《Subjective Insanity (System apocalypses)》 Chapter 1 The rumbling of the metro train echoed across the underground as it passed by Quill. Another missed chance he thought. Another one should come by in a few minutes he noted as he glanced at the electrical sign that showed the train times. He sat on the bench in the empty train station, the hour was late, he¡¯d have checked his phone if it hadn¡¯t been taken from him on his walk here by some mugger. He¡¯d probably be more upset if he didn¡¯t feel so damn tired. It felt like both his jobs were slowly draining him of his very life force. Like some corporate soul sucking vampire machine¡­ Thing¡­ So basically just your typical corporation. Every day it was get up, eat what food he could scrap together or afford. Head to job number one, head to job number two, head home and fall asleep. Rinse and repeat. On a day when he was both lucky and cursed to work only one of his jobs that day he¡¯d basically use the free time to dissociate. Watching videos where his brain just turned off. He didn¡¯t have much energy for anything else. He would say he felt dead but he was pretty sure death wouldn¡¯t be so miserable¡­. A soft chuckle escaped his lips at such an edgy thought. His 13 year old self would be oh so proud. He leaned back on the uncomfortable bench. Damn thing had some hostile architecture to keep homeless people from sleeping on it so he couldn¡¯t even lie down thanks to the jagged bumps on the seating area. Quill tilted his head up towards the ceiling. His mind drifted this way and that never really settled on any thought. The lack of sound slowly disappeared as the faint sound of another train could be heard off in the distance. Another chance. He leaned forward. The musky stale air of the station seemed more prevalent then before as he took a deep breath to steal his nerves. He craned his head to look down the track and could see the lights of the metro getting brighter the closer it got. The screeching of the rails signifying that it was slowing down as it neared the station. The muscles in his leg tensed, his lips felt dry, he just needed to push forward. He wouldn¡¯t have to work at his soul crushing job, he wouldn¡¯t have to worry about heading home to a dilapidated empty apartment, he wouldn¡¯t have to worry about the ever oppressive society crushing and tearing at him, he wouldn¡¯t have to worry about the ever present loneliness and¡­ Nothing. He couldn¡¯t do it yet again. The screeching of the metro slowly came to a stop as he stared at it. The doors opened and only a couple people filtered outside to make their way to the escalator. He watched the train leave and stared at the tunnel at its departure¡­. Wait¡­ ¡°That was the train I needed to get home..¡± He murmured¡­ Damn depression! If it was going to make him suicidal it could not be so inconvenient about it! The very least it could do was make him follow through! If not then have the decency for him to register basic ass things he needed to do if he wasn¡¯t going to kill himself! Quill rubbed his eyes and let out a sigh ¡°Damn I am so tired.¡± He¡¯d have probably just fallen asleep here if it weren¡¯t for the blasted bench! Deciding he needed to get up and move a bit he stood and fished his old headphones out of his somewhat worn bag. He had this bag for so long he couldn¡¯t even remember where or when he had gotten it. But despite the worn features it still held sturdy and he loved the old thing. ¡°Almost inspirational if you ask me¡± Quill said and the silence of the station greeted him. Thankfully there was no one there to give him weird looks as he placed the headphones over his ears and clicked shuffle to his mp3 player. He began to pace, letting his head slightly bop up and down to the beat of the song. He didn¡¯t need to bother thinking in these moments. Just him and the music. Nothing else mattered. Perhaps that was why he didn¡¯t quite notice the smoke in the station until it was blanketing the entire ceiling by what he could only guess was a few inches. ¡°What the hell?¡± Quill murmured as he finally noticed the gray smoke. He sniffed the air but it still smelled of the musty old train station. There were no panicked screams that he figured might accompany a fire that could produce this much smoke. Even if this platform was empty where he was there were still other platforms in the station. Plus there was just no heat. So perhaps the fire was far away? But why was there so much smoke? Maybe a train collision in the tunnels? He peeked over the rails and looked down the tunnels in both directions but saw nothing.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Well regardless, I should probably get out of here. I might be suicidal but dying by fire or smoke inhalation seems like a bad way to go.¡± He spoke to himself and turned to make his way towards the escalators. Jogging at a decent pace since he still didn¡¯t know where the fire was and didn¡¯t want to run head first into it, he cleared the escalators quickly and ducked his head to keep it from getting into the smoke that had gotten further down from the ceiling. That was when he saw wisps of the smoke start to slowly descend to the ground in a manner similar to an ice finger of death and most certainly not how smoke is supposed to behave. The moment these whisps touched the ground it quickly started spreading out and Quill decided letting something like that touch him probably wasn¡¯t a good thing and picked up the pace as the wisps began to descend more and more. Sadly the smoke clearly didn¡¯t seem to want him to escape (A sentence he never thought he would think) because a veritable wall of smoke suddenly fell in front of him cutting off his exit and he slid to a stop, promptly turned the other direction and ran hoping to find an emergency exit by the train tracks. Suddenly he watched another wall of smoke descend in front of him boxing him with the two smoke walls and two concrete walls preventing him from going anywhere. Another wisp of smoke descended just above his head and he quickly dove to the side, awkwardly flopping on the ground cursing at the pain shooting through his body. Another wisp began to descend this one above him as well and rolled to the side not wanting any of this supposed smoke to touch him. It was at this point that the wisps of smoke were now directly targeting him. Each one was descending where he was or had been though moving slow enough that he could get out of the way. Then the wisps started falling in front of him and it didn¡¯t take a genius to realize that they were herding him towards one of the stone walls of the metro station. It took perhaps a couple more minutes before he was finally boxed in and watched as one of the wisps started to make its way towards him. Whatever was about to happen, he just had to accept his unknown fate. Who knows. Maybe nothing would. He faced the wisp as it descended only for it to stop a foot away from his face and Quills eyebrows knitted together as he stared at the wisp and a frown started to stretch across his face. ¡°Really? You box me in and chase me around like this only to stop just before finishing whatever it is you''re doing?! Are you just screwing me with me here¡± The smoke gave no reply cause of course it fucking didn¡¯t. It was smoke! ¡°Great. I am going insane. Or maybe I did jump in front of that train and am now in some near death delusion state¡± The smoke yet again didn¡¯t reply and he glowered at it. ¡°Going to ignore me then? Well if I am delusional then I am going to have to tell you, you smoke monster thing, that you need to freaking commit If you''re going to chase someone down. So commit!¡± And promptly jumped up letting his head not just hit the wisp of smoke but submerged his head into the blanket of smoke that was above. Quill swore he heard a high giggle chiming in his ears that seemed to contain both malice, joy, relief and love all in one before the smoke completely converged on him. It suddenly felt like every pore, every orifice suddenly opened to allow the smoke to enter him as a searing, burning, pleasant, wonderful, agonizing, icy heat struck through his body making his mind scream in the feelings and emotions that were and weren¡¯t his, overwhelming him. Time almost seemed to stop and he didn¡¯t know how long the feeling lasted before suddenly it was gone. There was no smoke, there was nothing. He just sat there on the floor of the metro station with his back once more against the wall. Quill very shakily stood up, his legs wobbling back a bit as he looked around with confusion. ¡°Great. I actually am going insane¡± he muttered but to perhaps just make sure, he wobbled a little bit over to the kiosk with a guard inside that was by the train gates and knocked on the window where a guy sat watching something on his phone. He looked up blinking, clearly not expecting someone to be knocking on the window and sat up looking at him confusingly. ¡°Hi, um.¡± Quill''s voice faltered slightly as he wasn¡¯t sure how to express without sounding crazy and not thinking of a way too he decided to just¡­ Well commit. ¡°You didn¡¯t happen to see a very large blanket of smoke that kinda engulfed the whole station that seemed to move and have a mind of its own did you?¡± The guard gave him an odd look and spoke ¡°Hey man, I am all for smoking but you aren¡¯t supposed to do that in the metro¡± That wasn¡¯t really what he said at all. How does someone even think he is smoking from the sentence he just uttered??? But he guessed he got his answer anyways. Delusions and hallucinations it is! Yay¡­ Quill turned around and headed back down the escalator to wait for the next train that would come. He would have to schedule an appointment with a psychologist and psychiatrist.. Is what he would say if he could have afforded one. Maybe this was a one time thing. Surely that would. His body lurched as he made it back to the uncomfortable bench he sat on, fell to his hands and knees and vomited up what little he had in his stomach. ¡°What the fucking hel-¡± He vomited again. Okay yeah. Something was definitely wrong with him. Now should he tempt fate and ask if it could get any worse? Initializing system ¡°I was fucking kidding! Why is this even happening???¡± Quill screamed out as another hallucination popped up in front of him in the form of a translucent screen with some text. Error with user! Please stand by to reintegrate. ¡°The death of the soul begins at stagnation my love¡± Reintegration success Initializing system Chapter 2 Welcome to the multiverse new user! We are happy to have you! As you are freshly integrated we will be keeping you in a small pocket dimension while your planet is properly processed and integrated into the system. Please take your time to familiarize yourself with everything for the next 120 days in our wonderful tutorials before being transported back to your planet. To help ease the transition we have happily designed the tutorials off of your planet and which tutorial you get depends on where you were when the system integrated. All for your convenience! Please check your status before exploring your tutorial to decrease your chances of an untimely death. Enjoy! Before Quill could even make sense of what he just read another screen flashed in front of his eyes Congratulations! You have unlocked the ¡°traits¡± Category in your status screen! Quill glared at the screen. He didn¡¯t recall anything about hallucinations being so coherent but then his only experience with such things was five minutes ago with the sentient smoke thing so maybe this was normal. He scooted himself to the bench and sat down with a groan before noting that his pool of vomit was noticeably absent and so he probably hallucinated that too for pete''s sake!. Why couldn¡¯t hallucinations be pleasant? Quill promptly flopped himself on the bench and yelped as he sat up and looked at the bench. Not because it was unpleasant to lie on. Because it was! The hostile architecture was gone! It was just a normal comfy stone slab of blissfulness! Pleasant hallucination it was! Quill laid down with a giggle almost escaping his lips. He could have used a pillow but who cares. Well if he was going to go insane. He could really use a big greasy cheeseburger with bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, enough sauce to be messy, some extra salty fries and an ever so sweet milkshake! What do you say brain??? He lay there in silence with a lack of food appearing out of nowhere. Yeah, that was probably too much to hope for. A distant yet loud crash echoed across the station coming from the platform where the escalators led. Quill tilted his head awkwardly up from the bench to see if he could see what the sound was but couldn¡¯t see anything. Well if his hallucinations were visual he might as well add auditory to it as well. Should he investigate? Sure! Why not see how deep this rabbit hole went. Maybe his cheeseburger was where the sound was if he was lucky. He looked at the small screen that displayed the times with the trains and noticed that instead of saying when the next colored train was supposed to arrive it just said ¡°Arriving in 25 minutes¡± Probably some technical glitch or something. He would find out what train was arriving when it showed up, either way he had plenty of time, so with a grunt of effort he sat up from the bench and began to make his way to the escalators.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. He tilted his head with a frown as he began walking. Something seemed slightly off and it took Quill a second to recognize that the station looked different. One, the ads that decorated the wall were just blank white screens or posters. Two, the architecture seemed different in a way he couldn¡¯t quite place. And three, the escalators weren¡¯t moving. They were just stairs but as in they had actually transformed into stairs. Nothing escalator-like about those stone stairs. Quill rubbed his eyes to see if things would change back when he looked back at them again but nope. They were all the same¡­. What did that screen say about putting him in an area similar to the planet? It also said something like checking his status before exploring. A translucent screen flashed in front his face the moment he thought that. Quill ERROR Lvl: 1 Race: Human (unranked) Body: .6 Mind: .8 Soul: ERROR Buffs/ailments: Insanity (weak) Skills: traits: ERROR (unique) Well that was hardly helpful. What¡¯s with all these errors anyways? Even his last name was an error. How hard was it to¡­ too¡­. Quill froze in place at the bottom of the stairs. What the hell was his last name? He certainly had one but... He scrunched his brows trying desperately to remember what it was. He knows he had one. Had one. Had. Had! ¡°HAS!¡± Quill spoke loudly with frustration and anger boiling up. His eyes snapping towards the buffs and ailments where it listed him as being insane. ¡°This shit better be temporary. I don¡¯t need my hallucination screen playing therapist for me.¡± he muttered. Perhaps what bothered him the most was whatever last name he had¡­. Has! Whatever last name he has felt like it no longer was his. That something else had taken its place and his name was different¡­ Another crash snapped him out of his thoughts and he looked up the stairs that used to be escalators. Still couldn¡¯t really see anything that was causing the sound and so he started to march up the stairs. As he crested the stairs and peered over them, he just saw the hallway that turned off towards the gate. A couple of the lights were flickering giving it a very eerie feeling. The sound that had probably caused the crashing could be heard just around that corner by the gate and where the guard was. Please be the guard doing something weird or stupid and hopefully not another hallucination. He has had enough of those for one stupid night. He started walking through the hallway, the flickering lights naturally got his mind thinking about every worst possible scenario and seemed to settle on him seeing a ghost when he turned the corner. ¡°Please, at least let the ghost be friendly or at least pretty. I don¡¯t want a scary ghost. If the ghost is at least pretty I¡¯ll be okay dying that way. Would be one funny obituary at least." He tried to make a light-hearted joke as he turned the corner and sadly didn¡¯t see any pretty ghosts. Instead he saw the security guard lying dead with his chest torn up and on top of said guard was a giant fucking rat the size of medium dog devouring his entrails with a sickening crunching and squishing. If Quill had anything left in his stomach he would have certainly thrown up again but that didn¡¯t stop him from dry heaving as the smell of the blood hit his nose. Thankfully the Rodent of Unusual Size was busy eating the guard to have noticed him and he very slowly began to step back. It was in that moment that he noticed the second rat, slightly smaller than the first and sadly not distracted with eating the dead guard with its beady eyes fixed squarely on him. Quill took another step back and the rat took a step forward. He took another step back and the rat took yet another step forward. He quickly pivoted and bolted towards the stairs that used to be escalators as the sound of claws scurried across the tiles signifying that the rat was now chasing him and he hoped against all hope that this was indeed just another hallucination. Chapter 3 Quill was having a no good very bad day. That would probably best describe what was going through his head as the hallucination of the giant fucking rat that was smaller then the first (but still way too big!) was chasing him down the hall of the metro towards the stairs that used to be escalators. The clawing scrapes seemed to be gaining on him as he reached the stairs so with some quick thinking he hopped on the middle rail to slide down as quickly as he could. Except he just had to over jump the stupid bar making him do an awkward summersault smacking down on the stairs and promptly fumbling till he grabbed the rail again stopping his descent about a third of the way down. ¡°Owwww.¡± Was about the only thing he could muster out before looking up at the Rat who stood at the top of the stairs looking down at him with what he could only assume was some kind of smug look. ¡°Yeah, I bet you are having a real fucking laugh up there aren¡¯t you. Why don¡¯t you come down here and say it to my face, you plague infested rodent!¡± He snapped back up at it, making the rat snarl like it could understand him and leapt forward with claws out and jaw open. Now he wasn¡¯t the quickest or smartest person in the world. But even he wasn¡¯t stupid enough to literally jump down some stairs to try and dive bomb somebody. Quill just stepped to the side and threw a haymaker right into the matte furred face of the rat just as it passed by with a loud crunch that could have been either his fist or the things face. Hopefully it was at least both given how much it hurt to punch the stupid thing as pain shot through his arm. He took several steps back as he shook his hand in pain as the rat crashed down into the stairs and rolled all the way to the bottom before awkwardly shaking itself off and glaring back up at him. ¡°Yeah. Sucks when someone smugly looks down on you don¡¯t it?¡± Quill couldn¡¯t help but taunt. ¡°Remember this moment next time. Assuming there is a next time. Shall we find out?¡± The rat chuffed in response making him really wonder how much it could understand him and started to charge up the stairs only for Quill to promptly have his foot meet the oversized rodent''s nose as he punted that damn thing right back down the stairs where it came and it landed on its back. The thing was stunned and Quill realized that he was both a pretty big hypocrite and was indeed stupid enough to jump down the stairs to try and dive bomb his opponent. Thankfully the rat was still recovering from its fall to do much of anything and his feet slammed right into the rats stomach with a very loud crunch. The oversized rodent spewed out blood from the massive stomp as Quill felt his own legs scream in pain from the stupid, albeit satisfying decision of jumping down a full flight of stairs. The momentum of which made him fall forward and he rolled awkwardly before getting back to his feet ready to face the rat but it thankfully it wasn¡¯t moving Killed baby dire rat lvl 3. Experience gained. He shook his head in both disbelief and annoyance at the screen that flashed before him that thankfully went away the moment he wanted it too. That rat was only a baby??? How big was an adult! Also level 3? Yay for killing something that was apparently higher level then him but considering he was only level 1 it was probably safe to assume that everything was a higher level then him. If anything he was upset that he apparently didn¡¯t gain a level from that. Like he killed something much stronger than him, surely that had to count for something. Also, at this point. He was just going to have to assume that this was no illusion or hallucination and that everything that was currently happening was real which meant¡­. He actually had no idea what that meant. He awkwardly limped towards a nearby bench and sat down staring at the dead rat as he tried to take stock of everything that had happened and what the hell he was going to do next. ¡°Okay so I seem to be stuck in a video game-like system thing and am in some kind of tutorial and not in the real world that was apparently being modified.¡± Though this wasn¡¯t really much of a tutorial, where the hell was actual learning and tutorial crap! This was just like every training he received with a job! Claim they are training you when really they don¡¯t do jack shit and then get pissy when you mess up! Quill rubbed his forehead as he tried to get his thoughts to focus. The biggest question was what should he do now? He had a bigger rat upstairs eating the guard that was by the gate. There was a train coming in a little over ten minutes if that sign was to be believed but given the state of things he might want to consider that it could also be dangerous. Like a train filled with monsters or something. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. There was also the other platform on the other side of the station and the potential exit out of said station. The other platform could have people in it and at this point having other people could be a very good thing with the whole safety in numbers. Quill wasn¡¯t super big on people but with giant rats running around he would gladly make the exception. He summoned up his stat page and looked at it with a small frown. If there were monsters that were marching around here in the subway. It would be a good idea if he tried to grow a level. See what that would entail and well. There was only one way he knew how to do that. He marched over to the dead rat and looked carefully at the things teeth and claws. There was no way he was going to try and fight that bigger rat with his hands and feet. Finding the largest fangs he could, he pried the rat''s mouth open and gripped its fang ¡°Ew, ew ew ew ew ew ewww! Need to find a bathroom or something to wash my hands after cause this is just way to much ew¡± He couldn¡¯t help but complain as he gripped the wetter then he would have liked teeth and began to yank with all his strength until finally he managed to pop the first fang out and proceeded to the same with the second fang. ¡°Why does this have to be so gross¡± as he mumbled, brandishing the now two makeshift dagger teeth and made his way with false bravery towards the rat that was probably still chewing on the dead guard. As he got close to the corner he slowed his pace and peeked around. The guard was now halfway eaten and the smell had definitely gotten worse but thankfully he managed to keep himself from dry heaving. Stupid human biological functions. Maybe leveling up allowed him to get rid of that? Quill focused up and left the imagining future stuff towards a future him. The rat was thankfully distracted by gorging itself. So just going to sneak up slowly. Should be easy. Clutching the teeth tightly he started to sneak his way towards the rat as quickly as and as quietly as he could. He got about half way till the fat bastard decided to look up and Quill froze as they both stared at each other. The rat''s beady eyes looked at him before flashing down to the teeth he was holding then back to him. ¡°Okay, so in my defense your brethren attacked me first.¡± Quill responded as if reasoning with the mutated rodent was something he could actually do. The rat let out a mournful howl that might have made him feel bad if the thing wasn¡¯t completely covered in the guardsman''s blood and started to charge him with murderous intent. Quill isn¡¯t afraid to admit that when a rat the size of a medium dog started charging him he quickly turned right the fuck around and bolted the other direction. It¡¯s one thing to believe you''re brave enough to handle something scary. It¡¯s quite another to experience it. Just gotta get to the stairs. Stairs saved him the first time. Stairs will obviously save him aga- A heavy and powerful blow landed on his back and he fell down with a pained yelp as the rat had jumped on his back, its claws trying to dig through his backpack and the bastard was likely ruining it. ¡°Hey!¡± Quill shifted his weight and managed to roll the stupid thing off of him before leaping on it himself with the teeth still in hand and jabbing them as hard as he could into the things hide. ¡°I¡¯ve had that backpack for years! Don¡¯t you fucking dare ruin it you miserable shit!!¡± And stabbed the rat again. The things hide was tougher than he would have liked or expected. Or maybe the teeth weren¡¯t as sharp as he wanted but he still managed to penetrate the things skin as the creature howled in pain and clawed at his face, slashing his cheeks and making Quill recoil from the pain. Giving the creature ample opportunity to roll out from under him. Quill managed to jump backwards from where he was but the monster still managed to tackle him into the ground with his backpack helping to cushion his fall but that did nothing to the couple hundred pound ball of anger and probably disease that was not on top of him as it¡¯s claws dug into his chest and it opened its maw to bite down on his shoulder making a sharp pain shoot through him. Now Quill liked to believe himself to be a somewhat rational person (System calling him insane notwithstanding) And so he firmly believes that when something bites you, the most appropriate response is to bite them back. So Quill did exactly that and bit down and tore that stupid rats ear right off its head making the creature squeal and unlatch from his shoulder and allowing Quill to jam one of the teeth into the things eye causing the monster to recoil more and thrash around, allowing him to scurry away from it. He managed to get to the top of the stairs before he heard the scurrying of a very angry monster behind him and he turned around just in time to be tackled and they both tumbled down. Him cursing up a storm as he tried to get the upper hand on the rat and the rat doing whatever the hell the rat was doing. They landed onto the floor of the station with Quill landing a bit further away from the rat who landed on its back right next to its dead brethren. Not wanting or allowing this moment to go to waste and despite his body very firm painful protests he launched himself up and onto the creature. Taking the final tooth he had and repeatedly stabbing and jamming it into the creature''s exposed throat until finally. Killed adolescent dire rat. Lvl 5. Experienced gained You gained the skill dirty fighter (lvl. 1) Let it be known you are not above scratching, biting, maybe a goin shot or two. Whatever it takes to win right? You have leveled up! Gained 1 stat point Congratulations! You have unlocked the achievements section in your stat page! You gained the achievement ¡°Tutorial Front Runner¡± for being one of the first 100,000 people to level up in your world. .2 stats awarded for each category. Error! Could not place points in soul. Redistributing evenly between body and mind Quill collapsed down next to the two dead rats breathing hard as the screen flashed before his eyes and managed to let out a very triumphant and not at all pathetic sounding ¡°Yaaaaaaaaaaay¡­¡± Chapter 4 Quill probably laid there for a few minutes as the adrenaline slowly wore off and all he really felt was pain in just about every place in his body. He was pretty sure his body decided to even grow new parts just so he could feel pain there too. He winced as he slowly sat himself up and looked down at his scratched up chest, his shirt was certainly ruined¡­ Shit! His backpack! Quill quickly took his backpack off. Or at least tried too, the shoulder bite from that damn rat certainly didn¡¯t make him speed things up as he winced from the movement. It was then he noticed the bastard had literally bit through most of one of the shoulder straps on it. Taking it off. He looked at his backpack to find the stupid rat had scratched the shit out of the actual bag part. Several tears all over its surface along with the completely torn strap. Granted the backpack kept him from getting flayed in his back and probably stopped the rat from chewing through his whole shoulder but that didn¡¯t make him any less upset that it was ruined. ¡°There had better be somebody who can repair this thing when I get out of here.¡± He muttered before turning his attention to his shoulder. Bleeding yes, but it didn¡¯t seem too bad. Not like he was an actual doctor or anything but he could still move his shoulder which probably was a good sign. Hopefully it wasn¡¯t serious. But maybe something that could help was a level up. Don¡¯t some games allow you to recover all your health when you level up? He quickly summoned up his status screen and looked at it carefully. He wasn¡¯t sure how dirty fighting works exactly. He didn¡¯t really need help with scratching and biting but maybe there was some kind of bonus? Before he put any more thought into that he decided to distribute his points. Now given that the message earlier said something about being unable to distribute points into his soul. He was naturally inclined to try and test that out for himself with his singular (Kinda stingy not going to lie) stat point and so tried to put it into his soul. Error! Could not put stat point into soul, redistributing evenly to body and mind Well that confirmed it. His system thingy has totally glitched out on him. Hopefully the soul wasn¡¯t very important. Pretending as if there wasn¡¯t every religion on earth telling him otherwise. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose I can talk to a dev or something for this?¡± Silence was his answer so he assumed not. Also no full heal either but he did feel a little better, a little stronger. That was probably thanks to the point distribution towards his body. Speaking of, he wonder what his stats were currently looking like n- His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of scraping and clicking and clattering echoing from within the tunnels where the train would normally go. His eyes briefly moved over to the electronic sign which simply said ¡°Arriving¡± and a feeling of dread slowly etched through him because whatever was making that sound was certainly not a train and he had a very good feeling he didn¡¯t want to be here or visible whenever the thing that was arriving showed up. Quill, as quickly as he could, headed over to one of the concrete benches and dove under it. Not the greatest of hiding spots. Actually it was total shit but there was no way he was going to make it up those stairs in his condition unseen. He had just barely made it under the bench when he saw the thing emerge from the tunnels. It could be kind of described as a maggot colored giant worm if said worms had elongated thin multi jointed arms coming out all over its body which it then used to drag said bulbous body across the tracks. Each hand held the usual 5 fingers but with nasty looking black talons on the end. Plus this nightmarish abomination also seemed to have a wide human mouth dripping saliva all over everything giving it a very uncanny look to an already uncanny looking monster. You are Inflicted with fear No fucking shit! What?! Did the system managed to grab its deductive reasoning degree from a youtube channel with how fucking obvious it was that he was afraid!! Quill had to bite down on his lip just to make himself not utter a sound as the creature used its hands to shuffle through the track. Several of the free hands then started patting the floor of the station and it was there that he noticed the creature didn¡¯t have eyes which was a small saving grace given his current position. As the hands moved over the dead rats, the monster slowly arched its body up onto the platform until its drooling mouth was in front of the dead rats. The monster seemed to examine them ever so briefly before opening its mouth revealing large molars and devouring both of them with one bite and a very meaty and disturbing crunch. The monster''s saliva mixed with the blood as it dribbled everywhere.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. After swallowing the two rat carcasses and lapping up the spilled blood. The horrid monster slowly turned its body back to the track and gripping the walls of the tunnels the thing thrust itself forward, back towards the tunnels disappearing from his sight. The scraping of its claws against the stone and rails seemed to slowly fade away but Quill still felt the need to keep his ass underneath the bench. He was so thankful that the creature didn¡¯t seem to notice him. Beyond thankful. Super duper uber thankful! After another few minutes that felt more like an eternity he slowly inched his way out from underneath the bench with the first thing he did was check when the next ¡°Train¡± was coming and saw that he had about an hour. The next thing he did? Ran like hell towards the exit! There was absolutely no way he was staying in this place when something like that was wandering around in this tutorial dungeon thing! The system might call him insane all it wanted too but he wasn¡¯t THAT insane! His body ached in protest as he bolted up the stairs and down the hall towards the gates and exit. Some part of him did take note that he was running faster than he could have normally. Much faster actually. But he was pretty sure that whatever the hell that creature he saw was, it could go much faster than him. Quill ran past the half eaten guard not even phased by the smell anymore, jumped over the waist high payment gate and booked it towards the exit only to find iron bars welded across the exit with nothing but a black void past. Slamming his foot into the iron bar cursing and promptly got a screen popping in front of his face. Can not leave the tutorial area until the designated time reaches zero Bullshit! You could skip tutorials in video games! So let him skip the tutorial here!! The silence was the only thing that answered him yet again and Quill decided that now was a great time to have a mini mental breakdown. He spent the next five screaming, hitting, cursing and crying. Finally after letting out his emotions with his shoulder and chest burning like hell did he finally sit down with a groan by the exit. Or what should be the exit. Okay, so he needed to take stock of his situation¡­. Actually, no. He needed to clean his wounds. It would be embarrassing if he managed to survive giant rats and whatever the hell that monster was, only to die to micro bacteria. Would there even be some kind of super bacteria that was level 1,000 or something? He had no idea but he didn¡¯t want to be the festering ground for such a thing to come into existence. Was there even a bathroom in this station? He never really looked but he might as well check. Plus this ¡°Tutorial¡± station seemed to mimic the environment of the actual station so even if it didn¡¯t perhaps he would actually have a bathroom in here. Come on tutorial. Throw him a bone here. He painfully sat up and began to look around the area. There was a locked door nearby but otherwise nothing else seemed to give any indication that could lead to a bathroom. Quill glanced over at the half eaten dead guard and the small kiosk with the broken window. If he was a betting man he would probably say the keys to the door were somewhere there. Maybe he can also find something else that could be of use. Quill decided to check the kiosk first for what he felt like were obvious reasons. Said reasons being he didn¡¯t want to pat down a half eaten bloody corpse. The interior was kind of destroyed and there were blood smears across the floor and various surfaces. Poor guy probably put up a fight but obviously didn¡¯t make it. He rummaged through the kiosk and was delighted to find a small first aid kit! This should help greatly! He quickly threw that in his backpack and tried to find some other stuff that could be useful but he only found some trail mix that likely belonged to the guard and a set of keys that he hoped would go to the locked door. He then turned his attention to the guard and very carefully turned the guard over, trying to ignore all the wet squishing sounds that were coming from the half eaten body or the very obvious horrible smell. He actually had more luck with this guy than he did with the kiosk. He found a taser and a gun! He had no idea how to use the dumb thing but he had a gun! Better watch out world cause the crazy guy has a loaded gun that he doesn¡¯t know how to use! But how hard could it be? Just point it to what you want dead and fire. Easy! He then headed over to the locked door and started trying keys. On the fourth one he unlocked the door and opened it up to reveal a small lounge-like area with a vending machine, a small table and a few chairs. There was also a second door that led to a bathroom too! ¡°Fucking paradise!¡± He could practically cry tears of joy right now. He promptly shut the door behind him and locked it. Now it was time to clean and dress his wounds. Hopefully it wouldn¡¯t be too difficult. He entered the bathroom and after washing his wounds awkwardly and painfully, he tried to patch up and stitch his wounds based on vague memories from hospital shows. So it wasn¡¯t difficult per say since he had nothing really to compare it to. But it was certainly messy and very very painful. The nice clean bathroom (Which surprised him considering this was supposed to be modeled after a metro station) Was now a mess of discarded bloody paper towels, a messy sink and Quill sitting on the bathroom floor with a very poorly stitched shoulder and chest trying to not cry from the pain he just had to endure. ¡°That was more unpleasant than it had any right to be¡­¡± At this point. He would have to say he was done with the day. 110% done. He slowly made his way out of the bathroom and found a nice cozy spot on the tiled floor and laid down. The moment his eyes shut it all went to black. Chapter 5 Quill snapped awake with his entire body either hurting and/or sore, with a couple of floating blue screens in front of his face. Ailment- Infection (weak) You have received a quest! Rat extermination Dire rats have infested your area of the dungeon. As the sole living human in this station it¡¯s your responsibility to clear them out. Lucky you! Objective-Exterminate all rats in your current station Rewards upon completion- 2 healing potions, 1 mana potion, 1 stamina potion, 1 cleansing potion, basic armor and weaponry, 1 new common skill. ¡°... Can I deny a quest?¡± He spoke with his voice croaking from how dry it was. Of course silence was yet again the only answer he got so he very slowly sat up with a pained groan. First thing first. Water. He needed water¡­ Actually he needed alcohol but water was the next best thing. Quill made it to the bathroom and turned on the faucet and began to drink. The water probably tasted like ass given this dungeon was modeled after a metro station but he was so damn thirsty it tasted like a fresh spring water blessed by god. Holy shit did it taste good! After several minutes of just drinking out of the faucet he shuffled his way back out to the main room and sat down at the table, snatching the bag of trail mix he took from the kiosk he began eating as he went over the quest he was just volunteered for. So the first thing he could deduce was that he was alone in the station and there was no one else around, at least alive. He only hoped that the guard was the only one here with him when they were sent into this ¡°Tutorial¡± (Using that word real lightly here). He¡¯d hate to see someone not only have to deal with the rats but also whatever the hell was clawing through the tunnels posing as a train. The second thing he took away from this was the rewards fucking sucked. If there was more then one giant rat out there when he opened that door then the rewards fucking sucked. Third and final take away was that the system was an asshole. And not those fun assholes that are for a good laugh, or those assholes you want in your corner when shit is about to hit the fan. No, it was definitely one of those assholes that no one liked but still seem to keep showing up to things despite no one inviting them. He finished off the trail mix and went back to the bathroom to drink some more water before heading back into the safe room he was in. Now granted, going back out there to fight a bunch of giant rats seemed like a really stupid idea. But he had a gun now and that meant it would be a whole lot easier to kill the bastards then jabbing a tooth into them or power bombing them from atop the stairs. He picked up the gun, he had never fired one before or knew much about them at all really but hey, perfect time to learn. He also grabbed the bloody rat tooth just to be safe and the taser as well. Hopefully this would be enough to take out several of these bastards and maybe get him another level or two. He walked to the door, and after unlocking it he cracked it open and peeked outside. The dead guard was still there, only he didn¡¯t have much flesh left on his bones. He also didn¡¯t seem to have many of his bones left either. Right next to where the little bit of the security guard lay was 3 big fat rats that were snoring somewhat loudly. Oh yeah, this was perfect! Not perfect in the sense that there was indeed more than one of these bastards and thus proved his point that the system was an asshole. But perfect in the sense that now he just needed to stealthily kill the three giant rats and he wouldn¡¯t even waste any ammo.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. He very slowly opened the door and quietly crept out towards the nearest rat that was thankfully the smallest and farthest away from the rest. So since his only real stabby/cutty tool was the tooth, he didn¡¯t think cutting or ripping at the monster''s neck was an option. Or at least not one if he wanted to kill the thing quickly and quietly. So he would need a different but still good option. Creeping closer to the rat, he studied its body for a second and decided to aim for what he assumed was the base of the skull. He didn¡¯t really know rat anatomy or if dire rats even had the same anatomy as a regular rat so he was making his best guess. Positioning himself above he clutched the tooth/knife with both hands and with every ounce of strength drove the tooth into the creature''s skull as hard as he possibly could. The rat eyes snapped open and it jerked for but a few moments before stilling and Quill got a notification Killed adolescent dire rat lvl 4. Experience gained Yay! He removed the tooth with a bit of effort as the thing was lodged into the skull fairly well and went on to the next biggest one. This one seemed a little bigger then the level 5 he killed if he were to hazard a guess so hopefully killing this one would net him enough experience to level up again. Quill positioned himself above the rat much like the first one and with the tooth plunged it down into the rat''s skull but this time he met more resistance and the damn thing not only woke up but let out a pained snarling yelp. Quill then quickly slammed his body weight into the tooth plunging it further into the monsters skull, ignoring the protesting pain in his shoulder as he did so. The monster thrashed for a second longer and then stilled but it didn¡¯t take an expert to hear the loud growling coming from behind him that the third and biggest rat had just woken up and it was pissed. He quickly yanked out the tooth and pivoted towards the dire rat who was getting up from where it slept and stared at him with murderous rage. Quill just smiled smugly at the thing and raised the gun he was holding towards the rat. ¡°See ya¡± And pulled the trigger. Or rather tried to pull the trigger. He couldn¡¯t pull the trigger. Why couldn¡¯t he pull the trigger?!?! He looked at the rat who looked back at him. Quill then did the sensible thing and bolted with the rat letting out a snarl and charged after him. He would have headed towards the break room area if he thought he could make it but the rat was absolutely faster then him so he ran towards the kiosk instead. Hoping the rat wasn¡¯t very good at making turns as he ran around the thing with the rat following. He was only sorta right. The kiosk thankfully prevented the rat from gaining too much speed as it ran around the building trying to chase him but now they were in an awkward stalemate and he would absolutely run out of energy before the rat did. Why wasn¡¯t his gun firing?? He tried to look it over trying desperately to figure it out while still playing ring around the rosy when he realized the safety switch was on like a fucking dumbass. Quill quickly flicked the thing off and nearly blew his own head off as the stupid thing discharged. He growled as his heart nearly jumped out of his chest but he got it working now and so he pointed the gun behind him, opened fire at the dire rat and proceeded to miss. Quill barely managed to jump to the side to dodge as the Rat barreled for him and fired the gun again¡­ And missed again! He then proceeded to let his emotions get the better of him and emptied the whole clip at the rat and missed ever single stupid fucking shot! Guns were fucking stupid! Quill threw the pistol at the rat which managed to hit the thing in the head because of course that was the one time he would land a blow! He couldn¡¯t decide if he was annoyed or happy about that as he brought the tooth and taser at the ready as the rat charged him again. Thankfully Quill was getting pretty good at stepping to the side as something barreled towards him and he jammed the taser into the rat as it let out a howl of pain and its body locked up. Taking full advantage of that he let up with the taser and brought the tooth down into the rats eye. His own frustration and anger at missing all those shots made him stab as hard as he could, imagining the tooth going all the way through the rats skull. Suddenly he felt a sudden surge of energy pour out of him and into the tooth. The moment the tooth made contact with the rat''s eye, a massive burst of blood erupted from the other side of the creatures head as its other eye exploded along with part of its skull and the monster instantly collapsed dead. Quill himself felt drained and he fell promptly on his ass, as his vision spun a bit before settling down with him looking at the very much dead rat with a mix of confusion and awe. There was no way a gun could do that¡­ Yeah, guns were stupid. Chapter 6 Killed adolescent dire rat lvl 6. Experienced gained Killed adolescent dire rat lvl 7. Experienced gained Learned the common skill dodge (lvl 1) Whether you are a sneaky rogue avoiding the city guard halberd, a graceful duelist weaving around your opponent''s blade, or a coward who really hates pain. Dodging is a great way of staying alive You have leveled up! Gained 1 stat point. Quill winced as he dismissed the screen in front of him. All that sudden movement and exertion had reopened the already shitty patch job of his wounds in both his shoulder and several of the cuts on his chest. He should probably focus on finishing this quest if for no other reason than to get those stupid health potions. Also he was going to need to rethink his strategy of how to deal with the rats. Cause the gun obviously wasn¡¯t going to work, especially now that he was out of bullets. His mind flashed back to how the last rat''s skull exploded and decided that would be a solid plan A the moment he figured out how he actually did that. It didn¡¯t show up as a learned skill by the system (unless dodge had some hidden benefit he wasn¡¯t aware of). So either the system didn¡¯t think he had actually learned whatever it was he just did or it was a malfunctioning piece of crap. He was leaning towards the latter. First thing first though. He needed to re-stitch and clean his open wounds. He awkwardly shuffled back into the little break area/safe room, making sure to lock the door behind him. Then dragged his feet to the bathroom where he once again did a really bad patch job on trying to keep his wounds closed with some awkwardly placed disinfectant. Ailment- blood loss (weak) ¡°Thanks captain obvious¡± Quill grumbled ¡°If you want to throw some criticism at me, how about you also throw me a bone. Like say, a skill in regards to first aid or healing or something?¡± When silence was his only answer Quill continued ¡°Thought not. So keep your opinions to yourself then okay?