Leaving the pit of tunnels, Incus looked at the manhole cover. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"Step back a bit." Incus waved her hand.

Standing a bit of a distance away, we watched as Incus slightly bent down.

Jumping up, Incus punched the manhole cover, and a rush of water the flowed.

"My mural!" Queen Evecles sobbed, "That manhole cover has been in this kingdom generations..!"

"Yeah yeah whatever." Grabbing Queen Evecles by the waist, Incus jumped into the moat of water.

Glancing over a Vertere, he was already casting a spell.

"Ice pillars!" Being sent upwards, we pushed through the waters and fell onto harsh pavement.

"Ack!" I rolled across the ground.

Helping me stand up, Alleus held my hand.

"Jeez, a warning wouldn’t hurt y’know." Alleus smacked Vertere on the shoulder before chuckling.

"Are you sure it was a wise idea to let them continue living here." Incus winced, "Drafting them for military work would have been the most ideal choice given the circumstances."

"No, the knights would have notified me much earlier about this... they must’ve been protecting the sewer dwellers." Queen Evecles sighed, "Looks like I still need to work on being gracious so that they won’t hide stuff from me. Even if I did draft them for military, the kingdom will surely revolt against me."

"Keep being kind, but make sure that people still fear you." Incus looked off into the distance.

"I’ll keep that in mind." Queen Evecles nodded.

Turning around, Incus waved an inviting hand.

"Since you’ve purified the water, lets go fishing." Incus gently smiled, the dragon scales armor turned into a bracelet around her wrist.

***

Standing in front of a riverbed which connected into the kingdom, a mass of crowed had gathered around.

They were rushing to find a good spot to hunt.

Seeing as everyone was taking off their shirts and rolling up their Sleeves, Vertere and I did the same.

Observing Vertere’s upper body, his build was very slender with skin as smooth as a woman’s.

Covering his chest, Vertere glared at me with disgust.

"What are you, gay? Stop staring at me like that." Vertere kicked dirt into my eyes but a dragon scale had moved to block it.

Creeping behind Vertere, Alleus grabbed him by the waist and started tickling him.

"Bwahaha!" Vertere started laughing as tears fell down his face.

Waving his wand, a splash of water flew above over the both of them which them splashed down.

Turning my head over at Incus, she rolled up the sleeves of her pants, before grabbing a wooden spear.

"Come on let’s go." I flicked my head.

Diving into the river after Incus, we were standing on the shallower end.

Using her vanishing step technique, Alleus had filled up multiple straw buckets with fish.

"Come on, don’t be such slowpokes." Alleus laughed, she wasn’t wearing her eye patch.

That cheating son of a—she’s using her Truthseeker’s eye for such trivial matters.

"Ah screw this!" Vertere pointed his wand in the river, "Ice rain!"

A shower of sharp ice shot into the river, piercing multiple batches of fish at once.

"Ha, that was easy." Vertere snorted with a wide smirk across his face.

Shifting my focus on the flowing water, I raised the fire hero’s sword and began stabbing.

But I was met with disappointment.

This is much harder than it looks.

Wiping off sweat of my face, I extended both of my hands.

"Scales, catch me as much fishes as you can!"

Shooting out in every direction, the dragon scales scooped a batch of fish.

"Scales, place them into the baskets."

Moving steadily across the air the dragon scales dumped the batch of fish into the baskets.

Queen Evecles would periodically separate the dead and alive fish, and submerge the baskets slightly in the water so that the fish that were alive wouldn’t die.

***

Soon, it was eventually sunset.

With the help of the dragon scales armor, I managed to carry multiple heavy and slimy baskets of fish.

"Come on Alleus, pick up the pace." I scoffed.

"Urghh, how about you carry the baskets instead of letting the dragon scales handle them..!" Alleus groaned, carrying multiple baskets and her every step sank deeper into the ground as we got closer to the base camp.

Vertere on the other hand used floating spheres of water to levitate the baskets.

"This is a lot of fish, I hope there is a side dish for variety." Vertere commented.

Reaching the camp, we placed the baskets of fish by an open tent where the kingdom’s chefs were already working on cooking.

Fried fish, broiled fish, fish soup.

The people were setting up tables and chairs but there clearly wasn’t enough.

"What are you looking for partner?" Alleus asked, catching me turning my head side to side seemingly searching for something.

"It’s not what I’m looking for but who." I grabbed a chair then held it, "The girl that I saved, she’s definitely still alive."

"I see... then you’re saving a chair for her?" Alleus asked, glancing at the chair in my hand.

I nodded.

"Scales, look for her." The once cloak of dragon scales disbursed, flying around the base camp.

The other camp from the other side of the kingdom had also brought their tents, expanding the camp even more, but it’s likely going to be taken down pretty soon.

As minutes passed, the table was filled with multiple dishes.

"Aw man, there isn’t a single vegetable nor fruit." Vertere Sulked, "I just hope that convoy of resources comes here soon... if fish is going to be the only thing we’ll eat then I’ll go insane!"

"Oh quite overreacting, you won’t go insane." Alleus took a plate and began eating, her expression became bright, "You guys, this isn’t actually half bad! In fact it’s delicious!"

Taking a bowl of fish soup, Vertere scoffed:

"There’s no way that fish can be this good." Picking up a spoon, he drank the soup and his eyes widened, "You’re right it’s pretty good!"