Well rested even after his late night of excitement and nervousness Alan woke up in his comfortable bed with a one track mind, gain his first level. From the task’s description he would be going to clear a tavern’s root cellar that had been invaded by rats, the proprietor of the task estimated there to be somewhere from ten to fifteen rats that came and went through a hole in the cellar wall eating through the barrels of ale and sacks of ingredients the tavern used for their meals. The first thing he did was put on the set of clothing he still had from the orphanage, not wanting to get any blood or rips on his newly purchased sets. After getting dressed he strapped his gorgeous new blades in their sheaths to his belt, opting to leave behind his coin pouch and the coins inside it, trusting the lock on the door and Martha as enough security for his meager hoard. The sheaths didn't have any intricate designs or special features, but they were his and they held his custom blades, which were built specifically for him, which made him feel as if no other weapon could compare to their beauty, utilitarian as that beauty was. Feeling like a real adventurer, Alan walked out from his room and down the stairs to get his first meal of the day, sitting down, his meal was almost bland compared to all the others he had eaten over the time he had been there . He could not believe that he was already going to complete a combat task, a smile on his face and determination in his heart he would complete his task that would be just the start of his leveling journey. Finishing his meal he bade Martha goodbye and walked down the streets towards the infested tavern, noticing almost nothing around him, the shouts of children, the chatter of other pedestrians, one and all it was muted to him. His task was his focus and nothing would stop him from gaining his first level. As he came upon the tavern, it wasn't near as nice as the Laughing Donkey, the tavern was a two story building, adorned with a hanging sign depicting a cracked mug leaking ale, it was much smaller not housing anyone, except for the owner who lived on the second floor, simply feeding patrons and supplying them with drink. Alan pushed open the door and the musty yet sweet smell of long spilled and dried ale assaulted his nose, walking into the building he immediately noticed the sticky feeling of the floor along with the smell.
Perhaps they should hire me to clean as well! No wonder the rats have breached their cellar, their cleanliness leaves a lot to be desired in this place.
Greeting the barman Alan informed him that he had accepted the task to exterminate the rats, the barman led Alan to the back where a set of stairs descended into a surprisingly well lit room, on the ceiling there was a sphere that was as bright as a torch without the smoke or heat. As Alan reached the bottom he spoke to the barman.
“Just close the door behind me, don’t lock it, when I’m done I will come back out.”
The man nodded and closed the door behind himself as he left leaving Alan all alone.
Now to see where these rats are coming from so I can get this done!
Looking around the room the brick walls were lined with barrels, shelves full of baskets and sacks of produce and cured meats, the room was stuffed, yet he could see barrels where it looked as if something had chewed on the them, and sacks with holes where food was falling out, rats indeed Alan thought to himself. As he surveyed the room he didn't see any rats out in the open, however he could tell where more of the items in the cellar had been tampered with was in the far corner away from the stairs that he was standing at the base of. He moved slowly across the space in an attempt to not disturb any rats he may not see, the cellar was much colder than he had expected, fog rising with every breath he wondered how the rats had made their way in, as clearly a mage had been employed to make the light and something to cool the space, he questioned why the owner hadn’t paid to seal it properly. Having reached the other side of the cellar Alan stooped to try and see under the shelves, but couldn’t get low enough to see the back wall behind them, so he got to his hands and knees to get a clearer look. After being on all fours for a few seconds he thought he heard a squeak.
Somewhere under this shelf, it has to be. I’ll clear it off so I can get a better look as to where the hole is.
As fast as lighting a rat came sprinting out from underneath the shelf, Alan screeched as it jumped at him! The rat landed just inches from his lowered face, attempting to get as far away from the rat as fast as possible he pushed with his hands, making him fall to his ass, the rat stared menacingly at him. He [Identify]ed the housecat sized rat.
What the hell, that rat is huge!
[Rat - Level ?]
Moving to get up from his compromised position he kept his eyes locked onto the rat, reaching across his body with his right arm to draw one of his swords. As he glacially withdrew the sword from its sheath, as to not startle the rat, it moved again, going from standing on its hind paws onto all four of its legs still staring at Alan.
This thing is so creepy, its black eyes are intense.
