Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 754: Europe Part 2
Pressured by time and the possible dangers they could encounter the Dungeon Raiders made their way across the unknown landscape that soon shifted into a ruinous town of the sorts. There were asphalt trees and some foundations remained, but other than that it was difficult to find one stone on top of the other.
"Do you think a cryptid did this?" Asked Nika to Luna who made a pause to think about it. She looked at the closest building and found evidence of the water level being high at some point.
"It was flooding, but it may have as well been caused by cryptids." She replied.
"It's always cryptids with you, isn't it?" Uriel scoffed. freēnovelkiss.com
"And how often am I wrong?" Luna rebuked rendering him unable to find a suitable answer.
Sun was already getting dangerously low and the group started to worry, even the usually aloof Luna showed signs of being uneasy until the solution came from Bella's mouth.
"There's a castle over there." Bella said.
"It's the Moorish castle! We definitely need to spend the night there." Uriel exclaimed in joy.
"Sure, what's wrong with a century old abandoned stone building in the middle of a destroyed town?" Nika embraced herself to keep the shivers from crawling up through her spine.
"I don't think it's a good idea." Alice said after noticing that despite Nika raising some concern about the building, they continued their way towards there nonetheless.
"It's not just centuries old, it's medieval! There's an actual homage tower in there. We absolutely need to visit... I meant to say, take refuge in there. Luna?" Despite his enthusiasm, he still asked the implicit question.
"You are the expert in this case, but if you're asking me if I know any legend about this place the answer would be no. You can't expect me to drop a story every time you don't know what to expect." Luna said.
"Fine, then I'll tell you what I know about this place," Uriel rushed his words since they were already getting close to the keep. "it was built in medieval times to protect the Gibraltar peninsula since it was a privileged location for both military and trading purposes.
If I remember correctly, it was destroyed during a Spanish invasion and was later rebuilt by..." Uriel went on his accustomed ramble about archaeology, only this time everyone listened intently to his every word making it seem as though he was a tourist guide. "fun fact!
Did you know this peninsula has been inhabited since around 200.000 years ago and it's been taken over by many different cultures over the years, the latest being the Moore, the Spanish and finally the British."
"I don't think people live here anymore." Said Nika after taking the first steps up the stony stairs that reached the castle. The outer walls told the tale of a long past battle, fierce enough to scar the stone and the earth beneath it, hinting that enemies came from the shore and people fought them to their bitter end.
"When the moors recaptured Gibraltar from the spaniards in 1333, they rebuilt an earlier tower, ruined in the fighting, into this solid homage tower that has since withstood 10 sieges." Alice read a red sign hanging crooked on what was left of said tower.
"I guess eleven sieges was one too many." Nika chuckled.
Uriel was in complete disarray after finding out the place he wanted to visit was completely destroyed.
"I can't believe this, who would destroy such a magnificent piece of medieval architecture?" Uriel cried at the loss.
"Uhm... you can try to crush some orbs. Maybe it will repair itself." Luna proposed and Uriel's eyes lit up in hope, which only lasted until he crushed a few beast rank orbs and not even a spark appeared.
"This isn't a dungeon." He let out dejectedly.
"I think it used to be some tourist trap or something, there's signs of modern civilization inside." Alice said as he removed some debris finding metal tubes and what seemed to be the remains of a metal ladder.
"This place may not be a dungeon, but it does provide a vantage point and we can get a campfire going inside without any light coming off. That's a win on my books." Nika said and her reasoning was sound since not even Luna knew what kind of cryptids could show up at night.
When the sun set everyone fell into a silent stupor as they waited for the ominous sounds of beasts ravaging each other to fill the night. The first minutes of wait felt like hours and they would have preferred for whatever beast lurked in the shadows to just show its visage and attack them on the spot rather than letting loose their imagination.
A loud scream without emotion killed the sacred silence of the night and it wasn't long until the culprit showed up. With a strange appearance that uncannily resembled that of a human, only much smaller and completely covered in a brown fur, the creature climbed to their refuge making it seem as though it was easy.
Most of those present readied for a fight, but Uriel instead got on his knees and beckoned at the creature offering it a snack.
"Here, here, here." he said in a thin voice.
"Have you not learned a damn thing!?" Nika furrowed her brows.
"It's just a monkey," He said, then turned to look at Luna who nodded. "see? It's harmless."
The small creature grabbed the snack on Uriel's hand and roamed the inside of the medieval remains of their refuge in a playful manner and in a matter of minutes the place was overrun with playful barbary monkeys looking for food.
"They're so cute," Nika said after giving in and patting one in the head, but then frowned when her gesture was replied by an attempt to bite her hand. "and dangerous. I heard these things can chop off a finger."
"From a regular human, yes, from a hunter... not so much," Luna said with the closest thing with a pout she was able to muster after realizing that monkeys kept their distance from her. "they have sharp senses. I think they know I'm a werewolf."
"A what!?" Asked Alice, who up until that moment was completely unaware of Luna's true nature.
"Hey, you thief!" Shouted Uriel at a monkey that grabbed his fedora hat and disappeared into the blackness of the night, closely followed by Uriel but not before uttering the following words. "wait here, I'll grab that little bastard and be right back."
This chapter is updat𝙚d by f(r)eew𝒆bn(o)vel.com
