40 Ratmen (1/2)

”Step!”

”Step!”

Step by step the group slowly went up the stairs as cautious as ever. Each one of them was feeling a strange cautious feeling which made them alert to every single thing around them. The stairs were marble like as it reflected the yellowish light from the lantern. The stairs were spiraling upwards as they were unsure what was up there as it was completely dark. They only knew that a dangerous dungeon was up there.

Niko was in the back of the group as the translucent orb floated around him peacefully. He contemplated the use of such a harmless looking killing machine. Although it was rankless, after seeing its usefulness in the previous events, he was almost changing his mind on these rankless spirits, however, he still believed that it would be much better to have actual spirits that can evolve. Sure these rankless spirits can be used as disposable things, however, he could only control a certain amount of spirits, and having too much of these rankless spirits would be a huge strain on his mind.

Currently, the translucent rat spirit was ahead of the group slowly climbing the stairs. The more this group looked at this rat climbing the stairs, and leaping over some of the stairs, the more they respected Niko. They wanted to know more of this skill of his and find out the limits of such a thing. There was a slight feeling of awe in their hearts the more they tried to figure it out.

There was another thing in their minds right now and that was their current situation. The odds were completely stacked against them at this moment. Dungeons were notorious around the community, for how it would easily kill anyone who attempted to complete it. They refused to believe that they would die here, they have come so far and done so much, there is no way they could die here. They reassured themselves of this, but deep down they were afraid.

Niko's heart was currently beating extremely fast and all of his tiredness had died down. Adrenaline raced through his body, as he was almost twitchy like.

As time slowly flowed like water down a stream, they reached a dead end. Another wooden door on the wall stood there, making everyone look at each other. They didn't know what to do next. Anything could be in the opposite end of this door. Ten, hundreds, millions of rats!

”I'll open it quickly and move to the side if something within come out attack instantly!” Fumito stated, and everyone nodded.

He slowly approached the door with quiet steps and gripped the handle. He didn't pull it instantly, he lowered his head and took a deep breath. A bald spot could be seen on the back of his head surrounded by his hair. Counting with his fingers he counted up to three.

”Swoosh!”

Fumito quickly pulled the door open revealing a scene which made their jaws drop completely. Inside of the room, there were ratmen standing on their two hind legs, and they were as tall as a nine-year-old child. On their hands were small rusty knives. They looked almost the same as the rats who attacked them before, but slightly cleaner. There were about eight of them in the room, and their heads quickly turned as soon as they saw the door open.

Since the lanterns couldn't reach too far into the room, there were huge patches of blackness within, and although only four were able to be seen, four other devilish red glowing eyes focused on them in the blackness.

Some of the members in the group shuddered, but then regained their composure. Before the ratmen could react and pounce on them Niko took advantage of the bee spirit he possessed, as it fired a stinger bullet into the room.

”Bang!”

The stinger pierced through the stomach of one of the ratmen that were in front, blood gushed out quickly as it fell down to the ground face first.