Chapter 9

The Sekiryūtei cocked one eyebrow. It could do that? If it could, then it'd save him an awful lot of time walking all over places he already knew like the back of his hand to get a mental map. He hit 'Y' at once.

[Working…

…working…

…working…

…Done!]

Map: Hyōdō Residence: Fully Complete!

Map: Kuō Academy (Main Building): 45% Complete!

Map: Kuō Academy Kendo Club Hall: 60% Complete!

Map: Kuō City Indoor Shopping Arcade: 70% Complete!

Map: Motohama Residence: Fully Complete!

Map: Matsuda Residence: Fully Complete!

Map: Den of the Ratlord: Fully Complete!

You gain 50 EXP per completed map!

"Nice!" Issei grinned. An extra 200 EXP wasn't something to sneeze at.

Question was, what to do now? He had no idea. Check the map for the nearest rat den?

Shrugging again, he reached into his still open inventory and pulled out the map of Kuō he had taken from the secret room at the back of the dungeon the previous day and opened it out. It took Issei a moment to find the rough location of his house on the map.

"Ok, so my house is here…" he muttered, "The den was a fifteen-minute walk away…ah, this one over here…hello, what's this then?"

Next to the rat's head symbol was a set of odd lines. 'VII'

"The roman numerals for seven?" he said in bafflement. He only knew about that because he had played Final Fantasy VII a few times. Who was it that said that playing video games never taught you anything again?

Examining the other rat's heads, Issei noticed that they all had numerals of some sort next to them. None of which were higher than seven. A hint to go after the nests in descending numerical order, perhaps?

You gain +1 INT for correct deductive reasoning!

Shush!

Deciding that it was as good an idea as any to start off with, Issei searched and found the den with the number six next to it. It was, oddly enough, on the riverbank, near the bridge.

"Time to have a walk." he muttered.

Issei got dressed, in casual clothes this time, although they honestly weren't too different from his school uniform; black trousers, a red t-shirt, white running shoes and a white shirt over the top to finish the look.

"Kaa-san, I'm going out for a walk!" he called as he came down the stairs.

"Another one?" his mother asked as she came into the hallway, "What's brought this on?"

"I'm still a bit nervous…you know…after what happened." Issei replied awkwardly. It was true, up to a point anyway.

His mother's eyes softened as she drew Issei into a gentle hug. "Oh, now Issei. You should have told me you were feeling uneasy about this whole thing. I am sorry it happened but hopefully it'll never happen again."

You gain +100 Relationship with Hyōdō Yukariko!

His mother sent him on his way with a wave and an admonishment to be back in time for lunch.

As he closed the door behind him, Issei found himself confronted by a large screen.

[Do you wish to be directed to one of the Ratman Dens?]

[If so, kindly indicate which den you would like to go to.]

- Den I

- Den II

- Den III

- Den IV

- Den V

- Den VI

- No

"This is convenient." Issei remarked as he hit the button for Den number six and saw the blue path light up and head down the street.

Walking along, Issei had to wonder what he would find at the rest of the Dens. More powerful versions of the last opponents? Magic users? Giant rat monsters? He wasn't all that up on what ratmen members were available in fantasy games beyond the low level trash-mobs. He'd have to do some research to combat that lack of knowledge.

At length, he reached the riverbank, but frowned as the path still went on, under the bridge even. Issei trotted over to the concrete and found, as expected, a blue screen over a door shaped section of concrete. He reached out and touched it, making it flare to life.

[Warning!]

You are about to enter the dungeon [Lair of the Rat Beast] (LV6)

Once you enter this dungeon, you must clear it before exiting.

Do you wish to enter?

Y/N

"Great, a rat beast this time." Issei grumbled, "Kami help me."

He pressed the 'Y' button and the door vanished just like at the last place. What was different about this entrance was what lay on the other side of the door; a long pole descending down into the darkness.

Seeing what he was supposed to do here, Issei sighed and did it. He jumped onto the pole and started to slide down it. It was only a couple of minutes later that he touched down on the ground, in a circular room built of stone, lit by braziers and with a single doorway leading on.

Drawing the [Rapscallion Wave Blade] from his inventory, Issei advanced through the doorway, only to be confronted by a familiar sight…a skeleton leaning over a chest.

"OK…let's see what we have here." he muttered as he opened the chest.

Folded up neatly in the chest was a pile of red cloth. When Issei picked it up and unfolded it, the cloth was revealed to be a ragged hooded cloak, with a blank circular buckle at the throat.

You have acquired the [Cloak of Obfuscation]!

Do you wish to equip this item? Y/N

Hitting yes, he opened his equipment menu so he could get a description of the cloak.

[Cloak of Obfuscation]

A cloak made from the woven hairs of several magical beasts that use chameleon-like abilities to hunt. It makes the wearer very hard to notice to mundane methods and even provides some degree of camouflage to supernatural detection methods, but it isn't absolute.

- Provides 5 armour to all covered locations.

- While the hood is up, grants the skills [Mundane Detection Nullity] and [Magical Detection Resistance] to the user.

- While the hood is up, the wearer's face is obscured into darkness.

- Combat impossible while concealed with this item.

"Whew…useful." Issei whistled. He pulled the hood up and immediately noticed that his body seemed to be drained of colour, to the point that he looked transparent.

Moving through the next room, Issei spotted what had to be the largest mass of enemies he had ever seen. They were a bunch of rats the size of spaniels, with red eyes, frothing mouths and whip-like tails. At the back stood a ratman armed with a whip and a crude-looking dagger thrust into its belt.

Giant Rat LV5

Packmaster LV5

[Spawn Eater]

'Shit, there's over twenty of those rat-dog things!' Issei cursed. He reached into his inventory and took out his bronze sword. Against the sheer number of enemies he was facing, he couldn't just charge in and cut them to pieces as he would prefer to do, as one thing rats and ratmen had very commonly was a debuff effect attached to their fangs or claws, usually poison.

So then, he would have to be cunning.

He observed the movements of the rat pack, which seemed to involve the dog-sized rats seething and running about within a certain area, which was about the length of the Packmaster's whip. None of the rats seemed to want to get behind the Packmaster either. If he could sneak around, disengage his camouflage, kill the Packmaster and then retreat, it could make the rats scatter and become easier targets.