Dungeon: Sentient Sludge Sewers (4)

I took a sip of the water beneath me, and that sound seemingly echoed down the entire system of pipes.

FWOOSH

A large wave of water pushed the piling rats off my body, and when I emerged from underneath, I adjusted the two rings on my index fingers.

I let out a long breath of air that was misty and really wet.

"That's a nice passive skill," I muttered before eyeing the continuously growing amount of rats that had basically stockpiled to the ceiling.

A new section on my status had been opened up, and my one new skill was,

[Passive Skills: [Water Body]

I guess I was kind of scared, but a dragon was much scarier compared to these things… and that sea monster inside that wave… was so much scarier than anything else.

My smile warped into an ear-to-ear grin again as I slammed my palms onto the ground and erupted tons of large water spikes that killed most of the rats in an instant.

Their desperate cries were like music to my ears, and as I continued my slaughtering, I caught a glimpse of the leader.

It wasn't the boss of the dungeon… obviously, but it was still an evolved form of this damn rat, meaning this dungeon had to be at least C or D-rank.

I was leaning more towards the higher D-rank side because I think I would be dead already inside of a C-rank dungeon.

Kekekekeke.

The rat standing on two legs cackled like a goblin before swinging its staff, directing even more rats towards me.

These rats filled in the empty spots, and I was forced to make a desperate move; otherwise, I was going to be quickly overwhelmed.

As soon as the rats began to try and close in on me from both sides again, I blasted them with [Tidal Strike], pushing them back.

They opened up a hole for me to dive through, but a few more rats had come out from the corners next to what I assumed to be a Rat Ruler.

It is a specially evolved rat that thrives in sewers due to the abundance of rats for it to control, and with its skills, it can even forcefully buff the rats.

Plus, it has slight control over magic which isn't something you'd expect from it.

FWOOSH

A blast of concentrated blue light passed by me, and it was obviously shot by the ruler who had tried to bait me into diving out of the way.

But, I wasn't about to fall for such a simple trick, so I flicked my hand upwards, creating a few water spikes that protruded from the bottom of the pipe.

These spikes were more than sharp enough to tear a hole through each buffed rat.

They were glowing with a slight blue glow, but that soon disappeared as they had been killed by my magic.

"Now, the last one," I muttered but clicked my tongue upon seeing that I had basically drained all of my mana.

So, I went for a bit of a crazy move, though it had some logic behind it… and that was to lunge at the rat ruler.

In exchange for control over rats and a slight efficiency over magic, they disposed of their strong and ruthless body, meaning I could probably take it in a one-on-one brawl.

"AHHHH!"

But the only problem was that the rats from before had caught up to me, so I was forced to use the rest of my mana to free myself.

The rings around my index fingers disappeared, and I made a desperate lunge that somehow managed to work as I grabbed the ruler's neck and squeezed it with both hands.

The rats had caught up again and tried to tear me off from their ruler, but I persisted until,

CRACK

[10 XP]

"HUFF… HUFF… HUFF… Shit, now I have to deal with these guys," I muttered wearily while glancing at the rats who had let go of me and were confused as to where they were.

Soon, they would snap back to their senses, and I would have to fight these things again… but for now, I just took another sip of the dirty water below.

[HP: 12/35 MP: 4/10 SP: 2/15] - Normal Human

"Kekekeke… What a cheat,"

[Water Body] is a passive skill that essentially makes you one with water, preventing you from being damaged by most weaker water attacks, allowing you to hold your breath underwater, a greater affinity for swimming, and, the best part of it… the ability to regenerate about a third of your health and mana when consuming water.

It's such a cheat, right?

"Alright, let's get rid of these things…."

…

"HUFF… HUFF… HUFF… HUFF,"

As I sat on the large mound of rat corpses, I tried to catch my breath while bending forward, trying to open up my airway.

It took a while, but I was finally able to do most of these things while the rest ran away from fear…

『Status』

[Name: Cyrus]

[Race: Human]

[Class: Water Magician]

[Level: 6/25] (37/100) XP Needed

[HP: 35/35 MP: 10/10 SP: 15/15] - Normal Human

[Strength: 5] - Normal Human

[Defense: 3] - Normal Human

[Magic: 13] - Normal Human

[Speed: 3] - Normal Human

[Aether: 5] - Non Human

[Skills: [Tidal Strike] [Water Manipulation] [Water Ring]

[Passive Skills: [Water Body]

…

"Damn…"

The rats gave so little XP that I had only gained a few levels, and while I was slightly grateful, I wanted to be a bit more greedy, especially when I had gone through hell to survive.

There wasn't even a hidden quest to be completed for killing that creepy-ass rat.

After complaining and complaining, I had no more energy left and just fell onto my back, letting the dirty air fill my lungs.

The scent of fresh blood mingled with the sensation of the stifling air, making it even worse than before, but I was so tired that I couldn't move.

My body had practically been in overdrive for the past week or so… so I took my well-deserved nap.