It was definitely a monster. It was huge. Much bigger than the ones Steven had seen before. Had it been like the ones from home, it wouldn't have caused him to hesitate. But he wasn't sure about this one. It came up to his knees at least, with short grey fur and a long scaly tail. It's claws on both front and hind legs were nearly twice as long as Steven's own fingers.

He didn't have any weapon, or protection. Nor did Steven know how to cast any of his skills. He leaned back behind the corner, hoping that the monster didn't notice him poking his head out. Reaching over, he tapped on his implant and scrolled to the skills screen. He knew it would be frustrating if true, but he thought maybe he had to cast the skills manually. With the skills screen up and his left hand poised over his identify skill, he leaned back around the corner and stared straight at the monster. He tapped the skill identify.

Nothing happened. Both relieved and annoyed, he was glad he wouldn't have to do that to cast a skill. But he really wanted to identify the thing. A small screen appeared above the monster. He immediately banished the screen with a mental command, not wanting to disturb the thing, only to realize he had cast the skill.

Looking back at it he cast identify again, and the same small screen appeared above. Steven was ecstatic. He cast the skill with only a thought.

"I think, therefor I can..." he said aloud, forgetting where he was. Before he even had a chance to read the identification screen, the giant rat turned to the sound of his voice and let out an awful screech. Steven was expecting a rat to making a meek squeaking sound, but he didn't have much time to think on it as the rat began barreling towards him.

Steven felt like a ton of bricks were dropped on his head, as a cold wave of fear washed over him. He turned and ran back down the hallway has fast as he could, looking back to see the rat turn the corner and continue in his direction. He had no where to go, other than the eye room.

He looked around to see if he could find some sort of weapon. A stick, a rock, anything he could use to bash the rat. But it was the same as before. Moss and puddles. He turned back to look at the rat only to see a grey blur lunging at him.

He jumped to the side next to the Red Eye while the rat flew by, unable to change its course mid air. Steven pulled himself into a crouch and grabbed the talons holding up the eye and pulled. The entire statue didn't budge at all. It was Steven's last hope at a weapon.

The rat landed in a puddle and turned to face him, flicking its tail back and forth menacingly. Steven had his first good look at the teeth, nearly scraping the floor. They were as long as his forearms and looked surprisingly sharp.

Resigned, Steven stood in a fighting posture with arms raised. He might have been unarmed, but he still had his two arms. He inwardly chucked at his stupid joke, in the face of imminent pain, death, or dismemberment.

The rat was slowly closing the distance between them, as Steven backed up against the rock wall. The rat launched itself at Steven again. He could see it was aiming for his throat this time. He dashed to the side and the rat flew into the wall behind him with a thud. Steven continued to scramble along the wall as the rat collected itself and came after him again.

Steven thought he could just keep this up until the rat dashed its own brains out on the wall. He could do this. Then he could take the rat's teeth and fashion himself some sort of tooth blade.

The rat launched itself again, and Steven again dashed to the side. But the wrong side. Steven threw himself in the wall he had been following down. He held up his arms in front of his head just as the rat made contact. He could feel the teeth sliding through his forearm, grinding between his bones. Steven screamed as the rat began to slash at him with its talons, opening up several gashes on his abdomen.

He began to punch at the rat's giant beady black eye. Every blow causing more pain in his arm as the teeth were ripping through muscle and pulling apart the bones. Steven heard a wet pop and grinding noise and the rat fell to the ground. He barely had time to notice the bone sticking out of his mangled arm when the rat lunged at him again.

Dazed, Steven wondered why he felt no pain, when the giant teeth closed on his throat, cleanly slicing through the vulnerable flesh. He gurgled as he tried to scream and felt his lungs filling with fluid. His vision faded to black nothingness once again.

Then he was suddenly standing again by the Red Eye. Intense pain blossomed and took him to the ground. He grit his teeth at the blinding pain in his neck and arm. Writhing at the foot of the Red Eye, he managed to glance around and saw no rat. Steven curled up in a ball, cradling his left arm as he let the pain take over. After several minutes of convulsions and clenched teeth, the pain subsided and he was able to relax again.

He sat up and took several long breaths. Steven was terrified now. This was only Floor 0, and he died to the first monster. A dog sized rat, at that. A very large dog sized rat. How was he supposed to make it further, and without help?

At least he didn't have any mana to go and retrieve. Not that it would make any difference, he couldn't exchange mana for levels and he didn't have any abilities that costed mana. He was lost in thought as he made his way back to the corner where he could spy on the giant rat again. He stayed as quiet as he possibly could and peeked around the corner to cast Identify. The small screen appeared above the rat once again, this time he could read it.

Rat (Basic)

Mana 20

Strength 2

Dexterity 3

Endurance 2

Intelligence 1

Wisdom 1

Mimicries 2

Steven wondered why it could easily take him out with less attributes than he had, and eventually understood. It was the teeth and claws. The rat had weapons, where he had none. He had to keep in mind, from now on, that statistics weren't everything. Steven needed a weapon.

He looked past the rat to see if there was anything he could use. The room the rat was in seemed exactly the same as the room Steven came from, bland grey with a few puddles of water. There were no outcroppings he could climb and jump down onto the rat. There were no cliffs he could somehow use to his advantage. The rat wasn't even moving. Just standing still, facing the right as Steven looked at it. The only thing he could do was get its attention, and then try to let it bash itself against the wall as he desperately evaded its lunges. At least death wasn't permanent, he thought, as he whistled at the rat and ran back into the Red Eye room.

He hid himself opposite of the eye and held his breath. The plan was to kick the rat as it came into the room, hopefully making it angry enough to keep launching itself at him. Steven saw movement and let out a kick, like he was kicking a dog sized football. His foot met air.

The rat was much faster than Steven, and it wasn't cautiously making its way into the room like he thought it would. It came in at a full sprint, allowing Steven to kick at air as it darted by. The rat skid to a stop as it turned to face him. Steven planted his feet as it ran towards him. When the rat launched itself at his throat, he dashed to the side as before and the rat thudded into the wall. Steven kept his arm on the wall this time, as he backed away while the rat got back to its feet and turned.

The rat launched itself at Steven again, and he pushed off the wall. The rat bounced off the wall again, and was slower to get back up. Steven could see that repeated blows to the head was taking its toll. Thankfully the rat didn't have a higher intelligence attribute. It seemed to be stuck in the same attack pattern. Steven noted that when he knew what to look for, the rat was easy to predict.

After the third attack from the rat it took much longer for it to get up. Steven dashed towards the rat and quickly stomped on its head as hard as he could. He felt a crunch under his foot, and saw gore splatter across the ground. He immediately felt a buzzing sensation in the back of his right hand, and he thought the implant seemed a tiny bit brighter than it was before.

He tapped on the implant and pulled up his status. Next to the mana counter was the number 20, and time was 1 hours 43 minutes. He sighed. It took him almost an hour to defeat the first monster, but he got 20 mana out of the deal. He scrolled over to his skills screen to see that nothing has changed. Scrolling one more time he expected to wrap back to his status, but instead he got to a new screen.

Quests

Defeat 9 rats

Reward: Progression

Progress: 1/9

Steven was surprised to see a quest screen. The description of the dungeon didn't say anything about quests, but he was glad to be able to know what to do from here on out. He just had to get eight more rats to follow him into a room where they will bash themselves to death.

He had a way forward, and even more. He had some mana. It was time to try out his absorption.