Just as I took a step forward, the rats began screeching at my approach. Two of the closest stood on their hind legs and screamed their lungs out calling out their members to group up.
I rushed forward and swung my sword slicing the head of the first one without encountering any resistance.
Blood sprayed out like a fountain as the headless corpse of the rat shuddered and then slumped on the ground.
But immediately after I screamed in agonizing pain.
"AGHHHH!"
"LUCAS!" shouted Will. "What's wrong! What happened?!" he asked with terrified worry in his voice.
I stepped back from the second rat, placed the lantern on the ground then tightly grabbed my right ribs, gasping for breath "Cramp, fucking nasty ass one!"
"What? The hell? Why the fuck would you get a cramp now?" he asked.
I huffed forcefully stuffing my breath into my lungs, as the world felt like it blanked for me for a moment.
"Damn this cursed body," I said, "I'm using moves and abilities that only my original body could do, I almost tore myself in half with that sword swing. Hold them off, just for a bit until I catch my breath," I said.
"But I don't know how to fight!"
"You better start learning now," I said "I just need a few minutes."
I cursed as I took another breath.
Fucking uncool what just happened right now. But it's good that this happened now. If this happened against a boss, it'll be laughable that I end up dying this early on.
I need to get in shape, this is damn embarrassing.
Will, with the responsibility of protecting both of us thrown at him, looked to be panicking, but it was alright.
"To your left, strike down now!" I called, and Will immediately turned and struck down slashing his sword right into the head of a rat causing his sword to be stuck.
Right after that, Will's face turned paler, if that was even possible, then he threw up.
'Shit, this isn't the time for this!'
"Get back!" I said but Will's nausea was too much for him to even listen to me nor realize that another rat was rearing to jump at him.
With whatever breath I could muster, I got a step closer to Will and pulled him back helping him evade the rat's lunge at the price of throwing him into the ground and probably a couple of bruises tomorrow.
Will was in no shape to talk but so was I.
Gasping for more breath, the pain from my right ribs slowly subsided, and I was able to move without feeling that I had a searing spear pierced right through my side.
Another rat came over, but this time, instead of 'overkilling' it, I swung my sword far less power and it still did the job.
However, I could already feel my arm numbing from just a couple of swings and my body in extreme exhaustion after this short bout.
How the fuck did we ever survive the first integration is beyond me. Because the human body, unmodified by mana is nothing but a complete joke.
This is frustrating.
I began feeling the weight of my sword, which in my former life, was the beginning of exhaustion.
And look at this, we barely took a few steps into the dungeon and we're already tired. Damn.
If only I had a stamina potion. This is complete dogshit luck and situation.
"Will!" I shouted, "Are you okay?!" I asked.
Will wiped his mouth, looked at me dead in the eyes, and said, "We won't talk about this!"
"Don't sweat the details, shit happens, and this is probably the first time you ever killed anything. I don't care about that, but get your shit together man!"
"Right. Cough, right; I'm good!" Will said as he grabbed his sword with a shaky hand. "Just keep up behind me, it's my fault for not realizing that I'm using moves I've yet to have the body for. Just follow for now," I said and the two of us moved forward.
More rats came our way, and I stabbed and slashed at them with as little power as I could, trying my best to preserve stamina.
But even then, I was already sweating buckets, feeling suffocated from my own lack of energy and power, battling damn rats.
Will, on the other hand, was grabbing his sword with both hands, tight enough that I could see his knuckles turning white in the dark.
"Relax your grasp, you're not holding a hammer," I said "And breathe, god damn it!" I said.
Taking a deep breath Will said, "Damn I totally forgot that I was holding my breath."
"Bro…" I said shaking my head. "Let's keep going," I said as I kept killing rats.
Will's eyes swam for a moment, he was about to throw up from seeing all the dead bodies of the screeching, screaming and squeamish-looking rats.
Shaking, and shuddering, Will suddenly stopped, and made a loud gulping sound, "Yeah, just had to swallow it back." he said.
