As the system message popped up, I couldn't help but think that I was on to something. There were two reasons why the system message could have shown up. The system had some sort of mind of its own and when it was able to do things related to me it would offer its help.
Or perhaps this was all related to the system somehow. That behind this door I would find the answers I was looking for. Where did the system come from? Why did I turn into a human? Whatever it was I had to keep moving forward.
As I selected yes, a mechanical sound could be heard as if gears were grinding against each other inside the door. The giant iron door then started to split open and pull backwards.
"How did he…?" Jasmine stood awestruck as she was watching the door open.
Gary threw his fist in the air.
"I knew you were special Ray!"
"What did you do?" Jasmine asked.
"I don't know…I just touched it and it started to open?"
As the doors finally opened behind the giant iron gate, all we could see was darkness again. Gary once again took the lead while using his light crystal. We seemed to be in a giant cavern. It was so big that the illumination provided by the crystal wasn't enough for us to see the ceiling or the side of the walls.
We had been walking in a straight direction for about fifteen minutes and till Monk said, "I think we should really turn back; something feels wrong down here."
"Stop being a crybaby. We have to be close to finding something," Gary scolded.
"Don't you feel it though? As we go further down, the darkness is feeling stronger."
Jasmine was starting to look worried as well, "I agree I think we've come far enough. We can always get more light crystals and come back next time. It will make it easier for us to explore."
Gary looked like he was getting frustrated at the two of them. "Look you two can go back if you want but I'm carrying on. Whatever is down here has been calling to me."
Gary continued to walk forward and as he did it seemed as if the dark shadows started to creep around Monk and Jasmine. They both knew that they had no choice but to follow Gary as he was the only light source they currently had.
As we continued on moving, we heard a cracking sound. One of us had stepped on something. As well looked down to see what it was, we could see that Monk had stepped on a fairly large white object. Monk quickly jumped off it and we all scurried closer to take a look.
"Is.. that a skull" Monk said shaking.
The skull was three times the size of a human skull and it looked like it had been down here for a long time.
"I don't think it's human its far too big, most likely a magical beast," Jasmine noted.
"Doesn't that mean there are magical beats down here? I don't think anything down here would be of the basic tier." Monk said.
"Oh will you guys relax, that thing looks like it's been dead for a long time. What we saw outside was probably the exploration team. The knights have probably already cleared the whole area of a magical beast."
What Gary had said made sense, the only thing that didn't to me was the giant iron door. If someone didn't have access to the system like me, how would they be able to access this area? Had the door always been there or had it been built later on?
Finally, we had reached an open round chamber. The chamber had many large openings. The whole thing looked complicated. It was as if we were in some large giant-sized ant nest. In front of a few of the holes were iron bars similar to a prison cell. The iron bars had been bent to the side as if something had pulled them apart.
"Do you see those bars? Does that mean whatever was behind it escaped?" Monk worried.
Jasmine was now sweating. She was truly frightened. "Look I think that's enough exploring we don't even know how far we've gone."
"Then just go!" Gary exclaimed.
"Gary don't you see those bars have been broken? It could mean the criminals have escaped or maybe even something worse."
"You don't think I don't know that? I could never get another chance to come down here. We're risking everything to be here right now. If a knight were to find out about this, we would all be kicked out of the Avrion."
"You're crazy! Give me the light stone I'm heading back now!" Jasmine fumed.
"Ray, you have to help us!" Monk pleaded.
I didn't know why Gary was so adamant on exploring here. I had already seen enough. I was happy to come back at a later time on my own. If I was to face something that I couldn't handle down here it would be the end for me. It would be better to come back instead when I was stronger.
I didn't say anything but the three of us started to move towards Gary. As he saw this his grip got tighter on the light crystal and he started to back away from us towards one of the holes.
"Ray you too. You guys don't understand we just need to go a little further."
As Gary continued to back up towards the hole, the light crystal allowed us to see inside it.
Our faces dropped and we all quickly pulled out our weapons. Gary pulled out his sword pointing it towards us.
"I didn't think you guys would go this far!" he shouted.
Then he heard a nasty deep snort sound from behind him.
As Gary turned around the light crystal allowed him to see what was standing behind him. It was around ten feet tall with sharp white teeth and two big white horns. With the bottom of its legs as hooves but it's the body the shape of a human, it was the magical beast known as a Minitour.
A king tier creature.
******
Note on monster tiers so far, lowest to highest we have seen! There are more.
Basic tier: Wolf, Fanged boar, Sharp worm ect...
intermediate tier: Black wolf, Giant fanged boar ect....
Advanced tier: Drop bear King
King tier: Minitour
We have also seen a super tier crystal but no creatures for it yet. So won't tell you where that is on the chart.
If the shadow plague infects one of the creatures, then it will promote one or two ranks up. So the drop bear king was Advanced tier but an infection by the shadow plague makes it as powerful as a King tier.