Chapter 37

Leon peeked outside the door. Finding the floor empty, he exited the room and approached the stairs leading down. A quick glance confirmed that Finn was nowhere close by, and as such, he opened up the board with requests, and chose the quest tab. Only one stood there, and Leon clicked in on it.

Quest: Pest Control

Help Innkeeper Crag keep his cellar free from pests.

Clear all pests from the cellar.

Rank: F Special: Recurring quest (every two days from last completed) Rewards: Gain more respect from Innkeeper Crag, gain 70 EXP. Potential to get more rewards based on your level of respect from Crag and how well you’ve done. If ignored or failed: Lessened respect from Innkeeper Crag. Will you accept this quest? [Accept] [Decline]

Leon accepted the quest. It didn’t have a time limit, and if it was pest control, it likely had monsters. That meant loot and money, which he would need to stack up, anyway. It was a bonus if he could build a good relationship with the innkeeper; just in case.

He gnawed on his lips while looking between the room and downstairs. Would it be something that Trouble enjoyed doing? Well, if she didn’t, the innkeeper and the room were both close.

*******

Leon walked downstairs, holding only Trouble, the rabbit’s foot, and his two weapons in his backpack. He stopped at the foot of the stairs and looked at the old man on the stepladder a barstool away. He cleaned a tankard with a rag while talking to the lute player. She’d dropped the hat on the bar, and brown hair flowed over her shoulders in loose ringlets. She had a long, almost pointy nose, covered with freckles.

“Ah, there he is,” Crag said, and pointed to Leon.

The woman turned her head. A large port-wine stain reached from the middle part of her cheek and down on her neck, which was largely obscured by the high collar of her black shirt. She rose and approached him with a smile.

“Hi. Leon, right?” She stretched out a hand. “I’m Red.”

Leon grasped it. “Hey.”

“Red is also going on the quest, so be nice and work together,” Crag said. ”I’d do it myself, but my back…”

“I know.” Red smiled. She leaned over the bar and kissed the old man’s forehead. “You better take care of yourself.”

The old man smiled back and nodded. “You too, dearie. You too.” He coughed into his hand. “You know the way. Could you lead him there?”

Red nodded, passed Leon, and entered behind the bar. She pulled the string to the trapdoor, and it flung open.

“You forgot your hat,” Leon called after her, but she only waved a hand and continued.

Leon followed her, but Crag stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “She’s weak, but don’t berate her for it. She’s doing what she can with what she’s got.”

“Um… okay.” The trapdoor fell shut as Leon opened his inventory. “Trouble, do you want to stay here, or do you want to come with me to fight? Now’s your chance to jump out.”

After a couple of seconds, innkeeper Crag patted Leon’s arm. “She wants to stay with you. Go on, boy. Red’s waiting for you.”

Leon tugged at the string, and the door came up again. Leon glanced at the everlight and continued down the stone steps. The door creaked shut behind him. He passed two more everlights before he came to the bottom of the stairs. Red stood leaning against the back wall of a large, brightly lit kitchen area. Everlights were the primary light source, but there were also some round, lamp-like things in the ceiling that gave off a clear, yellow shine.

The area was warm and had more than a few smells Leon couldn’t make out, but one was definitely some kind of simmering meat stew, and something immensely sweet wafted from a three foot tall jug with a wooden lid that stood on the floor. Two furnaces with a flat metal top stood unlit to the left, and a large cast-iron pot stood on a third, wider one, to the side. There was also a wooden wash basin and two counters, all low enough for the man to comfortably work with. Kitchen tools and pans hung from hooks on the walls, and there were three thick wooden doors in total.

“We’re going through this one,” Red said and pointed with her thumb over her shoulder. “And don’t let Crag see you go near any of the other two. He’s precious about both his food and privacy.”

“Got it,” Leon said. “Seems like too big of an area for such a small chef.”

She smiled. “Don’t let him hear you say that if you want to keep your backside unharmed. He’s got a sore spot with both his height and his age.”

Red turned and pushed open the wooden door. She kept it open with her hip and tied up her hair in a ponytail as Leon walked through the kitchen.

“You’ve accepted this quest before, so what can you tell me about it?” Leon asked.

Red let the door go and continued down another set of stone stairs. “Well, as you might have guessed from the everlights, this used to be a dungeon. Even though the types of monsters have changed, they spawn every two days, and increase every second day until they’ve been wiped out.”

Leon stopped. “When was the last time someone came down here?”

She paused and tapped her chin with a finger. “About three weeks ago. But don’t worry. They’re very easy to beat, which is why the quest stays at rank F even if their number increases.”

