"Here we are..."
Nico stared at the staircase leading to the abandoned underground subway. A cold but gentle breeze came from the subway, making the cold rain of Red Town feel like nothing in comparison.
Descending down the staircase, Nico entered the subway and made his way towards the designated area. Upon entering, a holographic screen appeared, one similar to his system screen. Instead of displaying information, it locked Nico inside the subway, trapping him until he completed the mission, if he could.
He didn't need to look back to confirm since this was what the game itself would normally do. When he got to the actual station, Nico was enveloped in a deep darkness. All the lights were out and the only source of light was where he came from.
But then, his eyes began glowing and acted as a beacon of light, illuminating the area like torches. Nico smiled and began walking, admiring how the game mechanics worked whenever a player entered a dark area.
The subway had a terrible, pungent smell, either left behind by dead bodies or monsters that decided to defecate in the darkness. Either way, it was unbearable and extremely disorienting.
In addition to that, the walls were worn out and covered in cracks, where moss and other class of Bryopsida had begun to grow. It looked a little pretty, but it's hard to admire anything when there's a strong scent of piss and shit hitting your sinuses.
And yet, Nico forced himself to endure it and pushed forward, which seemed to steel his resolve and allow him to keep trekking through. It's not like he could turn back. He was quite literally trapped. And, if he didn't complete the mission within 7 days, he wouldn't get the reward.
But, after walking through the train tracks for an entire day, Nico decided to finally take a break. He hadn't come across anything yet. But, if he wasn't fully energized when he did encounter a threat, he would surely lose his life. And with his luck, that seemed very likely.
***
A few hours later, Nico returned to searching for the monsters that had apparently built a nest. This was a daunting mission, mostly because of how endless and vast the subway seemed to be. But, it seemed that his trekking would atleast become eventful.
He stopped walking and immediately pulled out his sword from his inventory.
{ Steel Blade: D-rank item
Attributes: N/A
Durability: 1789/1789 }
A couple hundred feet away from Nico was a group of mutated sewer rats, spanning at the size of 4 feet and bearing fangs that were unbelievably venomous. There were 5 of them, each of the monsters digging their uneven teeth into a seemingly larger corpse.
'It doesn't seem like they killed it themselves... What even is that? An ogre? What's it doing down in the sewers? Well, in any case, killing them while they're distracted is good...'
Nico continued inspecting the sewer rats and noticed that they can't see his flashlight torch eyes, meaning that this mechanic was only available to him and possibly other players. This also told him that the rats hadn't spotted him yet.
He held his sword tightly and took a deep breath, his heart beating extremely fast as his anxiety slowly started to set in. Then, he held his arm back and with all his strength, threw the sword towards the furthest rat.
The blade flew through the air and pierced the unsuspecting sewer rat's head, drawing red blood from the monster and causing it to stagger backwards and silently die, releasing nothing but a soft squeal.
{ Mutated Sewer Rat Slain }
The other rats immediately ceased from feasting on the corpse and looked at its fellow brethren, suddenly lying dead on the ground. They looked in the direction where the blade came from and immediately began sniffing the air, along with the blade itself.
A loud, hoarse screech was released by one of the rats, causing the entirety of them to screech as well, their blood red eyes narrowing as they searched for the attacker. Nico had already vanished.
Appearing behind the sewer rats, Nico quickly dragged his sword from the dead monster and swung it at the nearest beast, drawing blood and causing it to screech. The others finally discovered the intruder and charged ahead.
Nico's eyes, which were only casting light, began glowing faintly. Then, his body moved on its own, like it had before, and began cleaving at the rats. Allowing his body to move freely, casting away an mental restrictions, Nico was able to evade the attacks from the monsters.
He slashed a rat's eyes, blinding it before digging his blade straight through its neck and killing it. But then, the other two rats gurgled and spewed a purple substance at Nico, spraying him on his eyes.
"Arg!" he exclaimed as he shut his eyes and jumped away. A sharp pain then hit his chest, purple and blue veins popping out of his arms and face.
{ You have been poisoned! }
"No shit!"
{ Effect: Slowness (1:00)
HP: 175/200 }
Nico quickly opened his inventory and pulled out a healing potion, downing the whole thing. Once he downed the entire bottle, the poison that had temporarily blinded him was released from his body, along with the effects that came with it.
Once healed, he dashed for the rats again, his eyes narrowing as he charged ahead. He held his blade back, jumped high and dug his sword straight into a rat's head. While that happened, another rat came and bit him on his arm.
He groaned, but jammed his sword into the rat's head. But, the rat refused to release him, its jaw locked onto Nico's arm.
{ You have been poisoned!
Effect: Slowness (1:00)
HP: 150/200
HP: 125/200
HP: 100/200 }
Nico gritted his teeth and continuously stabbed the rat, over and over but to no avail. Then, he jammed his sword through the rat's mouth and forcefully pried it open, finally freeing his arm.
He shoved his hand into his inventory and pulled out an additional healing potion, drinking the entire thing and sighing in relief afterwards. He looked at his left arm and saw his health bar move from yellow to green.
"That was way too hard... And, they're only rank E monsters. If I can't even handle these sewer rats, how am I gonna complete the mission...?" he asked himself as he looked at his palm.
He furrowed his brows and clenched his fists. "Nah," he said as he shook his head. "I can't rely on Vortex taking over. I haven't even taught myself to fight on instinct, and instead, I just let my body do all the work. I atleast need to teach myself how to fight and instill all the groundwork into my psyche. Just because I'm Vortex doesn't mean I shouldn't know how to fight on my own. Who knows what'll happen if the synchronisation suddenly glitches out?"
He then took a look at his sword and nodded upon looking at the blade's current durability.
{ Steel Blade: D-rank item
Attributes: N/A
Durability: 1768/1789 }
"Looking good, for a D rank sword that is," he said with a smirk as he put the blade away. Then, something told him to check his status screen, to which he did.
{ Player: V-777 (Vortex_7)
LVL: 1
Race: Human
HP: 200/200
STR: 110/110
DEX: 101/101
CHA: 70/70
LUK: 7/7
Mana: 202/202
Value: #1600
Aestrol Coins: æ3,200.00
Companions: N/A
Weapons: Steel Blade (D-rank)
Items: Packaged Food (14); Healing Potion (3)
Abilities: N/A }
"My strength and mana have gone up," he noted. "This could mean that killing monsters will allow me to level up to some degree, depending on how strong they are. I killed 5 sewer rats, and my strength got added to 5. But..."
He noticed his mana only had 2 additional points and rubbed his chin, contemplating on a reasonable explanation.
"Is it because those last 2 were the only ones that actually spit their venom? The last one bit me and I was poisoned, but since I was able to kill both of them, and they had used their abilities, I gained 2 mana points."
"This is good," he added with a soft smile. "Sure, 150,000 strength seems very far away, but 2 steps forward and 1 step back is still a step forward. Basically, the more I fight, the stronger I become."
With that being sorted, Nico closed his status screen and continued walking through the abandoned subway. A day had passed, leaving him with only 5 days to find the nesting monsters or he would have ventured into the area, risking his life, for quite literally nothing.