It took several hours for him to hear some noise coming from the other side of the door. He certainly wasn’t complaining though as he now felt good enough to use his energy manifestation without suffering an immediate headache afterwards.
Using his enhanced hearing he listened and wasn’t particularly happy with the results. It sounded like there were fewer rats than before, sure, but the claws clacking against the tile floor but those claws also sounded louder and heavier.
It was probably safe to assume he was dealing with adult sized rats but probably only two or three which was a silver lining he supposed. It was then something happened that he wasn’t really expecting but probably should have. He heard a voice call out from behind the doors.
“I know you are hiding behind the door roach! Come out here and face me so that I may avenge my brethren! Unless you are too scared!”
“Oh nice! You get to talk to the rats now about all the babies you have killed! Isn’t that great!” she responded. Her chipper voice contrasted horrible with what she just said.
“Please don’t be providing commentary during this”
“No promises”
Quill sighed and unlocked the door before cracking it open just a little bit to peek out. There stood a humanoid looking rat dressed in some armor that looked more like it was all just slapped together with random sheet metal then anything else while holding a crude looking curved sword.
It stood perhaps as tall as Quill, at about 5’8 maybe 5’9 (His own height was a constant point of annoyance on his end). But with its hunched back it probably was actually an additional couple of inches if he were to hazard a guess.
Next to the humanoid rat stood adult sized dire rats, one on each side and they both looked at him with intense rage, each clearly wrestling with the urge to just charge Quill and tear him to shreds.
The humanoid rat looked rather shocked to see Quills face “You… You are no roach! Who are you! Why do you serve the roaches!”
“Hey man. Rat. thing…” Really didn’t think that first part of that sentence through “I don’t serve anybody. I’m just trying to survive this insanity after being dropped into this tutorial with no warning.”
The Rat Kin scoffed at his response “You look like those people that showed up suddenly a few days ago after we were finally released to do our duty. Smells like them too. I knew they were servants of the roaches. I was smart in having them all slaughtered. Were good eatings they were.”
Well there goes any chance of potentially talking this out. Even if he could somehow convince this rat that he wasn’t working for these so-called roaches, he was a human and humans were “good eatings” apparently.
“See? You are delicious! That other adult rat didn’t know good food even when it was biting and scratching at its back. Probably why it was diseased.”
“Heh. Yeah. I am pretty delicious aren't I”
“Oh trust me~ I know better than most~”
“Stop talking to yourself and come out!” The Rat Kin screamed, clearly not liking the fact that they were ignoring him. This got her to mutter in his head about rats and being horrible rude with interrupting their conversation before finally speaking with clarity.
“Might as well. Nothing better to do anyways. But maybe you can extract some information out of him”
Quill opened the door and stepped out. Keeping his daggers sheathed and his hands in the air hoping to keep their guard down.
“No further steps! Unarm yourself and kick the weapons away! Hurry! I promise no harm will come to you if you do!”
Now Quill wasn’t very good at reading facial expressions, even worse at reading humanoid rat expressions. But this rat was apparently an even worse liar if he could see through it. Still, it would help give them a sense of confidence and hopefully carelessness if he complied. So keeping the daggers sheathed he removed them from his waist and tossed them away well out of reach.
“Good! Good. Now tell me everything the roaches are planning, their forces, and their plans, where they have encampments in the tunnels, and I shall be sure to ask our king to show mercy to you!”
Again with the roaches… Wait. “You don’t mean those cursed sin monsters that swarm the tunnels do you?” Quill asked with some very faint albeit weirdly placed hope.
“Do not play dumb! The sins of gluttony are pacified in this dungeon and do not harm us so long as we don’t tread on their territory! I speak of the roaches!”
“Wait… So there is a second faction aside from you rats… Don’t tell me!”
“Annny second now~” her voice responded with anticipation.
The Rat Kin started saying something more but Quill had long since tuned it out and waited for what he feared and sure enough. Another blue screen popped up in front of his face
New quest received! “Infestation”
Turns out they’re more things in these tunnels aside from rats and cursed sins. You got bugs too!
Objective: Find what is creating the roaches and destroy it
Reward upon completion: 2 health potions, 2 stamina potions, 2 mana potions, 2 cleansing potions, 100,000 bonus credits upon exiting the tutorial dungeon
“You bastard! You did that on purpose!” Quill jabbed an accusatory finger at the Rat Kin who looked shocked at his sudden outburst before snarling back.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“You’d dare interrupt your betters! I should have known an agent of the roaches would have no sense of decorum!”
“Coming real hypocritical from a flea infested vermin!”
“You’d DARE!” The Rat Kin then looked at the dire rats “Tear the agent's limbs from his body and see if the pain teaches them a lesson in manners!”
The two large rats let out shrieks and charged Quill but he was ready, he was more than ready. Summoning up his giant pizza cutter weapon that he used to chop off one of those sins hands with, he had the blade spin and swung it wildly into the large rat that was in the front. Carving through the things head like it was made of butter and making a real bloody mess as flesh and bone flew everywhere.
The second rat skidded to a halt after seeing what happened to its brethren and tried to turn around but Quill was on it in a second and hammered his pizza cutter into the monster several times, carving it up and killing it, leaving yet another bloody mess and making his attempts to clean his armor seemingly rather pointless.
He was really glad he had his sense of smell turned off cause the smell of blood was already bad. But he unfortunately had his hearing and sight enhanced and hearing all the squelching of meat and being able to see all the intense details of all the guts flying was less than pleasant. Needless to say after killing those two giant rats he threw up yet again. Hopefully there was a skill later down the road that prevented him from getting sick from this
“You good sweetie?”