I sighed, though the situation for any other person might look desperate, for some reason Will always finds a way to make a joke about something.
"Good, stick close to me, if you notice any rats behind us just point them out if you can't handle them yourself," I said.
"Right, right, I'm on it," he said and the two of us continued moving back to back.
"There is a tunnel up ahead, it should lead to the deeper part of this dungeon, we should get there," I said.
"Won't we be pinned and trapped?" Will asked.
"It's better than fighting mobs of rats in an open room, where we'll only need to fight on two fronts," I said.
"Right lets hurry up, there are too many damn rats on my side," Will said.
"Aight, I'll pick up the pace, keep up," I said as I began using a bit more stamina than I could afford but it would be better in the long run.
Killing more rats as we walked forward one of them dropped an item.
"What's that?" Will asked, "That's a dropped item, don't grab it, it's not worth wasting your life for it. We'll get everything the dungeon drops as a reward once we clear it."
"Oh, right, then let's keep moving," Will said as we continued moving on deeper into the dungeon and got to the tunnel.
Soon, we arrived at the deeper tunnel and we only needed to fend off one side.
"There are no rats coming in from the deeper side of the dungeon. Will, I have a plan, let me hold off the rats, and you open my bag." I said.
Will immediately went to the safer side that didn't have any rats and I faced off against the ones that were grouped at the mouth of the tunnel.
"What do I need to grab?"
"There should be a bottle of pure alcohol, I got that from the pharmacy in case of an injury but we'll need to use it now, grab a piece of bandage and shove it into the bottle," I said.
Will immediately understood what I wanted to do and immediately, made a Molotov Cocktail.
He then lit it with the lighter and threw it at the rats…then nothing happened.
"What the heck? Why didn't it blow up."
"Give it a moment," I said as I sliced at another rat coming our way.
Then immediately, the alcohol bottle lit up in flames, unceremoniously so, however, it did its job perfectly. The rat's fur is extremely flammable, and with one of them being less attentive than it should, flames caught on to its fur, and then it began running around like a headless chicken causing, even more, fires to spread to the rest of the rats which ended up creating a snowball effect.
"let's move deeper into the tunnel, or we'll suffocate," I said.
"Go then," Will said as he headed forward while I followed after him.
The two of us moved ahead into the tunnel.
I grabbed a water bottle and drank then handed it back to Will, "Much more fun than a party full of chicks, right?" I said.
"Bro, I'm never ever coming with you ever again!" he said.
I grinned at Will and said, "We both know that's a lie. Anyway, there should be a rest area very soon, we'll get our shit together there and head deeper."
"Rest area? What's that?" Will asked.
"Low-tier dungeons usually have a rest area, same like the entrance spread out in the dungeon. We can use it to rest and replenish ourselves, even repair broken gear that's why some classes like the crafter class and support class are valuable, they can use the energy there to recover the party to top condition. Look," I said as I pointed forward.
There was a blue light coming from the ground, "That's a rest area, let's go there and rest up. We're lucky it's still before the integration, these areas will become scarcer and scarcer in the future.
"Right let's rest up, I felt like I ran a marathon, and to be honest I didn't even move much," Will said.
"That's mental exhaustion, from trying to figure out this whole new world and surviving. Veterans don't exhaust easily not because they have a higher stamina threshold, though it does play a part, but because they still breathe, and function 'normally' in abnormal situations. Sadly, I messed up because I was still functioning on the fact that I was as strong as I was in my last life." I said.
"How strong were you?" Will asked.
"I wasn't the best, but I was still well known. Among the top hundred even."
"Oh, that's impressive still."
"Not really, even with all that, we still all… never mind that," I said.
I didn't want to share more details, because even the ones at the top, still died oh so easily to that abomination, and that White Monster was not even a boss class…
I need power… a lot of it, and what I am now, is nothing but a laughable copy.
I tightened my fist on my sword, 'I'll need to risk it for more power, and this dungeon is my first step towards it.'