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Chapter 28: Rats
🕑 Added 2025-01-21 00:46:41 +0000 UTCJames woke up as stinging pain assaulted his back when he rolled over. The bleeding had indeed stopped, but the scabbing remained. James wondered if this was how snakes and lizards healed. It was no different from humans. Even worse, James already felt some itching on his back.
James shouldered his bag and equipped his axe and longsword in his hands as he marched into the endless corridor. After venturing through the hallway mindlessly, he found a plastic door on the side.
James stared at the door. Now that he had calmed down, silly questions like how he should open this door crept into his mind. Should he put his sword down on the ground and open it? Or should he put his sword on his back and open it? Or should he hold both weapons and open it?
In the end, he chose to lean his sword against the wall and open the door. It was empty. James sighed and put the sword back on his back.
“Damnit, I am too cautious. An axe should be enough. As long as I am wary of weapon skills, it should be enough,” James said as he chuckled.
At the end of the corridor was an office workspace. James didn’t feel like he was venturing into a dungeon. The scenery reminded him of when he checked into the office even though it was supposed to be a holiday.
What was different, though, were the rats. Small rats scurried along the building floor. As soon as they heard James’ footsteps, they all scattered, squeezing into cracks they had made at the corners of the walls.
James began looking for treasure boxes in the office space. He had almost given up before he saw a golden treasure chest hidden beside a sofa in the corner.
The chest couldn’t be moved, but the sofa could. However, a keyhole blocked his way to the treasure chest. James frowned. He hadn’t found another locked chest since the first floor.
“Ugh… I have to remember the path here again,” James muttered.
The unknown key that he had gotten yesterday didn’t fit the massive keyhole. After scavenging the office floor, opening every desk, and flipping every chair and sofa, he grudgingly left the room.
“At least we’re not going blind anymore,” James smirked as his eyes landed on a silver plaque with the word “TOILET” printed on it.
James entered the alley leading to the toilet. The flickering lamp on the ceiling would make a perfect horror movie scene. It might as well be genuine, for this was a dungeon where monsters gathered.
James tilted his head as he found the toilet spotless. Clean porcelain floors, dotted with blue waves like that of the sea, and white ceramics lining the walls like a horizon. Even though this dungeon was infested with rats, both humongous and small, James chuckled, realizing its bathroom was even cleaner than his old workplace’s toilets.
“AARGGH!!” James shrieked as a shadow leaped out from the cabinet.
James caught it with his orc hand as a pair of nasty, brown, smelly incisors were thrust toward his face.
A rat the size of a dog lunged at him, scratching and biting his orc arm.
“Shit!” James chopped its head off with his axe.
Brown goo splattered from its neck onto James’ skin. A sudden, burning pain assaulted his hand.
[Corrosion afflicted]
“System! What should I do with it?” James panicked as he saw part of his hand start to melt. He looked around, searching for another surprise before materializing water with his water magic, trying to wash it off.
[The most effective method is to pour a health potion over it. The corrosion effect will last for two minutes regardless of how much water you wash it with. Since this corrosion effect will not be fatal, we would advise against buying health potions.]
“Wasn’t I supposed to be immune to poison?” James cursed as the burning pain didn’t recede even after he tried to rub it.
[Corrosion effect is not included in the poison category.]
“Will I lose my hand?”
[If you were afflicted by Corrosion for an extended amount of time, yes, you could lose your limb. To counter that, you should use health potions. This Corrosion is not strong enough to take your hand.]
Trusting that the system would not lie, James sat down as he gritted his teeth. The corpse of the rat beast still leaked green blood as white smoke started to decompose its body.
“Ugh… why isn’t Chimera activated?” James asked, “I am sure this is less than 5 meters…”
[The body of Corats has been damaged by its own blood corrosion. No parts could be harvested.]
“Fuck! A running acid bomb!” James gasped as pain started to recede from his hand. He hated it when the system was right. As another minute passed, the pain had receded completely. He tried to grasp with his fingers—his hand worked just fine without pain. He sighed as his strong and scaly orc left hand was now disfigured.
“Will this impede the scale’s effectiveness?”
[The physical resistance on the disfigured hand has been reduced by 5%. To remedy this, you must drink a hematonic potion, and the scales will slowly regrow in five days. Would you like to drink a hematonic potion?]
