I Hate Systems

They neither made any sounds nor any abrupt movements, silently trailing after the Grogar. Fealta and Caithy made mistakes at the start, but upon seeing how natural Compass Carburettor was in the environment, they imitated him, slowly becoming stealthier as time passed.

Compass Carburettor noticed a couple more Grogars prowling about, heading towards the guard post that was now vacant. And all along, their movements were disorienting to his senses. After all, even when they moved, they moved in such natural pacing that his brain naturally omitted them.

The human body was impressive in more ways than one could imagine. It was capable of perceiving a ginormous volume of information every moment. But, all it would do is overwhelm the brain quickly, causing the person to feel tired within a couple of minutes.

To avoid that, it ignored most of the information, only processing what it deemed necessary. And, it followed a certain algorithm to do that.

On Earth, cobras were capable of moving in a certain pattern that the human brain would gloss over their existence. Unless one was extremely alert and tried to look around, they might miss the cobra. It wasn't just the cobra, numerous snakes and reptiles possessed such a trait. They had naturally evolved to possess that to hunt their prey better.

And now, the Grogar had the same trait. Moreover, it seemed theirs was even more advanced. After all, even when he focused on the Grogar, his focus was slipping away constantly as his brain was ignoring its existence, assuming it to be similar to the backdrop that needn't be focused upon.

He had to constantly remind himself about its existence and blink continuously to not lose sight of it. As for Fealta and Caithy, they struggled even more than him. In the end, they simply focused on following Compass Carburettor while trying their best to keep an eye on their surroundings.

The trio paced through the forest terrain for a couple of hours, soon noticing the number of Grogar in their vicinity increase in number. It was apparent that they had reached a settlement of sorts where the Grogar lived.

Compass Carburettor sensed three Mental Energy streams incident on him, motioning for the two servants to stop as they acted as bushes. Suddenly, his heart almost leapt out of his chest as he noticed a serpentine head slowly slithering towards him from the top of the tree.

Only now did he notice the Mental Energy stream it emitted. It seemed this Grogar was resting atop the tree and had only now noticed the three bushes that had appeared mysteriously. So, its elongated neck descended like a snake as its serpentine head paused a metre before the bush at the front, staring at it with the calm eyes of a predator.

Thump! Thump!

His heart rate accelerated as Compass Carburettor felt fear while staring right into the serpentine eyes of the Grogar. For a moment, he had the impulse to summon his gun and shoot its brains out. But, he knew better to hold back.

After all, the moment he attacked it, every Grogar in the vicinity would be alerted. There were more than twenty Grogar in the observable vicinity. He didn't know how many were hiding among the thicket of trees.

So, he had to control himself and remain as patient as possible. Otherwise, their plan would fall short. Though, it was easier said than done as the serpentine head of the Grogar closed in even further, stopping right before his face.

Compass Carburettor had to hold his breath to avoid alerting it. And, as time passed, it was getting more and more difficult to do so. After all, his opponent was calmly breathing while he had to hold his breath.

And, the emotion behind its Mental Energy stream was another reason he was losing his composure.

Calm! Unfazed!

That was all it felt while staring at the bush. It was apparent that the Grogars were stronger than the typical Dungeon Monster, despite only hailing from a Level 1 Dungeon.

'I'm not that weak!' Compass Carburettor focused, calming himself down as he began to breathe out rather slowly, taking a minute to completely exhale and another minute to inhale. Even though it was tremendously difficult to do so, making his lungs feel like they were burning from the strain, he forced himself to focus.

After all, his life and death depended on it. And before he knew it, an hour had passed as the Grogar judged that nothing was amiss, retracting its head.

Compass Carburettor could finally relax a little as he noticed its head moving up and up the tree, stunning him as its neck seemed to be longer than eight metres. Based on what he had learnt from the late underground Boss, the necks of the Grogars ranged between five to eight metres.

It shouldn't be longer than that. But, now that he witnessed something different, he realised that there was more to meet the eye than he had assumed. 'Right, the Heroica Empire dared not attack the Grogar, so not much is known about them. This might be the reason.'

It took them another hour to move away from that tree and hide behind one that was positioned ten metres away. They had to move so slowly in order to avoid alerting the Grogars. Every time a Grogar noticed the three bushes, Compass Carburettor felt their Mental Energy streams, motioning for them to stop as they played dead—behaving like good old bushes.

Throughout the entire night, it was a nerve-wracking session as they proceeded in such a fashion, coming close to a battle dozens of times. And every single time, they had to endure with patience, finally heaving a sigh in relief upon spotting a massive cave before them.

With a single glance, they were able to determine that it was the entrance to the Grogar Dungeon. Now, there were two Grogars stationed at the entrance as guards. And, unlike the other Grogars, the two of them seemed to be equipped with…tougher scales?

The scales partly resembled the exoskeleton chitin armour possessed by arthropods on Earth. Upon seeing them, Compass Carburettor mentally groaned, vexed, 'They even have exoskeleton armour? Just how troublesome can they get?'