Lowly Ascent

On the way to the Free City, Cain sat back in the carriage, relaxing. Out of the blue, Cain had an itching question he asked his Master.

"Master, can you tell me about Free City?"

John moved his eyes away from the road, studying Cain for a moment. He then smiled and graciously replied, "Well, the city is made up of three rings: the outer, inner, and core. The outer ring makes up most of the city and is filled with the lower class and merchants. The inner ring is made up of the upper class; it's also where the higher-quality stores will be."

"So we'll be staying in the inner ring?" Cain questioned.

John laughed, "No, the core ring is our destination; it's the holy land for Plague Doctors and the home of the Union's main headquarters. The core area is bigger than the inner ring, it's filled with rich families with tied histories to the Union."

'The core ring huh?' Deep in thought, Cain looked at the sky. His curiosity for the world knew no bounds, the sky being one of his favorite things to look at.

The three moons were unique, they took the role of the sun, illuminating the land bright in the day and soft at night.

"When we get to the city, we're going to stay at an inn in the inner ring before we can make our way to the core."

Cain nodded while pulling out a book; he began reading up on different bacteria, the one he read the most about was Trachoma.

If it were anywhere else in the universe, a disease like trachoma would be mild and would require a long time to cause blindness. However, this was Netherane. Trachoma has long since mutated and took on a different process for infecting the eyes.

Cain made the pathogen travel through the air like a pressure gun utilizing his power as a Plague Doctor, in the hopes it could reach the target.

If and when the bacteria reaches the target, under Cain's command, it will burrow into the skin near the eye and wait to infect the host.

When the time to infect the host comes, the disease will enter the eye and head to the iris. It will then eat away at it, causing the eye to have no regulation of light; destroying the enemy's vision.

In search of more, the bacteria then makes its way to the optic nerve if possible; latching onto it and eating away at the cluster.

Of course, this was the plan Cain made in his head.

This battle plan was possible because of Cain's prowess as a Grade 2, cultivating a variant of Trachoma himself.

Since Plague Doctors control bacteria, they also tend to cultivate the ones they use the most and keep them on their person for any haphazard events that might occur. It's not like the specific bacteria they study will always be in the area around them; in truth, it's the opposite.

Finishing his book, Cain looked up to see a young man around down the road, waving their hand.

John slowed the horses and stopped beside them.

The unknown traveler smiled. "Are you gentlemen perhaps going to the Free City? If so, could you give me a ride? I can pay 30 bronze pieces in return."

"Sure, but money first," John agreed without much thought, grinning the whole time.

The man paid the amount. Cain then made room for him to sit.

"Name's Jamie," the young man said, hoisting himself onto the carriage and plopping down next to Cain. "Just a wanderings traveler. And you are?"

"Cain" he muttered, glancing at the stranger.

Jamie's upbeat smile faltered. He turned to the other man. "Well, I 'appreciate you giving me a lift, may I know what your profession is?"

"Plague Doctors" Cain interrupted, responding with hostility.

Seeing Cain's attitude, Jamie grumbled and shut his mouth. Yet there was a hint of reverence and fear lingering in his eyes.

Around 40 minutes into the trio's travel, the carriage came across a few corpses littering the road.

"Bandits?" Cain questioned his wellspring of knowledge, John.

"No, it looks more like a beast... There are bite marks... and scratch marks." John's eyes narrowed. 

Cain's body shivered; beside John, he was examining the bite marks, they were the marks of human teeth.

Backing away from the bodies, Cain knew the cause of them.

'Zimo disease!'

"It appears they have been dead for an hour. With a low chance of reanimation, we should burn the bodies and sanitize ourselves afterward." John was kneeling beside one of the corpses, examining them more closely.

"Why, what's going on?" Jamie was the one who didn't know what was going on. The grim faces of his traveling buddies made his senses blare alarms.

Cain set his attention on him. "You know what Zimo disease is?"

Jamie's face lost color. "Zimo disease! Y-You mean that Zimo disease?!"

Zimo disease was the stuff of horror stories parents would tell their children to take care of their hygiene.

'Brush your teeth or you'll get Zimo disease'

'Take a bath or your skin will rot and you'll become a zombie!' 

Just then, the crisp cracks of branches broke in the distance.

With all three on high alert, they prepared for danger. But to their surprise, it was a rabbit looking for brunch.

But just as soon as they sighed in relief, from behind they could hear low gurgled growls, turning again, their eyes were met with a horde of zombies limping toward them.

"Take the civilian and run! I'll draw most of them away. You should be able to deal with a few."

John had a half-cracked smile and drew most of the grotesque rotting monsters away while Cain and Jamie ran into the marshes.

The marsh enveloped them in a cacophony of noise. Bird calls rang out from the canopy, and insects droned in the fetid air. The smell of decay permeated everywhere they ran.

Jamie's shoes squelched in the mud with each step, oozing over his shoes. The breeze brought no freshness, it was stale and warm like the creatures following behind them.

The horde of undead limped toward them at frightening speed, rotten flesh sliding off bone. 

The creature's guttural snarls followed the pair as they continued down a small slope. Running for almost ten minutes, Jamie started to lose breath and slow down.

"What do we do? Can you deal with them?" He was panicking. 

Turning to answer, Cain responded with a simple smirk.

He then pulled out a bottle with a cloth on top of it.

