue option. "But if you want to talk, I'll sit here."

The girl's cat tail peeked out from under her cloak, drew a half-circle on the ground, and then retracted.

"sewer."

Her voice was very soft.

"What?" Chu Sheng didn't hear clearly.

"Many kittens live in the sewers of Cat Territory."

She raised her head, the hood slipping off her head, and her deep blue vertical pupils stared straight at Chu Sheng.

"Those kittens without parents. Their parents died in the demonic tide, were kidnapped and never found, or were abandoned after birth. The cat people in the city pretend not to see them, because if they see them, they have to take responsibility, and taking responsibility means spending money, so they live in the sewers. Dozens, maybe more, I haven't counted."

Her voice grew softer and softer.

"They need food, clothes, and someone to tell them there will be food tomorrow and the day after. They only have me, no one else."

Ella's wagging tail drooped down.

"So you steal things." Chu Sheng looked as if he had just realized something.

"Um."

"They specifically target out-of-towners attending the celebration. With so many people at the celebration, they won't even know where they lost their wallets." Chu Sheng clapped his hands in admiration, "You're quite clever."

"Um."

"What number is it today?"

"The third one, this is the first time I've been chased today." There was a hint of grievance in her voice. "The winged people are the most careless. Their wings are too sensitive; they'll itch if you touch them, and that will distract them. So I started stealing from the winged people. Then the dwarves. Their wallets are the fattest, but they're very vigilant. The rabbit people run too fast, so I didn't dare touch them. The lizard people's wallets are hung around their necks, so I couldn't reach them."

She suddenly realized what she had said and buried her face in her cloak again.

Chu Sheng stood up and dusted off his pants.

"Let's go."

The cat-girl looked up, her face filled with confusion and unease: "Where...where to?"

"Didn't you say there were dozens of kittens living in the sewers? Dozens of mouths, how many days can one wallet last? After they're all eaten, you'll just go steal from the next one? How long will you keep stealing? Until you get caught?"

Chu Sheng squatted down in front of her, this time getting closer than before.

"Lead the way, I'll help you."

The cat-girl's lips moved, as if she wanted to say something.

"...It's in the sewers, it smells terrible."

"Have you ever smelled a Pegasus's dung? That stinks even worse."

"The road is narrow, you might get stuck."

"I'm shorter than you, please."

"They might be afraid of you; you're human."

"Then tell them that this human came to deliver food."

The cat-girl stopped talking. She got up from the ground, pulled the hood of her cloak back up, and tied the drawstring in a knot under her chin.

Then she turned around and walked deeper into the alley. After a few steps, she stopped and looked back.

"...Stay close. There are many forks in the sewers, and I won't be responsible if you get lost."

Chu Sheng followed, with Ella behind him. She walked up to the cat-girl, glanced down at her, then took out half a piece of dried meat that Silver Leaf had given her from her pocket and handed it over.

The cat-girl stared at the piece of jerky, stunned.

"This is for you." Ella handed it forward.

Why?

Ella thought for a moment, then said definitively, "You're hungry."

Chu Sheng looked at Ella with satisfaction and nodded.

Ah, you've grown up.

The group disappeared into the depths of the alley.

Far behind them, a gray elf with a head full of dry grass was running angrily in the exact opposite direction.

"Come back and pick me up then!!!"

……

The entrance to the sewer was hidden deep in the alley on the east side in the backyard of an abandoned mill, completely covered by waist-high weeds and a pile of rotten wood.

Audrey, the catgirl, whispered her name as she descended the first step.

Push aside the camouflage wooden plank, and you'll find stone steps leading down to a horizontal passageway.

There was a wall lamp every dozen or so steps along the arched ceiling of the passageway. Pipes were embedded in the walls, and water droplets seeped from the pipe joints, dripping onto the floor.

Then Chu Sheng saw those eyes.

Deep inside the passageway, the first thing to light up was a pair of amber eyes, followed by a second pair, and then a third pair.

A cat-human, its fur was a dirty orange-yellow, a small piece was missing from its ear, and it was skinny and bony.

The second one was black, or possibly tortoiseshell, but the light was too dim for Chu Sheng to see clearly.

The third one was gray, very small, probably only four or five years old, curled up in a pile of tattered cloth, holding a mouse doll with a missing eye in its arms.

Audrey stopped, took out a small packet wrapped in oil paper from her bosom, and squatted down in front of the cat-man.

"That's all we have for today, let's share it."

The orange cat-human peeked out, first looking at Audrey, then at Chu Sheng and Ella standing behind her. It quickly stretched out its front paws and pulled the oil paper package into the shadows, then shrank back into the shadows, leaving only its eyes showing.

"Who are they?" the kitten-person asked in a childish voice.

"The food delivery guy." Audrey stood up.

They continued walking, the passageway dotted with cat-like figures curled up everywhere. Some were asleep, while others, children around eight or nine years old, would lean out and whisper to Audrey.

Which pipe is leaking again? Who got into a fight over food today? There were strange noises coming from that section of the tunnel to the north last night. Audrey listened to all of this and then answered.

The phrase she said most often was, "I'll handle it."

Chu Sheng walked silently behind, having already counted to twenty-seven cat-like figures.

Ella followed beside him, her nostrils flaring. The sewer smelled much cleaner than she had imagined; the passageway they were walking through had clearly been cleaned.

When we reached the fourth fork in the passageway, it suddenly widened. It was like a renovated hall, with a vaulted ceiling much higher than elsewhere, and a space in the middle that could barely be called a public area, made of wooden planks and old carpets.

A dozen or so cat-like creatures of varying ages sat around a ceramic jar in the center, with several colorful feathers, picked up from somewhere, arranged solemnly like a bouquet.

That was the only decorative item in the entire sewer.