But before I could conduct an in-depth investigation, the big rats and it seemed like this one might be the leader of the rats.
And the rat is humongous, about twice as large as I am.
And unlike the other rats, this one is tough as it took three strikes to be able to finish it off.
With the boss rat dead, I decided to take a closer look at the corpses and realize that the corpses are old and have been here for a while. I couldn't see what caused the corpses to die as most of their body parts had been eaten by the rats.
I decided to confront the farmer and ask him about this, as it was quite suspicious. He does live outside of the settlement and it's quite far from any other farm or house.
Plus ever since I came to this farm, I don't remember seeing anyone besides the farmer at all. It makes me suspicious of him.
As if this is a farm, there should be other people working. I know that this isn't a big farm but doing all of that alone would be impossible.
So after a while of exploring, I conclude that the farmer has something to do with all of these corpses.
Thus without wasting anything any further, I decide to confront him.
And with that in mind, I ascend from the basement and proceed to meet the farmer outside.
And immediately, the farmer smiled right away.
I found it weird that he was standing outside of the barn instead of waiting in front of his house. As if he is hiding something. Plus with all of the grin on his face. He knew that I had seen the corpses.
So with that in mind, I spoke with a deep tone. "What's with all of those corpses in the basement? Is this part of your farm or what?"
"Oh, those? Well, it's just for a little offering."
Offering? Well, that doesn't sound good.
"An experiment? What kind of offering involves you harvesting corpses?" I said that as I reached for my sword.
The farmer noticed this and quickly responded. "Now... Now... There's no need to reach for your sword."
"Explain yourself! Did you kill all of those people? Plus I thought you just have rats problems?"
The farmer then sneered at me. "Those corpses are worthless since it's dead already, but who knows that it would cause the rats to grow bigger."
"What's your aim?" I asked with a very deep tone.
And the farmer doesn't seem to be intimidated at all. He just responds with a grin on his face. "You are prying into matters that you shouldn't have. As you said earlier, your job is to exterminate all the rats and not investigate me. Since you finish that job, the reward is yours."
"Tell me what's your real plan," I said while taking a step closer to him and at the same time reaching for my sword.
There's no way I am going to let this slide after hearing all of this. He admitted that he did all of that, plus the evidence is right down the basement.
It seems like there's a chance that the farmer has killed more people than all of those corpses that are inside the basement. All because of an offering and there's only one thing that comes to mind.
That this farmer must be some sort of cultist and his offering must be related to that.
Which means I have to stop him right away. Because if I let this slip away, there might be more casualties on his hands.
"I'm giving triple the rewards if you keep quiet about this... you do need the money right, adventurer? Seeing how you wore cheap equipment and had a low-quality sword. So how about it?"
"Triple?" I said, and at the same time, the farmer handed me a pouch, probably filled with gold coins.
"How about that? Do we have a deal? Just forget about what you saw here, and everything will be fine.
He's right about me needing the money, but there's no way I can turn blind on all of this. Thus without hesitation, I slammed the pouch onto the ground. I might not be a soldier anymore but that pride hasn't died yet.
"No deal," I responded and that's when the farmer turned serious right away.
"Then I have no choice... You will be joining the offering as well."
And without any delay, he gripped his fists and leaped right towards me.
However, the farmer is old and weak. Compared to him, I am an adventurer. Thus this fight should be an easy win. But that was my mistake as the farmer had been hiding his strength the entire time.
He's quick, his movement is smooth and precise, and his punch is strong as well. Which made me wonder how is he able to possess such strength.
My initial plan was to dodge all of his attacks and counter-attack. But he kept landing hits on me as if he could predict my movement. This was a fight that I would lose.
So instead of engaging him in a fistfight, I drew my sword. However, it was blocked by the farmer easily as he's strong and quick at the same time.
And even with that, he didn't hesitate to push me further as he threw his next attack. He's quick and without hesitation, he grabbed my throat.
"You should have taken my offer." The farmer grinned right away. "But thanks to you, I would be able to claim another victim."
Shit!
I could barely breathe at this point and I'm losing focus at the same time. However, I can't give up here since I survived the dungeon, and my stats have gone up seeing that I haven't died yet despite all of that. It means I still have a chance.
If things went south, I still have the card's up my sleeve…
So right away, I began reaching for his arm in an attempt to free myself.