Chapter 250 - More Ratbugs

"Why are you so scared of these Ratbugs?" Eric asked as they walked in the third section. He sure doesn't like how he got double crossed by her before the Kingdom was blown into bits, but he has sympathy for her thoughts. Her rate of sacrifice is far beyond normal, "I saw you shoot down Demons earlier without blinking an eye!"

"Eh. Lets just say that I've met with Ratbugs when I first got here." Seeing that both of these Ignites are awaiting for a further explanation, she continued shortly. "Imagine one of these Demons waking you up with their tongue in the morning, licking on your wound they chewed open." She specified as she pulled her arm out of her fur coat, the collar of the coat is quite wide so it wasn't exactly hard.

Rolling up the sleeve of her leather shirt after, she exposed her smooth arm skin followed up by three wounds on it. The first is small, the middle one is larger and the third just has several small wounds all in one place. The wounds seem a few months old, there are no blood clots just permanent wounds.

"This makes sense." Specified Mogranius as he took away his gaze from her arm and continued to walk his way through this main tunnel. To not appear rude, he just kept his pace slow and gave a better look at his surroundings. "I had a similar experience with a Wild Boar back on my younger days."

Why does it feel like every time Mogranius speaks about his past, it has to be something stupidly interesting. No other thought can be an option, his past is unluckily hilarious. Eric is understanding bit by bit that his set of craze wasn't just because of the Ghost Tree so far, his life experiences made him the way he is. But he had to ask one question about a topic he didn't quite hear about yet. "Wild Boars eat people meat?"

"Wild Boars would eat about anything you give them!" He shouted with his voice getting thinner from the middle of the sentence until the end, in a way it explained how serious he is being about such a topic. "They will ram you down, stomp you to death and eat your remains." A terrifying end to experience no doubt but it shed light into one firm mystery. "Why do you think there are so many of them in the wild?" Now at least he sounds a lot smarter than usual even though he isn't exactly dumb. "You just wait for a Wild Boar invasion, its coming I tell you. It's coming!" Well there is the crazy.

"Ookayyyy." Stretched Eric his reply as he too paid attention the the 3 ways already offered by the tunnel, if they took time to check each one they would be down here forever and become insomniacs. Each section seems to offer something different and interesting!

Unlike the wide second section, they fought their way through a bit earlier. This third section is a lot smaller, well at least the tunnel they are walking through is. The architecture is impeccable, the main tunnel is remaining 5 meters tall and wide. Not so small when you consider it primarily, but when considering the second section this is rather small.

If they paid attention to the size of the side tunnels at the very first section, they would see that the sizes at the side tunnels here are the exact same size, except they are inverted. Walking only 10 meters deep, they found that the left side offered a tunnel 2 meters wide and tall while the tunnel on right side spanned 3 meters.

They had no idea where these tunnels lead towards nor did they want to find out for now, the only thing they look forward to finding yet they still hope there isn't anything to find is the portal to hell or as Bittore sees it, the hell hole.

The tunnel appears to be calm, with hopes high Bittore doesn't want to run into any more Ratbugs. Here she can't fly too high, she would flee the scene instead. Considering her clear phobia it isn't a slim chance!

"Squeak squeak squeak!" Shouted several Ratbugs from a distance! Apparently coming from another set of side tunnels approximately 20 meters away! Maybe this is where these disgusting creatures hatch at or multiply or however their nature of reproduction is like.

One thing interesting about this rate of Ratbugs, is the fact that they haven't all been hunted down by the Demons. Were the Demons also scared of the Ratbugs, didn't they have access to their packs or did these disgusting creatures reach these tunnels recently? Considering those huge buck teeth it isn't a surprise if these Ratbugs tunnel through the ground.

"Oh no not again!!" Bittore whispered as her knees started shaking with fear as a base, hidding behind Eric. A bit funny since Eric is literally shorter than her, but at least she sees him as a good protector. Or feels desperate? Probably the second, again she is not aware that Eric is actually the Electus.

Quite sick of these creatures already, even though he tasted what meat they have to offer. He used the small space here to his utmost advantage, blasting 5 feet wide short tailed Fire balls across the tunnel until he hit one after the other with accidental pin point accuracy. It isn't hard to hit a 20 Kilogram target at a small place, especially since most came from the left side.

"By the 8 sources where do these rats come from? I thought those Demons eat everything!" Complained Mogranius as he saw the Ratbugs fall on the ground with their spines visible, it was no pretty sight.

"I think we will have to deal with a lot of them later on!" Advised Eric as he walked away from Bittore, separating her hands from his shoulder. "I mean we just started walking yet we met with another pack of them."

Although it is clearly not a favourable theory by Bittore, Eric does have a firm point. She can only hope to not run into more of them, as if hope would deal with such a case.

Seeing her this scared is no doubt interesting for the two mentally, because at first they underestimated what Bittore can do. She appeared so kind, reasonable and would beg if done wrong. Half of her plans were revealed and it was clear that she isn't one you would want to mess with or even trust! And now, she is scared of little creatures who are so killable? When they gave it a thought it was nothing but mentally consuming.

"Let's just move in deeper through this main tunnel and hope that the p... hell hole is on the other side of this section." Mogranius almost slipped there didn't he?

If there is a portal, Bittore will see it anyway but she can't know that Mogranius is acknowledged of their existence! Although not noticable Bittore might think of a hundred ways to use Mogranius and his information, and get rid of him when he doesn't prove any further use.

He even slipped when he mentioned 8 Sources. Ignis is well aware of what people other Continents carry, the tales have reached this Continent due to the countless shipments they recieved until now. 7 Continents or islands carrying people with specific powers have been brought as a tale here in Ignis, but never 8!

Bittore instantly noticed his wordplay even though she was breaking down in fear behind Eric's back, but didn't say anything about it. This man drank Ratbug blood just a bit earlier, she can't take all of his words seriously and just figured that he is uneducated on some points even after considering his older age.

Walking down further, after they passed the second set of side tunnels they met a third set specifically 20 meters higher. Their architectural knowledge is impeccable, perhaps the Demons transformed this place into dark and depressing? Or either the Snow Ignites were trying out new looks.

A lot of their questions found an answer when they met the actual end of this specifically 5 meter wide and tall tunnel. They met with another set of stairs, but unlike the first ones who lead 20 meters down, these ones lead 20 meters up! It takes quite some effort to match such accuracy, especially if they had to carve their way up with no natural cave provided. This place is so perfectly sculpted you would think it is work from the god above the sources.

But with what did they meet? Going up, Mogranius' illumination provided from his palm became no longer necessary as different light outshone the one he burst.

Glaring at the structure in front of them with an absolute base of amazement followed up by the additional gasp and mouth covering, Bittore asked with a loud whisper. "What on Earth is this thing?"