Chapter 16: Rats

After Akira finished his morning exercises, he washed the sweat off his body with a hand towel he retrieved from the basin of water.

After cleaning himself, he put on his clothes and then equipped his chest armor, sword, and his shield.

“Alright! I'm ready for whatever today's quest is!” said Akira, fist pumping the air before leaving his room.

It was still early in the morning, so the hallways were empty because most of the monks were doing their morning devotionals. After that, a short prayer period followed before starting the day's activities.

During his meal breaks over the last week, Akira watched the monks copy precious books by hand word for word. Some of the monks were pretty good at art, so they created or copied extremely detailed paintings that rich nobles would kill to have.

Akira continued his walk until he reached Freid's office. He then knocked on the door just loud enough to announce his presence.

“Come in, the doors unlocked,” said Freid, his muffled voice coming from behind the door.

Akira opened the door and entered the room.

“Ah! It's you, Akira. I hope you had a good night’s sleep and are fully rested. That would be for the best because you can use your full strength in taking care of this problem for me,” said Freid.

“Don't worry, I made sure to go to sleep early when I got back to my room last night. I'm in great shape thanks to your hospitality. Just let me know what you need and I can fix it for you,” replied Akira.

“Ah, there is no need for you to fix anything today. What I need your help with this time is clearing the basements of all the buildings that have been overrun by rats. It should be an easy task for you with your strength,” said Freid with a warm smile.

Akira felt a little put off by the task. Freid just wanted to use him for a simple rat extermination. He was wondering what kind of task he had to do. He thought that it would have been harder though. Oh well.

Quest: Rat Exterminator

Brother Freid has asked you to clear out all the [Rats] hiding in the basements of the monastery buildings.

Difficulty: F

Quest Requirement: Failure upon death

Reward: Experience

Will you accept?:

Yes | No

“I will complete this task to the best of my abilities,” said Akira, accepting the quest.

“Good! Good! You will need these keys to unlock the doors so that you can enter the basements. Be sure to remember that you must lock the doors behind you after you enter so that the rats are unable to escape. If they did, it would just cause trouble for everyone else. It would also complicate things for you because they would make the whole building their nests. Right now, they are trapped in the basement, so please keep it that way and take care of them before they cause too much trouble,“ said Freid, while handing Akira a key ring with large brass keys.

“Got it, close the door behind me after I enter,” repeated Akira while placing the key ring on a loop of his belt.

Freid gave Akira one last bit of information before excusing him from his office, “The keys also have the names of the buildings on them so that you can easily know which one to use.”

Akira walked down the hallway while quietly muttering to himself, “What a letdown. I guess the sooner I start, the sooner it will be finished.”

He decided to clear out the basement of the office building first since he was already here and close to the warehouse. After a short walk to the warehouse to grab a few supplies, he returned to the office building and walked around for a bit until he found a small stairwell leading down to the basement.

Sorting through the keys, Akira found the one labeled [Office Building] and inserted it into the lock on the door.

With a click, the door unlocked and Akira hurriedly entered the room while carrying a torch to light the basements’ lamps.

Ding!

Entering Hunting Ground: Office Basement.

Earn XP by fighting enemies in order to lvl up.

Along with the message, an image popped up on the top left side of his vision with the words [Office Basement]. Most of the top down image was grayed out, but there was a revealed area that showed a blue dot labeled with his name. The blue dot moved on the image when he moved.

“What kind of magic is this? It seems to be some sort of magical map,” Akira said in amazement.

After closing the door behind him, he quickly found and lit the lamp that was hanging from the ceiling. He then placed the torch into one of the brackets on the wall.

Looking at the map, he could see that the dark gray areas disappeared as he moved around the basement and revealed the surrounding area.

With the basement now partially lit up, he scanned the room to look for any signs of the little rats.

The basement was quite large with two rooms, but they were crammed full with shelves of boxes, books, and other important documents all over the place. This left only small isles to walk through, making the room seem small and cramped.

As Akira walked through the narrow aisles with the makeshift wooden trap he made, he noticed that most of the boxes had large holes in them that looked to have been caused by large teeth.

There was also a large circle in the middle of the first room where all the aisles and exits met together. Akira then placed his makeshift trap on the ground and added some leftover food inside it as bait.

