I trailed Arya from a distance, keeping my
Every step felt like I was tiptoeing across a minefield, and my heart raced as I tried to stay out of her detection range. The last thing I wanted was to pop into visibility because I followed her a bit too closely. I had a gut feeling that she wouldn't be too pleased to find out I was stalking her.
As we moved deeper into the dungeon, the air grew thicker, and the tunnels seemed to close in around us. But it wasn't just the atmosphere that had me on edge—it was the damn rats.
Forest rats of levels 9 and 10 jumped out from the darkness, their eyes gleaming with hunger. They weren't the monstrous Chunky Rattus, but they were still enough to make my skin crawl. Arya, however, looked like she couldn't care less about them. She just pointed her wand at the rats and turned them into popsicles.
"She is so cool, why can't you be like that human?"
I just rolled my eyes at that statement, "You have no right to chastise me while hiding in my shirt you wimpy cat."
"Who are you calling wimpy? I am the bravest of the brave"
"Ya, ya, just keep telling yourself that."
Even though we were bickering, I still took out a few of the forest rats along the way, my new dagger flashing in the dim light as I struck at their vital points each time. Gotta say the new dagger rocks.
Each kill brought me a little closer to levelling up, and after each kill, I used
*ding*
*you have killed a level 10 forest rat*
*you have levelled up*
*you reached level 15*
It sure felt nice to level up, but there was no time to celebrate.
As we moved further into the depths, the ground beneath Arya suddenly shook causing her to stumble. She fell face-first onto the ground. it would have been a hilarious moment under different circumstances, but right now it wasn't.
Before she could even push herself up, the earth split open, and out burst the biggest, most terrifying rat I'd ever seen.
The mutated Chunky Rattus was a full twelve feet tall, its massive body covered in grey fur that had turned a sickly purple from the generous gift of poison I provided back in the lab.
The poison had slowed it down, but not enough to stop it from lunging at Arya with a ferocity that made my blood run cold.
Arya barely managed to roll out of the way, the rat's claws digging into the ground where she'd just been. My first thought upon watching that was, "Oh crap." My second thought? "Run!" But my feet? Yeah, they decided to stay glued to the floor. I must say, my body had great teamwork!
But apparently, Arya was far braver than me. Even as she scrambled to her feet, she was already pointing her wand at the rat. Her voice rang out through the chamber as she mumbled, "
It saw the attack coming and tried to evade, but its massive bulk made that impossible. The flames hit its belly, quickly growing into a swirling vortex that engulfed the rat, setting its fur ablaze.
The rat let out an agonized screech, its body thrashing wildly as the flames began to consume it.
It screeched again and again, and as if answering its call, dozens of forest rats came rushing out of the shadows to help. They swarmed the burning beast, throwing sand and dirt onto it in a desperate attempt to douse the flames.
As if things weren't bad enough, another Chunky Rattus, slightly smaller but no less deadly, emerged from the ground along with a mutated level 10 rat—the same ones I poisoned in the lab.
They both lunged at Arya, forcing her to divide her attention between them and the giant rat that was still trying to shake off the flames.
From my hiding spot, I watched in horror as the situation spiralled out of control. The smaller rats were working together to save the mutated Chunky Rattus, while Arya was being overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies.
My
"Human! Do something!" Systie hissed in my ear, her tiny claws digging into my shirt. "The giant rat is using a skill called
I cursed under my breath. Great, just great, why does it have such an annoying skill? I couldn't just stand here and watch the girl get torn apart by these monsters. But the second I attacked, I'd be exposing myself to the horde.
"Damn it," I muttered, making up my mind. There was no other choice.
I rushed towards the level 10 mutated rat that was attacking Arya, waiting for the right moment. As it lunged at her, I slipped behind it and drove my dagger into its neck. The rat let out a choked squeal as it collapsed, dead before it hit the ground.
*ding*
*you killed a level 10 mutated forest rat*
*you gained experience*
*you levelled up to level 16*
*
As expected, the moment I made the kill, my
Arya glanced over at me, her eyes wide with shock. "The heck are you doing here!? Don't tell me you've got some weird fetish for becoming rat food!"
"I have no such fetish!" I snapped back, stabbing another level 8 forest rat that tried to rush me. "Just attract the two Chunky Rats. I'm fast, so I will quickly handle the smaller ones and then join you."
Arya's eyes narrowed, but she didn't argue. She turned back towards the burning mutated Chunky Rattus and the normal level 25 Chunky Rattus that had just appeared, readying her wand for another spell. But before she could cast it, a forest rat lunged at her from the side.
I was quicker and reacted faster. I pushed off the ground, accelerating towards Arya and sliced through the rat's neck before it could reach her.
Arya shot me a quick, surprised glance, but there was no time for words. The two Chunky Rattus were closing in, and the remaining forest rats were swarming around us.
"Let's finish this," I muttered, gripping my dagger tightly as the rats closed in. This wasn't how I planned on spending my night, but hey, at least I was spending it with a girl.
Taking in a quick breath, I rushed towards the rats, slashing and stabbing as many times as I could.
My movements were pretty sharp if I say so myself, but stamina was a different matter entirely.
Every strike drained more of my energy and my arms were starting to feel like lead. But there was no time to complain, the fear of becoming rat food pushed me forward, helping me kill as many rats as possible.
*ding*
*you killed a level 6 forest rat*
*you killed a level 8 forest rat*
*you killed a level 7 forest rat*
*you killed a level 10 forest rat*
*you killed a level 9 forest rat*
*you levelled up*
*you levelled up*
The notifications kept pouring in and the number of rats dwindled.
'We might survive this!' just when I thought that, the burning 12-foot-tall rat did something that made my blood run cold.
It stopped its assault on Arya and lunged towards the other chunky rat beside it, sinking its teeth into the other rat's flesh.
Another series of notifications rang in my head:
*ding*
*the level 25 normal Chunky Rattus had died*
*your
*you gained experience*
*you have levelled up*
*you have levelled up*
*you reached level 20 and can evolve the basic class into an advanced class*
I barely registered the messages because my mush of a brain was too busy processing the nightmare occurring in front of my eyes.
After killing its own kind, the mutated rat began to swell in size, and the flames burning it started to dim because of its rapid growth.
"The rat…it attacked its own kind to gain experience," Systie hissed in disgust while shivering in my shirt.
I was too stunned to say anything as the bloodshot eyes of the giant rat landed on us.
It then let out a loud roar and charged.