Book 3: Chapter 52: Patch 9.0: The Catacombs' Secret

Fenrir is not the only one disturbed by the realization brought on by Rao. Cassiel and Oleander are equally distraught from the realization that, if they saw anybody doing any of this in real life, then they would both cringe to the extreme.

Oleander won’t even act anywhere near as feminine as he does in real life! Cassiel, when trying to imagine acting like she does in-game in real life, turns red from embarrassment.

Meanwhile, Rock and Shogun just lie next to each other in the tunnel to keep watch.

“So… if you don’t act differently at all in-game, do you mean you’re the exact same in real life?” Fenrir asks Rao.

“Well, yeah. Is that weird?” Rao answers.

“Do you randomly look up girl’s dresses in real life?” Oleander asks him.

“Hey, I only did it because I wanted to know if you were a chick or a dude. I’ve never had anything like that happen to me in real life, but… I guess I probably would’ve done it before you all shouted at me about it.”

“Can we just get out of here already?” Cassiel asks.

“I kind of want to see what else is down here now that we’re all together and since we’re already down here anyways,” Fenrir says.

“I’m happy with what I’ve got,” Oleander says, patting some of the books that he placed in his satchel, “so I’m fine with whatever.”

“Yeah, this place is gross, so I want out of here,” Rao tosses in his two cents.

“Alright, then let’s go,” Fenrir says. No point in trying to proceed onward if half of the group is against it. “We couldn’t even handle the boss up above on our own, so we probably don’t want to run into any other bosses that might be down here.”

“But, now that I’m thinking about it… we already killed tons of trash, so we could always just go on and have a peek, right?” Oleander suggests.

“Or, we could do the smart thing and get out of here while we can,” Cassiel says.

“I am kind of curious now,” Rao says.

“We’ll put it to an actual vote then. Raise your hand if you want to finish exploring this place,” Fenrir says, raising his hand. Oleander and Rao raise their hands as well. “Raise your hand if you don’t want to.” Only Cassiel raises her hand, and she does so with a sigh and roll of her eyes. “Sorry, Cass Cass. We can take you back to the surface first if you don’t want to come with us.”

“No, I’ll just come along. Might as well help you with this new sword,” she says.

“Then let’s try to be quick. The others have been waiting for us for a while now already.”

“Too bad your serpent friend couldn’t join us down here,” Oleander says.

“Yeah, that’d make things nice and easy. Anyways, let’s go.”

And so, the group leaves the room and ventures onward with Shogun, Rock, and Fenrir taking the lead.

Fenrir has to admit that it feels pretty badass leading a group with two cool beasts right next to him. It even invokes a bit of his feral side by making him feel like the leader of a pack.

“Oh god, I really am turning into a furry,” Fenrir thinks.

“It’s okay, onii-chan. You’re my furry,” Saya responds.

“You know, it’s nice if you want to give me some dere fanservice, but you could at least give me fanservice that doesn’t associate me with being a furry.”

“What’s so bad about being a furry? You’re already halfway there with your tail and ears, and now you even get furry arms and legs when fighting! Also, aren’t monster girls like totally basically furries?”

“Monster girls aren’t furries, and people with just the tail and ears of animals aren’t furries either.”

“If you say so, onii-chan. By the way, nice new hair color!”

“Shut up. It’s not like I want my hair to be the color of zombie blood and guts.”

“Who’s the tsundere now?”

“I’m not a tsundere! That means I would actually enjoy my hair being this color, and I don’t! And it feels gross!”

“So feminine, onii-chan.”

“I’m – I’m not feminine. I just want my hair to be clean.”

“What’s wrong, onii-chan? Is your long, girly hair all icky?”

“I-it’s not girly, it’s just super fluffy. Y-you know, since I’m like a wolf and all.”

“I don’t know whether that makes you sound more like a furry or more like an edgelord, onii-chan. Ooh, a furry edgelord! Are you going to go and draw edgy furry wolf OCs to post online now and write fanfiction about?”