Just before the tip of his blade exited the sheath the rat leaped, Alan finished drawing his blade as fast as he could and made a horizontal slash at the creature while it flew through the air. Missing the rat completely, his sword making a whoosh as it swung through the open air. The rat impacted his chest scratching him leaving behind a stinging pain, its weight stumbling him slightly and making his arms flail in an attempt to balance himself. He kept his balance as the rat landed, scurried back underneath the shelf, leaving a few scratches on him, rips in his tunic and blood beginning to seep from his wounds. He had found it, a large hole missing a brick or two, larger than he thought any rat he knew of would use on his old world, now that he knew where the hole was he began to clear the shelf of its contents after his brief conflict with the giant rat. After he cleared the section of shelving in front of the hole he pulled it away from the wall to inspect the area, perhaps he could simply find the brick and put it back in the hole, inform the owner, and finish the task. Doing so however would prevent him potentially earning his first level that day and he would have to find some other task with low level monsters again to get his level. After exposing the opening the missing brick was nowhere to be found and there was no way for Alan to get to the rats.
Well I might be out of luck here today, I don't know how I'll get to them all if this is the only place they come from, maybe it would just be best to get a new brick and fix the hole.
Fiddling with the bricks above the opening Alan was surprised when his gentle prodding out of boredom, during the moment he took to think about the situation, led to one of the bricks being easily pushed back into the wall. Alan, curious about just how large the hole behind the wall was, began to slowly remove the bricks trying to not make too much of a ruckus, lest he alert the employees or customers above him. After removing ten bricks high and four wide the hole behind the wall was completely exposed, he pulled them towards himself and set them on the ground next to him, intending to rebuild the wall once he was done with his investigation. Removing enough of the bricks to see if he could fit into the opening and enter the space behind the wall took a few minutes to complete, afterwards he got onto his stomach, prepared himself mentally and entered the new space, light from the ceiling of the cellar was partially diffusing into the room but just barely illuminating the first few meters. Straining his eyes to use as much of the miniscule amount of light in the new room and stretching his senses as far as they would go, he noticed the missing brick out of view of the hole he created. The rest of the space appeared to be a downward sloping tunnel leading away from the cellar. So that he wouldn't be caught off guard again he walked down the human sized tunnel with both his blades drawn and at the ready. Alan decided to fully commit to his task and explore the space until he could find the source of the rats and exterminate them, or block them from bothering the tavern again.
The crunch of his boots against the loose dirt floor, the air growing much more humid and musty, eyes adjusted as much as they could in the nearly pitch black space, Alan followed the man sized passageway and continued at a slight downward angle.
This is clearly where the rats are coming from but what is this place, maybe I should have brought something to light the way, should I go back and get a torch or something? Eh, I’ve come this far, I think I’ll be fine.
Continuing his sensory deprived walk, Alan felt relaxed, confidence boosted by the extremely competent trainers' confidence in him, and by his few days of training at the Adventurer's Guild. Coming to a sharp corner Alan thought he could hear something, he thought it sounded like the skittering of rat's claws on the dirt floor. Thus far the tunnel had been extremely dark but light enough for Alan to see the shape of the tunnel and the silhouette of his hands and blades when held out in front of him. He peaked around the corner attempting to get a view on the source of the noise, he wasn't able to see the end of the tunnel but there was light coming what looked to be another opening about halfway down from his corner, slowing the speed of his walk compared to his pace while coming down the shaft he made his way towards the opening, it was larger than the rest of the space he had been in so far. As he approached the sound of scratching and running nails grew louder and the light grew brighter, getting to the opening it was twice the size of the rest of the tunnel and filled with cages full of rats.
What the fuck? There has to be at least a hundred cages full of rats, ewww are those eating one that died in there? So gross. Is someone else trying to clean up the rats? Or are they breeding them, either way, gross. It smells so bad in here.
Intending to get his task completed no matter what, he snuck into the rat cage filled cavern and began searching to see if he could find any hint of what was going on. Making his way past the stacks of cages he came across what looked to be a small area where someone had been living, a bed on the floor, a dresser, a desk, and even a small kitchen area. Poking through the dresser he found a few pieces of parchment, luckily one benefit of the orphanage over his life in his original village was a better education, as a kingdom sponsored orphanage all wards received an education and Alan knew how to read. Parsing through the small stack of parchment they all seemed to be letters, none saying anything about the person or what their motive for the massive amount of rats could be so he moved on to the small desk and its two drawers. In the desk was a notebook, filled with what looked to be almost daily entries in a much harsher almost scratching hand than the letters he found in the dresser. The notebook was difficult for Alan to read so he made his way towards the last few entries.