As he stood up, he heard the sound of something moving to his right. He then walked a short distance away from the trap as quietly as he could until he could just barely see it. He was hoping that he was far enough away to not scare the rats.

Squeak!

He heard the sound of a rat, but no matter how long he waited. it didn’t appear near the trap.

After wasting ten minutes, Akira finally decided to leave and go place the other traps in the rest of the basements and come back later.

He then turned around and took a few steps before he heard a loud *crunch* sound of something chewing and eating wood.

Akira turned around and looked at the trap. A rat the size of a medium-sized dog was biting on the trap that Akira had just set up. The trap was quickly being torn apart and eaten by the giant rat as it showed up as a red dot on his map with the name [Rat].

“What the hell!? That's no rat!,” shouted Akira in surprise.

The rat was so startled by Akira's shout, it stopped eating and stared at him from head to toe as if it was sizing him up.

SKREEEEEE!!

The giant rat then shot towards Akira while covering a large amount of distance. Akira finally regained his senses and was just able to barely ready his shield and block the charging rat. It slammed into his shield, causing Akira to take a step backward.

“What the crap has this thing been eating to get so big!? Its strength isn't normal either. Damn it, Fried said this was supposed to be a simple task,” complained Akira, as he used his shield to push the giant rat back a few feet.

He was then able to unsheathe his sword before the rat was able to get back up on its feet and charge at him again. This time, it aimed for his ankles.

Akira jumped back a few feet and counterattacked with his sword, stabbing the rat in front of him. It quickly dodged to the side, only receiving a small cut from the sword.

The cut seemed to make it even angrier though, as it let out a defiant screech before bolting towards Akira again, who successfully blocked the attack, but was then knocked back into a shelf. This caused a large amount of boxes to fall down behind him.

The giant rat was relentless in its storm of attacks. After slamming into Akira, it clawed at his chest clawing and unprotected legs. It then started biting his shield to try and rip it from his hands. Its sharp claws created multiple small cuts on his legs as it kicked and wrestled with Akira.

Akira took his chance while it was trying to eat his shield to counterattack. He clumsily stabbed it twice before it let go and jumped away due to the massive damage it received.

The last attacks had damaged it greatly, so sensing its doom, it tried to run away. Its unsteady legs couldn’t support it due to losing too much blood though.

Akira jumped forward, nearly tripping over a box that had fallen in the fight. When Akira was in front of the rat, he slashed downwards with his sword to end its life with a final attack.

SCREEE! It gave a loud cry and continued to squirm.

'Okay, this is the final attack!...'

Not dead yet…

'I know that this one will be the final attack...'

Still alive...

'When will this thing die?!'

Critical hit!

Level Up: Sword Mastery (Beginner Lv: 3 | 0%):

Increases Attack Power with a sword +3%

Increases Attack Speed with a sword +9%

…Finally! After stabbing it in the head, the giant rat slumped lifelessly onto the floor, blood flowing from its wounds and creating a large pool on the ground.

The giant rats’ cries of pain made him feel bad for attacking it.

Akira then bent over to catch his breath before wiping the sweat from his forehead, only to smear the blood that had gotten all over him.

His heart was racing from the unexpected fierce battle.

“Damn, that was tougher than I thought it would be. That must have been the leader of the rats around here. It took over ten percent of my HP. I must have gained a ton of XP from killing It,” said Akira.

He then looked at the new notification on the right to confirm it.

You have earned 3 XP!

You have also gained minor knowledge of the mob [Rat].

The more knowledge you have about a mob, the easier it is to kill, along with there being a greater chance that it will drop an item.

You can gain more knowledge by repeatedly killing the said mob.

He then quickly checked his stat window to see the percentage he received from killing the giant rat.

He was only 3% of the way to Lvl 2! He rubbed his eyes in disbelief before looking at the window again to make sure that the number was correct. No matter how long he stared at it, it was still only 3%.

“That's insane! Giving me only three percent for such a large thing. Shouldn't it have been more?” Akira asked out loud to no one in particular.

He then concentrated his gaze on the giant rat until its name and level appeared above its dead body. [Rat Lvl 1]

“That thing was only level one? Damn, this leveling up thing is no joke. How am I supposed to find enough of these things to level up?”

Squeak! Squeak!

