Chapter 11- The Dungeon

[Dungeon: The Rat King's nest (C-tier)]

[Do you wish to enter?]

[Yes/No]

I habitually checked my pouches and thigh holster again, even though I'd already done so three times before. It was nervousness, I knew, but it was only natural to feel apprehensive to go back to where you'd been so close to dying just a year ago.

I'd like to think I was ready this time but I hadn't gotten much stronger than a year ago. My stat caps had only been recently unlocked just a few days ago. I had little time since to truly progress as much as I'd wanted to.

Which was another reason why I was here. There was some sort of space and time distortion that occurred when I'd entered this dungeon. The last time I'd entered, three days had passed inside of it but in the outside world, it was merely an hour—though my frazzled mind back then may have been inaccurate. One thing that didn't change though, was me. I'd spent three days in the sewer just trying to survive and not attract attention. I'd reeked of piss and shit. When I got out, I still reeked of piss and shit. That meant whatever happened to me in there would stay with me once I got out. If I lost a leg, it wouldn't magically regrow. If I lost my life…there was no certainty that I'd be given a second chance at rebirth.

The dungeon was the grinder. It was the place where I could grow powerful in a short period of time. It was the answer to my ambitions.

It was why I was confidant in making that bet with Kurenai. I could spend the time here to train even if I didn't try to find and fight mobs. Though I didn't think it'd be that easy. The only way I'd stayed safe for three entire days last time was because I took every precaution necessary to keep my presence as unnoticeable as possible.

This time though, I was ready.

Enter.

Once again, there was no sensation in the transfer and I found myself back in the familiar sewer of the dungeon. I've noticed certain things I hadn't once before—after the novelty of exploring a new dungeon wore off. Now, it was just a place where I might die.

It didn't just reek of piss and shit.

It reeked of death, as well.

The strange gunk and foetid pieces of decay that rotted the walls and the concrete floor were once blood and flesh. Human blood and flesh. The signs of it lie within the rot. A fingernail here and there, a part of the human skeleton that I'd been able to identify, a piece of a chain-link necklace.

Where did these human remains come from?

Just from that necklace alone, I didn't feel like it came from Konoha.

I left those thoughts aside as I trudged forwards, watching my steps and remaining as close to the shadows as I could. I knew that even after a year of preparation, I couldn't fight these mobs head on. Not as I am.

But, I had done one thing that worked last time. I was able to out-stealth them. I was able to stab them in the back with a poisoned blade. And this time, I made sure to get the strongest one possible.

I looked at my poison-coated kunai and it almost sang with the shinigami's voice. It was an invitation to the afterlife. One that would take even a Jonin to the spirit realm.

The poison of the Black death. It was deadly and rare, heavily regulated and was expensive as a B-rank bounty. It wasn't something a mere academy student could get their hands on.

And yet I have it.

It was said that not even the poison masters of Sunagakure knew the poison's ingredients. Its recipe was kept secret by a single family alone. The family who'd invented it.

But one day, when Sayuri showed me a vial of the poison, the only one she was able to afford and kept for emergencies, I'd used [observe] on it.

And there it was. The ingredients of the poison lay in front of my face clearer than the surface of a shallow pond, and they were all ridiculously easy to find. The ingredients consisted of 8 common weeds and 2 roots of certain plants. All of which I was able to find in the lush vegetation of Konahagakure's forests.

It had taken me nearly a year to understand why each ingredient was used and the proportions in which they were mixed. Some batches didn't react at all with blood, some batches dried up too quickly, some had even neutralized itself into a useless sludge.

Once I'd gotten it right, however, the reaction of the mixture was volatile. It had turned from a smooth yellow-brown liquid into a viscous black jelly-like substance that was so characterised by the poison. Each of the original ingredients were destroyed beyond recognition from the reaction and it was probably why no one else throughout all of the Elemental nations was able to resynthesise the poison through reverse engineering. The reaction annihilated all its inherent origins and created something entirely new.

I'd tested it on a regular house rat that invaded my kitchen one day just out of spite for that dungeon creature. I'd dipped a senbon with a droplet of a droplet of the poison. The portion so small that it was hard to see if it was even on the pin-like projectile but when I'd pricked the rat with it, just barely breaking its skin, the rat immediately went still. It was dead in less than a heartbeat from probably a single molecule of the poison. The recreation was a success.

That lead to now, me having this poison in my back pocket, coating my shuriken, kunai and senbon, ready to inflict serious pain on all who touched it. It was a risk, for there were no known cures for the black death. The only way to beat it was to burn it out of your system with a high amount of chakra. Only mid to high-level Jonins were able to do so, and the end result sometimes even left some incapacitated.

