Chapter 4: Fat Rat
As Jax slowly awoke, he wondered why he felt so good. Wasn’t there a reason that he should be in pain? His eyes shot open and he sat up. Feeling his body, the damage that he should have had was nowhere to be found. Even his basic Improving realm clothes were pristine. This had to be the work of a Large Heal, or even a Full Restore! Excited, he remembered the reward from the last root monster and got up.
The tunnel was lit up with a purple glow, the roots having dissolved into slime that covered the floor. Wrinkling his nose, he wondered if the way these two monsters died was a sign that Rot was somehow involved in the trial. That would be concerning. It could also imply that it was a Rotplague making his trial so difficult. Maybe some powerful creature of Rot had infected unimproved kids with a subtle crippling Rotplague, and he was just one of the many victims? He wasn’t sure if Rotlings were intelligent enough to hamper the ‘supply line’ of human warriors like that.
If that was the case he would know when he returned to the true realm, as he was unlikely to be the only one in his class afflicted. Realizing with a start that he had distracted himself, Jax refocused on what Temporary Improvement he could have gotten. After an embarrassingly long series of tests, he got discouraged by his inability to find anything different before getting the thought that this reward might not be an Improvement. Looking around, he immediately noticed that the end of the tunnel had rotted away, revealing a chamber with a pedestal at the center.
Thanking the Champions no one had seen him make a fool of himself, he cautiously entered the room. On the pedestal was a beautiful looking silver longsword. With a brass guard molded to look like feathers and a glimmering blade of some bright metal, it was everything the drab starter weapon at his side wasn’t.
After a quick check to make sure it wasn’t an obvious trap, he picked up the sword from the pedestal. Giving it a few swings, it much lighter than his current blade, flowing smoothly through the air and turning on a dime. It seemed made to synergize with his Temporary Improvement.
Cutting at the walls of the chamber with both blades, he determined that it was much, much sharper than his previous sword. It was obvious that his old sword wouldn’t be of much use, so he banished it, the scabbard at his side morphing to fit his new weapon perfectly.
After a long and boring track, Jax arrived back at the giant rat’s room. It was still sleeping, but looking at it closely it seemed a lot bigger than before. The passageway that was previously behind it was now covered entirely by the huge rodent. Jax gulped, now realizing that the upgrades he had received weren’t going to trivialize the trial. Whether the unfair cheater had increased the difficulty to match his current state—which he doubted, as that went against everything he had learned about both trials and Rotplagues—or this creature grew over time, it still meant he had to kill the damn thing.
As he looked over the rat he noticed that its belly was the main thing that had bulged so much. But why would that be? He couldn’t think of any way that the rat could have been eating, it had to have been sleeping this whole time. The sleeping boss or miniboss was a known mechanic, and they never just got up to have a snack! Jax decided that he wouldn’t attack just yet. The odd way that the miniboss bulged like a pregnant—. Oh. He should have thought of that quicker. It was probably a good idea to kill the damn thing before he had to face an army.
Rushing forward silently, he plunged his new sword into one of the beast’s eyes. Before it could recover and fully wake up, he withdrew his sword and stabbed the second eye. His sword slid into the rat’s skull, piercing its brain with an ease that surprised him. He jumped back as the huge creature let out a blood-curdling death shriek. He stood there, dumbfounded for a moment. There was no way a miniboss could be killed so easily and risk-free. Watching the corpse closely, he almost missed a movement in its stomach.
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Catching himself, he came to a split-second decision and rushed forward to begin the horrific task of killing as many rats as he could before they escaped the womb. His sword turned into a blood-soaked flash of light as he pierced the dead beasts stomach over and over. As he killed the rats of various sizes—all fully developed, which made him feel a bit better—their bodies started to obstruct the exit of the others, and all of the remainder were now trying to escape out the other side. Running around the bloated corpse, he came upon a few rats that had already escaped their mothers body.
His blade sheared through all of them with little resistance, parting flesh like paper. Their lunges all felt like slow motion. Predictable. Easy. He reveled in the feeling of being so much stronger than an enemy. Tempering his excitement, he finished off the ones already free and turned his focus to the monsters still tearing their way out of their mothers side.
Once they were all dead, he reflected on the battle high he had just felt. It was different from the adrenaline rushes he got from avoiding attacks, different and not at all better than facing a challenge that was far stronger than him. It felt like the thing that is described by people who had unlocked Murder Improvements. More officially know as War Improvements, they functioned by Improving a Hidden Aspect.
Aspects were facets of humanity or life itself that could be Improved to strengthen yourself. The main aspect was, of course, the Aspect of Improvement. It governed a bunch of minor parameters to do with Improving, as well as providing a small boost to ALL basic Aspects, specific Aspects, and unlocked Hidden aspects. The basic aspects were the fundamental things like Strength, Agility, and Intelligence. The specific Aspects, also called skill Aspects, were weaker but far more numerous. They governed almost every skill that you could naturally get better at. Being good at something naturally helped, but was nothing compared to Improving it a lot. However, it had a bit of a multiplicative effect on your Improved capabilities, so it definitely wasn’t a waste. No one had Improved all the specific Aspects to the extent that they could pass the trials simply because there were to many of them. Dishwashing, skydiving, herbalism, staring, cackling, hand standing, and more. And as you improved your basic Aspects and your combat skill Aspects, your ability to complete trials increased as well. In fact, it was common—although very rude—to Improve a skill Aspect when you were in a boring conversation.
Hidden Aspects were more complicated. You couldn’t Improve them unless you unlocked them through an epiphany, trauma, or deep meditation. They generally had effects that boosted other Aspects, or affected reality in fundamental ways. The Aspect of Improvement was technically a Hidden Aspect, as unlocking it was basically what a partial Improvement was.
The most famous Hidden Aspect was the Aspect of Magic. Besides Improvement, it was the most common Hidden Aspect, as well as one of the most powerful. It gave access to mana, a force that could translate into almost any type of energy, matter, or control over either. Of course, it was more complicated than that and heavily tied in with concepts that Jax couldn’t really understand. There was also a bit of a gray area tied to magic. The basic magics—fire, wind, earth, and water—were unlocked with the magic aspect, but all others were locked behind their own sort of Hidden sub-aspects. On top of this, they acted like specific Aspects in all other respects! Magic was quite, well, magical.
The Aspect of War was hidden Aspect that boosted basic Aspects when participating in conflict. A lot of the people who gained it did so by giving in to urges of bloodlust and killing another human. Supposedly, it could also extend its buffs to allies, but considering the number of murderous psychopaths who have developed Manifestations of it, the Aspect was quite feared and reviled. If he could unlock it he wouldn’t fear Improving it, but he definitely wouldn’t be killing people to try and get it.
He was broken out of his thoughts by the smell of blood and viscera. Grimacing, Jax looked toward the huge carcass that was now blocking his path forward. He was going to have to push it out of the way, wasn’t he? In fact… the chances were low, but if this stupid Tutorial put a reward inside the rat, then he needed to… blech. At least he couldn’t get diseases in here. Well, diseases that would effect him after the trial ended. Actually, let's not think about that. Just Harvest the rat. easy.