¡± He also still had infected wounds despite using the disinfectant, but at least the ailment was still weak. He shuffled back out to the break room and grabbed one of the mops, using it as a spear he jammed several holes into the vending machine glass until it fully broke and started picking out the most appealing junk food he could find. Munching down as he brought up his status screen. He thought about putting his point into soul again for shits and giggles but quickly dismissed it. Right now he needed to be stronger, he probably would have been able to pierce that second rat''s skull had he been a little stronger then before. Plus he had a gut feeling that if he were to try and place the point into the soul, it would just distribute evenly to body and mind. So instead he put the full point into body and suddenly felt a bit better. It wasn¡¯t super noticeable or anything but it was definitely there. He felt stronger, lighter, even his wounds didn¡¯t hurt so much which was perhaps the biggest boon he could ask for. The next few levels he was probably just going to dump the singular point into the body until he found out what the mind did. Maybe he¡¯d get to learn magic, that would be nice. Speaking of magic, he looked back at his hand. Whatever he did to that rat certainly felt like magic but he didn¡¯t know how he did it. He tried to muster up said energy as before but nothing. He sat and contemplated how he felt during the whole experience. It felt as if there was a mass of energy throughout his body when he was ready to stab the rat and it flowed into the tooth and then out into the rats skull. Quill huffed and tried to close his eyes, ignoring the aches in his body as he focused on.. Well his body. But perhaps his more magical self? He wasn¡¯t really sure how else to describe it. His mind turned inward and he was pretty sure he could feel something. Something flowing inside of him that he couldn¡¯t quite place. It actually sort of reminded him of the¡­ Smoke. He hadn¡¯t really thought too much about it given everything that happened but was that smoke that was coming after him part of the system or was it something else. And what was that giggle he heard as he was getting swarmed with the stuff. He looked down at his hands and imagined this smoky energy to manifest at his fingertips. The energy inside him swirled and slowly moved through his body, down his arm, until he noticed the faintest of wisps appearing at his fingertips. But in doing so he felt a little more drained. Like he was exercising but not quite? It was hard for him to put the words down at just how exactly he felt when tapping into the smoke but something he also couldn¡¯t help but notice was how nice it felt. It was comforting, welcoming. A pleasant warmth that spread through his emotions making him feel more at ease. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Quill stopped the channeling, despite the comfort it brought him, he didn¡¯t want to exhaust himself too quickly when he still had other things he needed to do. The biggest part of which was to check the rest of the station to find out how many more of these stupid rats he was going to have to kill. He quickly checked his status screen to see if he had magically gotten another skill related to the grey smoke but when nothing showed up, he got up where he sat with only some minor grumblings as he mentally prepared himself. After Making sure he had his tooth dagger in hand at he opened the door and promptly came shin to face with another fucking rat that was sniffing underneath the the crack of the door. Thankfully there was no hesitation on his part and Quill kicked the thing as hard as he fucking could, sending the bastard sailing into a group of yet more rats who were eating one of their dead brethren. In retrospect. The fighting and gunshots probably made a lot of noise, plus when you through in that there was a bunch of fresh meat laying around, of course it would attract a bunch of its cannibalistic brethren. And now all of the cannibals had trained their beady stupid eyes straight towards him. Quill quickly slammed the door and locked it as the pack of rats charged him and a second later he heard multiple loud thuds against the door. He swallowed as he took a few steps back. It was okay, this was a safe room and the door should hold. The thuds grew more constant and he could only imagine the rats repeatedly throwing their bodies against the door in a hope to break through. Suddenly a small crack could be heard from the repeated thuds and Quill came to the unfortunate realization that he never got confirmation this was some kind of safe room. He just sorta assumed it was and now he didn¡¯t know what to do.. Ugh! Stupid rats and there stupid! Stupid¡­. Just stupid! The banging on the door continued as Quill had another small melt down, kicking the table and screaming a mix of curse words and incoherent screeches. He finally turned towards the door after a really loud thud and noticed there were starting to be dents. Plus he could see some slight cracks around the frame where the door hinges were. Knowing having another melt down wouldn¡¯t do him any good (At least with the situation at hand) Quill quickly grabbed the mop that was in the breakroom and using the shoelaces on his shoe tied a large shard of glass to it that he had gotten from the vending machine. He than faced the door with almost suicidal determination and marched towards it. He was not going to die because of these rodents! When he was going to die, he was going to die on his own damn terms! The moment he heard another thud he swung the door open and proceeded to kick the rat that was falling to the floor, sending that one also flying into several of its brethren. He then thrusted the makeshift spear into the rat the next was flying towards him. Skewering the bastard and killing it instantly. He then swung his makeshift spear down and slashed at a nearby rat before jabbing it. This caused the glass to break off earning a few mild curses as he swung the mop upwards to knock yet another of the stupid rats that was trying to jump tackle him, giving him a satisfying crack and sending that one flying too. Quill stood just a little behind the doorway so the rats couldn¡¯t take advantage of their numbers and started to smack the ones that tried jumping at him and kicking the ones that tried running. He sort of fell into a rhythm because of that. It was certainly taking a few hits for the rats to go down permanently but they seemed to be stupid enough to keep trying the same tactic towards him so that he was able to get away with it! And to think the system called him insane. His improvements to his body thanks to the stat distribution not only made him stronger it seemed but helped improve his reflexes quite a bit too! He was hard pressed, sure, but it was still in mandible territory so long as nothing changed. So of course something had to change as when he managed to smack another rat that came flying at him, the cheap mop snapped in two, with a second rat was already flying towards him with its claws out and mouth open. He didn¡¯t have enough time to dodge so he thrusted as hard as he could with the broken shaft of the mop as the rat tackled him. Picturing the energy he had in his body to throw forward as a spike at the end of the mop and into the monster making the creature howl in pain before he threw it off him. Quill quickly got up and only then did he really take stock of how much he had done. All but three of the rats laid dead and the three that were still alive were badly hurt in one way or another. Plus these rats were fairly small. Or rather small compared to the last three bastards he had to kill. In short. ¡°Lucky me!¡± And he promptly punted the rat he stabbed with into the two other rats that were trying to charge him. He then jumped up and slammed both his feet into the second rat and using the broken mop, imagined the energy in his body into the end of it as a knife and jammed it into the third rats neck killing the last three rats that had attacked him. Once the battle had finished Quill got multiple notifications flashing in front of his face. None of the rats he killed was over level 5 with most being between 2-3. However he did kill 13 of the little bastards and that was enough to once again get a level up and he promptly put the single point into body again as he knew just how much of a difference that extra strength and reflexes did for him in that battle. That''s when another screen flashed in front of his face. Congratulations on reaching level 4. In order to reach level 5 and being able to choose your first class you must first pass the requirements to given to you below Complete quest ¡°Rat extermination¡±- 0/1 Survive in your tutorial dungeon for the first 24 hours- 19/24 Well that was certainly new though not like he was going to really complain. Getting a class sounded like just what he needed to get out of this stupid death trap. Or at least to survive this stupid death trap. So he was going to have to kill whatever rats are left in this station and survive a full 24 hours. He was surprised he had already been here for 19. He kind of expected it to be shorter, perhaps he slept longer than he thought. But regardless. He had even more reason to clear out these rats. He needed to get ready. Starting with a scouting mission of the station to find out how many of these bastards were left. Chapter 7 Despite his hurting body and a few of the stitches he had tried to do earlier being busted open yet again. He was feeling pretty good all things considered. He could certainly do with a lot less of all these dead rats littering his station but overall. Not too bad. Since he still had some energy and wanting to avoid any more surprises he decided to actually explore the rest of the station. Besides, with his broken mop handle, a taser and a rat tooth he could take on just about anything! Quill decided to check the station area that he came from first just to make sure no sneaking little rats decided to make that their hang out spot after he left. As he approached though he made sure to quiet his steps. Not because of the rats. But rather he had no idea when that thing with all the arms would be coming back. He peeked down at the station from on top of the stairs and glanced around. There didn¡¯t seem to be any rats so he knew he wouldn¡¯t have to worry about this area for now. And according to the electronic sign that monster shouldn¡¯t be arriving in the station for another 30 or so minutes which was good. The last thing he wanted was to attract that thing''s attention with any potential fighting. Quill then scurried off to the other side of the station and slowed down as he approached. Taking care to peek over the rail and was both delighted and horrified at what he saw. Delighted because there seemed to be only one rat left. Horrified because that was a REALLY big rat. Thing was bigger than an Irish Wolfhound and sure as shit was fatter than one too. But that wasn¡¯t all. Its fur was matted and patchy with growths and rotting dead skin hanging off its body. Despite its sickly appearance, it seemed wide awake and fully alert to everything that was going on. While it was lying flat on its stomach in a resting position, its head and eyes continued to swivel this way and that. Clearly staying on guard for any possible enemy. Okay yeah, this thing was certainly a cut above the rest. He was going to need to be super careful when dealing with it. Although¡­ His eyes drifted towards the times when he would assume the worm like monster would arrive and saw it was due in a few minutes. Maybe he didn¡¯t have too. There was actually a decent chance that nothing would happen given that the rat had been alive for a while now. But he still thought it would be a good idea to see how this monster would interact with the other, more terrifying monster. He sat there quietly and watched. Soon, he heard the scraping of claws and Quill couldn¡¯t help but shrink back just a little bit more. Soon the creature appeared except it was different. It still had its normal appearance. Giant worm like thing with multi jointed arms with long claws and human like mouth. Except now it was red which meant¡­. Why the fuck were there two of them?!?! That''s so bullshit in every single possible way!! You have been inflicted with fear Not The Fucking Time!!! It took Quill every ounce of effort to not bolt as he stayed as hidden as possible to see what would happen. The creature stopped like the other one did and started to feel its hands around while the rat continued to lay there doing nothing. As the hands reached the rat it didn¡¯t do anything. Instead they just ignored the rat as it felt around the rest of the platform of the station. When it was done it began to move away. Scraping and dragging its body across the floor as it entered the tunnel and Quill swallowed. Okay, so he had to deal with two now. Potentially more given how his luck tended to be. But first¡­. Quill took a deep breath and calmed his nerves. First he had to deal with the rat. He slowly started to back away and headed towards his ¡°safe¡± room. He had some planning to do. First thing he did was drag all the dead rats into a pile by the kiosk. He didn¡¯t want their dead carcasses stinking up the place where he was sleeping. But there was another reason too. Fresh bait. The rats want some meat, they keep coming up here because of the meat here, whether they were the dead security guard or their dead brethren, it apparently didn¡¯t matter. Hopefully the giant rat will come up eventually to eat some meat too and he should be ready when that happens. Once all the rats were in a pile he headed over to his safe room and after emptying the vending machine of the snacks. He awkwardly moved the vending machine over to the front of the door by wobbling it slowly forward. His anxiety thought now would be a great time to imagine the vending machine tilting over and squashing him flat like a pancake and he had to resist the urge to stop doing what he was doing. Thankfully the increased stats to his body made it easier then he would have expected. He wasn¡¯t able to lift the thing or anything but if he continued to put points into it he could see himself actually lifting the thing eventually. He then grabbed the table and the chairs and began to help make his barricade at the door with the hope being to stall the giant rat long enough to hit it with multiple stabs of his magic¡­ grey¡­ energy thing. Whatever the hell he has got going on inside him. He then tied his rat tooth to the end of the longer piece of his broken mop and now it was only a matter of waiting.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. It wasn¡¯t the greatest of plans, sure. But Quill hoped to use the monster''s bulk to his advantage by preventing the rodent from getting close enough until he hurt it to the point that when it did eventually break through, he could kite around it and kill the bastard without getting hurt himself. He munched down more on the snacks that were in the vending machine. Noting that he was going to need to find a way to get more food eventually as he didn¡¯t really see these snacks lasting him the full 120 days of the tutorial. At least with his little level up quest thing in front of him he had something to sorta keep time with. The hours slowly ticked by and after he awkwardly patched the wounds that had busted open on him. Quill spent that time both eating, dosing in and out, and occasionally checking in on that grey energy stuff that was flowing around inside him. At the moment he was just seeing if he can make it flow inside him better, or concentrating the flow to move towards certain areas. Whatever the reason or reasons he has this power. This was most certainly going to play a key role in his survival. Plus it was kind of fun. Playing around with the energy gave him a sense of comfort and put his mind at ease for whatever reason. Finally, after what felt like forever he heard the clicking of what he could only assume was clawed feet echoing in the otherwise quiet station and glanced at his evolution quest, specifically the time. Survive your tutorial dungeon for the first 24 hours- 24/24 Well at least he wasn¡¯t going to have to worry about the time anymore. Lazy bastard sure took its sweet time getting up here. But now the vermin was going to go down. Brandishing the broken mop with the rat tooth and the taser, he watched safely behind his barricade as the giant, disgusting, probably flea infested rat walked into view and began to start eating all the rats in the pile he had left. Now it was time for phase two of his grand master plan! He got up from his hiding spot and made sure to be perfectly visible before putting on his best voice possible for this situation ¡°Oh Nyo! A giant rat has come and I am all defenseless and weak. Prime target for being eaten with all my delicious meat! Whatever will I do!¡± Cringe? Yes. But he did find it a little funny and it''s not like anyone was around to mock him for it. The rat briefly looked up at him and then turned its attention back to the dead rats and kept eating. ¡°. . . I said! Oh Nyo! A giant rat has come and I am all defenseless and weak. Prime target for being eaten with all my delicious meat! Whatever will I do!¡± Quill shouted this time as clearly the rat did not hear him! This time the asshole didn¡¯t even look up. Just kept on munching down on its brethren. ¡°Oi! What do those rats have that I don¡¯t! I am far more delicious than them! Hey!¡± He started to shove the barricade away and stepped out into the station ¡°Pay attention and eat me you stupid shit! I am way better than those-... What the hell am I doing?¡± Maybe the system thing calling him insane had some merit to it as what kind of sane person just marches out like he did from behind safety. The giant rat looked back up at him, eyed him up and down, scoffed as if he was nothing and again¡­ Went back to eating the other rats. ¡°Yeah okay. Now I am insulted. WHAT DO THEY GOT THAT I DON¡¯T! I AM ABSOLUTELY SCRUM-DIDDLY-UMPTIOUS!!¡± He charged the rat to avenge his honor and jammed the taser into the monster''s side. Only to then be whacked across the face by its whip like tail and stumbling back as it STILL kept ignoring him. Spitting a bit of blood out his mouth he tossed the taser towards it as it clearly didn¡¯t work that well. Then brandished his makeshift spear, he charged the rat again. Ducking the tail that once again tried to swat him like a bug and jammed the spear into the rat''s sickly looking side. Pouring some of the energy he had into it which allowed him to stab right through the rough hide and deep into its guts. That certainly got the damn thing to pay attention to him as it whirled on him with a speed that really should not have possible for something that big, slashing at him with its claws that Quill only barely just managed to avoid before getting hit by its tail yet again. Whacking him down the hall and crashing into the ground with a pained yelp. He was in a lot of pain. A whole lot of pain. He hated pain. Really really hated pain and this thing seemed insistent on making him feel it as he felt the tail of the rat wrap around his neck and lift him off the ground as he was still dazed. The creature held him up as the tail squeezed and Quill couldn¡¯t help but growl down as the monster stared up at him with annoyance. He¡¯d lost his makeshift weapons. So he was going to take a page out of the rats books and go with claws. He focused the energy he had into the tips of his fingers to form his own and slashed at the tail. Not severing it but the monster let out a howl and quickly let go, allowing him to breathe. Falling to the ground he didn¡¯t bother to let up the assault and leapt on top of the giant rat''s back, digging his now makeshift claws into the creature and just for good measure. Summoned the energy he had into his teeth to make fangs and bit down on the vermin as it howled in pain and started to buck and thrash. Desperate to kick Quill off him. You have been infected with the disease ¡°Rat Rot¡± NOT THE TIME! Quill mentally screamed out as the rat continued to buck around like crazy while he continued to claw and bite into the creature''s flesh trying to keep hold. He suddenly felt something slam on top of him and realized the thing was trying to bash him off with its tail. Snarling about as much as the rat did, he continued to dig in, trying to ignore the putrid taste in his mouth as he tore off a massive chunk of flesh as the tail continued to bombard him with blow after blow. Yeah you stupid bastard! They were going to have a game of attrition! Who dies first cause it sure as hell won¡¯t be him!! He then forced the energy he had made as claws to not only dig deeper into the rat but also spike out into different directions. Picturing it similarly to how branches on a tree might work. He felt the drain on him as he did so, his vision getting blurry both from the blows of the tail and the expenditure of the energy but still he persisted and pushed himself more than he had ever before. He didn¡¯t really know how long it took but the blows suddenly stopped coming and the rat stopped moving. It was as quiet as the dead. Quill would have liked to give out a victorious yell but the only thing he managed to muster out was a whimpering ¡°haaaaaaa¡± That held nothing but pain. He slid off the dead diseased rat and plopped down onto the floor. His vision was swimming but he won. He had several broken bones but he won. He was covered in disgusting blood and would probably be tasting the rotten meat in his mouth for weeks but he won. Winning was overrated. Chapter 8 Congratulations! You have learned the skill ¡°pseudo energy manifestation (epic)¡± Very few would be bold to take the first step towards such a power except for the ignorant, the arrogant, or the truly talented. Which one are you? You have earned the achievement ¡°First step towards greatness¡± by having an epic or higher tiered skill before reaching E grade. 1 point awarded for each stat Whether it¡¯s due to Extreme talent, absurd luck, or Nepotism, you have embarked on the path towards greatness. Error! Could not distribute points into soul, redistribute evenly towards body and mind Dodge has leveled up to level 2 Dirty fighting has leveled up to level 2 Congratulations! You have completed the Quest ¡°Rat Extermination!¡± Accept reward? Congratulations! You have completed your evolution quest and may now choose a class and then level up! Choose your class? Quill wanted desperately to dismiss those screens but he REALLY needed that health potion and given he apparently had a disease now, needed that cleansing potion that he HOPED would get rid of it along with his infection status which had upgraded to mild when he wasn¡¯t paying attention. At least he finally got confirmation on the weird skill thing he was using. He accepted the quest reward and a simple wooden chest appeared before him in a flash of light. Well he said chest but that might imply it had some more elegance then it actually possessed. It probably would have been more accurate to call it a wooden crate. But hell, if it had what he needed then who gives a shit. He crawled his way towards the crate. Wincing with every movement from both the broken bones but also the open wounds from the cuts on his chest and bite from his shoulder that have ONCE AGAIN been opened. He popped open the ¡°chest¡± lid and looked inside. There were five vials, some leather looking armor, leather pants, a pair of boots, a couple of generic looking daggers sheathed, and some kind of scroll which he assumed would be his free common skill. He ignored everything else and focused on the vials. Two were red, one was blue, one was green and one was pink. Well he hoped things were going off of the mechanics in video games. He snatched the red vial, popped it open and chugged the potion. It tasted sorta like a mix of berries and instantly he felt his body starting to mend. His bones were snapping back in place, his flesh was mending itself back together. It was all a very weird and sorta painful experience that was for sure. By the end of it, his skin was red and inflamed from where all his wounds were, his body was still hurt and knew he had bruises all over but he was in a lot better shape then he had been. At least all of his serious wounds were now gone. He decided that he didn¡¯t need the second potion to heal the discomfort. Especially when he was probably going to need it later so he then turned towards the pink potion.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. He was a little mixed on whether he should take what he assumed was the cleansing potion now or later. He still had the condition rat rot though he certainly didn¡¯t feel anything. But then again he probably wouldn¡¯t be feeling its effects any time soon. But he still just didn¡¯t like the idea of walking around with some disease, not to mention he still apparently had an infection despite the wound on his shoulder being gone. Plus who knew how Rat Rot might affect him in ways he just doesn¡¯t see or understand. So he quickly chugged the cleansing potion (Tasted a little like mint) and checked his status screen and was relieved to see both the Rat Rot and his infection were gone. Still labeled as Insane though apparently. Feeling a lot better, Quill grabbed the crate and carried it back towards the break room. As much as he wanted to choose a class he wanted to save that for last and get himself situated. Once he was safe (or at least more safe) in the break room he decided to take a look at the scroll that he assumed was his new common skill Learn the skill identify? Really? Just like that? Well sure if it was going to be that easy. Sure, why not? The scroll burst into golden particles and flowed into him, checking his status screen he confirmed that it was indeed now part of his skill set sitting currently at level one. So just to confirm he tried identifying what he assumed was the mana potion. Potion. Unknown The fuck you mean unknown. Do you need to drink it in order to know what it is? Kinda defeats the purpose don¡¯t it? He turned his attention to the health potion and tried identifying that. Lesser Healing potion (G grade) Well he was probably sort of correct on that front. Perhaps leveling it up would make it more accurate. The question of course is how? He did a quick identify scan on the armour and daggers he got but it literally just told him ¡°leather armor¡± And ¡°iron daggers¡± so really there wasn¡¯t much to go off of. And so with nothing else to really do he decided to choose his class. Mentally agreeing to the prompt asking him to choose his class he was given several options that appeared before him. Most seemed pretty basic, stuff like warrior, mage, rogue, your typical video game class tropes. However there were two that certainly caught his attention Early Savage warrior (uncommon) The savage warrior has shown his ability to push through pain and to fight with strength and determination that goes beyond the normal limits in ways others might look down upon. Skills rewarded from this class will greatly enhance ones natural physical abilities 1 stat point in body, 1 free stat point. Early Occultist mage (uncommon) The occultist mage has witnessed and grasped power from something many would consider taboo or unnatural. A sure path to power as you delve deeper into the occult. Skills rewarded from this class will be of the occult in nature, the exact kind of skills depend on what kind of occult the mage has partaken in. .5 stat point in soul, .5 stat point in mind, 1 free stat point Quill looked at these two options. Aside from them just being uncommon classes with much better descriptions than the others and the sound of better skills. He was also being given 2 full stat points as opposed to 1.5 stat points from the other normal classes. Now the question was which he should choose. He liked both, Savage warrior would undoubtedly help his chances of survival given that it focused on physical abilities and seeing as how if something were to destroy his body he would most certainly, definitely die. It was certainly appealing. (the irony of him trying to pump himself up to kill himself a day ago and now was focused on trying to find a method to stay alive longer certainly wasn¡¯t lost on him) Now as for Occultist mage. It did seem promising but his biggest concern was the unknown. It said his skills will be dependent on whatever entity he experienced or saw and well.. Quill turned his attention back inside him as he felt the grey energy that flowed around him. It was both a part of him while also not and while it was comforting, even nice to interact with. He didn¡¯t know what it was, where it came from. Or if it even had sentience. Plus if it did have some consciousness, that didn¡¯t really mean it would be a particularly good or nice being. The last thing he wanted was to have to do the bidding of some super powerful being cause they said so. It would literally just be his various jobs all over again except he¡¯d probably be risking his life more. Of course this was all assuming any of what he thought of was true. The problem was he just didn¡¯t know, it felt like there were too many variables and while sure it MIGHT give him more or even greater power down the line later, it really didn¡¯t help him much now. Quills mind made up he selected ¡°Savage Warrior¡± and got another system prompt Class selected. Please stand by ¡°Stand by for wha-¡± and then darkness consumed him Chapter 9 Vaitrill let out a yawn and rubbed his nose. These days always seem to drag. Nothing but the most monotonous paperwork to do, even tormenting those under him would lose their entertainment after a while. But if someone didn¡¯t get the paperwork done then the Kin Empire would grind to a halt. The Kin family certainly didn¡¯t appreciate the fine details that went into running an empire and that''s where people like him stepped in. It was a thankless job sure but it still had its appeal, or rather benefits. If it didn¡¯t then he certainly wouldn¡¯t be here. He shifted his shoulders awkwardly as his wings twitched and stretched open. He decided that after this was all said and done he would go for a nice relaxing flight through the burning everglades. It had been a long time since he just took some personal time like that and it was long overdue, he was even close to leveling up. Perhaps he could find something to help push him over that edge. His ears twitched when he heard echoing footsteps that lead to his office echoing down the hall. The high end material of the building and lush carpet doing nothing to minimize the sound to his senses. Even if they were an expert in stealth of the physical sense which they certainly weren¡¯t, their aura was more than a little hectic, they obviously weren¡¯t very good at controlling their presence, he would note them down for ¡°training¡± after he heard whatever news they wanted to bring him. Before the person had a chance to know Vaitrill spoke ¡°Come in¡± The person hesitated a tad before opening the door, his aura spiking a bit in fear as he stepped in revealing himself to be an ork with the painting of a sun across his shoulder signifying he was from... Some clan. It was hard to keep track of all those minor clans that held such little importance. At least the man had a good sense to realize he had probably screwed up with making himself so obviously known when arriving. ¡°I am terribly sorry to disturb you sir. But I have a report here from scouting division 13 and was told to bring it to you immediately.¡± Scouting division 13? He opened up his information crystal and browsed through it until he found them. ¡°Ah, yes. They are currently patrolling the border between us and the Matriel republic correct? I doubt a report would make up the chain to me if there was some mild skirmishing. What is it then?¡± ¡°Sir! They have reported a freshly integrated planet has appeared right on a disputed border between us and the Matriel republic!¡± Vaitrill resisted the urge to let out an exasperated sigh ¡°Calm down¡­ What was your name again?¡± ¡°It¡¯s uh. Urgush sir¡± An average ork name for such an average ork. ¡°Calm down Urgush. It¡¯s likely the system is just trying to incentivize a little blood shed. Do we have energy level readings?¡± Urgush glanced at his own information crystal briefly before looking back up ¡°Yes sir. While it is hard to tell because the veil is still to thick, we believe it is likely F grade¡± ¡°There, see, hardly anything to get worked up over. I doubt Matriel republic will send anything more than a couple million G, F and E grade soldiers to contest such a little territory. They will probably view it more as a great way to bloody some of their newer recruits.¡± He took out an information crystal and began pursuing it for a bit ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­ Ah, General Irrant. Yeah, that seems like a good fit. Send a message to him and let him know he is being assigned to secure this F grade planet, he may take 20 low tiered D grades, 100,000 E grades, and 800,000 F grades, and 1,600,000 G grades to use as his forces. Preferable recruits who haven¡¯t been in many battles. No reason why we can¡¯t do the same as the republic.¡± ¡°Have 70% of those recruits be of middle standing with the empire, and about 30% of them to be on the higher part of the low end. Give them a chance to claw their way up with some merit¡± Vaitrill continued but then paused paused for a second before correcting himself ¡°Actually if I am sending General Irrant to lead them I should switch those numbers. Have 70% of the forces be on the higher part of the low end and 30% be of middle standing but preferably the lower part of the middle standing. Don¡¯t want our offices to get bogged down by so many complaints. Am I understood?¡± ¡°Yes sir. Uh¡­¡± Urgush shifted a little awkwardly and Vaitrill frowned as he glared at the awkwardness Urgush was displaying.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°Well, speak up. You clearly were about to say something and there is no going back now that you have spoken. So speak¡± He spoke in an authoritative tone that brokered no room for disagreement. ¡°It¡¯s just that. Are you sure it would be a good idea to send General Irrant. N-not that there''s anything wrong with him or his family! I just-¡± ¡°Oh calm down boy. Yes I am well aware of General Irrant issues and had this planet been of anything of slightly more valuable or in a more strategic location I would have been better off sending just about anybody else¡± ¡°Then.. Why are you sending him? I feel like Matriel will send somebody that is also Peak D grade or perhaps low C grade. But these forces are nothing more than skirmishes. Not worth sending a General with such backing as General Irrant.¡± Vaitrill let a small smile creep on his face. ¡°You might not be aware but General Irrant has been getting too high and mighty, talking back and down to people who have had far more experience and are of a much better character then he would ever be. But because of his family we have been unable to punish him the usual way.¡± Urgush''s eyes suddenly widened with understanding ¡°So you are sending him to deal with a very low and inconsequential battle that is both not worthy of his station or status as a form of punishment!¡± ¡°Exactly. It¡¯s about time somebody taught that brat a bit of a lesson. If he wins this minor territorial dispute people will laugh at him for fighting over such a weak territory. And if he loses for whatever reason. Well such utter humiliation would be wonderful and with any luck, maybe his family will disown him rather than suffer the shame. And if nothing truly comes of this little endeavor. Well he is prideful enough to believe it would be a waste of his time, which it is, but he will still view it as the insult and punishment that it is.¡± Urgush nodded in understanding ¡°He will probably be more mad about this assignment than any conventional punishment. His family will certainly complain.¡± ¡°Let them¡± Vaitrill smirked ¡°There is nothing they can do about it without potentially damaging their relationship with the crown¡± ¡°Understood¡± ¡°Now back to the topic at hand. This F grade planet. The veil is probably weak since it is such a low grade, did the scouting division note if there was any specific dominant race?¡± Ungush looked at the information crystal for a couple of seconds ¡°Ah! Here it is. The scouts believe the main dominant race on this planet are humans.¡± ¡°Ugh. Why are humans everywhere? I¡¯d call them cockroaches but even cockroaches have the decency to not show up on a few of the freshly integrated planets.¡± Urgush simply shrugged his shoulders in response to Vaitrills comment and he resisted the urge to sigh. Some races just didn¡¯t understand the inferiority of humans. But he should have expected nothing less from an ork so he continued ¡°Do you have a report of when the veil is likely to fall?¡± ¡®No sir. It was so freshly integrated when it was found so the energy levels of the veil haven''t had enough time to fluctuate but since it is most likely an F grade world. I doubt the veil will remain up for more than a decade or two¡± ¡°That would be the usual I suppose.¡± ¡°Uh sir. Going back to General Irrant and the forces we are sending to secure the planet¡­¡± ¡°Yes? What is it.¡± ¡°Should we allow authorization of infiltration? I understand it isn¡¯t cost efficient and wouldn¡¯t be worth it but if we are treating this more as a training regiment for recruits. Perhaps it would be prudent to send one maybe two inside.¡± ¡°I understand where you are coming from Urgush but you are right, it wouldn¡¯t be cost efficient, if we were to allow such a thing to happen, even if it was for training, we wouldn¡¯t do so for just an F grade planet. There wouldn¡¯t be much training to be had for anybody and it most certainly wouldn¡¯t be worth the cost. ¡°Perhaps if the dominant race on that planet were celestials like myself or the Kin family it would be prudent but it is just a bunch of humans. But knowing General Irrant it would probably be best if we specify no Infiltration. I could easily see him trying to get do that as a sort of ¡°Fuck you¡± to us. Good call.¡± He concluded seeing what the ork was getting at ¡°Thank you sir!¡± Urgush looked proud of himself for doing something that Vailrill would have noticed within a few minutes anyways. But he suppose he would let the ork take this victory. He was feeling quite generous today. ¡°Alright then. If you will please wait here a moment while I get the orders ready.¡± Urgush stood at attention as Vaitrill started putting out his orders into a transponder crystal. Once done he handed it off to Urgush ¡°Have these sent to Irrant, if he tries to reject these orders¡­. Let me rephrase that, when he rejects the order, tell you off, and then threaten you in some way, immediately send the communications my way and I will deal with it¡± ¡°Thank you sir!¡± Urgush responded with clear relief and TIllian noted some tension had left his body that the ork likely didn¡¯t even realize he was holding himself. ¡°And one more thing Urgush¡± ¡°Sir?¡± ¡°I have taken a liking to you. Once you are done with your duties today, I think I will take some time out of my busy schedule to personally oversee your aura training¡± A sadistic grin stretched across Vaitrill''s face as Urgush tension came right back. ¡°Return to me when you are done with the day. You are dismissed¡± Urgush awkwardly saluted and left faster than was proper, a mistake Urgush will make sure he understood by the end. It would be pretty amusing to fly through the burning everglades with a nice little show to watch on the ground. Chapter 10 Quill snapped awake with a ragged breath and instantly started coughing. The taste of foul meat still seemed to linger in his mouth despite the hope of the potions washing it away. ¡°I really am going to be tasting that rotten meat for weeks. I was joking when I thought that¡± He shuffled over to the bathroom and after finishing his business and drinking from the faucet he finally took a second to breathe. ¡°Wait¡­¡± He scrunched his face. Something felt off about him. Something felt different. ¡°I don¡¯t really see anything different about you cutie. Just your normal adorable self¡± responded a feminine voice inside his head ¡°Are you sure? I feel like something is different. Like something has changed.¡± He couldn¡¯t help but respond. ¡°I am an expert in all things you, and plus after checking you out for the 25th time in the past hour I can confidently and safely declare that you are indeed still you.¡± ¡°Well.. I guess if the expert says so.¡± He rubbed his face as he splashed some water on it to try and clear some of the fogged up brain. Still felt like something was different. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t worry too much about it. Though perhaps this change is because of your class level up. You should check that out! I am practically dying here to see it all laid out bare for me!¡± Quill just rolled his eyes at the demands but still obliged with opening his screen which got a delightful giggle out of her as they stared at his status screen together. Quill ERROR Lvl: 5 Race: Human (G rank) Class: Early Savage warrior Body: 5.9 Mind: 3.1 Soul: ERROR 1 undistributed stat point Buffs/ailments: Insanity (weak) Skills: Dirty fighting (lvl 2), Dodge (lvl 2), pseudo energy manifestation (lvl 1), 1 Unspent skill choice Achievements: Tutorial Forerunner, First step towards greatness traits: ERROR (unique) ¡°Heh. Not bad. Could use some work but still not bad. Kinda expected your insanity to be a little higher though.¡± ¡°Why would you expect it to be higher?? I am completely sane!¡± ¡°Sweetie, you were literally trying to psych yourself up to kill yourself a little over a day ago.¡± ¡°Yeah well¡­. Whatever! At least it¡¯s still weak. More importantly I should probably distribute my free point.¡± He focused on his status screen ¡°You should put the whole thing in mind.¡± Quill paused for a second as he felt like it made more sense to put it in body given his class but before he could ask why she continued. ¡°It will help greatly with your skill that is called pseudo energy manifestation and that skill will likely be a mainstay for you. Plus the mind stat will help you process information quicker and make it easier for you react during battle on a more mental level¡± Huh¡­ Well in that case he kind of felt like an idiot for picking the class that seemed to focus on his physical body he thought to himself. ¡°Nah! You also needed your body to be stronger to use this skill too. Else you will start rupturing and potentially blowing yourself up if your body isn¡¯t up to deal with the energy coursing through it.¡±The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°Well that is terrifying. Also please don¡¯t read my mind without permission.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be talking crazy talk! I love your little mind so much! I want to see every single little thought that goes through it at all times!¡± Quill rubbed his head as he placed the point into mind. He still couldn¡¯t shake the feeling something was off but if she said everything was normal he saw no reason to not trust her. ¡°Alright, so I think the best plan right now is to just sit here and wait a bit. I still have some food which is good, I can hopefully survive maybe another week or so without worry if I only eat a little every day.¡± He waited for a reply but none came. ¡°Uh.. Hello?¡± ¡°Give it a minute.¡± ¡°Give what a min-¡± A screen suddenly popped in front of him followed by howls of laughter in his head. You have received a quest! ¡°Even more rats!¡± Those rats have had to come from somewhere right? Best to start exploring and find out where they came from and put an end to it! Objective-Find and destroy the thing that is making the rats Rewards upon completion- A storage ring (capacity small), 120 days worth of food and water. 2 health potions, 2 stamina potions, 2 mana potions, 2 cleansing potions. Oh Come On! Did he really have to do this?? ¡°Well you don¡¯t HAVE too. But you SHOULD. Plus the food and water will make it so you don¡¯t have to worry about dying from dehydration or hunger. All in all. Pretty good, even if you ignore the other rewards.¡± ¡°Also how did you know I was going to get a quest anyways!?¡± ¡°Eh, I know a little bit about the system. Best way to put it, the system likes to fuck around with people, and I think the system likes you so you are going to have some special attention.¡± Quill let out a groan and slumped his shoulders. This was just his typical luck. So now he was going to have to kill a ton more rats and since they were no longer in his station, he was going to have to go through those tunnels to try and find them which meant running the risk of meeting those terrifying worm hand things. ¡°So before you even do anything. How about you check out your unspent skill hm? Perhaps it will be useful.¡± Quill looked back at his status screen and mentally clicked on the unspent skill icon and another screen popped up in front of him. Please choose your first class skill! A list of a bunch of skills popped in front of him. About twenty in fact. And most were.. Well too put it lightly, just weren¡¯t what he needed or something he could probably replicate with his pseudo energy manifestation skill. Like this one Savage claws (Uncommon) The savage warriors'' nails turn into hardened claws, allowing him to rip and tear apart his opponents with relative ease, even being able to penetrate armour. By spending mana the savage warrior can increase the hardness of the claws as well as the length for a short time There is something truly satisfying about tearing your enemies apart with your bare hands that you just can¡¯t get with a weapon Just didn¡¯t seem that useful to someone like him. But there were a few that stood out too him and after some deliberation he finally settled on potentially two such skills Enhanced senses (common) The savage warriors'' senses are enhanced, everything from taste, touch, sight, smell and hearing. The savage warrior is also able to control when he wants a certain sense enhanced. Sometimes just being able to see or hear better can make a world of difference. Enhanced toughness (common) The savage warrior knows that the best way to survive is to just not die. This will strengthen an already powerful constitution allowing the savage warrior to survive even worse punishment Let the enemy tire themselves out by trying to hurt you. Then when they collapse from exhaustion you can either kill them or point and laugh. Honestly they weren¡¯t particularly flashy and being of a common rarity did sort of bug him but they also were probably his best bet in surviving whatever was to come. Shame though, there were a couple of rare skills that seemed pretty cool and he was a little sad he had to pass them up, but if he were to take them it would only be because they were rare skills and not because they would help him survive. ¡°I think you are right with those two picks. Sadly you can only pick one. I¡¯ll let you pick though, can¡¯t be having you listening and obeying me all the time as much as I would love that¡± her voice responded and he could almost see her smug looking face with that last part. Her face¡­ Her face. What was her face? What was her name? And her voice.. her voice, the voice wasn¡¯t always- ¡°Hey hey hey! Don¡¯t be getting distracted now! You got a lot of monsters still waiting to take a bite out of you. If you start fretting over every little thing you¡¯ll wind up dead. Think about whatever that is later. Survival first.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± He slapped his cheeks to help him wake up ¡°Yeah, you are right. My bad, thanks for keeping me focused.¡± ¡°It¡¯s what I do. Soooo, about that skill selection.¡± ¡°Right!¡± Quill refocused on the two skills he was going to choose from. And while the enhanced toughness was very very tempting. Especially with how close he will probably get to things that could easily tear him apart if able. He felt like he needed the enhanced sense for one specific reason. The tunnels were very very dark. There was no way he was going to be able to see inside those tunnels if he didn¡¯t have a light source which he didn¡¯t. Even if he did, that was basically just announcing to every single monster that ¡®Hey, here is a poor defenseless bastard just wandering around. Come and eat him¡¯. It would just attract too much attention. After only a few more seconds of hesitancy, he steeled his nerves and selected enhanced senses Learned ¡°enhanced senses (lvl 1) Quill instantly noticed a difference. Everything looked sharper, more pronounced, details came into focus. The stale air of the break room almost felt more tight against his skin, the air smelled stronger of blood and his own body oder. He could hear the faint dripping of water from the bathroom with the faucet. And¡­. OH GOD THE TASTE OF THE ROTTEN FLESH WAS SO MUCH STRONGER!! He heard her uproarious laughter in his head as he dove for the remaining food from the vending machine in a desperate attempt to get the damn taste out of his mouth. Chapter 11 Quill went through two packs of chips that, with his enhanced taste, was way too freaking salty before remembering he could toggle on and off his senses and promptly did so for both taste, touch and smell. ¡°Would you please stop laughing at me.¡± He couldn¡¯t help but grumble ¡°I Can¡¯t help it! The whole thing was just priceless. Oh that is going right into my core memories!¡± She barely managed to explain in between the excessive snickering. He let out a sigh and after drinking a lot more water to try and make him forget about the excess salt and rotting food taste in his mouth he packed up what he could in his torn bag with what was left from the vending machine and filled the two empty potion vials with water. ¡°Soooooo. What''s the plan now?