There were also no immunity boosters I could take beforehand. That meant if my weapons were used against me, I would die to my own poison. Carrying the blade and the poison was akin to carrying a lit torch when you're doused in gasoline. Just a moment of foolish lapse and you'd combust into flames.

But It allowed for me to triumph against these rats and thus was a risk I was willing to take.

As I'd said before, I was more of a straightforward fight kind of person. The Bob Hasek in me demanded to face my enemies head on but Jin Takezuchi wasn't stupid. He knew his place.

Despite how much I've trained and learned, practised and pushed myself, I've only ascended baseline human stats just recently. I was a microbe on an ant in a world of deadly wolves—no not even that, it was a world of bijuu capable of destroying villages in a blink of an eye. I'd experienced it before. I was weak. Very weak.

Poison was the clutch I would use to bridge that gap between me and the rats. It wouldn't have been much against high level shinobi like high jonins and kages. No poison would be to such high level ninja. This fact was well known to poison practitioners and makers. Not even a million doses of the black death would make a kage-level even flinch, such monsters they were.

But against these rats….

I could remember the contemptuous sneer and the menacing glare of that runt just a year ago as it lifted its giant Dao sword. Back then, in every fibre of my being, every sweat-filled pore on my body, every raging heartbeat that passed, there was only fear.

Now…there was nothing left but hatred.

Not hatred for that one runt who almost killed me. Not hatred for all its species. Not even hatred for the dungeon itself. It was hatred against all who dares to stand before me, even weak as I was, and look down on me with arrogance and disrespect.

I'm a microbe, I know…and so it may be arrogance. It may be foolishness. And it most definitely made no sense in a world of backstabbing ninja. But I demanded honour. Such a concept was probably so foreign to those of this world that they would laugh at it if I'd mentioned it to them. What was the point of honour when someone could decapitate you whilst you're bowing to show your respects. What was the point of honour when someone could thrust a kunai into your spine when you turned your back. What was the point of it when the end result was death anyway.

It may be needless and unnecessary. But to both Bob Hasek and me, Jin Takezuchi, it was more important than life itself. Honour needn't be something righteous or even merciful. It needn't be a point of pride or a virtue of character. It just needed to be a principle that I could live with once my hands got dirty. When I slit the throat of another person, It was something that will stay my soul from the tumultuous winds of guilt. Of thoughts of separating one from their family, their friends and all their loved ones.

In this cruel world, I made it was simple. The most basic and barebones as I could make it. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. You point a blade at me and I do the same. You take from me and I take from you. You show me disrespect…

I will show you none.

My footsteps were undetectable. My movements were fluid and not even the rustling of my clothes carried itself with the timid yet putrid wind of the sewers.

And before long, another runt showed up in front of me, eating another unnamed corpse.

Observe.

Observation target: Rejected Rat Runt (level 44)

Threat level: High

Stats:

Toughness: 46

Agility: 32

Stamina: 18

Cunning: 8

Charisma: 2

Chakra Capacity: 100

It had more chakra than I did. But it didn't matter. Will a graceful step and a swift strike, I jammed the knife at the exact spot where I jammed it the year before. Only this time, the rat squealed in pain and almost collapsed into a seizure. The poison worked so rapidly that I could see the black substance in the bulging veins under its fur. The rat was in such pain that it didn't even think about reaching to the Dao Sword in front of it.

I calmly walked to the forgotten weapon, still keeping my utmost attention to the dying enemy. When I reached the blade, I lifted it up and just like a year ago, it was heavy. My stats didn't jump by that much after the cap.

…But I had access to my chakra this time.

I channeled it.

[Basic Chakra Manipulation has levelled up (level 9)]

[Basic Chakra Channelling has levelled up]

[Basic Chakra Channelling has evolved to Intermediate Chakra Channelling]

I could feel the mystical strength that the spiritual energy gave me. I felt twice as strong and twice as fast. The weapon that felt like a giant rod of steel was nothing now but a light aluminium baseball bat.

I swung.

And the rat was decapitated. Cleanly and smoothly, its struggling head was lobbed off like a soda cap from a bottle.

[You have slain Rejected Rat Runt (level 44)]

[You have levelled up]

[You have levelled up]

[You are now level 32]

Progress. Blessed progress. One that stopped many moons ago and plagued my existence from then on. I was a frog stuck in a well, seeing the sky as nothing but a small circle that centred my world, despite knowing better.

Now as the feeling of inhuman strength coursed through my veins for the first time, I see the vastness of the world above me, how bright the sun and stars are, how far would I reach, I wonder?

I didn't matter, for at the end of the day, I will move forward.

Always.