“You know this is mental abuse right, right?”

“You know I only tease you like this because I know you like it, right?”

“Why are you blushing?” Cassiel asks Fenrir.

“Because my assistant is being cruel to me,” Fenrir answers. “Go away. I’m exploring a dungeon.”

“Fiiinneee. Talk to you later, onii-chan!” Saya replies. Fenrir may not be able to see her, but he feels her blow a kiss to him.

“Woah, we really did clear this place out,” Oleander says. They’ve been walking for several minutes and haven’t found a single enemy.

However, despite them feeling like they’re just walking in circles and not making any progress, they haven’t come across any of their previous battle sites. Fenrir hasn’t seen any of the torches that he knocked down off the wall, either.

“Maybe we should just – wait, what’s this?” Fenrir asks, stopping in his tracks when he sees some charred corpses.

“Random bodies burnt to a crisp in the middle of a hall? They look like they were zombies, so somebody with fire magic might’ve been down here before us?” Oleander theorizes.

“How long does it take bodies to deteriorate and despawn again?”

“They’ll become skeletons within two in-game days, and then despawn after a week. These corpses are… I can’t think of a better word and this sounds gross, but fresh,” Cassiel explains.

Fenrir kneels down and places a hand against one of the bodies while Rock and Shogun sniff them. “Still warm,” he says. “Must have been pretty recent… so think that somebody else is down here?”

“How come we didn’t see anything on the way here then? There weren’t any signs of fighting and the tunnel was full of trash.”

“Maybe they snuck past all the others or found some other way of getting in here?”

“Somebody sneaky with fire magic? I hope they don’t mistake us for some zombies,” Oleander says.

“Maybe… maybe we should go back, bro. I don’t want to get scorched,” Rao says, unable to look at the crispy bodies that Fenrir and the canines are inspecting.

“It’s possible it could have been a monster that just got pissed off at its fellow trash – maybe a boss?” Oleander suggests.

“I don’t know, but I do know that now I’m even more curious than I was before about what else might be down here,” Fenrir says.

“We’re already this far, so we might as well keep going I guess,” Cassiel says.

“You can go back if you don’t want to come with us, Rao.”

Rao turns around and looks down the dimly-lit tunnel they came from. “I’ll – I’ll come with you, bro,” he answers.

The group continues onward.

More bodies show up with signs of being scorched by something extremely hot and, going by how there are occasionally limbs being splattered all over the place, the group assumes that the person or monster responsible has got some explosive tricks.

“Whoever or whatever it is, they’ve done some work,” Fenrir says.

The tunnel they turn into is full of charred corpses. “Either a really strong player did this, or a boss did it. I’m starting to lean toward the former because… what boss would want to kill this much of its own trash?” Fenrir asks.

“Yeah, I can’t imagine a boss being this wasteful even if it’s an undead one. We’re getting close, so we should be careful,” Cassiel says upon noticing some smoke rising from one of the nearest corpses.

A burst of fire and smoke comes from around the turn at the end of the path.

“Yeah… definitely close,” Fenrir says. “Get ready in case this goes bad.”

“I’ll take point. I’m the only one wearing some real armor here,” Cassiel says.

Fenrir doesn’t like the thought of his girlfriend being in the lead since it puts her in danger, but from a gaming point of view, it’s the smart thing to do.

Rock walks up next to her and barks back at Fenrir. She’s probably the most immune to fire here, so it really makes sense for her to be up there.

“Wow, Fenny, letting your girlfriend and dog take the lead while you stand back? What kind of man are you?” Oleander teases after seeing how conflicted Fenrir looks.

Then, when Oleander looks at Shogun, he sees the fox looks just as conflicted about Rock being up there.

Oleander’s theory about Shogun and Fenrir being the same, and that being why Rock likes Shogun so much, gains more evidence.