But it was stuck, Romans grip holding strong.
*screech*
The owner of the tail, made an animalistic scream.
Then another tail swept out, in an attempt to free its friend.
But Roman caught it, like the last. Another screech rang out, causing yet another tail to lash out.
But now Romans hands were full.
Though the tails in his hand also kept him from jumping over the incoming tail, wiping out to trip him.
He was anchored to the ground, or any other hunter would have been.
Roman exerted his strength pulling the tails owners out of hiding as he jumped over the third tail.
Menchi seeing this dashed forward. Slashing one and knocking out the other.
With nothing happening to one dead rat, with a supernatural tail. Dozens of times larger than the main body.
The knocked out rat's tail began to shrink, turning into a normal rat.
An interesting ability.
Menchi sent it into the purple jars wilderness.
Continuing forward, constantly getting harassed. The creatures getting stronger, faster and trickier the further they went.
Man made stones began to appear in increasing frequency. They were near the ruin.
Though these stones disrupted the harassment of the rat tails.
So while the rustling traps were still around, there were no worries from them.
But this didn't mean this wasn't another territory of another creature.
Moving ahead Roman noticed a soul in a man made rock ahead.
Alerting Menchi, they continued as eyes appeared on the rock and it moved with blistering speed.
Taking the form of a rocky snake, it lunged at them. Emitting an invisible noise making their Ren shake.
Menchi acted by killing the creature with a swipe of her knife.
Things were simple when you knew of them beforehand.
But the creatures of the human world were much weaker than them. Only creatures of the 14 marches or weird anomalies like the green clams could possibly threaten them.
But for over fifty percent of hunters these places were disastrous unless they had detailed information about them.
Roman once wondered why more information wasn't provided to new hunters. Though Roman knew, it was to teach beginners to become skilled information gathers.
It was possibly the hardest but most important skill to obtain.
Continuing again, they dispatched a dozen rocky snakes, with most sent into the purple jar.
Roman couldn't help but think the true reason those rats had long tails was to mess with the stone snakes.
A method to be spit out to survive, or imitate the snakes to avoid danger.
Either way, they had arrived.
Crumbling walls were scattered about, walls or ancient buildings that used to be.
But they were insignificant to the center of the site.
A building not as ruined, grander than the rest.
They entered, though they had noticed insects all around the ruins.
Though Roman knew they were planted there by the hunter association.
A species that preserved environments, to protect the ruins.
The hunter association was around 300 years old, so it had been preserved for centuries.
But they weren't completely used to humans, thankfully they were weak.
So every now and then one flew on them, not knowing what Roman and Menchi were.
Each one being sent into the purple jar.
But inside the main ruin, the walls were covered in pictures and writtenings.
Roman studied everything briefly because he knew there was a more interesting section of the ruins.
The ruined structure they were in was quite big and styled almost like a theater.
With the main floor simply surrounding a series of descending seats or steps.
The middle of the structure being a stage for, presumably many spectators to watch.
It was the opposite of a lifted stage.
On the stage, a rock slab could be lifted to reveal a compartment.
A compartment that was detailed in the one-star hunter encyclopedia.
The compartment was supposed to hold an ancient sacrificial relic. But it had long been taken away.
Roman wasn't interested in this. But below that compartment was the entrance to the ruins' catacombs.
A secure place for the ruins' previous inhabitants to take shelter in an emergency.
That was its original purpose, though it was used for a different purpose.
Instead a plague was the cause for the demise of the inhabitants, the catacombs were of no use.
The plague was so disastrous no one could avoid it. Everybody at the time seemed to accept this fate and buried themselves within as their final resting place.
Becoming a true catacomb.
Finding this entrance without issue, Roman and Menchi descended.
Walking through a dark pathway, this catacomb was vast. Originally constructed to the same size as the ruins above. With the idea for civilization to live forever underground.
They even had a special plant that grew without sunlight to help sustain themselves, though it had long gone extinct.
Though the catacombs were vastly larger than the ruins above. This was because of the rodents exploring this place and even forming nests within.
Exiting the pathway and entering the resting place for all of the inhabitants.
Thin coffins were embedded in the ground walls and ceiling, a lingering aura emanated from them. Because this plague was actually imbued with Nen, making it so deadly and incurable.
The reason they could be here was that it had been sealed in the coffins along with their victims.
Any lingering plague in the air here didn't have any aura left or victim to sustain itself. So it was either gone, or harmless without Nen.
Of course previous hunters had been here before, Roman wasn't the first. So the area had been cleared long ago.
All except for a single skeleton that sat against a wall of coffins. As if the last victim and therefore nobody left to seal him away.
At least that was the story, though as Roman suspected a lingering soul still remained. A powerful one that was a testament to its age.
This skeleton was alive, a silent guardian to the fallen. Or else why hadn't the rodents destroyed this place by now.
This trueth wasn't mentioned in the encyclopedia, but it was hinted at, and Roman had already deduced the trueth.
He was just here to confirm it. Suspecting rodents had long found this place, and the skeleton warded them off.
But Roman had another theory, taking out a hidden bag from his side, he threw it to the ground in front of the skeleton.
After a moment of silence the bag moved, it wasn't Roman's doing. But a rodent inside.
The bag wasn't sealed anymore, and the rodent quickly found its way out.
The moment it did something shifted in the air.
The skeleton on the wall moved, its gaze turning to the rodent, and it froze.
Unable to move, something else occurred.
Roman and Menchi watched as the rat slowly disintegrated into a floating ball of red mist.
One might think of it as a mist of blood.
But Roman quickly realized it wasn't, the mist was too small to be all the rodents' blood. Rather it was the plague.
Still very much present, Roman guessed it was. But not only that, but that it could only work on non-Nen users as well.
The skeleton existed to make sure the plague couldn't spread beyond this room.
The plague was sealed inside, but could be carried out by others.
As for why the plague wasn't destroyed? It was connected to the coffins, and the skeleton's existence wasn't just to prevent the plague from spreading. But to also protect its people.
Though a moment later the red plague mist moved and entered the skeletal figure, not to move again.
The skeleton would have long since lost its function unless it had some form of substance to keep it going.
That substance was the always present plague. But it seemed the skeleton could only harvest it from a living creature.
Roman knew this was the result of post-mortem Nen, but even post-mortem Nen can't last forever, even if it fails its given intention.
It needed something to keep it going.
This skeleton though didn't just have post-mortem Nen, it also retained its soul.
While the jester's bead had a soul within, it had no nen.
These were things Roman needed to study, so that he could replicate them.