The Blood General must have been desperate to try and get help from that direction, I’d been walking for a while now and had only encountered a few rats. Admittedly, that’s more than I’d expect from the rest of the sewers but still, it wasn’t much.

Especially since these rats were just peeking around corners and running as soon as they saw me. I would have expected them to at least try to fight me, but I guess they somehow knew that I’d be able to kill them easily.

Well, at least this made it even more clear than it was already that there was someone controlling them, so there was a silver lining. There was also the fact that the arrows were leading away from the actual sewage, so very few corridors actually had any rivers flowing through them, which I was quite grateful for.

Another rat peeked around the corner once again, but this time it seemed to take a few seconds before it ran away. I ran after it and managed to spot it immediately after I turned the corner thanks to its vibrant cyan fur.

It had stopped right at a junction where four paths crossed, having turned around to face me. It didn’t look like anything special, so I doubted that it was a General, but if that were the case then I don’t know why it would stop here.

Putting the increasingly odd behaviours of these rats aside, I shot it with a low power Lightning Bolt and continued walking. Disappointingly I didn’t get a level from this- wait. There should have been a Combat Cleared notification.

Ah, I see how it is.

I immediately sprinted forward, realising that I was in the danger zone right as at least 20 rats of various sizes and colours swarmed me from either side. Of course, there weren’t any immediately in front of or behind me, but I noticed at the end of the hall a few reinforcements had arrived.

I quickly shot each of them with a medium powered lightning bolt and continued sprinting. I didn’t know if any of them were actually killed, but they were at least stunned long enough for me to get by relatively unhindered, which was the main thing I was aiming for.

Ahead of me the corridor was largely a straight line with no paths branching to the side, at least none that were intact, so I had no choice but to push my legs to the limit. I began to slow down for a moment, but the sound of dozens of rats screeching and clawing spurred me onward and I ignored the discomfort in my legs.

I was active enough that I should be able to keep this up for a while anyway. Hopefully.

After I’d been running for a few minutes a pain that I’d been ignoring began to make its presence known, and it slowly made running harder and harder. I hadn’t ever had to run this much, so just about the only thing keeping me going was my Willpower, and even that had its limits.

Something needed to change soon, I just didn’t quite know what. At least, I didn’t know until I glanced upward and noticed a part of the roof that was cracked and looked close to collapsing.

I didn’t have time to wonder if I would survive a cave-in before I skidded to a stop and spun around, charging Lightning in both hands. The rat horde rounded the corner and saw me making my last stand and their screeching seemed to take on a gleeful pitch. With any luck that was about to change.

I put a quarter of my mana into one Lightning Bolt that I launched at the ceiling. In my rush, a lot of the Lightning was uncondensed so much of it uselessly splashed on the walls and floor, but I got enough of it in that it slammed into the brick like a battering ram and smashed it apart.

Rocks began to slam into the ground below, crushing several unlucky rats and trapped most of them on the other side. To my dismay, however, it was only most, and six of the rodents were able to get past the rock slide unscathed, not slowing for a second before they pounced at me.

“Gods Damn It!” I yelled as I launched a lightning bolt with probably a little more power than necessary at the front most rat. It was stunned but didn’t die because I once again failed to properly condense the mana, a problem that I was noticing more in this one ambush than any time I’d used Lightning Bolt before. The excess Lightning struck the two nearest rats and caused them to stumble before they continued almost unimpeded.

Sparks arced off of my form as I purposely activated Lightning Cloak for the first time and swung at the next closest rat that had nearly managed to reach me in the time I’d fired off just one Bolt. The arcs stung it and I felt something crunch as I actually managed to hit it dead on, sending it flying away from my torso that had frankly taken far too much abuse from these rats already.

I’d almost prefer that they hit the throat instead.

That one was most likely out of the fight, which just left the last five. After my brutal counter attack they’d slowed, but I noticed that one of their tails was enveloped in a soft green glow, seeming to form a tether to the first one I’d struck.

I had roughly two thirds of my Mana Pool left, which would be enough for six Bolts. Except my Cloak was constantly draining Mana, which could reduce that number to five depending on how much it costs. Instead of trying to properly manage my Mana, I just shut off Lightning Cloak until such a time that I might need it. Lightning Bolt was more reliable anyway.

I ran towards the downed rat and kicked it, at the same time launching a Bolt at the rat producing the green glow. I’m embarrassed to admit that my kick missed, but my accuracy with Lightning Bolt had yet to fail me, so that one hit the rat dead on, and appeared to actually instantly kill it.

The remaining rats took the chance provided by my failed kick and jumped on my legs, climbing up like so many had before. At this point I deemed Lightning Cloak to be worth the loss of Bolts and turned it on. It didn’t immediately fry them, but several fell off, leaving just one that I grabbed and began to electrocute with Lightning Generator.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

After a few seconds I deemed it weakened enough and threw it as far as I could, then turned my focus to the final three rats. One of them looked to be preparing an attack, with tiny crystals of ice forming in the air around it, leaving the other two to hissing agitatedly.

