As Logan climbed to the top of the pit, he narrowed down which items to buy. He hadn’t purchased them yet for a multitude of reasons, the main one being that he couldn’t carry a spear while climbing. Changing out of his robe while somehow balancing five Revival Potions on his head was also an issue. As such, he would just have to buy a spear and robe once he made it up to the top and not a moment later.

The few rats that were still skittering around above him were going insane. Some even threw themselves down into the pit, those unfortunate creatures becoming lumps of meat staining the rocky floor. The others were a bit smarter and waited at the top, staring down at Logan with barely contained rage. Many were frothing at the mouth, running back and forth to try and get close enough to tear him apart.

Logan didn’t know what was happening in the cells, but the fact that none of the rats had blood dripping from their teeth made him relax. There should only be one Crystal Rat alive anyway. If they had managed to hold it off so far, taking another minute or two wouldn’t make a difference.

Once Logan climbed to the second highest wrung, he paused and found the items he wanted from the Shop. Changing out his clothing was more hassle than it was worth, leaving him to only buy a spear. It cost over a million credits. That was a ridiculous sum, and there was an excellent reason for that.

The weapon materialised in an instant. Before it fell into the pit, Logan grasped the shaft and gave it a once-over. He wanted to immediately use it to cut down the rats above, but he found himself closely examining it, his mind consumed by the oddly mesmerising lines. He was inextricably drawn to it in a way he had never experienced before.

The shaft was made of a darker wood and was twisted like a tree root, but it wasn’t gnarled or out of shape. It was perfectly straight. That was all normal, which only served to highlight the glowing orange veins that ran along the entire weapon.

The shaft was sourced from the tap root of an Obsidian Ash tree. That wasn’t to say it was made out of obsidian, but that it grew on top of the glass, the roots digging down to drink the magma within the volcano it was close to. This particular tree had become spiritual due to the volcano possessing a rare type of energy-infused magma. That meant the tree was also a spiritual material, its properties aligned with the aspect of fire.

There wasn’t a lot of information on how it all worked. From what Logan knew, there were different types of spiritual energy, such as fire, water, metal, and so on. While he couldn’t use spiritual energy yet because he was still in the Body Tempering realm, he obviously had some affinity to fire. That was the only explanation for why he felt drawn to the spear shaft.

Either that or it had something to do with the egg, which was also one of the reasons he bought the spear. Not only was the spear immune to fire, but if his guess was correct, the shaft’s natural affinity to the element would enhance the flames generated by the Egg. Sadly, the power boost would only appear when he could channel flames through the spear.

If he ever managed to pull it off, that was something to look forward to.

Logan glanced at the head of the spear. It was made of a volcanic diamond and was actually the most valuable part of the weapon, which wasn’t much of a surprise when looking at the size of the thing. The head was shaped like a teardrop and no smaller than his fist. It was also razor sharp and had a few glowing symbols carved into it where the diamond met the shaft.

These symbols were called inscriptions, and they were incredibly useful depending on the situation. Logan’s spear had four. Three of them were passive inscriptions that constantly operated to enhance the spear, which strained it greatly. Only high-quality materials could hold so many inscriptions, meaning it was a Rare item.

Satisfied with his purchase, Logan held the spear with one hand and leaned back. There were three rats on the edge of the pit. All of them were clawing at the highest wrung of the ladder, their mouths frothing as they attempted to claw him.

Logan swung the spear and triggered the active inscription. It was called Reforge, and it did exactly as one expected. It reshaped the diamond at the end of the weapon. Typically, spears were excellent thrusting weapons that were not as useful for slashing attacks. That changed as the black diamond grew longer and thinner, turning his from a spear into a glaive.

It wasn’t as glamorous as some other active inscriptions he could’ve purchased, but this temporary shift allowed Logan to do one thing that his spear usually couldn’t. With a casual wave of his arm, he beheaded all the rats hovering over him... Which he immediately regretted as they spurted blood in his face. To make matters worse, all three corpses fell onto his head and almost threw him down the ladder.

[You have slain a Mortal at the Second Step, Ore Rat.]

[You have slain a Mortal at the First Step, Ore Rat.]

[You have slain a Mortal at the Second Step, Ore Rat.]

Wiping the blood off his face, Logan placed his spear on the ledge and pulled himself up onto solid ground. He then jumped to his feet and started a massacre. There were easily thirty Ore Rats spread around the cavern, all of which had now found a target to vent their chaotic emotions after the death of their leader.

Unluckily for them, Logan had no problem killing them when he was at the first stage of Body Tempering. Now that he was at the third, had learned an intermediate technique, and had a spear with three passive inscriptions carved into it, he was like a god of death come to collect their souls.

After killing ten Ore Rats, Logan finally came across a Giant Ore Rat. He didn’t use a technique and just waved his spear in an arc. It sliced through the rat’s forelegs without stopping, its bones no harder than butter. The beast crashed into the rocky floor with its face, the spear coming down in an arc and beheading it.