¡± ¡°Right now? I want to try identifying those scary worm-like creatures. I doubt I will get anything based on how helpful this skill seems to actually be, but any information I can get would be welcome.¡± ¡°You will probably get noth¡­. Actually, I really like this plan. You should absolutely do this!¡± Quill froze at the sudden enthusiasm. ¡°Why? What do you know that I don¡¯t.¡± ¡°I have no idea what you are talking about. I just fully believe in the phrase ¡®Knowledge is power¡¯, or however it goes. Time to get learning! Plus maybe you¡¯ll level up your skill if you try identifying something so big and scary. You never knooowww~¡± Tempting him with a possible level up for his skill huh? Eh, even if he did identify the thing, what was the worst that could happen? Though he also felt like he just cursed himself by thinking that exact statement. The malicious giggling from her wasn¡¯t helping either. ¡°Oh just do it and stop being such a worry wart.¡± Without much reason to protest, Quill headed out of the breakroom. As he stepped out he decided to cast an identify on the dead rats and got a simple status screen Adolescent dire rat- Dead Yeah, it didn''t really tell him what he didn¡¯t already know. Hopefully when it did level up he would learn more or get some better insight onto things. Also he was really glad he turned off the enhanced smell cause damn did they smell bad just with his regular nose. He almost turned off his enhanced sight too just because being able to see every gross detail of the dead and rotting rats was nearly unbearable. Perhaps it was a good thing he was planning on leaving the station. If he were to stay here for a few more days the corpses would easily become unbearable. Even without his enhanced sense. Moving past the dead rats he checked each station just to make sure nothing more was lying in wait for him and then checked the arrival times, picking the one that was to arrive the soonest which was the maggot colored monster, Quill hid on top of the stairs and waited. In order to pass the time he started identifying everything around him but it was all useless info like ¡°wall¡±, ¡°Floor¡±, ¡°Sign¡±, or ¡°rock¡±, but there didn''t really seem to be a limit to how many times he could use the skill. Soon he heard the scraping sounds and quickly ducked behind a wall at the top of the stairs and peered at the tracks as the monster slowly crawled its way into the station. You are inflicted with f- HE KNOWS!!! Quill dismissed the prompt the moment it showed up and looked at the creature as its hands started to pad around the station, obviously looking for anything to munch or chow down on. Gritting his teeth, Quill casted identify. Cursed Sin Huh.. Well that was new and only just drove home the point that he should probably avoid these things at all cost. There was no way he was going to fight such a monster unless absolutely necessary. New quest has been issued! Kill the cursed beings infesting the tunnels! They¡¯re things in this multiverse that would bring absolute misery to those that find themselves at the receiving end of their attention. You are to kill all Cursed Sins in this dungeon before the tutorial finishes.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Objective- Kill all of the Cursed Sins in the dungeon. Reward upon completion- A village ticket (high E grade, Peak quality) Consequences for failing- You will be dropped in the middle of a D grade monster nest once the tutorial is complete Quill just glared at the screen for a long moment, forgetting all about his fear towards the monster as it soon slowly left the station. And after waiting a few more minutes he took a deep breath and spoke. ¡°You knew this would happen didn¡¯t you.¡± ¡°Wha??? Little ole me? How could I possibly know this was going to happen?¡± ¡°You Totally Did!¡± ¡°You can¡¯t prove nothin! And I will not be slandered over these baseless accusations.¡± Quill let out an exasperated sigh. ¡°Are you on my side or not? Cause it¡¯s starting to feel like you are trying to get me killed.¡± ¡°Oh my love. Trust me, I have nothing but your best interests at heart. Even if you don¡¯t understand it. All you need to do is trust me, listen to me, even if you don¡¯t understand it. And we will do many, many great things together~¡± He paused ever so slightly and frowned at the annoyance of the fogginess of his brain before shaking his head and refocusing ¡°Yeah, you are right. I am just stressed. Sorry for getting upset at you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s quite alright cutie. Don¡¯t you worry bout a thing. But we should probably keep going now¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± She was right, she was always right. That thought gave him pause but he knew he had to get moving, so he got up from where he was hiding and walked down to the tracks. He certainly wasn¡¯t going to fight one of those things now, that was for sure. But he still needed to leave and sadly the only way out of the station was through the tunnels. He hopped down onto the tracks as quietly as he could, the first order of business though was to see how well he could see in the dark. He stepped into the pitch black tunnel with some hesitation, half expecting the worm sin thing to just jump out of nowhere and eat him whole as he walked a little further until he was far enough removed from the light of the station to not get any light. The final result. He could sorta see if he really strained his eyes. Thankfully he also had enhanced hearing, and now that he was no longer around a bunch of dead decaying rats he turned on his enhanced sense of smell too. Knowing things weren¡¯t really going to get better with his situation he decided to keep moving forward but instead of walking like some lame dork, he had a better idea in mind that could hopefully help with his skill leveling. He began to channel the grey energy with a very specific idea in mind. He made a small narrow platform with two wheels in the front and two wheels in the back. ¡°Did you really make a skateboard?¡± ¡°Yep! But with one distinct difference. I can control whatever energy I am using. So that means I can control the wheels and that means¡± Quill couldn¡¯t help but grin a little as he placed a steady foot onto the makeshift board. ¡°Thought you were going to make something that didn¡¯t make you come across as a lame dork.¡± She responded in a light hearted teasing tone which Quill decided to ignore. Once he confirmed it could hold his weight he stood on top of it and with a mental command started to have the wheels spin and soon he was off down the rails, granted it was a bumpy ride and he wasn¡¯t going as fast as he would like on the account of how difficult it was to see but he was indeed moving much faster then he could run! For about one whole minute at least. As he moved forward in a bumpy but very fun ride he began to feel the effects of using the energy for as long as he had. His body started sweating, his muscles started to feel sore and drained, his mind almost began to feel fuzzy and he began to have a hard time concentrating on the task at hand which was simply moving forward. Recognizing the writing on the wall he quickly dissipated the energy and stumbled forward. Placing a hand on the tunnel wall to steady himself as he did so. ¡°Well, I kinda expected to be able to go further than that¡± He muttered somewhat quietly so as to not attract the attention of anything that might be nearby. ¡°Yeah, should have told ya but hey, best you find out about the negative effects from over using that skill now rather than later when you might be in a very dangerous fight. You probably would have noticed the effects when you were fighting the rats had you actually been paying more attention and weren¡¯t in such a life and death situation.¡± ¡°Yeah. And why didn¡¯t you tell me beforehand?¡± he couldn¡¯t help but ask exasperated. ¡°I find the best way to learn something is to experience it first hand. Would you not agree?¡± ¡°Well if experiencing it first hand could potentially mean my death perhaps it would be prudent to share something beforehand.¡± ¡°Hmm. Yeah, I see your point. Well you should probably know that had you kept pushing your body beyond the limit, your body would have started to rupture and your mind would slowly lose consciousness. The good news is that the more you level and strengthen your body and mind, the more resistant you become to the strain of using the skill, and even be able to do more with it too.¡± She delivered the lines of his body rupturing and his mind losing conscious in a way to cherry tone ¡°Yeah.¡± Quill responded, trying to ignore said tone ¡°See that is very useful information to know beforehand. I take it I don¡¯t need to worry about any effects on my soul¡± ¡°No, your soul is perfectly safe and secure honeybuns, I am making sure of it~¡± Before Quill could even ask what she meant she suddenly continued with some urgency in her voice ¡°By the way, don¡¯t mean to freak you out or nothin, but you might want to get a move on.¡± ¡°Huh? Why?¡± ¡°Well you are in the metro tunnels and those horror things are also in the tunnels and you don''t want one catching up on you while inside right?¡± ¡°Well sure but I don¡¯t think the one in this tunnel will have made its round or whatever. It seems to take them over an hour to do whatever loop they are doing, and we still have plenty of time.¡± ¡°Perhaps. But this tutorial dungeon is based on the metros in your world right? Don¡¯t multiple trains use the same tracks to get to different places?¡± Quill froze at the sudden realization and since he couldn¡¯t see very well he strained his ears to see if he could hear anything. There was nothing still, but a new sense of urgency overcame him. Shaking off his drowsiness and the soreness from his muscles he started moving with a bit more pep in his step. Chapter 12 It was with some small urgency that he made his way through the tunnel, keeping his hand on the stone wall for guidance. He might be able to see a few feet in front of him but it helped with stability since he couldn¡¯t really see that far ahead. He was probably moving for a good five minutes before he came to a fork in the path. So that basically confirms that there could be more than one of those horrors using the same track. ¡°Or they do alternative routes.¡± she spoke with some slight tension to her voice, likely trying to make him feel better with that statement. ¡°Either way there is a risk no matter what¡± Quill whispered, keeping his voice as low as possible. Also he was going to need to find a map of this place or else he was going to get seriously lost. Not really knowing which direction to take he decided to follow the advice of Gandalf the Grey and picked the tunnel that didn¡¯t smell quite as foul. Those enhanced senses were really coming in clutch at the moment. His headache, and the aches in his body were also dissipating which helped greatly. So while he didn¡¯t exactly have much time to use his pseudo energy manipulation skill. He probably wouldn¡¯t have to wait terribly long to use it again. ¡°Depending on the stuff you make, the complexity will likely decrease your time to have the construct active and formed, while something simpler will make it easier. As you grow levels in both your skill and level yourself you¡¯ll be able to use it for longer with more complexity but it will take longer to recover too.¡± Her voice responded in his head, being surprisingly helpful for once. Quill sent a mental acknowledgement in his head, realizing speaking out loud was probably a stupid idea since he didn¡¯t know how well those horrors could hear. He was pretty sure it couldn¡¯t see based on how it would pad the platforms with its hands to see if it could find something. But that didn¡¯t mean its other senses weren¡¯t working. Quill jogged down the tunnels for about thirty minutes if he were to hazard a guess with only the occasional commentary from her every so often. Whenever he came to a branch in the tunnels he chose the tunnel that smelled not as rank or disgusting. That¡¯s when he heard it. It was faint, something that he almost missed at first but sure enough there was the slight sound of scraping and shuffling that could be heard behind him off in the distance of the tunnel. Quill''s jog instantly went into a sprint as he bolted down the tunnel as fast as he possibly could. Despite him running faster than he had ever done before, the shuffling and scraping only seemed to grow louder and louder. He didn¡¯t even want to look behind him fearing that all he would see was one of those clawed 5 finger hands reaching out to snatch him up. Just that image alone seemed to make his legs pump even faster and he nearly ran into a tunnel wall as it turned, barely being able to turn just in time. The sound of the scraping now sounded like it was right on top of him and he could hear gurgling snarls coming from behind. The thing couldn¡¯t see him but it certainly could hear his foot fall and knew something was in front of it. ¡°Hey Quill, You need to pick up the pace because it''s. DUCK!¡± He didn¡¯t even question it as he ducked his body while trying to keep his legs moving underneath him. Feeling the wind woosh over where his head was in what he could only assume was a massive hand trying to grasp him. Instinctually he brought one of his daggers up to try and slash at the hand that tried to grasp him and felt it slice through flesh which was followed by a very angry and very hungry snarl echoing through the tunnel halls. Caution was to the wind now. He summoned up his skateboard and jumped on it, commanding his wheels to spin as fast as they could and he quickly found himself launching forward far faster than he could ever run and judging by the sound behind him, was actually gaining a bit of distance from the cursed sin. It was only for a few seconds but he actually saw light at the end of the tunnel which he hoped meant a station. He could feel the strain of using the skateboard against both his body and mind but still kept pushing as hard as possible.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. The moment he zoomed out of the tunnels he leapt up, dissipating the energy skateboard and tumbling across the platform. Then leaping to his feet, he stomped on some surprised rat''s skull before booking it to the stairs that were of course on the other side of the damn platform! With a shit ton of rats between him and it. The rats seemed far more surprised that someone came rushing out of the tunnel so hadn¡¯t reacted yet but he did curse as he saw several of the adult sized dire rats seemingly just as surprised as their brethren. So with every bit of strength he had he started running past them while they were still in shock, just as a vicious roar reverberated through the station and the horror pulled out of the tunnel. This one was neither red or white but a putrid looking green, and its clawed hands started flying across the whole platform, slamming into the ground every which way making him swerve in every desperate attempt to avoid getting squashed. ¡°To the right! Quick! The left now!¡± Her voice echoed in his brain as jumped this way and that. Barely avoiding one claw while jumping over another hand that had just smashed a rat that was also trying to run from the rampaging monster. The rats themselves seemed to have been freaking out as well. Many of them were already getting squished with their corpses getting thrown in the worm''s maw. Several were trying to flee for the stairs but the horror seemed to have predicted that was where Quill would go and well over ten clawed hands were repeatedly smashing and clawing at the stairs, killing every rat that tried to cross. Quill decided to bypass the stairs entirely and ran to the ledge the stairs led too/ He focused his energy into that of thin rope and hurled it up to the railing while sending a mental command to tie a quick knot. Then once secure he ascended his makeshift rope in record time. He could feel his nose bleeding as his skin cracked open and split, his vision started to spin but he forced himself to remain focused as he got himself above the railing and started to sprint towards the exit where he hoped another break room would be. He got maybe 10 feet before something snagged his backpack and yanked him back with such force he was pretty sure he would get whiplash from it. Not even bothering to turn around, he summoned up a giant pizza cutter looking thing with jagged teeth on the blade and forced that to spin as fast as he could and swung it around, getting a meaty hit with it as oil like blood squirted everywhere and he fell back to the ground at the top of the stairs. The Cursed Sin in the subway howled in pain that reverberated through the entire station and caused Quill to fall to his knees clutching his ears in pain as a severed hand fell down right beside him. His vision was swimming with black coming in around the edges at this point. His limbs felt really heavy too with the gashes across his body opening wider still from that manifestation but he still forced his way up and awkwardly jogged away. Loud thrashes and crashing could be heard through the whole station with loud gurgling shrieks of what he could only assume was pain and rage. Quill couldn¡¯t help but smile despite his current condition. He could taste blood in his mouth, there were several parts of his body that were bleeding with wounds all over but he had hurt the cursed sin, and that meant he could kill that horror. If that wasn¡¯t a cause for celebration he didn¡¯t know what was. He barely managed to dodge another hand that came sweeping down the tunnel thanks to her voice giving him warning. He forced his legs to move faster despite their protest and the wavering consciousness that was happening. He barely managed to stumble past the Kiosk before seemingly hundreds of hands came flying through the tunnels. Some went past the turn towards him and shot forward to the other platform but several did turn and started zooming towards him. Those bastards could elongate their fucking arms!? He barely got to the door that led to what he assumed was another break room and began to fumble with the keys he got from the deceased security guard. Thankfully it seemed the key he used to open the previous break room also opened this one and he opened the door only to quickly but quietly shut the door the moment he slipped inside. Just barely in time to avoid the hands that he heard crashing around outside, likely destroying every single structure it could find in a rage. He dropped to the ground barely having the energy to do anything. ¡°Hey Quill. I know all you want to do is pass out right now. But drink the health potion. Now. You are in critical danger.¡± Her voice came in, lacking the usual teasing mocking tone and had a sense of worry to it Why was she worried? It¡¯s not like she had known him for very long right? Had she known him? His head felt incredibly fuddled and it sort of hurt to think too. What was she even asking him to d- ¡°Shhh. No need to think. Just listen to me, listen to my voice. I¡¯ll tell you what you need to do.¡± Quill listened to her pleasant voice as she told him to open his bag and take out the red potion and he followed her orders, after drinking it under her instructions she told him to go ahead and sleep. He didn¡¯t really need to be told twice, the crashing and howling outside the break room did little to deter his need to sleep. Who knows, maybe he wouldn¡¯t wake up again. Didn¡¯t sound too bad right now. Chapter 13 Quill slowly awoke, much to his annoyance, feeling like he was just hit by a bus as a bunch of screens flashing in front of his face. Ailment- Fatigue (medium) Ailment- Bloodloss (weak) Dodge has leveled up to lvl 3 Dodge has leveled up to lvl 4 Pseudo energy manifestation has leveled up to lvl 2 Congratulations! You have learned a new skill ¡°Survival instincts¡± (Uncommon) Sometimes to survive a situation one needs to let go and go of their ego and act on instinct. Quill groaned and tried to sit up to take stock of his situation. He couldn¡¯t quite remember how he got to the break room but he was here now which obviously meant he managed to survive. Real freaking lucky this station even had a break room too. He was kind of kicking himself for not properly thinking his excursion through the tunnels properly. ¡°Heyyy~ Glad to see you are up and awake now. How are you feeling¡± Her voice sounded in his head, being the usual happy chipper self but with a slight tinge of worry he noted. ¡°Oh course I was worried you numb nut! Do you realize how close you were to dying there! I mean, obviously I knew you would survive but that didn¡¯t mean I wasn¡¯t getting anxious. Plus I hate seeing my personal cutie being in so much stress and pain. Or at least with so much stress and pain that I don¡¯t have direct control over.¡± He only managed to let out a grunt as he felt like talking would take too much of his precious energy, plus she could just read his thoughts if she wanted to. ¡°Sure I can read your thoughts but it''s more personal if you talk out loud to me. Makes me feel special.¡± Quill sent a mental acknowledgement back to her which elicited a small grumble on her part before he painfully shuffled his way towards the bathroom. After relieving himself he made his way to the sink and finally got a look at his appearance. He was covered in dried out blood. Since he still had his enhanced eyesight on he could see several fading scars all over his skin where wounds had likely been which made him concur that all the dry blood covering him was indeed his. ¡°You might want to wash this stuff off. While nothing happened, there was quite a bit sniffing at the door while you were passed out. The rats likely know something is in here that they can eat. It will be only a matter of time before they try to break in. Best to remove any incentive for them to come in earlier rather than later.¡± she responded to his observation. Quill nodded and began to slowly wash himself off using the bathroom sink ¡°I take it this is what happens when you overuse that energy manifestation thing? I know what you said before but actually experiencing it is very uncomfortable to put it mildly.¡± he decided to speak since she preferred it, though his voice came off gravelly, like he had just spent the past 4 hours talking non stop. Her voice became more chipper at hearing him speak out loud to her. ¡°Seeing is believing right? Honestly you pushed yourself beyond what I thought was possible. Hehehe. I knew you were special but you really know how to surprise a gal in the best way possible.¡± He couldn''t help but let out a small laugh that turned into a small cough. He wasn¡¯t sure his exes would agree with such a statement. ¡°Who The Fuck Are Your Exes?!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Quill was snapped out of his musing and stopped washing himself at the sudden harsh tone that came from her Her throat suddenly cleared ¡°Sorry, can get a little territorial. You know how I can be sometimes. Just ignore that part¡± Did he know how she could be? ¡°But-¡± ¡°Shhh. Cutie, just ignore that. It doesn¡¯t matter anyways. You need to keep cleaning yourself anyway, unless you want this somewhat safe room to turn into a battle zone.¡± He shook his head trying to clear some of the fatigue that was clouding his mind. She was right as per usual. He had far more pressing concerns and should focus on the task at hand. It took maybe a couple hours to clean all the blood off of him. Or at least most of it off his body. His clothes were totally ruined and the leather armor he had put on was pretty badly stained with his blood no matter how much he tried to wash it. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°Well, on the bright side I feel more clean. Though I should probably stay as far as I can from the doors.¡± He finally exited the bathroom and made his way towards the vending machine. He noted how it seemed to have the exact same food stuff as the other one. In fact the whole room seemed to be a carbon copy of the one he had back in the previous station. ¡°I wonder if all the stations will look the same. I noticed that there was another platform in this station meaning it has two like mine. Do you know?¡± ¡°No idea.¡± ¡°I thought you said you knew a lot about the system?¡± he countered, the fatigue he was feeling adding some slight annoyance that he felt bad for instantly. ¡°I know some, but more just how the system thinks. Not really all the nitty gritty stuff. Besides, it''s unimportant anyways. You should eat, rest, and just focus on recovery. I am sure that monster killed a bunch of the rats in this station but there will certainly be more to kill. We need to get you another level or two with a strong focus on maybe getting that pseudo energy manifestation to level up. We do not want another repeat with the tunnels and the faster you can move down them the better.¡± ¡°Agreed¡± He took out the daggers from their sheaths and stabbed the glass of the vending machines. He then liberated some of his more favorite snacks and sat in the bathroom and ate. It wasn¡¯t comfortable but it was probably the furthest away from the door to the station as he could make it. ¡°So I am curious. Kinda obvious that things will have changed quite considerably once you get out of this tutorial dungeon. What do you plan to do when you get out?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t really given it much thought. Most of our energy has been spent on trying not to die, you know?¡± Quill responded. Confused as to the sudden inquiry. She let out a giggle at the word ¡°our¡± that somehow felt more menacing then cute, before responding ¡°Yeah yeah. Well you are plenty good at not dying already. Pretty sure most would have died if they were in your position, and that''s not counting you failing to kill yourself with the trains. So what do you want to do when you leave?¡± ¡°Again, Haven¡¯t given it much thought.¡± he responded, rubbing his head. ¡°So don¡¯t think dumb dumb. First thing that pops into your head. Go!¡± He paused ever so slightly and spoke with some hesitance. ¡°I guess it would be nice to see Aurora Borealis. It''s been a dream of mine since I was a kid.¡± ¡°Really? Don¡¯t get me wrong. Nice goal to work towards. Just never would have pegged you for such a simple goal.¡± There was a longer pause at that comment with a small frown forming on his face. He then spoke, choosing his words carefully. ¡°I like nature stuff, what can I say? And if I can see something cool or pretty in nature then why wouldn¡¯t I go and see it? I¡¯ve grown up in a city my whole life and to be quite frank. Fucking hated it. If I had to choose between staring at a tree or staring at a skyscraper all day. I¡¯d chosen a tree. Plus, if I am going to be stuck in a bunch of tunnels for 120 days, then I am going to be really craving to see some open sky.¡± ¡°Hehe~. No need to get so defensive. I like it. Alright then, when we get out of here. Let¡¯s go and find ourselves an Aurora Borealis!¡± Quill smiled a little at that. Perhaps it was a good idea to have a goal to look forward to when he got out of here. It kinda did help his mentality a bit. Plus there was another cause for celebration. He had hurt that horror thing by chopping off one of its hands. It wasn¡¯t much but damn did it feel good to hurt something that was trying to kill you and was beyond your capabilities. He spent the next few hours eating, sleeping, and trying to circulate the energy he had through his body to hopefully get better at it. He had noticed that it did take time to conjure his energy up into reality. The larger and more complex the stuff he manifested were, the longer it would take to make. The hope was that if he got better at moving his energy around his body he would then get better at manifesting it out in the real world. Thankfully this energy circulation stuff wasn¡¯t overly difficult with giving him a pleasant feeling. However it seemed that just manifesting outside of him was going to cause negative effects as he briefly tried having a small wisp of it come out of his fingertips only to instantly feel nauseous with another headache brought on. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯d hold off on doing that manifestation stuff for a little bit if I were you unless it is an emergency. At least wait till you recover fully. But you can absolutely keep playing around with it while it''s inside your body. Nothing bad should happen there.¡± ¡°Nothing bad huh. Is there any real point in playing around with the energy inside my body then or is it just more for shits and giggles¡± he asked ¡°Shits and giggles. It will definitely help with improvements but it will be pretty slow going. Plus I like it when you play around with it~¡± There was a long pause given the tone she used with that last sentence ¡°Why do you like it?¡± he asked, almost afraid of the answer. ¡°Awwww. It¡¯s so cute when you act stupid. You already know the answer~¡± ¡°The energy is you, isn¡¯t¡± ¡°Well part me, part you. Kinda complicated that I will not bore you with the explanation for now. All you really need to know is.¡± Her voice suddenly changed to a much more sexual tone ¡°Please keep playing with me~ Oh! I love it so much!¡± Quill instantly stopped what he was doing in shock and if he could outwardly glare at her he would, which earned an immense amount of laughter from her that probably went on for several minutes. ¡°Oh come on! That was funny! The look on your face as it became as red as a tomato was absolutely priceless!¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t do that again.¡± ¡°I make no promises~.¡± He stopped playing around with the energy inside his body as the mood was kind of ruined but he put some thought into what she said. It was then heard the faintest of sniffing and some minor scratches against metal, his enhanced hearing picking up the sound coming from the break room and he could only guess that it was a rat checking out the room. He certainly wasn¡¯t feeling well enough to use his energy manipulation but he did have two daggers he could try to work with. Though if he was being totally honest he wished he had something with longer reach. He also knew he needed to level up. And level up plenty. So long as it wasn¡¯t an adult sized rat. He should be able to handle it without too much issue. And hey, maybe some exercise will do his body some good. Chapter 14 Quill didn¡¯t just instantly open the door and head out blades swinging. No, that would be something only a crazy person would do and he wasn¡¯t crazy. Instead he moved closer to the door to properly listen. He knew this would probably expose himself to the rat as he still had blood staining his leather armor but he felt like it would be worth it for the info he hoped to receive. Getting up to the door he placed his ear to the door and with his enhanced hearing he listened carefully. Obviously there was the rat by the door that was sniffing with intense interest but he could also hear multiple tippy tapping of claws further away from him at various distances. If he were to hazard a guess, he would say that there were probably 5-7 of them scurrying somewhat nearby the door and none of them were too big either. Enhanced senses has leveled up to lvl 2 ¡®Oh? Well that was a nice bonus. Would leveling up skills be slower the higher the level they go?¡¯ He sent a mental question to her ¡°Pretty sure. Also the higher the rarity the harder it is to level. But if you do more complex stuff with your skills the more experience you will get for said skills.¡± ¡®Why hasn¡¯t identify leveled up though? It''s a common skill, it''s level 1 and I¡¯ve been using it at almost every new passing thing I see?¡¯ He sent another mental inquiry towards her. ¡°Well if I were to hazard a guess. The skill is called ¡°Identify¡± right? Are you actually trying to properly examine and identify stuff or are you just haphazardly looking at things and hoping the system will tell you what they mean?¡± ¡®Fair enough¡¯ He relented to her point and went back to focusing on the task at hand. He noted that he could see things even clearer now, making out even more details within the room that he probably would¡¯ve had trouble with before with a level 1 skill. So that meant his ears were probably the same but he didn¡¯t hear anything else outside from his initial assessment which made him conclude that the amount of rats nearby were likely the same as before. At least nearby. Slowly withdrawing his daggers he mentally prepared himself. He would want this over quickly before he attracted more attention from any of the other rats nearby that were lurking in the station. Taking a deep breath, he waited till he heard the sniffing get really close to the door before opening the door as fast as possible with his blades swinging, right into the curious rat''s neck killing it instantly. This naturally got the attention of the other rats, which Quill counted 5 in total. It was a huge boon that he guessed right and they were all in the baby to adolescent size. Plus if his previous experience with these younger rats had taught him anything. They had one tried and true tactic. Charge at the enemy until they die. All but one of them charged instantly and Quill, sticking to the method that worked, kicked the rat corpse at his feet into two of the charging rats as he met the other two with his daggers at the ready. He really had improved from the last few encounters with these rats. They still moved at the speed he was used to but instead of struggling to keep up, he was slowly edging out an advantage. His body just moved quicker and his mind was able to process information easier. Quill pivoted on his foot to dodge one of the rats leaping charges, slashing with his daggers as he did so. The scurrying of another rodent could be heard behind him so using the momentum of his spin he kicked out with a satisfying impact and sent the second flying. The other two rats that he had managed to delay were now upon him and Quill jumped up and over the first one as it tried to tackle him before bringing his feet down to the second with a hard stomp. Stabbing the daggers into its side for good measure. ¡°One down.¡± he muttered as he glanced at the other three, the last one still hadn¡¯t made any move and was watching everything which made Quill a little on edge but he needed to focus on the ones that were the present danger. The dire rats were stalking him from three different angles so he knew he wasn¡¯t in the greatest position. Instead of letting them make the first move again, Quill decided to take initiative with a feint towards the one he had managed to injure. That got the other two to react and try to meet him where he would have been. Instead he had jumped back and brought both the blades to meet each of the rats that tried to cut him off.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Quill felt a massive pain in his head and his body ached in protest as he used his pseudo energy manifestation skill. He managed to extend the blade with the energy while making the energy around the daggers edges even sharper, allowing him to cut easily through both those rats killing them instantly. He immediately let the energy disperse before the side effects got even worse and not wanting to give the injured rat a chance to realize what happened he dove for it. Letting the daggers stab deep into the rats eyes killing the last one that had encircled him. He then swiveled his attention to the fifth and final rat who just stood their glaring at him with malice. Quill took note that things seemed slightly different, its skeletal structure was slightly off from the other dire rats he had fought. Its face is slightly different as well. He couldn¡¯t fully place it so for the heck of it he tried casting identify on it. Rat Kin Identify has leveled up to lvl 2 ¡°Told you so¡± she responded in a very smug tone when he got the notification that his skill had leveled up. He noted that he still didn¡¯t know anything else aside from the monster being a Rat Kin, whatever that was. But he was pretty sure it wasn¡¯t a very high level given its size. Or at least that was his hope. The Rat Kin continued to glare at him before letting out a snarl and charged him with Quill getting ready to counter attack. It was then it did something he wasn¡¯t really expecting. At the moment it got about ten feet from him, it got a lot faster, its brown fur almost turning into a streak as it rushed towards him and he barely jumped out of the way in time to avoid it. After taking an awkward roll on the ground he jumped back up to find the Rat Kin using the wall as a springboard to change directions quickly and was not practically on top of him. Thankfully the daggers were best used close in close quarters and if the rat wanted to deliver itself to the blades he wasn¡¯t going to complain. His blades missed the monster''s eyes but he managed to stab them into their shoulders as he fell backwards as he let the rat try to tackle him. He promptly placed his foot onto the thing''s stomach and hurled it over him, letting its momentum carry it onwards while ripping the daggers out of the rat in the process. He quickly got himself to his feet and leapt at the rat who had landed on its back. Plunging the daggers into the rat multiple times until it stopped thrashing about. Killed adolescent Rat Kin lvl 8 You have leveled up to level 6 That¡­. Okay, he was starting to feel a little bad about killing so many infants and adolescent rats. Sure they were trying to kill him but things were getting a little upsetting. Like he was half expecting to suddenly get an achievement called baby killer or something. ¡°If it makes you feel better. You are the best baby killer I have ever seen.¡± ¡°... No¡­ No, that doesn¡¯t make me feel better. Why would you even think that would make me feel better???¡± ¡°Positive reinforcement?¡± Quill let out an exasperated sigh ¡°Please don¡¯t encourage me into killing babies. I am only doing this more out of necessity than anything else.¡± ¡°Okay okay, no more teasing. Such a debbie downer today aren''t we. What I was actually going to say was that I don¡¯t think these are entirely sentient creatures. The system seems to have control over this entire dungeon from what I can tell. And that includes everything here that is native to it. AKA the rats also. Or at least most of the rats. The only two creatures I have sensed sentience from was this rat kin you just killed and that plague infested adult dire rat too. So you have only killed one adolescent with sentience. Hurray for you!¡± ¡°Are you telling the truth?¡± Some slight doubt crept into his thoughts and she huffed at him in response. ¡°Of course I am telling the truth! I might like teasing you but I know when to stop if need be¡­. Usually.. Depends on the situation... Either way, whether you believe me or not doesn¡¯t change the fact that I am still right. But if you don¡¯t fully believe me then you can always check with outside sources afterwards. It doesn¡¯t change the fact of life that it is still kill or be killed here and I want you to survive this in the end.¡± He could tell from her tone that she was clearly upset at having doubted some of her words. ¡°Hey.. I¡¯m sorry for upsetting you. Guess I was just a little stressed..¡± he offered a meek apology ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± There was a small pause before she continued ¡°I suppose you can always earn the achievement of baby killer when you leave the tutorial. I believe in you!¡± And he checked himself out of the conversation as he started to drag the dead rat bodies away from the door to the safe room except for one which he left near it. The hope was that when something inevitable did come to eat these dead rats he would be able to kill them. That was one reason why he was placing the dead rat near his door. When one came to that one he would be able to do a quick surprise kill. The other reason was to hopefully disguise any potential smell from his blood stained armor. Once everything was in place he shut the door and sat down to rest and to level up. He placed his free stat point into the mind since he already got a stat point into his body. This would hopefully at least a little more towards his recovery for using his energy manifestation again as he wanted it ready for the next encounter. Now it was just a matter of waiting for something else to come. Chapter 15 It took several hours for him to hear some noise coming from the other side of the door. He certainly wasn¡¯t complaining though as he now felt good enough to use his energy manifestation without suffering an immediate headache afterwards. Using his enhanced hearing he listened and wasn¡¯t particularly happy with the results. It sounded like there were fewer rats than before, sure, but the claws clacking against the tile floor but those claws also sounded louder and heavier. It was probably safe to assume he was dealing with adult sized rats but probably only two or three which was a silver lining he supposed. It was then something happened that he wasn¡¯t really expecting but probably should have. He heard a voice call out from behind the doors. ¡°I know you are hiding behind the door roach! Come out here and face me so that I may avenge my brethren! Unless you are too scared!¡± ¡°Oh nice! You get to talk to the rats now about all the babies you have killed! Isn¡¯t that great!¡± she responded. Her chipper voice contrasted horrible with what she just said. ¡°Please don¡¯t be providing commentary during this¡± ¡°No promises¡± Quill sighed and unlocked the door before cracking it open just a little bit to peek out. There stood a humanoid looking rat dressed in some armor that looked more like it was all just slapped together with random sheet metal then anything else while holding a crude looking curved sword. It stood perhaps as tall as Quill, at about 5¡¯8 maybe 5¡¯9 (His own height was a constant point of annoyance on his end). But with its hunched back it probably was actually an additional couple of inches if he were to hazard a guess. Next to the humanoid rat stood adult sized dire rats, one on each side and they both looked at him with intense rage, each clearly wrestling with the urge to just charge Quill and tear him to shreds. The humanoid rat looked rather shocked to see Quills face ¡°You¡­ You are no roach! Who are you! Why do you serve the roaches!¡± ¡°Hey man. Rat. thing¡­¡± Really didn¡¯t think that first part of that sentence through ¡°I don¡¯t serve anybody. I¡¯m just trying to survive this insanity after being dropped into this tutorial with no warning.¡± The Rat Kin scoffed at his response ¡°You look like those people that showed up suddenly a few days ago after we were finally released to do our duty. Smells like them too. I knew they were servants of the roaches. I was smart in having them all slaughtered. Were good eatings they were.¡± Well there goes any chance of potentially talking this out. Even if he could somehow convince this rat that he wasn¡¯t working for these so-called roaches, he was a human and humans were ¡°good eatings¡± apparently. ¡°See? You are delicious! That other adult rat didn¡¯t know good food even when it was biting and scratching at its back. Probably why it was diseased.¡± ¡°Heh. Yeah. I am pretty delicious aren''t I¡± ¡°Oh trust me~ I know better than most~¡± ¡°Stop talking to yourself and come out!¡± The Rat Kin screamed, clearly not liking the fact that they were ignoring him. This got her to mutter in his head about rats and being horrible rude with interrupting their conversation before finally speaking with clarity. ¡°Might as well. Nothing better to do anyways. But maybe you can extract some information out of him¡± Quill opened the door and stepped out. Keeping his daggers sheathed and his hands in the air hoping to keep their guard down. ¡°No further steps! Unarm yourself and kick the weapons away! Hurry! I promise no harm will come to you if you do!¡± Now Quill wasn¡¯t very good at reading facial expressions, even worse at reading humanoid rat expressions. But this rat was apparently an even worse liar if he could see through it. Still, it would help give them a sense of confidence and hopefully carelessness if he complied. So keeping the daggers sheathed he removed them from his waist and tossed them away well out of reach. ¡°Good! Good. Now tell me everything the roaches are planning, their forces, and their plans, where they have encampments in the tunnels, and I shall be sure to ask our king to show mercy to you!¡± Again with the roaches¡­ Wait. ¡°You don¡¯t mean those cursed sin monsters that swarm the tunnels do you?¡± Quill asked with some very faint albeit weirdly placed hope. ¡°Do not play dumb! The sins of gluttony are pacified in this dungeon and do not harm us so long as we don¡¯t tread on their territory! I speak of the roaches!¡± ¡°Wait¡­ So there is a second faction aside from you rats¡­ Don¡¯t tell me!¡± ¡°Annny second now~¡± her voice responded with anticipation. The Rat Kin started saying something more but Quill had long since tuned it out and waited for what he feared and sure enough. Another blue screen popped up in front of his face New quest received! ¡°Infestation¡± Turns out they¡¯re more things in these tunnels aside from rats and cursed sins. You got bugs too! Objective: Find what is creating the roaches and destroy it Reward upon completion: 2 health potions, 2 stamina potions, 2 mana potions, 2 cleansing potions, 100,000 bonus credits upon exiting the tutorial dungeon ¡°You bastard! You did that on purpose!¡± Quill jabbed an accusatory finger at the Rat Kin who looked shocked at his sudden outburst before snarling back.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°You¡¯d dare interrupt your betters! I should have known an agent of the roaches would have no sense of decorum!¡± ¡°Coming real hypocritical from a flea infested vermin!¡± ¡°You¡¯d DARE!¡± The Rat Kin then looked at the dire rats ¡°Tear the agent''s limbs from his body and see if the pain teaches them a lesson in manners!¡± The two large rats let out shrieks and charged Quill but he was ready, he was more than ready. Summoning up his giant pizza cutter weapon that he used to chop off one of those sins hands with, he had the blade spin and swung it wildly into the large rat that was in the front. Carving through the things head like it was made of butter and making a real bloody mess as flesh and bone flew everywhere. The second rat skidded to a halt after seeing what happened to its brethren and tried to turn around but Quill was on it in a second and hammered his pizza cutter into the monster several times, carving it up and killing it, leaving yet another bloody mess and making his attempts to clean his armor seemingly rather pointless. He was really glad he had his sense of smell turned off cause the smell of blood was already bad. But he unfortunately had his hearing and sight enhanced and hearing all the squelching of meat and being able to see all the intense details of all the guts flying was less than pleasant. Needless to say after killing those two giant rats he threw up yet again. Hopefully there was a skill later down the road that prevented him from getting sick from this ¡°You good sweetie?¡± ¡°Yeah.. Yeah I¡¯m good. Wasn¡¯t expecting such a mess when I did that which in hindsight doesn¡¯t make sense.¡± Thankfully the Rat Kin was standing still in clear shock over the mess he had just made to make good on Quill''s lack of focus before glaring at him. ¡°You! You will die for that!¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t you already planning on killing m- Woah!¡± The Rat Kin didn¡¯t wait for him to finish as it charged far faster than Quill would have expected and slashed with his sword barely missing him by an inch. Unfortunately for Quill, all the blood on the floor made his ground unsteady and he slipped right onto the ground making a splash. The Rat Kin quickly tried to capitalize on the advantage and swung the blade down which Quill quickly rolled out of the way. Barely managing to avoid the monster blade yet again. He manifested his pizza cutter and swung up only for the rat to parry his blow. Thankfully his spinning blade knocked the Rat Kins blade away causing the rat to take several steps back to rebalance itself and Quill tried to get back to his feet. But the Rat Kin was far faster and better coordinated then he was as they were quickly upon him again. It took Quill everything to block the blows the rat threw at him and already he felt the headache starting to come on which was the first sign he was starting to hit danger zones with his energy manifestation. Knowing the Rat Kin had the advantage in both ground and experience, Quill decided to take a page out of the rat''s book. While still deflecting the blows as best he could, he imagined a tail of his own with his energy manifestation and had it snake towards the Rat Kins leg before wrapping around it. He then yanked it and pulled the unexpected rat off its feet. The slippery ground now worked towards his advantage as he swung his pizza cutter and managed to saw off one of the Rat Kins arms that was holding the sword eliciting a shriek of pain from the rat. Now with the upper hand, Quill got to his feet and grabbed the rat''s sword, dissipating his manifestations as the strain was becoming too much for him. He then placed the sword''s tip onto the rat''s neck. ¡°Alright.¡± Quill managed to get out between laboring breaths ¡°Talk. I have some questions for you¡± The Rat Kin was sniveling as it clutched its severed stump earning some brief moments of pity. ¡°Hold that pity my love. Lets not forget he would have happily killed you first. And anybody who would dare to harm you deserves not your pity or mercy.