Wonder Hole

The Wonder Hole is the name of a gigantic strange system of caverns inhabited by a number of equally strange and often dangerous creatures. However, despite all that, it's most notable aspect is the numerous passages to other worlds, especially the Dusk Realm which was, for a time, partially colonized by Volunteer Soldiers.

The Wonder Hole is situated about 1.5 Km northwest of the Lonesome Outpost, which itself is situated about 35 Km west of Alterna.

## History

Not much is known about the history of the Wonder Hole aside from the fact that it's been known for a long time and that despite numerous expeditions it has remained mostly uncharted in part because of its size but also because of how dangerous some part can be.

Because of its mysterious nature, there are numerous rumors on the Wonder Hole some claiming it goes on forever, or that the bottom is connected to another world which would explain the strange ecology of the place. One thing which is known is that some of the creature inhabiting it used to be inhabitants of Grimgar who were forced to flee into the hole and adapted to living there.

In recent history, the most notable events would be:

1. the establishment of a base inside the Wonder Hole by Volunteer Soldiers who were forced to retreat into it by the alliance of Kings' forces.
2. The apparition of a new and powerful race of demi-humans.

## Geography

The Wonder hole is incredibly vast and most of it is likely still uncharted territory, in fact even frequently visited zones are still partially unexplored, to make things worst the Hole can sometimes change on its own or through the actions of the creatures inhabiting it.

However, 5 zones are fairly well known:

### The valley of holes

The zone closest to the entrance, it's inhabited by the 3 species of demi-human and some Melruks. As the name implies, that area is full of small holes and tunnels used by the inhabitant of the zone as cover making them relatively dangerous to explore for Volunteer Soldier weak enough to be targeted by demi-humans.

At least part of that area is similar to a canyon and the sky is visible from inside.

### The muryan nest

A system of tunnels and rooms built by the muryans, more specifically the muryan workers, a race of ant-like monsters bigger than a person. The tunnels are maintained by the workers who also keep them clean of corpses. They're mostly home to muryan soldiers whose role is do defend the nest and won't usually attack, of muryan samurais whose role is to attack and hunt creatures wandering in the nest, and of Ustrel a race of humanoid monster who fights using a massive naginata. Ustrels seem to be the apex predator in the nest as muryans will flee before them. Finally, deep into the nest, in places rarely reached, live muryan queens and stallions.

### The kingdom of Devils

A complex system of caverns with impressive temple-looking buildings carved into the side, inhabited by Baphomet-looking creatures who, while unsettling, are usually not aggressive. Despite the impressive architecture, there are usually very few valuables to be found here, moreover, the Baphomets can be very dangerous if they do decide to attack, making the Kingdom an unpopular zone to explore, most Volunteer soldiers going right through it.

### The Gremlins' nest

The nest of strange harmless bat-like creatures, it's connected to passages to both the Dusk Realm and Night Realm.

## Ecology

### Melruks

The Melruks are creatures living at the very beginning and in the area around the Wonder Hole. They look like human-sized chickens, which according to both Haruhiro and Merry make them look weird, similar to how insects look strange under a magnifying glass when all their normally unseen details become visible. Because of that appearance Team Haruhiro named them pseudo-chickens before knowing their name.

Melruks are quite nimble, good jumpers, and despite their appearance able to fly a bit, up to 3m for a few moments. They mainly fight using powerful kicks and make use of their ability to fly for a time to use both of their legs in rapids succession, staying in the air by rapidly kicking their target. Those legs are dangerously tough, even able to withstand a strike from Ranta's sword (at the time of Level 4). The rest of their body is also quite resistant as they can shrug off a few arrows or strikes to the torso.

While Melruks aren't fighters by nature, as others will stay away when one of their owns is under attack, however, they know how to defend themselves when attacked and try to take their revenge after fleeing if they see an opening.

According to Yume, they look cute.

### Demi-humans

The term covers 3 species of humanoids living in the area right inside the Wonder Hole, they're considered to be the weakest creature in the Hole (which is likely false as Gremlins seem even weaker). They survive by hunting Meruks (in groups) and other demi-humans. While they will usually kill each other on sight, they will attack outsiders first if they think they can win. As such they are considered to be a test of sort for Volunteer Soldiers as they will flee before the powerful ones and attack the weak.

