The dungeon

In the dark room, I could just make out the silhouette of the cat tumble out the door. Something about the way it moved had my curiosity piqued. My thief sense was tingling. What was that furball up to at this hour? I wanted to know.

Quietly, I slipped out of bed and used my <Lurk > skill to follow the cat outside. 

The night in this new world was quite bright due to all the colourful stars and the 2 moons shining in the sky. 

Outside air brushed past my skin as I tiptoed across the streets, careful not to make a sound. The city streets of Chandola were pretty quiet. It was quiet enough that I could hear snoring noises coming from a few houses that were an entire street away from where I stood. I almost laughed, giving my silent condolences to the family members of those snoring people. I don't envy them.

Shaking my head, I pushed those random thoughts aside and focused on following the cat.

It moved swiftly through the deserted streets, its small body barely visible under the moonlight. After sneaking around for a while the cat slipped into a drainage pipe in a remote alley. The hell? Why was it entering a drainage pipe? Do I need to follow it? I grumbled inwardly but still, I followed.

The drainage area was smelly, but it was sufficiently large for me to pass without getting soaked in the dirty water. I breathed through my mouth, trying to avoid the worst of the stench. After almost ten minutes of this unpleasant trek, the cat exited the tunnel and entered the grasslands outside the city.

Upon closer look, it was the same grassland where I first saw that abominable mutated rat. 

The memories of our last encounter with the mutated rat flashed through my mind. That creature had nearly killed me, and the thought of facing it again sent a shiver down my spine. 

A bit sweaty and quite a bit scared I watched the cat sniffed around while making as little of a noise as possible. After some careful searching, it found—a tuft of grey hair and a small pool of dried blood. The cat carefully collected the items and placed them into a small cloth bag it had brought along.

What the hell was it doing?

The cat then began to dig a small pit, its movements a bit clumsy. It was shivering, and I could see its hair standing up. 

The cat was scared of its surroundings. Yet, even while feeling scared, it dug the pit and placed the cloth bag inside. With that done, the cat looked around and quietly covered the pit with dirt before moving away. I couldn't contain my curiosity any longer and stepped out from my hiding place, turning off my <Lurk > skill.

"Meeeew!!!" the cat yelped in surprise, its tiny paws outstretched to attack any incoming enemy. Turning around it saw my face and almost fainted.

"Hey now, I don't look that ugly, do I?" I ask while lifting the cat.

"What were you doing human? Did you have to scare me like that?" the cat asked while scratching and punching my hand in annoyance.

"Sorry, just couldn't resist the temptation," I said with a smirk. "Anyway, what were you doing here? That too in the middle of the night."

The cat avoided my eyes. "Were you trying to investigate the mutated rat? You could have called me, you know!"

The cat shook its head. "It's fine. This is easy. I can do this on my own," it said, but I could still see its legs shaking in fear. The cat was extremely scared of rats. Yet, for some reason, it was investigating the giant rat on its own.

"Is it because of my nightmares?" I asked, noticing the cat flinch.

I didn't know what to say. The mission to find out about the mutated monsters was given to me, not to the cat. Yet, here it was, in the middle of the night, doing my work just because It knew that I was too much of a wimp to do the task myself. I gently picked up the tiny furball and hugged it. "Thanks," I mumbled.

The cat stared at me blankly. "Huh! Who are you? The human I know wasn't this tender. Did the goddess take pity on me and send you here!?"

"Why you—!?" I almost screamed but held it in. I had been nothing but a jerk to the cat, so I guess its reaction was normal. Taking a deep breath, I calmed my nerves and sat near the pit the cat dug. "So? What did you find?"

"You don't need to know, human. I can take care of this," the cat said, but I was having none of it.

"Stop pushing me away. This is my mission too." The cat remained silent for a moment before explaining its findings. And oh boy, it found a lot.

Essentially, there was more than one mutated rat, and all of their scents started from a single large tree inside the forest. "So, what you are saying is, there is a dungeon filled with rats, under that tree, and all the mutated rats are coming from that dungeon."

The cat nodded, and I felt a headache coming on. "Well, whatever. So we have to enter the dungeon and clear it to find what is causing this mutation, right?"

Again, the cat nodded. "I was planning to go in today, but then you found me."

"I see. So that's why you were snuggling up to me. You thought that was the last time you would see me."

"I wasn't snuggling," the cat huffed, acting like a tsundere. I ignored its antics and placed it on my shoulder.

"Show me the way. Let's clear that dungeon today." 

The cat nodded and led me into the forest. It was a spooky forest, with tall weirdly shaped trees and dense canopy that barely allowed any moonlight to penetrate. 

The environment wasn't welcoming and I was shitting my pants, but still, we moved along.

After travelling for about 30 minutes, we came across a fairly large banyan tree.

"That's it, there is an opening under one of its branches that will lead you into the dungeon. Now go brave human and conquer this accursed dungeon, may the goddess's blessing be with you"

The furball monologued while trying to jump away. What happened to the 'I can do this all by myself' nonsense?

I sighed at its antics but refused to let go of the cat.

"Let me go, let me go. Hey, you can do this on your own, noooooo! Let me gooooooo!!"

It cried a lot more, acting like a drama queen but in the end, we both entered the dungeon.

**********************

Third person POV

The city of Chandola was divided into noble and civilian areas by a rocky wall called the inner city wall.

A red-haired, black-eyed girl, looking no more than 15 years old, entered one of the many libraries present in the noble area and inspected its contents.

There were a lot of interesting books in the library, such as:

The Origin of the System

Systie: the goddess of status

The Origin of Human Kingdom: Eryndor

Advanced Classes and Variations

The War of Elves

The Triobattle league

The Origin of Dwarwan Union

and many more but the one that the girl was interested in was a book called, 'forbidden arts to change classes and abilities'.

She took the book and sat around to read, but then suddenly, a man dressed in a butler's attire approached her and placed a cup of tea on her table.

His gaze subtly shifted towards the book she was reading, and immediately, he frowned. "My lady, you shouldn't read books about forbidden arts."

"I know, I know. You don't need to lecture me. I was just, um, smelling it"

"Really, that's your excuse!? What am I going to do with you" the butler grumbled but then took out a letter and passed it to her.

She took the letter and hurriedly opened it.

'Hi Arya, hope you stopped being a brat and giving your butler a heart attack.

Your suspicion was correct; someone is messing with the forest rats outside your city.

They most likely used some forbidden method to create an artificial dungeon.

I swear on Terra, if you go inside that dungeon, then I am going to roast you alive.

Take care.

Your lovely princess, Lily.

P.S. Don't forget to burn this letter. '

As soon as she was done reading the letter, Arya took out her wand and bolted out of the room while screaming, "I will be back in a few days, don't search for me"

"It's in the middle of the night" the butler grumbled but still didn't stop her from going out.