It took them only a few minutes to get back to the dungeon entrance, but creating a suitable new path wasn't so easy. Even though all four of them worked without pause, it still took several hours. The dirt around the hole was loose, but they had no shovels, which meant they had to dig out the soil with their own two hands.
Because they didn't want to go into the dungeon before the new entrance was created, they shoved all the dirt they dug up into the tunnel.
When the entrance had been dug out, all of them looked like miners. The orange-brown dirt of the ancient city was sticking to all of their clothes, faces and arms. Especially Gorden, who had taken of his shirt while working, looked like a labourer. His muscular body fitted perfectly to the job of a miner, and even his short hair seemed to fit the picture.
He was laughing all the time, he seemed to be really excited to get back on those rats and probably even level up while he was on it.
The finished entrance was about as brought as Gorden's shoulders and had been dug from the side of the hole. The excess dirt was thrown onto the heap of dirt on the bottom of the tunnel.
Humans would have no problem exiting the dungeon, but the much bigger rats would never fit through the small entrance. That way, it was perfectly safe, even if they wanted to camp near the dungeon.
Elo looked at the others with a smile when he started talking.
"Ok, that went pretty good. Now we should be able to enter and exit the dungeon at will, and we can start levelling!"
Elo was proud of himself and his group. Even though they had to use their hands, they still managed to dig out the new entrance in only a few hours. It had been way faster than he expected.
All of them had a big grin on their faces when they entered the dungeon. Now they really looked like fighters. Gorden, who was located in the front on the left, was holding the knife Elo had given him in his right hand, and his muscular body was crouched down. He looked like he would be ready to jump at every enemy, who dared to approach him.
On his right walked, Ella. She didn't look as impressive as Gorden with his large and muscular body, but she was still a sight to behold. Her sharp green eyes watched the shadows around her tirelessly, and the big brown bone she carried in two hands almost touched the tunnels sealing.
Behind the two walked Elo himself. He had a big stick in hand, but it was only meant for defending himself, the other knew by now that he was useless in any real fight. But he was still radiating the self-confidence of a lion, which smoothed the emotions and thoughts of his companions.
Lara, who was walking on the end of the group was meant to fight anything that might try to ambush them. She was also carrying a big stick, but it was clearly visible that she could fight better than Elo.
The first rats they meet had no chance. As soon as they came into sight, Gorden and Ella jumped forward to kill them. Because the tunnel was still about as brought as he had been at the entrance. That meant that the rats could still only line up, and Gorden and Ella were able to fight them two on one.
Ella swung her weapon down on her opponents' head, and while the rats were stunned, Gorden rushed forward to cut deep wounds into their faces and body. It was a one-sided slaughter.
"Ding"
"Cave Rat (easy) has been defeated.
The resources are being transferred to the leader of the team."
"You resaved:
-2 rat meat
-1 soul gem (rare)"
"Ding"
"Ding"
"Ding"
"Ding"
It went on like this for some time. When they finally reached a cave, they had killed 34 rats and accumulated the same number of soul stones. As long as they were willing to eat rat meat, they would have enough meals for the next month.
When the team entered the cave, the first thing they saw was a huge black rat. Elo recognized the rat as the one who had followed Ella back to the dungeon's entrance yesterday. But now, that he saw its entire body, he could make out some more details.
The rat's neck was surrounded by yellow crystals, that pointed to its back, were its grey tail was located. The tail was about as big as its body and it was covered in small grey spikes. Every one of its claws was about as big as Elo's head. All the rat's body parts seemed to be oversized.
When it saw, or better smelled them, it emitted a mark-shattering squeak. It was so loud that Elo had to cover his ears with his hands which caused his weapon to fall to the ground.
Happily, that wasn't the fate that had befallen all of them. The only other person who had let go of her weapon was Lara.
Only because of Gorden's strong will and Ella's experience with the black rat, did nobody die. If one of them had let go of his weapon, the rat would have surly targeted them with her first attack.
But because the front raw was unfaced, the rat was not able to directly attack anyone without a weapon. When it started running their direction, Ella raised her weapon over her head.
Because the rat thought that Ella was an easy target, it tried to jump at her. But that was when she swung her bone club on its sensitive snout. The rat squeaked in agony as it backed up, but when Gorden tried to follow up with a knife into one of its eyes, the rat turned its head, what was enough to send Gorden flying for 2m (6'7").
Happily, Lara was there to take his place. Otherwise, it would have been easy for the rat to attack the weakened Gorden.
-"Dammed, that thing might be the strongest enemy we had so far, and it even seems to be quite intelligent."-