Descending from the carriage, Nero took a look around the area. They had stopped in a small town, probably no more than thirty buildings were built around a central street of dirt. The purpose of a few was apparent, like the tavern and a general goods store. Others were probably the dwellings of the miners.

All together it was a scene that wouldn't look out of place in a wild west movie.

Some people were watching as the group dismounted and congregated around Ken and the other two instructors. They did not look too poor, but there was a threadbareness about their apparel that was different from the people Nero had seen while in the keep. Likely due to the difference between a capital and a small mining village.

"Alright, everybody listening? Good, I won't repeat myself so pay attention." Said Ken to the group. "You are here to kill the ratmen that have infested the mine. You have until sundown to do this. Once the sun sets us instructors are going in there to clear whatever is left. How you do this is up to you, so long as you do not destroy the mine we do not care. I recommend grouping up, but if you feel like you can survive on your own then go right ahead.

There are supposed to be over a hundred ratmen here, so I want at least five for each of you, anybody who doesn't meet the quota is going to face extra training with Dode." The other instructor grinned maliciously, and Kaesar saw more than one trainee shudder. "If you die, then you will revive back in the keep. Meet at the usual time at the training grounds tomorrow. Bring all the bodies to the entrance once you kill them, Rob and snake boy here will take care of skinning them. You get a bit of money for any you kill over the required five."

There was a bit of muttering from the assembly at that, but Ken continued on.

"Do not expect any help. This is a time for you all to get experience. A single battle, good or bad, is worth weeks of training so I want you all to fight your hardest; otherwise, you will die. Am I understood?"

""YES!""

"Good. Then follow me, we'll head to the mine now." With that, he turned and started walking on the dirt road towards a rather large building at the end. The instructors entered, and the others followed them. There was a bit of a pause when Ken stopped to talk to a man for a few moments, and Nero caught a glimpse of a pouch changing hands before they were led out the back of the building.

It was a vast area facing a hill through which a tunnel opened. There were some tables and seats arranged in a semicircular fashion facing the tunnel's entrance under the shade of strips of cloth held up by poles. Around these tables, about ten men in full armor congregated. They were relaxed and casual, chatting with each other and playing dice. A few of them were even sleeping in their chairs. The armored group spared a glance at the new arrivals before going back to their previous activity.

"Alright, there is the entrance, try not to get lost." The head instructor pointed to the tunnel, wide enough for three people to stand side by side and not touch each other. "We'll be set up here so bring the bodies to these tables when you want."

There was a moment of silence as the trainees shifted, awaiting further instruction. They were not going to get it.

"What are you waiting for?!" Dode yelled at the group, making more than a few jump in surprise. "Get in there!"

The group scurried as the rushed into the mine. There was a bit of a pile up for a moment, to the chuckles of the armored onlookers, but within a minute they were all in the tunnel.

Nero was left outside, standing a bit awkwardly before Rob walked up to him.

"Come grab a seat, I imagine we have a bit of time before the first ones come back out." He led Kaesar over to an unoccupied table and sat down in the shade, resting his cane across his lap as Nero took a seat as well. Jorry slithered down and onto the table and curled up in a patch of sunlight to sleep.

"So, how are they supposed to see in the dark?" Nero asked Rob who smiled in response.

"That is up to them, we did not tell them to bring any torches, and I imagine many of the lanterns of the mine have been destroyed. This is one of the things experience teaches. Next time they come to a mine to explore, they will remember to bring light. Sometimes being prepared is more important than being strong."

"So who are they?" Nero asked a different question as he nodded towards the armored figures. Ken and Dode were chatting with them, and by the relaxed smiles on their lips, they were probably familiar with each other.

"Soldiers?" Rob answered the question with a confused tilt in his voice. "You can tell by their uniform."

Actually, Nero couldn't, they looked different than the city guards he was used to, but he saw no reason to mention that.

"I mean, it seems like you guys know them from somewhere."

"Oh, well a few of them were trained in Ground Sheer. A good portion of our students ends up in the army either because they want to be or they just were not making enough as adventurers. Many people would prefer a steady income rather than try and get rich at the cost of dying numerous times." Nero nodded in acknowledgment but then asked a question that had been bugging him for a while.

"How come they don't clear out the mine? They should be strong enough to kill the ratmen, and it probably wouldn't take long."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"That mostly has to do with how training grounds interact with the military. If stuff like this happens, monsters popping up where they shouldn't be, then they tend to leave it to the training grounds as a way for trainees to get experience. We, in turn, have to respond rather quickly. It is one thing if a mine is shut down for only a week, it is another thing entirely if it goes on for longer. If Ground Sheer was unable to respond soon enough, it would have been given to another training hall.

Because so many of our students go into the army after they graduate, the military has a vested interest in giving them a chance at combat. It also saves them from having to mobilize at the slightest problem. This applies even to high-level monsters. They would ask the more advanced hall's if they wanted the chance and if they refused, then the military would send out soldiers. Those who you see here are more like the guards of the town, and they are just here to make sure that no ratmen leave the mine."