[You have slain a Common Mortal at the Fourth Step, Giant Ore Rat.]

Logan couldn’t hold back a grin. Both the quality of his new spear and one of the inscriptions helped make the ‘fight’, if it could even be called that, ridiculously easy. The weapon was of a high quality on its own. Even without the inscriptions, it still should’ve been able to slice through most of a Giant Ore Rat with relative ease, perhaps only getting caught on their crystal-infused bones.

With a Sharpness inscription carved into his weapon?

The Giant Ore Rat may as well have been made out of jelly. Before, Logan would’ve had to use Piercing Thrust to inflict a deep wound. And that would only be the start of a protracted battle where he would have to stab its weak points dozens of times to end its life. Two swings compared to a hundred was a massive difference, which was only the result of improving his weapon.

Less than a minute later, Logan had finished off three Giant Ore Rats and over twenty Ore Rats. All he had to do was Flash Step around the place and slash his glaive at anything that moved.

When that was over, he looked around the cavern before walking down the stairs to the prison cells. Logan found a lot of rat corpses before he came across a wall of crates. These were the ones from the cells and had obviously been put up in haste. Some were almost sideways and had fallen out of place, but the protection it offered had not been removed.

There were also no rats outside of it.

Logan knocked on the crate and called out to be let in, the whispers on the other side going quiet. A moment later, someone started moving them out of the way, allowing him to see inside. Amelia and James were hauling the crates down while Tom and Stephanie rested against the corpse of a Giant Ore Rat. They were covered in blood and deeply injured, but they were stable for now thanks to their powerful bodies and life force.

There were nearly fifty corpses strewn down the hallway. The floors were dyed red with blood, puddles of the stuff forming everywhere as a small waterfall trickled down the stairs at the end. Logan soon found the old folks. Ron and Betty were so malnourished they had fallen into a coma days ago while Deon sat in the corner of a cell with his hands in his head.

Logan glanced at the battered Amelia with a question in his eyes, mostly curious about where the final Crystal Rat had ended up.

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“It got away,” She said, giving him a weary smile. “I almost had it.”

“Really?” Logan replied, walking in and quickly healing Tom and Stephanie. “You actually fought it off?”

“We almost died,” James said, his voice heavy. “That Crystal Rat was unkillable.”

“And yet you survived?”

“It was all thanks to Amelia. We would’ve all died if she wasn’t here blocking it with her shield.”

“That’s incredible! I’m both impressed and curious about what happened. Honestly, I expected to find the rat still trying to open the crate wall.”

Amelia grinned. While Logan had started before her, Amelia was much more dedicated to her training. She didn’t practise a visualisation technique, giving her more time to practise than him. That allowed her to catch up and even overtake him recently. And while she hadn’t learned an intermediate technique yet, she had built quite a synergy with her existing set.

They had defeated two Crystal Rats before this due to Logan. He had a strong enough mind to shrug off their mental attacks and could burn them to a crisp with his flames. Without him, the others couldn’t leave anything more than a scratch. Of course, they could target its softer belly or the beast’s eyes, but a Crystal Rat was far too intelligent to allow that to happen.

“After killing the few that caught up with us,” Amelia said, “we blocked the rest off with the crate wall. But to our misfortune, the Crystal Rat barged in before we could block the stairs.”

James nodded along before he added his own part. “I was carrying a crate when the Crystal Rat bowled me over. It spun around and tried to tear me apart when Amelia runs in and smacks the bastard in the face with her shield. From there, she distracted the beast enough that we set the wall up and stopped more rats from coming in.”

“The fight was still hell after that. All I could do was keep the Crystal Rat busy, but that didn’t do much to help the others. They still had to fight off the tide of rats that had crawled in with the Crystal Rat. My arm broke, and Steph and Tom were mauled. Stephanie isn’t too bad, but Tom lost an arm and a leg. Deon managed to tie the limbs off and keep him alive until now.”

“Well, I’m glad that everything worked out,” Logan said, realising that something was wrong by their expressions. “Is everything okay?”

“We’re not done telling our story,” James said, looking down at the ground. “We managed to kill most of the weaker monsters, but the Crystal Rat was too strong. When it saw that Amelia wouldn’t let it pass, the beast used its mental attack.”

“Ron and Betty were fine since they were already unconscious. Deon managed to keep thrusting his spear through the bars while the rest of us continued fighting, but our strength decreased by a massive amount. That was why my arm got broken. I could barely use one technique, let alone three.”

“Thankfully, the Crystal Rat suddenly went crazy and escaped down the stairs.”

“Ah, that was because of me,” Logan said, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. “I killed the Rat King after creating an intermediate technique. After destroying its heart, some of the rats came back up the stairs and tried to attack me.”

Amelia and James glanced at each other, their eyes wide with shock.

“That’s... crazy. We assumed the Rat King escaped.”

