9 Chapter 9 Giant Rats In The Sewer

With Toby and Lily now in the dark, slimy, and terrible smelling sewer, Lily plugged her nose as she asked "Why is this one of the easy ones?" Toby glanced at her with a torch in one hand and plugging his nose with the other as he said, "Just because it stinks doesn't mean it's not easy." Lily sighed as she said, "We should've gone after the baalloons." Toby nodded as he said, "Yup, it would've been at least a dozen times less disgusting than this." As they kept walking, something wet and slimy dripped onto the torch, extinguishing the fire. Toby and Lily began to panic as Toby shouted, "Dammit, we can't see anything." After panicking for a short while, Toby managed to get the torch lit but as he stood up Lily said, "We're surrounded by giant rats." All the rats that surrounded them were about three feet long if you didn't include their pink tails, and their long, sharp teeth and claws could easily be seen despite it being so dark. Toby stared at them as he said, "It looks like there's only about ten of them." Toby glanced at Lily as he said, "At this rate, we're going to end up with a lot more than just a scratch." Lily quickly pulled out her short sword from her sheath as she said, "I'll try my best!" Toby nodded as he unsheathed his sword as well and said, "Right, I'll do my best over here as well." Toby stared at the giant rats levels as he mumbled, "These giant rats are all roughly level seven to nine… in terms of level, even their lowest level is higher than us… my level currently is only level six." As the two of them sat there, one of the rats leapt at them, but Toby quickly cut it in half as he mumbled, "Luckily these things don't carry weapons and aren't too intelligent." As the dead rat corpse hit the ground, Toby said, "It's alright, they're pretty slow, but I'd imagine their teeth and claws pack quite the punch." Lily stood there in a fighting pose with her short sword as she said, "Alright, then I'll try to get rid of the ones on this side." Toby nodded as he said, "Good, then I'll get the ones over here." As one of the rats charged Lily she shoved the short sword through its head using the momentum it built up from its charge and easily killed the rat, however as she was struggling to pull the sword out another one began to rush towards her with its mouth open prepared to attack, but just before it could reach her Toby shoved his sword down through its neck and into the ground as he said, "You might wanna work on your strength if you're planning to do this full time." After Toby said this, Lily pulled the sword out, falling on her butt and then quickly standing back up as she said, "I'll keep that in mind when I go home."

Toby began to pull on his sword as he said, "I might have to take my own advice." Toby began to try to shake the sword out from the ground as he said, "Come on! Just come out!" As Toby tried to free his sword, Lily blocked one of the rats that were trying to bite Toby's leg with her sword. The rat began to push her back slightly as she said, "Toby, I need help!" While Lily was being pushed back by the rat, another one jumped at Toby's face, but Toby let go of the sword and punched the rat away as he said, "This is getting a little too close for comfort." Just as the rest of the rats were all about to join in on the attack a loud screech was heard throughout the sewer, the giants rats seemed to all turn their attention to it as soon as they heard it, and soon after all the rats began to run towards it. Once the rats were gone, Toby and Lily looked at each other as Toby said, "Let's just grab some of these dead rats and go." Lily nodded as she said, "Sure, but first grab your sword." Toby quickly grabbed his sword and the two dead rats he killed as he said, "In total, we only managed to kill three of them." Lily quickly picked up the dead rat she killed as well and began to go back the way they came from as she said, "Come on! You have the torch, I can't see if you stay behind." Toby began to follow her as he said, "I'm on my way." Once the two of them made it back to the tavern, Grace greeted them at the door while carrying a couple of drinks as she smiled and said, "Oh, you two are finally back!" Grace set the drinks down on a table with a group of adventurers and then approached them as she said, "I'll need your metal adventurer plates." After they both handed her their metal plates, she went to the basement for a short while and came back up with twelve copper coins as she said, "Sorry to hear that you only managed to get three of them, but I hope that it also inspires you to do your best." Toby stared at the coins on the desk as he sighed and said, "This is quite embarrassing." Lily took four of the coins as she said, "You killed and carried back two of them, so I'll just take the four copper for mine." Toby stared at the eight copper coins left as he thought to himself, "I was brought here from another world with the ability to level up… and yet… I'm still weak despite being here for over a month." Toby thought once more as he thought, "Maybe I should quit that part-time job and become a full-time adventurer?"

While this was happening Thomas was walking through the dark sewer without a light and the reason that screech happened was because he had stepped on a giant rat's tail while searching for the lost cat, although the screech startled him the rat did not harm him. The giant rats have very poor eyesight and can only see light, and because of the sewer's stench the rats are unable to smell him, the only reason Toby and Lily had such a hard time is because they were carrying light. Thomas stared at the giant rat whose tail he stepped on for a short while before using the short sword to remove the rat's head. After walking for another short while, Thomas seen a giant rat run by with a skull, he didn't seem fazed by it, although that's probably because he doesn't know what it is. While walking, Thomas pulled his metal plate out from his pocket that he recently took out of his storage once he was told that it would glow as he got closer to what he was searching for, or in his case, the cat. Thomas continued to search in the same direction as some more giant rats ran past him squeaking loudly towards the direction where he had just slain the other giant rat. Once he was past the rats he heard a loud meow and after getting closer he saw that some giant rats were surrounding a cat who was on top of a pipe that was sticking out from the wall. Thomas stared at the cat for a moment, but although he could see in the dark, he was still unable to see colors in the dark. As Thomas got closer, the metal plate began to glow brightly, causing the rats to turn their attention to Thomas, who was too busy staring at the metal plate. After confirming that it was the right cat, Thomas put the plate back into storage, but once he did a rat tackled him to the ground and even tore some of the skin off of his arm. Thomas stared at his bloody arm for a moment and then stood back up while holding the short sword and then slicing through dozens upon dozens of rats. After around five minutes, that part of the sewer was filled with giant rat bodies. Some of the bodies were cut in two, some were missing limbs, and some were simply pierced in the right spot to kill them in a single blow. Once all the rats were dealt with, Thomas was covered in large amounts of blood and had some minor injuries since the rats were hardly able to even attack him properly. Thomas quickly grabbed the cat off of the pipe but now that Thomas had the cat there was a whole new problem, he had no idea how to get back out, and so he wandered the sewer with a short sword in one hand and a cat in the other while slaying any and all giant rats he came across. After about an hour or two, Thomas finally reached the same spot he entered through and quickly made his way back to the tavern.

Upon arriving, Grace said "Hello, wel-" but froze almost immediately, after pausing for a moment she seemed worried as she shouted "What happened to you?" Thomas held the cat out to her, smiling proudly as he said the word cat while covered in blood. Grace stared at him for a short while, ignoring the cat completely, as she then inhaled and said, "Please give me your metal plate." Thomas handed it to her happily as she asked, "How did you come back looking like this trying to find a cat?" After receiving the plate, Grace went down into the basement for a moment or two and then shouted loud enough for everyone upstairs to hear her shout, "What?" Thomas stood there staring at the door, obviously as Grace rushed back up and said, "You killed dozens of those giant rats trying to find a cat?" Grace handed him the metal plate back as she sighed and said, "You'll be compensated for slaying the rats, and we'll also compensate you for finding the cat, although next time the quest is in such a dangerous area, please don't go alone." Thomas stood there holding the cat out to her as he proudly said cat once again. Grace stared at him for another moment before saying, "I think I'm starting to understand why your friend wants me to look out for you."