Deafening gunshots rang throughout the enclosed space of the sewers. Cynthia winced from how loud it was, even through her ear protection. When she entered the large chamber, she could finally see the overwhelming number of [Giant Rats] everywhere. They were almost like a tide that was rushing towards their line. All of them were between level 3 and 7, so they weren't difficult to take down. The problem was the sheer amount of the things. The rats were already up in a frenzy, wilding attacking with no thought for their own lives. A look of genuine fear appeared on Cynthia's face and she stopped. She stood rooted to the spot as she took in the sight of the flood of monstrous rats.
"[Oi, wake up! The guild master is counting on you to provide some fire support! Quickly get to a position and help those who are struggling!"] Dags hurriedly sent Cynthia a message, and the ding snapped her out of her petrified state. She slapped her cheeks hard, turning them red.
"Right! I'm ok, I'm ok." She then started looking around for a spot where she would be relatively safe and have a stable platform to shoot from. Soon enough, she saw an old scaffolding used for construction that was left behind in here. She tugged on Masterless Sword's arm to get her attention, and pointed to the structure. She didn't even attempt to talk, as it would just be drowned out by the gunfire.
Masterless Sword nodded, indicating she understood. Immediately, she picked up Cynthia and zoomed over to the area. Cynthia gasped as she underestimated just how fast the beastwoman was. As she reached the bottom of the scaffolding, Masterless Sword jumped up to the top of it in one fell swoop, shocking Cynthia once again.
"How can she be so agile!?" Cynthia thought. She wondered if she should go for an agility build as well so she can get up to high places easily.
"[Get your head in the game. Start picking out targets of opportunity and remember what I taught you. I already see some of the players struggling. Whenever someone reloads, there's a gap where some of the rats get close enough to attack!]" He once again got called out for Cynthia to focus.
Even with all the player's decently high level gear and weapons, the number of enemies was just too much. They weren't perfectly coordinated in their reloads. Only a few of the people here were acquainted with each other, and it made for a bit of a mess.
Cynthia bit her lip as she set up her N200. She tried to calm down, but her aim still swayed as she tried to find a good target.
"[You can do this. Calm yourself and let your body take over. Don't let the stress get to you. Use it to focus yourself and make your shots fly true to their targets.]" He could see that the stress from the situation was getting to her, but it was something she had to get used to.
Cynthia buried her head in her arm. She closed her eyes and took long breaths. The world around her seemed to become serene, with the gunfire becoming just a whisper in her ears. Her heart rate and breathing steadied into a slow, rhythmic fashion. When she raised her head again, she was in a hyper focused state. It was almost like she was in an advanced [Sharpshooter] state. Although her brows were still wrinkled from the nerve-racking situation, she felt like she could actually shoot well now.
She rested her cheek against the stock of the N200, getting a sight picture in the scope. She kept her other eye open as she looked down the scope, as she wanted to see where people needed help. Soon enough, she found a target. A player had dropped a magazine in panic and was trying to pick it up. His teammates were busy and hadn't noticed his situation, and a [Giant Rat] had immediately used a quick attack on him. The man raised his head only to see a pair of giant fangs about to chomp on his face.
*Crack!*
[Crit! -160HP]
[Giant Rat (Lv.5) has been killed!]
[Gained 35XP]
The head of the rat exploded into a gruesome mess before it could bite down on the defenseless player's face. He looked around at his teammates, bewildered, but they hadn't seemed to be the ones to help him. He didn't know who helped him, but he was quite thankful in his heart. With no time to dilly-dally, he inserted his magazine and continued cutting down the hoard of [Giant Rats].
While the man was happy about being saved, Cynthia was surprised by a notification on her screen.
[Skill 'Sharpshooter' has leveled up!]
[Skill 'Sharpshooter' Lv. 1 -> Lv.2]
She was surprised because she hadn't activated the skill, saving it for later. Her skill didn't appear to be on cooldown either. She didn't have time to think about it or check what happened to her skill after leveling it up, so she continued to help out those who were in trouble.
Dags, who had seen this, suddenly had an epiphany. Could she activate and level skills simply by replicating them manually? Could such a system exist in this game? It seemed absurd, but he couldn't think of any other reason why her skill would suddenly level up there without her using it. Shaking his head, he helped point out another person in need. With him also using Cynthia's vision, it was like she had two pairs of eyes.
"[Left side, rat engaging the girl in red.}" He messaged succinctly.
