Chapter 13

Remy's consciousness slowly returned. His eyes opened instinctively. At first, he was very confused. He was not at home, in his room, everything looked different. It took a couple of seconds for his brain to completely wake up and he instantly remembered his situation.

Remy jumped, landing on his feet, and frantically looked around. His exhaustion had caught up with him and he had fallen asleep without noticing. His dagger was brought out, but fortunately for him, he didn't need to use it.

Monsters usually took a few days to reform after they had been defeated. This was something that changed depending on the dungeon. Remy had no way of guessing how long this place would stay empty so falling asleep was a big risk.

Well, it would have been a risk if he willingly took it. Remy was so exhausted from everything that his body just shut down the moment he made himself comfortable.

After seeing that nothing had come across him while he slept, Remy placed his dagger back between the leather straps. In doing so he realized he had been using his right hand.

'There's no pain…' His fingers were no longer swollen or bent in the wrong ways. Remy inspected himself a bit and realized nothing hurt anymore.

'Status'

[Status]

Name: Remy Riverson

Age: 15

Level: 3 (40/900)

HP: 120

MP: 120

STR: 8

VIT: 7

DEX: 10

AGI: 20

INT: 12

Points: 10

Perks: [None]

Skills: [ Mana Manipulation I] [Observe I]

His HP was back to full and the state of his body reflected that. Who knows how many hours he slept? In any case, he was glad he was back in perfect condition, especially now that he had to fight that abomination in the Core Room. The energy gained from sleeping didn't hurt either.

Remy stared at his status page, his brows furrowed. He didn't want to spend more points, but he pretty much had no choice at this point. The Alpha looked way stronger than him so holding back might result in his death.

In the end, he let out a resigned sigh and placed all ten points in his [AGI] attribute, bringing it up to 30. It was the best option he had at the moment. [STR] would be useless since even with 18 strength Remy doubted he could compete with that thing. [VIT] was out because he couldn't raise it enough to tank hits.

The best stat to increase right now was agility. Remy may not be stronger but he can surely be faster. Especially since the weapon he had hardly gained any benefits from extra muscles. He decided he would play to his advantage. A faster dagger was better than a stronger one.

Also, he didn't want to get hit. Who knows how hard that thing punched?

After getting himself ready, he once again approached the Core Room. Just like last time he cracked it open and looked inside.

Remy was immediately frightened. The Alpha was no longer sleeping, instead, it stood tall in the middle of the room. It was looking directly at Remy.

'So sneak attacking is no longer an option…' He thought as he made eye contact with the beast. Remy was a bit intimidated by it, but, then again, a four-meter-tall, humanoid rat was bound to intimidate anyone.

Not to mention it was built like a bodybuilder.

'Observe' He curiously ordered as he began hyping himself up for the fight.

[Deathmire Fangbrood]

It was a boss name if Remy had ever seen one. He once again lamented the fact that his [Observe] was only rank I. Just finding out its name was useless, even its level would have been extremely helpful.

He clenched his teeth and opened stepped inside. The Alpha's eyes never left Remy's form the entire time he strode in.

Remy didn't stop walking and step by step he got closer to his opponent. The rat-man on the other hand kept getting increasingly incensed. Its glare gave way to hissing and his muscles bulged.

Remy was already halfway towards it before he saw it was ready to pounce on him at any moment. Before it had the chance too, Remy took a rock out of his inventory and threw it. The moment he did his legs had already begun moving, his dagger raised up.

Remy expected the Alpha to dodge the rock, thus buying him more time to build his momentum. Unfortunately, he miscalculated his opponent's temperament.

The rat-man didn't even flinch as the rock hit its forehead and bounced away. It let out a vicious roar, spit flying between its teeth, and charged at Remy.

Each step it took was heavy and loudly echoed in the cavern. The sight of the creature rushing him was not an encouraging one, but Remy knew it was already too late to retreat.

A claw slashed right where Remy's head had been. He ducked and used the speed he built up to carve a bloody line through the Alpha's leg. The injury didn't seem to register as it turned around and once again tried to split Remy in two.

He narrowly dodged, surprised by the monster's flexibility. The two kept this up for some time, Remy realizing that his speed was indeed superior to the Alpha's even if not by much.

As the rat-man grew more furious at his strikes not hitting their target, Remy grew more and more confident. He even used his dagger to give it some shallow cuts here and there. It seemed his strategy for defeating the boss had turned into something like "death by a thousand cuts".

Still, Remy was ultimately human and that meant his energy would not last that long. His speed was good, but his vitality was horrible. That meant his body burned more energy for his movement than it normally should.

He knew he had to do something soon or he'll be too tired to take advantage of his [AGI].

An opportunity had presented itself. As the Alpha missed another strike and howled in impotent rage, Remy ducked and rolled around it. Wanting to make his next hit count, he grabbed the dagger with both hands and swung!

The blade pierced deeply above the monster's heel, cutting apart its Achilles tendon. This time, the monster did feel the pain. A wretched scream pierced Remy's ears and with it, a pleased smile formed on his face. Now, the rat won't be able to effectively use this leg, cutting its mobility by many folds.

Unfortunately, Remy got too complacent with his accomplishment and forgot his surroundings. Just as he was about to move away, the Alpha suddenly turned. Its tail slapped Remy across the chest like a giant whip.

The air was forced out of his lungs and he was thrown more than a few meters away. The worst part was that the impact separated him from his weapon.

Remy slammed into the hard stone floor. He managed to raise his head just in time to see the Alpha getting on all fours and using his arms and still functioning leg to leap on him.

The pain was great, but Remy found the strength to move. The monster landed right in front of him, near his feet. The rat-man seemed to have learned his lesson and it didn't move to strike Remy, instead, he tried to grab him.

The first attempt was unsuccessful as Remy moved his leg in time, but the second had much more luck.

Remy's left leg was tightly held by the beast, almost crushing it. He desperately kicked with the other only for that one to be caught as well. The Alpha was unbothered that both its hands were occupied now and he could not smash the puny man. Instead, it planed something much more gruesome.

Remy's eye grew in horror as the beast's maw descended upon him. All he could do to avoid his head being crushed was to sacrifice his arm and shoulder. The rat's teeth sunk deeply into Remy's flesh, making him howl in agony.

Lucky for him, it wasn't enough to cut through his bones and cleanly sever his body. Unfortunately, the Alpha also knew this so it began pulling and thrashing, hoping to rip Remy in two.

Realizing what the monster intended to do terrified him. Was he going to die here? As nothing more than this things chew toy?

He was unwilling!

Even more than that, he was enraged! Why!? Why should he die to some oversized rodent!?

His emotions were running wild and pain continuously ravaged his body but Remy still had enough fighting spirit. He came up with an idea. A stupid idea, but anything was better than dying such a wretched death.

He focused on his left arm. He straightened it, making it reach inside the rat's throat. The Alpha almost gagged, but it chose to ignore its prey's actions, thinking of them as its final struggle.

Remy clenched his hand and used his [Inventory]. No one could see it, but his fist now held a few monster cores. The skill [Mana Manipulation] went into effect and helped Remy stuff almost all of his mana into those cores.

At this moment, the modern office worker was nowhere to be seen. There was only a desperate man, trying to spit death in the face. As the heat inside his fist kept growing and growing until it became searing, a deranged smile formed on Remy's face.

The Alpha's instinct warned him something was wrong. It looked down and saw a strange blue light coming from between its teeth. It tried to move but it was too late to do anything.

"Fu*k you!" Remy howled. The cores couldn't take the pressure anymore and the mana was released.

The monster's head exploded in a shower of gore.