Chapter 77 - Cellar Investigation

Gren continued to do smaller missions near Adierton for the rest of the week. He was bored of them already but Jessica promised him that this was going to be the last 'pest control' mission. After this he would be able to take on the tougher missions that he had been wanting to go on.

With the pest control missions it would take an entire year before he could even get a gun. They were extremely inefficient for gaining points since each animal would only give him a handful of points. Gren had only just gotten his second research point in the last mission that had him killing squirrels that were nesting in someone's attic. It was just as boring as he thought it would be and to make it worse they deducted most of the reward because someone named Gren managed to put their sword through an old painting of someone's grandma.

The jobs that took him inside someone's house were the worst. Unfortunately, today's mission would also be taking place in a residence. Even worse was the fact that the place belonged to someone rich so any mistakes that Gren or his partners made would likely cost a lot of money.

Today was a bit different. Gren had gotten used to Luna and Midna joining him on missions but Luna was out on account of having a bad stomach ache--Gren healed her but she'd need time to recover--and Midna surprisingly found a date. Today it would just be Gren, Noir, Choco, and Shenzi.

Shenzi was usually the guard for the store but it was closed for the day so she was free. Her agility was even better than Midna's agility even though her attack strength was lower. Like Luna and Midna, Shenzi was a beastman woman with an odd appearance; it was just in an opposite way to their peculiarities. Shenzi had almost no fur covering her body.

Shenzi had the ideal hairless butt with a furry tail popping out from above it that Gren wanted to see when he was still optimistic about demihumans but, when he accidentally saw it one day, he was extremely disappointed and possibly a bit traumatized. He had already been told about it by the attendant in the slave company but seeing it was a different story. Like all spotted hyena beastmen, Shenzi had a penis; she was undoubtedly female according to both her and the paperwork from the slave company but her species evolved in a weird way. Gren just didn't understand how her species could reproduce.

"So, what do you normally do for these missions? Do we go talk to the client first or just save the day and ask to be paid afterwards?" Shenzi hadn't gone on a mission for the guild before this. In her old tribe she was more of a scout and right now the guild wasn't accepting exploration, settlement, or exotic hunting missions so they didn't require one.

"We usually go meet up with the client first but this time it's a bit different. The client isn't in the city and the building hasn't had a caretaker in years so it's the government officials that are overseeing this mission. We clear the cellar of anything inside and then turn in the keys. Once they confirm that the mission was completed then they'll have someone bring the payment." Gren wasn't happy with the way this mission was handled but if he didn't do it then Jessica would never agree to send him on tougher missions.

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The four of them reached the mansion. The gate was tangled up with vines so Gren had to hack at them in order to get it open. "We don't have permission to enter the mansion itself so even if you see something crawling around in it you're not allowed to chase after it. Understood?" After the other three agreed, Gren pulled his cart into the mansion's grounds. The gate's lock was broken so Gren just tied some of the vines around the gate to keep it from swinging open.

The exterior entrance to the cellar was next to the mansion but the snow was piled up on top of it so it was hard to find. If he didn't have a hand drawn map of the mansion's grounds then Gren might have had to search for hours to find it. The wood was rotted through so when Gren tried to open it the doors fell apart. "What was the point of giving us the keys if we didn't need them?"

"Judging by the level of decay, I'd say that nobody has been here for quite a while. They probably didn't know that it was this bad." Shenzi picked up a broken piece of wood and ground it into dust with her fingers. "It's completely rotted. This place has been abandoned for years or at least this entrance has. Remove the doors to let it air out while we get ready."

On the back of the cart was a thick blanket made of grey wool and it was covering something. Pulling away the blanket revealed four suits of armor of varying sizes; one for each of the members of the group. Unlike the old crude iron ones that Jasmine and her team used at the beginning, these ones came straight from the system and had all kinds of improvements over what was currently used by the people in this world.

