My question remained unanswered. Lux was walking a bit ahead of me in complete silence, and As, a few steps behind me, despite assuring that he wasn't offended, was sulking like a little child who had been told to do their homework.

Wait... homework? What is that? Never mind, it's not important.

Since the dragon decided to behave this way for some unknown reason, I decided to catch up to our new expedition companion.

"Lux, are we there yet?"

The boy stopped so abruptly that I almost landed nose-first into his back.

[New Passive Ability Acquired: Reflex I]

"Hey!"

"We're here."

I could swear I saw a triumphant smirk on his face for a moment before he resumed his unimpressed demeanor.

I peeked from behind his shoulders.

We had emerged from between the trees and the uphill path ended. We stood on the top of a hill, which we had been climbing for about an hour. The small meadow was eerily quiet, which was quite suspicious.

The source of the town's water had to be further away because here I only saw a fairly wide and deep stream, which flowed into a man-made canal closed with a grate.

"So, from here we can get to the sewers under the city?"

I moved towards the construction, but suddenly stopped.

"Ew," I pointed at the twisted and rusted grate half-submerged in the stream.

"That's probably the first time a woman has said 'ew' at the sight of water," Lux walked towards me.

"Didn't you hear that children avoid water?"

I ignored As's comment, because when both of them approached me, they immediately understood what was wrong.

"Is that...?"

"Yes, genius. A corpse."

I couldn't help but snort when I heard Lux's address to As.

"Yes, yes. Very funny. But am I the only one surprised?"

"No, but in my opinion, it explains most of the city's problems," Lux shrugged.

"Not most, just part," I said quietly and approached the edge of the stream.

After leaving the city, I had removed my shoes, so now I extended my bare foot and touched the flowing water with the tip of my toe.

[Status: Poisoning. Duration: 5 minutes]

[New Passive Ability Acquired: Resistance to Poison I]

[Skill Upgrade: Resistance to Poison I upgraded to Resistance to Poison II]

[Status: Poisoning Removed]

I jumped back and fell over, landing heavily on my behind.

"This water is poisonous," I announced with disgust.

"What, really? There's a dead body in it," As snorted.

Both Lux and I looked at the muscle-head. I even managed a pitying look.

"I know you have so many muscles that they long ago replaced the gray cells in your brain, but did you notice that this is a flowing stream?"

I began calmly.

"So what?"

"How is it possible that the water is poisonous even before reaching the corpse?"

Silence fell. I don't know if Lux had also thought of it, but he seemed to agree as he looked at me approvingly.

"So..."

"Yes, As... The source of the contagion and problems must be further upstream."

"Someone could have thrown the corpse here to mislead the Guild's messengers, or it's an accident. Nevertheless, I agree with you, Omora, we must go further, once we get rid of this corpse."

Lux approached the edge and crouched, looking at the corpse.

"But it's strange... The water shouldn't poison through touch, or the whole city would literally be dying, after all, they wash clothes in it, and children play in it..."

The boy turned and looked at me suspiciously. I responded with an innocent smile.

"I'm just that delicate."

As coughed, hiding a fit of laughter... because that's what I thought I heard.

"I'll take care of this, watch and learn."

The dragon brought his hands to his mouth, blew on them, and then a fireball appeared in them. He threw it directly at the corpse, which burned to ashes within a few seconds.

"That's how it's done."

Proud, he looked at us, but both Lux and I were already walking along the stream towards its source.

"Hey! That's not fair! Wait up!"

He was clearly irritated, but I didn't care. He had earned it.

We re-entered the trees and followed a gently uphill path. Little did I know that what was about to happen would turn this seemingly simple expedition into a real hell and put our relationships to a tremendous test...