Chương 3: Rats and Sticks

The monsters of the dungeons tended to stray outside their lair when no adventurers visited them for long. And that held true for the essence rat dungeon that he was gunning for. The faint warm light of his lantern illuminated the path ahead, while he kept his ears perked up, listening to any and all movements. And there were a lot of movements, especially so as he moved closer to the dungeon entrance. Right then, the bushes ahead crackled, as two shadows launched toward him, approaching at rapid speed.

Nero caught their charge, and side-stepped to dodge them. The thing barely grazed his feet. The earth they'd torn through had developed small fissures. Essence Rats, he'd read a whole book about them back at Red Rats, these things specialized in swarming their prey and biting through an inch of their life, chewing through bones, eyes, hair and all. And based on the sounds he was hearing, there were at least five of these just around him.

Nero quickly tied the lantern to his backpack, alongside his branch, and began climbing the tree nearest to him. After reaching midway up, he unsheathed the dagger and drove it into the trunk, then hung his backpack and lantern from it. He untied his branch, and jumped back down.

"Now I'm ready," he said, as the blue light from his lantern above spread further, illuminating enough of his surroundings for his eyes to make out the faces of the rats. He took up his battle stance, keeping the branch ready to be swung at a moment's notice, as he eyed his surroundings. The screeching of rats intensified, as he picked up on their color. They were grey, with barely visible eyes, wrinkled, slightly darker faces with whiskers on both sides.

The most dangerous parts, though, were their yellow, large teeth and the shorter, but much sharper nails. They continued to run around him in circles, except that this circle grew tighter by the moment. His eyes darted left to right, observing their running pattern, as suddenly, one of them shot straight for him. It was fast, too fast in fact; he immediately began to side-step, as the thing brushed past him, leaving another fissure.

On the next such maneuver, which came from his left, Nero moved, aiming the thick of his branch, and swung with his weight behind it. The strike landed clean on the rat's head as a loud scream tore through it, with its teeth flying. The thing bounced back several feet before coming to a stop. Nero broke into a sprint; the thing was still twitching, so he aimed the thick of his branch again and brought it down like a hammer over a nail. A squelch rang out. And the beast stopped moving.

"One down," he breathed, ignoring the stinging pain that radiated from the palm of his right hand, and swung the branch back again, readying for the next charge. But in the charge just now, he'd noticed a pattern, the first one came at him after completing three circles around the parameters, and this one he'd just struck down did the same too. He kept his eyes open for the next one.

And as expected, after completing exactly three laps around him, another of the rats charged at him, except this one came from behind him. Nero spun on his heels, but seeing that the thing had gotten too close already, he abandoned the thought of striking it, and jumped sideways instead. The ground where he'd been standing snapped, throwing dust everywhere, as he felt a sting from the back of his leg. Shit, its managed a bite.

Nero quickly scrambled to his feet, because according to his calculation, of the remaining three still encircling him, one was near the end of its third lap. He quickly repositioned himself at the center, as another rat came barreling forward—thankfully, this one came from right ahead. Nero didn't wait for it to reach him; instead, he built his own momentum against it by running several steps forward, and swung his branch right at its face.

A crackling sound reverberated as the sting in Nero's palm intensified from the shock of striking its skull. Due to the pain, he didn't see it get flung back, but after searching a bit, he found the body lying flat right in front of a bush. It wasn't so much as twitching.

"Lights out, huh." He breathed, unhooking the E-rank potion from its holster; the dark green liquid sloshed thickly inside. He uncapped it, poured a bit onto where the rat had bitten him, and drank a sip. It was bitter, slightly minty in taste. He felt like drinking some water, but there was no time, as the second rat was nearly at the end of its laps. He capped the potion again, and placed it back in his leather armor. Things were looking not so good, but at least he'd figured out their patterns of attack.

Lower rank dungeon spawns tended to have the more simpler ones. He picked up the branch again, feeling slightly more clear-headed. He hauled the branch back, taking his stance. The second rat came right then, except that on its charge, it left a distinct neon glow behind. And although its charge wasn't any faster than the previous ones, Nero felt something wrong in his gut. And it wasn't because of the potion he'd just consumed. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

He chose to dodge this time, flinging himself to the right as the familiar snap followed, with a hint of wetness to it. The creature zipped past him, before rejoining its friends. Their encirclement around him had also tightened significantly, making dodging each strike require faster reaction and movement. Should I run outside the encirclement? The question lingered, as he drifted left and right, tracking the final rat's laps as it neared completion. And the charge began.

Again, Nero swung his branch, except this time, he turned sideways slightly at the last second, striking the creature at its neck instead of its hard skull. Finally, the feedback wasn't a sharp aftershock to his wrists and palms, but a softer, stickier feel. The creature, meanwhile, slid a few feet away. With blood pouring out through its fur, its body twitched lazily before going still.