Before he could think about anything else though, two more rats appeared that were the same size as the first one.

“Crap you got to be kidding me! You're telling me that this is their normal size and not an abnormality?” Complained Akira, as he hastily readied his sword and shield for another fight.

Ten minutes later, he earned 6 more XP after defeating the two giant rats.

Akira then sat down on one of the shelves that toppled over in the struggle with the two giant rats.

He then read the new blinking notification.

New Skill learned:

Shield Mastery (Beginner Lv: 1 | 0%):

You know how to hold your shield to somewhat block enemy attacks.

+10% to Defense while a shield is equipped.

Unable to add bonus points into this skill.

After reading the notification, he heard multiple squeaks.

Sigh.

“This is going to take longer than I expected. At least I don’t have to worry about actively seeking more of them to kill in order to farm XP and level up. Even if they aren't the easiest things to fight.”

After he killed his thirty-fourth giant rat, a message window popped up along with a wonderful and giddy feeling. He felt a warm energy travel through his body causing him to feel fully refreshed, it was as if he just woke up from a long rest. All of the wounds he received from his previous fights disappeared.

Ding!

Level up! You are now Level 2.

Received bonus points:

Upon leveling up, all of your stats will receive one point.

You will also gain 5 free bonus points to add to whatever stats you choose.

Another blinking image appeared, so Akira pressed the “+” to open it. A simplified stat window appeared, showing him the stats he could add points into and the number of points he had left to spend.

“I don't know what stats to choose,” muttered Akira.

Ding!

Son of the Night is a class meant for defending your companions. You can also use its special skills to attack and defend at higher levels.

After reading the description, Akira went over all the other stat descriptions in his head and thought about the best ones that fit his fighting style and matched his class.

“I guess the stats I should be putting my points into are...hmm. Let's put two into Strength to raise my attack power, then let’s put two points into Vitality so it raises my HP and allows me to take more hits. The last point should be for stamina. I think that’s good and should help me out the most,” muttered Akira, as he entered the numbers and accepted the change.

Akira then spent a few more minutes trying to find any more giant rats, but he had no such luck. He was able to see the rats as red dots on the areas of the map that he uncovered. Right now though, only his blue dot was on the map.

“I guess this room is cleared,” said Akira, with a satisfied expression on his face.

He then turned and left the basement that had almost all of its shelves knocked over. The metallic smell of the rat's blood was starting to override the smell of old books and paper.

He continued fighting the giant rats in other basements of each of the buildings. The basement entrances for each building were all in different places because each one was built a different way. For example, the building where the monks worked on books and art had an outside entrance.

When Akira entered the basement in the building where he had been sleeping for the past week, he was shocked to see the sheer number of giant rats that were hiding under his own room. It took him all day to clear out each basement, with each one having its contents knocked over and trampled on. Blood was also splattered everywhere due to the intense fighting.

He exited the last basement that he cleared covered in sweat, blood, and dust. The sun was setting and the moon was rising. After a full day of fighting, he regained most of the fighting skill that he previously had, so that near the end of the day, he was able to defeat the giant rats without taking any damage.

He was both mentally and physically exhausted though. His rest skill could easily take care of his physical fatigue, but it couldn’t get rid of his mental.

He then slowly walked to Freid's office, hoping that he was still there so he could report to him that he completed his mission.

When he reached his office, the door was open and a light was shining from it. He walked in without knocking.

“That was no simple task,” complained Akira.

Freid smiled, “Well, it looks like you’re still alive. There is no need for you to worry about such small details. I’m very grateful for your help in ridding us of these pests, as we monks are unable to enter the basement for some time.”

Ding!

Quest: Rat Exterminator Complete!

You have gained a level. You are now Lvl 4!

New Title: Vermin Killer! +5 Fame

One would think that you were a cat and not a Werewolf because of all the time you have spent playing with Rodents.

“You should go and clean up, you smell horrible. I'll give you the last task I need your help in the morning. Be sure to get a good night's sleep,” said Freid.

Akira was too tired to reply, so he just nodded to what Freid suggested before leaving his office and walking back to his room. Once he was there, he washed the blood off his body and made sure that he cleaned his equipment before sharpening his sword. Before jumping into bed and falling asleep, he added the bonus points he received from leveling up into strength, vitality, and stamina.