Descending Into A Novel-Chapter 106:City of Creatures (4)

After that minor hurdle. The four of them continued moving, making their way into the fighting ring after passing through a set of doors.

Raymond blinked, his eyes adjusting to the sudden brightness.

"This is unexpectedly luxurious."

Raymond’s idea of an underground fighting ring was rusty, grimy. With lots of sweaty clearly scummy people loudly stomping and cheering.

Except the place was unexpectedly nice. With smooth stone flooring, bright white lights and clean surfaces everywhere.

A few others there were also disguised like they were, but the majority of the spectators weren’t trying to hide their appearance at all.

In fact, these people looked completely normal by Raymond’s standards. They looked like regular adults who would go back home after a long day of work, maybe a few occasional outings or a vacation here and there. Not freaks who enjoyed watching monsters fight to the death.

Looks can be deceiving he supposed. Ellen looked like a perfectly normal teenager as well if not for her sporadic masochistic outbursts.

The four of them quietly pushed through a few others in their way. A circular pit in the middle of the cavern taking up most of the attention that barely anyone even noticed them.

Raymond leaned over the railing, looking inside the arena.

Scrieek!

The moment he did so however, he immediately felt his instinct as a perfect human kick in.

Just in time as Raymond watched a glop of green acidic spit fly towards him.

He cursed, dodging backwards. Ducking as he did so. Letting it soar over and behind him, landing splat on the wall with a sizzle.

Raymond could hear several jeers directed at him. He made sure to remember their appearances.

"Take it like a man!"

Raymond especially made sure to memorize that guy’s appearance.

Making his way back to the railing, he mentally slandered the organizers for not having any barriers other then just the railings.

It was too late anyways, looking down. He could see a hulking creature, standing on two legs with a bizzare bull head. Blood pouring from its mouth and landing on the red sand as it chomped down on its opponent. A few chunks of bone and flesh occasionally falling out as well.

Watching as they dragged the muscle monster away, Raymond couldn’t help but admit this was extremely entertaining.

Not that he condoned animal cruelty. But seeing them engage in such a all out fight with everything on the line really got his heart pumping.

He mentally made a note to go watch the actually legal ones, for now. Finding this damn lost pet took priority.

Raymond pulled his hood over his head tighter, making sure it fully covered his appearance. With a thought, he mobilized his mana. Creating an illusory clone of himself while the actual him turned invisible.

There weren’t enough people here for Raymond to just magically disappear after all. So the illusion spell would disguise his sneaking around.

The tracking spell clearly pointed here after all, they were already past the underground borders of Morovis City and were technically operating outside the city. But Raymond heavily doubted the lost pet would just be underground even further away.

The life of a skilled mage was really difficult. Despite him having three other teammates, Raymond was still easily the number one contributor. Tracking, stealth, not just the utility but his actual fighting strength as well. Although Audrina would probably beat him at stealth.

His eyes locked onto one of the workers busy wrangling with the bull-headed monster, chains in his arms as he dragged it away.

He was giving off the strongest aura, plus his clothes were also noticeably older and more ragged, with his hair greying slightly. So he was definitely a senior employee here.

One of the other workers trying to drag it back was knocked away by its thick arm as it resisted, crashing into the wall and not getting up.

The way he didn’t even flinch at the sight spoke volumes enough already.

Raymond immediately jumped down into the ring, a small amount of sand flying up as he landed. Not enough to be noticeable luckily.

Quietly following the group of workers. He watched as the four (previously five) forced it into a metal cage that was way too small for it. With bars thicker then his body, it desperately resisted. Knuckles slamming into the metal, horns and teeth. Every single part of its body struggling to try and escape the prison that bound it.

All of the effort went to waste, try as it might. Raymond didn’t even see the bars shake or bend in the least. Letting out a roar as its cage was lifted and moved by a massive moving crane.

The man Raymond was following grumbled, "Idiot. Could’ve had an easier job if he didn’t go and get himself killed."

Raymond was pretty sure the guy knocked away was still alive. But he clearly didn’t think the same.

Shouting at the others to leave him alone now, he continued following the machine. Not even showing a single lick of fear or anxiety at the massive monster that could crush him into pieces and eat the remainders.

In fact, the constant noises only seemed to tick the man off even more.

Raymond continued following along, his stealth abilities weren’t the best but he had full confidence in his magic. Several times, he would check to make sure the man hadn’t detected him.

As an individual at the D-rank, he was a level above him. While Raymond would still be able to defeat him, that wasn’t the point here. He needed to find the location of the damn pet.

The man and the crane soon entered into a massive room, the lighting was significantly dimmer compared to before.

Looking around, Raymond mentally counted at least a hundred something cages. Each with a unique monster inside. Furry, scaly, big, small. He recognized quite a lot. His monster biology class coming in useful for once. Every single one of these monsters had extremely violent personalities according to the textbook. Making then suitable for such ruthless fighting. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Raymond watched as the man directed the crane to drop the cage somewhere. Landing with a massive thud, it woke several of the other monsters up. Each screaming, howling or whatever as they angrily made noise.

The man clicked his mouth, watching as several monsters tried to tear at each other through the cage bars.

"It’s not worth it. Let’s just go."

The man flipped a switch, turning off the lights and leaving with the crane operator. He clearly didn’t respect any creatures despite living in the city of creatures.

Oh well, that just made it more convenient for Raymond.

With the lights turned off. Raymond adjusted his senses as a perfect human to let him see in the dark.

As a perfect human, he would always dull down his senses. Only when necessary would he ever utilise it fully.

Compared to the others, as a perfect human. He had all of these abilities passively, able to activate them without the need for mana. But it also came with its own problems.

The main reason he did so was to prevent himself from being overwhelmed with too much information, the same reason he didn’t try to have too many clones at the same time. As a mage, his mental capacity was extremely important. He would rather focus on other things then waste a good amount of his brain power on processing his senses.

Besides, imagine smelling a pile of crap several blocks away. Or knowing that your classmate doesn’t brush his teeth but not being able to say it. Or just the random strangers walking by who very clearly were not clean and did not shower.

Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

Using his now night vision. Raymond started searching for the lost pet. A few monsters managed to sense him despite his invisibility. Growling as they felt his presence.

Raymond ignored that, looking through row after row of creatures. Often taking his time to admire anything that caught his eye.

This place really had quite a lot of monsters. A testament to how long it had been running. The average quality was also really high. None of them looked weak either!

His eyes suddenly caught a faint glint, it was hard to see in the darkness. But the golden scales still showed their shine.

Making his way to the cage, he grinned.

Lying there half-curled up, a four-legged beast with golden scales and a body big enough to swallow a man whole. Resembling a monitor lizard, it still looked perfectly healthy. Without a single injury.

That was good. At least they hadn’t forced it to fight yet, Raymond stretched his fingers. With his gloved hand. He drew several engravings onto the metal cage—simple tracking spells for when they returned.

Completing the mission on the fourth day, they had ten days total in Mirovia City. Eight days for the mission and two days to have fun. That gave him and Ellen four extra days to look for the secret lab and find Bloody Fang.