Quill didn’t just instantly open the door and head out blades swinging. No, that would be something only a crazy person would do and he wasn’t crazy. Instead he moved closer to the door to properly listen. He knew this would probably expose himself to the rat as he still had blood staining his leather armor but he felt like it would be worth it for the info he hoped to receive.

Getting up to the door he placed his ear to the door and with his enhanced hearing he listened carefully. Obviously there was the rat by the door that was sniffing with intense interest but he could also hear multiple tippy tapping of claws further away from him at various distances.

If he were to hazard a guess, he would say that there were probably 5-7 of them scurrying somewhat nearby the door and none of them were too big either.

Enhanced senses has leveled up to lvl 2

‘Oh? Well that was a nice bonus. Would leveling up skills be slower the higher the level they go?’ He sent a mental question to her

“Pretty sure. Also the higher the rarity the harder it is to level. But if you do more complex stuff with your skills the more experience you will get for said skills.”

‘Why hasn’t identify leveled up though? It's a common skill, it's level 1 and I’ve been using it at almost every new passing thing I see?’ He sent another mental inquiry towards her.

“Well if I were to hazard a guess. The skill is called “Identify” right? Are you actually trying to properly examine and identify stuff or are you just haphazardly looking at things and hoping the system will tell you what they mean?”

‘Fair enough’ He relented to her point and went back to focusing on the task at hand. He noted that he could see things even clearer now, making out even more details within the room that he probably would’ve had trouble with before with a level 1 skill. So that meant his ears were probably the same but he didn’t hear anything else outside from his initial assessment which made him conclude that the amount of rats nearby were likely the same as before. At least nearby.

Slowly withdrawing his daggers he mentally prepared himself. He would want this over quickly before he attracted more attention from any of the other rats nearby that were lurking in the station.

Taking a deep breath, he waited till he heard the sniffing get really close to the door before opening the door as fast as possible with his blades swinging, right into the curious rat's neck killing it instantly.

This naturally got the attention of the other rats, which Quill counted 5 in total. It was a huge boon that he guessed right and they were all in the baby to adolescent size. Plus if his previous experience with these younger rats had taught him anything. They had one tried and true tactic. Charge at the enemy until they die.

All but one of them charged instantly and Quill, sticking to the method that worked, kicked the rat corpse at his feet into two of the charging rats as he met the other two with his daggers at the ready.

He really had improved from the last few encounters with these rats. They still moved at the speed he was used to but instead of struggling to keep up, he was slowly edging out an advantage. His body just moved quicker and his mind was able to process information easier.

Quill pivoted on his foot to dodge one of the rats leaping charges, slashing with his daggers as he did so. The scurrying of another rodent could be heard behind him so using the momentum of his spin he kicked out with a satisfying impact and sent the second flying.

The other two rats that he had managed to delay were now upon him and Quill jumped up and over the first one as it tried to tackle him before bringing his feet down to the second with a hard stomp. Stabbing the daggers into its side for good measure.

“One down.” he muttered as he glanced at the other three, the last one still hadn’t made any move and was watching everything which made Quill a little on edge but he needed to focus on the ones that were the present danger.

The dire rats were stalking him from three different angles so he knew he wasn’t in the greatest position. Instead of letting them make the first move again, Quill decided to take initiative with a feint towards the one he had managed to injure. That got the other two to react and try to meet him where he would have been. Instead he had jumped back and brought both the blades to meet each of the rats that tried to cut him off.

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Quill felt a massive pain in his head and his body ached in protest as he used his pseudo energy manifestation skill. He managed to extend the blade with the energy while making the energy around the daggers edges even sharper, allowing him to cut easily through both those rats killing them instantly.

He immediately let the energy disperse before the side effects got even worse and not wanting to give the injured rat a chance to realize what happened he dove for it. Letting the daggers stab deep into the rats eyes killing the last one that had encircled him.