¡± her voice spoke lacking none of its usual playfulness or warmth. ¡°Well that is pretty dark, not something I expected coming from you¡± ¡°Your bleeding heart is sweet and I like that about you. But it will get you into trouble. I am just making sure you will do what needs to be done. Steel yourself Quill and be ready¡± He took a breath, knowing she was right and kept the tip towards the Rat Kin as it looked at him with a mix of pained confusion and fear. ¡°Right. First question. Roaches. Where are these roaches and do you know how many of them they¡¯re?¡± ¡°Filthy little agent like you. So low in the roaches ranks that you don¡¯t even know your own forces! Or perhaps the roaches are so disorganized that they can¡¯t keep track of their own numbers. Yes, that makes more sense. Need us Rat Kin to do the work for you!¡± Yeah. This was certainly going to get him no where. ¡°Okay, well how about your forces?¡± ¡°Ha! You¡¯d love to know that wouldn¡¯t you! But it won¡¯t matter! I have already sent word to the rat king before our confrontation that we needed reinforcements! They will be here soon and with it! Will bring your doom!¡± ¡°One emergency after another it seems¡± Quill mumbled but then a thought occurred. ¡°Wait. How will they even get here with those sin creatures moving through the tunnels. You said earlier that they are pacified. What did you mean by that?¡± ¡°They are pacified! The rules for the tutorial we were given stated so as long as we don¡¯t go into their tunnels! You were the reason one of them killed so many of my brethren weren¡¯t you! You were in their tunnel and that''s why so many of us died! You angered the sin!¡± ¡°Yeah, no shit. So how do you guys navigate? Obviously you don¡¯t use the actual tracks. Also what the hell is this about rules of the tutorial?¡± ¡°The tutorial rules are what we were given! It is our fate for asking the system for a second chance!¡± His screams were becoming more incoherent and making less sense ¡°And you are damaging our chances for a second start, using the sins to destroy so many of our forces! Why couldn¡¯t you have just taken the secret tunnels like the rest!¡± ¡°Secret tunnels¡­ Of course they¡¯re secret tunnels. Why wouldn''t there be secret tunnels¡± Quill scratched his head in annoyance. ¡°Kinda feel embarrassed that neither of us thought there would be secret tunnels¡± ¡°I know right? It makes sense when you think about it¡± ¡°Actually¡­ No, thinking about it more. It doesn''t make sense. Why would there be secret tunnels in a dungeon that is modeled after a metro system¡± ¡°Well it makes sense to me¡± he muttered in response. ¡°Yes, but sweetie. You are insane. Certified by the system. What you thinks makes sense isn¡¯t what most would think makes sense¡± ¡°My insanity is only weak! Certified by the system! That hardly means anything!¡± he complained back ¡°Uh¡­¡± Both Quill and her attention turned back to the Rat Kin who looked visible weirded out despite missing his arm. ¡°Don¡¯t look at us like that. We are just having a conversation. Now about these reinforcements. When will they arrive?¡± ¡°Maybe in another 6-8 hours?¡± The Rat Kin seemed to reflexively respond before realizing it probably shouldn¡¯t have said that. ¡°Good enough.¡± And Quill slashed through the rats neck before stabbing it into the heart killing them. ¡°Nice! I was worried you were going to hesitate some more and worry about morality or some other useless thing¡± ¡°I¡¯ll worry about the morality of issues when I have the luxury to do so. For now. I need to get ready for whatever reinforcements that are to come.¡± ¡°Hey, you can lie to yourself but you can¡¯t lie to me. I know what you did just bothered you.¡± Quill let out a sigh ¡°Let''s just focus on the task at hand please¡± ¡°Fine but I do have some good news for you¡± ¡°Whats that?¡± You have leveled up to lvl 7! ¡°Ta-Da!¡± Chapter 16 She was right as always, the level up did make him feel a lot better. Glad something sort of came from the death even if it was a selfish thing. Though he would probably need to be careful. The call to power over the killing of things seemed like a pretty slippery slope he could fall down. He put his spare point into mind as he began to take stock of the station. He hadn¡¯t really noticed since he was a little too busy but he was shocked at how ruined the whole place was. The Kiosk was completely destroyed and all along the walls, ceiling and floor were claw marks matching the claws from that cursed sin monster. ¡°Yeah. When you severed that creature''s hand. It got really REALLY pissed at you.¡± she responded with some fairly obviously commentary ¡°I am kind of surprised it didn¡¯t smash the door to the break room and grab me.¡± ¡°I might have had a hand in that. It took a lot of effort and a lot of power but I helped mask your presence for a few moments so it couldn¡¯t sense you no matter what. It probably thought the door was just part of the wall since it couldn¡¯t see, and you''ll notice claw marks on the door itself too. Also you are more than welcome. I will take your praise now.¡± Quill looked over at the door and sure enough, there were claw marks. But nothing that would harm the integrity of the door itself which was good. ¡°So hold on. You can just mask my presence just like that? Why didn¡¯t you do it when I was getting chased in the tunnel?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t do it just like that.¡± A finger snap could be heard in his head from her which he had no idea how she did that. ¡±Honestly I didn¡¯t even know I could do it. But I didn''t know if that thing could sense you or not so I did my best. At no cost to myself by the way. It hurt, like a lot. Plus in order to do it again, I put your soul at a very high risk. Sure you survived this round but I am not sure if you will be as lucky next time. Plus if I can do it again, which I am not sure I am able to. It won¡¯t be for a long while. Also, you are Welcome! Feel Free To Praise Me Now!¡± Quill winced. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t mean for you to get hurt. Though thank you a lot for doing what you did. Even though it did hurt. I really appreciate it and the fact that I am still alive means you did a really good job too¡± ¡°Hehehehe. That¡¯s more like it. You are so much better when you are obedient~¡± He ignored the flirtatious comment and continued ¡°So how would we be able to get you to do more of that?¡± ¡°Hiding your presence? You need to get stronger. The stronger you get, the more our bond will grow which will make it easier for me to do that kind of stuff. You WANT our bond to grow right?¡± ¡°Y-yeah¡± His mouth sort of moved without any input from his brain ¡°Good. Now we should focus on the task at hand. Which is reinforcements that are coming for us¡± ¡°R-right.¡± Quill looked around. He needed to first figure out where the secret door to the secret tunnel was. ¡°Don¡¯t suppose you have any idea?¡± ¡°A few. But where is the fun in me just telling you. Come on. Put that great noggin to use and come up with something on your own! You got this, I believe in you! Hurrah!¡± He almost felt like she just did a fist pump in the air and couldn¡¯t help but smile just a tad at her encouragement. What he ever did without her was¡­ What he did without her.. He was witho- ¡°Stop slacking and get a move on! You are kinda on a time limit here!¡± Quill shook his head ¡°Yeesh. I get side tracked way too much¡± ¡°That you do. Good thing I am here to keep you on track. Feel free to thank me. And by that I mean you better thank me!¡± He chucked ¡°Thank you. Now let me try to figure this out¡± ¡°Aye aye boss man¡± Quill decided to first examine the whole station. Just because he thought all the rats were dead didn¡¯t actually mean they were. Once he ensured all the rats were indeed gone he couldn¡¯t help but note that the station itself was a carbon copy of the previous station making him wonder if every station was similar and how many stations there were. Kinda seemed like lazy dungeon design to him. ¡°Maybe file a complaint?¡± She butted in snapping him out of his musings.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°To whom???¡± ¡°How am I supposed to know?¡± He just rolled his eyes at that. ¡°Need to focus on finding the entrance. Let me concentrate¡± ¡°Oh! Is that what you were doing? To me it looked like you were just standing around admiring the architecture of the dungeon and complaining about its layout. My bad.¡± He ignored the biting sarcasm and decided to start looking around the area by the break room and gate. He didn¡¯t really know what he was looking for but he started spamming his ¡°identify¡± skill at every wall while looking for something that could be notch or a crack that could be a give away to the secret entrance. After no luck on that front, Quill decided to check out the hallways that lead to either platform but came up with squat. Finally he went to check the actual platforms. The very first thing he did was make sure that those cursed sins weren¡¯t showing up anytime soon. Once he knew he still had some time, he began exploring the platforms. He decided to start with the platform that he came from, there were no dead rat corpses littering the area which made him believe that the cursed sin monster probably ate all of them after it was done throwing its tantrum of not managing to catch and eat him. And boy did it throw a tantrum. He thought the walls and floor were bad up by the gate and kiosk. But yikes. There were craters all over, likely from the hands smashing down with extreme force, along with deep carvings everywhere from the claws. Even the stairs were destroyed. In order to get to the platform, Quill had to jump down to the platform from atop the ruined stairs and onto rubble. He was strangely thankful in an odd sort of way. He remembered how many rats were on that platform when he came out of the tunnels and there would have been no way he would have been able to handle that many in such a disadvantageous position without a whole lot of luck. Even if he did manage to get to the break room it would still be pretty touch and go with handling that many rats. Though he suppose in fairness it was pretty touch and go with the cursed sin too. It took him about thirty minutes of examining the walls of that platform before he concluded that there wasn¡¯t any secret entrance he could find. He was using the electric sign for when the cursed sin would arrive to keep track of time which proved pretty useful since he had nothing else indicating time. He then mosied on over to the other platform and noted that the arrival for that cursed sin would be a few short minutes away so he decided to hide and wait for it to have passed. He eventually heard the scraping of claws to stone and peeked out from where he hid You are in- Quill dismissed the notification telling him he was inflicted with fear. At this point he was pretty sure his annoyance with the very obvious status infliction trumped whatever fear he was feeling from the cursed sin. There was some good news though. This one was a color he recognized with it being red. This of course begged the question of what kind of weird layout the train tracks had but who cares. He got a red color which meant he didn¡¯t have to worry about yet another one. ¡°What if they¡¯re multiples of the same color?¡± her voice suddenly chimed in, making Quill sag. ¡°Well if they¡¯re multiples then I guess I gotta start killing these sins sooner rather than later¡± he barely whispered back and quickly tossed that hopeless thought to the back of his mind for later. The cursed sin finally left and with plenty of time on his side, he headed down the stairs and began checking all the walls for anything that might indicate a secret passage or tunnel of any kind but still got nothing. ¡°Perhaps the secret tunnel is within the metro tunnel itself?¡± ¡°No. I wouldn¡¯t think so. That Rat Kin seemed pretty adamant on not getting on the tracks. So¡­.¡± Quill suddenly realized something and felt like an idiot ¡°So the secret tunnel isn¡¯t in the wall. It¡¯s probably on the floor or ceiling.¡± ¡°Oh!... Well now we both feel like idiots. But I am not sure if your method of spamming Identify at every inch of every thing is a good method of finding your secret passage.¡± ¡°Yeah.. Let''s head back up to the kiosk first. I might have an idea¡± Quill headed back up and took a deep breath as he started to manifest his energy. But instead of manifesting it into any solid object he then chose to use very faint wisps and began to touch it down to the floor. Commanding the faint wisps to snake across the floor as he moved with them so as to not expend too much energy. He covered the area around the kiosk doing his best to ignore all the blood and the slowly decaying corpses of the rats but found nothing. So he then moved towards the hallways that lead to the platforms. It was on his way to the platform that had the green cursed horror that his wisps finally snagged something. He made them as thin as possible, imagining them almost as a fog and as he slid them across the ground he kept trying to have them press downwards. This allowed him to catch the tiniest of cracks. He quickly dissipated all of the wisps but the one that snagged and had it slowly stretch itself across the crack till it did a full loop. He could appreciate the fact that the rats had decided to make their secret tunnel door in the shape of a hole you would see in a cartoon that would depict a mouse. Using the energy he lifted the latch up enough for him to get his fingers underneath and with a small grunt threw open the door and peered inside. ¡°I am going to have to guess the rats have some kind of darkvision cause I can barely see shit down there even with my enhanced eyesight.¡± ¡°I would have to assume that as the skill levels up, so will your ability to see in the dark. Sadly not much you can do right now. What about your ears? Anything?¡± Quill strained his ears as best he could. Even sticking his head inside the hole to see if he could hear anything but still came up with nothing. So that was a plus sign at least. He probably had a little bit of extra time to prepare as best he could. He did note however that a little further down in the tunnel there was a weak lamp offering some minimal light. So at least the tunnels were completely pitch black. ¡°Sooo. Whatcha planning on doing to deal with the rat reinforcements that will most certainly overwhelm you?¡± ¡°Psychological warfare my dear. Psychological warfare.¡± She let out a malicious cackle in response. Chapter 17 Enacting psychological warfare was a very messy and very gross business as it turns out. Looks like he could also add ¡°Desecrating corpses¡± on the list of messed up things he was doing. ¡°To be fair. Desecrating corpses is pretty tame compared to killing babies¡± ¡°Not helping¡± he complained while using the Rat Kins curved sword to chop off as many rat heads as he could. He really wished he had stuff he could use as pikes or something but he only really had the mop that was in the break room. So he decided to use both the rat kins heads for that. He wondered if Vlad Tepes personally put some people on pikes or if he had other people do it because it really was a gruesome business that involved him upchucking a little. Still he eventually got it all placed. The mop was impaled on the ground in the secret tunnel just under the secret door with both rat kins heads impaled on the mop. He then placed all the other rat heads around that in a morbidly tasteful way. ¡°Well. This will certainly piss them off. The rat kins don¡¯t seem to care much for their dire rat brethren but they do seem to care about their fellow rat kin. Either way, you will certainly have a lot of angry rats wanting to murder you now.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the plan¡± he responded with a mix of depression and pride. ¡°Not sure that''s a great plan. But at least you are playing your character well.¡± ¡°Playing a character? What character?¡± ¡°An insane one.¡± He ignored that comment and climbed out of the secret tunnel. He was about to dust himself off but considering he was now soaked in blood. Didn¡¯t really see much point. Now onto phase two. He started with the vending machine in the break room. Awkwardly wobbling over to the entrance and laid the whole thing down onto the trap door. (After liberating all the snacks of course). He then placed some heavy debris from the kiosk on top of the vending machine as well as the dead, headless, adult dire rat corpses. ¡°Ick. When I get out of this tutorial I hope to never see another rat. Plus I hope to get deposited somewhere with a lot of water that I can just bath in. Like a waterfall or something.¡± ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s a good thing I can¡¯t actually smell you. Would probably be a big turn off. Or maybe a turn on? I¡¯ve never actually smelled before. Also you know this isn¡¯t going to hold off the attack from the rats right? Especially with that little display of yours for them to find.¡± ¡°The idea isn¡¯t for this to stop them. Just make it difficult enough for the perfect opportunity to present itself.¡± ¡°Ooo! Intriguing. Care to share?¡± ¡°No spoilers.¡± He responded feeling just a tad more confident. ¡°Woah woah woah, that¡¯s not fair! I¡¯m allowed to tease you! Not the other way around. Come on! Tell me!¡± Quill smirked a little but kept himself silent and made sure to not think of the thing that would give it away. ¡°Yet you¡¯d happily think that to clearly tease me with the information! Boooo!! BOOOOOOOO!¡± ¡°Hush now. I need total silence so I can listen for when these reinforcements are supposed to arrive.¡± ¡°HuSh NoW I NeEd ToTaL SiLeNcE sO i CaN-¡± Quill tuned her out as he both started to listen but also mentally prepared himself for the fight to come. He didn¡¯t know if the plan would work. In theory it would but the theory was still just a theory and-. ¡°Oh my god stop! You are doing this just to tease me more!¡± ¡°Perhaps¡± Incoherent grumbles were his only response and he smiled some more as he sat and waited. Appreciating both the time he had to rest and appreciate the company he was with. ¡°Buttering me up with compliments isn¡¯t going to make me less angry with you¡± She spoke in a much happier tone. ¡°Whatever you say¡± he responded and fell silent. It took maybe 2-4 more hours if he were to hazard a guess, and it was faint but there was scurrying sounds coming from underneath him and a whole lot of muffled squeaking too. He wasn¡¯t sure what they were thinking about his little display as he pressed his ear to the floor to try and listen better. Which, of course, was when a very loud and very enraged scream erupted from underneath causing Quill to jerk his head back. ¡°Looks like you got their attention now.¡± ¡°No shit.¡± He swallowed and took a deep breath. He was playing with fire here and didn¡¯t really have a back up plan so this would have to work no matter what as he carefully eyed the secret entrance to the secret tunnel.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. It only took a few more seconds before heavy thuds could be heard and the trap door barely budged with how much weight was still on it. Quill stood up and prepared himself. Not summoning his energy manifestation ability just yet and was waiting for enough room. The trap door started thudding even harder and it was ever so slightly wobbling but again nothing until he heard a very loud and very pissed off ¡°Move It!¡± from below and the trap door stopped for a small second before it started to lift up by something very strong pushing it open. The moment it had cracked open enough Quill summoned up a whip with a spike at the end of it that he had decided to name Rat Tail. Though if he was being honest it was more just a rope with a sharp, pointy end. But that didn¡¯t really matter because he didn¡¯t really need to know how to use the whip since he could control the energy without movement. He shot the sharp end into the crack made by the door with as much speed and strength as he could. This created a very audible crack like metal getting broken through followed by a shriek of pain and the trap door instantly slammed shut. Well sorta slammed shut. The rope part of his whip kept the whole thing from closing entirely which was exactly as he intended. With the spike still down in the tunnels he started having it fly haywire in every single possible direction he could, as fast as it could, as far as he could, extending the rope part as much as he could to reach further than it normally would have. Screeches and sounds of terror began instantly echoing up from underneath him along with sounds of clanging and crashing from his spike that was probably hitting both metal from what he assumed was armor along with concrete from the tunnel walls. ¡°This sorta feels like cheating¡­. Way to go!¡± Her voice echoed in his head and he almost lost concentration. As easy as this was compared to what could have happened, it was still taking Quill a considerable amount of willpower to keep things going as they were. Finally after only a couple minutes at most, his headache was starting to get worse and that was the sign he needed to stop so he quickly dissipated the energies and let out a breath of relief as the trap door slammed shut. Quill then took out a mana potion and stamina potion and quickly chugged both of those down. He had a bet that using this pseudo energy manifestation stuff put a strain on not just his body but also used up stamina and mana as well. While he would have to wait for his body to heal a bit, he hoped to lessen the negative effects by drinking the potions. Sure enough he felt his headache disappear and a sense of exhaustion he didn¡¯t really know he had also went with it. He still felt some slight aches in his body though, similar to an ache of bruises but they were perfectly manageable. He closely eyed the trap door for the next few minutes while keeping his enhanced hearing open. When nothing made any moves he promptly flopped down on the floor relieved. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll admit, that went much better than I expected. Nice job!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s over yet. Call it a hunch but I think they will come back with something stronger soon.¡± She was quiet after that, allowing Quill to focus on listening as best as he could, which he appreciated. He checked his statuses to see if he got a level up and was surprised at the notifications. You have leveled up to lvl 8! You have leveled up to lvl 9! You have leveled up to lvl 10! He got three levels up from that!? How?? ¡°Can I speak now?¡± ¡°Yes. Yes you can speak. How on earth did I level up three times??¡± ¡°When I said this felt like cheating I wasn¡¯t exaggerating. I don¡¯t think you realized how many higher leveled monsters you killed just now. Not just higher level but also higher quality. A same leveled rat kin seems to give more experience then a same leveled dire rat. And you killed a bunch of rat kin with that little stunt of yours. They were literally all crowded around the entrance so you did a lot of damage.¡± He took a breath. That was pretty surprising to him but he certainly wasn¡¯t going to question it. The extra points into his body would do wonders right now and the extra free points in his mind would also benefit him greatly. It probably took no longer than thirty or so minutes before Quill heard the sounds of scampering coming from underneath, along with the sound of a very heavy and very big foot falls. This was it. He got up from where he sat and took a deep breath as he prepared. Soon the heavy footsteps stopped underneath his barricade and Quill mentally prepared himself. He hadn¡¯t really expected the whole door to be flung open as a massive armored rat erupted from underneath causing his makeshift barricade to fling everywhere. Thankfully Quill recovered quickly and summoned up his pizza cutter and brought it down to the rat as they shot upward. Its upward momentum and Quills downward strike cleaved through the whole rat''s head as the spin of its blade met resistance but still managed to cut cleanly through. A shriek came from underneath and an equally large rat with equal amounts armor shot its way up screeching ¡°BROTHER KILLER!¡± Unable to bring his Pizza Cutter to bear, he shot his rat tail forward. The large rat kin managed to dodge the first strike but made the mistake of thinking it was done. The spike whipped around as Quill dodged the Rat Kins blow and shot into the back of the neck going all the way through. The Rat Kin stumbled with shock as it looked down at the spike which gave Quill just enough time to bring his Pizza Cutter across their neck decapitating them. The second giant Rat Kin collapsed and when no third giant armed rat kin jumped up at him he breathed a small sigh of relief but he wasn¡¯t done yet. Before the other rats could rally again he jumped down into the hole, letting his Rat Tail Skewering a couple of nearby dire rats and his Pizza Cutter cutting through a Rat Kin as he stared at all the beady eyes watching him in stunned fear. ¡°That is right! You now face me, The Slayer of all Vermin Everywhere! Stand in fear and despair!¡± Silence hung in the air while her voice echoed in his head ¡°Laaaaame!¡± which Quill promptly ignored. The other rats clearly didn¡¯t think it was lame cause after a brief pause they started shrieking and running away like there was a fire underneath their feet. ¡°He has a title! He has a title for the killing of our kind! Run! Run!! Warn the king we must run!¡± Quill blinked with some surprise but was grateful nonetheless as he dissipated Pizza Cutter and Rat Tail. He was certainly pushing himself and he was hoping to make them flee with that little stunt. That title thing was weird though. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you know what they were talking about?¡± ¡°Not a single clue¡± She said in a tone that very much implied she knew exactly what he was talking about. You have leveled up to lvl 11! You have leveled up to lvl 12! Chapter 18 ¡°Think they will be attacking any time soon?¡± Quill felt the need to ask after distributing his points accordingly Which is to say, all in mind since he already has physical covered and soul was¡­ Well whatever the hell was going on with soul. ¡°Hmmm. No idea, I would say you freaked them out pretty badly from killing two elite monsters with such ease. So if they do come back. It probably won¡¯t be for a while but it will be with a very significant force.¡± ¡°Is that what these guys are?¡± Quill nudged one of the massive dead Rat Kins with his foot. Thing probably stood 6 foot 6 if he were to hazard a guess and had some pretty strong muscles. If he didn¡¯t have his energy manifestation skill and the drop on them, he probably would have struggled trying to kill them. ¡°No, you wouldn¡¯t have struggled. You would have died.¡± She spoke in a teasing like tone ¡°But don¡¯t worry about it. All worked out in the end didn¡¯t it?¡± He paused to digest her words ¡°And what if it doesn¡¯t work out in the end since I am clearly punching above my weight class here¡± ¡°Well it¡¯s not like you will be alive long enough to regret it in this life.¡± He couldn¡¯t really argue with that logic. He let out a sigh and started to yank off all the armor and weapons from the dead rats that littered the tunnels. He wasn¡¯t sure if he was going to have any use for these things but he¡¯d rather have them and not need them, then need them and not have them. He decided to stash everything inside the break room, filling it up with what was probably useless junk but hey, it was now his junk. His body ached in protest of more physical work after straining itself with the energy manifestation but he eventually stripped the rats clean of supplies, even got a couple of new daggers from one of the bodies. He then began to drag the headless dead rat bodies that were up in the station halls towards one of the platforms. He still didn¡¯t know what he was going to do with the cursed sins but if they were going to stick around. They could at least help him dispose of the corpses. Once all that was done, Quill closed the trap door and propped his barricade back up, strengthening it more with some of the heavier discarded armor and weapons he just looted before heading towards the break room to take a nice long nap. Sure there was the risk of them attacking again during said nap but he felt like he scared the current force sufficiently that they wouldn¡¯t come back without reinforcements so that should give him perhaps 6-8 hours at least judging by what that one Rat Kin said. Probably more though so nap time, he was tired. ¡°Hey, wake me up in like 3-4 hours.¡± ¡°What am I, an alarm clock to you?¡± ¡°For now.¡± and Quill promptly fell asleep. He wasn¡¯t sure how long he was out but he woke up feeling better than he ever felt despite the general uncomfortableness of the floor. He was going to go find a bed as soon as he could when he got out of here. ¡°Morning cutie. How did you sleep? I would have woken you with a kiss but sadly I don¡¯t have a form yet.¡± ¡°Mmmf. Pretty good actually.¡± Despite having slept amazingly he was always slow in waking up. He then scrunched his eyebrows ¡°Wait. What do you mean yet?¡± ¡°Oh! You should probably get a move on quickly! You did sleep for a while and while I haven¡¯t noticed any rats skulking around, that doesn¡¯t mean they aren¡¯t.¡± Quill shook his head to try and clear some of the brain fog and let out a sigh ¡°Alright alright. Give me a second. At least let me eat something and drink some water. Her voice switched to that of a stuck up noble ¡°I¡¯ll allow it.¡± ¡°You are too kind¡± ¡°Hehe. About time you noticed. I swear my kind and benevolent nature will get the best of me someday, what''s a gal to do.¡± ¡°I am sure you¡¯ll figure something out¡± He mumbled in response as he grabbed some food. The junk food was really starting to taste gross by now. He was all for pigging out whenever he could with unhealthy food but when it¡¯s all you¡¯ve been eating for the past few days it really started to taste gross. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. He packed up the rest in his torn backpack and made sure to fill his empty potion bottles with water before heading back out towards the barricaded secret entrance. Removing everything he popped the lid open and peered down into the tunnel. ¡°I want you to realize how incredibly stupid that was?¡± ¡°Huh? What do you mean?¡± ¡°You literally just opened the door that they knew you knew about. They could have set up an ambush for you the moment your adorable face showed. You are smart but holy shit was that dumb¡± Huh. Yeah, that was pretty dumb. ¡°Sorry, I guess with how easily the last couple encounters went I was letting my guard down. I¡¯ll try to be more careful¡± ¡°All I ask¡± Quill took a deep breath and jumped down into the tunnel with a small squish and he held back a gag as he refused to look down. Probably should have disposed of all those dead bodies before his nap. Instead he took his steps forward into the secret tunnel where the rats had come from. It was time to finish up one of his three quests. Keeping his enhanced eyesight and hearing up he slowly navigated the tunnels. There was a small air current that felt sort of nice on his skin if he was being honest and he almost thought about turning on his enhanced touch but the idea of stubbing his toe while walking through the dark tunnel with enhanced touch was enough to dissuade him. He continued to stumble forward. It wasn¡¯t totally dark like the metro tunnels. There were small lamps every few meters that offered some small amount of light which helped. It allowed his enhanced eyesight to see further and actually see enough detail to not trip over anything on the ground. After walking maybe 15 or so minutes he came across the remnants of what he assumed was the rat camp. Discarded cots, some cooking pots, long dead fire pits. Probably why the second wave with the two elites came so quickly after he dealt with the first. However it looked like after they ran away they didn¡¯t grab their stuff. Or some of it anyways. As he made his way through the tunnel it was kind of uneventful. Which is to say boring. He was bored. You¡¯d think traveling down a dark tunnel towards where all the rats were coming from would be nerve wracking but he just sort of felt¡­ Bored. ¡°Maybe you''re an adrenaline junkie and just had your awakening with all the battles that has happened. ¡± She made a sniffling sound and gave a mocking sad voice ¡°To think my baby boy would be into such dangerous activities. I¡¯m practically beside myself with worry!¡± He ignored the comments as he came to an intersection. It branched off into two different paths and he was about to turn on his enhanced sense of smell to see which tunnel smelled worse when he felt something pressed gentle against his neck. ¡°Move and I slice your throat open human¡± Came a gruff voice behind him and Quill froze right in place as he felt the object placed at his throat slightly bite into his skin drawing the smallest amount of blood. ¡°My master has requested an audience with you, so you will go and treat with him. If you make any movements or make anything that I perceive as a threat, I will end your life the moment you even try. Just like I could have ended your life the moment you opened the door to our tunnels.¡± Thinking quickly as he could, Quill decided to smile and in his best cocky tone spoke. ¡°So you finally revealed yourself. You know I was getting a little impatient waiting for you to show yourself. How about you remove that blade from my throat so we may talk like civilized people¡­ Rats? Humanoids. Talk like civilized humanoids. ¡± There was some small hesitancy before the creature spoke again ¡°You lie, I have seen you stumbling around awkwardly through this whole tunnel. I am surprised you didn¡¯t run into a wall with those pitiful senses of yours.¡± ¡°Heh. I am a very good actor¡± He pretended to check his nails since that felt right to the character he was portraying. ¡°I was doing that to make you feel confident, though admittedly I was expecting you to attack me as opposed to speaking with me. But when I sensed no killing intent from your strike I decided to see what you wanted.¡± He was surprised at how confident he was making his voice sound despite him freaking out over the fact he could have just died right now. There was some more hesitancy before he felt the blade leave his neck and the creature took a step back. It took every ounce of willpower not to instantly leap away from the Rat Kin in fear. Instead he turned around with confidence and a smile on his face while doing his damnist to keep his hands from trembling. ¡°Well? I will follow you. By all means, lead the way.¡± The Rat Kin eyed him curiously for a second. He had a black cloak hiding most of his body underneath and two curved daggers he kept open and at the ready in case he did try to pull something which he knew would be a very stupid decision. Plus if the rats were willing to negotiate then he certainly wasn¡¯t going to say no. Eventually the Rat Kin almost seemed to smile a little ¡°About time I met someone who could detect me. Very well, but know this human. My threat still stands.¡± ¡°Of course of course. A good way to keep me on my toes I¡¯m sure.¡± He felt like goading the Rat Kin was not the wisest move but he was already pretending he was fully confident in killing the guy, so suddenly playing more safe would likely make them suspicious. However the rogue rat seemed impressed, even happy at the confidence so turned and led the way. ¡°Quill, the moment you get the chance. Kill him, and kill him slowly¡± Her voice dripped with malice that seemed a little uncharacteristic of her. He sent a mental question asking her why and she continued ¡°He threatened to kill you. Could have killed you. There is no greater sin. He is already dead in my eyes. He just doesn¡¯t know it yet.¡± He sent a mental acknowledgement towards her but wasn¡¯t sold on the idea either. Personally if he could not go about committing a genocide on a species he would certainly prefer it. Either way. He wanted to see what they wanted to discuss. She didn¡¯t respond to that. Chapter 19 They had probably walked for a couple of hours with Quill doing his best to act like he wasn¡¯t having a hard time seeing where he was going. He could only imagine how hard it would have been without his enhanced eyesight. Just to briefly test it out he quickly turned it off and on again. The difference was striking in how little light the few lamps in the tunnel actually provided. He could only hope that as that skill leveled up. So would his perception. To test another theory and to pass the time, Quill took to carefully examining the Rat Kin ahead of him with every possible detail he could find. Once he was he felt like he couldn¡¯t find anything more about them he casted identify on them. Rat Kin Max 5 level difference Class- Within the Rogue group. Well that was certainly new, and Identify didn¡¯t level up which proved the point that the more information he could discern from an object or somebody the more information he would probably get from the skill, even at level 2 it helped him gain some decent information. He decided to make leveling up identify a priority once he wasn¡¯t in life and death situations. Plus he was pretty sure that meant if he wanted to level up a skill he had to make sure he did things that meant he progressed with said skill. He would have to workshop how he would go about leveling up the skills he currently had, as well as maybe trying to get more skills too. Eventually they came to a stop and the Rat Kin turned to look at him wearily. ¡°No funny business human. Rest assured we will not tolerate any potential acts of treachery.¡± Before he could respond, the Rat Kin reached up and shoved open the trap door before scurrying up himself. Quill briefly hesitated wondering if this was all some elaborate trap. But then remembered the Rat Kin could have just killed him when he initially ambushed him and that would be the end of it so decided to climb up as well while hoping for the best. The first impression was that it seemed like the whole layout of the metro station was the same as the other two, even the placement of the trap door. So yeah, the system was lazy in creating this dungeon. The next was that, as opposed to the previous 2 stations he had been in, this one seemed to have houses. Well, more like hovels. They weren¡¯t really impressive to look at and seemed almost slapped together with spare parts that might have been lying around but they were still livable areas in a way all lined up against the walls. Some even stacked on top of each other. Kinda gave a slum vibe if he was being honest. Quill then took note of several Rat Kin standing around him and the trap door with their weapons drawn but made no real move to stop him or hinder his movements. He did note that they were all very tense, as if waiting for him to suddenly spring forward and begin the slaughter. He also took notice that towards both of the platforms were several more guards standing by the stairs, eyeing him wearily and clearly protecting something that was on both of the platforms. ¡°Come human. My master wishes to see and speak with you.¡± The rogue Rat Kin spoke and Quill tentatively followed towards where the Kiosk would have sat. The Kiosk was still there but it was fortified with various pieces of metal and in front sat a Rat Kin in some dirty brown robes holding a long wooden stick with a human skull at the end. If he was a betting man he would probably guess this rat was some kind of wizard or shaman. ¡°Either way you should be careful. You¡¯ve never fought a magic user and don¡¯t know what they might be able to do. Examine him closely before casting your identify.¡± He had to agree with her assessment and walking with confidence he certainly did not feel as he made his way towards the sitting rat kin. The guards that had circled around him followed, keeping their distance but ready to move at a moment''s notice. The rogue that had escorted Quill was already at the shaman/wizard rat kin whispering in his ear. It was taking just about every ounce of his mental powers not to freak out. His anxiety was blaring at him from every angle about every tiny detail with every single possible scenario that could go wrong. Needless to say he absolutely needed to solve this diplomatically cause he sure as hell wasn¡¯t going to solve this with violence. Or at least not solve it without coming out alive. ¡°Should have just killed the rogue rat like I was saying. If you end up dying here I am going to make sure you never hear the end of it.¡± He almost asked her how he would never hear the end of it if he were dead but now wasn¡¯t the time as the Rat Kin dressed like a Wizard/shaman stood up from where he sat and held his hand out for Quill to halt which he did. ¡°You are the one who bares the title?¡± He looked Quill up and down briefly and then shook his head ¡°You hold no title. Why did you claim to have such? Even if this is the tutorial for your planet. The system does not take kindly to such statements. The fact that you would claim such a thing and not suffer the consequences is confusing.¡± ¡°Uh..¡± Quill hesitated to speak wondering how he knew he didn¡¯t have a title but then summarized that he probably casted identify or something equivalent so felt like honesty was the best answer ¡°I never said I had a title. Your guys just sort of assumed I did and ran away.¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The Rat Shaman/wizard raised what he assumed was an eyebrow (It was a little difficult to read their facial structure). And eyed him up and down once more. ¡°So this whole thing about you having a title is a misunderstanding?¡± ¡°Unless I suddenly got one without looking.¡± He then briefly checked his status just to make sure cause he could see the system being an ass and suddenly gave him one after saying that. ¡°Nope. Don¡¯t have one¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± The shaman/wizard seemed to relax a little after hearing that. ¡°I am both relieved and frustrated to hear that human. Tell me. Do you know why I have brought you here?¡± ¡°Can¡¯t really say that I do. The fact that you didn¡¯t have your little rogue friend try to kill me and are currently talking to me leads me to believe you have some kind of request?¡± ¡°Astute observation¡± The shaman/wizard spoke. ¡°Then I shall not beat around the bush. I want you to kill our king, destroy his spawner, and exterminate the roaches.¡± ¡°Wow. He seems surprisingly forthcoming. I don¡¯t trust him at all and think you should only accept the deal with the intent of breaking it later. You know, when you aren¡¯t in such a dangerous position because you thought it was a BRILLIANT idea to just waltz into here unprepared.¡± She spoke in a rather sarcastic tone She did have a point. Sorta. So Quill spoke again ¡°How can I trust this deal? Seems pretty weird that you would be so quick to trust that kind of task to me.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t trust you human. But I know that the rat king won¡¯t rest until you are dead after what you did to his forces. And once he kills you, he will kill us for what he perceives as a betrayal. The roaches? They care not for anything that isn¡¯t their own, they will try to kill you on sight so you will eventually have to fight them as well. And the roaches will kill us on sight too, making them a common enemy. Thus our goals align, having a powerful warrior will increase our chances of survival. And our faction''s help will increase yours.¡± That did make a fair amount of sense to him. Self preservation was a pretty strong motivating factor. ¡°And the spawner that you mentioned?¡± The Rat Kins eyes narrowed. ¡°Our king made a bargain like many before him. When his power was threatened he went to the system to beg for mercy and it was delivered to him and those that were still loyal to him. Including myself. In return our levels and powers were stripped and we were forced into a kind of stasis until we were given the second chance with this tutorial. Should we live through it. We shall be able to start anew on the planet that is awaiting us.¡± Before Quill could ask what this had anything to do with a spawner the Shaman/Wizard continued. ¡°When we were put into the tutorial we were given rules to adhere to and told that the inhabitants this tutorial was made for would arrive in a short while. The king was given a special gift though. Two spawners for Rat Kins and Dire Rats.¡± The wizard/shaman suppressed a shiver and the rest seemed equally disturbed by the notion. ¡°Instead of rejecting it out right or using it only as a desperate measure. The king saw it as a way to gain back his power with an army of system generated minions loyal only to him.¡± ¡°Judging by the tone I take it this was a big no no?¡± Quill asked, his mind racing over the multiple implications he just discovered from this small conversation. The Rat Wizard/shaman looked at him like he had gone insane for a second before speaking ¡°Imagine a spawner for you humans. Those certainly exist. Every human that is spawned from it is soulless, a doll that seeks only to enact the will of the one in control of the spawner. It has basic intelligence, sure but its main purpose is to fight, kill and destroy. There is no real sentience, no real thought, no real life. An imitation and mockery of your species if you will.¡± ¡°What the fuck?¡± Quill spoke with a mix of horror and confusion. Even she was disturbed by the notion judging by the roiling of emotions that seemed to rise up from within his mind ¡°Why is your king wanting to use such a thing?¡± ¡°Because it is a useful tool and weapon. It also makes sure he stays in power. Something I learned too late was that he did not want to give up the power. Even if it meant turning to methods most would condemn. I and many others spoke out against it. He didn¡¯t listen, so for that we left. We are now his enemies according to him. This happened even before you humans arrived.¡± Yeah, that makes sense. ¡°So why are you asking me to do this?¡± The wizard/shaman smiled ¡°As I said. Our goals align. I plan to use you to soften up the rat kings forces, force all his attention on you. Then,¡± He gestures towards the rogue ¡°He shall kill the rat king and destroy the spawner.¡± ¡°So I¡¯m a distraction, a distraction that will very likely see me dead.¡± ¡°And yet you have a higher chance of succeeding than if you did it alone. Just like we have a higher chance of succeeding if we have you.¡± ¡°Allies of circumstances then.¡± ¡°Precisely¡± The same with the roaches then. He didn¡¯t need to question why the roaches needed to go down if they were telling the truth. Luckily his quests stated he needed to destroy what was making more of them which led him to believe in order to complete the quest. He needed to destroy the spawners. ¡°Alright then. I accept these terms but how do I know you won¡¯t backstab me when this is all said and done. How do you know I won¡¯t¡± A sudden screen appeared in front of him Contract with Ssevinac Huh, he didn¡¯t know the system could do that. Or maybe it was his class? Either way, he read it over and thankfully it didn¡¯t seem to have any legal jargon that would confuse him. It all boiled down too. We both help each other kill the rat kings faction and destroy the roaches. We also enter a non hostility agreement with the other until the tutorial is over. If either were to break the agreement then it would result in a ten level reduction towards the breaker. It seemed pretty straight forward. He sent a mental thought towards her asking if there was anything she saw that he should be weary of. ¡°None that I see. It is pretty straightforward and it certainly improves our chances of completing all of your quests within time. That said, I still argue that you don¡¯t need their help and don¡¯t need to accept such a contract, though at this point it doesn¡¯t feel like much of a choice.¡± There was one thing he did take note though which he felt compelled to ask ¡°What of the cursed sins? What are your plans with them?¡± Ssevinac gave him an odd look ¡°We will not do anything to the cursed sins as we are not stupid or crazy enough to even try. If you wish to die fighting them then by all means do so. But do so after the rat king and roaches are dealt with. Do we have a deal or not? Quill looked over the contract one final time before looking back at the wizard/shaman whom he guessed was named Ssevinac. ¡°Deal¡­ How do I sign this though?¡± Chapter 20 Turns out just saying you agreed to the contract was enough for the contract to work so that was nice. Ssevinac visibly relaxed once he agreed, with multiple of the guards also relaxing as well. The rogue out right grinned in an almost cute way as he padded Ssevinac on the shoulder. ¡°So what now? I am sure you have a sense of urgency in trying to take down your king, but do you have food? Preferable something that isn¡¯t junk food?¡± He was getting really tired of eating the same junk food over and over again. Ssevinac clearly didn¡¯t like that statement but seemed to acquiesce and waved his hand towards one of the guards. ¡°Bring him some of our best food please.¡± The guard quickly bowed and rushed off leading Quill and the rest of the rat kin to stand in silence staring at each other. ¡°Couldn¡¯t wait just a few more days to get your system food by finishing the quest. Just had to get some food now didn¡¯t you.