The ice rat wasn’t fast enough to launch its attack before I could do mine, so I was able to hit it with a Bolt before it could do anything. Unfortunately it was somehow deflected by the crystals, and the only effect was that the rat was startled for a moment before it continued to prepare.

Seeing that using more Bolts would be a waste of mana I opted to go for the tried and true method of punting the rat across the hallway. I heard the ever familiar crunch of tiny bones breaking that confirmed it had been killed, which the final rats seemed to understand as well. They turned tail and fled, but I couldn’t let them alert any others or come back to flank me, so I finished them with two medium powered Bolts.

I stood there panting, barely even thinking about anything as I attempted to get my breathing back under control. Thankfully I had a skill for that and my heartbeat soon followed suit. A moment later I was in a better state of mind and the notification finally deigned to appear

Combat Cleared

1 Alchemical Rat Horde [Levels 6-13] Evaded

2 Fodder Rats [Levels 3-4] Defeated

1 Rat Wind General Defeated

1 Rat Life General Defeated

1 Rat Ice General Defeated

Reached Level 10

Choose A Path Skill Call Thunder Charge

I fell to the ground and rested my weary legs, instantly feeling the strain disappear as I took my weight off of them.

That was way too close, I almost can’t even think about my next Skill.

Key word ‘almost’.

I couldn’t be sure what either of these did exactly, but their names were pretty self explanatory.

Call Thunder probably lets me summon a thunder cloud, or at least summon lightning from the sky, whilst Charge probably lets me charge my Lightning Bolt easier. Actually, wouldn’t it also let me charge Lightning Cloak as well? It would probably also work for any skills I get in the future too.

Ultimately, the choice came down to what direction I wanted to take my Path. Did I want to control the storms, or did I want raw power? Well, that was what I assumed they would eventually let me do. I didn’t have a Skill guide or anything, so this was all stuff I had to do alone.

I really do like the idea of charging up a big final attack. If only I could have both, I bet they’d go well together.

As I decided to get charge, I wondered why I hadn’t been given it like I had Lightning Cloak, but I wasn’t exactly suited to figuring this stuff out so I quickly put it out of my mind in favour of the next screen.

Skill [Charge] Chosen

Existing Proficiency Detected

Altering Level

Path Skills Lightning Generator 10 Lightning Bolt 8 Lightning Cloak 2 Charge 2

Choose A Stat To Increase Willpower Wisdom Strength Agility

I wasn’t really sure what to pick here, but then I had a realisation.

If I can just raise stats with training, maybe having more Willpower would make it easier to push my limits?

And so I chose Willpower with little further thought.

Robert Zeneki Lightning Adept 18 Level 10 Willpower

11 Wisdom

5 Strength

5 Agility 7 Path Skills

Lightning Generator

10 Lightning Bolt

8 Lightning Cloak

2 Charge

2 General Skills

[3/5] Walking

8 Condense Mana 7 Breathing

8

Improving is nice, but I bet doing a better Lightning Bolt would be nicer.

Deciding to test the new skill right then and there, I gathered my Lightning and began to Charge a Lightning Bolt, immediately realising why I’d never gotten the skill despite all the times I’d technically charged it.

The Mana isn’t just being blindly pushed in. I can make pathways that cause my Mana to pull in all the Mana around it, which I can only assume includes the stuff floating around in the air. Gods I feel stupid.

I unleashed the bolt from my prone position, and instead of the jagged streak of lightning that I’d been launching before, a smooth beam was launched from my hand, actually piercing through a few centimetres of brick.

Grinning, I stood back up on mostly okay legs and continued my journey onwards. My morale was higher than ever, and I was excited to finally find the exit and get out of here.

----------------------------------------

My luck was either really good or really bad, but it could never decide which one. Just a short walk from where I’d escaped that horde, there was a large open room with a vaulted ceiling that climbed much higher than the rest of the sewers, probably even poking out above ground, and on the other side of it was a staircase that ended with a door covered in claw marks, as though something had been trying to dig through it.

This sounded good, since that was most likely the exit, but there was a slight obstacle between me and it.

A mound of bones, made up of mostly rats, dogs and cats, but including one prominently displayed human skull, lay piled high in the centre of the room. Sitting atop it, like a dragon on its horde, was a mind bogglingly disgusting mass of rats, hanging down each side but all stuck together by a jagged white rock that seemed to be fused into each of their tails.

One of the rats noticed me and, as one, each rat turned to stare at me. Eerily in sync, they all screeched and I got a new notification that hadn’t appeared for anything I’d seen before.

You Are In The Presence Of Royalty

Bow Down Before [The Rat King]

“Ah, right.”