Steven made his way into the rat room to have a look around. From the corner he hid behind, he could see it was much the same as the previous room, and his expectations were met when he entered. Aside from a rocky corridor heading to what he figured was the next room, there was nothing.

He remembered from the dungeon description that the Red Eye was a sort of respawn point. He had once already experienced that, after being taken down by the rat the first time he inadvertently got its attention. He walked back to the Red Eye, and considered tapping it with his implant again. He thought that he could reset the floor, and the rat would come back. But he wasn't sure if that would change his quest. As it was, he knew he could take out at least one rat at a time using the same method. Maybe if he reset, the quest would change to something he couldn't do?

He decided that now was the time to experiment. He didn't have much to lose, for a bit of information. He tapped the implant to the eye. His vision went black, just as when he died, but when his sight returned there wasn't any pain.

Opening his quest screen he sighed in relief. It was the same quest, with progress at 1/9. His status showed he still had the 20 mana he had from the defeated rat. Steven smiled. He knew exactly what this meant. He could farm the first rat over and over until his progress was at 9/9 and he had much more mana before he moved on. It was time for another experiment. He was going to absorb the rat.

Walking back to the corner where he could spy the rat, he looked at it and cast identify. It's status was just the same as it was before. Thankfully it hadn't gotten stronger. That was something Steven hadn't considered before he reset the floor. Using the same plan as before he got the rat's attention and made his way back to the eye room. Instead of hiding behind the opening for a kick, he chose to run to the back wall to turn around and wait.

He watched as the giant rat barreled at him at top speed. The rat lunged at his throat, and Steven jumped to the side and immediately ran to the corner of the room to wait for the rat's second attack. But the rat didn't get back up.

Confused, Steven cautiously shuffled over to where the rat lay. On closer inspection, Steven discovered that the rat's own teeth got shoved back into its head. He was a little upset that it hadn't happened the first several times the rat jumped at him. He decided it was time for another experiment, since he wasn't able to absorb the rat, and yanked the teeth out of the rat's skull.

The teeth were long and surprisingly sharp. He figured that they'd make a decent thrusting weapon. The roots of the teeth even made a nice handle for his grip. He kept one tooth and threw the other down on the rat's corpse before he tapped on his implant and scrolled through his screens. He was hoping to find an inventory or equipment page, but there was nothing other than three pages that were already there. It would have been cool to be able to store items in his implant, or wherever they would go, but it seems that wasn't how it worked. He was a bit disappointed in having to carry his own gear.

He checked his status to see if his mana went up to 40, and found that surprisingly his quest progress was still 1/9. Looks like he couldn't cheese the quest progress by resetting the floor. At least he can gain mana still from previously defeated enemies. And now he had a weapon. He really hoped that it would stay when he reset the floor.

He gripped the tooth tightly and walked over to the eye to reset. When his vision came back, he smiled as he hefted the foot and a half long tooth to his shoulder. Steven returned to the corner where he could watch the rat. Instead of stopping and calling for the rat's attention, he rounded the corner and calmly walked forwards. When he got within about 10 feet the rat turned to him and let out a screech.

Steven stopped, suddenly feeling stupid in his smugness. The rat launched itself at his throat again, and Steven thrust out the tooth. The tooth easily slid into the rat's mouth and through the palate into the head, but with a dying convulsion it chomped down on his arm, severing it just below the elbow. Never having his arm removed before, he didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't nearly as painful as he thought it would be.

He felt a searing pain where the rat's teeth went through, but nothing else was hurting. He tried to facepalm, but ended up spraying blood over his face. He felt dizzy, stupid, and weak as his knees buckled and he collapsed to the floor next to the dead rat. As his vision darkened, he reached into the rat's mouth with his left hand and pulled out the stolen tooth. He carefully tucked the tooth into his waistband before he lost consciousness.

He woke, standing by the Red Eye and within a second his right arm exploded in pain below the elbow. Steven also noticed he had a pounding headache and his heart was beating in an unusual pattern. He stood there, cradling his right arm in his left, while the pain ran its course. After a few moments his body calmed down and he was able to take stock of the situation.

He felt ashamed. He had a couple victories and became overconfident. His stupid actions caused him to die, and he tapped on the implant to check on his status. He suspicions were confirmed as his mana count read 0. Quest progress was still 1/9 though, and he felt the tooth tucked into his waistband still. He silently lectured himself as he went back to the same rat corner, as he started calling it. He peeked around the corner and saw the rat, standing still and facing right as always. There was also a small mote of light, floating above floor at waist height, between where the rat stood stoically and the corner behind which Steven hid.

This must be the mana he'd lost. He had to make sure he got that back before trying to take on the rat again. The mana was within the area where Steven had gotten the rat's attention, but just barely.

He snuck out from behind the corner and stopped just outside of arm's reach from the mana. Pulling the tooth out of his waistband, he accidentally cut his hip and gasped. Unfortunately this caught the rat's attention as it screeched its same screech and dashed towards him. Steven took a step forward and grabbed at the mana with his left hand, and nothing happened. He switched the tooth over to his left hand and swiped at the mana with his right as he rolled left to avoid the rat's lunge. The mana was absorbed into the gem, and he definitely could see the implant brighten in color a bit.

The rat was making its way back to Steven as he got to his feet. It lunged and Steven ducked under it, falling to his knees and thrusting the tooth up while casting absorption. The tooth sliced through the rat's torso and was torn from Steven's hand as the rat passed by overhead. He saw the effects of the skill before the rat even landed on the ground. It was dissolving in mid air, into red dust that flew towards his implant and was sucked in. There wasn't even enough substance left of the rat to make a sound when it landed.

Steven stood breathing hard, noticing with disappointment that even the tooth he used to stab the rat had dissolved and been absorbed. He pulled up the status screen to see the change in his attributes.

Strength 5

Dexterity 6

Endurance 5

Intelligence 4

Wisdom 4

Pain 1

He smiled at the huge change in his attributes that even one absorption kill could bring. His dexterity had doubled, and strength and endurance had both increased by two. Even intelligence and wisdom went up. He checked his mana to see it went up to 60 as well. He scrolled over to his abilities screen and saw that there was a change there as well. He had a new skill.

Partial Mimicry

Mana cost variable

Transform a part of your body into a part of a monster's body.

Multiple transformations increase mana cost.

Time transformed dependent on mana cost.

This must be the skill on which his class was based. Now that he had some mana and an ability he can use in combat, Steven was ready to tackle the rest of the rats. He was grinning while he made his way back to the eye, and he thought about the amount of attributes he would have before he even finished this floor. The rats won't even know what hit them.