“Think they will be attacking any time soon?” Quill felt the need to ask after distributing his points accordingly Which is to say, all in mind since he already has physical covered and soul was… Well whatever the hell was going on with soul.
“Hmmm. No idea, I would say you freaked them out pretty badly from killing two elite monsters with such ease. So if they do come back. It probably won’t be for a while but it will be with a very significant force.”
“Is that what these guys are?” Quill nudged one of the massive dead Rat Kins with his foot. Thing probably stood 6 foot 6 if he were to hazard a guess and had some pretty strong muscles. If he didn’t have his energy manifestation skill and the drop on them, he probably would have struggled trying to kill them.
“No, you wouldn’t have struggled. You would have died.” She spoke in a teasing like tone “But don’t worry about it. All worked out in the end didn’t it?”
He paused to digest her words “And what if it doesn’t work out in the end since I am clearly punching above my weight class here”
“Well it’s not like you will be alive long enough to regret it in this life.”
He couldn’t really argue with that logic.
He let out a sigh and started to yank off all the armor and weapons from the dead rats that littered the tunnels. He wasn’t sure if he was going to have any use for these things but he’d rather have them and not need them, then need them and not have them. He decided to stash everything inside the break room, filling it up with what was probably useless junk but hey, it was now his junk.
His body ached in protest of more physical work after straining itself with the energy manifestation but he eventually stripped the rats clean of supplies, even got a couple of new daggers from one of the bodies. He then began to drag the headless dead rat bodies that were up in the station halls towards one of the platforms. He still didn’t know what he was going to do with the cursed sins but if they were going to stick around. They could at least help him dispose of the corpses.
Once all that was done, Quill closed the trap door and propped his barricade back up, strengthening it more with some of the heavier discarded armor and weapons he just looted before heading towards the break room to take a nice long nap.
Sure there was the risk of them attacking again during said nap but he felt like he scared the current force sufficiently that they wouldn’t come back without reinforcements so that should give him perhaps 6-8 hours at least judging by what that one Rat Kin said. Probably more though so nap time, he was tired.
“Hey, wake me up in like 3-4 hours.”
“What am I, an alarm clock to you?”
“For now.” and Quill promptly fell asleep.
He wasn’t sure how long he was out but he woke up feeling better than he ever felt despite the general uncomfortableness of the floor. He was going to go find a bed as soon as he could when he got out of here.
“Morning cutie. How did you sleep? I would have woken you with a kiss but sadly I don’t have a form yet.”
“Mmmf. Pretty good actually.” Despite having slept amazingly he was always slow in waking up. He then scrunched his eyebrows “Wait. What do you mean yet?”
“Oh! You should probably get a move on quickly! You did sleep for a while and while I haven’t noticed any rats skulking around, that doesn’t mean they aren’t.”
Quill shook his head to try and clear some of the brain fog and let out a sigh “Alright alright. Give me a second. At least let me eat something and drink some water.
Her voice switched to that of a stuck up noble “I’ll allow it.”
“You are too kind”
“Hehe. About time you noticed. I swear my kind and benevolent nature will get the best of me someday, what's a gal to do.”
“I am sure you’ll figure something out” He mumbled in response as he grabbed some food. The junk food was really starting to taste gross by now. He was all for pigging out whenever he could with unhealthy food but when it’s all you’ve been eating for the past few days it really started to taste gross.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
He packed up the rest in his torn backpack and made sure to fill his empty potion bottles with water before heading back out towards the barricaded secret entrance. Removing everything he popped the lid open and peered down into the tunnel.
“I want you to realize how incredibly stupid that was?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“You literally just opened the door that they knew you knew about. They could have set up an ambush for you the moment your adorable face showed. You are smart but holy shit was that dumb”
Huh. Yeah, that was pretty dumb. “Sorry, I guess with how easily the last couple encounters went I was letting my guard down. I’ll try to be more careful”
“All I ask”
Quill took a deep breath and jumped down into the tunnel with a small squish and he held back a gag as he refused to look down. Probably should have disposed of all those dead bodies before his nap. Instead he took his steps forward into the secret tunnel where the rats had come from. It was time to finish up one of his three quests.
