The team of nine made their way towards the city, and then dwelled deeper into the same domain.

Steve had it hard to understand regarding why they entered the city to begin with, something did not seem right.

Sure he was quite new to this whole world, but his take was that a dungeon could be found in some remote place.

Yet this whole team simply headed deeper towards civilisation, such behaviour was in strong contradictions to his expectations.

And at this point they've sunk a bit too deep into this domain, as they've travelled over two hours already.

So he figured that the group won't turn back anytime soon. This prospect undoubtedly raised a lot of questions.

Communication between the two small parties had been thin so far, which meant that Steve couldn't reap information out of the other side.

Yet that could be changed with enough effort. So after he put in a bit of work to figure out what to ask about, he approached the few men who marched in front of them.

And he questioned quite directly, "I thought we were going to some dungeon. Why are we in the city?"

One of the tallest men faced the young man right away. And a hint of rage was evident on his face.

After gesturing to be silent, that same large man recited. "The dungeon is in the city. Now keep your mouth shut or else a hundred adventurers will follow us!"

"Fair enough," The younger agreed and backed away.

Half of the confusion had been cleared up after that point. The dungeon was located in the city apparently, such a detail helped make sense of the current group decisions.

So Steve didn't want to prove troublesome, there was no need for it.

He also understood that the details regarding the same matter, could be comprehended once they reached their destination.

This was the main reason why he didn't bug these frogs with any other questions. But at the same time he had other thoughts in mind.

That was why he got closer to Altima this time, and with some whispers he managed to progress an idea.

"Try your best to remember where we're going. We need to know how close this dungeon is to bigger stone roads." He requested.

Of course he could put in effort to memorize this area as well, but that would almost be a waste of time.

He had only been in this city for a couple of days, and this lady was basically raised in this area; so undoubtedly she would know her way around better.

But of course she was confused due to such a request, so she had to voice her concerns.

"Why's that so important?" She weighed in.

"I don't trust those frogs at all," Steve specified.

And then continued, "If they try to kill us, we would at least know how and where to run away."

"I will never flee, especially from those dirty thieves..." She whispered back and almost yelled in the process.

Steve appreciated the other's willpower, but he still wanted to take safety measures.

So he encouraged once more, "Please remember these roads so we can find our way around."

Towards that insistent demand the lady simply nodded, and then observed their surroundings just a bit better.

The young man felt satisfied towards such a result. And now he could get back on his thoughts, regarding what to expect from this day.

But just before he could dwell in the recesses of his mind, he felt a tug on the fur coat from below, such a gesture forced him to peek down.

"I'm hungry..." Trina stretched those couple of words right after.

"Oh right... frogs eat food as well." He mumbled.

Ever since he got here, the young man had not eaten a single bite of food. And only now he realised that was the reason behind a strong headache.

So he took a proper glance of the surrounding area, and saw a shop that sold food out in the open.

This street was wide and simply bustled with life, so that type of effort to sell goods didn't exactly seem over the top.

He also wanted to seek a place that sold coats, just so his sister could be a little bit warmer. But he had not seen anyone selling them out in the open.

For that reason he decided to make that idea a task for later. His sister wore a fur coat right now and it seemed thick enough, even though it was beyond dirty.

It should prove helpful to her for at least a few weeks, so Steve decided to just buy some food for now. But he also thought that it was a good idea to be cooperative.

So he called for the six men in front of him, and lightly hollered. "My sister is hungry, wait here for a moment so I can buy her some food over there."

The tallest frog of the other group, nodded at another member afterwards.

And although no words had been exchanged, that group member headed towards that shop.

Steve needed a moment or two in order to catch up with what the others were up to. But once he understood the concept, he couldn't help but feel conflicted.

This group of men shared a strong poker-face between one another. They seemed lifeless and could convince any passerby that they were murderers.

Yet one of these same men went far enough to spend a few gold coins of his own, just to buy food for the little girl that had tagged along with the whole group.

That and he also gave food to Steve and Altima, which made this situation a lot more conflicting.

These frogs were supposed to be scammers and thieves, how did they casually show effort and care to the ones who owed them debt?

Even Altima was confused at this point, she did not expect such hospitality from the other portion of the team, at all.

But they were all hungry, so they didn't hesitate to chuck this food down.

Steve peeked at what had been given to him, and couldn't help but feel a bit confused once more. However this time it was for a whole different reason.

That man had bought some version of massive bugs for them.

The young man had a one-foot long, and chubby bug on his palms right now. He tried to figure out how this thing was supposed to be consumed.

