Taken surprised due to the sudden scream, Lucas raising his sword got into an attacking stance at once.
"Don't come near."
"Please don't kill us."
"We are innocent."
Loud wails echoed.
Lucas raised his vigilance on hearing human voices. There was the possibility of the monster casting an illusion or using a human voice to lure him.
The room was dark, so Lucas lit the room with his fireball and stepped over the stones densely laid on the floor and weeds grown all over.
His fire cast a long shadow on the side, and he shouted" Who are you? Come out?"
"Ahhh!Don't kill us."
The sound of footsteps echoed and three shadows converged and a figure of three people appeared.
Two kids of Lucas's age clung tightly to a black-haired, thin, malnourished woman.
Both of them were boys and had scratches all over their bodies. The woman's condition did not look good. Her expression was pale, as if she had lost too much blood.
Their clothes were shredded, looking more like rags and they were barefooted.
"Are you here to kill us?" The woman spoke with a frightened expression and tried to step back.
"No. I got caught up in a weird accident."
Hearing Lucas's words, their expression brightened.
The woman then stepped up and started to explain.
"We were passing there, but suddenly a sea of flames covered our vision, and then we felt a suction force, after which we lost our vision."
"After we opened our eyes, we found ourselves in this place. We were chased by monsters. Running away from them, we entered here and found that, monsters were avoiding this area." The woman spoke with a teary expression and pleaded with Lucas.
"Please help us get out of here. We will be forever in your debt and will help you in any way we can."
"So, please…"
"Big brother please…"
"Help us.."
Two boys with moist eyes attacked Lucas with a pitiful gaze, trying to melt his heart.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtLucas sucked in cold air and shook his head." Okay, I will help you, however, let me warn you if you follow me, I can't guarantee your safety."
"It's okay. We will try not to burden you and stay away from you." The woman with a relieved expression.
"This place looks safe, so I would take some time to recover."
"You can and by the way, my name is Hessa. There are my nephews, Richard and Orion."
"Hello, my name is Lucas." He replied and looked around the place.
The overall atmosphere in the place was spooky, as if a ghost may pop out at any moment.
Broken picture frames, dried pot flowers scattered on the floor, stones of various shapes and colors molded with traces of dark dried blood scattered around. Everything in the place seemed to be telling something about the dark history of the place.
The cold chilly winds blew, which Lucas did not know from where, but this creeped him out. His face may look calm, but inwardly he was freaking out for some reason.
It was not a sign of danger, but rather something fearsome that was haunting him.
"What is this place?"
"I don't know, but on looking around I found some notes on the shelves near there." Hessa pointed at the far dark, gloomy corner where shelves covered with spider webs were placed.
"I will take a look." Lucas put back his sword and moved towards the shelf.
"I will accompany you," Hessa replied nonchalantly and tiptoed following Lucas. Her steps were light and gentle without producing any creaking sound.
She smiled as she followed Lucas back.
Hessa pursued her lips, seeing Lucas bravely venturing forward without any sense of cautiousness.
Lucas pulled out pieces of old dusty stacked-up paper. Shaking the dust, Lucas coughed a bit, inhaling some dust.
Cough… Cough.....
"Let's see what we have here." Lucas then fidgeted his fingers on his left hand and placed them on his waist.
Lucas bent down and focused on reading the things on the paper.
A moment later, Lucas flicked his hand.
A subtle clicking sound was heard, and a rifle materialized out of thin air, which Lucas grabbed, pointing backward.
A mischievous smile formed over his lips, as he muttered" It seems the playtime is over Miss."
Hessa's eyes widened, and her body froze with her mouth wide open showcasing the huge carnivorous sharp bloody teeth.
The moment she was about to bend and take a nip, something cold appeared out of thin air and touched her throat.
Swallowing her saliva, she tried to speak but…
But before she could speak in response to the sudden turn in the situation, another clicking sound was heard.
TANG!
POP!
