[The E-rank quest "Rat Infested Home" is no longer valid.]

Yes, I half expected this. It was bound to happen when you take double-booked quests: someone else runs them before you. This won't give me penalties nor a reward, still, when you can only take on three errands, it's a wasted opportunity.

What is so great about this, dear Selena? Fine, sure. She had me ride along with DragonSlayer, and the bandit camp was a huge punch above my weight, thus paying me well. It did not count towards the limit, so the other jobs were only the icing on the cake.

She even ensured they'd be on my way back without saying a word. Still, this mission also had its downsides, although it's more accurate to say, my greed had. The massacre only lasted minutes, yet cleaning up the aftermath alone took a while.

Nobody said I had to do it so it's all on me.

My character only finished the arduous journey to the stash when this message popped up. It was only half a kilometer walk, but once you get used to running everywhere, this strolling will feel slow. And the load even remained under sixty kilos so it wouldn't become a crawl.

Looting takes too long. The other jobs and the undead mobs give little a player can take, and the bandits are the opposite. They leave behind too much, and the bodies disappear, so finding and sorting stuff is a chore.

It's no wonder that DragonSlayer said he doesn't want any of it.

Imagine when you are at a level where a plus-five bow is dead weight and you give it away for free. If he hadn't logged off, he could have finished two more missions in the time it took to sort through the bandit's junk.

It's the perfect opportunity to test the lantern though. Pairing it with the dark bandit cloak seems dumb, but you can blow out the flame if someone shows up. This beats torches by a long shot. Since the camp is far from the village, nobody bothered me.

Seeing something in the dark is nice for a change though.

It's past midnight once everything unpacks, and the sun rises before the chest finds its place. It takes some more digging to hide it and my character is in such a rush, the lock and the key ends up inside the chest, not on it. It's his fault, my avatar of course, not mine.

And despite all this, the first quest is already invalid. I mark the stash in the bookmarks and run. This function never came up during the tutorial, even though it's useful. If you don't ask the system about it, it refuses to tell you the ins and outs of CineMraft.

Thanks to the Trainer, it was still worth taking. This restriction that NPCs can't explain meta things hampers the experience though. When you select a location from a private list, the map will show an arrow with the distance as it does with missions.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Each point can have a name and description and there is no need to leave markings that other players could find. You don't have to remember where the stash is either, which is handy for someone as forgetful as me. It was a lucky accident that I found out about it.

The Boogle search was about dismantling a camp, but the first match was to set up proper markings. And now, without wasting any more time, rush back to the village. My inventory is light again, taking the medium backpack, the food, and only the weapons I use.

This means the bows and arrows stay along the green cloak, the other backpacks, and the lantern. The less the character has to drag along, the faster he can run, and take on the two remaining quests. And the less he will lose if the worst happens, and someone kills me.

It's around noon when I spot the first villager, and speedrun the errand before he can say anything. It's a normal, E-rank quest like all the others before, thirty-six rats waiting for me to kill them. Less than five hundred Exp, and takes two minutes with the dagger.

[You killed a Common Rat +5 Exp.]

Yeah, it sucks, but the tenth level is about fifty missions away. Run three of these every hour and it's a guaranteed success. The only question is if there will be enough. One of the rats leaves behind his tail again, and since it's the only thing you can call loot here, I take it.

It has almost no weight and can serve as a memento of how many of these vicious monsters my character did slay. The villager only has enough time to bow his head as I speed by towards the next location, a street away from this one.

A surprise awaits, and it's finally some good news.

[The E-rank "Rat Infested Home" escalated into D-rank "Rat Ravaged Home".]

[Quest: Rat Ravaged Home. Importance: Medium. Difficulty: Average. Progress: 0/37. Reward: 5 Silver and 500 Exp. Plague Rats infested a villager's house, infecting him too. Cure the villager and kill the rats. The rats are in the basement, kitchen, and attic (1/6 hours left).]

It almost killed me the first time, but with the antidotes, it should be a walk in the park. And think about the rewards. The description doesn't mention it, yet a Plague Rat gives ten times the Exp than the common version. It says there is only one hour left though. It's odd.

The villager gets a healing potion from me, and I chug down a blue one. It helps that each has different colors and the vials vary in shape too. You can't grab the wrong one by accident, even in the chaos of battle, when you have no time to read the description.

[Status effect: Immunity (antidote) 02:57]

There is only one problem. The devs gave this the most disgusting bitter medicine taste they could find and it almost comes back up. Now it's better to hurry up since the clock's ticking, for the buff and the fed's main mission.

The same green toxic fog clouds the interior as in the previous quest of the same rank. There is no dizziness or choking this time. Without the fear of sickness, all the vermin die by my dagger in the three rooms before the timer runs out.

[You killed a Plague Rat +50 Exp.]

No side-effects, no damage, it's smooth sailing.

This errand is the creme of the ratting missions. Including the kills, it pays more than four times the experience as the other versions. The money is more than ten times better too, but who cares? It covers the antidote and healing potion's cost with plenty to spare.

The last quest for the poison lily and the horde of zombies that almost killed me paid less. No, it paid the same after those fuckers respawned. It's because normal undead only gives thirty points, even though they are much tougher.

My only regret is that I got here in the middle of the day. Imagine coming close to midnight, and having the rats respawn. Thirty-six times fifty Exp that you could farm twice.