I wake up to a kick in the head and stomach. My eyes snap open and I see three boys, the two who were currently kicking me seemed to be aged around 14, while the third who was going through my bag seemed to be about 12. Noticing that it is still dark my eyes instantly change to there cat form while my claws spring out of my fingertips.
While still being kicked I move around the damaged cells from the beating, evenly distributing them around my body making it easier for the sludge to heal them. While my body heals I grab the leg aimed at my head with my right hand, stabbing my claws into his Achilles tendon and sending water into the cells from my claws until they burst. While ‘head kickers’ left calf explodes into a bloody mess my left-hand grabs ‘stomach kickers’ stationary leg and pulls it so he falls off balance hitting his head on the stone flour knocking him out cold.
Standing up as my body is still healing I take the knife from the storage ring and send it through 'stomach kickers’ temple as I run my claws along ‘head Kickers’ throat. All of this takes me 5 seconds.
‘Sticky fingers’ looks up from my bag and I realize that it's a girl as she starts to stutter and mumble. “Ah...wha… you. You wouldn't hit a girl now would you?” she pleads. I stop, look thoughtful and then laugh.
“Hahaha you dumb fuck why would your gender stop me from hitting you? If I am not mistaken you are the accomplice of the two that tried to kill me while I was asleep and even if you weren't, instead of trying to help me you try to rob me. Which was really fucking stupid, I was sleeping on the floor how much do you think I could own? You dumb bitch.”
Before she could stutter out a reply I send the bone in my right forearm out of my arm while making it into a spike before it pierces her skull. [That looked badass as shit but FUCK, did it hurt] seething in pain I return my body to normal as I hop around in agony. [Fucking shit I forgot to detach the nerves from my arm and just ripped them all apart]. When I finished dancing around like an idiot after about 5 minutes, I gather and search their bodies. Combined, they had the following: 2S, two normal-sized knives, a metal pipe the size of my arm and a ring. I take the money and knives and put the others to the side not needing or wanting them.
With the body's gathered I start to absorb and eat them. With the sudden increase in body matter, I start to modify my body. First I increase all my senses by a factor of 0.5. I then increase the strength and length of my claws. Next, I make hidden and retractable spikes out of bone in both my forearms. I then make the bones in my arms and legs similar to the spine creating multiple joints in the bone but allowing less movement as not to become a noodle. Finally, I condense and strengthen my bones and muscles, while making my muscles and ligaments extra flexible.
Smoothing out my features so I look identical to before the attack I start my workout to get used to my new body. I exercise and train until the sun comes up which was about 3 hours but I don't feel tired. Now that’s the sun is up I head over to the Guildhall. I decided to make myself look older by 4 years to avoid any trouble when doing the job as I doubt they would let an 8-year-old fight in the sewers.
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After an hours walk, I make it to the Guildhall and look around inside. It looks like an inn on one half while the over half is filled with notice boards with various missions and jobs to complete for a reward and pay. There is also a training area outside where a garden would be and what looks like a sparring ring where there are two people trading blows.
Noticing a group of people who are on the short side standing by a desk I head in their direction believing that it was where I hand in the poster to start the job. Walking up to the desk I am greeted by a pretty young woman in her early twenties.
“ Hello there, you must be here for the rat problem,” she says in a sickly sweet voice, I simply nod in response and hand over the poster.
"Well then stand over there then please with the other job takers. An adventurer will be over with you in half an hour to explain things further,” she says in the same sickly sweet voice.
“Thank you,” I say while nodding again and heading over to the group of vertically challenged individuals a few of whom I recognized as dwarfs.
The group was filled with young children in their early teens like I appear to be. No one talked and I did not start a conversation. Instead, I put my hands in my sleeves and made a condensed bone that is shaped like a small pebble. Using the bone pebble I sharpened my three knives. [I need to get new gear soon my clothes are falling apart and I only brought them three days ago and these knives are already chipped and rusty and I have been using these sandals since I was a servant.
Sharpening my knives I looked around at the posters. [Maybe I should become an Adventurer. I would get to travel and explore to my heart's content; good pay if you are strong enough, could be fun. I will need to wait a couple of years, and change city to one I am not wanted. They use spirit identification stones for registration, to check the person is who they say they are.] I know because I just watch a guy register. As I waited a few other young people came over to join our group. Once half an hour went by an annoyed-looking middle-aged man came over.
“Hello everyone I am Dan and I lost a bet so I am your guide for 10 minutes [What a charming fellow]. You will be going into the sewers to hunt rats. These rats are runts or unevolved rats that have gotten away from the main sewer body were the guards and adventures use to train recruits in an unfavorable environment. But don't worry they won't be up to the standard of the rats used to train, as mentioned before these are just the rats that unevolved and runts that have bred in the smaller sewer hence why we have to send in smaller people.
You will be rewarded 25C for every rat-tail collected as proof of your kill. This job is on once a week, as you should know so you can come back next week if you wish. [I didn't know that I must have gotten lucky on the day.] Now if you follow me, I will take you to the sewer entrance where I will unlock it for you but don't worry it can be opened from the inside. Good luck.” With that Dan left us without another word, after leading us to and unlocking the sewer entrance.
Shrugging I jump in not bothering with the ladder and walk into the darkness. The smell was horrible so I lowered my sense of smell but increased my cat eyes and hearing. I walk away from the others thinking that the large amount of us would make too much noise and scare off the rats.
Walking around in the dark until I hear a faint scuffing noise that is just around the corner. Crouching down and ready myself I lunge around the corner with a knife in hand, I catch sight of a rat the size of a large cat before I stab it through the eye. [That was easy. boringly so.] I cut off the rats tail and put it in my bag.
After the anticlimactic first rat kill, I manage to find and kill another 20 rats just as anticlimactic as the first. I even follow one until it is in a pack of 5 but it still was boring. After an hour of this and 50 rat-tails filling my bag with their body’s filling my stomach, I decided to try and find the big main sewer remembering Dan talking about the more dangerous rats there. Covered in rat blood I walk into the darkness, hoping for a better fight. [let the real hunt begin] I thought to myself as I smiled.