Quill continued to lay there until he finally heard movement below the tunnels and sat up waiting, taking his crossbow out so he could have it ready just in case. He could definitely tell that the group below was in large numbers but that could also mean that the roaches just sent a large number to fight.

There was a loud thud on the trapdoor as it jiggled slightly but remained closed followed swiftly by several Knocks and a muffled voice calling out “human, can you please open the trap door.”

He relaxed when he heard Ssevinac voice coming through and quickly put the throne back into his storage ring and opened the trap door revealing Ssevinac face along with a bunch of other rat kins looking up at him.

“All right, come on then.” he said as he stepped away from the entrance and soon a steady stream of rat kin started clamoring up into the station. Ssevinac walked up to him and watched as more and more rat kin came stumbling out.

Oddly enough, as he watched them, even the guards seemed kind of weak. They had all seemed dangerous when he first met them but now that he looked at him again he wondered if any were above level 15.

The regular citizens seem to be in even worse shape. malnourished, patched fur, a sort of depressed expression etched on to their face. Yet as they climbed onto the station and looked around he felt he saw the faintest sign of hope grace their eyes.

“You have grown strong human” Ssevinac spoke, turning his attention away from the steady stream of rat kin. “Have you achieved F-rank already?”

He could only guess whatever identification skill Ssevinac possessed he either didn't use it or couldn't glean enough information from it to know the answer so he decided to answer truthfully “I did. Since I am kind of new here, do all races have to have a level up Quest in order to rank up?”

He nodded. “That is correct. My own rank up Quest is quite difficult. I must survive to the end of the tutorial along with 50 of my people. Most rank up quests don't have failing conditions. Or at least not the lower ranks. So you can imagine my elation when you had agreed to help us. I'll be able to hit F-rank when this is over which will greatly help my people's survival when we are finally free. What was your rank up Quest if it is not too rude to ask?”

Quill had almost laughed at how easy Ssevinac rank up Quest was compared to his own “I had to kill a cursed sin without help.”

The Rat Kin let out an awkward chuckle as he glanced at Quill, pausing slightly before his eyes widened in shock “ you- you can't be serious. the system would never give a quest like that to a g-rank and…… I mean you are level 25 so.”

It was actually a little funny watching the serious looking rat kin struggle to wrap his head around the absurdity of his statement. Although Quill had to agree that fighting a cursed sin in g-rank was absurd but it wasn't like he could have changed the matter. So instead of just arguing his case he pointed towards the arrival screen above the pay gate for the curse sins and how one of the arrivals simply said “delayed”

“You actually did that.” Ssevinac spoke in amazement before turning his attention back towards Quill, a mix of awe, fear, and respect all wrapped into one before shifting into horror and he leapt back several paces, brandishing his staff.

“Then that means the cursed sin of gluttony has infected you!” His voice was now laced with fear as he looked at Quill like he was some kind of walking time bomb. Several of the nearby rat kin turned their attention towards them as the guards not understanding what was happening pulled out their weapons ready for a fight if need be.

“ I mean it did” he answered knowing that, even without context, being infected by the thing was probably very very bad. “ But then I suppressed it and then I purged it.”

“What do you mean you suppressed and purged it?”

“ I can't exactly explain that you were the one who did it.” he answered reflexively and winced a little as he turned his attention back towards Ssevinac who was still eyeing him with distrust.

“Show me!” He finally spoke in a way that made Quill suspect that should he answer wrong he was about to have another fight on his hands.

“Show you? I'd love to show you but I need to know what I am showing first.” was his response.

“You should have gotten an achievement for doing what you claim you just did now show me.”

“I can share my achievements? I mean, sure, but I need to know how to do that first”

“Just pull up your achievements and send the ones you want towards me. It is really quite simple.” He readied his staff like he was about to cast a spell.

“Well I'm glad you think it's simple” Quill complained as he pulled up his status screen and looked at his achievements. He wasn't quite sure what Ssevinac meant by sending it to him so he tried doing something similar with his storage ring and willed the two achievements towards the Rat Kin.

“Did you get it?” he asked as he looked back up towards him whose face was now stuck in disbelief.

“How did you…” he stuttered over his words for a second “If I wasn't seeing this with my own eyes I would have never believed it?” he lowered his staff before back up towards Quill.

“I… thank you human. No!” a new look of panic suddenly crossed his face “ I mean thank you… Uh. I don't recall catching your name?”

“Funny, I don't recall dropping it.” He tried making a joke to ease the rat kins clear display of anxiety but that only seemed to make him more nervous.

“ I am terribly sorry, please, I ask for your forgiveness as I have been in a very stressful state. Not learning your name was an unintended but still a disrespectful action. I apologize, truly!”

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“Wow, nice going. you got this guy completely terrified of you now.” she said with complete sincerity, pretending like she didn't know that wasn't his intent.

“Come on, don't make me feel bad, I was trying to lighten the mood.” His comment was meant towards her but Ssevinac clearly thought it was meant for him as he quickly bowed.

“I am so sorry for not getting the joke please forgive me!”

“No, not you!” Quill responded exasperated which earned a confused but scared look from the rat kin

“ Wow, way to go. I can't believe you would talk to me around other people like that they all must think you're craaaaazy” she spoke that last part in a falsetto which earned a huff from him.

“You were the one who told me I needed to respo-” he cut himself off as she started to laugh at his reaction, knowing she was just doing this to get a rise out of him. Instead he turned his attention back towards Ssevinac.