*Bang!*
[Hit! -80HP]
[Giant Rat (Lv.3) has been killed!]
[Gained 25XP]
Another turned into a bloody mess. This one had been attacking one of the girl players who now had several bit and scratch marks on her. Although it wasn't a headshot this time, her gun was more than powerful enough to take down the enemies. The girl quickly injected a [Basic Health Stim] and her wounds rapidly healed until most of them were gone.
The next person she saw that needed help was the narcissist guy from before, TopKami. He had rushed ahead of his teammates. He probably wanted to get more XP for himself or just try to make others think he was cool for taking on more enemies solo. Instead, he had gotten himself overwhelmed and currently had 3 [Giant Rats] hanging on his body. He was flailing around like an idiot, not giving his teammates a clear shot at the rats. Just as his health was about to deplete, the rat on his right arm exploded!
*Bang!*
[Crit! -120HP]
[Giant Rat (Lv.4) has been killed!]
[Gained 30XP]
[Level up! Lv.2 -> Lv.3]
[Gained 5 Free ATP]
TopKami stood shocked at the development, but quickly adjusted himself and shot the ones that were hanging on his legs. After that, he finally had time to heal himself. He wiped the sweat off his head at the close call. After being saved, he finally sucked up his pride and returned to the line with the rest of the players. If he got surrounded like that again, he would surely die. Just as he rejoined the line, it seemed like the tide of rats were retreating further into the darkness.
"[Well done! Although you only shot a few times, you definitely saved several members from getting swallowed up by the onslaught. Good shooting, Cynthia!]" He was happy she managed to do so well, even if it was only a relatively short time. She had even gotten to level up, which also helped him too. The repair percentage had gone up when she leveled up.
[Repair Progress: 0.02%]
[Upgrade points available: 3]
Cynthia gave a big smile as she sat up. She felt a great sense of achievement together with Dags' praise. Along with that, she had even gained a level for both herself and a skill! She bounced around a little in delight before she came to her senses. This was no place to celebrate yet!
"Ahem, thank you. I can hardly believe I did so well myself! It was like almost everything around me became so quiet when I got focused." She tried to look and sound composed, but she ultimately failed to hide the smile and tone of her voice.
"[I have a hypothesis about that, but let's talk about that later. Right now go join up with the rest of the group.]" Dags had a feeling his hypothesis was right, but it would need more testing. He hoped that Cynthia could replicate that focused feeling again later.
"Ah, right! Where's Masterless Sword?" She began to look around, and saw numerous [Giant Rat] corpses at the bottom of the scaffolding. There at the bottom stood the beastwoman in question without a scratch on her. Cynthia was stunned by the sight. Did she really guard her alone against so many?
"Miss Masterless Sword, can you help me down from here!" She had to call out to her, as the way down was currently in shambles. She'd probably lose health and break a leg if she tried to drop from this height.
Suddenly, the beastwoman appeared next to her in a couple jumps.
"You called?" She said with a smirk. She then picked up Cynthia and smoothly brought her down from her vantage point. Cynthia's eyes widened, still shocked by this woman's speed. How powerful was she actually?
"Are you ok? It looks like you had to stop quite a few of them down here while I was taking my time. I'm sorry I couldn't help you deal with them." Cynthia felt bad that she left Masterless Sword to deal with so many enemies by herself.
"Yep I'm in tip-top shape! Those slow, gross things couldn't even lay a claw on me. Also, don't worry about it. I was assigned to protect you, and that's what I'm doing." She flexed her muscles with a smile, and patted Cynthia on the head again. She just looked too cute when she had that worried expression on her face.
"Tch, this woman…" Dags clicked his tongue, frowning slightly. He didn't really understand why, but it irked him a little.
Cynthia giggled at Masterless Swords showboating. Seeing that Masterless Sword was fine, she pointed back at the group.
"We should rejoin with the others now. We'll probably be heading deeper after a rest." She said, making a guess.
"Yeah, you're probably right. I saw some of the people get roughed up. We'll also need to top off magazines since everyone burned through their stockpiles so quickly." Masterless Sword herself only had 4 full magazines left, just enough for 2 reloads of each pistol without dipping into her used half-full magazines. Just as they began walking back over, they heard the mercenary guild master shout.
"Everyone gather up! We'll take a moment to rest and reload, then we'll continue on to the [Giant Rat Queen]'s area! You have 15 minutes!"