“How many usually spawn each time?”

“Between thirty and fifty. Sometimes more, sometimes less.”

“That’s quite a lot.”

Red didn’t answer as she led them into a smaller room, where barrels of different sizes lined the wall. She walked past them to another door.

“So, what class are you?” Leon asked.

“Does it matter?” Red didn’t turn around.

“Not really. Just curious, since you had to wait for another player to start the quest. Or is the quest harder than you said?”

She snorted. “I’d do it more often if I could, but I can’t. I’m sure Crag warned you I won’t be of much use, but I do what I can whenever I can.”

No use in asking questions. He’d probably see it soon, anyway.

“Just a tip—it’s easier to fight from the stairs, so stay on them.” Red reached for the knob while Leon pulled out the dagger and the short sword. Trouble jumped out between them and Red yelled, pressing her back against the door. “What the hell is that thing?”

Something glinted in Trouble’s eyes, and Leon dropped his weapons to hold her around the neck. “It’s fine, Trouble. She got a bit shocked, that’s all. It’s fine.”

The rabbit let out the low rumble he’d heard before. Then she tilted her head up to look at Leon and the sound stopped.

“Sorry, I should have warned you,” Leon said. “This is Trouble, my rabbit.”

“Oh, uh…” Red cleared her throat and stepped closer. “Hi, Trouble.”

The rabbit didn’t look away from Leon until he nodded toward the woman. Then she turned her head toward her.

Red kneeled and held out a hand. “I didn’t want to be mean. I just didn’t expect someone like you to come out of an inventory.”

Since Trouble stood silent, Leon straightened his back and scratched the rabbit’s head. “I think it’s okay now.”

Red glanced at him, then back at Trouble. “How much does she understand?”

“I think she understands most if not all of what we’re saying.”

“How intriguing.” Red reached out a hand, but stopped just short of Trouble’s cheek. “Is it okay if I touch you?”

Trouble looked up at Leon, who shrugged. “It’s your choice. But we’re going to fight with her, so it might be good for you two to be friendly with each other.”

Trouble pushed her cheek against Red’s hand, and Red beamed at her. “Thank you.” Her hand came up over her mouth. “Oh! The tag changed from red to white!”

Leon chuckled. Well, it was interesting to know that people saw the color change on the rabbit, just like on monsters.

Then Red’s smile faltered. “But aren’t you worried that she’ll get hurt? The rats are easy to beat, but they can still deal a bit of damage if they get the chance.”

“She can take care of herself. Worst-case scenario, I’ll take her into my inventory.”

Red stood. “Come to think of it—do you think she’ll fight rats?”

Leon picked up his weapons from the floor. “Who knows? We’ll just have to wait and see. Ready to go?”

Red nodded and opened the door.

Leon froze at the sight and the heavy odor of animals living too close together. At the foot of the stairs was a small, round room, lit by about twenty everlights, and rats big as small cats covered the floor. Some crawled over others because of the cramped space. All tags were white, and they lacked levels.

“That’s disgusting,” Leon said.

At the sound of his voice, all their beady eyes turned toward them.

“Yeah,” Red said as the door closed behind them. “Well, here they come.” She grabbed her lute from her inventory as the rats milled up the stairs.

Leon took a few steps forward and readied his weapons, and Trouble sunk down, ready to launch. He’d begun to hope this would make for good training grounds for Trouble, if nothing else, but with this many rats… they’d overtake her. White tags or not, they had teeth and could deal damage.

“Lullaby,” Red said, and a somber tune rung out behind him. The rats slowed.

Leon struck out with his sword and dagger at the first five coming up the steps, flinging them aside, most dead, and some squealing. Trouble jumped past him, landed on the steps, and took a two in her mouth. She bit down and flung them aside. Leon kept himself back, looking at the swarming mass coming toward them, and hitting the ones that got past Trouble.

Trouble whined, stomping her front paws. Three rats bit into her front leg, and she shook two off, and crushed the third with her paw. They were too many for her. Leon stepped forward to help, but there wasn’t enough space for both of them.

“Trouble, you okay?” Leon asked, slashing out at groups of rats as he passed her. “Stay back a bit for now.” They were too many for the rabbit, but if he could make his way to the end of the stairs, he could try out his skill. Now was as good a time as any.

Leon swung his sword and dagger left and right, and even though the amount of rats didn’t seem to cease, he managed to descend a few steps. He was forced to stay in one spot for a while, and he shoved piles of rats to the side, over and over, most dead with one hit. Finally, the hoard thinned, and Leon took another few steps.