“Yeah.. Yeah I’m good. Wasn’t expecting such a mess when I did that which in hindsight doesn’t make sense.”
Thankfully the Rat Kin was standing still in clear shock over the mess he had just made to make good on Quill's lack of focus before glaring at him.
“You! You will die for that!”
“Weren’t you already planning on killing m- Woah!” The Rat Kin didn’t wait for him to finish as it charged far faster than Quill would have expected and slashed with his sword barely missing him by an inch.
Unfortunately for Quill, all the blood on the floor made his ground unsteady and he slipped right onto the ground making a splash. The Rat Kin quickly tried to capitalize on the advantage and swung the blade down which Quill quickly rolled out of the way. Barely managing to avoid the monster blade yet again.
He manifested his pizza cutter and swung up only for the rat to parry his blow. Thankfully his spinning blade knocked the Rat Kins blade away causing the rat to take several steps back to rebalance itself and Quill tried to get back to his feet. But the Rat Kin was far faster and better coordinated then he was as they were quickly upon him again.
It took Quill everything to block the blows the rat threw at him and already he felt the headache starting to come on which was the first sign he was starting to hit danger zones with his energy manifestation.
Knowing the Rat Kin had the advantage in both ground and experience, Quill decided to take a page out of the rat's book. While still deflecting the blows as best he could, he imagined a tail of his own with his energy manifestation and had it snake towards the Rat Kins leg before wrapping around it. He then yanked it and pulled the unexpected rat off its feet. The slippery ground now worked towards his advantage as he swung his pizza cutter and managed to saw off one of the Rat Kins arms that was holding the sword eliciting a shriek of pain from the rat.
Now with the upper hand, Quill got to his feet and grabbed the rat's sword, dissipating his manifestations as the strain was becoming too much for him. He then placed the sword's tip onto the rat's neck. “Alright.” Quill managed to get out between laboring breaths “Talk. I have some questions for you”
The Rat Kin was sniveling as it clutched its severed stump earning some brief moments of pity.
“Hold that pity my love. Lets not forget he would have happily killed you first. And anybody who would dare to harm you deserves not your pity or mercy.” her voice spoke lacking none of its usual playfulness or warmth.
“Well that is pretty dark, not something I expected coming from you”
“Your bleeding heart is sweet and I like that about you. But it will get you into trouble. I am just making sure you will do what needs to be done. Steel yourself Quill and be ready”
He took a breath, knowing she was right and kept the tip towards the Rat Kin as it looked at him with a mix of pained confusion and fear.
“Right. First question. Roaches. Where are these roaches and do you know how many of them they’re?”
“Filthy little agent like you. So low in the roaches ranks that you don’t even know your own forces! Or perhaps the roaches are so disorganized that they can’t keep track of their own numbers. Yes, that makes more sense. Need us Rat Kin to do the work for you!”
Yeah. This was certainly going to get him no where. “Okay, well how about your forces?”
“Ha! You’d love to know that wouldn’t you! But it won’t matter! I have already sent word to the rat king before our confrontation that we needed reinforcements! They will be here soon and with it! Will bring your doom!”
“One emergency after another it seems” Quill mumbled but then a thought occurred. “Wait. How will they even get here with those sin creatures moving through the tunnels. You said earlier that they are pacified. What did you mean by that?”
“They are pacified! The rules for the tutorial we were given stated so as long as we don’t go into their tunnels! You were the reason one of them killed so many of my brethren weren’t you! You were in their tunnel and that's why so many of us died! You angered the sin!”
“Yeah, no shit. So how do you guys navigate? Obviously you don’t use the actual tracks. Also what the hell is this about rules of the tutorial?”
“The tutorial rules are what we were given! It is our fate for asking the system for a second chance!” His screams were becoming more incoherent and making less sense “And you are damaging our chances for a second start, using the sins to destroy so many of our forces! Why couldn’t you have just taken the secret tunnels like the rest!”
“Secret tunnels… Of course they’re secret tunnels. Why wouldn't there be secret tunnels” Quill scratched his head in annoyance.
“Kinda feel embarrassed that neither of us thought there would be secret tunnels”
“I know right? It makes sense when you think about it”
“Actually… No, thinking about it more. It doesn't make sense. Why would there be secret tunnels in a dungeon that is modeled after a metro system”
“Well it makes sense to me” he muttered in response.
“Yes, but sweetie. You are insane. Certified by the system. What you thinks makes sense isn’t what most would think makes sense”
“My insanity is only weak! Certified by the system! That hardly means anything!” he complained back
“Uh…” Both Quill and her attention turned back to the Rat Kin who looked visible weirded out despite missing his arm.
“Don’t look at us like that. We are just having a conversation. Now about these reinforcements. When will they arrive?”
“Maybe in another 6-8 hours?” The Rat Kin seemed to reflexively respond before realizing it probably shouldn’t have said that.
“Good enough.” And Quill slashed through the rats neck before stabbing it into the heart killing them.
“Nice! I was worried you were going to hesitate some more and worry about morality or some other useless thing”
“I’ll worry about the morality of issues when I have the luxury to do so. For now. I need to get ready for whatever reinforcements that are to come.”
“Hey, you can lie to yourself but you can’t lie to me. I know what you did just bothered you.”
Quill let out a sigh “Let's just focus on the task at hand please”
“Fine but I do have some good news for you”
“Whats that?”
You have leveled up to lvl 7!
“Ta-Da!”