“This way.”

“Eh?”

“Sorp knows where we are going?”

“Aren’t you guys underestimating Sorp? It’s not like he can’t read a map.”

“Is his map better than ours? Cause I have almost no idea where to go.”

“Instincts, It’s instincts.”

“It’s true that Sorp’s instincts are sharp, but what does that have to do with reading maps?”

The guys are in their natural state of arguing, no matter how menial. Despite Sorp following his map, they still end up walking for almost half an hour before finding anything larger than a critter.

“What is that?”

The creature on the ground is eating a glowing piece of rock. The glow is very faint and barely noticeable, but it is certainly there. This particular piece of rock is considered worthless but the creatures themselves refine them after eating them.

“This is what we are supposed to kill.”

“Last one to kill one is a bitch!”

It might be easy to forget but the guys are mature only in physical terms, for all intents and purposes they are maleficent children. And Sorp hearing Ret’s challenge, burst forth striking out with his spear, piercing the critter.

“Got one.”

“Got one as well!”

“Damnit! Go go go.”

Like cockroaches the guys scatter, chasing after the creatures who have begun to group up in small teams and fighting back.

“Kom is a bitch.”

“I wasn’t playing your childish game.”

No matter what Kom said the guys taunting caused his expression to turn sour. He had tried to strike a creature but they were already gathering together and leaping at him. Having a creature leap at him scared the living shit out of him, this made him go on the defensive.

“I got an item.”

“Oh?”

As the creatures gathered together the guys similarly began to bunch up and even backing up because the rats seemed to be gathering into an intimidating size. The creatures were hostile but not swarming as expected. If they were, the guys would have no chance to defend themselves.

“It says its a Volra refined stone.”

“We need Volra livers not refined stone.”

“Guys we should back up there are too many of them.”

Even being fearless, Sorp feels like fighting this many little rodents is too much. If he kills a creature with a swing there are two other to take its place. As the fight goes on the less comfortable the guys are, a slimy feeling crawling down their back.

“Where the hell are these rats coming from?”

“Probably the holes in the ground.”

“Back up!”

After fifteen minutes of continuous fighting the guys are accumulating small scratches and ugly bite marks.Numbers float above them periodically. They have been inflicted by an ailment that causes damage over time. Either bleeding or a type of infection. Perhaps a disease.

The wounds itch and are accompanied with a foul smell. At this point they come to a spontenous consensus and directly begin running rather than fighting and backing up slowly.

“What the hell is this. How are we supposed to explore this area with so many ats?”

“We got a lot of Volra liver and refined stones.”

A part of the items were directly transfered to their inventory but quite a bit laid on the ground sparkling slightly as if tempting them. but it was all overuun by the staggering number of Volra molerats defending their home.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“I wonder what these stones are for.”

After escaping the guys are huddled around a fire, cursing and scratching their wounds, they are slowly healing but the itch still remained.

“Should we go back to the guild? This isn’t nearly as fun as chasing girls.”

Pal and Ret both nod their heads at Jarem’s suggestion. But everyone else just shakes their head, it’s obvious that Sorp intends to continue.

Sorp also has a few scratches and bites, they slowly close over and heal, the scabs have already formed and by the looks of just a few minutes more and they’ll be fully recovered.

“We’ll go again once we’re healed. This time I need you guys to support me.”

Sorp has already thought of a way to fight those molerats and that is to have one or two people in charge of attacking and the others will defend.

The creatures have a clear pattern and will only attack by leaping. This means they won’t directly swarm them by running up to them and will always leap into the air to attack.

After going through some instructions and checking his wounds Sorp stands up again and swings his spear and then swings his sword.

“The sword is better, it is faster.”

Thinking for a moment Sorp turned to his friends.

“Come here, swing at me as fast as you can.”

After a series of rather lackluster performances, Jarem is given the task of being the second attacker while the other guys are on defence. So each time Jarem attacks, two of the guys will defend him from the molerats.

Jarem was surprised at the appointment but he was evne more thrilled for some reason he couldn't figure out. He felt superiour perhaps. he felt grateful to be recognized. He was marginally better than the others but he felt like he had made a great achievement. he stood proud next to Sorp..

“Alright get in position let’s go.”

Once again the guys return to the molerat node, this time they carefully attempt to lure out a few and the results are fantastic. Even with the occasional scratch or puncturing bite, the guys are steadily killing their prey.

Sorp has better than average stamina, but the guys are not in too bad a shape after tempering themselves and their physical bodies are not the same as the were. It's not until a figurative mountain of rats lie dead that Sorp reluctantly orders a retreat.