“Keep to the stairs,” Red said. “They’re small, but together they can take you down!”

Leon continued onward.

“Lullaby!” Red called again. A tune rang out, and the rats slowed their pace. He finally made it to the floor.

Leon slashed around him, trying to gauge the number that was left. Maybe a little less than a third. Good enough.

”Activate Berserk!”

Anger flared through him, and his vision narrowed. The rats flowed toward him, and he slashed out, slashed again, decided that the weapons were too slow, and threw them aside. He grabbed two rats, smashed their heads together, heard a satisfying crunch, and hurled them across the floor. He punched down to one side, then the other, and kicked out. He grabbed as many rats as he could fit in his arms and squeezed them against his body. Pops and cracks sounded, and he let them go on the floor. Then he punched, kicked, and stomped down on the bodies around him. Finding no more enemies to fight against, Leon threw his arms wide and roared.

A second later, he came to his senses.

Your activation of Call of the Wild has failed since the monsters in this dungeon make no such sound.

Failed activations still cost MP.

Leon looked at his raised arms, and warmth crept up his neck and face. The remaining crowd of rats ran from them to the far side of the room. He dismissed the box and spun around. Red stood bent over with a hand over her mouth, and the other over her stomach, while her lute laid on the floor between her legs.

“Hey,” Leon called. “You alright?”

Trouble, watching with avid interest, jumped down the stairs, kicking aside rodents as she went. She stood on the pile of dead rats around him and snuggled up to Leon, and he stroked her cheek. Then he turned around. Where did his weapons go? He kicked at the rat bodies, and after a good while, he finally found them.

Red walked on wobbly feet down the stairs and avoided looking at Leon. When she reached the floor, she threw a glance his way, and pressed a fist over her mouth. Still, she came closer, carefully sidestepping the bodies, stretched out a hand to touch Leon’s shoulder, and whispered, “Heal.”

Light emanated from her touch, and Leon looked at her. Another Cleric, huh?

He dismissed the box of getting healed, and the regained health points.

“Thanks,” he said and opened up his status page. He’d reached 62% fatigue and with the heal, he had 164 HP left. Surprisingly little, on both ends.

“D-Don’t worry about it.” She cleared her throat and let her hand fall away. “Just don’t come any closer.” Red glanced over at Leon and turned away, pale in the face.

Leon looked down. Why had he chosen a white shirt, as opposed to any other available color? Well, not so white anymore. And decorated with a few bits and pieces that didn’t quite belong. He wondered why he wasn’t disturbed by that. Well, to be fair, Trouble didn’t seem to mind either. He’d have to bathe her later.

“Yeah… I never tried that skill before, so I thought this would be a good opportunity.” Leon scratched his neck and regretted the motion instantly. “I didn’t think it would end up so… messy.”

“Mhm,” Red said, still turned away.

“Well, since the rats haven’t actually disappeared yet, there should be some alive that you can kick, if you want some loot?”

Leon felt slightly ashamed that he’d basically left her with nothing. Life as a Cleric must be quite tough as it was, without greedy bastards and decisions. Maybe he could ask her to come with him on some hunts when Ava wasn’t available, and offer her a deal too, if she wanted a small boost.

Red sucked in a deep breath through her nose and breathed out through her mouth. She mumbled something.

“What?”

“Yeah. Let’s do that,” she said. After a quick glance at the unmoving pile by Leon’s feet, she walked toward the side of the stairs. Since Leon was as dirty as he could become, he helped her find the few rats that were still twitching. She kicked out a leather clad boot on each, and though it couldn’t have dealt much damage, it was enough to finish them.

Leon put his hands on his sides. “They’re still not disappearing. Did we miss one?”

Red stopped as she pulled back her leg. She slowly put it down and looked around the room. “Did you kill all of them, or did some run off?”

“Yeah, some got scared.”

“Find the everlight that isn’t shining!”

Leon frowned, but did as she asked, anyway. Then he pointed. “There, maybe?”

“Go!” She pushed him toward the place. “We need to take them out before—”

A loud, squeaky roar sounded from the space, and something thudded onto the floor.

Red swore. “Now it’s going to get more dangerous.”

Out of the shadows came an enormous rat, which was twice as tall as Leon. A bleak yellow tag shone above its head; Rat King Level 2.

Another behemoth. At least it was smaller, and three levels lower than the wolf they had defeated. Still, would it be possible with his remaining fatigue? He didn’t know what skills the Cleric had, but she was bound to be low on MP.

“Have you fought it before?” Leon asked as the monster took a wobbly step toward them.