¡± She responded, clearly enjoying watching everyone shift awkwardly in the silence. ¡°Shhh. Not now¡± Quill mumbled under his breath which, given the silence, came out louder than he meant to. All the rat kins ears twitching and with Ssevinac narrowing his eyes before the rogue leaned and whispered something in his ear that made the wizard/Shaman shake their head. Whether that was in amusement or disbelief he couldn¡¯t tell. ¡°Oops! Sorry. Well they probably already think you''re insane anyways. So it¡¯s not like anything will really change¡± She responded in a tone that showed she was clearly not sorry at all. Quill ignored the comment as he debated in asking the leader more information about the system and the tutorial but after asking for the food he now felt awkward about bothering Shaman/wizard any more then he had already. Quill decided to cast identify on him to see what information he could glean. Rat Kin Name: Ssevinac Max 15 level difference. So should definitely not make himself an enemy of this guy. But if the king was just as strong as him, if not stronger, then he could be in trouble. At least he seemed to have an ally. He glanced over at the rogue who had taken a relaxed posture waiting for the guard to bring Quill his food. Finally the rat kin guard came back finally breaking the awkward tension and handed Quill¡­.. A bag of chips. ¡°This.. Is your best food I take it¡± He adopted a happy tone trying his absolute best not to sound disappointed. ¡°Indeed. It is the tastiest food we have that is reserved only for those who have helped and contributed greatly to us. I hope it is not wasted on you¡± Ssevinac responded with a hint of annoyance in his tone. Clearly not liking the fact that he was giving away such a delicious treasure. ¡°Yeah.¡± Quill responded, forcing a smile on his face. He didn¡¯t know what to expect. They were still rats. ¡°Before you leave with Iirilac.¡± Ssevinac gestured towards the rogue. ¡°I have one more thing I wish to show you.¡± Ssevinac began to move and Quill followed, seeing as how few places one could go in the station it didn¡¯t take a genius to know they were headed for one of the platforms. The Rat Kin Guards that blocked the stairs to the platform tensed up more and more as they drew closer but Ssevinac nodded his head which seemed to put them a bit more at ease and parted ways to reveal what lay ahead. It was kind of¡­ Sad. A mass of Rat Kins were huddled together all on the platform. When they stood at the top of the stairway, many looked up. Some hopeful, others fearful. But they were all thin, weak. It was clear they probably wouldn¡¯t even be able to fight the baby dire rat that Quill had killed when he was first trapped in this tutorial. Some of the rat kin were babies themselves, huddled close to what he could only assume were their parents. ¡°This is what I am fighting for human¡± Ssevinac spoke ¡°They all followed me here in hopes that I will protect them, so I want to make one thing very clear to you. You are an ally of convenience as I stated. But I will kill you without any hesitation if I believe you pose a threat to the people below who rely on me. ¡°Can you imagine asking your family, friends, those you have known your whole like to sit on a platform where a cursed sin comes by frequently and ask them to not freak out or do anything that might disrupt its passive state because that is much safer than anything else you can do for them?¡± Quill remained silent cause if he was being honest. He didn¡¯t exactly have anyone that he cared enough to feel the way as Ssevinac felt about his people. ¡°Ahem!¡± she cleared her throat in his head. He almost didn¡¯t have anyone.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Better¡± He turned towards Ssevinac ¡°I won¡¯t pretend that I will care as much as you do about your people. But I will at least try to help them by helping you. The contract kinda insures I do that anyways¡± ¡°That is why I had you sign it¡± He grinned in what could have been good natured though the sharp teeth made it difficult to discern. ¡°So do you have a map that will help me navigate the secret tunnels or is your little rogue going to guide me.¡± ¡°Iirilac will hold onto the map and will take you to the king''s stronghold. Then he will show you where the roaches are. I doubt you will have much to fear from the roaches as they are mostly focused on trying to kill the rat king. But once he is dead they will certainly turn their attention towards you and us.¡± ¡°Right.¡± Quill looked out over the sea of rat bodies and looked at the arrival times of when that cursed sin was coming. He still didn¡¯t know why the cursed sin wasn¡¯t eating the rat kin and the explanation of them being pacified didn¡¯t make much sense. Especially since he had a strong gut feeling that if he stepped onto that platform and the cursed sin found him. It would try to eat him without hesitation. He then turned towards the rogue Rat Kin whom he assumed was named Iirilac ¡°Guess you are leading the way. I see no reason to wait around unless you do?¡± ¡°It''s best we leave now. Your very presence makes the rest uneasy. Though I mean no offense by this.¡± He then turned and began to head towards the secret door with Quill following but he suddenly remembered a question to ask and turned towards Ssevinac ¡°oh. One more thing. You didn¡¯t come across any humans did you?¡± Ssevinac looked at him wearily as he seemed to draw his staff closer to him in a defensive posture ¡°We have. They have long since passed. If it eases your pain, know that they were killed quickly.¡± Quill watched the Rat Kin for a second and shrugged his shoulders. Turning back to follow Iirilac whom also had a dagger at the ready as he watched Quill, clearly not knowing how he would react over hearing his fellow humans died. He didn¡¯t know why, knowing that the humans died made him feel sad but he didn¡¯t really feel like mourning them. It was kind of hard to mourn the faceless and nameless. Especially when your own situation was so precarious. Or perhaps that was the simple lie he told himself. ¡°If it makes you feel better. I don¡¯t really see why you would mourn them. Not like they did anything for you.¡± ¡°No offense but I don¡¯t think I should be taking ethics and moral advice from you.¡± Quill muttered under his breath. ¡°Why not?? I am perfectly ethical and moral!¡± ¡°Yeah, that feels like a pretty big lie. I understand the importance of still moving forward even in the face of tragedy. Trust me, I know¡± He spoke with a bit more bitterness at that ¡°But I don¡¯t like it.¡± ¡°Well, if you don¡¯t like something then change it. And before you even say something like ¡°It¡¯s not that easy¡± Yes it is. All you need to do is take the first step, and then the next, and then the next.¡± ¡°That feels grossly oversimplified.¡± ¡°Perhaps. But keeping it simple can do wonders when moving forward.¡± Quill had jumped down into the secret tunnel as Iirilac continued to eye him amusement. He could clearly hear him muttering under his breath but also didn¡¯t know who he was talking to and judging by the look the Rat Kin was throwing at him. Iirilac clearly thought he was entertaining but also crazy. ¡°You are crazy, system certified.¡± ¡°I am not crazy.¡± He grumbled ¡°And frankly I wish you wouldn¡¯t feed the system''s delusions. Also-¡± He was interrupted by a couple of flashing screens in front of his face. Congratulations! You have learned the skill ¡°Mental Focus¡± (Common) A staple not just for those who wish to sling spells, but for warriors, artists, and any who might be able to form two coherent thoughts together. Surprisingly, being able to stay focused on the task at hand can do wonders in improving one''s life. Congratulations! You have learned the skill ¡°Split thinking¡± (Uncommon) Sometimes being able to think one thought isn¡¯t enough. Now being able to think two thoughts simultaneously?? Maybe even three??? Or perhaps four???? Now that is where the real money is. Can also help when trying to hide your thoughts from others. Wouldn¡¯t you agree? Quill froze as he stared at the screens with wide eyes, but quickly recovered, dismissed the screens and shrugged his shoulders ¡°Well that was weird.¡± ¡°Yeah, why did you get those? Seemed kind of out of nowhere?¡± ¡°Who knows. My mind is racing with a million things going on and a million more things that I will have to do. The system probably took pity on me or something and gave me some skills to help. It certainly feels like I have been focusing and and thinking about multiple things at the same time¡± ¡°Hmmm¡± She didn¡¯t sound particularly convinced so Quill decided to move on. ¡°Not much point in thinking about something with the system anyways. Waste of time right? Seeing as how we are about to go fight a large faction of rats. I think we should focus on what exactly we are supposed to be doing. Do you even know?¡± Despite not actually talking to the Rat Kin, Iirilac spoke ¡°We are going to intercept the forces the rat king sent to kill you. Weaken him even more and also getting his attention more focused on you¡± Well that confirmed he could indeed hear Quill. Though if the Rat Kin thought him crazy, he at least kept it to himself. ¡°So we are going to ambush them?¡± ¡°We? No. You? Yes. We don¡¯t want the king to know you have teamed up with Ssevinac in case one or two managed to flee from the ambush.¡± Well that seemed totally reasonable and not some weird, elaborate way to get him killed. ¡°He''s still on my kill list by the way. Just say the word and I will kill him¡± Quill ignored her comment and spoke ¡°Okay. But how do you intend to ambush them? Not exactly a lot of places to hide here. And I feel like ambushing a force that was sent to kill me is a great way for me to end up dead¡± Iirilac stopped and turned towards Quill. ¡°If you end up dying to them then you wouldn¡¯t have been much use to us in killing the king anyways. Think of this as a test.¡± ¡°One where I might die.¡± Quill spoke dead panned Iirilac grinned at him and teased ¡°Either way, sounds like a win win for us. Though quit worrying. I do intend to set you up in a favorable position. Follow me now.¡± Without much choice aside from running away, he followed Iirilac. Chapter 21 The place he was led to wasn¡¯t something he had expected. It could best be described as a dome with two points of entry. One that they just came through and one on the opposite end. He wasn¡¯t sure what a dome had to do with the metro system but perhaps the system took a few liberties in things. It was a defective piece of junk after all. Iirilac gestured for him to head over to a side of the wall that was far away from either entry points and as Quill walked over Iirilac revealed a trap door that held just enough space for him to fit in. ¡°Wait here and be ready to ambush them. I will be hiding in the tunnels reading my own ambush in case things go south. And try to die. It will make this whole operation harder with your death.¡± He spoke in a way that was hard to figure out if the Rat Kin was teasing him or not. ¡°How thoughtful.¡± Quill muttered and squeezed into the space. The Rat Kin then shut the door on him, leaving just enough space for him to peek out. It was a good thing he wasn¡¯t claustrophobic. But then again, if he was he probably would have freaked out long ago with how small some of these tunnels were. He wasn¡¯t so naive as to think Iirilac was only just planning on an ambush in the tunnels as well. He felt like this whole thing was likely to see what Quill was capable of too. He would need to make sure he kept some of his bag of tricks to himself just in case. Assuming the situation allowed for him to do so. So he just sort of sat there. Nothing much to do and he realized it was kind of crazy he was just going along with the plans of the Rat Kin who stated that they were allies of convenience and wouldn¡¯t hesitate to kill him if it meant saving their own kind. ¡°Good thing you actually are crazy. So you are at least keeping up with appearances¡± ¡°Not crazy¡± He grumbled They sat there for a little while longer but finally, thanks to his enhanced hearing, he heard commotion and slowly shifted from his spot. However what came out of the tunnels wasn''t Rat Kin like he had expected. But rather large bipedal roaches that stood about 4 feet tall. Cockroaches to be exact. Likely American too if he were to hazard a guess. ¡°The hell? Why would you know so much about roaches?¡± ¡®I spent some time collecting bugs as a kid¡¯ He mentally responded to her so as to not attract the roaches'' attention. They were now spreading out through the dome, chittering amongst themselves, likely saying something that he just didn¡¯t understand. ¡°You collected bugs? Why?¡± ¡®Cause when I tried to collect foxes, squirrels, raccoons and coyotes, I got beaten¡¯ He mentally responded, trying to not lose focus on what the roaches were doing as unpleasant memories threatened to resurface. ¡°Huh¡­ Well, it looks like my kill list got a little bit longer.¡± ¡®Please tell me that isn¡¯t an actual list¡¯ he shot back in his head ¡°Okay¡­ I won¡¯t tell you¡± He almost let out a groan but had to file that conversation in the ¡°to be continued later¡± category. He didn¡¯t and couldn¡¯t get distracted now that he saw the roaches setting up what looked like their own ambush as well. They didn¡¯t seem to have any armor but seeing as they had exoskeletons he wasn¡¯t sure how much that was needed. Though their human-like hands were clasping a bunch of makeshift daggers, clubs and swords. They quickly started spreading out with several hiding into darker areas of the dome, many went and started climbing the walls and ceiling. Leaving only a few to stand in the center out in the open likely to be live bait. Something that especially caught his attention was 20 of the roaches that were carrying several netted bags of large rocks and were positioned just above the entrance that he came through. Several of the largest roaches also took up a position by the other door across the dome where Iirilac went, likely to prevent any escape to be made. It was only after they seemed to all go into position that they stilled and the silence of the area suddenly became deafening. It was disconcerting how none of them moved, not even a twitching antenna. The silence probably would have frayed his nerves if he didn¡¯t have her voice singing various songs in his head. He didn¡¯t even know how she was doing instrument noises and she refused to tell him when he asked but it actually helped pass the time and not make him start freaking out over just waiting. The distraction was greatly appreciated in this instance. It took a little bit but soon there were the faint sounds of marching which was eventually followed by squeaking and growls. The roaches that were all hiding didn¡¯t so much as twitch at the sounds and Quill wasn¡¯t sure if it was because they hadn¡¯t heard them yet or if they were really that still. As the sound grew louder though he had to conclude that they were really that capable of staying still. Only the roaches in the center had any movement. Pretending like they were panicking as they drew their blades to the ready like they were about to make some defiant last stand. Soon the Rat Kin started screeching and they all came pouring out of the tunnel with several adult sized dire rats in toe. There wasn¡¯t any cohesion to their ranks and their forces weren¡¯t as large as the roaches but they were much better weapons than them and were much bigger. The moment the last one came charging out of the tunnel the roaches hiding above the entrance dropped the stones and boulders blocking the entrance and that''s when every other roach started falling from the ceiling with the ones hiding in the far off shadows of the wall charging in.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Despite being caught by surprise, the Rat kins quickly rallied and the whole thing broke out into a brawl. For every Rat Kin that fell, several roaches fell also. Quill was half tempted to stay seated in his little hiding hole and let the whole thing play out and then try to finish off the rest. At least that is what a rational person would do. ¡°Good thing you aren¡¯t rational then¡± She teased. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t really call that a good thing¡± Quill responded as he readied up his daggers. He was only going to use his energy manifestation in subtle ways to prevent Iirilac from getting too much info on him. When a roach landed on the ground near him from where he hid, he leapt out of his hiding hole and on top of the roach, slammed his daggers into the roaches'' carapace. It was difficult to penetrate the outer shell but his bonus strength from all the stat points put into body allowed him to break through which elicited surprised shrieks from the cockroach as Quill stabbed it a couple more times, giving him a kill notification. Despite wanting to check out the notification his survival instinct skill went haywire and he quickly rolled away as another roach landed right where he used to be. He jumped on to that one as well before it had time to turn to him. His fighting style of jumping onto and stabbing the thing until it died hadn¡¯t failed him yet and it didn¡¯t fail him now. Several stabs later ensured the roach wouldn¡¯t be moving again. Most of the fighting was thankfully congregated towards the center of the dome so nothing else took notice of the third actor at play, and taking advantage of his new found stealth, Quill rushed to a straggler roach and dispatched it with relative ease. The roaches didn¡¯t seem to be as strong at the Rat Kin but they made up for it in numbers. But if the numbers weren¡¯t there, then that advantage was gone. Quill managed to kill several more roaches before finally a group that had just finished off their Rat Kin took notice and with irritable shrieks and charged him. Quill quickly backpedaled. Dodging their blows with relative ease while slashing with his daggers. Letting some of his energy manifestation extend from his daggers so as to subtly hurt and kill the roaches that were attacking him. He hoped Iirilac wouldn¡¯t notice at least. He soon managed to dispatch the roaches, and then started to move through the groups, killing what roaches and rats he could. He wouldn¡¯t call it easy per say but it was a lot easier then he had been expecting. The roaches and rats were far more interested in trying to kill each other than kill him. Even when he started to kill the ones in their groups, it was mostly just one or two who switched their attention to the third party. It also helped greatly that many were already sporting wounds when they engaged too. Quill soon dispatched the last of the forces which was a heavily armored but wounded Rat Kin. It was a good thing too. Despite the ease of all the fights he went through, he was still breathing rather hard. He had a lick of multiple cuts, scratches and minor wounds littering his body with the leather armor probably preventing some of the more serious damages. He also was starting to feel the beginning signs of over taxation with his energy manifestation skill with the slight headache. His muscles were also sore though that could have also just been through how much he just physically exerted himself. Quill plopped down on the ground with a small groan and took out one of the potion vials he filled with water and drank it with enthusiasm as he checked his system notifications. You have leveled up to level 13 You have leveled up to level 14 You have leveled up to level 15 Congratulations! You have earned a free class skill! Select class skill? Congratulations! You have learned the skill Stealth (Common) Sneaky sneaky sneaky. You have gotten better at going by unseen. Surely you would only use such a power for good, not for anything nefarious, right? Right???? Dodge has leveled up to level 5 Survival instincts has leveled up to level 2 Well those were some good gains for something he felt was a little too easy. Before he could open up his status screen and look at everything, Iirilac came limping towards him with a grin plastered on his face. ¡°Well that went far better than I expected. Sorry I couldn¡¯t come to your aid. I was busy dealing with the roaches that had blocked off the tunnel. They were fairly strong but obviously not strong enough.¡± he spoke with pride in his voice. He looked around the carnage that was displayed around the whole dome ¡°And I see you have accomplished your part. Though I will say you fight like a child throwing a tantrum¡± ¡°Why thank you.¡± ¡°That wasn¡¯t a compliment human.¡± ¡°Given my little experience in combat I will certainly take it as one.¡± Quill retorted Iirilac shook his head in amusement and began to check the dead for any potential and useful loot. Quill just sat on the ground trying to recover. ¡°Hey. You should ask him for that map now. If you two ever do get separated it would be good to have a randevu point.¡± He saw her point and called out to Iirilac ¡°Hey. About that map. We can use this dome as a point to meet if we ever get separated but I¡¯ll need to get a better idea of the layout if we are to do that.¡± Iirilac tilted his head briefly before nodding and reached into his cloak before pulling out a rolled up piece of leather and showed it to Quill. ¡°This is where we are here¡± He tapped one of his claws on the leather map that was filled with twisted tunnels. It was close to the edge. ¡°This is where we are going.¡± He then gestured towards the far right where the words ¡°Grand Station¡± was written ¡°That is where the rat king has his base located. As you can see, on the other side is where the roach king lives in the other grand station¡± He then pointed to the far left side. Quill took the map and looked it over briefly. He noted that Ssevinac was hiding in the station that was the farthest to the north. There were also several other domes littered throughout the tunnel complex. He looked up at Iirilac about to thank him when his Rat Tail suddenly formed out of nowhere and without his doing before shooting forward with the tip right into Iirilacs chest. Both Quill and Iirilac looked at the Rat Tail with shock and confusion before the tail whipped around and stabbed Iirilac five more times. Three in the chest, once in the neck and once in the face, threading through the Rat Kins body like it was nothing. Finally the rope part shot spikes outward. Making the dead body jerk and convulse from his innards being made into soup before the manifestation finally dissipated. Quill watched in horror as the rogue dropped dead and lifeless to the floor. Killed Rat Kin level 18. Experience gained You have leveled up to lvl 16 Congratulations. You have earned the achievement ¡°Professional lawyer¡± It takes balls to sign a system imposed contract and find a loophole to take advantage of. Congrats! .5 stat awarded to mind Pseudo energy manifestation has leveled up to lvl 3 ¡°I told you didn¡¯t I¡± Her voice echoed through his head sending a chill that caused his body to shudder ¡°He was dead the moment he placed that blade to your neck and threatened your life¡± Chapter 22 Quills mouth hung open as he stared at Iirilacs body lying dead at his feet. ¡°D-did you just kill him??¡± ¡°Obviously. I wasn¡¯t going to let him continue living now that we knew where we needed to go. Plus he would have just taken your experience away with killing the rat king. The whole thing is a win-win if you ask me.¡± she responded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world ¡°But! He was our ally! Why did you kill him!? Plus you just broke our contract!¡± Quill looked at his level but found that it remained the same. ¡°You signed the contract. I did nothing. And since you didn¡¯t collaborate with me in his death, you technically didn¡¯t break it¡± She spoke matter of factly ¡°But you still killed him! He would have helped us complete the rat spawner quest and probably helped with the roaches too!¡± ¡°Quill.. I don¡¯t really like this tone you are taking with me here. Please apologies¡± ¡°What tone! You just killed an ally who was being nice eno-Mmfmmfm¡± He tried to speak more but his jaw slammed shut and his entire body suddenly locked. He couldn¡¯t move a single muscle as he fell over to the ground with a soft grunt of pain. Even his eyes were unable to move, being forced to stare up at the ceiling as her voice echoed in his head once again. ¡°I did this for you. Who knows what that Rat Kin was planning. Sure you signed a contract but so what? If I could find an easy loophole then so could they. You are far FAR too trusting over someone that held a dagger to your throat. I will not have you start back talking to me on something that was done for YOUR benefit.¡± He suddenly felt the muscles in his mouth loosen giving him the ability to talk but he remained silent, trying hard not to think of anything to give her something to go off of. ¡°Are you really throwing a temper tantrum right now? You better start speaking or at least start thinking. Else I am just going to keep you frozen where you are, even if some more rats or roaches show up.¡± He didn¡¯t know why but he had a strong gut feeling she was telling the truth so spoke carefully ¡°Why did you kill him? He was going to help us. He Was helping us.¡± ¡°I already explained it to you. He threatened your life. That alone forfeited his. I don¡¯t need other reasons even if I do have them. I knew you wouldn¡¯t kill him when the contract was over. So I took it upon myself to do it for you.¡± Quill tried to move his body but still couldn¡¯t so spoke again ¡°And you managed to use my skill Pseudo Energy Manifestation by yourself. How?¡± He didn¡¯t know why but he felt like she just rolled her eyes ¡°I already told you didn¡¯t I? The energy is as much part of me as it is you. I doubt a typical G rank individual could even use anything more than small claws for a few seconds when using this skill. I am why you can use so much and for so long. You''re welcome by the way. Feel free to praise me~¡± Quill kept his mouth shut and she took on a serious tone ¡°I said. Feel free to praise me.¡± He kept silent which elicited a sigh from her. ¡°Fine, have it your way.¡± Grey Energy manifested above him as a small orb with only the tiniest of string leading back to his body before plummeting down into his chest hard causing Quill to cough out in both pain and shock. He couldn¡¯t even bend his torso to help absorb some of the impact. ¡°Perhaps you don¡¯t need to praise me but you do need to thank me. I don¡¯t have to help you but I do because I love you. Now you need to start showing some better appreciation for all the work I do. Now what do you say?¡± ¡°Alright alright.¡± He coughed once more and got himself collected ¡°Thank you. Genuinely for helping me with using my skill.¡± ¡°Good boy. Much better when you are agreeable~¡± ¡°But that still doesn¡¯t change what you did!¡± He countered ¡°Iirilac was on our side. He only put that blade to my throat and threatened my life because he didn¡¯t know if I could be an ally. You should not have killed him!¡± ¡°Ugh. It¡¯s a good thing I find your compassion so endearing. Quill, listen to me. You are just too stupid and too naive to realize the actual dangers he held. You really think that wizard wouldn¡¯t have had his little pet rogue sacrifice a few levels to quickly put an end to a potentially serious threat once he wiped out all your other threats. Especially if there was a promise to help regain those levels? See, this is why you need me. He would have betrayed you the moment the opportunity rose, I just ensured he never got that chance. That is why you need me. And frankly it is quite upsetting that you would act so ungrateful for my help.¡± If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Quill opened his mouth to argue but didn¡¯t. Instead he slowly shut his mouth as his head seemed to get more fuddled and clouded with various thoughts and emotions. He didn¡¯t know if she was telling the truth but she always seemed to know more than he did. Plus he wasn¡¯t very good at reading people and he knew he had been too trusting at times when he shouldn¡¯t have been. His track record certainly saw to that. If anything, shouldn''t he be grateful that he finally had someone looking out for him? ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry¡­ I think I was just too shocked about what had happened and I lashed out at you which isn¡¯t fair.¡± ¡°Well, at least you realized your mistake and apologized. So I forgive you, thank you for seeing reason.¡± Quill felt his body unlock and he could finally move about which elicited a deep sigh of relief on his part. Not having control over his body was discerning and he would much rather not have it happen again. ¡°It won¡¯t happen again so long as you don¡¯t do anything stupid like that again. Deal?¡± ¡°Yeah, deal¡± He jumped up and down trying to get himself moving a bit more. The more he could shake off that feeling of being paralyzed the better. Once he was more comfortable he grabbed the map he had dropped when she killed Iirilac. Then for good measure he decided to see if Iirilac had anything on his body that could be useful for him in the future. He tried to ignore the nagging guilt as he pawed through the dead rats cloak and actually found 3 health potions. ¡°See? He didn¡¯t even tell you he had health potions on him. Shows how little he actually trusted you.¡± ¡°Well it¡¯s not like I told him I had a stamina, mana, and cleansing potion on me¡± Quill mumbled back. ¡°Yes but if he was in trouble you would have given those potions to him. He wouldn¡¯t have if you were in trouble. Trust me.¡± He nodded in understanding as he opened up the map and looked it over to try and properly map out the way towards the Rat king''s lair which was situated at the Grand station. He noted that there were a couple of stations marked on the map that belonged to the rat king''s territory but he didn¡¯t really have much reason to actually take those stations down. The contract stated that he needed to help kill the king and his quest stated he needed to destroy what was spawning so many rats which he assumed just meant the spawner that the rat king was using. Of course there was a good chance that these tunnels were going to not only be heavily patrolled but also just as likely have barricades and maybe even kill zones. He was going to need to be careful. ¡°Sure would have been nice to have someone who knew these tunnels better than I did and help us navigate through them.¡± he muttered ¡°Fine. I will give you that comment. But only cause you said it in jest. You did say it in jest right?¡± ¡°Of course. You can tease me, so that means I can tease you. Even if you did it with my¡­ Best¡­ Interest¡± Quills brows furrowed but he quickly shook his head ¡°Sorry. Stressed. We should probably get going though.¡± ¡°We should. Probably should turn on your enhanced touch, smell and taste though. Every single sense you have should be on high alert for when you are going through the tunnels. Don¡¯t want a repeat of Iirilac.¡± He saw her point and while he wasn¡¯t entirely sure how useful taste would be, he also didn¡¯t feel like arguing against her. There was a good chance the heavens themselves would come down and make it so taste would absolutely play an important role in his survival somehow. With that done he started to make his way towards the tunnels that they were going to travel through before this whole ambush thing when she suddenly cleared her throat ¡°Aren¡¯t you forgetting something?¡± ¡°No?¡± ¡°Your unspent class skill doofus!¡± Quill facepalmed and quickly pulled up his status and clicked the unspent skill choice and promptly got a ton of different skills. This was¡­ Going to take him a bit. He spent the next 20 or so minutes going through the skills, throwing away the ones he didn¡¯t like or didn¡¯t have much use for and keeping the ones he thought might be of use. Finally he narrowed things down to a couple. There was the enhanced toughness that was still there and very tempting but also another one that seemed promising. Enhanced reflexes (common) It really shouldn¡¯t be that difficult to catch a bullet if someone throws them at you. But when they are fired out of a gun, suddenly you are just a little too slow. Pick this and you will most certainly be able to catch those bullets eventually! He was still tempted to pick the enhanced toughness but really, most of his fighting strategy involved not getting hit. And if he was getting hit, well he probably screwed up somewhere. Enhanced reflexes sounded like a great way to ensure he didn¡¯t screw up. Plus he just didn¡¯t like pain, enhanced toughness probably meant he would take more blows and that meant taking more pain. Yeah, he was going with the option to avoid that. ¡°You know, I can¡¯t help but feel like you keep taking all the lamest options that you are given.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take the cooler options when I have the luxury to do so¡± Quill responded and selected enhanced reflexes. He also hoped that the skill would synergise well with survival instincts and dodge. Leading him to hopefully be almost untouchable. With all that out of the way and with the ¡®Go ahead¡¯ from her. Quill started to march down into the tunnels and towards the Rat Kings encampment. Quill ERROR Lvl: 16 Race: Human (F rank) Class: Early Savage warrior Body: 16.9 Mind: 15.6 Soul: ERROR Buffs/ailments: Insanity (weak) Skills: Dirty fighting (lvl 2), Dodge (lvl 5), pseudo energy manifestation (lvl 3), enhanced senses (lvl 2), Identify (lvl 2), survival instincts (lvl 2), Mental focus (lvl 1), split thinking (lvl1), Stealth (lvl 1), Enhanced reflexes (lvl 1) Achievements: Tutorial Forerunner, First step towards greatness, professional lawyer traits: ERROR (unique) Chapter 23 Quill adjusted his backpack a little as he walked through the tunnels, it was a miracle in his eyes that the thing could still stay on his back given its torn strap, also a miracle that despite the tares it still managed to hold everything he had put in it. A testament to how damn good the backpack actually was. He snuck through the tunnels, doing his best to be aware of any potential surroundings. He had to double back a couple of times to dodge some rat patrols. Sure it was missing out on experience but he wanted to get as close as he could to the grand station without alerting any potential enemies. He was pretty good at quick battles but anything that might be long and protracted kinda screwed him over. Plus he wasn¡¯t sure if he would be capable of killing all the rats before one or two escaped. It really just boiled down too. Why risk it? Thankfully the actual patrols were fairly loud and were easy enough for him to avoid. Well not entirely easy since there were only so many branching paths in these tunnels but he managed. The map he had was concise enough that he hadn¡¯t gotten lost as he ran about. Or at least if he was lost he hadn¡¯t realized it yet so he was going to assume he wasn¡¯t lost. Slowly but surely he made his way through the tunnels. Some parts he actually had to crawl on his stomach cause of course there wasn¡¯t consistent ceiling height. Damn the system and its horrible stupid dungeon layouts. Finally he came to a part that didn¡¯t seem like he could walk around or move around. The tunnels had widened a bit and there was a poor makeshift barricade of furniture, mostly broken wooden benches, with several armed and armored rats standing there and several more adult dire rats as well. He looked at the map he had and if he wasn¡¯t actually lost. Then that meant he was really close to the grand station. He was pretty sure even if he did double back and try a different route he would run into the same thing once he got close enough to the entrance to the grand station. ¡°I would suggest taking care of all the potential blockades. The last thing you want is to be fighting in the grand station and have enemies come up from behind.¡± He sent a mental acknowledgement as he tried to ponder how he was going to get through this. Or at least get through it without having to deal with a lot of reinforcements. ¡°I got a suggestion. Hit them really hard, and hit them really fast. Can¡¯t get reinforcements if they are all dead!¡± ¡°We¡¯ll call that plan B¡± he thought back as he sat back by the corner of the tunnel just out of sight.. He perhaps had an idea but he didn¡¯t know how well it would work. But he didn¡¯t really have anything better so thought he might as well give it a go. He took a deep breath and slowly made a small sliver of his energy manifestation. It would best be described as like one of those ninja needles from the popular ninja anime. Since he couldn¡¯t control his manifestations without it being connected to him somehow he attached a thin string onto the needle, similar to what she did with that orb before hitting him with it for his punishment of not properly thanking her. When it was ready he launched it as fast as he could into the gang of rat kin and dire rats. Aiming for a large dire rat that seemed the most irritable. He zipped it through one of the openings of the barricade and right into the dire rat''s haunches making let out a yelp of pain as it whirled around to see what would dare hit it. Quill, having already dissipated the energy, watched as the dire rat started snapping at a different dire rat and getting into a scuffle. The other dire rats and rat kins didn¡¯t seem like they were particularly bothered by the fighting and just sort of ignored them which hopefully confirmed his suspicions that these rats were probably all system spawns if what he had been told about their intelligence was true. So Quill did it again. This time aiming for a rat kin and hitting its butt causing the creature to yelp and turn to a rat kin behind it and started shoving it hard. Quill went through that process about 3 more times before he finally got all the rats to start fighting with each other in more than just a scuffle. Some seemed to be down right trying to murder the others. He then, as carefully and as quietly as he could, started scuffling his way over. Trying to keep to the shadows as much as possible as he slowly got nearer until he was just on the outside of the brawl. Not wanting to use his energy manifestation skill unless necessary. He lifted his daggers up and waited for the rats to tire themselves out at least and hopefully kill each other at most. Finally when the fighting seemed to die down with almost all of them being some form of injured and a few dead Quill sprung into action and jumped the rats. They all let out shrieks of surprise as he stabbed one of his daggers into the closest and largest Rat Kins neck, having it drop down dead before starting to move on to the next.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. They put up a fight sure but once again he didn¡¯t feel particularly hard pressed by the situation. The fact that they were all injured and tired helped him greatly. And soon he had taken down the whole camp with only a few scratches and bruises to show for it. You have leveled up to lvl 17 Quill quickly distributed his stat point to mind as he examined his body. He knew his injuries would slowly start to stack and he was tempted to take one of the three health potions now. But at the same time that almost felt like wasting them for the injuries he currently had. He resisted the urge to sigh as he sat down in the bloody mess he created and looked over the map. He wasn¡¯t really upchucking anymore from the smell or sight of the stuff which probably wasn¡¯t a good sign for his mental psyche but it was welcome. He carefully studied the map. It would be guesswork with where the other barricades might be, assuming there were any, and he didn¡¯t know when the changing of the guard might happen either. So he was going to need to work fast while also trying to conserve as much energy and resources as possible. Being a glass canon in these kinds of circumstances sucked. After planning his next route he quickly got up from where he sat and began to make his way through the tunnels. It took maybe another 20 minutes to an hour before he found another Rat Kin encampment similar to the first. Only this time he was behind the barricade. Not that was going to change his approach to things. If it wasn¡¯t broken, why fix it? ¡°Change up the monotony of it all¡± She responded with ever so helpful commentary. But he felt that changing things up so it wouldn¡¯t become monotonous worked best when one''s life wasn¡¯t at stake. He dealt with the camp in much the same way he dealt with the first and even managed to level up to 18 because of it. If he could keep leveling up like this then perhaps taking down the grand station with the rat king wouldn¡¯t be so bad. He sat down and rested for a little bit. He had incurred a few more injuries, all of them minor at best. The Rat Kins seemed to have very little fighting experience and the dire rats mostly used the same tactic of charging straight at him. So thanks to all of his skills that revolved around not getting hit and being faster, he managed to mitigate most damage even with just using his daggers. Once he felt rested enough he began to make his way through the tunnels that were around the entrance of the grand station. Once he found a third camp he started to do the same thing yet again. Unfortunately that was when things went a little sideways for him. After he had engaged the now injured and weary rats from their own in fighting he heard several snarls that came from within the tunnels and acting on instinct he leapt away from his current engagement with a dire rat just barely in time to avoid a crossbow bolt slicing through the air that just barely missing him. Turning his head he saw several rat kin now charging him from within the tunnel that would have led outside the encampment circle making him hazard a guess that this was a patrol given that also seemed to consist of 3 Rat Kins and 2 dire rats. Knowing that he was caught on the back foot he quickly ditched his daggers and summoned up his Pizza Cutter and Rat Tail, quickly dispatching the tired enemies close to him while dodging another bolt from the crossbow Rat Kin. The two other Rat Kins and Dire Rats were soon upon him which Quill swung his Pizza Cutter to meet the charging Rat Kins blade while using his Rat Tail to fend off the others. Perhaps it was thanks to all the levels he just recently received but he was soon able to overwhelm his first opponent as his blade spun and sliced cleanly through him the Rat Kin. His Rat Tail also managed to score several minor blows on the other three while keeping them at bay. He suddenly felt a sharp pain and powerful thud hit his shoulder and he stumbled back with a curse as a bolt was now embedded into him. The sudden lack of concentration made him accidentally drop his manifestations, leading him wide open which the rats were all too keen to take advantage of. Quill jumped backwards, summoning up a spear that impaled a dire rat through its own momentum and pushing him further away from the others, barely managing to dodge yet another crossbow bolt. He had no idea how that Rat Kin could reload his crossbow so quickly. He summoned up his Rat Tail again and had it impale the dire rat that he skewered with his spear, killing the monster. Quill then yanked his spear out and swung it wildly, getting blocked by the incoming Rat Kin as Quill also kicked out at the charging dire rat''s face. He manifested a small blade at the end of his boot as he did so to slice through the dire rat while he blocked the blows from the Rat Kin. Just barely avoiding another crossbow bolt in the process. He used his Rat Tail to shoot forward towards the rat kin he was engaged in close combat and managed to skewer the monster''s thigh as it let out a shriek of pain. He then thrust with his spear and impaled them in the heart. Manifesting the tip of the spear to spike outwards, destroying all nearby organs as well before dissipating the weapon entirely. Then he summoned up a Warhammer which he promptly brought down onto the recovering dire rat''s head, crushing its skull. Quill quickly pivoted his attention and looked up towards the Rat Kin that had been shooting bolts at him but didn¡¯t see anything. They were gone and he wasn¡¯t entirely sure if he was in a position to pursue which meant¡­. He growled and yanked the crossbow bolt out of his shoulder. He¡¯d like to say he took the pain like a champ but he just ended up crying. Biting his lip to try and ignore the throbbing pain he took out the health potions and quickly chugged one. He instantly felt better physically as the wound on his shoulder closed and several of the harsher injuries he had accumulated healed as well. ¡°Soooo. What now? The rats probably know you are here and massacring their people.¡± She asked and Quill let out a sigh. He was half tempted to drink his stamina and mana potion but knew he needed to save them given that he was probably about to deal with a whole hoard of rats coming down on him soon. ¡°Now? Hell if I know. Survive I guess? That¡¯s probably the best I got right now.¡± ¡°Solid plan A. How do you plan to achieve that though?¡± ¡°Fuck if I know.¡± Chapter 24 The first thing he did was get the hell out of the area that he was in. Of course the question was whether he should move away from the grand station or if he should go closer to it and just go for a blitz tactic while they were still preparing. ¡°You¡­. You can''t be serious? Like do you really think getting closer to them is ideal, or even smart?¡± ¡°Pfft! No! I just wanted to see if you would actually think I was genuinely considering heading closer to the Rat Kins main base.¡± Quill responded with a grin ¡°Whew. Thought I was going to have to talk you out of something really stupid. If you had chosen that, I would have petitioned the system to up your insanity status to extreme or something¡± Quill snorted at the comment then paused. ¡°Wait, you can talk to the system?¡± ¡°No. But I would have still tried to petition it given the sheer insanity of the idea.¡± His hopes dashed as he had more than a few complaints to file towards the system himself, he started to move away when two screens flashed in front of his face, almost making him curse. Mental focus has reached level 2 Split thinking has reached level 2 ¡°Thats odd... Why did that pop up again¡± Her voice responded with a mix of confusion and contemplation as Quill dismissed the screens and offered a shrug. ¡°Hell if I know. My best guess is because I am trying to figure out how to get out of this mess. Don¡¯t suppose you have any ideas.¡± ¡°Gorilla warfare?¡± ¡°I mean, kinda already doing that anyways. I am almost tempted to try and lure some of the cockroaches over and have them clash while I pick off the stragglers.¡± he responded. ¡°Sure that could work. But that would mean you would need to venture into roach territory and then somehow drag enough of them away to clash with rats.¡± ¡°Yeah, that doesn¡¯t seem feasible.¡± He let out a sigh ¡°I guess that means I am just going to have to wander around these tunnels and try to pick off as many stragglers as I can before disappearing back into the tunnels. Seems like my best bet to whittle their numbers down¡± Quill took a deep breath to steal his nerves and pulled out his map looking for the best place to venture. Once he settled on a path he began to make his way forward, away from the grand station. It kind of sucked that he didn¡¯t actually know how many of the rats were left or how strong their numbers were. ¡°Oh and Quill. One more thing real quickly~¡± Her voice became sickly sweet that left a small shudder push through his spine as her words seemed to ooze with thinly concealed rage. ¡°Y-yes?¡± ¡°When you find that rat that was shooting you with those crossbow bolts and had the nerve to run away before you could kill him. Be sure to kill him slowly. I wish to watch until he understands his mistake. You¡¯ll do that for me, want you?¡± Quill stumbled a little as his brain clouded over for a second and he shook his head trying to get his thoughts in order. ¡°I¡­ If the opportunity presents itself then okay. But I won¡¯t be going out of my way to do it.¡± ¡°Fine, I suppose I can accept that.¡± she responded with some reluctance. Quill involuntarily swallowed and decided to change subjects ¡°So, while we try to to get ourselves ready. Do you have any stories you can tell or something? Just to help distract me from this daunting task I have ahead of me?¡± ¡°Really? That''s what you are going to ask me to do to help? Be a storyteller?¡± ¡°I mean.. Can you do anything else for me right now?¡± he asked with genuine curiosity. ¡°Oh~ I can do a lot for you right now~¡± she responded in a tone that was way too suggestive for him. ¡°Uh.. Can you do anything to help with my current situation I mean.¡± ¡°... So have you heard the story of the blind fisherman and the dragon?¡±The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Can¡¯t say that I have.