6 Rat's Den (1)

"He said, by the quote: 'Girl, are you a carrot? I may not be a rabbit, but I don't mind eating you'," the Elf answered for Shin.

"Hahaha," Elior almost cried while laughing. Now that he looked at the elf—she did look quite like an appealing carrot in her tight orange dress hugging her every curve. He couldn't stop laughing. "Shin, I'll give you full marks for your creativity. But a big zero in knowing the environment."

Shin's exterior turned red. He might dig a hole to hide his face.

"And he didn't even rest there. He mentioned even more dirty phrases, I couldn't even mention. He only stopped his dirty mouth after I hung him upside-down on the tree and threatened him to make a soup out of him for the beasts." The elf said to Elior. "Now tell me, does he deserve what he got?"

"I think you give him too much leeway," Elior said, knowing how filthy his friend's mouth was. "He needs to be hung for a couple of hours more."

"Like I said, I was not in my right mind. I was marathoning over twenty hours straight in the game." Shin tried his best to give an explanation. "I thought she was an NPC"

"That was not the point," Elior counter-attacked. "Tell me how much of a degenerate you are to actually flirt with an NPC?"

Shin became silent. He really needed to find the hole now.

While the half-elf asked cluelessly, "What's an NPC?"

"Explain this." Elior gave the floor to Shin to explain what an NPC was to the clueless elf.

"An NPC is like artificial intelligence that only exists to help the player in the game . . ." Shin tried his best to explain.

But Elf's response was even more epic.

"So it's like a slave?" Her expression darkened. "You thought I was a slave?"

"Oh god, no. NPCs aren't slaves; they are just helpers who help the player . . ." Shin stopped, noticing his explanation was not doing much good. He called Elior "Elior, help. I don't think I can explain this to her."

Elior took the whole amusement of the topic before trying to help Shin. "Well, it is like this," Elior said. "Shin thought you're too unreal to be true and thought you might be like the pixie, sent to help the participants . . ."

"I get it now," said the Elf. "Though it's still vague, but I can work with it."

"Thanks, Sister Elf," Shin almost cried out in joy.

"Don't call me that," the elf's expressions turned cold again.

It seemed nobody wanted to be related to Shin.

"So, what should we call you," Shin continued. "You haven't given us your name yet."

The elf frowned at Shin for a moment before muttering. "Lyra."

"Alright, if the introduction and eating are done, let's go searching for tokens." Elior stood up, finishing his food. He looked at the sun to calculate the time. "There is about four hours left of light. It should be enough to finish the Rat's den if we all three go together."

"Brother, I mean Elior, what are you saying?" Shin asked back. "What Rat's den?"

While the elf, Lyra's eyes glittered with enthusiasm. "You found a dungeon?" she asked.

"You could say that," Elior said. He did find it in his previous time in the trial. "It is a dungeon of big rats and toxic ones too."

"And you're willing to let others enter there?" Lyra could not believe it. "You could get a high score if you got all the tokens from there. Why are you letting us enter?"

The elf had a point. Nobody in their right mind would let go of these kinds of chances. Well, you were entirely incompetent, then that's another matter. Elior was neither of the two. Yes, this dungeon would give him quite a number of tokens, but the number was not enough to come first in the trial. So why not share it with a good brother and a gorgeous elf.

"Don't take this the wrong way." Elior looked Lyra in the eye. "I could finish the dungeon by myself, but it would be too boring and take more time. Besides, it is only the beginning."

"I can't understand you guys." Lyra shook her head, looking back at the two earthlings. "So why are we waiting, then?"

"Have I not said those rats are toxic? They had poisonous breath and saliva, we need to prepare something before that." Elior started to get his equipment ready. "Don't worry, I know just what we need."

"I wonder what those rats would taste like," Shin said. "Are they edible?"

"They are, but I would not recommend that," Elior answered. "Our metabolism was not strong enough to digest it."

Disappointment showed on Shin's exterior. "It's good that we still have a few lumps of meat left."

Elior took the lead as the group of three left the place.

. . .

"Brother, how long do we have to search?" asked Shin as he searched through the grass. "Is it really here, whatever we're looking for?"

"Of course, I'm sure," Elior answered. "The whole point of the trial is to see the problem-solving ability of the participants. With every problem here, there should be a solution nearby."

"You sound like you know your stuff," said Shin.

"Shut up work, it's already over half an hour," Lyra said while her arms continued to do the job. "Ahh, I think I have found it."

"Let me see," Elior came near the elf immediately. She was holding a few strands of grass with long leaves. Elior inspected the grass for a moment. "This should be it," saying that he mouthed a couple of the strands. It tasted dry and bitter but it should be enough against the rats.

[You have eaten detoxifying grass. For the next six-hour, you are immune to most lower-level toxins.}

"Yes, this is it," Elior confirmed. "Eat a few strands of it and let's go, we got some rats to kill."

They left the place immediately, Elior at the lead again. The land became rockier as they advanced, but there were not any fewer trees. Not many animals greeted them on the path, all they came across were birds, squirrels and rabbits. They walked across the forest for a long hour as the sun moved across the sun. It was about a couple of hours away from approaching the horizon.

After moving another ten or so minutes, they heard snuffing screeches ahead. Slowly walking their way through the trees, they discovered a cave opening.

"Gentleman, and lady. We have arrived," announced Elior. "Are you guys ready?"

The Elf, Lyra nodded.

While Shin brandished his sword. "Let's go, It is grinding time."

"Remember, our plan was to finish this within two hours," Elior mentioned as they advanced towards the cave. "It is already dark inside the dungeon and it will only get darker as time progresses."

Both of them nodded as the three of them entered the cave.

[You have found: Rat's Den. Class 0 Dungeon.]

[You have unlocked the quest: Cleanse the Rat's den.

After a lot of hardships and journeying, you with your other two companions have found the Rat's den. The dungeon is full of unusual rats. You have been tasked with cleaning out the rats from the dungeon. The numbers of rats present here exceeds over a hundred.

Reward: Increase in level by 2. Possibility for more rewards.]

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