“Twice,” she said. “The rats feel threatened and group up, morphing into that… thing. It’s much stronger, so if it hits you, it’s going to hurt a lot.”

“And you can’t split it into separate rats?”

She shook her head. “No, not unless you stop them while they’re still forming. It’s pretty weak when it comes to health, though.”

“How do we kill it?”

“Aim for the head, if possible. Otherwise we have to take it down bit by bit.”

“Well, it’s bound to bring some loot.” Leon smiled and patted Trouble’s head. “You up for this?”

As a response, Trouble leaped. Leon followed. They rushed toward the end of the small room.

The Rat King stood on two legs and had well-defined muscles, but no armor or other clothing than fur. Trouble reached the beast first. She used the speed she had to jump into the air and stomped the creature in its stomach. It stumbled and flailed with its front legs. Then it toppled onto its back, its head missing the wall by an inch.

“Great work,” Leon said and continued toward the head of the beast. He jumped over a sprawling arm. Sure, the rats could form into the monster, but they seemed to have little control over how to make the body move smoothly. As Leon landed, he pierced his weapons into the beast’s chest, triggering a critical hit.

Trouble leaped toward the stomach again and stomped down hard.

A paw came in from the side, hitting Leon’s shoulder and smashed him into the floor. A quick look at his screen told him he’d lost 35 HP. How did it deal so much damage?

Red ran toward the head, holding the neck of the lute in both hands.

“Rock Star!” She banged the instrument onto its head as Trouble jumped up on its chest. As the rabbit opened her jaw wide and bit into the shoulder, the room shone up with all the pixels that flew into the air to form a small pile in the middle of the room.

Leon pressed a hand on the floor and got up. He hugged Trouble. “Good job!”

The rabbit pushed up her head, making him fall onto the floor again. Then she rubbed her cheek over his chest and face before backing off.

Red stood with an eyebrow raised, still holding the lute like a sword. “You two make quite a team.”

“Thanks.” Leon looked from Trouble to Red. “Rock star, huh?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, I hope you get some loot to make it worth your while.” Leon approached the pile. “Though the Rat King hit hard, he went down so quick it was sort of anti-climatic.”

“You got lucky,” Red said and walked forward. She crouched and reached for something on the ground. “It’s usually harder to beat.” She stopped. “What level are you?”

”Nine.”

She nodded. “Yeah, that probably helped.”

Leon looked at the pile and picked up the items. A message of receiving eight rat tails and 74 coins popped up. Barely enough to cover the cost of his ruined clothes if he couldn’t wash them out. It definitely hadn’t been worth the wear and tear of his gloves and weapons. “Damn. For several hundred rats, I expected to get much more.”

“You get twenty coins for the king, and if you’re really lucky, you get a coin or a tail from the rats. Nine times out of ten, you get nothing. If you seek easy profit, this place isn’t worth your time,” Red said.

Leon frowned. “So why do you accept the quest every time you can if it basically gives you nothing?”

Red started walking toward the stairs. “My focus is on the quest experience. That’s basically all you should expect to get when you accept the job. It’s high for the amount of work that’s needed to complete it. Normally, anyway.”

“But since the rats are so easy to kill, why can’t you do it alone?”

“That’s easy to say for someone who can deal damage without using MP.”

Leon nodded to Trouble, and they followed her. He wondered how quest experience would affect the rabbit, if it did at all. The rats might give some combat training, but they likely didn’t give much experience in of themselves. Though, if the quest experience counted toward Trouble’s growth, it might be worth taking up the quest again.

Leon walked after Red into the room with the barrels. “So, you’re trying to level up? Is it to climb the tower?”

“Yeah.”

Leon nodded. “I’m in a party with a Cleric already, so I can’t invite you, but I could help you out in other ways.”

She stopped in front of the door to the kitchen and turned. “Why?”

“No particular reason, except for wanting to help someone achieve their goal. When I first met our Cleric, she followed me so she could heal me. Then she got to choose something from the loot at the end of the day. She’s busy in the afternoons, so if you’d like, you can join me then.”

She narrowed her eyes. “No.”

“Why not? I’m just trying to help. I need to stack up coins, anyway.”

Red opened the door and walked through it. “Everyone who gives something wants something in return. If you’re level nine, your HP is what? 250? 300? You don’t need me for the heal, so you’ll want something else. Besides, I don’t need money. I need experience.”

Leon sighed. “Well, it’s up to you.”

He watched her back as she walked through the kitchen and up the stairs. Well, she wasn’t completely wrong about having something else in mind. He just hoped it would turn out differently.