Adventure time.

John was particularly happy, as this whole situation was reminding him of a typical adventure in a RPG. Something that he had spent so many hours doing and had always dreamed to experience in real life. Of course it was made even better by the fact that the members of his group were real people and not scripted bots, and the fact that they were also sexy women that he could sleep with whenever he wanted was even better.

The group was following the path, walking carefully and checking their surroundings. Strangely, from the point where they had spotted the tracks they stopped hearing the shuffling of rats burrowing in the piles of garbage around them.

"Cali, what do you think they are?" asked John. He was aware of the superior skills of the huntress when it went to tracking.

"I don't know, nothing that I have ever seen. In our valley, the only two legged creatures were us and the lizardfolk, plus a few giant dinos. No one was wearing shoes or boots, and I only know that this is what they are because of the tracks that you and your guests are leaving in the kingdom. The tracks are similar but wider and deeper, could be human, but a very big one. The books in your library talk about many creatures, but most are described as fictional," she explained. For John too it was something of a mystery, as he had no way of knowing which of the hundreds of fantasy races or mystical creatures were real, or what real even meant in such an universe.

"There are many things that wear boots and could be heavy, not all of them are friendly, so let's be careful." It was all that John could reply.

After a few minutes of walking the empty canyons of this polluted wasteland, they reached an open space looking like the one where they fought earlier.

"By the Goddess, what is this?" exclaimed Vesta, who had trouble letting go of her training as a priestess after being forsaken by her deity.

The place was covered in bones, junk rat and were-rat skeletons; a few strips of rotten hide or flesh were stuck on mangled and gnawed bones.

"A fight! An ambush such as the one we faced. The three that we followed here stood their ground in the center, killed everything and walked away. None of them died," stated Cali, reading the battleground as if it was a book.

"Fighters apparently, no visible traces of any spell being used. Maimed bodies, missing limbs, crushed bones and... What are these? Crossbow bolts maybe? Ohhh, damnit! We can't pick the bones... They are not items, they won't go in an inventory, leave this place or be usable as crafting material. I guess it's fair, but it's really enraging, since there are dozens of them just laying around. Only three of them, and they managed to kill all of these rats. We should be careful if we find them," he remarked.

"John, look! Even taking into account the nature of this place and the scavenging, this is days old, maybe more. The ones we follow are most likely victorious and long gone or dead already," replied Cali. John had been so enthusiastic about meeting some Abyss inhabitants that he had refused to consider this option.

"You're right, this direction is as good as any other, let's follow it to see if we find something interesting. Once we reach the end of the tracks, we'll figure out what we want to do. We have already got a lot of materials, but I'd like a bit more, and this place gives good xp," he explained.

"As long as we keep together and act as a team, we should be good. I don't like this place, but if it helps our king become stronger and gather valuable resources for the kingdom, we should continue," pointed Sylvia out. John was impressed by her dedication; this place was making him feel uneasy, and he had trouble imagining what it could be for her.

Vesta didn't contribute; she was looking with horror at so many dead creatures in the same place, in all appearances having been eaten by their own kind after their **** (hopefully).

The group continued to follow the tracks. John had noticed that while he could not gather the bones and weapons of the junk rats he could pick up the bolts. They were of clean and simple design: a short wooden shaft, three feather fins and a three-bladed steel broadhead. No markings or hints about the craftsman, and Observe only described it as a "Simple Crossbow Bolt". He had gathered 47 of them, whoever shot them had been very busy.

Along the way they encountered a few more skeletons, no new bolts though, maybe they had ran out of ammunition? But then why not pick up the ones they had fired before? Or maybe they were conserving ammo and not wasting it on single monsters? John didn't know how to interpret this fact.

Cali, following the tracks, finally led the group to something different than everything else around here. It was a structure, made out of what looked like concrete. It was half burried underground and covered in garbage like everything else, but a full wall was visible and in this wall a rusty metal door, standing ajar.

Secret dungeon!
You uncovered the entrance of a secret dungeon inside your barrier. Explore it and kill the boss to receive great rewards.
Quest 1: lost travelers.
Find the three lost travelers and gain one special item and 500xp to share among the group for each of them that you find.
Quest 2: bounty hunter
Clear the dungeon of all enemies. A counter will appear once the remaining number reaches 20.
15000$
2000xp to share
Quest 3: monster slayer
Kill the boss and take his treasure.
One treasure chest and one precious item.
2000 xp to share
You will accept these quests by entering the dungeon.

"Ohhh," said the three girls nearly at the same time. He wasn't the only one who saw the quest pop-up. John was smart enough to ask around and check if everyone saw the same quests, which was the case as he soon discovered.

The decision to enter was unanimous, since it was the follow-up of their initial plan to find these travelers. The reward of money and treasure was exactly what was expected at the end of such an adventure and as such the perfect motivation to go in the building.

The door might be rusty in appearance, but it was nearly half a foot thick. John could probably have moved it alone despite the rusty hinges, but Cali's help was appreciated. The door was very heavy and very robust, John wondered if these travelers had had trouble opening it.

