Chapter 21
Title: Rat Infestation...
….
As soon as William heard Alex say something like that. He also felt that somehow Alex was dangerous to him. He knows that as a Warrior he should trust his instincts.
'Tch, seems like this kid will fit right in with those psychos at the Magic Academy.' Contemplates William, but now that he has seen that Alex doesn't seem to be easily tricked. He won't attempt to do so anymore. He knows his limits, and no amount of money could save him if a mage decided to kill him. Especially if one did it sneakily, Magic Academy wouldn't allow anyone, not even the Merchants Guild to harm Alex.
"What can I do for you, young man." States William. Now he is fully in his business mode as his mind is working on the best deal possible. He can already guess what Alex meant by rats, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't need to verify it at least.
"Well… I know of your little rat problem." Verifies Alex, next he doesn't beat around the bush and says. "I know that even the Merchants Guild doesn't know anything about it and how it came to be. I have some spells that are specifically dedicated to this. I want 15,000 Gold if I take care of this problem permanently."
"Deal." Says William, not even bothering to negotiate what in his eyes is so little money. Alex doesn't say anything as he sees that a new quest appeared for him from the interface.
_____________________
You have triggered Rat Infestation Quest
[Rat Infestation Quest]
Mission Introduction: The Merchant Guild has had this rat problem for years. Only the mayor knows and both parties have worked hard to keep it under wraps or else it would ruin the town's reputation and trade would drop by a couple of percent… which is a huge sum of gold lost just because of some rats. If you deal with the problem permanently then you will get a substantially larger reward.
Mission Requirements: Destroy the rat infestation...
Bonus Objective: Deal with the problem permanently.
Reward: 1000 Exp, +1 Relationship with Merchants Guild, 100 Gold
Bonus Reward: +2 Relationship with Merchants Guild, 15,000 Gold, ???
_____________________
Alex immediately has the notification disappear as he doesn't want to seem like he is just looking at nothing. But he already read quickly what the quest was about. He can also see that the relationship rewards have such a small gain over them. Well, he is getting paid for the job so the gratitude he will get from them is minimal.
Alex didn't need any more gold than that. He knows that by the time he goes to the Magic Academy he will be better than most young children who have to get the monthly allowance to even buy food.
"Then this will be it. I will go through the sewers and search for the rat immediately." Concludes Alex as he gets up and walks out of the room casually.
William narrows his eyes slightly at that. He wasn't bothered by the way Alex acted, they are here to do a deal not exchange fake pleasantries. When they both know that they are fake pleasantries, it will become a waste of time to act on them.
….
As Alex walks outside he releases an internal breath of relief. He doesn't know who is looking at him at this time so he doesn't act like he was as nervous as he seemed. He thought that the man might think that he was behind the rat infestation and was using this to make money. That is one of the reasons he asked for such a relatively low price when he could have asked for around 25,000 too and William would have likely accepted after some negotiations.
But Alex doesn't mind being underestimated like he doesn't know the price of his work.
'The Branch Manager probably still won't underestimate me. He didn't get so high in the 'corporate' ladder by underestimating people.' Ponders Alex, as he tries to learn something from this experience of his.
….
Twenty minutes later and he walks along the city and arrives outside of the walls. He used a secret entry to do this. He knows dozens of them all around the city.
He walks along the walls as he has his cloak with its hood pulled up so it covers his face. Not that the guards would say anything even if they caught him… but he doesn't exactly want to be caught.
….
While Alex was doing that, under the sewers of Gungai City… in a certain uncharted room. There is a creature with thin, hairy long arms munching on the brutalized body of a human child. The creature is no taller than the average dwarf, it had the head of a rat. He is what is called a ratman, a race that lives deep underground. They are known for their breeding and are cheap slaves.
The ratman some years prior had been a slave to be sold. Thankfully he was able to escape due to one of his friends killing their buyer and his friend subsequently died from it.
"These damn humans, they are so fu*king selfish. Only some more and I will grow strong soon. I should be able to break into Rank 3 soon… just a little more and I will show them what true pain is. Those bastards, they enslave every other race with no care for it." Mumbles the giant rat, his voice squeaky and high, like that of a spoiled child. He then looks at the human child that he is eating. He looks at the child's eyes which are filled with terror before showing that he was terrified before he died. "What are you looking at brat, your race breeds my race to be slaves."
*sniff* *sniff* The ratman suddenly sniffs the air. Due to the ratmen spending most of their time underground, they don't have good eyesight. But every one of the other senses are almost hypersensitive, especially hearing and smell.
"I can smell a human…" Mumbles the ratman, talking mostly to himself. He hasn't had any interaction with any intelligent being in years.
Suddenly he hears a slithering noise. He frowns and takes a deep breath.
"{Return to me.}" Says the rat in a strange voice as it seemed like multiple of him were speaking at once.
Suddenly out of every hole from the room countless rats come from, slowly forming a circle around the ratman. He just gives them a mental command and immediately the rats form a ball of flesh around the ratman. He lets go of the dead child as his senses concentrate on his senses and what he can smell or hear. Due to being in a sewer his sense of smell is a little muffled due to the smell of the filth around him. But his hearing is still at full power, so he concentrates on that and uses a spell.
{Hearing of the Rat}
His rat-like ears turn longer and expand. Due to the ratman being a Beast Master & Rat Master Class, he can enhance his own hearing too, since he is technically enhancing a rat-like creature.
But when his hearing got better the ratman became immediately a little scared as he could hear over ninety snakes slithering.
'Is this some type of Snake Charmer come here to fight against me?' Contemplates the ratman, he is not sufficiently knowledgeable on matters like Classes and such. He was born a slave and has lived for all of his life. Bred by humans to be a good little slave.
But he lets the snakes get closer since his rats are weaker than average snakes, he knows that sending his rats away from him is bad. But if he keeps them close the rats gain a buff, and he should be able to overwhelm the snakes with numbers alone.
But as the snakes seemingly get in the room… they don't attack. The ratman also doesn't attack… he is unsure if they are even somehow not aggressive.
But then suddenly…
BOOOOOOOM!!!
He can feel his body be surrounded by heat and the room caves in…
….
While at the same time Alex is outside of a sewer entrance which is around his height. He looks at his exp log to see that he got around 2000 Exp. He is a mage, he is not gonna enter a small space which is disadvantageous for him. He knows that he works best at long range, so he uses that to his advantage.
But he frowns as he sees that all of that exp came one by one, meaning that he only killed rats and not the ratman. 'He is still alive…'
….