Rats (final)

The level system was unique. Through hardship you gained levels, and through levels you gained skill points. When you invested a skill point into strength, your muscles wouldn't become bigger or thicker.

Your skill points were the world's blessing. That is why investing into luck was an option, investing into it would make you more fortunate, but only the world has that ability. It would be possible to be very bony, starving, and still incredibly strong.

They walked through the same, boring, dim hall. Noah looked at his sword, it was battered and over used. He had wanted to buy daggers for quite some time now, but he didn't have the coin for it before. He was planning on buying them after he was finished this quest.

Two rats ahead of them, the familiar jiggling eyes followed by squeeks. Noah's blood started circulating, it wasn't the rats, it was the small chance of him having to escape through the water.

Jimmy could now cast four tiny fireballs, he had been focusing on quantity over quality. A fair choice, without a weapon you were defenseless no matter how weak the weapon was. His goal was to always have a weapon ready.

Two fireballs shined in his hand, illuminating the tunnel. Noah was not scared of the rats anymore, that which is known becomes stale and expected, in other words, not scary. He charged at them whilst they charged back at him, dumb rats. He swung his sword horizontally, it slashed the rats head killing it on the spot.

The second rat leaped towards him, "Of course" Noah thought, instead of stepping to the side he kicked it. It flew backwards and landed on its side, it regained its composure and snarled at him. Strange. Noah charged at it hoping to end it on the spot, the rat ran away.

It caught Noah off guard, never before had a rat run away before, they were clever creatures quickly adapting, it made sense for them to run away from an enemy, still wierd though. They picked up the giant rat teeth, 3 of them were worth one copper coin.

'Basic sword fighting has levelled up'

"sweet" Noah thought to himself, he wasn't too excited, he would switch to daggers soon after all. They continued down the original path, travelling deeper into the sewer system.

"Eyy boy" Jimmy said.

"Whats up" Noah responded.

"We should form a party, do this more often. You and me make a nasty team"

"Maybe"

"Stop being a tease, come on."

"I'll think about it"

rats, seven of them. They ran towards them fiercely. Noah didn't push forward, he didn't want to risk being surrounded. He stood in front of Jimmy and held his sword high. The midget threw his two fireballs right at the rats.

They avoided it like the plague but there was too many rats, and too little space for them all to dodge. He burned off a few feet, made at least three slower than the rest. Loud shrieks blasted at them, Noah remembered this exact scenario and braced himself for a long battle.

The first one he killed with one fine swing, the second one he kicked away, the third one got burned by a fireball, and the fourth one he killed. He quickly attacked the rat he had kicked, killing it on the spot.

The three wounded rats tried to run away, but Noah had charged towards them before they had the chance. He killed them all swiftly after. They picked up the teeth, their total was 9 now.

No other rats came.

They kept on travelling down the path, they had came deeper into the sewer than they ever had been before. Then they saw it, they had almost missed it.

Floating slowly in the water, only the top half of its body showing, with its dead emotionless eyes. Dark green skin and sharp teeth which showed all around its triangular jaw. An alligator, a large one at that, spanning over three meters tall.

Noah audibly gulped, the lizards eyed jerked towards him but luckily it didn't stop swimming forward. Noah gulped again, silently this time. Noah had a feeling that he couldn't use the water as an escape path anymore.

The risk of him dying increased substantially, he thought about whether he should retreat. He decided against it, he really wanted the daggers. He continued marching forward into the rat filled darkness.

3 more rats, then 6 more rats, then 7 more rats, then 9 more rats. The increase in rats meant they were going the right direction, it also meant that it had gotten more dangerous. The last battle was tough, Noah got bitten twice and scratched quite a bit, it wasn't anything special but he felt tired.

They ended up taking a break, Noah sat and leaned against the wet stone wall, Jimmy continued to stand up, his exhaustion wasn't physical afterall. Something told Noah that the hardest part was next, since they were almost at the center.

They turned the corner, it lead away from the water and deeper into the sewer. It was completely dark, but there were multiple small yellow dots. "fire now", Noah said. Jimmy threw a ball of fire towards them. And it revealed a total of 14 rats, the one in the middle was almost double the size of the others.

The rats stormed towards them. There was a moment each man had to swallow his pride, that was now. They both ran towards the direction they had come from, Noah eyeing the floor for any peels.

Noah panted heavily and fell against the wall. The rats had stopped chasing them but they were shit for ideas. They couldn't beat 14 rats, and they wouldn't share their meager reward with a third person.

They needed a plan. Picking them off one by one would work, the issue was that the rats seemed to follow the big rat. They were shit out of luck, retreating seemed to be their best option.

Jimmy had tears in his eyes on his way back, it never felt good failing especially not failing something that is supposed to be easy. It said too much about who you would become in the future, but that was life, cold and hard. The entire walk back was silent.

It was evening when they returned, they had spent quite a long time inside of the sewers. They returned to the quest and put up the rat quest they had taken, someone more experienced would have to complete it.

They sold the rat teeth they had gotten together and split it in half, Noah got merely four copper coins from all his troubles. No use in complaining, that was simply the life he had been given. He went to the vendor and bought salted jerky.

He climbed up the ladder to the roof and sat on the edge. He slowly bit into his mellow jerky.

A tear slid down his cheek and dropped on the dry roof, he had hid it well but it finally broke out. Failing hurt deeply.