Yalfrigg stepped in first and the two guards immediately took a defensive stance before realizing who he was.
"Doctore, there have been some guards patrolling the premises," said one of the minotaurs, holding a two-handed double axe. "We only saw them a few minutes ago."
"The dominus must have tightened security in preparation for the tournament," the dwarf replied, and then signaled to the rest of his warriors to join him. "How many have you seen?"
"Four," replied the other minotaur who was completely unarmed, save for some metal knuckles. "Two pairs of two."
"Kanken, you go and scout for them," Yalfrigg ordered, and a hooded humanoid with the head of a crow moved away toward the path they had seen the patrols on. "Okay, open up people."
The two guards stepped aside, one of them rolling the door back and opening the way to the building that housed the nameless. The group entered the building quickly to see what they were dealing with and so that the low-level people among them could start forming their first parties. The inside looked a lot like an barn for animals, complete with hay all over the floor, only there were no beasts to be found in it.
Almost every single square inch of the floor was littered with the bodies of sleeping nameless, apart from the tiled corridor. Alexander had always wondered how a place as massive as the ludus was run, since the slaves were mostly used as gladiators and rarely tasked with any maintenance work. But looking at the hundreds of mindless servants in here, it all made sense. This army of people took care of everything, working their bodies to exhaustion until they were stored here for a few hours of rest so as not to be completely burned out.
"There are more than we thought," said one of the warriors in Yalfrigg's party.
"We can manage it," the dwarf replied and started giving orders. "I dispersed the party. Each of you makes a full party of their own with eight nameless. They will accept your invite automatically. Pull them around you and wait."
"I'll bring the vampires," Zadicus said, and immediately shifted into a black bat and flew out.
"Yvonne, you join the group that will bring the monsters, just in case more patrols are out and about," the dwarf continued. "Neleth, you guys will go left out of this barn and enter the first building you come across."
When Neleth's group left the building, they were met with a flock of bats that transformed into humanoids and entered the nameless-filled barn. Yet again, Yvonne and Sith led the party through the darkness until they reached what looked like a high stone tower. There were no guards stationed outside of it and its massive entrance didn't even have a door, something that only made sense to them once they entered and found a series of locked doors inside.
"This floor has monsters of levels one to ten," Neleth said, reading from a sign on the wall, "and these arrows here indicate that levels eleven to fifty are up these stairs."
"Levels fifty-one and above are down these stairs," Sith said and slithered back to the party, "but I don't suppose we need them."
"There are plenty of cells on this floor," Alexander observed. "Let's take only a few from each cell so that they hopefully never realize the monsters are missing."
The party agreed and Neleth got to work on the first door, which was labeled "Astar Timberwolf". Once Neleth had picked the lock, Alexander pulled the door open and a cold wind swept through the party. Menos, the hulking elephantaur, stepped into the room and was immediately jumped at by three large, completely white wolves.
Name: Astar Timberwolf
Type: Beast
Level: 6
Disposition : Aggressive
HP : 94/94
Physical Attack: 13
Magic Attack: 6
Speed: 100
Attack Range: Melee
XP : 212
Description : The timberwolves of the Astar mountain-range are known for their fierce pack loyalty and their completely white fur. Due to their advanced group hunting skills and their ability to camouflage themselves in the snowy peaks of the mountains, they quickly climbed to the top of the local food chain.
Two of the beasts had closed their jaws on Menos's thick arm, while the third was dangling from his tusk, which it was struggling to pierce with its sharp fangs. At least a dozen more timberwolves were now stirring at the other end of the cell, swiftly jumping and heading toward the open door.
"These will have to do," Alexander said, and pulled back the elephantaur who was only mildly annoyed by the canine beasts hanging off him. He closed the door behind him, leaving the other Timberwolves inside. "Can you lock it again?"
"Easy peasy, human," the elf said and got to work while the rest of the party tried to subdue the beasts.
Menos had no trouble handling two of the timberwolves by himself, eventually managing to catch them by their snouts, neutralizing their favorite form of attack and making it possible to carry them with minimal effort. Alexander took care of the third one, grappling with it as if it was a large dog that was too excited for its own good.
"Shall we head back?" the elephantaur asked.
"We shouldn't risk going in dribs and drabs," Yvonne said. "Once everyone gets a monster, we'll all walk back together."
"Let's try this one then," Neleth said, once he had locked the first door and moved to the one next to it, marked "Dire Rat". "Open your bag, Sith. We might be able to capture a lot of these little fuckers."
The naga followed his instruction and produced a large cloth sack and then waited for him to unlock the door. A few seconds later, the tell-tale click of a cell door unlocking