"Three down," he reminded himself, and reconsidered whether to move outside the encirclement. The benefit of staying was predictability; he didn't know whether these things would re-encircle him after he left the formation, or do something else. It was better to stay—the predictability of their movement worked to his advantage.

"But reacting in time is getting harder." Just then, an obvious idea bloomed in his mind. He quickly ran toward the tree nearest him, but before he could plant himself before its trunk, the rat that had bitten him earlier finished its cycle and shot forward again.

"Not again," he groaned, jumping to the right to dodge as quickly as possible. Except, no dice—the snap was again followed by a sting at his leg. His leg, which hadn't been hurting thanks to the medicine, began to burn up again.

"You bastard." He cursed at the grey fiend, as it rejoined its last, possibly poisonous companion. Nero geared himself up again, his left leg nearly out of commission. It stung the moment he put any pressure on it. The neon rat barreled forward like a slingshot again, leaving green afterglow sparks behind. Nero poured all his focus into it, and just when it was a few feet away, he hopped in place.

The neon rat crashed head-first onto the tree trunk, as Nero landed branch-first over its chubby back, using all his weight and momentum to drive it all the way through. Guts and gore burst out as he pierced its soft belly, and landed on its back.

"Goodness," he heaved, "almost had me there." He huffed, stepping away from the corpse, and now that he saw its stilled body, he could see something viscous and green ooze from its teeth; the substance glowed faintly green.

"Poison, or just unbrushed, aged filth?" He didn't know, but there was something he wished to teach this thing's last companion, who had just finished its second lap. He staggered back to the center, while the last rat completed its final run. Nero pulled back hard on his branch, preparing for a full swing. And just as the thing finished its third lap and burst forward, Nero took a step, and swung the branch with every inch of his strength.

A crackling noise followed, like somebody had set off a mana bomb, and the branch flew out of his hands as Nero fell forward. He didn't see where the rat went, as the pain from his right palm clouded his head. Limping, he unholstered the previously half-consumed potion, poured a bit onto his palm, which had reddened like a tomato, and drank the rest. He didn't move for a while, the pain from his palm far outweighing the pain in his leg.

And after what felt like almost an hour, he slowly sat back up, unholstered another vial of potion, and poured just a bit onto his wounded leg. Although it hurt to put pressure on his legs, he limped around the field, picking up the individual rats. Each weighed at least five kg. He eventually gathered them all beneath the tree where he'd stashed his backpack and lantern. Then he went over to the bushes, snapped off some twigs with particularly thick green leaves, and brought them over to cover the rat corpses.

Next was the harder part—getting up the tree with a leg that hurt just to walk on. Still, he needed to get up, right now, as he felt both hungry and pained all over. He needed some rest. But lying down on the ground and falling asleep would be like inviting the other creatures of the forest to have a taste of him. He didn't feel like experiencing the teeth of some hyena or wolf today. So despite the pain, he hauled his haggard body up the trunk, plucking up the dagger on his way as he reached the uppermost canopy.

Next, he spent some more time cutting larger branches and laying them over the main, thicker branches of the canopy. After an hour of cutting and piling branches, he'd finally assembled a makeshift tree bedding—a place to sit comfortably, and even lie down. Just then, the sound of something growling reverberated through his whole body.

"It's my stomach," he told himself, smiling as he unzipped the backpack and pulled out one loaf of bread. He tore it right down the middle, fetched some chicken jerky from within, and layered it in between the bread like a sandwich. He didn't stand on ceremony, biting into the bread as soon as he'd finished preparing it, before pulling out the water pouch and taking a large mouthful from it.

"Ah." He moaned in relief as the food and water hit the pit of his stomach, sending a pleasurable sensation throughout.

"Food always tastes good after a hard day of work," he noted. The sounds of owls and wolves began drifting in from the distance while he lost himself in his little evening snack. …. After eating his late evening meal, and taking a hefty nap under the soft canopy that lasted the better part of two hours, Nero climbed back down from the treetop. As he stepped back down on the ground, the pressure of his weight on his legs didn't immediately send him wobbling like before.

He hopped in place to test it, and sure enough, the pain was almost gone.

"That potion is something," he remarked. He'd only once taken a potion during his work at Red Rats, and that hadn't worked nearly as well as this one.

"I wonder if those guys used to dilute the potions in water or something…" Either way, the copper spent on them was worth it. He still had one full vial left, with another at half, so he could buy more later, especially after harvesting the loot below him. Nero crouched down, flinging away each of the twigs and leaves he'd used to hide the five rat corpses. The things were still relatively fresh, but he could sense a faintly bad odor.

"It's begun rotting, huh." It wasn't surprising—dungeon spawns did tend to decompose faster than normal ones. The more magically rich ones decomposed even faster than these. He unsheathed his knife, and began his harvest before they truly decomposed.