The Alchemist's Guide to Flesh and Blood Ascension

Today is destined to be an extraordinary day.

The residents of "Root" were awakened by a series of dull thuds, like heavy armored figures stomping on iron plates.

"They changed their location at the last minute," said Yunev, unfolding the topographical map he had drawn overnight and pinning it to the simple operations conference table, pointing to a location marked "Third Maintenance Well."

Nehta took down his gleaming crossbow, leaned forward, and frowned as he looked at the red circle on the map. "Why would those people in white robes go to this location? This is completely different from the initial information we received..."

"Seth had Lin deliver this intelligence a few days ago," the black-robed alchemist placed another secret letter on the table, tapping his finger on the content marked with a red circle.

The infiltration plan has been partially changed. The entrance is shown in the rough map below, but my squad will still enter from the west side—Seth.

"Then all those traps we set up in the western pipeline are useless?" Nehta looked at Yonivore uncertainly. "And our ambush at the third maintenance well... is very weak."

Yunevo pointed to the two locations on the map, and the ratman ranger also caught a glimpse of the pipes marked in red, labeled "for rapid transportation."

The former continued, "Most of the traps in the western pipeline are just for show, but this will mislead the church into thinking that we have received the wrong information, and thus lower their guard to some extent."

He turned around and looked at the "fully armed" "resistance squad" behind him.

The twelve ratmen wielded short iron weapons collected from various metal scrap heaps, while the frogmen held poisoned "sting thorns."

In reality, they were just a few people covered in the sewage of the "Great Swamp," with extremely thin iron spikes at the top, and carrying several bottles of potions provided by the remnants of the alchemist's remnants.

Yes, just this many people, going head-to-head with a fully armed "rat catcher" squad.

Yunevo placed the projection crystal on the tactical platform, making the terrain map clearer for everyone... at least they no longer had to stand on tiptoe and squeeze together to see it.

Then, he cleared his throat, his voice not loud, but loud enough to reach the ears of every living being, "Friends, the people of the church only come in through the main path, and then ignore the hidden side paths in the middle, as well as the vertical shafts and pump stations that can serve as temporary resting points."

"A direct confrontation with these heavily armed men in white robes is not an option..."

Upon hearing this, the sentient beings showed no sign of backing down. Instead, they all asked in unison, "Alchemist, you only need to... tell us how to do it and when to do it."

They were not afraid of death, because their lives were only extended because of the black-robed alchemist in front of them.

And now, they are using this insignificant life to forge a wide and broad road to heaven.

"My tactics are simple. First of all... the fully armed cultists will definitely tire before you lightly armed ones."

"So let's wear them down first, and work with that white-robed mole in the 'Rat Catcher' squad to deplete their stamina..." Yunevo pointed to several blue marks on the map and then said, "The frogmen are lurking in these water reservoirs, ready to strike at any moment."

The frogman leader, Wave, nodded and pressed, "Guh, all we need to do is poke them once with this iron spike, quack?"

Yunefu grunted in acknowledgment, then turned his gaze to the eager, increasingly combative ratmen, and instructed them, "You will be the first to fight the White Robe. I want each and every one of you to remember what I'm about to say..."

"If they get tired, we'll launch a surprise attack; if they want to rest, we'll harass them; if they want to chase, we'll just go into those intricate pipes; if they want to leave, we'll just blow up their escape route... but don't block all their escape routes, just leave one open."

"Do you all understand?" The black-robed alchemist gazed at each of the valiant underground creatures who had fought bravely, and they all nodded.

"Alright, then let's go..."

……

West side pipeline.

A vanguard team of twelve men advanced in the dark, with a clear objective.

The leader was bald, with an old scar running from his brow bone to his chin. He held a palm-sized, purple and white metal compass in his hands.

Within the compass, the holy light beacon, which serves as the "pointer," changes direction every few seconds to guide everyone.

"Hey, Marty... is this thing really reliable?" someone asked impatiently from behind.

"It's reliable. We did a preliminary test yesterday, and it brought us in and out nine out of ten times," the bald team leader said.

The person behind him shut up and followed the somber group into the seemingly endless pipe...

Until Marty suddenly raised his hand.

Suddenly, the compass seemed to go mad, first pointing in all three directions of the fork in the road, and finally obediently pointing forward.

"Marty, what's wrong now?"

"Change the beacon," the bald team leader muttered, frowning as he took the new "Holy Light Beacon" handed to him from behind. "Strange... we haven't encountered this problem before."

He tapped the communication crystal clipped to his collar and asked in a low voice, somewhat puzzled, "Seth, this batch of Holy Light Beacons..."

Marty didn't even know how to describe the state of the "Holy Light Beacon" just now. After stammering for a while, he sighed and said, "There might be something wrong with this batch of Holy Light Beacons. You'd better be careful, or Uriel might chop off your head because of this."

He waved, signaling the rest of the team to continue following him—no one noticed the pair of sharp, dark rat eyes three meters above their heads.

That was Nehta, who had used the improved "concealment potion" from Yunev. With one hand on the wall and the other holding a crossbow, it continued to follow the "rat-catching" team.

The Ratman Ranger listened to the whispered chatter of the "hunters" and found it amusing—it was like they were going to book out the tavern in the upper district after finishing a mission and invite a few beautiful priestesses to party for days and nights.

It's a pity they probably won't live to enjoy it... Nehta twirled the special runes engraved on the crossbow, which were "Soul Chain" enchantments personally hand-drawn by Yunevo.

In addition, with those two specially made crossbow bolts with "disintegration" effect, it only needs to hit a relatively weak "rat catcher" team member once to cause them all considerable damage.

At this moment, Nehta only regretted not having asked Yunev for some alchemical knowledge.

This wasn't a "disintegration" initiated by the black-robed alchemist himself, otherwise... this team would have lost at least a few members.

The crossbow is loaded.

Those in white robes had already stepped into the encirclement of the ratmen...