Sloth Is A Sin

My mind reeling as the battle escalated to a bigger scale. The rats, cats, and dogs clashed in a frenzy of snarls, growls, and screeches, leaving me excited as it signify the progress of my Quest. 

But I knew I was just reaching a small milestone, as I still had the bigger task ahead to finish.

Now, with the carnage escalated, it made me struggle to find a way to gain something from this situation.

The sheer strength of the mutants was rewriting my understanding of the creatures of chaos.

If I went out there and joined the fray recklessly, I would surely die. I didn't stand a chance against these monstrous creatures in raw power and strength. And so, I began to devise a plan.

My eyes locked onto the red crystal in the giant rat's head, and suddenly, I struck with an idea. Hunting the Giant rats might be the key for me to level up, increasing my strength and survival chances. It was somewhat risky, but considering how strong that Tiger cat and the mutant dog are, maybe hunting the Giant rats is the safest approach in this situation.

"Every adventure always start from a humble place, even the hero need to kill slime first before they face the demon lord"

I steeled myself, and began to inhale a deep breath. I didn't know but recently i feel like controlling my emotions has become harder. I was not a reckless man before, but in the past 2 days, the thought about fighting and killing monsters made me excited.

"Did chaos miasma begin to affect me too? Or does the new power slowly make me drunk? But I know I couldn't let my emotions cloud my judgment, not now"

With a newfound determination, I began to scan the battlefield, searching for the perfect moment to strike. The giant rat was still leading the charge, its red crystal glowing with an eerie light. In my perspective, the Giant rats slowly changed into walking Exp.

I took another deep breath, my mind racing with strategy and tactics.

I slowly climbed out the window, my hands and feet finding holds in the worn brick walls of the building as I continued to climb up. Before long, I pulled myself up onto the rooftop.

Using the high ground, my eyes began scanning the situation below clearly.

From my new vantage point, I could see the chaos of the battle unfolding more clearly. The giant rat was leading the charge, its red crystal glowing as it directed the mutated rats in a frenzy of biting and clawing.

The tiger-like cat was holding its own, using a brute force to decimate the rats, but it was clear that the rats were slowly gaining the upper hand as they kept summoning colony after colony, that aside, the addition of mutants dog who cleverly taking the advantage of their situation also the reason of the tiger cat began to lose its advantage.

"Damn beast, I wonder if the cat side had more of this Tiger cat?"

Putting the wonder in the back of my head, I pinned my gaze on the giant rat, trying to pick out a clear target. But it was proving to be troublesome - all of them seemed to be sticking close together, working together to take down their enemies in tandem.

Considering how I need to go down to retrieve the Javelin later, killing a large group of giant rats was not a good choice. After all, I only had 5 javelins in hand. At max, I could only kill 5, but to be safe, leaving the last behind for my self defense is the wise choice.

In the first place, targeting the one who huddled together might draw the other mutants' attention to me, considering how auspicious their location is.

"No, I needed to find a better target" I began to scan the corner of the battefield, searching for a lone giant rat that I could assassinate silently. It didn't take me long to find one - a toddler size, lumbering bipedal rats that had wandered away from the main battlefield.

"Seems like even among the rats, there is always one sloth who takes advantage of others to do the hard work for them" a smile began to appear in my face, amused by the peculiar Giant rats antics.

I began to focus my attention on one of the lazy Giant rats, my heart drummed in anticipation. With a deep breath, I began to visualize the throw.

"Calm down, just do exactly like the training, and it will not miss"

Then, with a swift motion full of confidence, I hurled my javelin downwards, impaling the giant rat to the ground.

SCREEEEEECHHHHH!!!!

"bullseye!"

The dying screech of the giant rat echoed through the battlefield, but it seemed to go unnoticed by the other creatures. They were too busy tearing each other apart to notice the sudden loss of one of their own. A mixed emotions swirling in my chest, excitement and nervousness entwined together, as I saw the giant rats stopped convulsing and stayed still, embedded with a roughly made javelin impaled in its chest.

