Eislyn

11: Illegal Animal Experiment

The sound of the river was running in the background. Eislyn finally found a water source, but despair washed over her when she realised an important factor.

"I...I can't drink water from a river...!"

Who knew how unsafe the water was! She would need to boil or use magic to purify the water, but none was an option. She found her lighter in the pocket that she had forgotten about its existence until now, but what use was it if she didn't have something to hold the water and boil it.

Moreover, thinking about it, that son of a...no, an angel, must be fully aware of the fact, yet he still told her to look for one. He chased her away for whatever reason. Did he want her to suffer? Was it because she forced them to take a break?

"Ah...I suddenly feel like smoking."

It should've been six months already since she quit smoking, but she still occasionally felt the need to light a cigarette whenever a headache came uninvited. Carrying her lighter with her was one way to relieve her urges; solely playing with it with her hands, opening and closing, sometimes but rarely igniting out of boredom. It was a silver Zippo-style lighter with an outlined pineapple design on it. She couldn't trash something as cute as that, so she kept it with her.

After blankly staring at the river for a while, she let out a gulp. "It wouldn't hurt if it's just a little, right?"

The hot weather was slowly killing her; wouldn't she become a raisin if she didn't have water soon? She would make Sir Romero take responsibility if she got a disease from the water since he was the one who told her to find a river.

She squatted at the river's edge to scoop up some water from her hands, praying that she wouldn't get sick. She brought her mouth closer to the water in her hands, and a fat frog landed on her hands when she was about to take a sip.

"Woah!"

Caught off guard, she shook her hands wildly and flung the fat frog away to the river. Losing her balance in the process, she immediately stabilised herself, but her hands landed on the rocks in the river and moved them from their positions.

"Oh," she said when she saw the river splitting in half. "I didn't know my name was Moses."

The waters divided and revealed an opened entrance with a hidden staircase dug into the ground. She spotted a broken seal among the rocks. It was a seal in the form of an ordinary rock now broken into large pieces.

"Hm..." She picked up the broken parts of the seal. It didn't seem too old; the magic circle drawn on it wasn't fresh, but there was no sign of discolouration or fading. There wasn't enough impairment for the seal to be broken so easily.

Eislyn smiled satisfyingly at her conclusion.

"I still have my ability."

She had accidentally used her power and broken the seal. It seemed like her gift had stayed with her the whole time. Eislyn clenched her hands with delight. It was better than being magicless and unable to afford the lifestyle of a magic item user.

"Now." She shifted her gaze to the entrance. "Exploration time."

Underneath the river lay a large laboratory basement, to her surprise. Once she stepped inside, the place immediately lit up. Magic circles were drawn all over the brick walls, ceiling, and floor, some bigger than others. The research papers were either plastered on the walls or sprawled on the desks. Despite the spacious interior, it wasn't packed with unnecessary things as if it could be abandoned anytime.

But what surprised her the most was the dozen horrendous creatures standing in a line formation at the end of the room like a pack of soldiers gathering.