¡± She then launched off into a tale that had terrible pacing and very nonsensical rules. When the aliens showed up in the fantasy universe he was starting to suspect that she was just making things up as it went along. But it was entertaining in a weird sort of way and he appreciated the distraction as he made his way through the tunnels. His destination was a far off corner according to the map that had a couple of branching paths near its dead end. The hope was that even if he got found out and cornered. He would be able to escape through one of the branching paths if able. His progress was soon significantly slowed by the amount of rat patrols that started swarming the tunnels. Several points he almost got caught by large patrols, even getting so close that one of the rats almost stepped on him but thankfully he went by unnoticed. However, he did manage to quickly massacre a smaller patrol before rushing back into the tunnels without any of the other patrols catching him so he was already whittling them down which was nice. Something bothered him though about all the groups of rats that were patrolling the areas below, he couldn¡¯t quite place his finger on it. He would try to make better sense of it once he got to his destination. It took far longer than he would have liked to get to the small corner of the tunnel that he was aiming for but he made it. Once there, well he didn¡¯t really know where to go or what to do in terms of moving forward. He would have liked to make a barricade but he didn¡¯t really have much of anything to make a barricade. He stretched his body with a groan and dropped his backpack down at the farthest corner. It had gotten even more torn, yet still managed to hold together although barely. He was going to have to find a way to repair it. Maybe Ssevinac would be able to help. Assuming he doesn¡¯t try to kill him for Iirilac being dead. ¡°Oh please, there is no way his death can be traced back to you. Pretty sure he would have gotten a notification of the contract being broken if you had attacked which you didn¡¯t. I did. So perhaps one of his people can fix it up for you.¡± ¡°Maybe.¡± He dug into his bag and pulled out a single health potion and put it in his single intact pocket as the rest were now torn in some way or another. He would have liked to take more than one potion but he couldn¡¯t without taking his backpack. It was there that his enhanced hearing picked up movement. It was still far away since sound could travel fairly easily through the tunnels but it was getting closer. It looked like he was going to be engaging in battle faster than originally thought. Making sure his backpack was hidden as best as he could he started off into the tunnels. Being as quiet as he could and keeping to the shadows, he slowly neared the sounds of marching and squeaking. When Quill finally spotted the patrol he noted something a little off. These rats were smaller, had less weapons and armor. Only one of them looked like they would be any actual threat, giving off the same guard/warrior vibes as others he had fought. Not sure what to make of this but knowing not to let such an opportunity go to waste, Quill charged them from behind, wiping out several with his Pizza Cutter and Rat Tail before they even took notice. But it didn¡¯t really matter, the one who managed to put up even a little bit of a fight was the singular warrior but Quill quickly overwhelmed him. The rest charged blindly at him without tactic or reason and were soon all slaughtered. The whole thing probably took a minute at most which greatly benefited him as he didn¡¯t have to use his energy manifestation for very long. Wiping the bit of blood off his face he asked her a question ¡°Out of all those rats. How many had sentience?¡± ¡°Feeling bad about killing them again?¡± ¡°No. Well yes but that''s not why I am asking. Do you know.¡± ¡°None. None of them had sentience. All were created from that dungeon spawner. Why?¡± Quill smiled a little ¡°Don¡¯t want to say anything yet. Let¡¯s try to find a couple more groups first to see if they are similar.¡± ¡°Tease¡± She responded but left it at that to see what he was planning. Quill then began to make his way through the tunnels, ambushing 3 more groups of rats all with a similar group dynamic as the previous ones. Only ever stopping really to give himself a breather and to check his map for which way he was going. After clearing the final group he felt his headache and sore body indicating he was using too much of his energy manifestation so he decided to look at his skill notifications. You have leveled up to lvl 19 Stealth has leveled up to lvl 2 It was time to head back to where he had made his small base camp. The patrols of the rats were getting more frequent and he was going to be playing with fire if he kept going at this rate as he was already exhausting himself. ¡°Now can you tell me why??¡± She let out an incessant whine which Quill ignored as he made his way back through the tunnels. Taking a different route then he had taken when clearing the dead rat patrols. His hope was that he made the rats think he was going a specific way and that was away from where he made his little corner. Finally making it back, he plopped down in the darkest corner and after using his enhanced hearing to see if he could hear any rats opened up a bag of chips and ate carefully/quietly. ¡°Hello??? No ignoring me! Tell me!¡± The familiar fog started to cloud his head and he let out a small sigh. ¡°Right, sorry. Basically I have realized that the rat king is running out of his higher level troops. Whether they are fighting the roaches, or in his other stations, or dead. The ones he has now are all lower level, which is helped by the fact I just killed a bunch of them and only grew a signal level. ¡°Basically they have numbers but the numbers don¡¯t really mean much at the moment and since they are all system spawned or whatever the hell it¡¯s called, they aren¡¯t exactly super intelligent. Kind of like an npc who can only act and move based on its code. ¡°All of this helps me greatly. Now I just need to thin down their ranks and it should be a fairly clear shot to get the rat king and likewise his spawners. I don¡¯t think he can just spam the devices, otherwise these tunnels would have WAY more rats.¡± ¡°Well then, looks like we didn¡¯t need that rogue rat anyways. I knew things would work out. Good thing you have me looking out for you¡± ¡°Y-yeah¡± He responded and decided to focus on the chips he was eating. No matter what, things were going to be busy. He needed to rest and recover as much as he could before heading out again. Chapter 25 Once recovered to a point of satisfaction, he hid his backpack again in the darkest area. He then started to move back through the tunnels, keeping his ears open for any possible patrols that he wanted to avoid. He was avoiding these patrols for the simple reason that it would look pretty suspicious to have two patrols die at roughly the same area after a lapse in the killings. That said, dodging the patrols was becoming really difficult. Quill even had to scamper up the walls at one point in order to desperately cling to the ceiling as 2 patrols intersected and passed right under him. Stealth has leveled up to lvl 3 Well that was a nice bonus he thought. He really needed to try and get more of his skills to a higher level but he just hadn¡¯t had much time or a chance to do so. Plus he wasn¡¯t entirely sure how he would be able level up the skills outside of combat. When he actually had time he would workshop the idea. He finally got to a point in the tunnels where he was far enough away from his camp out spot to feel comfortable and started to hunt, making sure to avoid the area where his little resting spot was so as to not attract more patrols in that area. It really didn¡¯t take long to find another patrol, he was practically stumbling over them on his way here. He quickly blitzed them from behind using both his Rat Tail and pizza cutter, once again making quick work of the group as they tried to put up a defense. He cleaned through them pretty quickly. They all seemed to have the same predictable fighting style which made him cutting through them all that easier. However he knew he made a lot of noise so he decided to try something he thought of when he hid on the ceiling to dodge those patrols. He quickly scampered up the walls again, his enhanced strength doing wonders in allowing him to use the smallest of handholds and cracks to hoist himself to the top. Once at the top, he made sure he was far enough away from the tiny lamps that he was encased perfectly in darkness. That was when he waited patiently until two different rat patrols came scurrying to find the dead rat kins underneath Quill. He waited until a majority were directly underneath chattering and squeaking amongst themselves before dropping down. Instead of summoning up his Pizza Cutter though he decided to go with style and pictured two elongated chainsaw blades coming out of his elbows. As he fell, he spun around and cleaved through most of the rats before they even knew what had happened. He quickly dissipated the blades as having something like that come out of his elbows was horrible impractical in reality and finished the rest off with his Pizza Cutter and Rat Tail. ¡°I can¡¯t tell if what you just did was really stupid or really cool..¡± she injected as he dissipated his manifestations. ¡°Let¡¯s go with cool. Maybe I can live out my middle school fantasy of being a super cool edge lord with super cool but impractical weaponry.¡± ¡°No offence but your pizza cutter is already in that category. Though calling it a pizza cutter kinda ruins the coolness factor.¡± ¡°I think it adds to it personally.¡± he countered ¡°And that¡¯s why the system calls you insane.¡± He ignored her comment and paused to take stock of his well being. He wasn¡¯t in dangerous territory yet as taking down those two squads hadn¡¯t cost him a lot of resources given the shortness of the whole incident. He also noted he didn¡¯t level up either. Better to play it safe than sorry though. He didn¡¯t want to take down a rat squad only to get overwhelmed while fighting on low on his energy. He began to make his way back. Ambushing one more squad by dropping on them from the ceiling using his chainsaw elbows to clean through them in the process. It was, to put it simply. Very easy. He had to restrain himself to keep going. Caution meant survival. Survival meant living. And living meant¡­ Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°Good?¡± ¡°Still on the fence with that. I¡¯ll get back to you¡± He could have sworn he saw her roll her eyes on that but she refrained from comment as he snuck his way back to his little hiding hole to rest. He didn¡¯t really know how long he rested until he felt ready to go back out there. Truth be told, time sort of started to meld together at this point. Five minutes, an hour? Heck for all he knew those times on the electrical sign with the cursed sins were completely wonky. Maybe a minute the system time was actually 47 human earth seconds. He thought back to all his guesses of how long it took to go through the tunnels or how long it took for him to rest. Just because he felt like something lasted a couple of hours didn¡¯t mean it did. His time was getting all haywire. ¡°First signs of someone loosing it~¡± She spoke in a teasing tone ¡°Not to worry though. I promise to keep you grounded no matter how off the deep end you try to go! You can count on me!¡± He felt her comfortable presence slowly descend on his psyche. It felt good. Comfortable even to know he could always count on her.¡­. He quickly cleared his throat as he pinched his arm before speaking ¡°Well that is nice of you. Will be relying on you in that case.¡± Mental focus has leve- He dismissed the level up notification and continued to speak ¡°I¡¯ll be relying on you. But for now it is best we keep killing these rats. Ambushing them from the ceiling seems to have really paid off so I think it is best we keep doing that. Sounds good?¡± ¡°Sounds good to me. I¡¯ll be cheering you on the whole way!¡± she responded in her chipper tone and Quill felt himself relax a tad before deciding to add. ¡°You know. I could use some battle music. Help set the mood. Think you can do that for me?¡± ¡°With pleasure honey buns!¡± She then started doing a bunch of songs that he could only assume were originals that seemed to mix metal, classic rock, and jazz. He wasn¡¯t entirely sure how appropriate some of her music was to stealthily killing humanoid rats but he wasn¡¯t going to complain. He made his way through the tunnels, making sure to dodge the rats until he was far enough away and began his ceiling ambushes once again. Rinse, repeat. It was stressful, sure, as any screw up could possibly lead to all of the rats'' forces bearing down on him but in some ways it was also pretty monotonous. He just ambushed till he felt like he was about to strain with energy manifestation and then go back to his little corner to recover. It was his 6th excursion out when he noticed the patrols weren¡¯t happening as frequently. After the 11th excursion he had to actively hunt them down. It was very quickly becoming apparent that the rat king''s forces were running low. Or he was playing turtle and was hoarding the rest in the Grand Station he was in. Either way he felt like things were progressing to a point where he would soon be making an attack on the grand station. Throughout this he had actually managed to level up twice more putting him at level 21, his stealth skill had leveled up to 4 and, to his surprise, dirty fighting and enhanced reflexes had leveled up to level 2. He assumed dirty fighting was due to all the ambushes but again, he still wasn¡¯t sure how the skill actually helped him in any way. At least with dodging the effects were pretty clear on what they did. It was on his 13th outing that he couldn¡¯t find any rats at all and decided that he was probably putting off his attack on the grand station so he headed back to his little corner where he kept his bag. As he got there he walked towards his bag but then stopped about five feet away. Something didn¡¯t quite feel right. Since he had a skill called survival instincts, he decided to heed to that feeling and slowly took a step back, only for every fiber of his being to suddenly scream at him to duck and in doing so just barely avoided a large knife trying to decapitate him. Quill slammed his elbow behind him and hit the Rat Kin in the chest causing them to stumble backwards by two steps before it recovered and charged him again. Quill managed to side step, gripping their arm and flung them forward towards the tunnel''s dead end. It was there he heard a small *click* and acting on instinct summoned up a giant shield to duck his body behind as a loud explosion ruptured through the tunnel and knocked him flat on his ass several feet away. Survival instincts has leveled up to lvl 3 He winced as he slowly sat up, his ears were ringing and his vision was blurred but he was pretty sure he was okay¡­ HIS BACKPACK! He tried to stand up only to stumble back down to the ground. He was certainly discombobulated from that. How the hell did rats have access to explosive devices! It was obviously some kind of trap and when he didn¡¯t fall for it the assassin tried to take him out instead. He crawled his way through the remains of the explosion. The walls and ceiling were totally scorched and he was pretty sure he saw bits of what was left of the Rat Kin. As for his backpack? Completely and utterly destroyed. All of the potions he had in it were destroyed. All of his food was gone. He groaned as he placed his back against the wall, wincing a little as he picked up a piece of fabric that seemed to be all that was left from his dirty old backpack. ¡°Why were you so attached to that thing anyways? It obviously meant more to you than just a really good accessory.¡± He didn¡¯t bother answering her as he stuffed the piece of cloth into his only intact pocket along with the singular health potion and watched the tunnel waiting. Sure enough, shortly after the explosion he saw multiple figures move their way through the smoke and slowly a group of Rat Kins came out with a very big and heavily armored Rat Kin leading them. Figures. Chapter 26 They stared at each other for a long moment. The large Rat Kin seemingly gloating at Quills own predicament with Quill glaring defiantly at the Rat Kin as the smoke from the blast began clearing. Quill quickly took advantage of this and using his energy manifestation, let it seep out of him under the guise of smoke, letting it creep slowly towards the group of rats. The leader began to say something to him though he had no idea what considering his ears were still ringing. But if he were to hazard a guess it was most certainly bragging about how they found him. Slowly but surely sound started to return to him and he caught just the tail end of his speech. ¡°So I knew that the first squad that was ambushed and killed had to be closer to where your base of operations was and everything else was a misdirect. Then it was only a matter of time before we found that bag of yours. Now I shall finish what my brothers should have and then claim the glory of killing the Vermin slayer all to myself!¡± ¡°Vermin Slayer?¡± His voice came out a little hoarse, needing to stall for more time to get his energy in place. ¡°That thing you bragged about to those rats and they ran away thinking you had a title. Remember?¡± ¡°They are still on about that? That feels like it happened ages ago¡± He rubbed his head and the Rat Kin cleared his throat which had him turn his attention back to him. ¡°Oh yeah, sorry. You were monologuing and I interrupted. Please continue.¡± The large Rat Kin turned around towards the other rats as if wanting to ask ¡®Are you seeing this disrespect?¡¯ But he was pretty sure they were all system spawns as the leading Rat Kin turned back around with a sigh. ¡°Whatever. Kill him but don¡¯t touch the head, I wish for that part of him to remain pristine when I present it to his majesty.¡± ¡°Well that¡¯s nice of him¡± She managed to get out a response as all the rats launched forward. It was indeed nice of him. His monologue and gloating gave him enough time to get his energy manifestation to get into place. He had more than enough to cover all the rats as they started to charge him ready to tear him apart. With a strong force of his will. He made the smoke snap upwards into condensed energy as spikes, impaling all the rats that tried to charge, killing all but the armored rat in the process. Their own momentum being the deciding factor of their fate. Blood spurted out of his nose and he could taste a large amount of blood as he felt his entire body tremble from over taxation but he still held onto consciousness as he slowly, albeit wobbly, stood up, having already dispersed his manifestations before it became too much. The forces of the rats dropped dead right there except for the large armored Rat Kin who was now looking at all the dead rats as it clutched its leg in pain. Since he had not charged forward like the rest, the spikes didn¡¯t have enough power to grievously wound or kill him. But he was still injured which was a win in Quills book. ¡°It is no matter.¡± The Rat Kin spoke with some frustrated pain in his voice which was far tamer than Quill would have expected given what he just did. ¡°We can easily replenish the numbers with our spawners.¡± He drew out a wicked looking great ax and brandished it towards him. ¡°They served their purpose, you are in even worse shape than before by that ability of yours. Such a powerful ability was sure to have a drawback. Acceptable losses for our empire.¡± The Rat Kin charged forward and brought their axe down towards Quill who just barely managed to step to the side in time, his entire body hurting from the jerking motion. He didn¡¯t know why but what they just said really pissed him off. He wasn¡¯t in much of a position to counter attack so he settled on the next best thing and spat at the Rats eye. The Rat Kin recoiled from the surprise of blood and spit hitting him, letting out a surprised yelp which gave Quill just enough time to manifest a dagger of his own and jammed it as hard as he could into the monsters throat causing their surprised yelp to turn into a gurgle. However it clearly wasn¡¯t down for the count as they swung a meaty fist at Quill, slamming it into his face and knocking him back several feet and onto his back, his dagger dispersing at the loss of concentration. ¡°ROLL!¡± Her voice screamed with urgency and his body rolled to the left as it barely dodged the giant battle ax trying to cave in his chest, instead missing and cleaving through the stone floor instead. His body didn¡¯t want to move but he still forced himself to jump away towards one of the dead Rat Kins and grabbed one of their weapons. He could barely see anything as he felt some of his skin crack and peel open from the sudden movements and overuse of the energy. He wasn¡¯t sure how much longer he could keep this up. The armored rat glared at him with one hand clutching his throat and the other on his ax as he lifted up and charged Quill. Feeling like he wouldn¡¯t be able to block the ax without dying he rolled again dodging the blow. But got a swift kick in the ribs because of it, sending him into the wall as he coughed up more blood. He heard the rat start to make his way over to him and gritted his teeth. Just needed to push himself just a little bit further. That was all he needed to do. All he needed too¡­ ¡°THEN DO IT!¡± Her voice screamed in his head and his body shot forward, the ax grazing his shoulder and taking a chunk of skin with it as he thrust the sword he stole into the Rats abdomen. Channeling his energy manifestation into the point of the blade and imagining it expanding outward causing the monster''s stomach to suddenly swell like a balloon and explode, its guts covering Quill in gore. The Rat Kin let out a shrilled, gurgled screech before collapsing dead on the spot from the sudden horrible wound. Killed Rat Kin lvl 24. Experience gained. Energy manifestation has leveled up to lvl 4 The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. You have leveled up to lvl 22 Quill fell to the ground himself. He was fighting the urge to not completely pass out as he took out the health potion he kept in his pocket and chugged it as quickly as he could. He felt some of his major wounds heal but he still felt like shit and could still taste blood in his mouth. He could have really gone for some extra potions but they were sadly now all blown up. Taking a gander he pawed over the dead armored rat kin but came up with nothing. He doubted the other rats would have healing potions either sadly so he was shit out of luck. ¡°Are you doing okay there darling?¡± She spoke in his head and he almost flinched but still kept composure. ¡°I mean.. Okay is such a relative term¡­ Will I live? Yes. Is that good? No idea..¡± He let out a sigh that turned into a small cough ¡°Either way, thanks for giving me that extra push.¡± She let out a happy giggle ¡°Oh no problem. Glad I didn¡¯t need to remind you to thank me this time~.¡± He took a deep breath as he tried to suppress another cough. He wasn¡¯t in very good shape to put it lightly. All he wanted to do was fall asleep for a very long time but that wasn¡¯t going to help. The rats knew his position, but the rats also probably had very few of their numbers left, otherwise he felt like the large armored rat would have shown up with more reinforcements. If he could destroy the spawners then that meant he could complete his quest which meant he would get the rewards of the potions. That said he sure as shit wasn¡¯t going to charge in guns blazing as was his original plan. He didn¡¯t think he¡¯d be able to survive that. Instead he decided to try and sneak and destroy the spawners as soon as possible. If that failed, he¡¯d make a blitz for them. He really needed those potions pronto. He groaned as he got up from where he sat and slowly limped his way past all the dead rats, however paused at a dead rat that had a crossbow. ¡°Well looks like we won¡¯t have to worry about revenge.¡± ¡°That''s not the one who shot you¡± She spoke in a rather annoyed tone ¡°Shame too. Lying down in these dank tunnels after being skewered by you seems like a fitting end for such a low life¡± He stared at the dead rat in confusion ¡°are you sure? I mean they have a crossbow.¡± ¡°Why Quill. Are you implying that all these rats look the same??¡± He could almost see the shit eating grin on her face when she said that and he decided to just take her word for it. ¡°Good call~¡± she responded to his acceptance. He did loot the crossbow and the bolts though. Anything that allowed him to kill his enemies from far away was a very welcome gift. He then pulled his map out as he made his way towards the possible entrance of the grand station. He had gotten used to much of the tunnel''s layouts by now and didn¡¯t get lost on his way there but his progress was still slow. He blamed it on his injuries, minor as they were, but also how tired he felt. Admittedly though he felt some of the slow pace could be attributed to procrastinating , just so he didn¡¯t have to engage in combat again so soon. Reluctantly he made his way towards where the entrance to the Grand Station was and sure enough there was a small group of dire rats and rat kin guarding the trap door. Thankfully it seemed like said trap door was shut so any engagement he would do would hopefully go unnoticed. He stepped back a bit further away so he could properly fiddle with the crossbow and figured out how to use it correctly. He still felt like utter shit but the walk had helped a bit with his mind and energy a little, plus he needed to hurry as fast as he could and thus needed to take care of this group of guards. It didn¡¯t take long to figure out how to get the crossbow to work and it didn¡¯t take too much physical effort on his part to load which he and his sore body was thankful for. Once loaded he scooted his way back towards where the rats were guarding the entrance and started to take aim with the crossbow from behind the corner. ¡°Scoot closer. You are too far away to deal any real damage.¡± She startled him with the sudden commentary and nearly made him fire the crossbow by accident. ¡°Aww. Don¡¯t worry. Shooting your load prematurely is a compliment in my eyes~¡± He felt his face flush from the comment but still heeded her advice and, sticking to the shadows as close as possible, crawled his way forward until she told him he was close enough to kill. So he took aim again. ¡°Aim a tad more to the right. You¡¯ll only graze him if you shoot right now.¡± He followed her instructions. Why she didn¡¯t help him when shooting that gun at the diseased dire rat was beyond¡­ He shook his head and refocused. He was sure she had her reasons. Split thin- He quickly dismissed the notification to prevent it from distracting him and he slowly exhaled and pulled the triggering mechanism, firing the bolt as it shot forward and right into the chest or the Rat Kin he was aiming for giving him a kill notification. The other rats quickly snapped their attention towards Quill who was already up and scurrying away as he reloaded the crossbow. Pivoting around and taking aim again just before he turned the corner. Taking a shot and and of course missing as the rats were now charging him. Muttering a curse he quickly ran away. Trying to maintain a decent distance without losing them as he reloaded the crossbow, relying on his memory of the tunnels he had been traversing for too long. ¡°You know sweetie, I can help you aim that crossbow. Just give me control of your arms and I will make sure you land every shot.¡± He growled and did another pivot around while taking aim. Waiting for the rats to get much closer before firing the crossbow. This time actually landing a hit at the lead dire rat before quickly turning right back around and started to reload. ¡°There? See. Don¡¯t need your help. Doing perfectly fine on my own.¡± He managed to squeeze out through his labored breaths ¡°No need to be stubborn. I know you didn¡¯t appreciate losing control of your body that one time but that¡¯s hardly any reason to act like this.¡± ¡°Nonsense. Just wanted to show you I can do these things by myself.¡± He managed to retort as he loosed another bolt and landed another successful hit. ¡°Hmmm¡± Her tone indicated her suspicion so Quill quickly followed up. ¡°I enjoy your help! Truly. But I need to get better at shooting anyways. This life and death situation seems like a great time to practice¡± He desperately managed to squeeze out despite the shortness of breath as he reloaded, turned, shot and ran again. His body aching in extreme protest which he ignored. This continued on until he finally ran out of bolts, he probably missed more shots then he hit but he still hit enough and had thinned out the ranks enough that he managed to blitz the rest with a few quick swipes of his Pizza Cutter, damn near fainting in the process. Just like that he had finished off the rest of the rats that had guarded the entrance to the grand station. He was pretty thankful that the system spawned monsters really didn¡¯t seem that intelligent. Especially when they don¡¯t have anything guiding their movements. He felt woozy now, likely from using the pizza cutter in the final bit. But the path was open and now it was time to finish this stupid quest. Chapter 27 So the first thing he did was actually scrounge up the bolts from the crossbow. Or at least the ones that appeared like they would still fly. A few of his missed shots had broken the bolts and he was pretty sure he lost several somehow. They were like nerf darts. You could shoot them, see where they had landed, and somehow they still disappeared. Once he was ready, or at least as ready as he was ever going to be, he loaded up his crossbow and moved towards the trap door. Making sure his energy manifestation would be at the ready in case he was surrounded, he slowly cracked open the door and peeked outside. Ready to run as quickly as possible should the need arise which it likely would. To his surprise though he didn¡¯t see any rats. There was nothing from what little he could see from the crack. He also didn¡¯t hear any motion, nor could he smell any of the rats, at least nearby. He slowly lifted the trap door until he was fully looking through the halls and was pretty surprised. While the rest of the stations would be considered somewhat shoddy and kind of minimal. Very much similar to any small metro station before this system took over that wasn¡¯t expecting much in the way of traffic. This, however, was completely different and certainly living up to its name, making Quills mouth drop as he took in his surroundings. A brightly lit majestic hall stood before him. Towering marble pillars held up a grand hall that arched above his head. The walls themselves weren¡¯t the usual stone grey that had the occasional blank ad poster but instead were finely designed with intricate patterns that were perfectly symmetrical, without a blemish or imperfection among them. The floor was also without fault. A checkerboard pattern that shined so nicely he could actually see his reflection. And that said nothing about the ceiling. The whole thing looked similar to the Sistine chapel. There were painted angels flying everywhere, with depictions of some of them even going slaughtering a whole bunch of demons and monsters too. He wouldn¡¯t even really call it a war, the artist clearly favored showing the angels as absolutely dominating the monsters. He almost let out a whistle he was so impressed but thankfully didn¡¯t. The last thing he wanted was to casually announce his position to the world. Or the station in this case. But that all begged the question. Why the hell had the system gone and skimped out on everything else but made this look like a freaking masterpiece. What, did it blow its load on making this station and then just did the bare minimum with everything else, including copy and paste?? Minor gripes aside, he was pretty impressed with how beautiful the whole station looked and if he were to hazard a guess. The area he popped his head out of would be the opening/welcoming area to the actual station itself. At least that was his guess based on the multiple glass doors at one end of the hall that seemed to lead into nothingness. With great care he slowly slid out of the trap door and carefully stepped through the halls. It was likely his Stealth skill helping him out but he was incredibly thankful there weren''t any echoing foot falls from him scurrying across the ground. It was only when things were absolutely quiet did you really start to notice how loud you were. Though it wasn¡¯t like it was total silence. His enhanced hearing was picking up sound towards the opposite end of the hall where the metro pay gates were. It was here he also took note of a giant screen above the pay gates that listed the station names and when the ¡°Train¡± would be arriving in each station. He counted 6¡­. There were 6 stations in total in this grand station which meant that there were likely 6 different cursed sins he needed to worry about. He took in a deep breath, just needed to take things one step at time. That was all. Deal with the rat king and spawners first. Worry about the cursed sins later. He quietly moved towards the doors that lead to nothing but a black void and tried to open them Can not leave the tutorial dungeon until the time limit is finished. ¡°Okay, so even if you could leave. Why would you? If you don¡¯t kill those cursed sins you¡¯ll be dropped in a D grade monster''s nest when the tutorial is finished which is basically a death sentence for you.¡± ¡°I just wanted to see. More options the better.¡± He muttered back before turning his way back towards the rest of the hall and began to make his way towards the pay gate. There was a Kiosk as well except instead of its rinky-dink little building. It was much more ornate and was attached to the wall instead of being in the middle of the floor plus it was also just larger, being the size of a double decker bus.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. He briefly looked in through one of its windows but didn¡¯t see anything that might have been useful to him in the immediate future but did note a door inside the kiosk attached to the wall. However he didn¡¯t see a way to get inside without breaking the glass windows so moved on towards the pay gate. Jumping over it, he looked onwards towards the stairs that lead upwards. Still no sign of any rats which could either be a good sign or a bad sign. Knowing just speculation wasn¡¯t going to get him anywhere he started to climb up the stairs. Even the stairs were fancy, golden gilded rails, an almost silvery shine to the stairs themselves. It actually kind of hurt his eyes to look at all the brightness since he had been operating in such low light for so long. When he approached the top, he noted there weren''t any places for him to hide so he decided to just peek over the top of the stairs and if he was spotted he would simply run back down and into the tunnels. As he peeked over the edge he saw another grandiose hall with brightly lit chandeliers. The hall itself quickly had two branching paths towards the left and the right as you crested over the stairs but also continued further down though he couldn¡¯t really see that much further as something obstructed his vision. A small group of no more than 15 or so rats were itching and scurrying around the hall and they all just looked¡­ Pathetically weak. No armor, no weapons, they were all small and had no presence or power to their stances that he had come to expect from the more menacing ones. All except 2 that is. A rat kin with a crossbow stood with the rest, looking more beefed up then he had previously with a much bigger crossbow and more heavily armored. Just past him sat a giant rat on a golden throne with a decorated crown fitted awkwardly on his head, holding a scepter in its hand glaring towards the stairs. ¡°We see you human! Come out and die with dignity!¡± The king spoke with authority and he almost felt the need to comply. His legs threatened to move on their own but he managed to keep them rooted on the stairs. ¡°I said Come Out Human! You Will Come Out And Die With Dignity!¡± The King ordered again and he once again felt the compulsion to follow it but it was actually pretty easy to ignore. However standing around felt pretty rude when a king was ordering you around so he decided to give his reply. He raised his crossbow and opened fire. He would have aimed but he was pretty sure it wouldn¡¯t have mattered so just shot the crossbow in the general direction. He was pleasantly surprised that he actually managed to hit the king''s throne, didn¡¯t hit any rats but scratching the nice pretty over decorated chair was a nice consolation prize. The king looked at the area where the bolt hit seemingly flabbergasted before snapping his head back towards where Quill was and stood up jutting his scepter towards him with a scream ¡°Kill him! Kill him and bring me his head!!¡± That was his cue to run. He quickly bolted down the stairs while reloading the crossbow. Blindly firing behind him as he reached the bottom of the stairs and ran towards the trap door. It was only now did he realize it would have been a great idea to set a trap in case of this exact situation. Something to keep in mind for later. He felt his body scream at him in some kind of warning and quickly zigzagged. Barely dodging the crossbow bolt that shattered as it hit the floor. He dove into the trap door, thankful he forgot to close it when he left and rolled as he hit the ground before backing up and getting himself ready for the rats that would inevitably come pouring down into the tunnels. He didn¡¯t activate his energy manifestation though as that would likely just cause his entire body to fail him and instead grabbed a discarded sword and club that were left by the previous rats who were guarding the entrance. The first rat that dropped down into the hole was a small dire rat which was easily dispatched with a swing of his club, the next was a rat kin, also quickly dispatched. Soon more rats started falling down into the hole and all were quickly killed with either a swing from his sword or a swing from his club. He was pretty thankful that all of these rats seemed to have been system spawns. None of them seemed to possess much intelligence outside of jumping in the hole and dying. It didn¡¯t last long until the last one had dropped in and was quickly killed by quill. Going over his kill notifications showed that none were above the level of 8. They had clearly run out of rats to fight him and were likely just throwing out fresh summoned rats at him in some vein hope to tire him out. ¡°To be fair. It has kinda been working. You are pretty tired already. I¡¯m pretty sure if you rested like you wanted to, any forces the rat king is able to muster up won¡¯t do much to you in the time given.¡± ¡°True, but there is that crossbowman I need to worry about. And just because they haven¡¯t really used many tactics on me doesn¡¯t mean they don¡¯t have them. I still have no idea how they made a trap explode back at the end of the tunnel. What if my resting allows them to bolster their defenses to a point where it wouldn¡¯t matter if I fully healed and felt better. Plus I¡¯ll just feel better mentally having gotten this whole thing done.¡± He felt like she shrugged her shoulders before speaking again. ¡°Hey, I certainly won¡¯t complain about you killing that crossbow rat sooner rather than later. Speaking of. They haven¡¯t come down which means they are waiting for you to show your face.¡± Quill looked up at the exit with some concern before heading over to one of the dead rats and sliced their head off. Then, after impaling it on his swords tip. He lifted it up and out of the trap door only to instantly get impaled in the eye by a crossbow bolt and Quill quickly pulled the head back down. Yeah, that was going to be a problem. Chapter 28 Both she and him went over possibilities of how he could get out and close the distance on the crossbow rat without him using his energy manifestation. Sure he could have handled the Rat Kin without the energy manifestation but he was probably going to need the skill to fight the king and he was still in bad shape. Perhaps it wasn¡¯t horrible shape, sure, but running the risk of putting him in horrible shape increased greatly should he need to use the skill. Sadly they didn¡¯t have a whole lot of options as Quill readied up an armored rat corpse to use as a shield, with the longsword and club sheathed on his already worn belt. He just needed it to stop whatever bolt would be launched at him from the first shot. Once he was ready and with a word of encouragement from her, he took a deep breath and leapt up from the tunnels and past the trap door, keeping his body tucked safely behind the Rat Kins corpse. A solid thunk could be felt as a crossbow bolt hit the body, but it had served its purpose and he quickly ditched the carcass and started to charge the Rat Kin who was standing half way up on the stairs already taking aim with his next bolt. He knew he was capable of dodging the bolts which is why he didn¡¯t keep the corpse shield as it would only be a hindrance. Sure enough the next bolt was fired and he easily managed to dodge it thanks to his survival instincts, enhanced reflexes and dodge skill working in tandem. He wasn¡¯t really expecting the massive explosion erupting behind him and throwing him off his feet though as he hit the ground with a yelp. ¡°Fucking piece of!!! That was a regular bol-Shit!¡± He barely managed to roll out of the way from the third bolt that thankfully didn¡¯t explode. ¡°He has skills, I guess that explosion was one of them. You¡¯ve gotten the drop on most of the rats with skills before they had any chance to really use them.¡± She responded with helpful commentary and he cursed a little more as he started to begin his charge again. He hadn¡¯t used the explosion bolt on the third shot or the fourth that just whizzed by his head, so he obviously wasn¡¯t able to do it again or at least yet. He needed to get close and preferably kill him before the Rat Kin could fire another explosion bolt. By the time he reached pay gate the Rat Kin fired their 5th bolt only this bolt started to multiply super quickly and Quill realized that by the time the bolts would reach him, there would be nowhere he would be able to dodge. Cursing he summoned up a small shield he could duck his body behind just as all the bolts were about to hit with multiple thuds hitting the manifestation. He felt light headed and almost fell to the floor from the extreme dizziness but thankfully his skin didn¡¯t immediately split open which he counted as a small blessing. Once he blocked all the bolts he quickly dissipated the shield and stumbled forward as he tried to get his feet moving underneath him. He let out a stubborn snarl, barely managing to keep his balance while pushing his feet forward. A crossbow bolt slammed into his thigh and he almost fell again before starting to climb the stairs, using his hands to help with the balance as he charged up. The Rat Kin aimed their crossbow again and Quill threw his club, hitting the crossbow and knocking it away as it fired. This allowed him to close the distance and jam the sword into the rats stomach with a desperate tackle and they both started to roll back down the stairs, with him spewing curses the whole way down. Finally they hit the ground floor and he forced himself up from where he landed. Quickly gripping the sword still impaled in the rats gut who landed just a few feet from him, he yanked it out and brought it down several more times until he got the kill notification. Finally collapsing to the ground, breathing heavily. ¡°That was messy and sadly wasn¡¯t as slow as I would have liked but thank you for killing him for me. You sure know how to treat a gal.¡± Quill swallowed, really wishing he had at least some water on him as he slowly stood up and began walking up the stairs ¡°I didn¡¯t do it for you. I did it because I needed to.¡± He found himself reflexively saying and almost winced expecting some kind of backlash but instead she simply responded. ¡°You can lie to yourself but not to me. I know some part of you did it cause you wanted to please me. And that is what I love about you. Always so eager to make me happy~¡± He kept his mouth shut as he stepped forward. It was just the king now. He didn¡¯t really know if he had the energy to kill him but he needed to try. It wasn¡¯t like he was in a position to not. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Part way up the stairs he grabbed the dropped crossbow and noted it was definitely better then the one had been using. Loading it up he made his way to the top of the stairs when the king still sat on his throne but without any more subjects to defend him. The king started to tap his claw on his scepter as he glared at Quill before speaking ¡°Congratulations human. I have decided to accept you into my kingdom. You shall be my new royal guard!¡± The words he spoke¡­ Didn¡¯t make sense. Again he felt some kind of compulsion to listen but why would he bother. So he started walking closer to the rat king as he knew he was going to need to get closer if he actually wanted to have a chance of hitting him. The rat king snarled and stood up from his throne ¡°You will serve under me!¡± Again, a small compulsion but nothing he felt the need to follow so he got closer. ¡°You will obey my command! I will create a kingdom that will allow me to rule the whole multiverse and you will SERVE!¡± He heard her snarl in his head before his arms snapped upward without any input from him and pulled the trigger of the crossbow. Firing it straight into the rat''s crotch which elicited a shriek of pain that Quill couldn¡¯t help but flinch at witnessing. ¡°Hurry up and kill this fucking piece of shit who would DARE to even suggest that you would serve under someone other then me! Kill him now!!¡± Her voice echoed through his head causing his vision to seemingly crack as reality itself became distorted. He had to bite his lip just to keep himself grounded as he started to rush towards the rat with the sword he held and brought it down on the still screaming king. He had trouble getting past its robes so he brought the second blow down on the king''s neck. It took several hacks but he finally decapitated the king and got the kill notification in the process. Killed Rat Kin level 25. Experience gained Congratulations! You have earned the achievement ¡°Apex¡± To kill something a grade above you without any outside help from friends, family, allies or enemies is a feat very few have accomplished. Try not to let it go to your head. 1 stat point awarded to all three attributes. Error! Could not distribute stat to soul, redistributing evenly towards body and mind. That was when a grey smoked hand shot out from his body and towards the king''s body, grabbing at something invisible just a few inches above. Then he barely saw it. A small golden pebble, no bigger than a pea. It was there until a grey hand crushed it. Utterly dissipating everything that it was and ever will be. He felt every part of him shudder at something he did not understand but knew what he just witnessed was something horrifying. The grey hand dissipated soon after. Before he could even ask what had happened her voice spoke through his head ¡°Questions later. You need to go destroy those spawners, you are in bad shape and could really use that healing potion along with the stamina and mana ones too.¡± Yeah. He couldn¡¯t really argue there. This quest needed to be finished as soon as possible. It was probably the biggest blessing that the rat king didn¡¯t put up much of a fight at all. Where were the spawners though? ¡°Straight ahead, they are at the end of the tunnel.¡± He nodded at that and walked past the throne and towards the back of the tunnel. His mind felt heavy and his own movement felt like it wasn¡¯t entirely his own, which they might not be now that he thought about it. ¡°Worry about non-issues later. Focus up.¡± Yeah, focus. He stumbled forward. Walking past another set of tunnels on both his left and right, then past the final set of tunnels, all of which he assumed would lead to another station. At the end of the tunnel he saw something that kind of looked like a metal lotus that was maybe 5 feet in diameter. There were 2, side by side with each other. He walked towards one and as he got close to it a sudden system prompt popped up in front of his face. Rat Kin Spawner-low quality Unranked Unclaimed Can spawn 20 unranked level 1 rat kins once or 1 G ranked level 5 Rat Kin once with a cooldown of 24 hours. Would you like to claim this spawner? Quill promptly hit no on the spawner and got a second notification. Would you like to destroy this spawner? Well that was far easier than he expected. He was half worried he was going to have to feed the thing to a cursed sin or something to destroy it. He promptly hit yes and watched as the spawner simply crumbled into dust. Not as flashy as he was expecting but hey it was destroyed. He turned his attention to the second spawner and tapped it. Dire rat spawner-low quality Unranked Unclaimed Can spawn 20 unranked level 1 dire rats once or 1 G ranked level 5 dire rat once with a cooldown of 24 hours. Has a very slim possibility to spawn a diseased dire rat. Would you like to claim this spawner? Quill quickly hit no and when he got the notification to destroy hit yes and watched as that spawner also crumbled into dust. Just like that, it was done. He finished his first quest¡­..yay. Chapter 29 Quill collapsed to the ground with his back against the wall next to the two piles of dust that were once the spawners. First things first, he opened up his status screen and went right to quests. Congratulations! You have completed the quest ¡°Even more Rats!