"How did the ratmen get in there anyway? This isn't their normal spawning location is it?"

"Not usually, no. They are generally closer to major cities. What tends to happen is a rat levels up enough to evolve into a ratman, and that helps other rats do the same. They are mostly found in the larger sewers or in damp caves near waterways that are closer to civilization. The only way this could have happened is if a rat or a group of them left their regular place for some reason and came to this town. They leveled up here and decided to inhabit the local mine. It is rare, but it does happen. They are sapient to an extent but are nowhere near intelligent otherwise they wouldn't have come to such a popular place."

"Won't they simply respawn in the mine in a few hours?"

"Normally yes, but they have not been here long enough to infect the area." At Nero's confused look Rob explained. "Like how our Sacred Ground, where we revive, is created by some humans staying in one place for a period of time, it is the same for monster species. If a group stay in one place for a while or if they are powerful, they infect the area around them with their power. Once they die they respawn in that location. For ratmen, even if there were a thousand of them, it would take months to properly infect an area. They are that weak. If it were something like a wyvern, then they would only two of them to remain in one area for around a week to infect it properly."

"So when we kill them, where will they respawn?"

"In some random area far from other animals. Because there is a rather large group of them, it will probably be in an abandoned cave or mine. If there is one close enough, though I do not think there is, it might be some long lost tomb of sorts. Those usually have powerful creatures or guardians in them already, so I doubt it."

Nero nodded in understanding as a ping like noise rung in his ear. His Knowledge had increased by one from that conversation. This had been the first time it had risen from anything other than reading.

The next couple of minutes passed in silence as Nero once more found himself absorbed in his thoughts and Rob leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed.

The silence lasted until a noise was heard coming from the tunnel leading to the mine. Nero looked up to see a group of five trainees make their way out of the shadows. Thier faces were flushed with exertion and triumph as three dragged ratmen by their tails towards the table the two instructors were sitting at. A few words were exchanged, and Ken pointed the group towards Nero and Rob.

The five dragged the bodies over and dropped them onto the table, startling Jorry awake.

"Here you go." One of the men in the group said before turning around to return to the mine.

"Alright, you are going to skin these. Follow the usual pattern and put the pelts on that table." Rob said, nodding to a table on the left. "Once it is full, bring them to a carriage and fill it up. Dump the bodies and entrails in a pile off to the side, I'll deal with them. I'll only help if you get too many to handle."

Deciding to get right to the task, Nero noticed a problem right away. He had no apron, and he did not want his clothes wholly ruined. Remembering what the instructor had said about being prepared, he decided to bite the bullet, he took off his jacket and shirt, leaving him in only his pants as he set to work.

He first gutted the creature as he had been shown before setting it aside to drain and starting on another. By the time he was done with the third, the first had drained enough that he could skin it. Throughout the work, he noticed the difference between doing this job in the field compared to in the freezer.

For one, without an apron or clothes, he felt every drop of blood an viscera on his skin. It wasn't pleasant, but it at least wasn't a bladder full of urine again. The second was the fact that, with his new tongue, his sense of smell/taste was now on an entirely different level to before. With all the particles in the air, Nero learned a person could tell the difference between a liver and a kidney based on taste alone. Knowledge like that he could have lived without.

It took half an hour to finish skinning the third ratman, and by then other trainees had returned with more bodies. Rob showed no sign of helping so Nero continued his grizzly work alone for hours. By noon the table was creaking under the weight of the pelts, and the bodies and entrails of the ratmen were starting to stink under the midday sun.

Nero took a few minutes to bring the pelts to a carriage and when he returned he saw Rob shooting a fireball at the pile of bodies. They erupted into flames rather quickly as the instructor took his seat once more.

Nero had seen magic before when he had gone to get the stuffed snake enchanted, but this was the first time he saw it used destructively. Deciding against asking about it, at least for the moment, he set himself back to work.

Jorry, on the other hand, was feasting like a king. He would sort through the discarded innards for the parts he wanted and bring them back to be slowly eaten in the sun. He seemed partial to livers and hearts more than anything else.

The day passed rather quickly, absorbed as Nero was in work. Before he realized it the sun had started its descent across the sky. There was still over an hour till sunset, but the shadows were already starting to grow longer. His 'Disassembly' skill had risen three levels throughout out the day. The flow of bodies had slowed down as the day progressed and it was with surprise that Nero finished with the current carcass, throwing it on the pyre, and found no more to work with.

Rob noticed his pupils pause and said; "Bring those pelts to the carriage and meet me back here." Nero did as instructed and once he returned Rob spoke up once more.

"Alright, that should be enough for now. We can finish once the mine has been completely cleared. For now, I want to hunt a ratman for yourself. One will do, but you have to fight it. I do not care how, or if you have help but you need to kill a ratman and bring the body back before sunset."

Nodding in understanding, Nero walked to the entrance of the mine, picking Jorry up along the way from his napping place. He hesitated at the opening a little, realizing he did not have a light source before shrugging and deciding to enter anyway. He would wing it.

****

"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them."

-Galileo Galilei