‘After unlocking my mana I can almost feel a connection with the rats….’ the handwriting became so bad Alan couldn't tell what it said for a few words but began to be able to piece together the rest of the sentence ‘....skill is so close, and then I will level up to 15 and hopefully get a class to go along with it’
Seems like they are using the rats for themselves then, not trying to get rid of them. Should I just kill them all and get out of here? My task is to stop the rat infestation after all, maybe there are more places that are getting rats that can’t afford to post a task. I’d be helping them all too, but maybe this person isn't so bad, maybe I'll wait for them and see what they are like.
Alan didn't have to wait long, what felt to him as hours but was probably only a single hour later of slowly reading the notebook full of observations about making a connection with the rats, he could hear a whistling approaching from the opposite side of the tunnel that he had come down. As soon as he heard the sound he scrambled to get everything put back as it was and hide himself to the best of his ability, as the sound got closer light footsteps accompanied the whistle. In walked a small individual, they didn't notice Alan, as he had hidden himself behind the stacks of rat filled cages to try and observe them before making the decision to interact or not. However he needn't worry as they did not inspect their space at all and simply sat in the middle of the room, crossed their legs and began to quietly whisper every once in a while in a manner that led Alan to believe they were thinking out loud to themselves. Able to pick up on some of the whispers but not able to tell their gender, he determined that indeed they were talking about trying to form a connection with the rats. Alan observed the individual for much longer than he spent waiting for them to come back to the cavern, roughly three hours or so, before they slowly rose from the ground and walked towards their living space. Still hidden from their unsuspicious view behind the cages of rats he moved to continue watching them. As they reached the desk they looked in the drawer with the notebook and began writing in it. Still unable to identify the individual whose face was shrouded in the shadow of a deep hood Alan observed other things about them, their clothing was nice, much nicer than his, it looked to be closer to the quality of the most expensive set of clothing he had been shown when he visited the tailor at the beginning of his time in Haltir. They were extremely small, maybe 140 centimeters tall, the clothes they wore were not skin tight but were not loose enough to hide their figure, and along with the exposed hands and wrists he thought they might have weighed a maximum of forty five kilos, he knew they were under level 15 from the notes, so he didn't try to [Identify] them knowing his skill was useless at its low level accompanied with his non existent personal level. The person eventually stopped writing in their book and went to their kitchen and began making a meal for themselves which is when Alan decided was his best opportunity to speak with them. He left his hiding space and intentionally loudly scuffed his boot against the ground to alert them of his presence. They turned around and stared at him for a moment before reaching back and grabbing the knife on the counter behind them.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Awe shit, maybe when they had easy access to a knife wasn't the best time to make myself known, time to see if I can talk to them.
“Uhm.. Hi, I’m Alan… nice place you have here…” He awkwardly said
“Why are you here? How did you find this place?” The shrouded figure asked apprehensively, with a distinctly feminine voice.
Well that's one mystery solved, clearly a girl.
Pausing briefly before responding, Alan decided to tell her the truth. “Well, uh, I accepted a task from the Adventurer’s Guild to clear a tavern of rats that had been chewing on their ale barrels and eating their ingredients, and I just happened to find my way down here…”
The girl lowered her kitchen knife, Alan's demeanor somewhat convincing that he wasn't a threat to her.
“You shouldn't be here. I thought that tunnel was a dead end. Please go back.”
“Well, I do have the task to stop the rats, so I can't just leave, or else I will get a strike on my record at the Guild. How can we stop them from getting out of their cages?”
“I will stop them, please just leave.”
“I'm sorry, I can't do that. I don't want any problems with you or the Guild, maybe we can come to a solution here, together?” Alan gave his best comforting smile to the girl.
Once again raising the utilitarian blade she had grabbed from the counter she threatened him. “You need to leave. I'm no longer asking.”
Alan let out a hefty sigh and drew his weapons. “I am much more prepared for this than you seem to be. Look, if we can just do this together, I will forget all about you, and this place and report that the rats have been stopped, be reasonable here.”
Holy shit, I can't fight a person for real, what if I actually cut or stabbed her!? Or if she hurt me! I have got to get this under control. Alan thought to himself, trying not to show his distraught reaction on his face.
The girl hesitated so Alan took the initiative and continued. “I really don't want to fight you, we can come to a solution without any fighting, I'm sure you don't want to fight either.”