Smoke arose, and an empty shell was spat out from the rifle.
The portion above her neck burst into pieces and large chunks of meat scattered, striking the ceiling.
THUD!
The lifeless body fell to the ground shooting a fountain of spurting blood.
Lucas immediately turned back, pulling out his Flintoff pistol and putting down the rifle back into the ring.
TANG!
He fired a shot, but it missed.
The two kids reacted quickly.
CRACK!CRACK!CRACK!
The sound of shifting bones echoed, and Lucas's eyes widened, seeing the boy's figure morphing into something hideous.
Their lips tore and elongated, reaching near their ears, and their jaws protruded down. The blackish eyes turned feverish yellow with a snake retina, and their back morphed.
"What the hell are you?" Lucas muttered in disbelief, seeing their transformation.
The moment he saw the three, he already had doubts about them. All the people who were transported into the dungeons appeared on the upper floor, so their transportation on the down floor was already suspicious.
Lucas found them barefooted and managed to take a glimpse of their odd shapes toed, which made his accusations correct.
However, what made him afraid was whether the monsters ran away fearing them or due to something else. He could not feel any mana in them, nor any trace of superhuman power.
The moment he entered, he knew he was not in grave danger, and he remembered Lebana's advice to look for the door.
"Tskk..."
"I would rather fight ferocious monsters than take on these ghostly humans, which are horrifying my heart."
"I can feel my lifespan dwindle just by staring at them."
Lucas smacked his lips in annoyance, and aiming his pistol shot them.
The two ghostly boys bent down and then jumped like frogs, emitting a croaking voice. They could open their mouths long enough to engulf an entire human head. Just the sight of their disgusting mouths gave him chills.
The room was quite narrow to fight properly and instead of escaping these two seemed to be hell-bent on killing him, however they were trying to maintain the distance due to being afraid of his pistol which killed the woman.
Moreover, moving here and there made it difficult to aim.
Feeling a little rueful, Lucas fires another shot.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmOne of them croaked and jumped towards the wall, only to find an afterimage appearing beside him.
Lucas predicted their thought and ran towards the wall, activated flash steps, and appeared right before one, slicing open the ghost's boy's stomach.
Letting out a shriek, it jumped back in fear but in turn, this caused his internal organs to fall to the ground.
A bloodied narrow tube-like thing falls on the ground, emitting a putrid odor.
Seeing its brother in danger, and finding Lucas's attention wholly maintained on its brother, it pounced on Lucas, opening its mouth as big as possible.
Lucas reacted instantly and shouted while throwing a fireball angrily.
"Get lost."
BOOOOM!
The fireball exploded, tearing the whole face into pieces and burning the upper body spontaneously.
CRUUKKK
CRUUKKK!
The other one's body trembled in fear, seeing his brother or partner dying so pathetically.
Making its decision, it tries to escape.
Lucas noticed the subtle motion and with a disgusting expression on his face, stepped on the fallen intestine.
The ghost boy who was running away suddenly tumbled due to a sudden pain and slipped on the floor.
Before it could get up, Lucas chopped down its head and kicked it away.
Hush… Hush…
Lucas's chest heaved up and down. His mind was on the verge of breaking down, encountering something like this.
He stood against the wall and breathed heavily to clear his mind.
"What is this? Are they humans or monsters?"
"And, why are they so intelligent?"
"And also why didn't I get any experience points?"Lucas's head throbbed thinking about such a troublesome thing.
"Now that I got rid of them, will the monsters flock here?"
"These three did not seem to be too difficult to deal with."
Lucas rubbed his chin trying to find an answer to the countless questions knocking in his mind.
Looking at the stack of papers and books on the shelves, he wondered if there was a clue to it.
Fanning his hand, he approached the stacks of paper and flipped the pages.
Each page was filled with notes and at the last line, there was a falcon symbol on it with a note in bold grey color.
[Experiments conducted by Zindell.]