1. **Duergar:** They look like squat (around 120cm), big-nosed, round-eyed human-like creature, they wear nothing but short shabby looking one-piece dresses tied shut at their waist and don't wear any shoes. Since they all look like males and all use big clubs, Team Haruhiro dubs them "Clubmen". Despite their small size they're really strong able to easily swing 1m long clubs, yet they're also really nimble making them difficult targets, moreover, while they're not as intelligent as humans, they're still clever enough to use surprise attacks and avoid powerful foes.
2. **Bogies:** They're even smaller than Duergar and look like furry tailless monkeys, however, their build is closer to a human. Their abnormal level of fur (even their faces are covered) is their most notable characteristic, leading Team Haruhiro to call them "Hairy monkeys". The Bogies' forte is their speed and agility, they are extremely fast and able to easily jump up to 3m tall without any run-up. They use that speed to harass their prey using their sharp long hard claws. They're probably about as intelligent as Duergar, if not a bit less.
3. **Spriggan:** Spriggans look like emaciated children with jet black skin, their anatomy seems closer to human than the other 2 demi-humans except for their gems like eyes that lead Team Haruhiro to name them "gem kids". Those eyes can be sold for a good price, because of that they were almost hunted to extinction multiple times. It doesn't seem like they wear clothes but they are armed with knives made of some see-through knives.

### Muryan

Muryans are ants like monsters living in the, aptly named, Muryans nest which they won't usually leave. There's a variety of Muryans but all of them look like ants. However, they're bigger than a person, with a solidly built grape-colored body but a rather small head, and while their overall look is similar to ants, some of them have one more pair of arms beside their 6 legs. Their body is covered by an exoskeleton making them quite tough but for some unknown reason, Falz magic is really powerful against them.

Like ants, the Muryans are divided into casts, so far 5 of them are known, but only the Soldier and Samurai were described in details:

* Soldiers: A type of Muryan with 2 blade-like arms, they mainly fight to protect the nest against external threat and usually won't be on the offensive. However, if a Muryan Samurai attack a prey they will follow it and surround the target attacking it if it comes too close or attacks them. If they're attacked, a Soldier will try to call more Soldiers. They're quite tough as shown when one of them was still alive despite taking a blade through the face, that said like all muryan they're vulnerable to Falz magic and one use of Lighting is enough to immobilize them. Some soldiers can have part of their exoskeleton of a greenish-gold color, those parts apparently are sought after as they can be sold by Volunteer Solider for a good price.
* Samurai: A type of Muryan with 2 arms and dexterous hands that they use to wield 2 black katanas-like weapons. Those Katanas aren't made of metal but of something similar to porcelain but sturdier and with great destructive power. Unlike Soldiers, Samurais are aggressive and vicious fighters who come after any hostile creatures. It seems like Samurai may be a form of higher soldiers are they're better fighters, tougher (unlike soldiers one Lightning isn't enough to immobilize them), and Soldiers will follow them into battle. A Samurai's Katanas are valuable as they can be melt and mixed with metal to create a high-quality alloy.
* Workers: A smaller and harmless variety of Muryans, like in ants colonies, workers made up most of the colony and are the ones building the nest. Because they're not dangerous and can't be hunted for anything of value they're mostly ignored by Volunteer Soldiers.
* Stallions: They live deep in the nest and breed with the Queen.
* Queen: She lives deep into the nest and laid eggs.

### Ustrel

Ustrels are dangerous creatures living in the Muryan Nest. Not unlike the 3 demi-humans, they're considered to be a test of sort for Volunteer Soldier and when a group can defeat one it means that they're skilled enough to explore more of the Wonder Hole. Ustrels are at the top of the food chain in their environment as both the Muryans and the demi-humans will immediately flee before them.

Ustrels are massive (over 2m tall) blackish humanoid, they have broad shoulders, long arms, and a weirdly small head. They wear a blackish raincoat like garment and fight using a massive Naginata whose blade looks like a meat cleaver. Their blood is black and their tongue orange.

Ustrels are remarkable fighters able to wield their large polearm with great skill even when fighting groups of opponents but they also fight using kick, dash, jump, and any combination of the 3 making good use of their great strength, speed, and size. Moreover, Ustrels are able to rapidly extend their arms to about twice their normal length. That characteristic combine with their surprisingly good agility and long weapons can make it hard to predict an Utrel reach, especially when fighting one for the first time.