“Its corpse is in the pit if you’re interested. Anyway, I interrupted you. Please go on. I haven’t figured out why you guys look so gloomy.”

“Haven’t you noticed?”

“Noticed what?” Logan asked, glancing around and finding nothing of note.

“How quiet it is,” Amelia whispered, which made him realise that Janet and her husband were missing. She should’ve been whining about something to him by now, but her silence made perfect sense as the Crystal Rat’s mind attack should’ve knocked her out along with her husband.

And yet somehow, she had been killed despite being safely behind bars.

Amelia brought him over to a body with a robe draped over it in lieu of a sheet. Logan knelt down and tried to revive Janet, her body healing as it should. Even her heart began to beat again. Once he was done, however, Logan immediately knew that she wasn’t going to wake up.

Seeing that she was breathing, James and Amelia sighed in relief. They couldn’t tell that she was dead. Logan didn’t know how, but he tell something was missing in her body. She had a heartbeat, was breathing normally, and even had brain activity, but it felt hollow in a way he couldn’t explain.

“She’s dead,” Logan muttered, everyone reacting with shock.

“What are you talking about?”

“But she’s breathing, Logan.”

“It doesn’t matter. Something is gone, and it won’t come back,” he said, covering the body and standing up. We can wait and see if you don’t believe me, but I can sense that something is wrong.”

“And the problem can’t be fixed with the egg?” Amelia said, touching his arm.

Logan shook his head.

A wave of emotions rolled over him. Janet was annoying, but he couldn’t blame her for that. She was probably just afraid and lashing out to regain a semblance of control in her life. Now, she was gone. Her friends and family would never see her again, and she wouldn’t get the chance to watch her grandchildren grow up. She had two, but Logan didn’t know much about them besides their age.

He wished that he had listened more.

Logan felt ill over her death, but his mind inevitably focused on another problem. Why couldn’t she be saved by the egg? Would he still be able to revive the dead when he got home, or was it impossible? Worry gnawed at his mind, thoughts growing more chaotic by the second. He had only survived this long on the vain hope that he could fix all of his problems once he got back, but if Janet couldn’t be revived, why would he be able to save his dead father?

The man was nothing more than ashes in an urn on his grandmother’s mantle, which was far less substantial than Janet’s complete corpse-. Logan blinked, realising that only one body was in front of him.

“Where is Janet’s husband?” Logan said, his head snapping up.

James scratched his beard. “We told the old folks to get in a cell and close the door. Deon was more than happy to, but Janet started arguing. We didn’t have time since we had to build another crate wall, so we let her stay in the hallway. The next thing we know, Janet and her husband slowly retreat to the stairs.”

“The Crystal Rat used its mental attack to harm everyone in the area,” Amelia said. “Unlike when you were attacked earlier today, it spread out the attack far enough to catch everyone, including Janet and her husband. They panicked and were soon attacked by a Giant Ore Rat that noticed their screaming. Janet’s husband pushed her out of the way and got chased down the stairwell by the Giant Ore Rat.

“Of course, that didn’t save her. She was too shocked to run into a cell and got mauled to death by the Ore rats,” Amelia added, swallowing as she most likely remembered seeing the woman die. “Her screams were horrible, and we tried to help, but the Crystal Rat was too strong, and she-”

Amelia went as pale as a sheet. She gagged and didn’t continue, but Logan could see the bloody stain on the floor where Janet had been mauled to death.

He took a deep breath. “And the Skeleton Lord?”

“I don’t know if it was involved,” James said, patting Amelia on the back while she focused on her breathing. “I don’t want to know. A few minutes after the fighting stopped up here, we heard Janet’s husband shriek like he was being tortured. Which he probably was since his cries lasted for around a minute before he went silent.”

Biting his lip, Logan had no idea what to think. He didn’t want to know or see whatever the Skeleton Lord was doing beneath them. Especially now that it had a human to play with. It might be wise for him to go down and try to stop whatever it was planning to do, but at the same time, he would rather focus on leaving as quickly as possible.

When Logan almost got sacrificed, the pit was filled with many different creatures. Yet they had only encountered the rats so far. The other types of monsters were most likely beneath them. Whether the Skeleton Lord had been killed or was building up its strength, the fact remained that there were dinosaurs and goblins somewhere in the vicinity.

Logan wanted to avoid fighting another Rat King, meaning their only option was to leave. Not to mention that they were swiftly running out of time. There were only two months left to get to a city, forcing them to make it back up in less than a month and a half as they still had to navigate through kilometres of forest.

That alone would take a week or two.

Frankly, time was running out. The group would’ve perished if they had started travelling on day one, but now they were swiftly approaching a deadline they simply couldn’t meet. The old folks needed time to recuperate, more powerful monsters could live in the biodome, and they hadn’t even left their starting point yet. At worst, Logan would have to provide armour and hope that they could survive the life-threatening natural disasters.