“It's Quill. you can call me Quill.” he responded trying to not let his exasperation slip into his tone.

“Quill?” Ssevinac spoke with some uncertainty. “Like the writing instrument from a feather?”

Not being the first time somebody had made such a comment about his name, still was one of the nicer things his parents ever did for him though. “Yes, like the writing instrument.”

“An odd name… Ah! But it fits you quite well I can assure you!” he quickly backtracked after realizing he might have just insulted him.

“Okay, seriously stop. All I did was kill a cursed sin and purged whatever sin infected my body. That's it. As far as I'm concerned we are still allies and I have no reason not to believe or think otherwise, so chill.”

Ssevinac visibly relaxed at the statement before shaking his head. “I am somewhat grateful that you know so little about the world and the universe that you are about to become a part of. But I do pity what will inevitably be a cruel awakening.”

“Maybe try to sound a little less ominous in that statement, that would be great, thanks.” Quill joked back. He felt like now would be a great time to try and get some answers about everything in regards to the system and what he might come to expect should he make it out of this tutorial alive.

Before he could ask though, a sharp whistle pierced through the air from inside the tunnel grabbing everyone's attention.

Ssevinac let out some kind of squeaking snarl before turning to Quill “My rear guard is being attacked, most likely by the roaches, will you please help me!”

There was no reason to refuse and Quill jumped into the tunnel before Ssevinac. However he ran into a problem with all the rat kin that were trying to get into the station, crowding around in the tunnel blocking his path. Ssevinac soon dropped in next to him and muttered a curse as all the other rat kins seemed to realize that there was a problem behind them and panically started to clamor over each other trying to get into the station in hopes of safety.

Ssevinac Let out several squeaks that Quill interpreted as trying to command his people to move before speaking to him “Grab on to my back and don't let go.”

To his credit he didn't ask or question, simply grabbed onto his shoulders and Quill leapt up onto the walls. Using his energy manifestation to the tips of his fingers and at the edge of his boots to create claws that could dig into the walls allowing him to support both himself and the rat kin.

Not wasting any time, he quickly began to rush forward, scaling sideways on the walls with relative ease thanks to all of his enhanced strength. Following the trail of the civilians using his enhanced eyesight and hearing, he did manage to locate the fighting in the back. Soon they saw several rat kin seemingly trying to fight off a swarm of roaches.

The moment they came into view Ssevinac, while still holding on to him, pointed his staff towards the crowd and in a series of squeaks and growls fired several bolts of electricity over the guards heads and into the mass concentration of roaches trying to get past.

Several crackling explosions of blue light erupted through the dark tunnels causing Quill to flinch a little as his enhanced eyesight backfired on him. Still though he kept the manifestations up and kept moving towards the rats and roaches.

Ssevinac dropped down once they were past the civilians and landed on his feet waving his staff while squeaking as several ghastly ghostly looking rat skulls appeared behind him and flew forward packing their jaws into the roaches. Biting and ripping at their exoskeletons and alleviating some of the pressure they were putting on the guards.

Not wanting to be outdone, Quill jumped from the wall and into the middle of the roaches, getting a satisfying drop kick onto one of them before turning and punching another in its face causing the bug to fly into its companions knocking them over like bowling pins and smashing into the wall.

A little surprised by his own strength, he quickly did a front kick onto another roach causing a similar result to occur.

“All that extra strength and being able to fight when you aren't half dead really does make a difference doesn't it?”

“No kidding!” He spoke with a grin and immediately started punching and kicking every single roach that was around him. He didn't know their levels but they couldn't have been high as he easily and swiftly started dispatching them. By the time he was done, he was completely covered in bug goo and guts.

“Man, and I thought being covered in rat blood was gross." he muttered as the sticky insides of the roaches seemed to cling to his body and armor. It was a little concerning that despite everything he actually felt some stress relief from massacring all of these roaches. In fact he felt pretty good which was certainly a bad sign.

“I take that as a pretty good sign. Personally I say you need to ditch whatever weird society morals you held before. Got to adapt to survive right?”

Quill spat out a bit of gunk that had gotten into his mouth “Maybe. But I'm not sure wholesale slaughter is a good trait to enjoy even in a new world?”

His attention turned towards Ssevinac as he walked towards him. “Quill, perhaps this is impertinent for me to ask. But do you think you could go after the roaches now? their forces will only grow and get stronger and I fear that should we not deal with them now it could become too late.”

Quill tried to shake off some of the bug guts as you looked towards Ssevinac “Yeah, I was planning on doing that when you got back anyways. I don't mind doing this alone since I figured it would be good for you to stay with your people. But I could really use a health potion or two if you have them to spare.”

Ssevinac nodded and quickly reached into his robes pulling out three health potions which was a relief for Quill. “ Take these, I can't guarantee how effective they'll be given they are g-rank potions but they will be better than nothing. However our supplies are limited and while we might have another one or two prepared should you need them please try to be conservative.”

Quill quickly took the potions but didn't put them in his ring out of fear of revealing that card to the Rat Kin. “Not to worry.” he responded “ I think this should be more than enough to help. You just keep your people safe.”

Ssevinac gave a respectful bow towards him “Thank you Quill. Our hope rests on your shoulders.”

“He sure knows how to put the pressure on.” she uttered and he had to agree. But Quill still turned towards the tunnels and headed deeper in.