Chapter 41 - Surprise

"Guys! You might want to come to see this!" Fumiko's voice came from the opened door.

Everyone slowly walked towards the open door which Fumito was still looking inside of. As Niko approached it, the content within the room sent chills throughout his whole body. The inside of the room looked to be a small dungeon-like prison. There were some human-sized cages hanging from the tall ceiling, whilst there were also human-sized cages on the corner of the room.

"Oh my god…" Zheng murmured loud enough for everyone to hear, however, this was the same reaction everyone possessed.

As everyone entered the room, they felt like throwing up due to the gruesome, barbaric, and demonic things inside. The cages were far from empty, in fact, the corpses within these cages looked to have been within these cages for a different period of time. Some corpses were already exposing bones, whilst others still had blood flowing out of them. Some of these corpses had cuts, holes, and missing chunks of their bodies. The most unbearable thing about this room was the smell. The smell of decaying flesh was so strong that it made their eyes water, and their nose sting. There was also a wooden door on the wall of the room, as well as many bloodstains on the ground.

"Bullet Hands!" Ivanic was surprised as he looked at a corpse that seemed to have recently died. The corpse of a man laid on the side of a cage, with utter disbelief in his eyes as a gun tattoo that covered the right side of his face was stretched by his emotion. The body seemed to have been stripped, as not even the underwear of the man was left.

"This is Bullet Hands?" Fumito also approached the cage.

"Yeah, he left with ten others claiming to be the only guy capable of taking over this dungeon… Such a fate…" Ivanic shook his head in disdain. He knew this "Bullet Hands" as he had a few encounters with the man. He was ruthless and powerful, as his hands could be detached from his body, and fly at extreme speeds towards the target. This man gained a reputation after killing a Boar King alone, Ivanic would never expect to see him here.

"Were we not meant to enter through here?" Kyle asks as he looks at the various bodies in cages that ranged from Old people to teenagers. Although all of them had experienced fights and seen many gruesome things, the scenes in this room were a tad bit much.

"What do you mean?" Eitan asked as he sat down on the side of the room a bit away from the cages while wearing an ugly look on his face.

This time Niko was the one to respond, as he also had the same thoughts as Kyle, "Doesn't seem like we were meant to enter the dungeon through where we came from at all. Seems like everyone who had attempted to take on this dungeon went to the front door, which also explains the lack of any battle remains from where we came from, other than the one corpse we encountered. That corpse also proves the point, as if it was attempting to enter the dungeon, it would be taken here."

"So.. What does this mean? Is it a good thing or not?" Veronica asks.

Niko simply shrugs whilst shaking his head. Online time would tell whether it was a misfortune or not.

"How strange…" Niko thought to himself, "Why does a dungeon have more than one entrance?"

He began to wonder if he could just dig a hole through the mountain to reach the dungeon, would that work?

"Ugh!" Priya gave a pained noise both at her wound and at what she had noticed in the side of the room. The room was quite spacious, and due to the many terrible things within, they felt reluctant to analyze it further. A roll of human heads hanged on iron hooks, each face showing a different expression. Seeing this other felt strange as well. This place was hell.

"We need to think of our next steps. Clearly, there are obstacles ahead, we must prepare ourselves." Niko tried to ignore the gruesome conditions and stated towards everyone, who agreed.

"That injured or noncombat stay in the back. We will allow his pets to lead the way, and we just need to be extra cautious. Keep looking down, there are still many rats in this place." Singh said as he pointed at Niko and began to look towards the ground.

"Guys! I found a chest!" Andrea's voice sounded in the background, and to their surprise, on the dark corner of the room, there was a small wooden chest, with metallic outlines.

Everyone approached the chests with bright eyes, and seeing this Andrea humphed jokingly, "I found it!"

This was an odd reaction, especially since they were in a room filled with the aura of death. This showed the strong mind of Andrea who didn't seem as fast as the others about this place.

Smiling Kyle replied, "go ahead open it, whatever it is can be yours, but since we all fought for this room…"

"I know! We will distribute it based on the necessity and use of the person." Andrea said as she bent down to look at the chest closer. Not everyone had come to look at the chest though, Singh, Dharma, and Priya stayed back.

Andrea stared at the chest for a little moment, and then extended her hand to touch the wooden top of the chest. As her hand touched the cold wooden top, there was a strange feeling within her, but she continued anyway. She applied a little force to the chest, but no luck.

The strangest part of the chest was how there was not a single place to insert a key or an opening device.

Andrea looked puzzled, as she turned her head to look at those behind her, "Guys no luck…"

As she said this she felt a movement behind her.

Those who were looking directly at her felt their hearts drop. The chest suddenly opened wide, revealing sharp rows of hundreds of teeth.

"A mimic!" Niko's body shook.