Jin-woo stared at the corpse of another Giant Rat. He had lost count of how many he had waded through. Every turn, bend, room, and anything else within the tunnel meant more groups of rats going up to the size of four. And when he fought them, none of the other groups would suddenly appear hearing the battle going on around them. Add on to it that each group number had very specific tactics. Patterns that made them much easier to deal with and eliminate, but it was not a cake walk. They were still a hundred pounds of fury, rage, rotted teeth, and sharp claws. Every tiny mistake cost him in flesh and blood
He pulled his shorter spear from the dead rat he was staring at. The motion of stepping for leverage and pulling his spears out of corpses had become distressingly familiar. This time, it had been the only time he actually got his starting spear throw to land on a target instead of miss by a mile. His throws and accuracy was so bad, he had yet to get a skill for it even though he was deliberate on practicing it.
Blood and gore clung to the metal shaft. Jin-woo would have grimaced and gagged at the nastiness like countless times before, but not anymore.
I’m getting desensitized to all this gruesomeness. Typically he would have made some dry quip to keep his energy up, but not anymore. He was too exhausted to laugh. A testament to the numerous encounters he'd already survived. His system interface tallied another victory in his feed.
[COMBAT CONCLUDED! CONGRATULATIONS!]
[DAMAGE SUSTAINED: Multiple Lacerations, Potential Infection Risk, Potential Disease Risk, Potential Plague Risk]
[EXPERIENCE GAINED: 10 XP (2 Giant Rats × 5 XP)]
Every battle had the same notification after. The same damage sustained, same type of experience too. The only thing that was different was the amount he faced and how much experience he received. Which was pitiful. He stared at his level purposefully not attempting to calculate how many rats that counted as. Five experience points per rat was simply ridiculous.
[CURRENT LEVEL PROGRESS:]
[LEVEL 2: 90/2000]
[DAMAGE SUSTAINED: 53%]
[NOTE: Combat efficiency improving despite fatigue]
The tunnels twisted endlessly. Jin-woo had begun to worry he was walking in circles and facing monsters that just respawned the second he left their areas. He had turned around and walked back towards his latest fight and found the rats still there dead as he had left them. A group of four that remained nearly as difficult as when he first encountered them. They were far more sophisticated in their attack patterns than the other groups. If he had to guess, they had three variant patterns they used in different situations depending on how he attacked them.
But he eventually figured them out just like the rest. He could trigger their attack pattern by launching his four foot spear at the lead Giant Rat. This worked like a charm to make them more predictable and prevent any chance of him being caught unaware by a new pattern he had yet to trigger. Once they charged in, he kitted and picked at them until he could take out the most aggressive ones.
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Jin-woo wiped sweat from his forehead. "At least they're considerate enough to help me practice. I could do with less enthusiastic training partners, but beggars can’t be picky." He started to trek forward again, hoping beyond hope that he would find an exit point close. Or at least any form of sustenance.
Exhaustion crept through his bones by this point. His enhanced body had been taken further than it should ever have had he been more prepared. Hunger and thirst registered, their physical effects present, but not yet critical. His stomach growled again, his needs were becoming more insistent the longer this whole debacle continued. But that was the problem, time had lost all meaning in these torch-lit corridors. He had no clue if he had been in here for a day, or a night, or was it a week? He could feel the need to get some sleep at the edges of his consciousness.
If only I had my phone. I’d know the time and day without all this bull–
A system notification flickered in his vision:
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENABLE:]
[TIME?]
[DATE DISPLAY?]
[Y/N]
"Why not?" he sighed, he could already imagine what the issue with this would be. Not that it would affect him in the present, here and now.
[TIME: 2:33 AM]
[DATE: 12th of Seedweave, 3811 A.S.F.]
"Seedweave," he echoed, testing the strange word. "Seedweave. I suppose ‘January’ or ‘June’ was too conventional for this reality." He wasn’t even going to attempt to guess at what A.S.F meant.
Jin-woo tripped.
He fell face first into the ground in a sprawl of limbs. Spear clattering to the ground. He shot up to his feet lunging for the comfortable feel of the metal in his palm. With a flourish and a spin, sweeping the rod wide around him, he settled into a stance with the spear at the ready. Prepared for war. He waited in his, much improved, posture watching for any minute movement his great vision would catch. There had been a few ambushes by the Giant Rats already, the first and second time had been more than enough for him to never allow it to happen again. He had decimated a group of three the third time, their ambush pattern making them vulnerable to his Quick Strike skill.
Though the skill disoriented him severely. Luckily, the patterns and tactics ingrained into the Giant Rats made it difficult for them to take advantage of the momentary lull he had.
The longer he waited, the more confused he got until it clicked in his mind like a church bell. His attention shifted to the ground beneath his feet. The rough-hewn cobblestones abruptly transitioned to smoother tiles. While they were still rough and eroded, they were in far better condition than the broken and destroyed cobblestone ground it had been before. Even the walls showed subtle improvements in their construction. Less weathering, more patterns than the usual fakeness it had been before.
A deep breath left him even more confused. His enhanced sense detected a shift in the air, the smell was different here too. Most unusual was why it almost smelled like the forest outside the hospital, but not quite right. Something was off. An acidic undertone that made his system interface flutter with uncertainty. A fake of the original, just like the wall patterns, the unnatural rats and their attack patterns, and this sudden change in the tunnel around him.
He should have smelled the fake natural forest smell of this world far before walking past the new tunnel decor. And yet it hadn’t existed.
Another notification demanded attention. A stubborn notification that appeared every few moments as long as he was not in combat.
[5 STAT POINTS AVAILABLE!]
[ALLOCATION REQUIRED!]
He had ignored it. The decision was a big one and would decide what his future path would–
[5 STAT POINTS AVAILABLE!]
[ALLOCATION REQUIRED!]
Later–
[5 STAT POINTS AVAILABLE!]
[ALLOCATION REQUIRED!]