He then swiveled his attention to the fifth and final rat who just stood their glaring at him with malice. Quill took note that things seemed slightly different, its skeletal structure was slightly off from the other dire rats he had fought. Its face is slightly different as well. He couldn’t fully place it so for the heck of it he tried casting identify on it.

Rat Kin

Identify has leveled up to lvl 2

“Told you so” she responded in a very smug tone when he got the notification that his skill had leveled up.

He noted that he still didn’t know anything else aside from the monster being a Rat Kin, whatever that was. But he was pretty sure it wasn’t a very high level given its size. Or at least that was his hope.

The Rat Kin continued to glare at him before letting out a snarl and charged him with Quill getting ready to counter attack. It was then it did something he wasn’t really expecting. At the moment it got about ten feet from him, it got a lot faster, its brown fur almost turning into a streak as it rushed towards him and he barely jumped out of the way in time to avoid it.

After taking an awkward roll on the ground he jumped back up to find the Rat Kin using the wall as a springboard to change directions quickly and was not practically on top of him.

Thankfully the daggers were best used close in close quarters and if the rat wanted to deliver itself to the blades he wasn’t going to complain.

His blades missed the monster's eyes but he managed to stab them into their shoulders as he fell backwards as he let the rat try to tackle him. He promptly placed his foot onto the thing's stomach and hurled it over him, letting its momentum carry it onwards while ripping the daggers out of the rat in the process.

He quickly got himself to his feet and leapt at the rat who had landed on its back. Plunging the daggers into the rat multiple times until it stopped thrashing about.

Killed adolescent Rat Kin lvl 8

You have leveled up to level 6

That…. Okay, he was starting to feel a little bad about killing so many infants and adolescent rats. Sure they were trying to kill him but things were getting a little upsetting. Like he was half expecting to suddenly get an achievement called baby killer or something.

“If it makes you feel better. You are the best baby killer I have ever seen.”

“... No… No, that doesn’t make me feel better. Why would you even think that would make me feel better???”

“Positive reinforcement?”

Quill let out an exasperated sigh “Please don’t encourage me into killing babies. I am only doing this more out of necessity than anything else.”

“Okay okay, no more teasing. Such a debbie downer today aren't we. What I was actually going to say was that I don’t think these are entirely sentient creatures. The system seems to have control over this entire dungeon from what I can tell. And that includes everything here that is native to it. AKA the rats also. Or at least most of the rats. The only two creatures I have sensed sentience from was this rat kin you just killed and that plague infested adult dire rat too. So you have only killed one adolescent with sentience. Hurray for you!”

“Are you telling the truth?” Some slight doubt crept into his thoughts and she huffed at him in response.

“Of course I am telling the truth! I might like teasing you but I know when to stop if need be…. Usually.. Depends on the situation... Either way, whether you believe me or not doesn’t change the fact that I am still right. But if you don’t fully believe me then you can always check with outside sources afterwards. It doesn’t change the fact of life that it is still kill or be killed here and I want you to survive this in the end.”

He could tell from her tone that she was clearly upset at having doubted some of her words. “Hey.. I’m sorry for upsetting you. Guess I was just a little stressed..” he offered a meek apology

“It’s fine.” There was a small pause before she continued “I suppose you can always earn the achievement of baby killer when you leave the tutorial. I believe in you!”

And he checked himself out of the conversation as he started to drag the dead rat bodies away from the door to the safe room except for one which he left near it. The hope was that when something inevitable did come to eat these dead rats he would be able to kill them.

That was one reason why he was placing the dead rat near his door. When one came to that one he would be able to do a quick surprise kill. The other reason was to hopefully disguise any potential smell from his blood stained armor.

Once everything was in place he shut the door and sat down to rest and to level up. He placed his free stat point into the mind since he already got a stat point into his body. This would hopefully at least a little more towards his recovery for using his energy manifestation again as he wanted it ready for the next encounter. Now it was just a matter of waiting for something else to come.