Discovery

Three ratmen were walking through a forested part of a mountain, as their dark red eyes turned and shifted from one place to another scanning everything around them. One had a trusted knife on his hand, while the others simply had their four-fingered hands stretched out exposing their sharp nails that could easily take a chunk of human skin off. The furs on these creatures were messy and dusty and if someone were to take a sniff, they might gag at the horrendous smell.

Suddenly these ratmen stopped and raised their black snout as they proceeded to sniff around them, clearly suspicious of something. As they sniffed they looked towards one another communicating in regards to finding the source of their disturbance.

"Thuck!"

Suddenly a sound came from the ground next to them, and they were quick to react as they turned and placed their claws and knife in front of them and getting into a more defensive stance, but to their surprise, a strange white orb laid on the ground as it began to vibrate.

"Bang!"

"FLASH!"

The orb erupted into a bright light that had blinded the ratmen temporarily. They didn't know what to do as their vision was currently gone and they could hear enemies around. All they could do was panic.

"Go!"

Two figures darted towards the ratmen.

Zheng with his forearm and hands transformed to one of a Wolf, threw his claw towards the ratmen scratching the face of one, completely disfiguring it. It fell back on the grass grabbing its face as it attempted to screech in pain, however, the more it screeched the more crimson blood would make its way down its mouth causing the shriek to take strange pauses as the ratmen began choking.

The other person to jump in there was Fumito who after throwing the orb began to move, however, the longsword that he currently wielded was almost his height, and his movements with it were quite rigid and slow. However, thanks to the flashbang, he took a slash with the longsword, and although it was slow, it packed some damage as it smacked against the chest of one of the ratmen, cleaving into it, making blood gush out like a fountain.

They were quite accustomed to this way of hunting, as the orb that Fumito possessed was extremely useful towards enemies that heavily relied on their eyes. In fact, they had killed several ratmen already with this technique. This one was on course to be similar to the past few ratmen they had killed.

The last ratman was regaining his vision when a javelin flew through the air and impaled it on its left arm. With a shriek, the ratman had regained his vision and witnessed the bloody scenes around it as it turned as quick as it could and darted down the mountain without a second thought.

"They know how to flee? Here I thought they were mindless." Ivanic says next to Niko who seemed to be gathering information.

He could still get some exp if his teammates killed a monster, and since their levels were the lowest Niko needed Zheng and Fumito to level up and catch up to them, and as they did that he gained a percentage of their exp as well. Although he was unable to take the spirits of the monsters they had killed completely, there were plenty of monsters to kill.

"Follow it!!" Niko said as they began to move after the Rattan. Niko hardly remembered them fleeing like this, as he understood to be able to understand how to flee and when to flee, these guys had to have some sort of intelligence.

After killing their ratmen Zheng and Fumito also followed them. The ratman wasn't too hard to track as wherever it went it left behind a trail of blood from the javelin that had struck it previously.

After a few minutes of following, they came to something interesting.

It was something that they had encountered before, and for some reason forgotten it had existed.

There was a sizeable hole on the side of the foot of the mountain that Niko and his teammates resided. Niko remembered entering one of these when they were escaping from the pigmen before, however, the sewer-looking place they entered previously was much different than this one.

Could there be a second section of my territory? How come I have no clue of these things below my castle? Is it part of the castle?

These are questions Niko felt like he had to get answered.

Niko, who had just witnessed the ratman run into this hole, slowly took a few steps towards the dark entrance.

After taking a few more steps he heard a sound in his head which alarmed him slightly, but as the screen appeared in front of his eyes, it opened up wide as he never expected such a thing to happen.

[Alert!]

You have discovered [Dungeons of Grayrock Castle], an area long forgotten by the old lord of this territory. This dungeon has been left untouched for many years, and the prisoners from this once thriving dungeons have long escaped and forgotten.

For being the first to discover [Dungeons of Grayrock Castle]...

- Double EXP in the [Dungeons of Grayrock Castle].

Niko was slightly speechless… this was the first time he had ever experienced this. When he and his teammates stumbled upon the other sewer tunnel that they escaped into before, there was never a notification or anything in regards to a dungeon, how could this be? Was a dungeon similar to dungeons that were spoken about on earth? He was currently brainstorming his next actions as he was unsure of his next steps.