Unsurprisingly Ustrels are tough: their skull is covered in an exoskeleton made of metal and so are their teeth, and while the rest of their body isn't as hard they can still take quite a bit of punishment without it affecting their combat ability. In fact, even a spell like Lighting used by Shihoru was only able to momentarily stun one of them, dealing only minor damage.

Moreover, Ustrels are, despite their size, good ambusher as they make almost no sound when moving around in the tunnel and are surprisingly hard to notice even for someone like Haruhiro. On the other hand, it can be hard to sneak on an Ustrel because of how keen their senses are, to the point that one of them nearly found Haruhiro despite him being hidden and immobile. However, for all their strength it does seem like Ustrels tired quite fast when fighting.

Despite the fact that almost every Volunteer Soldier working in the Wonder Hole will end up fighting and killing (or be killed by) at least one Ustrel, they're not usually hunted as only their metallic skull and naginata are worth anything and both are bulky and not really worth the effort necessary to harvest and bring them back.

### Baphomets/Devils

Like their name imply, Baphomets look like a mix between a human and a goat, more specifically they mostly look like imposing humans but the bottom half of their body is covered in thick fur and they have goat-like horns on the head. They always carry polearms/spear-like weapons called staves, which they take care of but it doesn't seem like they wear any clothes. It's also unknown if they look like men or women but the description seems to imply that they all look like men.

The Baphomets or Devils as they're called most of the time live in the aptly named Devil Kingdom, that zone looks like a big, impressively made temple carved into the side of the cave. While their great talent in architecture and the quality of their staves show undeniably show that they're clever creatures, it doesn't seem possible to communicate with them. Instead, they will almost perfectly imitate the voices of every human near them, moreover, Haruhiro notes that their voices can't really be blocked out and seems to have a slight effect on people's sanity.

Thankfully for volunteer soldiers, the Devils aren't hostile and if left alone they will limit themselves to imitating intruders' voices, however, if they feel threatened they won't hesitate to attack. Moreover, they have a good memory and will remember those who didn't behave themselves, putting pressure on them by surrounding them and sometimes even attacking them. Since they don't have any valuables besides their staves, and because they're forced to go through the Devil Kingdom to progress deeper into the Wonder Hole, it seems like Volunteer Soldiers don't hunt Baphomets and will try to avoid conflict with them.

### Gremlins (Ri-komo)

Gremlins look like Goblins-sized bat but unlike the former, it's unclear whether they're sentients or not. Gremlins are incredibly weak, especially compare to the other Wonder Hole inhabitants. As such, they're completely unable to defend themselves from predators. To solve that problem, they tend to live in very large groups and will make a lot of loud and strange noises when intruders are in the vicinity.

Unlike all other species from the wonder hole which seem to be endemic to that place, Gremlins can be found in other places, more specifically near passages between worlds. Lala theorizing that Gremlins may have the power to find or create passages between worlds and use them to flee from predators.

When the Tokkis and Team Haruhiro first came into contact with Gremlins, Kikkawa named them "Ri-komo", a name used by both teams for a time and subsequently dropped when everyone else started using Gremlins.

### Grendels

A race which recently appeared in the Wonder Hole, it's unknown whether they come from further down in the hole or from another world. They've been described as really powerful and one of the reasons why the situation of the Volunteer Soldiers trapped in the hole is unstable. An impressive feat considering that both Team Soma and Team Akira are currently in the Wonder Hole.

## Passages

Despite how strange the Wonder Hole is, its most notable characteristic is probably its connections to other worlds. Rumors speak of the bottom of the hole being connected to another world, and while that could be true, there's no need to go that far to find passages to other worlds. Those passages also seem to be able to appear rather suddenly, unlike other known passages between worlds which seem to have existed for a very long time.

However, so far only 2 passages are known to exist for sure, and only one of them was shown:

1. A passage to the Dusk Realm, which suddenly appeared and was discovered by Team Haruhiro, however the first to really explore the world beyond were the Tokkis. That passage was later made public leading to an influx of Volunteer Soldiers in the Dusk Realm, however it probable that the passage is now destroyed or at the very least block after the Giant God crushed the exit on the Dusk Realm side.
2. A passage to the Night Realm, it was discovered by Lala and Nono but as that world is apparently incredibly dangerous, almost nothing is known about it. Although, it's possible that the Night Realm and Darunggar are one and the same as both worlds do share quite a number of characteristics, the most notable of them being the constant night.