+5 EXP

I couldn't help but smile as I received the notification after killing the giant rat. I carefully checked my surroundings, making sure there was no mutant creature finding my whereabouts. Satisfied that the coast was clear, I dashed to the ground like a leopard, with a nimble movement, I used the environment to my advantage to make me go down swiftly.

Without further ado, I quickly retrieved my javelin, pulling it free from the giant rat's lifeless body. As an added bonus, I also grabbed the red crystal that had been embedded in its forehead. It glowed with an eerie light, and I couldn't help but wonder what is the use of this thing.

Some of the mutated rats nearby who found my sudden appearance, tried to bite me as I stood up. But I was ready for them. With a swift swing of my other javelin, I swatted them aside like flies. They were fast, but after observing how they fight all this time, their movements are predictable.

Without hesitation, I began to make my way back to the rooftop of the building. I had what I needed to recover, and now it was time to get out of here. But some of the mutated rats kept trying to hinder my escape, and I was forced to crush their heads with my javelin. It was unnecessary as it was only increasing the attention of other mutants on me, but I had no choice.

To my surprise, the rats still kept coming, even after seeing their comrades die. And as I expected, I got no EXP for killing the ordinary mutated rats. Finding killing them was not beneficial, I began to plan my escape.

Thus, I began to hide in a nearby corner, trying to escape from the annoying rats that were still pursuing me.

I dashed around, my feet pounding the pavement as I calmly searched for a way to climb back up to the rooftops. I knew I had to get out of the battlefield as fast as possible as I didn't want to draw the other more dangerous mutants' attention to me.

That's when I spotted flipped cars and trucks. Without hesitation, I used them as a makeshift stairway, jumping up onto the hood of the car and then leaping over the window of a nearby building.

With a thud, I safely made myself enter the building, escaping from the annoying rats who persistently chased me. But I didn't have time to catch my breath as I had to find my next prey.

From my observation before, I knew that the lazy Giant rats usually didn't group up with the others, preferring to stay behind at the back of the horde. And that was exactly why I chose them as my target. Like a monkey, I moved from one building to the next, my newfound trained agility and elastic muscle allowing me to climb up walls and swing across rooftops with ease.

I clung to railings, crouched near the roof, and used every available surface to stealth around the edge of the battlefield. And from time to time, I would throw my javelin, killing the Lazy giant rats with deadly precision.

It was basically a cat-and-mouse game, with me as the predator and the lazy Giant rats as my prey.

SCREEECH!

+5 EXP

SCUAACH!!

+5 EXP

CIIT CIIIT!!

+5 EXP

As I kept killing, piling up EXP and red orbs, my body slowly began to grow tired. My body ached from the constant sprinting and climbing, and my arm was numb from throwing the javelin. 

"I wonder when I could level up, as I counted that I had already killed 18 of these giant rats.. "

Ding!

Level: 1

HP: 100/100

Stamina: 20/50 (-50)

EXP : 92/100

Attack: 5

Defense: 5

Stats:

Fatigue: -50% stamina

"What the?? Hey! Turn out I have to manually summon my HP bar and stats?? Can I make it automatically keep opening when I enter the battle and gone when I left the combat??"

Ding!

[Setting Configuration in progress]

[Done]

"Huh? It stay floating on the corner side of my vision.. I feel like I'm playing a VR game right now.. Albeit with my real flesh and body as the avatar. Anyway, the system seems reasonable. I am sorry that I call you a sadist before"

"Leaving that aside, it seems like my Exp almost reached the limit, so let's hang it on for a little bit more shall we…. Hahh.. hah.."

With heavy breath, I dragged my body to keep moving around, retrieving the javelin as well as killing the giant rats, finally before long. A sudden warm, breezy feeling like energy engulfed me. It was as if my fatigue had been washed away, replaced by a newfound strength that gave me the illusion of becoming a peerless warrior.

[You level up]

With a new notification box hovering in front of me, I knew that I had finally leveled up. A surge of excitement coursed through my veins as I gazed at the notification box, my heart pounding in anticipation.

DING!

Finally with a new beeping sound from the system, a new status box hovered in front of me, occupying my vision.