Keeping his enhanced eyesight and hearing up he slowly navigated the tunnels. There was a small air current that felt sort of nice on his skin if he was being honest and he almost thought about turning on his enhanced touch but the idea of stubbing his toe while walking through the dark tunnel with enhanced touch was enough to dissuade him.
He continued to stumble forward. It wasn’t totally dark like the metro tunnels. There were small lamps every few meters that offered some small amount of light which helped. It allowed his enhanced eyesight to see further and actually see enough detail to not trip over anything on the ground.
After walking maybe 15 or so minutes he came across the remnants of what he assumed was the rat camp. Discarded cots, some cooking pots, long dead fire pits. Probably why the second wave with the two elites came so quickly after he dealt with the first. However it looked like after they ran away they didn’t grab their stuff. Or some of it anyways.
As he made his way through the tunnel it was kind of uneventful. Which is to say boring. He was bored. You’d think traveling down a dark tunnel towards where all the rats were coming from would be nerve wracking but he just sort of felt… Bored.
“Maybe you're an adrenaline junkie and just had your awakening with all the battles that has happened. ” She made a sniffling sound and gave a mocking sad voice “To think my baby boy would be into such dangerous activities. I’m practically beside myself with worry!”
He ignored the comments as he came to an intersection. It branched off into two different paths and he was about to turn on his enhanced sense of smell to see which tunnel smelled worse when he felt something pressed gentle against his neck.
“Move and I slice your throat open human” Came a gruff voice behind him and Quill froze right in place as he felt the object placed at his throat slightly bite into his skin drawing the smallest amount of blood.
“My master has requested an audience with you, so you will go and treat with him. If you make any movements or make anything that I perceive as a threat, I will end your life the moment you even try. Just like I could have ended your life the moment you opened the door to our tunnels.”
Thinking quickly as he could, Quill decided to smile and in his best cocky tone spoke. “So you finally revealed yourself. You know I was getting a little impatient waiting for you to show yourself. How about you remove that blade from my throat so we may talk like civilized people… Rats? Humanoids. Talk like civilized humanoids. ”
There was some small hesitancy before the creature spoke again “You lie, I have seen you stumbling around awkwardly through this whole tunnel. I am surprised you didn’t run into a wall with those pitiful senses of yours.”
“Heh. I am a very good actor” He pretended to check his nails since that felt right to the character he was portraying. “I was doing that to make you feel confident, though admittedly I was expecting you to attack me as opposed to speaking with me. But when I sensed no killing intent from your strike I decided to see what you wanted.” He was surprised at how confident he was making his voice sound despite him freaking out over the fact he could have just died right now.
There was some more hesitancy before he felt the blade leave his neck and the creature took a step back. It took every ounce of willpower not to instantly leap away from the Rat Kin in fear. Instead he turned around with confidence and a smile on his face while doing his damnist to keep his hands from trembling.
“Well? I will follow you. By all means, lead the way.”
The Rat Kin eyed him curiously for a second. He had a black cloak hiding most of his body underneath and two curved daggers he kept open and at the ready in case he did try to pull something which he knew would be a very stupid decision. Plus if the rats were willing to negotiate then he certainly wasn’t going to say no.
Eventually the Rat Kin almost seemed to smile a little “About time I met someone who could detect me. Very well, but know this human. My threat still stands.”
“Of course of course. A good way to keep me on my toes I’m sure.” He felt like goading the Rat Kin was not the wisest move but he was already pretending he was fully confident in killing the guy, so suddenly playing more safe would likely make them suspicious. However the rogue rat seemed impressed, even happy at the confidence so turned and led the way.
“Quill, the moment you get the chance. Kill him, and kill him slowly” Her voice dripped with malice that seemed a little uncharacteristic of her. He sent a mental question asking her why and she continued
“He threatened to kill you. Could have killed you. There is no greater sin. He is already dead in my eyes. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
He sent a mental acknowledgement towards her but wasn’t sold on the idea either. Personally if he could not go about committing a genocide on a species he would certainly prefer it. Either way. He wanted to see what they wanted to discuss.
She didn’t respond to that.