¡± Accept reward? Quill couldn¡¯t have been more relieved at seeing the completed quest because he was almost terrified that the system decided to put a bunch of rat spawners all over this dungeon just to fuck with him. He quickly accepted the rewards and a small wooden crate materialized in front of him He quickly threw open the crate and snatched both a health potion, mana potion and stamina potion. Chugging all three as fast as he could and feeling instant relief. Would it have made sense to hold onto them now that all the threats had been taken care of? Sure, but he felt so miserable he was past the point of caring. Chugging all three gave him a similar experience to when you are so used to a certain pain or uncomfort being there that you don¡¯t really notice it anymore until it actually disappears and you are just left with that feeling of ¡°How on earth did I function?¡± The healing potion brought relief to all the physical pain, the stamina potion made his body have more energy, making him realize just how much he was running on fumes and the mana potion actually brought with some more clarity. They all seemed to act like a cooling liquid on an overheating machine, easing the fire and heat from his overstrained body and mind. That said, no amount of potions could have helped ease the mental exhaustion he was feeling from just about everything that had happened. Or if there was one he didn¡¯t have it but it would certainly prove useful. He really needed to sleep. ¡°I¡¯d love to let you sleep sweetie, but I think you have a few other things you need to take care of first and foremost. Like how about checking those level up notifications you got flashing at you. Hm?¡± Her voice held clear anticipation and she was probably right about that so he clicked the level up notifications to see what he got. You have leveled up to level 23 You have leveled up to level 24 Congratulations on reaching level 24! In order to reach level 25 and being able to choose your next class progression you must first pass the requirements given to you below Kill a single cursed sin without outside help. 0/1 ¡°What the actual fuck!¡± how was that fair to him in the slightest! There was no possible way he would be able to kill one of those things! Just¡­ What the actual fuck!!¡± His voice echoed through the entire station as he continued to spout obscenities. ¡°Huh. Yeah, even I am kind of left scratching my head over that. Guess the system really wants you to start killing those things.¡± ¡°Could you maybe have a little more anger or disbelief in your voice! How the fuck am I suppose to kill one of those things without any kind of help!¡± ¡°Well it says without outside help. Technically I am inside help so you can still rely on me!¡± Quill let out a groan ¡°No offense but I am not sure how much help you will be in this matter outside of the energy manifestations.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I get you are kinda freaking out cause under normal circumstances, there is no way a G rank would ever be able to kill a cursed sin no matter how weak they may be.¡± ¡°Thanks for the vote of confidence.¡± Quill grumbled ¡°However! You are hardly in normal circumstances. It will be a tough thing for you to accomplish, sure, but I also have full confidence in your ability to kill one with enough strategy. Which is also my way of saying to not try to fight one of those things head on.¡± He sat and contemplated her words for a moment and decided that he wouldn¡¯t get anywhere without taking that nap first. He really needed to sleep even if it was just a mental reset. ¡°I think you are forgetting something really really important.¡± He rubbed his eyes wishing nothing more than to find a place to sleep but indulged her anyways ¡°And what is that.¡± ¡°The 120 days worth of food and water.¡± The instant he heard that his mouth instantly started to water at the sudden realization that he wasn¡¯t going to have to eat shitty junk food anymore!Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. He quickly looked inside the crate, ignoring the other potions and reached for what he assumed was the storage ring that looked like nothing more than a small gold band. Since there was no food inside the crate he could only assume the ring had it somehow given it was apparently a ¡°storage.¡± Upon picking it up he got a system screen flashing in front of him. System made storage ring. perfect quality. Small capacity. Unbound. Would you like to bind this ring to you? Quill quickly accepted the prompt as he put the ring on and stared at it, realizing he had no idea how to actually access the storage. So he tried to focus on the ring itself and sure enough he could suddenly see inside it while also still being able to see his surroundings. It was a little disorienting to say the least. He also seriously questioned the word ¡°small¡± when it told him the ring had small capacity. Seriously! This much space was huge! He couldn¡¯t give an exact estimate but he would have to say it was the length of a whole football field. The height was probably equal to that as well. And right smack dab in the center of the whole thing were several crates with the label of ¡°Food¡± in them sitting next to several clay jugs with the label of ¡°water¡±. If he could cry tears of joy he would. ¡°You can cry tears of joy though. I¡¯ve seen it.¡± ¡°Figure of speech. I am too tired to actually cry. Now how do I get these things out of my ring¡± He decided to focus on one of the crates and somehow instinctively knew that he just needed to will it out of his ring so he did so. A crate, a little larger than the one he had been given to him, plopped down right in front of him, almost crushing his toes in the process. He was going to need to work on taking things out of the ring carefully. Assuming that was even possible. With bated breath he opened the crate and revealed fruit. A whole lot of fruit! Quill snatched up an orange and quickly peeled it. Surprised at how easily he could do it with just his fingers. Those stats in his body really were making a difference! Once peeled he pulled a slice off and popped it in his mouth and almost let out a moan of ecstasy. Just to see what would happen he decided to turn on his enhanced sense of taste and damn near had an orgasm. The way the oranges just exploded in his mouth was like a taste of heaven. Especially after having nothing but salty chips or overly processed sugary treats. But what he really needed right now was some freaking meat! He quickly started taking out all the boxes so he could examine their contents. Maybe this is what people meant when they said ¡°Like a kid at Christmas.¡± This was the most fun he had in a long time! ¡°I feel like the implications of those thoughts are incredibly depressing.¡± ¡°Shush. Let me enjoy this.¡± He finally took stock of everything he had. There was meat but most of it was just stuff like jerky which he certainly wasn¡¯t complaining about. Maybe he could make a stew of some of them. A stew sounded pretty heavenly actually. He did hold some worry though. A lot of the food he had was perishable. Some would likely go bad in a couple of days if he didn¡¯t eat them quickly and that wasn¡¯t something he wanted but he also didn¡¯t think he could eat all that would go bad. ¡°I just examined the ring for you, your welcome by the way. I wouldn¡¯t worry about things going bad. At least in the ring. Seems to have some kind of time dilation. Anything in there will have time move at a much slower rate. Practically at a stand still if I were to hazard a guess. Though if you want specifics, I am too lazy to assess them.¡± Quill took that in with amazement. He felt like the reward for all the bullshit he had gone through was really lack luster but this ring and the food almost made up for it¡­. Almost. Either way, he grabbed an apple and a couple pieces of beef jerky before putting all the crates back into his ring simply by willing it to do so. This ring was certainly going to become convenient. He quickly and happily ate all of the food he had taken out. Enjoying every bite like it was his last. Though perhaps such a statement wasn¡¯t too far off the money given how dangerous everything had been. After eating everything, he felt like now was a good time to find a place to sleep. He remembered there was a break room door by the kiosk so that seemed as good a place as any to settle in for some sleep. He got up and started to walk down the tunnels halls, not bothering to check on the platforms that had the cursed sins. The very idea that he had to kill one in order to get his ¡°Rank up¡± irked him to no end and he just didn¡¯t want to have anything to do with them at the moment. As he got close to the rat''s golden throne, an idea suddenly struck him and he placed his hand gently on it and willed it into his ring. Sure enough the whole throne disappeared and when he checked the ring, it was sitting right there next to his crates of food and jugs of water. ¡°Nice. I¡¯ll have to go back to that station I was staying in before and loot all the armor I left in the break room.¡± ¡°You mean all that useless junk?¡± ¡°Another man''s junk is another man''s treasure.¡± ¡°No Quill. Pretty sure that stuff was just junk.¡± ¡°Agree to disagree¡± He retorted and just for good measure threw the rat kings body into his ring as well. Then, realizing he didn¡¯t actually need to carry the heavy crossbow, threw that inside as well. He quickly made his way down the stairs and hopped over the pay gate before suddenly deciding if he could take that with him also and tapped it with his hand but sadly nothing. ¡°Please tell me this is the start of you becoming a kleptomaniac??¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you mean ¡®please tell me this is Not the start of you becoming a kleptomaniac?¡¯¡± ¡°I know what I said. Seeing you steal everything is bound to be a source of entertainment.¡± He sighed and headed over to the trap door. Kicking it closed before dropping the golden throne on top of it with a very loud and resounding thud. The funny thing was, had the rat king just placed his oversized chair on top of the trap door, Quill highly doubted he would have been able to get inside the grand station. But maybe it was just too heavy to move. Now that he made sure he wasn¡¯t going to get invaded during his nap, he walked over to the large kiosk on the wall and smashed a window open before hopping in. Ignoring everything else he made his way to the door only to realize the keys he had were in his backpack which blew up. With a sigh he then went and found a nice spot on the floor inside the kiosk that looked comfortable and promptly fell asleep. Probably the best sleep he ever had too. Chapter 30 Quill slowly woke up in a daze as everything that had happened before he went to sleep came creeping back into his thoughts and he let out a groan as he sat up. He had to assume the points in the body stat were why he hadn¡¯t woken up feeling all sore despite sleeping on the cold hard ground. He stretched his body, feeling a couple of joints pop as he looked over at the trap door. The throne was still sitting on top of it which was good so he doubted anybody had gotten into the grand station. Especially since traveling through the metro tunnels themselves was such a dangerous route. He brought up his class upgrade screen that told him he needed to kill a freaking cursed sin in order to level up. He probably would have outright ignored that and adapted to living his life as a level 24 forever but he needed to kill all these stupid cursed sins in order to actually survive once the tutorial was done. Which was just¡­ Ugh. ¡°Hey Quill, you can get super depressed and despair about it later. I want you to check something for me?¡± ¡°Good morning to you too.¡± He managed to get out as he yawned ¡°What do you want me to check?¡± ¡°Good morning darling~¡± She said in a super chipper tone before switching back to her normal voice ¡°I need you to check the overly ornate chair for me. Properly examine it first before casting identify. I want to confirm a nagging suspicion of mine.¡± Simple enough. He hopped over the broken window he had to make in order to rest in the kiosk and headed over to the golden throne. He didn¡¯t really know what he should be looking for but he examined the whole thing anyway. Outside of some small red and purple gems that encrusted the base of the whole throne with some large blue and green gems embedded at the top. There were several markings of some dialect that he didn¡¯t understand over the headband and around the arm rests. Otherwise it seemed pretty straight forward. It just came across as your typical throne you might see in a high fantasy setting. Not thinking he could glean anything else from the chair he decided to cast identify. Throne of the soul king- F grade- Upgradable (Rare) Made by a man who sought to get into his lord''s good graces by giving him the power to command those he deemed lesser. Whomever owns this item will find their soul attacks greatly strengthened when they are within a 20 meter radius of the throne. ¡°Huh. So I take it the rat king was primarily a soul attacker or something then. Is that why when he was barking commands I felt some kind of impulse to obey him?¡± ¡°Sorta, he was using some kind of skill which was a soul based attack that would have forced you to obey him. But it was clear his stats and probably his class were geared heavily towards the soul stat since his body was fairly weak. If it wasn¡¯t for me protecting you from the attack you would have likely been his drooling minion. But regardless, the strength of the attack was stronger than I wasn¡¯t expecting so I figured he had some kind of amplifier helping him out, hence why I wanted you to check on the throne. Also since I was protecting you I think I¡¯ll just say your welcome. Feel free to praise me now~¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, thank you¡± He responded as he looked over the throne impressed. ¡°Uh... No. Properly praise and thank me. I am not accepting some half assed thanks. Come on, I know you can do better than that~¡± Quill inadvertently swallowed a little and spoke again. ¡°Really, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I would absolutely be dead if you hadn¡¯t intervened and without your help. I would be lost and most likely dead.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a good boy. Anyways, we should probably take this chair with us. Even if you don¡¯t have a use for it, you will probably be able to sell it for some decent money.¡± ¡°Yeah, I was thinking something similar. If nothing else, I have plenty of room in my storage ring.¡± He quickly stored the throne inside and realized he didn¡¯t really know what to do now. He felt logically he should go and kill the roaches now cause only an insane person would try and tackle that rank up quest. ¡°Good thing you are ins-¡± ¡°Don¡¯t say it.¡± He quickly cut her off. ¡°What??? I wouldn¡¯t keep saying it if you didn¡¯t keep denying it. Practically becoming my catch phrase at this point.¡± ¡°No it isn¡¯t. Either way. Logic would dictate I should try to fight the roaches. They would be the easier faction to deal with all things considered. Probably easier to deal with than just the single cursed sin.¡± ¡°But???¡± He let out a sigh. ¡°But I¡¯d like to check out the rest of this station first. See what I can glean and if there is anything here that might help me with dealing or killing a cursed sin.¡± He decided by first checking the platforms that were in the grand station. He wanted to know what other colors he was dealing with aside from the white, green and red.¡± ¡°What colors would you like to see??¡± A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°I¡¯d LIKE to see nothing. But if you are asking me what my favorite color is? Then it¡¯s probably grey¡± He stopped and frowned at that. His favorite color wasn¡¯t¡­ He quickly shook his head as he pinched his leg ¡°Anyways. We need to scout things out. So let''s get going.¡± He trotted up the stairs before pivoting right back around and trotted back down, placing the golden throne back on the trap door before going back to the stairs. The last thing he wanted was to suddenly get a surprise attacked by something while examining the cursed sin. He began to check out the platforms, each one was a copy paste of the others that were in this station but they were still fancier than the platforms in the regular stations, with golden architecture holding the thing up with various murals depicting all sorts of things. Some had dragons burning cities, others showed angels descending from the sky and killing grotesque looking monsters, many showed various humanoid races doing all sorts of things. From fighting, to building, to going on adventures. It was actually quite beautiful and he enjoyed the stories they seemed to tell. He did note that the artist clearly favored the angels as it showed many of the other humanoid races seemingly bowing and venerating them. It would have come off as a heavily religious scene; however his enhanced eyesight did pick out details on some of the faces of the worshipping humanoid races that held poorly contained rage towards the angels they were bowing too. His attention went back to the platforms, he could admire the beauty of the artwork later. For now he needed to focus on the main threat. Each platform was completely separate from the others so he would hope that should he fight one, the others wouldn¡¯t try to interfere. They could elongate their arms and the last thing he needed was to deal with a mass hoard of scary hands trying to nab him while he was fighting for his life against one of the worms. Once he scouted out everything it was now time to figure out what colors he was dealing with. He had 6 stations in total and he already knew 3 of the colored sins. So now it was just finding out the last 3. ¡°Not to be a debbie downer but some of those colors might not be in this station. I mean, it¡¯s not like we actually know how many colors there are or even if they¡¯re multiples of the same color.¡± ¡°Please let me hold onto the little hope I still have.¡± ¡°Alright alright. Go do your little scouting. But don¡¯t go having another mental breakdown if there are even more cursed sins then you expected/hoped.¡± ¡°I make no promises.¡± He responded as he staked out the first station that had its arrival time the soonest and waited. Sure enough, when the electrical sign said ¡°arriving¡± The cursed sin appeared and Quill held his breath as he bit down on the familiar fear that seemed to stretch through him as the cursed sin appeared in the familiar color of sickly green. This was actually a really good thing he tried to tell himself from his hiding area on top of the stairs of the platform as he risked peeking out more. He needed to know if this monster was missing a hand. If he was then there was an even stronger chance that he was only dealing with one of each color. Obviously not guaranteed but it would help reassure him. As the cursed sin started to pad the platform he examined its body and sure enough. One of its many arms had a stump on it. He could practically leap in joy if he wasn¡¯t so freaking scared of the damn thing! Eventually the cursed sin decided there was nothing on the platform worth eating and began to crawl away allowing Quill to let out a breath of relief. He didn¡¯t know why the creature was so scary to be around but hopefully it would eventually die down. Once that was done he checked the other five platforms as well and soon knew what he was dealing with. He still had a white and a red cursed sin which was a good sign. The other three cursed sins colors were purple, blue and yellow. All looked exactly the same outside of the colors so he almost wondered if they were the same type. What was it Ssevinac said? They were cursed sins of Gluttony? ¡°They are also pacified. So I would assume they don¡¯t actually eat things on the platform if they are alive based on what we know. Though I am not sure if you would count if the cursed sin found you.¡± ¡°This almost feels like a poorly thought out gimmick in a video game.¡± He complained ¡°One that you aren¡¯t actually supposed to fight or deal with in a dungeon as asking the player to do something like that would be incredibly unfair. Nudge nudge. Hint Hint!¡± He glowered up at the sky hoping the system got his message. But of course there was no reaction. He huffed in annoyance and began to make his way towards the kiosk now that he had gotten all the information he wanted from the cursed sins. He wanted to see what was behind the closed locked door. As he hopped over the broken window and walked over to the door, he contemplated how he was going to open it when her voice chimed in. ¡°Well you could go the boring way which is to see if any of the rat corpses held the keys, the savage way such as your class and try to break the door down through brute strength or the easy and fun way!¡± When she didn¡¯t elaborate, Quill felt himself sigh and asked the obvious question. ¡°And what, pray tell, is the fun way?¡± ¡°Well it¡¯s a basic lock without any magical stuff keeping it closed. Why not just use your energy manifestation as a mist, let it fill the keyhole properly and then let it manifest into something solid allowing you to create your own key.¡± Huh.. Yeah, That would make things a lot easier. He summoned up the mist and had it go inside the keyhole as she said and soon enough he got a click and turned the knob opening it. ¡°Well that was incredibly easy.¡± he murmured before opening up the door and stepping inside. Inside was another break room with a practical treasure trove of¡­ Stuff. He didn¡¯t know what most of it was as it was all in chests or crates but it was clear that the rat king had been using the break room as a storage space. He began to open crates, chests and examine everything that was just lying around or leaning on the nearby walls, making sure to cast identify on everything as he did so. Identify has leveled up to lvl 3 Most of the stuff that was within the crates were various coins, jewels or weapons and armor. Most being somewhat useless to him, especially since half the armor seemed to be fitted more for rat kins than humans. He could have used some new armor. He opened one crate that was filled with various black balls and casted identify on it. Rat bomb- low quality- G ranked (Common) An incendiary explosive made by rat kin that goes boom. Not sure what else you were expecting. Keep away from fire, children and crazy people. Creates a small explosion when lit or in contact of Fire Quill stared at the explosive devices for a long moment as a grin slowly etched across his face. ¡°Uh-oh~. I know that look. Whatchya plannin on doin?¡± ¡°I think I plan on getting that level up quest out of the way and kill my first cursed sin.¡± The Insanity ailment has been buffed from weak to mild. ¡°If I wanted your opinion I would fucking ask!!¡± ¡°You tell em honey!¡± Chapter 31 Quill went through everything inside the break room as he slowly cobbled together a rough plan on how to deal with his first sin. Once he had everything sorted out, he stored it all into the storage ring and left. He had a few experiments to run. First was the obvious, would the cursed sins of gluttony eat anything they found on their platform or would they only eat dead organic material. He headed into the tunnels to grab as many of the dead rats as he could that were near the station''s trap door which was more then he had expected but he was killing quite a ton of rats so he guessed that would make sense. ¡°You know, if you raid those two other rat stations the king had and then kill Ssevenic and his group after the contract is complete, you can see if their is an achievement for committing a genocide.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just going to ignore that comment.¡± He responded as he stored the final rat corpse in his ring and made his way back to the station and specifically the platforms. He checked all the platform times and chose the one that would arrive the soonest which was the blue one. He then placed an empty crate, a crate that had a rat kin corpse in it, a crate that had a dire rat corpse in it, a regular dire rat and rat kin corpse, a rat kin corpse with a bunch of stuff strapped to it¡¯s dead body, a sword, a spear, and a chest that had some pieces of armor inside it. He felt like that covered all his bases as he made sure everything was distinct enough from each other. Since the cursed sin didn¡¯t try to eat any of the live rats and did eat the dead ones. But he wanted to see what else it would eat or if it would leave something behind. ¡°What? Not going to stand on the platform and see if you count as the living beings?¡± ¡°Nope! That would be stupid. Not even crazy, just stupid. It¡¯s pretty clear the rats are part of this dungeon, same as the sins, and I don¡¯t think I count as part of the dungeon.¡± he responded as he hurriedly left the platform and sat down with a huff as he knew what was about to happen. Slowly the scratching and clawing of the cursed sin echoed through the platforms and slowly the monster appeared. Yo- Quill dismissed the fear status screen as he grit his teeth. You¡¯d think having been exposed to the cursed sins this many times was enough to minimize the fear he was feeling but nooooo! ¡°Oh yeah. I guess I forgot to mention that. The fear thing that is happening to you is some kind of aura attack the cursed sin has that is passively hitting you. The aura will basically always affect you. Pretty crazy that the thing''s aura attack is stronger than the rat king''s direct attack given its constant effect. I guess that just shows how powerful a cursed sin really is comparatively speaking. Also a testament to how strong your own soul is considering the aura didn¡¯t make you have a heart attack and die during your very first encounter. Though that makes me wonder if the Rat Kin don¡¯t experience the aura given they are supposed to be passive towards them.¡± Her words made Quill think on everything which certainly helped with not concentrating on the terror he felt. He soon watched the cursed sin begin to leave the station and as for what was left on the platform. Nothing. Nothing was left. Well that certainly made things easier. Basically it would eat everything so long as it wasn¡¯t alive and part of the dungeon. He was just going to assume all the cursed sins behaved the same so now the question was which colored cursed sin he should go after. ¡°The green one.¡± An instant reply from her which made him shiver a little. He swallowed. ¡°And why is that?¡± ¡°Awww~. It¡¯s cute when you play ignorant. Because it hurt my precious wittle Quill and still lived to tell the tale. It should be the first to die. And it should die in whatever crazy method you have concocted. Plus, the humiliation of dying to something that it shouldn¡¯t die too will be a death too delicious to not witness~. Curb stomps are good and all but I want to watch the thing struggle and die to something weaker than it.¡± He let out a breath of air. He thought that might have been the reason. He was leaning towards the green one anyways since it was already missing a hand and any advantage was a good advantage. Though her comment did remind him of a question he had and he decided to take the potential risk with asking. ¡°S-say. And obviously you don¡¯t have to tell me if you don¡¯t want to! But what was it you did to the Rat King after I had killed him? ¡°You being nervous when asking that question is certainly awakening something in me~. But to answer your question. I prevented his soul from going to the afterlife by destroying it.¡±Stolen story; please report. He practically stumbled at that remark ¡°Destroyed it? Like their soul?? You destroyed their soul????¡± ¡°Oh relax, it¡¯s not like the energy of the soul dissipates. It all just goes back to the source. I simply destroyed the sentient being that was the soul. Oblivion was the only option for such a filthy existence. ¡°Oh! But don¡¯t worry. I made sure they suffered for their transgressions. In the millisecond it took for me to destroy it. It probably felt like a million years to them. The sheer agony they must have felt and they couldn¡¯t even retreat into madness to escape or scream out for relief~. Honestly, a part of me still thinks that was too good for them but I suppose I shall be satisfied with what I got.¡± Quill shuddered at her explanation and at this point felt like he needed to change the topic despite having more questions. ¡°Anyways. I think the explosive stuff will work greatly with killing the cursed sins but I also don¡¯t think it will be enough. The thing seems to be pretty bulky and while its arms and hands seem to be easier to cut. I am not sure about how much damage I¡¯ll be able to do to the worm itself.¡± ¡°Hmmm. Well I am sure you¡¯ll think of something.¡± ¡°Really? That¡¯s it? Not going to offer any words of advice?¡± ¡°Nah. I want to see how you deal with this. Plus the quest did say without outside help. The system won¡¯t count the energy manifestation since it¡¯s technically the both of us combined using it so long as I don¡¯t use it myself. But who knows if it will count me giving you advice as outside help. Why risk it?¡± She explained and he realized that was a pretty valid point. He was going to have to go at this alone for the most part. He headed over to the green cursed sins platform and looked it over. He doubted that his explosives would do much on the outside so he would need to get them inside which was easy enough given the damned thing would likely just eat it should he leave the bombs out. The big question was how he was going to trigger the explosion once it was inside. The other big problem was all the arms and hands. He was going to need to get rid of those as well, sure they were easy enough to cut, seeing as he managed to do that when he was a much lower level, the issue being how many there were. And even if he did get rid of them he still had to actually kill the worm itself. He hopped back up to the top of stairs and looked down the hallway that led to the main tunnel and stairs. If he were to hazard a guess he would say the length of this hallway from the station to the main one was maybe 2 of the worm''s length. ¡°Typical american. Willing to use any measuring system aside from the metric system.¡± ¡°Hey, it¡¯s not like we were properly taught the metric system in scho¡­. How do you even know that anyways?¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯ve been rummaging around in your memories and brain when I have been bored. Your subconscious has a lot of memes in them.¡± He felt a chill go through his spine ¡°Please don¡¯t do that. Kinda invasive.¡± ¡°Aww. But sweetie¡± Her voice took that sickly sweet tone again. ¡°It''s not like we are keeping secrets from each other. Right?¡± ¡°R-right. But maybe just be a little respectful of my privacy. That¡¯s all I ask.¡± ¡°Hmmm. Very well.¡± He almost let out a breath of relief as he quickly diverted all of his focus and attention towards solving how to kill the cursed sin. Going over all the equipment he had as a plan started to formulate in his head. He took out the dead crossbow rat kin as it was the biggest body he had in his storage and started to strap all of his explosive bombs to its body, making sure they were secured tightly. ¡°Why strap it to the body of the rat kin? Why not just leave it in the crate?¡± ¡°Well I am going to need a way to trigger the bombs and it will be easier to do so if they are not inside the crate. As for using the corpse instead of something else.¡± He paused realizing there wasn''t really any particular reason why he was doing this and shrugged ¡°Theatrics I guess.¡± Next he took out every weapon he had that had a pointy end and started to get everything in place in the halls using rope to try and keep everything secure. Congratulations! You have earned the skill Trap Maker (Uncommon) It takes a special kind of sadist to lay something for some unsuspecting fools to stumble upon and get mutilated or killed. Be sure to not accidentally trigger it yourself unless you are also a special kind of masochist. I don¡¯t judge. ¡°Hmmmm. I think I see your thought process. But this will hardly matter if you can¡¯t get rid of his arms as they will just chase after you if you are running.¡± she responded in a contemplative tone ¡°Yeah, I thought about that and while I am not sure how well it will work I do have an idea.¡± He spoke as he fastened a spear in the tunnel, making sure it was secure. ¡°Come on! The suspense is killing me here. Tell me!¡± ¡°Well, these cursed sins kind of resemble bugs in a weird sort of way with all their arms. And what kills bugs?¡± ¡°An Anteater!¡± He paused at the confidence of her statement. ¡°What? No! A spider¡­ Why was an Anteater the first thing you thought of?¡± ¡°Well I thought spider at first but felt like that was too obvious of an answer so I went with Anteater. Also, don''t some spiders in your world eat things like tiny lizards or birds?¡± ¡°And Anteaters also eat things like fruit and¡­ You know what. Forget it. It¡¯s spiders. I am taking a page out of the spider''s hand book.¡± ¡°Well I do love spiders. Something so appealing about a patient hunter waiting for their victim to ensnare themselves in their web, struggling and fighting desperately despite its inevitable outcome. Can totally relate.¡± Quill tried his best to ignore the delight in her voice and the sinister implications from that statement as he got to work. Chapter 32 Quill fidgeted on top of his little makeshift crows nest that hung from the ceiling. He basically impaled 6 daggers into the concrete after making some holes with his energy manifestation and hung some rope that he threaded through the largest breast plate he had. It wasn¡¯t the most stable thing, but he just needed it to hold for this battle. Sucks though that every time he did fidget, the breastplate swung a little with his movement which always seemed to get his heart to jump in his chest. ¡°I don¡¯t even know why you are so worried. If you were to fall from this height, the biggest damage might be a sprung ankle. Remember, placing points into your body also increases your durability. Plus with all those skills like enhanced reflexes and such, I am pretty sure you¡¯d just land on the ground and sprint away like a cat. Going to have too anyways if this is to work¡± ¡°I know that logically. Still, the last time I was this high up in such a precarious situation was when I was debating jumping off the roof of a building. That height would have killed me and I am pretty sure presystem me would probably die or at least get severely injured if he jumped off from here. So it¡¯s a little unsettling.¡± ¡°We are really going to need to work on your suicidal tendencies.¡± He let out a small snort. ¡°Good luck with that. All the therapists I had couldn¡¯t. Most just opted to throw me into a mental hospital then deal with whatever issue I was having.¡± ¡°Well it¡¯s not like I can do that. Besides, I have a vested interest in your well being. Something I doubt any of those two bit hacks could claim with honesty.¡± He hesitated for a second, a question that was lingering in his subconscious mind threatening to surface when his enhanced hearing started to pick up the scraping sounds of the cursed sin coming from the tunnel and focused up, loading his crossbow with an oil soaked bolt. He then sent faint, thin strings of his energy manifestation out and down towards the tunnel''s entrance. The simplicity of the manifestation made things easier on him but because he was sending so much out, he could start to feel the strain slowly creeping up on him. He would have to hope that things progressed quickly. Slowly the cursed sin exited the tunnel and Quill commanded his strings ever so gently wrap around as many limbs as he could while the sin finally stopped and began to pad around the platform in search of food. It eventually found the dead rat kin with all the bombs strapped to it and began to lift it to his mouth. This was it, he lit the crossbow bolt with a match he had found from all the supplies he had taken in the break room. Igniting the bolt before opening fire, aiming for the rat corpse as it was placed into the monster''s mouth¡­. And he fucking missed! He hit the creature''s side above the mouth with an audible thunk causing the cursed sin to freeze before biting down on its morsel and let out an audible snarl, the dead rats body and bombs seemingly swallowed by the monster. ¡°Really I don¡¯t know what you expected. You have been a horrible shot since forever, even someone who had decent aim would have struggled with the shot you were trying to make.¡± ¡°God fucking damnit! Who needs to aim anyways!¡± He screamed in frustration as the Cursed Sins mouth snapped upward towards him but it was already too late for it. He put all of his focus and energy into the string he had wrapped around the monster''s limbs and had them spin while wrapping tightly around them, slicing deep into the monster''s arms. With a final push he made his string spike razors out of its end and with everything he had, used the strings to slice through the monster''s flesh as much as he could. The cursed sin went from snarling menacingly to shrieking in agonizing pain which made Quill fade out for a second as both the strain of using his energy manifestation and the horrible loud shriek made Quill lose consciousness briefly. Which also meant he lost his balance and fell from the breast plate as he temporarily blacked out. Only reawakening to see the floor charging towards him and barely managed to roll into the landing which elicited a grunt of pain from him. The cursed sin crashed and flopped around on the tracks of the station as it continued to let out shrieks of pain and agony, giving Quill the chance to take out his health, stamina and mana potion. He promptly chugged all three as quickly as he could while scooting his butt away from the worm as much as possible and managed to get a better look at how much damage he just did. Most of the arms had been severed, now lying down on the floor with the stumps they had been attached to spewing out green blood. Even the few arms that were still attached were clearly badly damaged with visible wounds near the base. Quill scurried as fast as he could up the stairs after drinking his potions and feeling refreshed, before quickly loading his crossbow and firing it again into the worm''s flesh. Thankfully the thing was so big even he couldn¡¯t miss. Once it hit the worm, Quill shouted out as loud as possible ¡°Hey you disgusting fish food! Remember me! I took one of your hands for the first time! Now I think I¡¯ll take all the others! How does that sound!¡± ¡°Sweetie, I don¡¯t think the cursed sin can actually hea-¡± She stopped talking when the worms agonizing shrieks was replaced with vicious roars as it whipped it¡¯s bulbous body around, its mouth facing Quill in a vicious snarl, grinding it¡¯s large molar like teeth in rage as it pushed it¡¯s body up off the platform and started to drag it¡¯s towards him with it¡¯s few remaining hands. ¡°Oh! Nevermind, should probably move back a bit more though.¡± she responded and he was inclined to agree. Quill quickly backed up, scurrying as fast as he could down the hall and past the spikes from various swords and spears he laid on the floor, walls and ceiling. Facing outward so that anything moving into the hallway from the platform would skewer itself if not careful.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. The cursed sin, while slowed down significantly from most of its arms being dismembered, still managed to pull its bulbous body up the stairs and into the hallway, its teeth gnashing and grinding in rage as it pulled itself forward. Thankfully it couldn''t see as it pulled itself and impaled its body onto the waiting blades ripping and cutting into its body in the process. The hideous monster let out another scream of pain but otherwise seemed okay as it continued to try and drag itself closer to Quill. Making its wounds worse but still didn''t seem enough. ¡°Well, what now? Sure you hurt it a lot but I don''t think any of that damage is going to be lethal you know?¡± She responded with ever so helpful commentary making quill grind his own teeth and frustration. ¡°I''m working on it!¡± He responded, his mind racing trying to figure out what exactly he could do next. He didn''t want to retreat further out of fear that all the fighting and commotion could attract another cursed sin. It was there that he realized if his only option was to go forward then he might as well go forward. ¡°Uh¡­ Quill if you are about to do what I think you are about to do, I don''t want to hear shit about you claiming you are not crazy.¡± ¡°Not crazy, these are the actions of the most sane individual you have ever seen!¡± And with that, as the sanest individual ever, he charged into the maw of the cursed sin because what else was he supposed to do. The worm, all too happily, allowed its prey to jump into its mouth only for Quill to take out the Rat King''s throne and placed it on top of the creature''s tongue, with the head of the chair hitting the roof of the mouth, preventing it from actually closing. The Golden Throne quickly started to groan and creak as it was getting crushed by the cursed sins'' powerful jaw. Quill quickly manifested several support beams with sharpened points to help prevent the Jaw from snapping shut in hopes of delaying things long enough for him to find what he was looking for. He had a thin string attached to the beams and him to keep it going. The sharpened points now digging into the creature''s tongue and the roof of its mouth only seemingly to piss off the creature more. He quickly forced his way down into the monster''s gullet, feeling his skin burn as the monster''s saliva started to eat away at him slowly like a weak acid. He pushed on, trying his best to keep the digestive fluids out of his eyes he moved further before finding the rat kins corpse with all the bombs strapped onto it. Taking out a match and awkwardly lighting it, he lit one of the fuses to the rat bombs. He quickly pivoted and tried to force his way back out of the monster''s digestive track. ¡°You are so not going to make it.¡± Her voice echoed in his head with a hint of amusement and worry offering a strange contrast. He was inclined to agree and realizing his time was almost up, curled his body into a tiny ball and let his manifestation form an orb around him. He then thickened and strengthened the forcefield as much as possible before a gigantic BOOM ruptured through his entire body and launched him who knows how far before crashing into a wall. The forcefield he had put around himself completely shattered at impact and knocked him out. He suddenly snapped awake and her voice greeted him. ¡°You doing okay there sweetie?¡± ¡°Msgeo gfiseo sgneis¡± He eloquently managed to articulate which earned a small giggle on her end. ¡°Can you at least think out what you were going to say or was the concussion that bad?¡± It took Quill several more minutes before his brain finally managed to reset and he took in his surroundings. Nearly having a heart attack when he realized he was sitting at the edge of another platform. Specifically the one across from the green cursed sin. ¡°Yeah that explosion fired you like a cannibal all the way down the hall and into another cursed sins platform. Thankfully you were only knocked out for a couple of minutes.¡± His eyes quickly darted towards the electric sign that indicated when the cursed sin would show. He saw he still had 10 more minutes but not wanting to wait around, he awkwardly put his feet underneath him, stood up, and promptly face planted into the ground. ¡°Maybe wait a little longer till you can get all your body parts functioning properly?¡± It made sense but even if you were to ignore the 10 minute time limit. He needed to see how much damage he did to the green cursed sin, seeing as how he did not get a notification saying he completed his Quest level up or got a kill notification. If for some reason that bloody monster was still doing okay after all of that, he figured he might as well pack his bags, enjoy the tutorial until it was over and let himself be dropped into that D grade monster nest. He awkwardly crawled/walked/shambled up the stairs of the platform and looked down the hall with his enhanced eyesight. What greeted him was a very grotesque sight. The cursed sin had its entire mouth blown open. Fragments of its teeth and flesh were scattered everywhere, some even embedded into the walls and ceiling. The monster itself looked like it was dead if not for the ragged pain breathing that reverberated through its body. The thing looked miserable and at this point Quill couldn''t even hold any animosity towards the creature. ¡°Oh but I certainly can, hurry up and kill that damn thing and let it be a lesson to the rest of the cursed sins that you are not to be trifled with.¡± Her voice dripped with delightful venom and he had a good idea that if he delayed much longer she would take matters into her own hands. With a heavy sigh he made his way towards the downed monster. It couldn''t even muster up a growl as he approached, making him wonder if the thing would die even without his intervention. He heard her voice clear her throat in his head and knowing there was no sense in delaying he summoned up his pizza cutter and stepped into the monster''s mouth, swinging upwards and let the blade dig into the roof of the creature''s mouth as he began to carve his way through. It only took a few more swings, the monster not even being able to squirm much before finally the last ragged breath was exhaled and the entire creature started to turn to dust. You have killed a cursed sin (larva) lvl 1. Experience nullified due to your level cap. Congratulations! you have earned the achievement ¡°sin killer¡± The few who have earned this achievement often wish they hadn¡¯t, despite being sought after by many. Be you noble in intention, foolish in mind, or evil in heart. Only time will tell how things play out. 1 free step point to body, mind, and soul. Error! Could not distribute stat points to Soul. redistributing evenly to body and mind Chapter 33 The elation of his victory was quickly undone by the massive coughing fit caused by accidentally inhaling some of the dust and he quickly stumbled out of the creature before he was completely covered in the stuff. As he stumbled out a system screen flashed in front of his face to greet him. The cursed sin of gluttony must find a new host and you have been selected. Congratulations! Before Quill could even let out a curse of frustration and anger, another system screen popped in front of his face. Congratulations! The cursed sin of gluttony has been successfully suppressed. Congratulations! The cursed sin of gluttony has been successfully purged from your being. Before Quill could even ask her voice chimed in with poorly concealed rage. ¡°Lousy no good fish bait thinking they could try and have you like that!! If I knew that was going to happen I would have asked you to torture the filthy disgusting pissbrain until I was satisfied!!¡± Well he guessed that answered that question but before he could get some clarification, more system screens popped in front of his face. Congratulations! You have earned the achievement ¡°sin suppression¡± It takes an Iron Will and nerves of Steel to successfully suppress a cursed sin, no matter how weak or strong. Be wary though. For the sin itself has ways of influencing you even if you do not realize it. 1 free stat point distributed to Soul Error! Could not distribute stat points to Soul. redistributing evenly to body and mind Congratulations! You have earned the achievement ¡°purged of sin¡± You didn''t just suppress your sin, you completely purged it from your being. The Blessed Virtues are going to absolutely love you. You poor bastard. 3 free stat points distributed to Soul Error! Could not distribute stat points to Soul. redistributing evenly to body and mind ¡°Well that was a lot to take in.¡± He awkwardly coughed out, trying to clear his lungs of the dust, before yet another screen popped in front of his face. Congratulations! You have completed your evolution quest and may now choose your new class and then level up! Choose your class? Congratulations! You qualify to upgrade your race and/or take a trait to enhance your current race! Look through options? Could he please just have a minute to process everything! Getting bombarded by all these screens from the system was starting to give him a headache. ¡°To be fair, that headache could be from using your energy manifestation and a lack of oxygen from breathing in all that dust.¡± She responded, still sounding upset. Okay she might have had a point but the system screens weren''t helping the matter. He walked a bit further away from the cursed sins corpse as it continued to deteriorate into dust. Who knew how big the pile of dust would be when it had finished. He walked until he hit the main tunnel and curled an eyebrow up at seeing The Golden Throne crumpled and broken, lodged deep into one of the murals on the wall. Casting a quick identify he got some new information. Throne of the glutton- G grade (Damaged)- Upgradable (Rare) Once the Throne of the Soul King it has now been damaged and influenced by a cursed sin of gluttony due to it being used for an unintended purpose by some maniac. Any who would sit on said throne will soon find themselves influenced into indulging in gluttony. Such a power could come at a steep price if one is not careful. ¡°Well I wasn''t planning on using it before but now there''s no way I''m going to use it.¡± Quill mumbled as he popped the throne back into his storage ring. He did note that he couldn''t tell what the item actually did and could only read the flavor text. So he wondered if his identify skill wasn''t strong enough. ¡°Yeah that''s probably for the best. I mean I could still protect you easily from its influence though there really isn''t any point in having it. But hey maybe you could sell it.