Quill adjusted his backpack a little as he walked through the tunnels, it was a miracle in his eyes that the thing could still stay on his back given its torn strap, also a miracle that despite the tares it still managed to hold everything he had put in it. A testament to how damn good the backpack actually was.
He snuck through the tunnels, doing his best to be aware of any potential surroundings. He had to double back a couple of times to dodge some rat patrols. Sure it was missing out on experience but he wanted to get as close as he could to the grand station without alerting any potential enemies.
He was pretty good at quick battles but anything that might be long and protracted kinda screwed him over. Plus he wasn’t sure if he would be capable of killing all the rats before one or two escaped. It really just boiled down too. Why risk it?
Thankfully the actual patrols were fairly loud and were easy enough for him to avoid. Well not entirely easy since there were only so many branching paths in these tunnels but he managed.
The map he had was concise enough that he hadn’t gotten lost as he ran about. Or at least if he was lost he hadn’t realized it yet so he was going to assume he wasn’t lost.
Slowly but surely he made his way through the tunnels. Some parts he actually had to crawl on his stomach cause of course there wasn’t consistent ceiling height. Damn the system and its horrible stupid dungeon layouts.
Finally he came to a part that didn’t seem like he could walk around or move around. The tunnels had widened a bit and there was a poor makeshift barricade of furniture, mostly broken wooden benches, with several armed and armored rats standing there and several more adult dire rats as well.
He looked at the map he had and if he wasn’t actually lost. Then that meant he was really close to the grand station. He was pretty sure even if he did double back and try a different route he would run into the same thing once he got close enough to the entrance to the grand station.
“I would suggest taking care of all the potential blockades. The last thing you want is to be fighting in the grand station and have enemies come up from behind.”
He sent a mental acknowledgement as he tried to ponder how he was going to get through this. Or at least get through it without having to deal with a lot of reinforcements.
“I got a suggestion. Hit them really hard, and hit them really fast. Can’t get reinforcements if they are all dead!”
“We’ll call that plan B” he thought back as he sat back by the corner of the tunnel just out of sight.. He perhaps had an idea but he didn’t know how well it would work. But he didn’t really have anything better so thought he might as well give it a go.
He took a deep breath and slowly made a small sliver of his energy manifestation. It would best be described as like one of those ninja needles from the popular ninja anime.
Since he couldn’t control his manifestations without it being connected to him somehow he attached a thin string onto the needle, similar to what she did with that orb before hitting him with it for his punishment of not properly thanking her.
When it was ready he launched it as fast as he could into the gang of rat kin and dire rats. Aiming for a large dire rat that seemed the most irritable.
He zipped it through one of the openings of the barricade and right into the dire rat's haunches making let out a yelp of pain as it whirled around to see what would dare hit it. Quill, having already dissipated the energy, watched as the dire rat started snapping at a different dire rat and getting into a scuffle.
The other dire rats and rat kins didn’t seem like they were particularly bothered by the fighting and just sort of ignored them which hopefully confirmed his suspicions that these rats were probably all system spawns if what he had been told about their intelligence was true. So Quill did it again. This time aiming for a rat kin and hitting its butt causing the creature to yelp and turn to a rat kin behind it and started shoving it hard.
Quill went through that process about 3 more times before he finally got all the rats to start fighting with each other in more than just a scuffle. Some seemed to be down right trying to murder the others.
He then, as carefully and as quietly as he could, started scuffling his way over. Trying to keep to the shadows as much as possible as he slowly got nearer until he was just on the outside of the brawl.
Not wanting to use his energy manifestation skill unless necessary. He lifted his daggers up and waited for the rats to tire themselves out at least and hopefully kill each other at most.
Finally when the fighting seemed to die down with almost all of them being some form of injured and a few dead Quill sprung into action and jumped the rats. They all let out shrieks of surprise as he stabbed one of his daggers into the closest and largest Rat Kins neck, having it drop down dead before starting to move on to the next.
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They put up a fight sure but once again he didn’t feel particularly hard pressed by the situation. The fact that they were all injured and tired helped him greatly. And soon he had taken down the whole camp with only a few scratches and bruises to show for it.
You have leveled up to lvl 17
Quill quickly distributed his stat point to mind as he examined his body. He knew his injuries would slowly start to stack and he was tempted to take one of the three health potions now. But at the same time that almost felt like wasting them for the injuries he currently had.
He resisted the urge to sigh as he sat down in the bloody mess he created and looked over the map. He wasn’t really upchucking anymore from the smell or sight of the stuff which probably wasn’t a good sign for his mental psyche but it was welcome.