Hopefully that will convince her, I think I'll just leave it up to her now, but if we fight I don't think I want to hurt her. She clearly isn't trying to bother anyone, and I kinda barged my way in here. He felt kind of bad for invading the girl’s space.
Complete silence followed his statements, leading him to hope that she was weighing the options in his favor, some fifteen seconds later she finally spoke once again sounding defeated.
“I guess, this little thing wouldn't do any good against your swords.” she said as she placed the knife back on the counter and raised her hands showing they were empty. As Alan moved to put his swords away a few rats came out of noticeable openings in their cages directly at him. Sighing in defeat as his attempt to avoid combat was ruined he prepared for the small swarm to assault his position.
The rats were fast. Darting towards him faster than he would have been prepared for on his first day in Haltir, but their speed was nothing compared to the movements of his trainers at the Guild. That didn’t mean he was capable of defeating them all without injury, the first two rats to get to him both jumped towards his chest, just as the original he had encountered in the cellar. The pair of hits to his torso felt much better than the first time, as he was prepared for the attack, and neither scratched him this time . They rebounded and he threw a wild swing after each of them, feeling only air resistance from his large horizontal slash he readied himself for the group that came from farther cages, four rats this time, prepared for them to jump at him like the others. Expecting them to jump like the others, he was surprised when they slowed and waited, allowing the initial two to rejoin them.
Oh shit, can I fight six at once? I guess I have to. Hopefully this doesn't hurt too bad. What is this girl doing, why is she just standing there, and why aren't they attacking her!?
The rats arranged themselves in a semi-circle in front of Alan, showing much more intelligence than he anticipated, he [Identify]’d them from left to right.
[Rat - Level 1]
[Rat - Level 1]
[Rat - Level ?]
[Rat - Level ?]
[Rat - Level 1]
[Rat - Level ?]
This was what he had prepared for, the rats with a question mark for their level seemed to be just slightly larger and faster than the level 1 rats, leaving Alan to hope that the levels stated in the Task were correct, rats up to level 3 had been seen. He took a deep breath trying to slow his pounding heart, while the rats stood still, he was ready. He decided to take the initiative and began his attack on the group, a downward slash with both of his weapons caught the rat directly to his left. It attempted to move out of the way but only dodged one of his slashes, the other blade neatly split its body in two. The feeling of his blade entering the large rat was sickening, the sound, the resistance as it moved through the spine and through the rest of the bones until it finally cut all the way through and impacted the floor.
Oh gods, I think I’m gonna puke, that was awful.
Alan retched.
Alan knew he had to get a hold of himself again, before he could the remaining five rats rushed him. Catching him before he was fully recovered, swarming his legs they bit and scratched, he resisted kicking out at them and swinging his blades, careful not to hit himself. This time the rats did not retreat, committing fully to their attack. His first kill had been much luckier than he had thought, feeling skillful for bisecting the rat so thoroughly with his first ‘real’ swings of the swords thinking that he would be able to replicate the feat easily enough with the other rats despite their numbers, he was wrong. Most of his swings missed, despite his week of training and the confidence of his trainers he felt way underprepared. The rats scratched his legs, he called out in pain, they jumped and scratched his chest, they bit him all while the girl was just standing there, watching.
These little bastards hurt so bad, why did I think I could come down here, I’m such an idiot. Find the rats they said, kill the rats they said, it'll be easy they said. He thought as blood slowly soaked his ragged clothing.
The rat's scratches were not extremely deep, but they were painful, the dull tears in his flesh much worse than equivalent cuts from a sharpened blade. The second rat he killed was just as disgusting as the first, his blade catching first on his hind leg catching on the small bones of the creature, leaving the leg dangling from millimeters from skin, it had backed up into a slash that would have otherwise missed. The missing leg hindered its movement greatly, the sight made him regret his earlier meal. Taking advantage of its weakness he managed to kill it with another two hits, one to its lower back which made it wriggle in pain and allowed for a third strike to its neck putting it out of its misery. The smell of the blood that began to slicken the stone floor wrenched at his stomach, the coppery tang permeating the space. They committed fully to their attack after their numbers began to dwindle letting out loud squeaks and squeals, Alan slew two more of them cringing at the sounds they made as they died. He began refining his mistakes as he adjusted to their movements, he miraculously killed two of the remaining four within a second of each other, swinging both his blades and managing to split one rat almost completely from front to back, the other a cut just ahead of its front legs that didn’t decapitate it completely, making it lose its connection to its body and die from blood loss. Once the final two were left they scurried away leaving Alan questioning and in pain, he identified them during their retreat both were level 1, having slain the higher leveled rats in the group he was extremely hopeful that one of his waiting notifications was for a level up. The first notification he received was from his combat.
