Jack dodged the Scrapper's arm and slammed his mace head into its center. It staggered back, and he grabbed hold of its elbow and swung it to the ground. As he raised his mace above his head to slam down on the Scrapper, another came up from behind him. Eli, who had been coming with us for the last two days, fired his rifle. The bullet cracked the carapace and pushed it back a step. Jack's mace slammed into the head of the downed creature, while Eli pulled back his bolt, and pushed it forward. Another shot ended its life.
"It's done," I said as I hopped down the junk pile with my hacksaw and the paracord grasped in the same hand.
I unraveled the black cord until we were at the next choke point: the beginning of the fork in the path where the rats usually hung out.
Jack retreated from the bend that had been acting as a choke point, and Eli went with him. Jack held his ground as the first of the Scrappers charged forward through the narrow junk ravine. We had gone deep today and disturbed a nest of Scrappers. Fifteen together.
As soon as a bulk of their numbers were clustered together within that ravine, I pulled the three paracords. Shelves of junk fell and buried most of the Scrappers, aside from the two at the front. The one in front swung down with both of its arms, and Jack caught them with his mace. The one behind fluttered up and swung down toward his head. I pulled out my pistol and fired quickly. Once. Twice. Both shots hit, and it fell to the ground. Eli used this opportunity to bludgeon it to death with the butt of his rifle.
Jack grabbed his shotgun from his waist and fired a blast into the creature's face. It fell backward.
For the last week and a half, Jack and I had been coming to the Scrapyard every single day; pushing in a little further every time. Eli contacted me about helping him with a job in this area, because the week was almost over and he needed to get a job done, or his contract would be eliminated. Daniel and his crew, and several of the other people who came in with us, were doing jobs near the town; mostly picking up trash, or rodent hunting in the sewers, so jobs that required him to leave town were the only ones available to him.
As far as I knew, nearly half of our group hadn't even left the walls of the city, and only a quarter had been further than a mile out. Apparently, the promise of money wasn't enough to drive people to risk their necks like this.
Over these days, we've killed well over 400 rats, and well over 200 Rust Wing Crows. Shredders were still in the double digits. This morning alone we probably killed close to 50 rats, and 20 crows.
Because of this, my stats had increased significantly, my Anima Manipulation had increased to F+ 20%, my Agility had increased to F 90%, my Strength and Endurance had increased to E- 15.5%, and F+ 10%., my Intelligence had increased to E- 1%, and my Perception had increased to C- 3.5%.
The skills that had changed the most were Foraging to F 20%, my Trap Making to E- 15%, Pistols to F+ 85%, Scavenging to D 45%, and Swords to F- 5%. Thanks to this, over the last week I have advanced to F+. New jobs had begun to be available as well, including trapping animals for meat. I had also recently unlocked Butchering as a skill.
After the first day that Jack and I went out, the Ego told me to do 10 sets of 100 Downward Slashes, Horizontal Slashes, and Stabs. Once I had finished that I was just about nearly ready to pass out, but I had unlocked the Swords skill. Currently, the tasks to increase it are as such:
[Kill 100 Enemies with an item tagged as, 'Sword.] 13/100
REWARDS:
20% Mastery of Swords, 10% Mastery to Strength and Endurance, 5% Mastery to Reflexes, and 2% Master to Agility.
And
[Swing your sword 10,000 Times] 800/10000
REWARDS:
80% Master to Swords, 20% Mastery to Strength and Endurance, 10% Mastery to Reflexes, and 5% Mastery to Agility.
Daniel and his crew still robbed me every morning. If I missed a day, the beatings would get worse. Thanks to that, however, my Low-Grade Regeneration had also begun to level up. Currently, it sat at F- 40% specifically because of those beatings. Now, I was down nearly 40k.
I had tried to spend the night outside of the walls of New Eden one time, to avoid running into his crew but...well that was the scariest experience of my life. Beings of light flittered outside of my tent and screamed as they passed by. Large animals stomped by, and every time I tried to sleep, I felt my sleeping pad depress as if someone was crawling into it with me. I tried to report it to some of the authorities, but because they would take my PID away each time, and left their own back at their inn, there was no proof of what they were doing. When questioned, they told them that I had specifically asked them to attack me to increase my levels, and while the beatings did have that effect (and was probably the reason why my Endurance increased so much), I was still left bruised and spitting up blood after each one. Luckily, I hadn't been shot yet.
"You get everything, Eli?"
"Hm? Yeah." He tore the arm off the Scrapper: one of the items he had to bring back for his job.
"Today's the day." Jack said proudly: a bright smile brimming across his face, "That we see what sits at the end of the Scrapyard. Aren't you excited?"
"It's getting pretty late." I said, "Should we continue?"
"Oh, yes," Jack said. "We should."
"I'm going to head back." Eli said, "I ain't in this to become strong, I'm in this for money."
"Alright. We'll give you your portion of the rest back at New Eden?"
Eli grunted as he hauled his backpack onto his back. I could tell what he was going through. He was sick. I could tell by the way he glanced back every so often, or by the way he'd smack the back of his neck as if something had landed on him. There was only one way for that to be true, though...I'll ask him about it later. Jack and I spend the next hour and a half recovering the bodies of the Scrappers. I set my full bag down and took out one of the three new bags I had bought a couple of days before specifically so I could have more to sell so I was no longer bleeding money. Half the hearts, I put in my bag, the other half I drink dry. Each Scrapper's heart sells for about 50 dollars at the Alchemist's shop, so just the two that I managed to save were an additional 100 dollars.
"Ready?" Jack asked as he finished off one of his MREs.
As I set the bag down at the entrance, a great billowing sound from the entrance of the Scrapyard shakes the earth.
"What was that?"
Both of our PIDs dinged at once. I pulled mine out. A bright red warning flashed on the screen:
[EMERGENCY REQUEST: KILL THE RAT KING]
REWARD:
$20,000, 10% MASTERY TO EVERY STAT