“Forget it.” James sighed.
Using his ice magic, he formed a shield in front of him before opening the bathroom stalls. James might not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but he learned. This time, his caution bore fruit. The same rat, this time much fatter, leaped out from the toilet stalls.
It bounced off the ice shield. James then skewered it with ice spears, and it literally exploded. Green goo spread everywhere as noxious fumes assaulted James’s nostrils.
“Ugh… this gas is not poisonous, right?”
[The gas is safe to inhale. However, the green liquid will cause level 4 corrosion affliction for five minutes.]
“What was the corrosion level for the previous ones?”
[The corrosion affliction for Corats is level 2.]
“Ugh. This one is double that one.” James winced and thanked the heavens for his cautious attitude.
[The levels are not incremental increases. They are exponential. The corrosion effect for Boomrats is four times that of Corats.]
“Damn. That’s lethal.”
[If it sprayed on your head or torso, then yes, it might be lethal unless you bought two health potions. If it sprayed on your legs or hands, you might lose them. However, for Survivor James, if you use Chimera after being sprayed, the corrosion effect will be gone on the discarded body part.]
James glanced at the system. He didn’t think it would be so helpful. “Thanks. Didn’t think you would tell me that one.”
After five minutes of waiting outside the bathroom stalls, he checked the remaining stalls and found a small treasure chest, the size of a palm, hidden behind the closet.
[Congratulations. You have found 300 coins. Your total coins are now 715 coins. Would you like to upgrade your weapon?]
“What does a lightning enchantment look like?”
[Information classified.]
“Figures. I’m going to save my coins. I want to upgrade my Chimera skill,” James said.
He didn’t know whether the upgraded Chimera skill would do him any good—it was all a gamble anyway.
James looked at the brown sludge inside the bathroom and wondered. “System, may I know how I can kill them safely and what organs I could plunder from these walking bombs?”
[You can plunder their liver and blood system. As for how to kill them safely, that’s classified information.]
“I see. Thank you anyway.”
James was starting to get the hang of where the system drew the boundary. Just like when he faced the golem, the system answered that he could plunder its heart. James wanted that liver and blood. He knew they would be good organs to plunder.
“All right. Bathroom is done. Time to sleep!” James yawned as he lined up two sofas across from each other and cut off their armrests with his sword and axe. His body had gotten larger—a single sofa was no longer enough for his bulky body.
Now that James had nowhere to go, no place to call home, he wanted to explore this dungeon at a more leisurely pace.
He didn’t forget to entwine several chairs with spiderweb. He didn’t have spider sense, but if someone were to disrupt these webs, it should knock some chairs over and wake him up.
The next morning arrived, and James yawned. After having his breakfast—a hearty set of rat legs—he soon ventured down other pathways. James chuckled as he saw thin white threads spreading from his left hand. This reminded him of his adventure in the trial dungeon on the second floor.
The pathway he took this time led him to a door. However, unlike other cheap or luxurious doors made by burgeoning conglomerates, this door was made of solid steel. The round door was painted red as steel covered the entire wall. A little keyhole, fit for the unknown key, lay on its side.
It felt like a bunker door. Yet somehow, it was locked only with a single key. The modern-looking bunker door, yet locked by only a single key, evoked a sense of uncanny valley within James. It felt off—somehow.
James stared at the door. His experience in dungeon trials told him that this room was the place where the boss monster lived. However, this place was not a dungeon trial—there could be treasure inside. James had faced many boss monsters, and yet this one still gave him dread. His instinct told him not to open this door under any circumstances.
“Why am I chickening out now? If there is a boss, I will kill it and get massive EXP. If not, there is bound to be treasure inside. Sooner or later, I must open this door,” James said.
He inserted the unknown key into the bunker door. The lock clicked open. James was about to open the bunker door, only for a sonic boom to blast through it, sending it flying outside.
A screech, louder than James had ever heard, soon followed. James peeked inside the safe room, only to regret it moments later.
An abomination. Rats scurried into a black hole. Hundreds of red eyes glared at James for disrupting their sleep. An amalgamation of rats fused into one single being. Rats were its cells, its organs, its very being. When it fused, it created a hive mind. It was one being, yet at the same time, it was many.
Legion of Rats.