Jamie's eyes sparked with hope, "What's that?"

Cain didn't answer and lit the cloth with a match, and the monsters rushed at them, Cain threw the bottle.

It crashed into a tree. From then on, Jamie watched in awe as the fire not only burned the zombies and the trees, but also the swampy waters!

During one of Cain's experiments, he created something similar to Greek fire.

This version, however, was more terrifying, being manufactured by oil found in Netherane called Tavoya Oil, a mix of oils found in the ground, and a weird substance found on the trees was used to make it.

Cain thought he made something good and came to find out that this type of liquid had long been known.

Cain remembered the scene where he entered a miserable state after John laughed at him.

"You spent all that time creating this?" John chuckled.

Cain's face burned red. He had slaved for weeks in his room, to learn some alchemist had devised the substance centuries ago. Even an anti-liquid solution existed, rendering his work useless.

In the end, the liquid itself was easy to make, so he made a few bottles before leaving Yoen.

While watching the group burn, he stole a glance at Jamie. He took note of his eerie calmness. Before he got caught staring, he took action, pulling a zombie out of the burning inferno.

"What are you doing?"

Cain didn't pay attention to Jamie and pulled out a small knife. He cut off some flesh and put it into a container before stomping on the creature's head. He started picking up the gray matter fragments and other pieces of the body, storing them.

Standing back up, he took out a bottle holding a clear liquid, and focused before saying, "Mundo!"

Bending to his words, a mystical scene occurred.

The liquid broke through the bottle, wrapping around Cain's body in a thin layer. The glistening liquid then seeped into his skin.

Taking out another bottle, he held it out and acknowledged Jamie's existence.

"Sanitizing spell, you want one too?" 

"Uh... yeah, can you use it on me too… just to be safe." Jamie inched closer. 

Cain walked up to Jamie the bottle, and as Jamie started to prepare himself, Cain put his hand on Jamie's shoulder and squeezed.

A terrifying scream echoed throughout the swamp, shaking even the leaves.

Looking to where the pain was coming from, Jamie found his entire shoulder collapsed and broken like glass. But he couldn't do anything and almost went unconscious from the pain.

"Who are you?" Cain spoke with a calm expression plastered on his face.

Jamie was horrified as he looked at the 18-year-old as if he was a devil, but Cain didn't have the face of a devil; his face was indifferent, which scared Jamie even more.

"I... I... what do you mean?"

"Well, you are suspicious. I must say I have a problem with trusting others, but you make it too obvious. Firstly, you could keep up with me while running, which is extremely hard for a simple traveler." Cain pulled Jamie closer.

"Secondly, you also looked too calm when the zombies were burning; even though the danger passed, you should have still had a look of fright at minimum, but you didn't. So I decided you were suspicious"

Jamie looked at him with even more horror.

"For just those... cough... cough... for just those two reasons? You broke my shoulder?!"

Cain remained unempathetic, "Well, it seems crazy to you, but I'm not taking any chances, so tell me who you are or die."

"Okay! Okay!" Jamie had no idea why, but he felt this kid would kill him for real, death wasn't worth keeping quiet.

"I'm from Puffrid, alright?" Jamie yelped. "Born and raised in the Kingdom, I swear it!"

Cain said nothing, bringing his boot down hard on Jamie's shin.

"ARGHH! What the hell!?" Jamie choked through gritted teeth, "I told you what you wanted! Stop!"

"You didn't tell me why you're going to the city and what your position in the kingdom is."

Jamie winced as Cain shifted his boot. "Fine! I'm a spy tasked with becoming a plague doctor okay! They tasked me with acquiring union research for the kingdom."

"That's... the stupidest thing I've heard in my life; that's just a suicide suicide mission. Stop lying or I'll break all your limbs!" Cain became more suspicious. 

"I'm telling the truth! I... uh... slept with the wife of a noble, and when they found out he couldn't kill me with my identity being a spy, they sent me on this mission. But it does have its perks! I have more freedom!"

Cain's face scrunched in abhorrence.

"That's not freedom, just a longer chain."

As if in a form of pity, Cain swung his arm and shattered Jamie's skull. The attack was so powerful against the man's brittle bones that his skull ruptured and gray matter sprayed the surroundings, sinking into the swamp.

Seeing the dead body, Cain felt odd. This was the first time he killed someone. Staring at the body for a while, he tried to rationalize what he had done.

'He lied to me and master. He was someone with nothing to lose. He would want this, right? Right?'

Searching the body, Cain's hand was shaking. Inevitably, it got drenched with the blood of the man he murdered. He found 3 silvers, 50 copper, a weird badge, and even some instructions from Jamie's superiors.

'The badge must be his identification as a spy. The instructions even gave him some information…he must have been someone augmented to get this treatment.'

Cain read through the orders, Jamie had the identity of a student trying to become a plague doctor. It was believable.

'They didn't seem to throw him away completely... '

Cleaning up again, Cain made sure all the zombies were burned to a crisp. After making sure everything was perfect he left for the carriage.

When he got back, he saw John waiting back at the reins.

"What took so long? Huh, where's that Jamie guy?"

"He was too slow, he got bit and I had to kill him with the rest." Cain lied. 

John found it believable, "Poor bastard, well get on! The city should still be another day out!"

With that, Cain got on and the carriage continued to head onward to Free City.