At this point they had already killed over a hundred and sixty molerats. Each rat could only take a single hit, no matter how hard and how inaccurately they were hit. At the end everyone of the guys have killed enough molerats that their lore accumilated to a point that they see the volerats numeric health.

“Are we going to harvest all these things?”

“You can do whatever you want with them.”

The stench of the rat blood is somewhat sweet and not repulsive in anyway. It even covercame the otherwise stagnant smell in the large cave.

“I’m going to practice my skinning ability then.”

As Pal skins the Volra corpses the rest of the guys sit back and rest. The difficulty of the Volra is still considered one of the lowest.

The ‘known’ tactic is to slowly grab the attention of a few at a time and retreat before killing them. With enough distance they won’t reach large numbers.

The guys however recklessly killed and only retreated when the Volra had gathered in the tens, allowing them to break past their formation and scratch or bite the guys.

Of course the guys had already been scratched and bit on the first altercation so most fear was lowered to the point of just not wanting to feel itchy. Sorp of course didn’t care in the slightest that he had been bitten.

If anything it was strange that Sorp had been bitten or scratched at all. An outsider observer, a keen outside observer would have noticed it seemed like Sorp had let them attack him.

“I got over three hundred pieces of Volra leather scraps. With this I can probably make us some armour pieces.”

“Oh? You want us to wear rat leather? Nice one.”

Even Sorp laughed at the notion, only Dart entertained the idea.

“So you are better than rats now? When did this happen?”

“You want to die?”

“Everyday I pray to find a worthy foe to strike me down in combat. Sadly I’m around idiots.”

Shaking his head he looked into the distance with a look that said he really had no peers. Of course Sorp wasn’t even considered to be part of this discussion.

When the guys finally settled down again Sorp and the guys repeated their previous actions. With repeated practice they began more and more proficient. Soon their mission completed and they retreated to their temporary campsite.

“This was a lot easier than I expected.”

“Why do I feel like we are just pest control?”

“Now that you mention it.”

“What do you expect? Haven’t you ever played games before? This is how it goes. You do easy quests and then later do harder and harder ones.”

“Only you Kom have time play games everyday, we are out there on the streets barely surviving.”

Pal and Jarem nodded at Ret’s statement and put on expressions that they thought looked like they were remembering hard times.

“What surviving! We’ve been kings of the Ring for the past few years. Who dared to make anything hard on you? Why don’t you tell Sorp, I’m sure he would want to know.”

“Tell me. I’ll kill them.”

Pal, Ret and Jarem gave Kom a glare in unison.

“How could we bother Sorp with these things? After all Sorp has done for us?”

This time around Kom smiled widely. He knew he had them.

“Oh? You can’t even reach out to your brother? Did you even think of what Sorp would think?”

“Kom is right. How can you guys keeps these things from me?”

Dart looked at the guys and shook his head, they all looked like they had constipation.

“Damnit Ret, why did you have to pull out such a bad lie!”

“Ret was bullshiting we were only playing along.”

“Traitors!”

Seeing the guys were speaking nonsense Sorp went back to his thoughts. Kom was practically glowing with victory bliss.

“I got all the materials I need to practice. I wanted different ones. Our contracts should be done but I still want to gather a material called Rot roots.”

“Hoh? What are are trying to make Dart?”

“With Rot roots I can make an Augment that causes a negative affliction on enemies. It is a temporary Augment but it can be used on any B.F.M: tool or weapon.”

The large collection of Volra stones is also a material most professions can use to pratice with but Dart can’t know everything. In fact he is only making an educated guess that he can use the Volra stones.

The Volra livers are going to be turned in but the guys have some leftover, presumably these can be used to craft as well. Otherwise why would Two-step want them?

“Lead the way Dart.”

The guys resigned themselves to another mission hearing that Sorp was interested. To Sorp’s regret they didn’t meet more enemies to fight and Dart was harvesting small one meter high thing tree and cutting their roots off.

“Is the rest of the tree valuable?”

“It’s gray so I doubt it.”

“I found a small mushroom over here, its white. Its called Rotshroom.”

“If it’s font is white then its a crafting material.”

“There are more over here.”

In the back Sorp vigilantly inspected the surrounding only to be dissapointed.

“Huh?”

You have discovered a Rot node.

“You guys get that as well?”

“Ye.”

“So this is how it works?”

Only aftering gathering numerous Rot related materials did the guys as a team discover the node. They can now sell this information or donate it to the Two-step faction.

If the faction values the information they will receive rewards similar to a contract and perhaps be issued new worthwhile contracts.

“Alright, Sorp is clearly bored we should go.”

The materials required little finesse to collect, this can hold true later in the future but there are materials that require skills to properly harvest. Without it most items will lower in quality or be ruined entirely.