It took two more days until he arrived at the last piece of the mental map he created. A bunch of cages that created a small maze covered in curtains. By then, he had already found quite a few important items that would make his life much easier. The first and foremost of them were five whole Rare Earth Crystal (Basic). The amount of joy and pure childlike exuberance he felt was intense. Much greater than he expected considering the muted emotions he had been facing. The thought of working on his Earth Power Stone made him incredibly happy.
Satisfied. That would be the first thing he would focus on as soon as he got out. Figure the Earth Power Stone then leave this horrible dungeon and hospital. Find civilization and hopefully live a relatively comfortable life. Maybe even adventure with a party in some low level dungeon that was not as gruesome and filled to the brim with monsters.
Other items he found included a plethora of anomaly papers, as he began to call them. Empty vials, he attempted to scoop the chemical, hazardous waste into them. That had been a spectacular failure. A plethora of silver and bronze coins, and even three gold coins. And then he found more vials of unknown substances scattered throughout the entire chamber. Six of them had his system screaming with warnings and notifications in his feed.
[HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCE DETECTED]
[CLASSIFICATION: Unknown Chemical Compound]
[AGGRESSIVE REACTIVITY: EXTREME]
[WARNING: Substance exhibits anomalous properties]
[DETAILED ANALYSIS:]
[- pH Level: ERROR - Beyond measurable scale
- Reactivity Rate: 147% above baseline
- Biological Impact: Severe tissue degradation
- Vapor Analysis: TOXIC
- Avoid inhalation]
The vials represented both weapon and hazard. The same substances that had helped him melt the meat off of the Rat Lords face and limbs. It had brought a boss down to its knees in a matter of minutes. And he suspected it was a similar concoction to the acidic poison he had taken a face full of from the poison rat. It would be immensely useful if he ever encountered something he couldn’t fight directly.
Now he just needed to figure out how to safely store them. Any mistake could essentially cost him his life or a massive portion of his body. Considering he only found two healing potions, and would use one to heal much of the massive scarring on his body and face, it would not be wise to end up self sabotaging.
As he made his way towards the complex of covered cages, a glint of metal caught his eye to the side. A small table with a lantern on it. Once he got close enough, he found what appeared to be a second piece to a broken key. He pulled out the other half he had found in the treasure chest. They were split down the middle, the long way, and were exact identical pieces. Jin-woo pressed them together, but they didn’t magically meld together. Whatever it was for, he would need to be careful to keep them stable to open whatever it locked.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
He assumed it had something to do with the large number of cages just a small distance away. What exactly, he wasn’t so sure. But he was about to find out. He pocketed both pieces.
“More loot, please,” he muttered under his breath. There was the possibility of another enemy in the maze, but he doubted it. The notification had been very clear and left very little room for uncertainty. Hopefully it was more epic treasures that would give him immediate boosts in the category of getting back towards civilization.
Spending weeks on end going through wide tunnels, with random turns, ups, and downs. Random rooms. Random prowling packs of Giant Rats. Only to get one level out of it. It just wasn’t worth it going through this dungeon in general.
Jin-woo walked up to a torch that had fallen on the ground. Its fire continued to crackle and illuminate the area around it. He looked it up and down and couldn’t find any fuel source. Another oddity he added to his notes, this one he would try to figure out though. It seemed quite handy to understand how it kept going strong without any obvious energy input. For now, it would help him search the small maze of cages.
He made his way through the curtains that lead inside. It would have been pitch black in there if he did not think to grab the torch. There were more cages in there than he expected. Bunches of boxes and wood stacked to the side that imitated a massive monster lair. There were Giant Rat bones that were scattered around. Jin-woo searched every nook and crank, even when it stank, to find anything of use. But he ended up empty handed.
Only near the end of it did something shift in the darkness where his torch couldn't touch.
Jin-woo immediately regretted not bringing anything to defend himself with. He held the torch out, praying that it was strong enough to take a few hits, or maybe scare any monster from attacking him. The closer he got towards an exposed cage the more anxious he felt. Of course, his body reacting did little to affect his thoughts. No chemical or hormonal hallucinations would affect his mind.
Mentally, he prepared for another battle. He was no longer tired, nor did he have to worry about a twelve foot tall Rat Lord giant charging at him from a distance.
Jin-woo froze in his footsteps. “What the–”
A figure in ragged robes scrambled backwards, it was already on the other end of the cage. If it pushed anymore it would have to start climbing up the metal bars. The creature, it was not human, was small and scrawny. It resembled the Giant Rats, but it was bipedal instead. It couldn’t have been over five feet tall.
Master Splinter…? That was the closest he could compare it to with his experience. A system notification appeared in his feed.
[SPECIES IDENTIFIED: RATKIN]
[CLASSIFICATION: Sentient (Non-Dungeon) Race]
[THREAT LEVEL: Calculating]
[NON-DUNGEON ENTITY: Free willed]
[NOTE: Generally peaceful, capable of advanced cognition, extreme receptiveness to Power Stones–]
This was the first time he had gotten this notification. Even when he fought the Rat Lord, it had labeled him as partial/fragmented intelligence, hinting at what could have been a source of people. He had not expected to see a real life example of what ‘Conclave’ had experimented on. Whether that was an organization called ‘Conclave’ or rather a group of random mad scientists that formed a conclave, he had no idea.
He didn’t know what to think–
The RatKin’s nose twitched. Whiskers moving up and down. “HuuiJk…? HuuiJk masseehy nossie…?
Jin-woo grunted. Pain lanced through his head. For a moment, his vision turned blank. He stumbled forward, catching himself on the metal bars of the cage.
[UNKNOWN LANGUAGE DETECTED]
[ANALYZING SPEECH PATTERNS...]
[TRANSLATION MATRIX ENGAGED]
[Source Language:
[Untranslated Symbols And Words -
[HuuiJk…? HuuiJk masseehy nossie…?]
[Parsing Speech Patterns>>>>
Analyzing Cultural Context>>>>
Applying Translation Matrix>>>>
Translated Text: "Biggest Brother…? You’re not him, why do you smell so similar…?"
[CONTEXT ANALYSIS:
- Dialect: Eastern Higher Ratkin
- Emotional Content: Fear/Reverence
- Social Context: Familial Reference]
[TRANSLATION CONFIDENCE: 92%]