Altima swallowed her food with one bite, regardless of how sizable this bug was!

Such a sight wasn't exactly confusing, especially since she was a big woman who likely had nutritional needs.

But the young man simply felt confused. He peeked at the bug once more and analysed its features.

This insect seemed scaly to a certain extent, and had a light yellow skin-colour that simply did not please the eye.

Afterwards he peeked at Trina, and noticed that the little girl was halfway through her buggy meal already!

He spotted that the insides of this creature were covered with some yellow liquid, this substance was quite slimy and had a strong odour too.

So of course Steve grew more hesitant than ever, he really didn't want to taste this darn thing.

But yet his stomach whistled in contradiction to his thoughts, so it seemed like the inevitable to give this weird bug a try.

As the young man closed his eyes, he slowly reached to take a bite of this weird yellow bug.

And as a form of panic he instantly swallowed a mouthful, even though its contents seemed partially crunchy!

That was when strong flavours struck his taste buds.

This insect didn't actually taste horrible. After Steve went through the horror of actually eating a bug, he could tell apart a familiar flavour.

"Mayonnaise...?" He mumbled through that one word.

[I don't know what that is,] The system intervened.

[But what you just ate is called a yellow-tar fly. They're notoriously known for pooping on houses, but their insides are absolutely delicious by most accounts]

"They taste like a chicken egg's slime," Steve added his own thought.

He tried to explain what mayonnaise was, and that was the best idea he could come up with.

[The people of your planet actually ate chicken eggs?] The system questioned.

Her tone was noticeably coated with surprise, characteristic for sure and it was almost amusing to capture her concern.

So Steve found it appropriate to be more informative regarding the doings of his past planet.

That was why he specified through a few thoughts, "We do eat their eggs, a lot. And the chickens themselves as well actually."

[Odd... your planet is odd. This continent is rich in food, so frogs never really bother to chase chickens]

"That's ironic considering that I just ate a bug, I thought that everyone here is desperate for food." He followed along with a hint of sarcasm.

[Bugs are very healthy for frogs, what else are they supposed to eat?]

"Fair point," The young man added.

He remembered that these frogs had different needs. Sure their architectural values were equal or perhaps better than that of humans, but they had nutritional needs that an actual frog would require.

So of course they would need to eat bugs, this reflection finally aided to make sense out of this situation.

And after a moment he managed to eat through the whole yellow-tar fly. He could already feel the positive effects of its consumption.

Sure this felt like the weirdest thing he ever did so far, but this food was actually tasty after a few bites.

He could already feel that half of his headache had cleared away, and his energy met with a small spike too.

At this point he was curious to browse over the other food around here, but he didn't want to slow the team down either. So he planned to explore goods once he got some free time.

...

Eventually the whole team met with a halt. They had to travel for a couple hours more, and took a few breaks because Trinia deemed it so.

It was sweet how the whole team of nine took breaks just because the little lady was tired, but the travel itself had taken far longer than it was supposed to.

Everyone was tired already, especially Altima and Steve who had taken an even longer journey before, just to meet the debt collectors.

But regardless of how tired they were, at least they had taken the first step of their overall task.

They entered some man's property just a moment ago. It seemed like this structure was an Inn. These buildings behaved much like a hotel but had a lot more beer in comparison.

The Inn owner was cooperative for some reason. That was likely because he was either paid well, or worked together with the revolutionaries; one could only guess.

Those details aside, the team were in the Inn's basement right now, and had put in quite some effort to pull up a heavy stone hatch.

"To think that some great architects covered a dungeon so clumsily," Altima mocked the situation.

She too had lent a hand to lift the hatch. Mostly because she was one of the strongest here, but also because she was eager.

The shortest of the men in the other portion of the group, decided to follow along with the lady's gossip.

To do so he simply revealed, "This dungeon held criminals down here, over two-hundred years ago."

After he got everyone's attention he felt pressured to continue, "The city became richer at that time, that was why they could afford to build a bigger dungeon somewhere else."

"And those same rich folk sealed this place up, so they wouldn't have to spend coins taking it all apart." Altima added her own perception to this conversation.

"Correct," The tiny man assured.

And then complimented, "You catch up fast."

With a dismissive smile the lady answered, "Thank you."

Afterwards the tallest man of the group, who was likely the leader between them, encouraged everyone to slowly slip through the hole they've just opened a hatch to.

Neither of the team were sure regarding what to expect down there. But at least they could see the ground on the other side of this hole, so they felt confident to jump down and start this exploration expedition.