The way the armor was designed allowed an individual to put it on or take it off easily while still offering superior protection than what the armor in stock at blacksmiths had. Every currently active guild member had their own suit of armor now but Gren didn't think it was too much. With Ahk out there earning more points than Gren could spend right now there was no reason not to protect everyone with the best armor available. After Gren and his team got into their armor it was time to go down and check out the cellar.

"Gren, you forgot your weapon." Turning around, there was Gren's sword and shield still on the cart. Gren only forgot because he usually carried the weapon in his pocket dimension. He was still trying his best to get used to carrying it with him.

"Sorry about that. I'm ready to go now." The kobolds were waiting for Gren while holding their short spears. Shenzi was already walking down the stairs with her curved blade in hand to scout ahead.

"Be careful. Part of the stairs have collapsed." Shenzi called up from the cellar. One of the kobolds slipped and gave a small yelp but her friend was there to catch her.

Down in the cellar itself, Gren didn't see any signs of monsters or animals. Then again, he wasn't the expert so it was probably best not to rely on his judgement. "Do you see anything?" Gren called out to Shenzi.

"Not yet. Be patient and don't bother me unless you've found something." Shenzi had to keep an ear out for any threats. The armor was surprisingly quiet so they could move around freely without having to worry about the sound that it made.

The cellar had some rusty tools in it by the entrance but Gren didn't see anything unique or magical. Further to the back was a rack with some bottles lined up on it. Gren took one of the bottles and wiped away some of the dust from the label. It was mostly faded away due to time but the year was still legible. "897 YG. Is it 1056 or 1057 now? Either way, this is an old wine. You don't think that they'll miss it, do you?"

"It's still the 13th month so it's the 1056th year of the Goddess. We still have a couple of weeks before the first month. If you take it then the layer of dust on the rack will be different. There's no way that they wouldn't notice." Shenzi's words gave Gren an idea.

Gren tried to store a different bottle directly into his pocket dimension without the dust on it. "What about now? Do you think they'd notice that?" The dust from the bottle settled on the rack and covered it.

"It's still a bit suspicious but it looks like the bottle was moved long before we got here. If you're going to take them then that should be enough to cover your tracks." She wasn't going to stop him from taking them since they had been abandoned for a long time. If they were important then they wouldn't be left behind.

Gren finished up with storing the bottles. Due to several of them having signs of physical damage, Gren decided to have the system scan the contents of each of the bottles. The ones low down on the shelf were almost all damaged but, besides a few that already had been, all of the ones from his waist up were fine. "Hey, Shenzi? Do these look like bite marks to you?" Gren wasn't sure but a few of the corks looked like they were ripped apart.

Shenzi took the bottle and held the cork up to the light. "Yeah. Definitely bite marks. Something with large front teeth was in here. There's no evidence that they're still in here but I don't think they came from those stairs. After we block all of the entrances then we can sweep through the cellar and make sure it's clear."

"There's only that one entrance. Do you want me to go back and block it?" Gren pointed towards the stairs that they came through.

"That's impossible."

"Are you sure? I've got some wood. It won't be much effort to block it."

"No, I mean that there has to be more than one entrance. Can't you feel that draft?" After Shenzi mentioned it, Gren wet his finger and lifted it up.

"You're right. There's a draft." In order for there to be a draft there would need to be at least one more hole somewhere that was letting in air.

Shenzi tracked down where the draft was coming from. There was a wooden hatch that was severely damaged. Through the large hole it was possible to see a staircase leading even further down. Gren didn't have a good feeling about what was going to be down there. "They didn't mention this."

"Whatever chewed through those corks seems to have chewed its way out from under here." Shenzi couldn't figure out if anything was still in the cellar but if it was then it'd have to be further below. "Go get Noir and Choco. I'll keep an eye on the hatch."

Gren didn't realize that Noir and Choco were no longer behind him. "I'll go find them. Don't go downstairs until we're all ready." After Shenzi agreed, Gren ran off to find the two kobolds. They were helpful girls but there was nothing that Gren could do to fix their innate lack of verbal communication skills.