"Brother, why are you looking at me like that?" Shin asked as he gazed at Elior. He had a bad feeling about this. "Don't tell me you wanted me to be the bait?"
"Doesn't worry, they are just rats," Elior smiled in response. "I'll make sure to finish them as soon as possible."
"Why me?" Shin asked. "Why do I have to be the bait?"
"That's simple you could not finish up the rats faster than me, and you have better physical stat than me," Elior answered nonchalantly. "And besides, you are the weakest."
Shin still looked unwilling, looked at the elf—who only grunted.
"You could not ask a lady for that," Elior continued as he un-equipped the minor ring of healing and tossed it to Shin. "Take it, it might be useful."
Shin took the ring with an unwilling expression. His expression brightened a bit when he noticed the information about the ring. He put on the ring and asked, "So what do I have to do?"
"Nothing, you only have to run." Elior tapped Shin's shoulder a few times. "Faster than the rats."
. . .
After half an hour in the Rat's den, Shin was running as fast as he could while a pack of rats close to a hundred in numbers were chasing after him. A few metres away, on higher ground, Elior and Lyra were moving as well, keeping an eye on Shin and the rats.
"Brother, finish them quickly," Shin yelled while panting. "I can't run further."
For a moment, there was no response. Shin's face darkened. He yelled again, almost crying, "Brother Elior, Sister elf, I need to pee. Please come quickly. I can not hold back."
"Quit yelling. You, idiot," Lyra shouted as she threw her mana-string at Shin. The string bound Shin as Lyra pulled. After a moment Shin, who was in the middle of the pack of Rat, was outside.
"Could you just not embarrass us in front of these rats," While on the other hand Elior smiled looking at the crying Shin. He tossed his crossbow and arrow at him before jumping into the rats. "Careful, do not shoot me accidentally."
The moment Elior landed in the middle of the rats, he swung the spear horizontally in a circle that almost killed half a dozen rats. Yet none of the crazy rats stepped back, lunged at him in their savagery, but they were still rats. They may have the numbers in tens, but Elior was not just a boy of sixteen either.
His spear moves before even the body could follow. With each swing, he took away over one life of the rats, yet none of the rats could not even harm a hair of his. Elior was feeling better. It was much better compared to the tussle with the wolves. He gained better control of his body after testing out his strength and weakness, though it's still far from adequate.
Meanwhile, Lyra was finishing up rats from outside of the circle while Elior was killing in frenzies. She felt a sudden chill seeing the spear dance of Elior. She made the right decision to not fight at their first meeting. Though she would not mind fighting if he was some arrogant lordling.
"Hey, why are you mesmerised like that to do your job," Lyra said to Shin as he was watching Elior with an open mouth.
"Brother Elior is amazing," Shin said, coming back to his senses. He pulled the crossbow, not even aiming correctly. This place was swarming with rats, barely motioning the bow at them would gain a hit.
Elior continued the battle as his heartbeat rose with the panting. He tried his best to make the breathing even as he slowed down his moves. That was not a problem, as not even one-third of the rats were remaining there.
[Congratulations. You have reached level 7.]
[You gained 1 free point from levelling.]
[Congratulations, your Spearmanship skill has reached level 4.]
[. . .]
Elior sighed in relief as they finished up all the rats there. He moved towards the two, wiping the sweat from his face.
"Brother Elior, are you some international champion in spear or something?" Shin asked as he was giving back the crossbow.
Elior did not answer, only smiled. "Keep it for now," he said as Shin kept the crossbow without bothering. "Shin rest for a little, we'll continue in this way again."
Shin laughed warily, but recalling how fast Elior dealt the Rats, he did not complain.
On the other hand, Lyra was looking peculiarly at him. Elior could guess why that was. The skills he showed just now were not something a newbie could achieve. It would take years of practice to balance it to this level—that meant Elior practised spearmanship for years, but the unsoundness in this was. He was exhausted barely after a few minutes of battle. It was not convincing with such skill.
Well, Elior could not tell her he had the experience of more than a decade of battle while his body was new to allt his.
Fortunately, the elf did not ask any questions, respecting each other's privacy. While Shin was not observant enough to notice anything amiss.
The hunting continues like that. Shin played his part in baiting the rats and when the number reached close to a hundred, they finished them all. After rotating twice, they could not find many rats anymore. They probably have killed almost all the rats here.
"Why this experience; no, the karma I'm receiving is lessening as we kill the rats?" Shin asked. He could not level up from 4 after all the rats he had killed. Now the karma points he was receiving after each was barely in ones and two.
Elior did not answer, though he knew the answer. He was waiting for the elf to answer for him, which she did, noting he was in no mood fanning Shin's curiosity.
"That's because your body is saturated. After you reach level ten, you may not even gain a single from low-level rats."
As a curious child, Shin raised his eyebrow. "Why?"
"As far as I know, every living creature of the same species has an identical energy signature, so the more of the fiends in the same species you kill, the less karma you would get as your body became saturated with the energy from the species." Lyra did her best to give a simple answer to Shin, which was far or less true.
"So goodbye grinding?" Shin sighed a little.
Lyra did not understand the term, and could only shake her head.
"Well, you could grind from other fiends, it did not have to be rat all the time," Elior said. "Now let's go, we'll finish the boss now. We already wasted too much time here."
"There is a boss here?" Shin's eyes shone brighter, hearing the term 'boss'.
"Naturally."
"Wait a minute I'm lost again," The orange clothed Elf became confused again hearing the new term. "What's a boss?"
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Drop power stones if you find Shin funny. Even if not, vote.