He carefully studied the map. It would be guesswork with where the other barricades might be, assuming there were any, and he didn’t know when the changing of the guard might happen either. So he was going to need to work fast while also trying to conserve as much energy and resources as possible. Being a glass canon in these kinds of circumstances sucked.
After planning his next route he quickly got up from where he sat and began to make his way through the tunnels. It took maybe another 20 minutes to an hour before he found another Rat Kin encampment similar to the first.
Only this time he was behind the barricade. Not that was going to change his approach to things. If it wasn’t broken, why fix it?
“Change up the monotony of it all” She responded with ever so helpful commentary. But he felt that changing things up so it wouldn’t become monotonous worked best when one's life wasn’t at stake.
He dealt with the camp in much the same way he dealt with the first and even managed to level up to 18 because of it. If he could keep leveling up like this then perhaps taking down the grand station with the rat king wouldn’t be so bad.
He sat down and rested for a little bit. He had incurred a few more injuries, all of them minor at best. The Rat Kins seemed to have very little fighting experience and the dire rats mostly used the same tactic of charging straight at him. So thanks to all of his skills that revolved around not getting hit and being faster, he managed to mitigate most damage even with just using his daggers.
Once he felt rested enough he began to make his way through the tunnels that were around the entrance of the grand station. Once he found a third camp he started to do the same thing yet again. Unfortunately that was when things went a little sideways for him.
After he had engaged the now injured and weary rats from their own in fighting he heard several snarls that came from within the tunnels and acting on instinct he leapt away from his current engagement with a dire rat just barely in time to avoid a crossbow bolt slicing through the air that just barely missing him.
Turning his head he saw several rat kin now charging him from within the tunnel that would have led outside the encampment circle making him hazard a guess that this was a patrol given that also seemed to consist of 3 Rat Kins and 2 dire rats.
Knowing that he was caught on the back foot he quickly ditched his daggers and summoned up his Pizza Cutter and Rat Tail, quickly dispatching the tired enemies close to him while dodging another bolt from the crossbow Rat Kin.
The two other Rat Kins and Dire Rats were soon upon him which Quill swung his Pizza Cutter to meet the charging Rat Kins blade while using his Rat Tail to fend off the others. Perhaps it was thanks to all the levels he just recently received but he was soon able to overwhelm his first opponent as his blade spun and sliced cleanly through him the Rat Kin. His Rat Tail also managed to score several minor blows on the other three while keeping them at bay.
He suddenly felt a sharp pain and powerful thud hit his shoulder and he stumbled back with a curse as a bolt was now embedded into him. The sudden lack of concentration made him accidentally drop his manifestations, leading him wide open which the rats were all too keen to take advantage of.
Quill jumped backwards, summoning up a spear that impaled a dire rat through its own momentum and pushing him further away from the others, barely managing to dodge yet another crossbow bolt. He had no idea how that Rat Kin could reload his crossbow so quickly.
He summoned up his Rat Tail again and had it impale the dire rat that he skewered with his spear, killing the monster. Quill then yanked his spear out and swung it wildly, getting blocked by the incoming Rat Kin as Quill also kicked out at the charging dire rat's face. He manifested a small blade at the end of his boot as he did so to slice through the dire rat while he blocked the blows from the Rat Kin. Just barely avoiding another crossbow bolt in the process.
He used his Rat Tail to shoot forward towards the rat kin he was engaged in close combat and managed to skewer the monster's thigh as it let out a shriek of pain. He then thrust with his spear and impaled them in the heart. Manifesting the tip of the spear to spike outwards, destroying all nearby organs as well before dissipating the weapon entirely. Then he summoned up a Warhammer which he promptly brought down onto the recovering dire rat's head, crushing its skull.
Quill quickly pivoted his attention and looked up towards the Rat Kin that had been shooting bolts at him but didn’t see anything. They were gone and he wasn’t entirely sure if he was in a position to pursue which meant….
He growled and yanked the crossbow bolt out of his shoulder. He’d like to say he took the pain like a champ but he just ended up crying. Biting his lip to try and ignore the throbbing pain he took out the health potions and quickly chugged one.
He instantly felt better physically as the wound on his shoulder closed and several of the harsher injuries he had accumulated healed as well.
“Soooo. What now? The rats probably know you are here and massacring their people.” She asked and Quill let out a sigh. He was half tempted to drink his stamina and mana potion but knew he needed to save them given that he was probably about to deal with a whole hoard of rats coming down on him soon.
“Now? Hell if I know. Survive I guess? That’s probably the best I got right now.”
“Solid plan A. How do you plan to achieve that though?”
“Fuck if I know.”