Behind the door lay dark corridors of dirty concrete with stains of rust around each metal element where water had dripped. The floor was covered by a layer of filth that John was particularly happy to not have identified. The tracking perk granted by the ring allowed him to see that people or things had walked about everywhere in this tunnel, but he would have been totally unable to identify or follow a specific individual.

"Are we tracking the travelers or clearing out the rooms in order?" asked Cali.

"Wait! You can actually follow them in this mess? Very impressive!"

"Their footprints are very different from the rest, so they are easy to follow. So?"

"We follow them but kill everything on our way. No use to have to backtrack later. Everyone, stay close and try to watch out when we reach crossings or doors."

Even with some light coming from Vesta and Sylvia's staff, advancing in the damp tunnels was not reassuring. John had no idea how many enemies were waiting for him or which kinds he would face. But in such a situation, being part of a group was very comforting.

John really regretted the loss of the shield that was destroyed in Kim's little test, it was something that he would need to add to his armory. He actually planned to have simple and wooden training versions of as many types of weapons as possible in the armory and to create some sort of training ground when he would be back to the kingdom. So many things to do and so little time and resources... The castle was not built correctly: it was too dependent on the basements for everything. He needed to build more rooms at the base of it, extending it on the sides too.

The tunnel that they were following was angling down, leading them deeper under the surface. Cali had come to the conclusion that the place was too cramped to use her bow in any effective manner without risking to hurt John during a fight, so she was currently walking at John's side with her sword in her hand, her small axe slipped through a hoop on her harness.

John had checked his interface and was happy to see that a map of this dungeon was appearing little by little while they were exploring it. Suddenly, some rats charged the group from the tunnel that they were following. The first live ones that they had encountered in a while.

A few Magic Projectiles, fire bolts and pollen bombs had the rats weakened and disoriented by the time they finally reached them. John and Cali, fighting side by side to block the creatures from reaching Vesta and Sylvia, needed little time to hack these attackers to bits. John noticed a few traces of damage on his armor; the repairs would probably cost a lot. Cali's weapons were in a very bad state, visibly chipped and dulled. The low quality weapons suffered a lot from the special durability damaging perk of their enemies. At any rate, having an actual magical healer like Sylvia allowed them to fight in a way that would be impossible in the real world: by just receiving damage and knowing that it would soon get healed during the fight.

Four were-rats and sixteen junk rats were soon lying dead on the ground. The flames from Vestas attacks had burnt some of the filth on the floor, creating a thick smoke that had inconvenienced Cali during the fight. John gathered the 24 units of junk rat bones, and the group continued its progression towards the room that they could spot at the end of this tunnel.

The last fight had put John at 4850/5000xp, and he was almost guaranteed to lvl up during the next encounter. John remarked that Vesta was now lvl10; he had received no notification of it and didn't know if she had either, but it was no time for such things. He still took the time to check with her and Sylvia if they were feeling alright. These fights had them spend a lot of magic energy, and even if their energy or mana bars were refilling, it could be exhausting for someone who was not like him.

The room contained no monsters, as the ones which just attacked them had come from here. John noticed immediately the strange shape at the back of the empty square room.

It was a corpse, neither from a rat creature nor an human one. It was short but very wide, with the huge booted feet which had left the tracks that they were following. John had little doubt about what he was currently looking at. Wearing the tattered remains of some leather and mail armor, there wasn't much flesh left on the skeleton of this dwarf.

This was the source of the bolts that john had gathered. The armor that he was wearing was indicated as Destroyed, and the content of his bag was spread on the floor and gnawed. The only thing that seemed worth picking up was his weapon.

Quest progress: lost travelers
1/3 found
500xp (shared)
Special item received

Damaged Dwarf Repeater: rare ranged weapon.
This marvel of Dwarven engineering is a lever action repeating crossbow. It is able to shoot two bolts at once, and each of the two magazines can hold up to 12 bolts.
It is currently damaged and will need some repairs before it can be used.

John was amazed at how light the thing was, as it looked a lot heavier. In essence, it was some sort of mechanical shotgun analog. He would load bolts into two boxes on it, and when actioning some lever, it would arm it, ready to fire twice or a double shot. It seemed a lot more advanced than all the medieval crossbows that he had seen or heard about.

Ding!
You reached lvl11
+20 hp
+20 mp
+5 stat points
+2 inventory slots
50/6100xp to lvl12

"So, we were following dwarves! A shame that this one is dead. I would have loved to be able to meet one. They are supposed to be very good smiths and craftsmen, so trading with them would be a great opportunity. We can't use this until I repair it sadly. I wonder what they were doing here... From reputation, I would say that they were looking either for a treasure or some lost relics. Which means that if like I believe they are all dead, this treasure is ours!" he explained to his girls.

"Good warriors too, to have gone this far," pointed Cali out.

More than half an hour and a few dozen dead rats later, John still had no clue about who had built this place and for what purpose. Over a section of tunnel cleaner than the rest, they had lost the track of the two last travelers and were just wandering in the tunnels, entering each room that they came across of, making sure not to miss any rat.

The revealed map in his interface showed something though. There was some sort of symmetry to the structure and a very large space at the center of it, to which they had found no access so far. Still, as an encouraging sign, they had just spotted a few dead rat skeletons which showed signs of a very violent ****.