*Ding*
[Combat initiated]
[Creature slain Rat - Level 2]
[Creature slain Rat - Level 1]
[Creature slain Rat - Level 2]
[Creature slain Rat - Level 3]
The next was greatly welcomed and immediately accepted.
*Ding*
[General Skill Unlocked]
[Ambidexterity - Uncommon - Level 1 : Increases Ambidexterity proficiency by 0.5% per skill level.]
[Accept General Skill?] [Yes/No]
The final notification was what he had been looking forward to since he had begun his rushed education on the System.
*Ding*
[Level Up - Level 1 reached]
[Free Points + 5]
What the hell? Five free points? Kahlee and the others always said the first 15 levels were three free points per level, why did I get five?
While Alan was staring at his notification screen not allowing the shock of the extra free points show on his face the girl finally moved for the first time since his fight with the rats had begun. She sat down on the ground and slumped against the cabinet behind her and whispered quietly to herself yet still loud enough for Alan to hear.
“I did it. I can’t believe I finally did it.”
“What did you do?” Alan inquired.
“None of your business. We need to clean this mess. I will need a short break before we do, however.” She replied gesturing to the viscera, and corpses of the rats.
She removed her hood and Alan was dumbfounded, she was pale, very pale. He hadn't noticed her hands being as pale as they were because he was focused on the situation as a whole, but she looked as if she had never seen a lick of sunlight in her life, which appeared to have been around the same length as his. She looked to be from fifteen to seventeen years old but those years seemed to have been harsh on her, sunken cheeks and bloodshot eyes were the most dominant features of her face.
Alan once again spoke to the girl, asking her what she was doing in the mine-like shafts and what she was doing with all the rats. She refused to answer either question, instead changing the direction of the conversation to their cleanup and to finding a way to keep the rats properly contained so Alan could be on his way. As he was still bleeding from many of his scratches and bites he asked the girl if she had anything that would help, she produced a serviceable ‘bandage’ that was just a large sheet of fabric, a sheet for her bed, from her large dresser that he cut into pieces to wrap around his torso and each leg. It helped slow the bleeding and cover himself from the massive amount of holes in his pants and tunic and was viable enough until he returned to the Adventurer’s Guild later.
They cleaned up the mess, somehow the girl had running water in her underground home and even a self emptying chamber pot, who knew where it emptied to, that they used to dump the bodies and bloody water into. They didn’t have to scrub for long, the blood from Alan and the rats pooled enough for the large majority to still be wet when they began cleaning. After they completed their cleaning job Alan received another notification.
*Ding*
[Skill - Cleaning - Leveled Up!]
[Cleaning - Common - Level 4]
It seemed that cleaning up something new and unusual, for him, had helped his [Cleaning] level up quicker than he anticipated, maintaining its position as his highest level skill. With the notification of its level increase he decided to open his Status.
Status
Name : Alan
Age : 16
Race : Human
Level : 1
Class : N/A
Health : 49/60
Mana : 60/60
Health Regeneration : 2 Health / Hour
Mana Regeneration : 18 Mana / Hour
Strength : 8
Dexterity : 5
Vitality : 6
Endurance : 8
Intelligence : 6
Wisdom : 9
Free points : 5 (+5)
Class Skills : N/A
General Skills : 4 / 15
Cleaning Level 4
Organization Level 1
Exercise Level 1
Ambidexterity Level 1
Spells : N/A
What a beautiful thing it was, Level 1, seeing it on his Status made him feel a litany of emotions, despite most likely being the oldest non Denier level 1 in the history of the System he felt like he was on top of the world. Even though he had just been introduced to the System just over a week prior it felt right. It felt like home the System filled a piece of him he wouldn't have ever noticed was missing if he had stayed on his previous world and a warmth filled his chest at the thought of this feeling overtaking him for each and every level he gained. His fight with the rats was brutal, yet with the quantification and visualization of his progress he felt the more motivation to simply improve than he ever would have thought possible, he wanted to get up and practice, to fight, to win, to level, he wanted to grow and become the strongest version of himself he could possibly be, stronger than Ven, Wistra, or Ledra, he wanted to eclipse Kahlee and explore the vastness of his dangerous, yet wonderful new world.