¡± ¡°That feels grossly irresponsible if it has the power to corrupt someone. Maybe I can just melt it down into gold bars or something.¡± he rubbed his head with a groan and just decided to make a decision about that later as he made his way to the break room of the station. If he was going to black out again after choosing his class then he wanted to make sure he was in the most secure area possible. He headed down to the main hall and promptly placed said golden throne onto the trapdoor. He then moseyed his way into the break room making sure to lock the door behind him and selected the choose class prompt. It is recommended that you either upgrade or enhance your current race before choosing your class. Do you wish to continue? Quill read the system screen before selecting no and pulled up his trait or race upgrade, whatever that would mean. Congratulations! You have met the requirements of upgrading your race to a celestial. Do you wish to upgrade? He read that prompt and quickly hit ¡°no¡± on upgrading himself to a celestial as that sounded really really lame. Plus he was given no indication of what a celestial was or how it might be considered an upgrade. Knowing the system, it would probably lead to some horrible drawback that would screw him over in the long run. Now maybe if it offered for him to become an elf he might have considered it. ¡°An elf? Really?¡± ¡°Yes, really. I like elves. Why? What would you have me become if you had a choice?¡± ¡°I think I would have you become a dwarf because I actually have standards and taste. But at least you didn''t pick a celestial, that does sound really really lame.¡± ¡°Well at least we are in agreement there. But dwarves really?¡± ¡°Yes, really. Why do you sound so shocked by this?¡± ¡°I don''t know, I just never really pegged you for the type.¡± ¡°Maybe it''s just because dwarves remind me of you. You know, you''re short, Or at least shorter than the average human. Plus you''re growing quite a nice beard, though maybe you''re giving more of a wild man look as opposed to a dwarf look. Kind of picture dwarves to be a little more groomed I guess. Yeah, I think you look more like a homeless wild man now that I think about it. Not to worry though, you are still the sexiest wild homeless man out there.¡±The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Quill mumbled something incoherent as he tried to hide his embarrassment while opening the traits section since Celestial was his only race Evolution option. However before he went further an idea suddenly struck him. ¡°Hey, you wouldn''t know anything about that error in my trait section of my status would you?¡± ¡°Nah, don''t worry about it. It''s hardly important at the moment and would just be a senseless distraction. Now hurry up and check what available traits you can get, I''m itching to see what your options are.¡± The familiar fog started to cloud his brain and after biting his lip he started to read through the various traits he could take. Once again he was given a massive list of options. Most seemed useless or at least useless for his given situation. If he could best describe what the traits were, it would be as something that permanently changed who he was. Though some seemed to be cosmetic more than anything. Like one option seemed to give him goat horns, another would make his skin translucent, which he wasn''t sure if that meant it would make him harder to see or if it would just make people see his inner organs better. He quickly disregarded all the cosmetic traits except for the one that would make his eyes heterochromia because who wouldn''t want two different colored eyes. He then disregarded various traits that he didn''t really care for such as the ability to only need water to survive. He quite enjoyed eating food so long as it wasn''t junk food at this point. He then started disregarding the various traits that seemed useful but not for his given situation, such as healing from poisons instead of getting hurt by them. It took a while but he finally managed to narrow things down to only a few options with 2 in particular really catching his attention. Powerful brain While not as noticeable or flashy as some traits you could take, make no mistake that this is the perfect trait to take for those who seek to use Magic, various mental skills, or is just stuck in an area that is constantly assaulting the mind. Plus it doesn''t even grow your forehead as an added bonus! Requirements: have a skill that takes heavy mental strain being rare or higher. Or have lived in an environment for enough time that is mentally demanding on the mind Powerful body You want a big Macho body? You better look somewhere else cuz this doesn''t really do that. It does however make it so that your body can withstand higher stresses from a physically demanding skills and or environments Requirements: have a skill that takes a heavy toll on the body being rare or higher. Or have lived in an environment for enough time that is physically demanding on the body. Quill looked through all the other traits but didn''t see anything that said powerful soul. He wasn''t sure if that was because he didn''t meet the requirements for it or if his soul was just a glitchy mess that the system didn''t bother fixing. ¡°Eh, It''s not like it would matter anyways. Your soul is doing perfectly fine. Now if you want my opinion, I would say either go with a powerful body or with heterochromia eyes. I think you would look quite cute with two different colored eyes.¡± ¡°Why not a powerful brain?¡± He felt the need to ask. ¡°I doubt you''ll need it at least not for the long run besides a powerful body will help you survive these tunnels better as it would likely increase your toughness, correct?¡± She made a very good point and while the heterochromia eyes would be quite cool he wanted to prioritize survival. So with his decision made up he reached for ¡°powerful body¡± and accidentally selected ¡°powerful mind¡±. Congratulations on selecting the trait powerful mind! This trait will become active once you hit F grade She exploded at him ¡°What the hell Quill! Why did you select that!?!?¡± it was an accident I swear.¡± He hurriedly explained himself feeling droplets of sweat start to speckle his body. ¡°I am really sorry. I guess I am just more out of it than I thought and I accidentally took it. Again I am very very sorry.¡± Mental Foc- Spli- ¡°Quill.¡± Her voice took on a sinister tone as the prompt in front of him was quickly dismissed before it could finish ¡°Are you sure you want to keep this up?¡± ¡°I-I don''t know what you''re talking about. It was a total accident. I swear. I really am sorry, but it will still help me with the energy manifestation so it''s not like a total loss right?¡± He tried really hard to hide his nervousness but knew he was failing in that front which only made him more nervous in the process. There was silence on her end making his anxiety spiking even more ¡°h-hello?¡± ¡°Fine. I suppose you are right. It is not a total loss but try not to make the same mistake when choosing your class. It''s best if you hurry up and do so, I wish to see what options you have.¡± He almost let out a breath of relief but caught himself at the last second and instead opened up the class selection screen desperate for distraction. Once again he was given a large list of options. Many appeared to be just natural upgrades from the basic classes he saw in his first class evolution. He even saw Occult Mage and Savage Warrior but without the ¡°early¡± tacked on. He was half tempted just to pick Savage Warrior and see how much of an upgrade it was compared to early but he decided you should at least check out all of his other options first. Naturally he tossed out all the classes that he was given that didn''t seem like they would synergize with his energy manifestation skill which unfortunately meant all classes that were focused on range. ¡°Not like you could have hit anything even if you did pick one¡± she commented and he promptly ignored. He next tossed out classes that seemed to heavily focus on just one stat. He was a bit of an even steven and felt like he wouldn''t be able to get the most out of the heavily focused classes. Next he tossed out all the common and uncommon classes which did include Savage Warrior and Occult mage. The main reason being the common and uncommon classes gave fewer stat points then the few rare classes he had. And every bit of an advantage he could gather was good. Finally he went with vibes. not the most accurate form of measurement sure but if this was going to be his class then he wanted a class he just liked. This finally narrowed it down to only a few options. Inquisitor (Rare) You understand the devastation of a cursed sin. You understand that such things should not exist in this world. You understand that in order to live a blessed life one must first root out corruption. The Inquisitor has seen first hand the horrors of a cursed sin and personally sought to end its wretched existence by any means necessary. The Inquisitor shall gain skills, traits and abilities to help fight, find, control and kill not just cursed sins but those that seek to use its powers. Requirements: has helped fight a cursed sin or has successfully fought off the temptation of a cursed sin. Stats per level- 4 in body, 3 in mind, 3 in soul This one was certainly tempting and he always found inquisitors in media kind of cool if a little crazy. Plus judging by its description it would help him considerably when it came to killing the other cursed sins of gluttony. His biggest hesitation though was that it kind of seemed attached to crazy religious nut jobs. He looked over some classes that he had already disregarded such as Acolyte of the Blessed Virtues, Paladin of the Blessed virtues, Squire to the Cursed Sin Hunter, and Cursed Sin Hunter. All of those had requirements involving an encounter with a cursed sin and he wasn''t really sure if by accepting Inquisitor he''d be joining some crazy religious cult. He certainly didn''t need to deal with something like that again. So he kept that on the back burner while he looked at the other classes. Magical Berserker (Rare) Berserkers being dumb is a horrible stereotype. Berserkers being battle crazed lunatics? That one is pretty accurate. The Magical Berserker doesn''t just want to fight, they want to prove they are better than anyone in both magic and physical powers. They will take on any challenge so long as it means they get a good fight. Pity any and all who might end up at the receiving end of a magical Berserkers rage. The magical Berserker shall gain skills, traits and abilities that allow them to fight harder, longer, and deal more devastating blows whether through magic or physical powers. Requirements: has been constantly fighting and has put themselves repeatedly in situations where they are surrounded by enemies at all times, has consistently fought higher level enemies, has consistently fought large groups of enemies, has a skill or skills that Require a high body stat and a high mind stat. Stats per level- 4 in body, 4 in mind, 2 free stat points This one seemed to basically allow him to keep doing what he has been doing but better. The issue was he didn''t like what he was doing. It completely sucked and if he actually had options he certainly wouldn''t be doing it. It was probably a better option than The Inquisitor still he let out a sigh and checked out his third and final option. Rebellious anarchist (Rare) You have an issue with authority to say the least. Your entire history could best be summed up with ¡°someone told you to do something and you said no.¡± You don''t like being controlled but you also hate those with power to rule over and dictate to those without. The rebellious anarchist will use all of their power to fight those they believe are abusing theirs. The rebellious anarchist shall gain skills, traits, and abilities that help conceal and hide from positions of authority as well as help you fight off against those that are typically stronger than you. Requirements: has repeatedly fought stronger beings, has helped overthrow a ruler, takes issue with authority, has actively bad-mouthed the system at least once. Stats per level- 10 free stat points That last requirement was a little weird but if he was being totally honest he probably liked this class the most. ¡°Do you plan to overthrow more rulers and more kingdoms?¡± she teased. ¡°Not going to lie, the idea does seem appealing.¡± he responded as he continued to look over the other two classes. But the more he looked the more certain he felt that Rebellious Anarchist was just meant for him. Plus he could freely distribute all of his stats as he wanted to because fuck the system and other classes that would dictate how he did his build. So without further ado and to keep himself from second-guessing, he selected it. Class selected please stand by. ¡°And here we g-¡± Everything went black before he could finish that sentence Chapter 34 Vaitrill sat above the colosseum pumping his fist in victory as Urgush managed to defeat and kill his foe with a flashy finisher. ¡°Looks like you owe me. I told you he could defeat your man. Would you like to pay me now or should I have my orc come by your office later to collect?¡± His fellow celestial by the name of Pollian let out a grumble and transferred the credits over to Vaitrill. ¡°There, I hope you''re happy. How do you even find these people anyways? I swear every century you seem to pick up new talent that puts the rest of us to shame.¡± Vaitrill smiled, not bothering to answer his question as he saw the fresh influx of credits on his status screen. He was in such a good mood he would probably give Urgush 5% of these winnings as opposed to the normal 2.5%. ¡°Well?¡± Pollian glared at him clearly wanting an answer. ¡°Who knows, maybe I am just lucky.¡± He responded non-committedly as he watched the beaten but healthy orc leave the Colosseum. Maybe he would give Urgush 3.5%. That seemed like a good compromise. ¡°Fine then, keep your secrets. Can''t believe my guy just died like that, what an embarrassing waste.¡± Pollian grumbled as he looked down on the corpse of his assistant currently being dragged away to make room for the next fight. ¡°Oh don''t be too harsh on your man, they''re only as good as their leader.¡± He threw in a quick Jab which earned an extra glare from Pollian as he got up and left the exclusive booth. Vaitrill relaxed in his chair as he waited for the next match to start, looking up through the colosseum as he did so. It wasn''t as grand or big as the Royal Colosseum, only being able to fit a couple million humanoids at full capacity. But they always had matches daily and you were guaranteed at least one good match every day. Perhaps that was a bit biased on account of him actually owning this colosseum. But he liked to think they had decent quality. The fact that he was consistently making a profit from the building and matches as well as constantly filling up the seats to at least 3/4 full everyday helped reassure him of this. He flipped open his pamphlet to see what was on today''s schedule and whether or not he wanted to stay for the next event. Up next were some criminals fighting various e-grade monsters in hopes of cutting some time off their sentence. Not the most thrilling but it''s not like he had anything better to do today and there was a certain bit of fun watching weak lowlifes try to redeem themselves. So he relaxed back in his chair only for him to suddenly become alerted to an item in his storage ring. Vaitrill swallowed when he realized it was a communication crystal where only one person had access to its frequency and he almost never used it without good cause. He quickly composed himself and brought out a mirror from his storage ring just to make sure he looked presentable before accepting the call from the communication crystal. The crystal projected a screen in front of him that only he could see or hear. It revealed a tall, strong, powerful looking man with shining crystal clear eyes, a strong face and a well-groomed beard. However his wings put even his dominating appearance to shame, a powerful set of shimmering white wings that would capture anyone''s eyes. His King and the only B-rank in the whole Kingdom. ¡°Your majesty¡± He quickly bowed towards him. ¡°To what do I owe the pleasure of you gracing me with your presence.¡± There was a moment of silence in which Vaitrill did not look up for fear of offending him until finally his King spoke. ¡°Vaitrill, Earlier today I received a system mandated quest as the ruler of our humble kingdom. Do you happen to know anything about this?¡± If Vaitrill wasn''t nervous before he certainly was now. A system mandated quest for their whole Kingdom was bound to be big and filled with opportunities. This was all good of course except it sounded like his King seemed to think he would know about it. His mind raced trying to think of anything but came up short so was forced to be honest. ¡° I am afraid I do not your majesty. Perhaps if you could give me some details of the quest I might have a better idea?¡± A system prompt screen suddenly appeared in front of his face. Border dispute A recent integrated planet that was an f grade has now been upgraded to C-grade after closer analysis. This planet is on a disputed border between your kingdom and another''s. Defeat the opposing side and lay claim to this planet. Objective: absorb this planet into your kingdom by whatever means. Reward upon completion: the disputed planet will enter your kingdom once fully integrated, the disputed border will officially become yours, 4 D-grade freshly integrated planets will appear on this border with a 200 year system imposed peace treaty. Warning! Strong damage to the planet and/or its local populace will result in automatic failure and victory will be awarded to the opposing side. Vaitrills mouth practically dropped at reading the system Quest. Those rewards were ridiculous! Just claiming a C-grade planet would have been enough given their Kingdom only had nine of them. But to claim it on a border with the Material Republic would give them not only a strong beachhead but also a powerful defense. But then the system went a step further and offered 4 D-grade planets and a forced peace treaty between them meaning they would have enough time to fully take over all planets and build fortifications and armies. Needless to say whichever side could claim these rewards would have an extremely strong advantage to any future wars. That wasn''t even counting all of the potential resources that they could extract from these planets!Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. However the thing that made him sweat, that started to make his heart race was the system prompt included flavor text. If the system gave you a screen whether it was for identification, quests, classes, or anything else it usually just gave you information and that was it. He had heard and read about certain times or certain individuals that prompted flavor text but never seen or experienced it himself. But the general consensus was the same. If you were getting flavor text, that meant the system was paying attention and if the system was paying attention, that meant something big was happening. ¡°Are you aware of what the system is referring to?¡± his king spoke, snapping him out of his train of thought. ¡°Yes your majesty!¡± He spoke quickly and summarized everything as fast and as accurately as he could. When he finished the king had a less than pleasant expression on his face making Vaitrills swallow. ¡°You left this operation in charge of one of Jornns families brats? Am I hearing this correctly? What was his name?¡± He rubbed at his temple in annoyance ¡°It was Irrant sir¡± Vaitrill quickly spoke and his King sat back and thought for a second. ¡°Not even someone important enough that I can recall anything they did.¡± he mumbled which made Vaitrill fidget a little nervously and he quickly spoke to defend himself. ¡°Well we all need chances to prove ourselves and I''ve heard on good authority that Irrant is a strong up-and-comer among the new generations! Some even claim that he bears a striking resemblance to Jornns very own patriarch in his younger years. The skirmish was just to test things but now it shall seem he will be forged in fire. Not to worry your majesty, I guarantee he will not disappoint.¡± ¡°See that he doesn''t. I am sure I don''t need to tell you that this is no longer a skirmish and we are in a full-on war. The Matriel Republic has undoubtedly gotten a similar Quest and are moving as fast as they can. I suggest you do the same. I expect to hear consistent reports every day from now on, am I understood?¡± He spoke with authority brokering no questions. ¡°Of course your majesty I shall see to it at once.¡± The moment he spoke those words the connection shut off. He would have liked to breathe a sigh of relief but instead he took out an emergency teleportation device from his storage ring and teleported himself back to his main office. He could have just flown there but every second wasted could mean a massive difference. ¡°Urgush! Put me in contact with Irrant right now!¡± He spoke out a command waiting for the orc to come bursting into his office. It took a couple of moments for him to realize he left the dumb bastard back at the colosseum and nearly cursed his entire bloodline because of it. He couldn''t waste time bringing the blasted orc back here so instead started to rummage through the orcs desk and information crystals trying to find the correct communication crystal that would put him into contact with the damn general. He badly wished he could have just recalled Irrant but the Jornns family wouldn''t allow that now that such a territory had become so important. It would be perfect for them to raise their family status, maybe even claim the planet for their own, and if they failed they had the perfect scapegoat in Vaitrill by just arguing that he didn''t give them enough manpower or resources in time. They were all a bunch of selfish bastards and he would make sure to get back at them the first moment he could. He finally found what he was looking for and snatched the communication crystal, activating it and sending it towards Irrants signal. He started pacing back and forth waiting to be answered, growing increasingly agitated as time wore on. ¡°Hurry up and answer it you dimwitted twit! This is not the time for petty games and petty squabbles!¡± He kicked Urgush desk in frustration at having to wait. Finally somebody answered but instead of seeing Irrants face, he saw the face of a fire giant. Flames licking at his molten skin with burning red eyes staring amusingly. ¡°Ah, Vaitrill. it has been far too long. How are you and your family doing?¡± ¡°Rudeus!¡± He spoke with surprise at seeing his face. ¡°I had not expected to see you with Irrant, did the Jornns patriarch send you?¡± ¡°That is correct. General Irrant noticed a massive spike in energy towards the planet and after examining it with his scanners, did his due diligence by contacting his family. I was sent here to offer assistance and guidance to the young master.¡± Vaitrill almost laughed at the statement. both from relief and from the absurdity of it. There was no way Irrant sent any kind of request to his family to ask for help; the boy was just too cocky. What had most likely happened was the family monitoring his movements along with the ship''s data and upon the readings realized something was happening and sent Rudeus over. His relief stemmed from the fact that Rudeus was an extremely competent leader that had been working with the Jornns family since before the current patriarch. He had no misgivings in thinking that said patriarch sent him specifically to ensure that Irrant succeeded in the conquest. Of course he was a little peeved that Irrant would be able to take credit for a massive victory when this should have been something to humiliate him with but seeing as it was now his ass on the line it didn''t really matter anymore. ¡°I am assuming you''re contacting General Irrant about the sudden fluctuations of energy on the planet. According to our sensors it is likely becoming a C-grade planet now.¡± ¡°Yes that is correct.¡± Vaitrill said and relayed everything, including the importance of this mission . It wouldn''t do him any good with omitting that fact and he knew he could trust Rudeus in controlling Irrant along with being actually competent. ¡°I will be sending a large military force and diverting resources to you. I trust that you will make good use of them¡± Vaitrill finally finished. ¡°I will see to it that General Irrant makes good use of everything. Seeing as how the quest stated one of the victory conditions is claiming the planet. I will have to request that we send in a couple of infiltrators to either claim the planet as their own or ensure that one of the top locals claims the planet and pledges themselves to our Empire.¡± This gave Vaitrill pause as while under normal circumstances that would be a great idea. The fact that the system was paying attention could pose a risk as infiltrators technically weren''t allowed. However if they could get in unnoticed they would greatly increase their odds and victory. ¡°Only one.¡± he said after some careful deliberation ¡°And make sure that they are no higher than a low D grade. Also only send them in when the locals are leaving the tutorials, that should hopefully give them enough cover that the system might not notice.¡± Rudeus nodded in understanding ¡°Very well, judging by your slightly nervous demeanor I am assuming you will be asking me to send you in reports every so often?¡± The fire Giants face smirked a little and Vaitrill almost cursed him out, having momentarily forgotten how unpleasant the giant could be at times. ¡°Yes, that would be most welcome.¡± He spoke through gritted teeth and Rudeus nodded in satisfaction. ¡°Very well, we look forward to your reinforcements.¡± And cut the connection to their call. Vaitrill collapsed onto his chair allowing a few seconds of relief to wash over him before finally getting back up. He had a lot of work to do, starting with getting Urgush back as soon as possible, he was going to need help. Chapter 35 Quill snapped awake and was yet again assaulted by system screens Which earned no small amount of grumbles from him. Congratulations! you have earned the achievement ¡°Ahead of the rest¡± To be the first F-rank of your whole planet. Your parents would be proud but Phil from the planet over is already S-rank in the same amount of time. Why aren''t you? .2 for all stats Error! Could not distribute stats to Soul redistributing evenly to body and mind. You have one class skill point to spend. Choose skill? You know given how his class was awarding him 10 free stat points he sort of felt like the stats awarded from earning achievements was pretty lackluster. ¡°Maybe achievements have a different purpose?¡± ¡°Oh yeah like what?¡± ¡°How would I know? Now stop your grumbling and choose your class skill. I''m anxious to see what you''ll be getting with this new class.¡± Before he even went about choosing his class skill he wanted to briefly go over his status page so he could see all the potential gains. Making sure he evenly distributing his free stat points between body and mind cuz what the hell was he going to do with soul Quill ERROR Lvl: 25 Race: Human (F rank) Class: Rebellious anarchist Body: 33.5 Mind: 32.2 Soul: ERROR Buffs/ailments: Insanity (mild) Skills: Dirty fighting (lvl 3), Dodge (lvl 5), pseudo energy manifestation (lvl 4), enhanced senses (lvl 2), Identify (lvl 3), survival instincts (lvl 3), Mental focus (lvl 4), split thinking (lvl 4), Stealth (lvl 4), Enhanced reflexes (lvl 2), Trap Maker (lvl 1) Achievements: Tutorial Forerunner, First step towards greatness, professional lawyer, Apex, Sin killer, Sin suppression, Purged of sin, Ahead of the rest traits: ERROR (unique), Powerful mind That was probably how he was going to continue to distribute his free stat points. If something changed down the road maybe he would change his distribution but for now keeping things even seems like the best go around. ¡°Still waiting on the class skill. I swear, sometimes you purposefully delay things just to annoy me.¡± ¡°Guilty as charged.¡± He quipped while bringing up his class skill options. He was once again given a large list of options to choose from. But something he did note was that these options seem to have a much different flavor to them as opposed to the ones for Savage Warrior. While Savage Warrior skills heavily focused on physical combat or things that helped with fighting. Rebellious anarchist skills seemed to have a harder focus on stealth, subterfuge, or just causing as much chaos as possible. For example this skill. Explosive Art (Uncommon) The rebellious anarchist likes it when things go boom. A small boom? A big boom? It matters not so long as it goes boom. And if you pick this skill you can guarantee a better boom. It would have been nice if his skills actually told him what they do instead of him just trying to rely on these weird descriptions. Right as he thought that his screen changed. Explosive Art (Uncommon) The rebellious anarchist likes it when things go boom. a small boom? a big boom? it matters not so long as it goes boom. But if you pick this skill you can guarantee a better boom. Explosive art increases damage by explosions and allows the user to increase or decrease the size and focus on a particular direction if desired. Higher levels increase these effects. ¡°Are you fucking serious! Are you saying you could have given me descriptions of what skills could do and you just chose not to because I didn''t fucking ask!¡± ¡°I mean, are you unhappy with your skills? Most of the ones you have seem pretty straightforward and I don''t really see you changing your choices if you could go back and read their proper description?¡± ¡°It''s the principle of the thing! This system is defective and a piece of junk! The whole damn thing needs to be thrown out!¡± ¡°Well on the bright side you now actually have descriptions of what the skills can do so you might as well look them over.¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. He let out a growl but still looked things over. At least he wasn''t guessing on what things did exactly. He didn''t really know how long it took but he felt like he finally settled on one specific skill despite the temptations of a few others. Surprise attack! (uncommon) The rebellious anarchist fights the Power! Unfortunately the power is much more powerful than them. So their best course of option is guerrilla warfare and hitting them when they least expect it. Surprise attack greatly increases damage when inflicting a blow towards someone or something who didn''t see it coming. Has a small chance of inflicting the ailment status bleed and/or concuss on its own. Damage and ailment chance increase with skill level. As opposed to the Savage Warrior class, he was a little more hard-pressed on what skill to take as many of them seemed useful. However he believed the skill ¡°surprise attack!¡° would be the most useful for him for his current situation as he didn''t really think the roaches would pose too much of a threat so long as he kept to his hit and run tactics but the cursed sins were another story. He used up all of his bombs to try and take down the first cursed sin and that wasn''t even enough to kill the damn thing. So now he was going to have to figure out how to do heavy damage as quickly as possible. Preferably with an opening strike to heavily hinder and maybe even kill one of them, thus surprise attack seems like his best option. After he selected his skill he left the break room and started doing some small stretches. ¡°What are you doing?¡± she inquired after a couple of minutes of this. ¡°Well I just put five stat points in body and the most I''ve ever put in was one stat point so I figured I should try getting used to the new added strength. The last thing I want to do is accidentally run head first into a wall because I underestimated my own speed.¡± With that he started jogging around the Grand Stations welcoming hall; it was certainly big enough to allow him to. After four laps he began to pick up the pace and soon he was sprinting as fast as he could, having to jump off walls in order to do sharp turns due to his increased speed. Despite sprinting for several laps he didn''t even feel tiniest bit winded and he was pretty sure he was running faster than any human could ever or has ever done. Maybe it was tooting his own horn but he was pretty sure he was running faster than a horse. He then moved to the stairs, since he didn''t have any particular measurement for testing strength he would have to try and do the next best thing which was to see how many stairs he could jump up. While sure it wasn''t the most accurate he couldn''t really think of anything better. He wasn''t going to bother getting a head start and instead just jumped from the base of the stairs and soared upwards. Further than he had actually expected and managed to land a good 20 stairs up. ¡°22. Are you even bothering to count?¡± ¡°I was rounding.¡± ¡°Why would you round when you''re trying to see how much strength you have in a jump which I am assuming you will be testing again once you level up.¡± ¡°It''s more of a curiosity than me seeking any real accuracy. Plus this is largely just me trying to get used to a much stronger body. Surprisingly though it doesn''t feel that much different despite the clear difference.¡± While it was a little difficult to tell the difference between his body as it was before and now, it was next to impossible to figure out how much the mind influenced him. Hell, with the trait powerful mind he should have an even stronger mind but he still couldn''t figure it out. You would think with powerful mind and a high mind stat he''d be smart enough to easily figure it out. ¡°Shouldn''t have misclicked now should you?¡± ¡°I know, I know, I''m sorry.¡± He then looked up the stairs and felt like he needed to check on the dead cursed sin, assuming there was anything left. As he crested over the stairs and turned down the hall all that was left was a massive pile of dust. ¡°I feel a sneeze coming on just looking at that.¡± he muttered as he carefully walked around the giant pile towards the platform itself. he didn''t really want to give him a self a sneezing or coughing fit plus the idea of breathing in that dead worms flesh particles was just plain gross. He made his way to the platform and checked the electronic sign that said when a ¡°train¡± was arriving. Instead of a time or saying something was arriving soon the sign merely said ¡°delayed¡±. He took that as a good omen and desperately hoped that meant there was only one green cursed sin which would hopefully mean that the other five colored curse sins didn''t have multiples. ¡°Fingers crossed right? Though perhaps you should double check the grand station''s main lobby and see what their sign says just to be safe.¡± ¡°True this is a system designed dungeon after all. Wouldn''t put it past it for it to also be glitchy.¡± He left the platform and scooted past the large dust file to make his way to the grand hall and checked its own signs above the pay gate. Sure enough, one of them just said delayed while the rest had time on arrival. Of course that didn''t mean there weren''t more green cursed sins but for now he would operate as if there was only one until given evidence otherwise. Now that he satiated his curiosity he moved on to his next test. He put his palm out and slowly summoned up a small wisp of his energy manifestation. Paying close attention to how easily and smoothly he could summon up the energy and have it move around him. It felt like it had been a while since he had done this and there was a noticeable difference at least compared to what it was like before. Still a part of him wondered how much was from the boosted stats and how much of it was from his skill level. A thought occurred to him though and he summoned up the skills status page Pseudo Energy Manifestation (epic. Lvl 4) Very few would be bold to take the first step towards such a power except for the ignorant, the arrogant, or the truly talented. Which one are you? This skill allows you to summon up energy from your very being. But it takes a heavy strain on both body, mind and soul while doing so. The more complex and active the construct the heavier the strain. Both the strain and the constructs created become easier with higher stats and higher skill level So it was a combination of both, still would have been nice to know how much both affected the skill. But at least he could test things out now and then again when he leveled up to see if there was a strong difference. ¡°Hey, quick question?¡± He asked ¡°I noticed that leveling up has become harder the higher I go which makes sense but now that I am a rank higher would it become even more difficult especially with killing a lower ranked enemy?¡± ¡°No idea but it kind of makes sense so I think it would be safe to assume so. You can easily test that out by going and killing a bunch of low-leveled creatures though. Why?¡± ¡°Well I''m going to go after the roaches next. I guess I was just wondering if I could gain more levels seeing as how every level I get would help me greatly in killing a cursed sin.¡± Before she responded to that, the trapdoor suddenly let out a bang causing Quill to nearly jump out of his skin before quickly pivoting towards the door readying his energy manifestation. The trap door Jiggled a little as something below clearly was trying to open it but thankfully the throne seemed heavy enough to keep it shut. He took a deep breath getting ready to put the throne back into his ring and fight whatever was below when the jiggling stopped. He eyed the trapdoor wearily before the thing below that was trying to get in knocked on the door with three muffled taps. Great, now he either had to entertain guests or fight off polite invaders. He didn¡¯t know which would be worse. Chapter 36 Quill carefully stepped towards the trap door, half expecting it to suddenly burst open with some crazed drooling monster whose favorite meal being his innards. ¡°You know I''m starting to suspect all this fighting and being surrounded by hostile forces isn''t doing so great for your psyche.¡± She happily chipped in with a comment he couldn''t tell was being serious or just taking the piss. ¡°Of course this is having a negative effect on my psyche. Any sane person would be feeling the negative effects of constant bloodshed, killing and fighting on the edge of survival. And don''t you dare say it.¡± ¡°Say what?¡± ¡°You were going to say something about it being good that I''m not actually sane. So don''t say it.¡± ¡°Oh my gosh, you can read my thoughts and know what I''m about to say before I say it. We truly are destined for each other aren''t we~.¡± He could practically taste the sheer exuberance from her voice but before he could respond that she was just predictable, more knocks on the trapdoor echoed through the hall. ¡°How rude, interrupting our moment like this! Might as well answer it seeing as how it will probably just keep interrupting.¡± ¡°This is going against my better judgment but okay.¡± He mumbled as he headed towards the trap door, putting away the slightly damaged throne which removed the blockade. He quickly jumped back several paces, taking his crossbow out and aiming it towards the trap door. ¡°The blockade is gone, you can open the door, but slowly.¡± He shouted out loud enough that he believed whoever was in the tunnels could hear. The trap door opened slowly and a pair of rat kin hands stuck out of the crack followed by a voice ¡°Take ease human. I mean no harm. Would only be detrimental to me if I did¡± Quill softened a little but still remained ready as Ssevinac lifted up the trapdoor and hopped onto the floor. He made a hand gesture behind him followed by a couple of squeaks before turning back to face Quill ¡°You seem on edge so I have told the few guards accompanying me to stay behind in the tunnels would that be okay?¡± ¡° yeah¡­ yeah.¡± Quill rubbed his forehead as he lowered the crossbow. ¡°Sorry it''s been a very long¡± he paused for a second. ¡°However long it''s been, it''s been very long¡­ not even sure if that makes sense.¡± ¡°In an odd sort of way it does.¡± Ssevinac looked around before turning to face him ¡°is Iirilac dead?¡± His tension quickly came back as he stood on guard. ¡°Yes.¡± he answered carefully ¡°We were going to ambush the rat kins that were sent to kill me but got caught in a battle between both their forces and the roaches. I¡¯m afraid Iirilac didn''t make it.¡± Technically the truth even if it was a lie by omission, but seeing as how he didn''t know if there was a skill that could detect lies and truths he decided it was best to tell the truth even if he was leaving out a few details. ¡°I don''t know why you''re so worried even if he had a skill that was like that, the fact that you didn''t break the contract and lose a bunch of levels means you didn''t kill him and you didn''t betray him. I want you to imagine me winking at you right now.¡± He ignored her comment as he monitored Ssevinac closely. Thankfully he didn''t seem like he was going to suddenly attack him as he spoke. ¡°I was afraid of that human. When he didn''t contact me after I got the notification that the King was dead I was afraid he had died in battle. Though I had expected it to be with the King and not in the tunnels. A fate that he did not deserve.¡± He looked somber and Quill felt like he could see water building up in his eyes for a second before the Rat Kin became stoic. ¡°Human, if you could show me where he fell, I would like to secure his body for a proper funeral assuming it is not too late.¡± ¡°I can show you on the map right now if you so wish.¡± He answered as he took out his map, pretending to get out of his pants pocket to avoid suspicion on the storage ring. He showed Ssevinac the dome that Iirilacs body lay in, Ignoring the nagging guilt that tried to eat at him while doing so as the Rat Kin nodded. ¡°If you''ll excuse me for one moment I am going to send some of my guards to collect his body¡± Quill nodded and watched the Rat Kin head back into the tunnels. ¡°Now that we''re alone, are you done ignoring me? You know if you continue to ignore me, even when we''re around other people, I might start Start suspecting that you are hanging around people just to ignore me. If that''s the case I''m going to have to take matters into my own hands and start isolating you from everyone. I''m sure you don''t want that right?¡± he suppressed to shiver and quickly shook his head ¡°No, no, I don''t want that.¡± ¡°Then?¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°I promise I won''t ignore you even when I''m around other people. Also I''m sorry!¡± he hastily added that last part just to be safe. ¡°Aw! Good boy. at least you noticed your mistake.¡± Ssevinac emerged from the tunnels, dusting himself off a bit which offered a welcoming distraction. ¡°I have a request of you human, if you are willing to hear me out.¡± Before Quill could respond her voice chimed in. ¡°Testing testing one two three, are you sure you aren''t ignoring me?¡± ¡°I''m not ignoring you, see? But I am in the middle of a conversation so please¡­..¡± And now he had rhymes in his head, damn did he just want to lie in bed. ¡°Um¡­ human.¡± Ssevinac spoke with some hesitancy dragging Quill back to the present trying to tune out the laughter from her. ¡°Sorry, what was your request?¡± The Rat Kink eyed him in an expression that he couldn''t quite read due to the fact that he had a literal rat face but If you were to hazard a guess, they were definitely thinking he was losing it. ¡° My request is that you let me bring my people back here. there is much more room and it will be easier to defend.¡± ¡°Oh that''s it? yeah sure, I don''t really care.¡± ¡°Now I know you might be hesitant t-... wait what?¡± Ssevinac usual calm and collected demeanor broke slightly. ¡°I said yeah sure. Even if I was staying here, which I''m not because I have to kill the roaches due to the contract I have signed, I still wouldn''t care. Besides, that station you were keeping your people in seemed in a pretty miserable state. No offense.¡± ¡°No! None taken! That was exactly why I was asking. I was just a little surprised you agreed so quickly.¡± He answered ¡°So am I actually. Why did you agree so quickly? I mean he isn''t on the kill list¡­ yet... But he''s still untrustworthy, as are his people.¡± Thankfully he could answer both of them in one go and not look like a crazy person. ¡°It''s not really a big deal, your people will get slaughtered or at least will suffer more casualties if they stay where they are right?¡± ¡°That is correct.¡± he answered with some hesitation. ¡°Okay so it''s really not a hard decision now is it?¡± ¡°No. I suppose it isn''t.¡± he seemed a little contemplative at that which unfortunately stretched into an awkward silence. ¡° Well¡­. I can see you are going to be a very busy rat so I am just going to take off now.¡± ¡°Ah! One moment human, if I could ask a favor. Would you stay and guard the station while I gather my people and bring them here? I don''t want the roaches to claim this area while it is left undefended.¡± ¡°Yeah I can do that.¡± he answered with a small sigh. While he did want to take care of the roaches as soon as he could, he didn''t want to leave Ssevinac and his people high and dry like that. Plus he could also just use the extended break and if he was being totally honest, that played more of a part in his decision than anything. Ssevinac nodded in respect ¡°Then I shall hurry, thank you again human.¡± And the Rat Kin jumped back down into the tunnels with Quill shutting the trap door and placing the throne back on top. ¡°You and that soft heart of yours. Personally I would have said to just go and kill the roaches while letting them fend for themselves. It''s not like you actually owe them anything. Plus you are kind of on a time limit here.¡± ¡°It''s not about owing them, it''s about doing the right thing. If I can minimize the casualties, even if it''s only a hypothetical, why wouldn''t I? ¡°As for the time limit, it''s not like we actually know how much time I have because this faulty, buggy, piece of shit system doesn''t actually tell me anything. So might as well keep going as I have been going. If the system wants me to complete these quests in a timely manner it would tell me how much time I actually had left.¡± ¡°You know you talk about saving lives but aren''t you about to commit a genocide on roaches?¡± Quail smiled a little at that which quickly earned a response from her ¡°Oh no you don''t. You are not keeping whatever you''re planning from me here. Spill.¡± ¡°Well the contract I signed has a clause in it that if both Ssevinac and I agree, we can nullify the contract. And the system quest simply states that I need to destroy the spawners for the roaches. I don''t need to actually wipe out the roaches themselves. So I am thinking that if I can get the roach king to agree to a peace treaty with Ssevinac maybe I can avoid doing that kind of genocide.¡± ¡°Okay and how are you planning on accomplishing this?¡± he could tell from her voice that she was skeptical. ¡°No idea but I figured I''d at least ask for a meeting with the roach king to figure out what he wants and kind of go from there.¡± ¡°Very well I will follow your lead. But try not to be too upset if things don''t work out quite as you want. Also I reserve the right to say I told you so when it does go the way that I think it does.¡± ¡°Thanks for the vote of confidence¡± ¡°Oh, I have total confidence in you. I just don''t have confidence in everyone else and you will need everyone else to go along with what you want.¡± She had a point there, still though he felt the need to try anyway. He was pretty sure any sane person in his position would try to do the same. There wasn''t much left for him to do except to wait. Sure he probably could have continued testing his various limits to see how strong he was, fast, Etc. but A. he didn''t really feel like it anymore and B. if he was to be attacked by roaches he wanted to make sure he was in top condition. He did wish he had some way to monitor the tunnels though. Having his enhanced hearing on helped but he didn''t know if the roaches had rogues or assassins that could move quietly. Now that he thought about it though, wouldn''t a dead cursed sin mean that the Metro tunnels were a little safer to travel through? He''d have to warn Ssevinac about that just in case there was a sneak attack. He laid down next to the trap door and throne, keeping his ears open for any possible movement beneath him but otherwise just stared up at the ceiling admiring the beautiful artwork above. Who knows how long he just laid there. Not to hammer home a point but he really did not have any concept of time left inside of him. This was only one of the things that were worrying him. When he slept all he dreamed were tunnels, rats, blood and hands trying to grab him. When he tried to think about trees, the sun, animals, and the moon, he couldn''t help but shake and nagging feeling that the memories were off. Like What he remembered wasn''t what it actually was. ¡°Well it''s a good thing you have me at least.¡± her comments snapped him out of his own thoughts. ¡°I need to get out of here¡± was his only response