It was now my second day here in the sewers. I've rationed my food and water effectively, having enough to last me quite a while longer.

Status

Name: Jin Takezuchi (Level 35)

Age: 15 years old

Traits:

Prestige Potential (MAX)

Stats: (Spare: 5)

Toughness: 34

Agility: 32

Stamina: 34

Cunning: 30

Charisma: 30

Chakra Capacity: 42 (mid genin)

Skills:

~Combat~

Ambidextrous (level 32)

Lust Aura (Active) (level 1)

Advanced Taijutsu (level 30)

Weapons Mastery (level 34)

Intermediate Chakra Channeling (level 5)

Basic Chakra Manipulation (level 15)

Study of Poison (level 33)

Advanced Kenjutsu (level 36)

~Mundane~

Observation (level 34)

Cooking (level 30)

Cleaning (level 30)

Massage (level 30)

Flirting (level 16)

Dancing (level 1)

Breathing (level 31)

Mapping (level 8)

Affinities:

Earth Affinity (level 1)

Kekkei Genkai:

[Lust Release] (level 1)

[Love Release] (level 2)

Progress was slow and I'd only found two other runt rats besides the first one. I took them out the same way as I did the first.

Despite the pace, significant progress was made. I took a bit of time to sort my skills into order from combat skills at the top and mundane skills at the bottom. It made it easier to see that way when I checked it after I killed the rats. I was able to level up some of my stats naturally and even have 5 to spare after gaining 5 levels. I was going to save them in case of emergencies that required me to dump it in a specific stat all at once. In the mean time, I also spent my journey channeling and manipulating some of my chakra in order to level those skills up.

Another reason for the slow progress was because I was also mapping the dungeon as I went. I gained the mapping skill once I'd started doing so and it was steadily levelling with each section of the sewer I'd added in. With each level, my positional awareness of where I am and even where the sewers are relative to each other became easier to determine. The angles of each turn, the pathways that connect to others, the depth of levels, there were many facets to the mapping skill. Still though, it was a mundane skill and required less excited monitoring from me. Maybe once I got back, I'll make a hidden folder for the mundane skills or something. Now though, I'm stuck with what seemed like a list of some stuff that I didn't really need to see at the moment.

The rat runts were well spaced out between each other. It made sense that a dungeon would start off slowly and get harder the further you go but I was steady and careful in my steps regardless. I didn't want to risk the possibility of catching a rat's attention only for it to call for a horde of the things. I still didn't know whether that was even an option.

Speed-running the dungeon didn't matter to me and was frankly quite stupid considering that I couldn't just 'respawn' like I would as a video game character. No, dead was dead here. I was sure of that.

Mapping made sure of two things. From what I'd remember of a year ago, my first steps towards that first rat runt were exactly the same as it was now. I'd envisioned every single turn and corner and it lead me to the location of that very firs rat i'd killed a year ago. Only this time, another rat had spawned in its place. The map allowed me to mark all of these spawn spots so I could reach them faster next time.

Another thing I'd noticed was that despite all the damage the rat caused to the tunnel when chasing me a year ago—the gashes and destruction of the concrete—no signs of it remained once I returned. That meant the dungeon somehow repaired itself every time I entered it. Self-respawning and self-healing. That was the second thing the map helped with. Once I gain enough proficiency with setting up traps and buying some explosive tags for next time, I could lead a potential group of the rats to one place and murder them all in one fell swoop.

Of course, mapping wasn't as easy as it sounds. Even now, after a decent amount of levels the map was barely legible to anyone other than me. For now though, it was enough.

Then, a noise of constant clicking sent a chill down my spine as I approached a turn in the sewers.

It was a horrid, creepy sound that reminded me of a game almost lost in deep memory that Bob played on earth. It was a game of which the name eluded me but it had these zombie clickers that detected their prey by echolocation. I also remembered Bob being disappointed by the game's sequel but that wasn't important right now.

If a rat could detect me by sound then I must be as quiet as I could possibly be.

I quietly placed the map in my backpack and went to the corner of the tunnel, trying to peer at what laid beyond it.

What I saw almost made my stomach drop.

The rat was twice as big as the runts, indicating the it was either fully grown or on the way there. It was looking. right. at. me.

Any other time to any other creature, my soul would have left me right then and there.

But I noticed one thing.

It didn't have eyes. Where the normally red, beady eyes of the despicable creatures normally lay, there were deep gouges in its sockets. Like someone had taken a spoon and dug out the creatures eyes when it was born.

Another thing that scared me, however, was its weapon.

It was holding what seemed to resemble a staff that was made out of a long twisted wooden branch that encased what seemed to be a slightly glowing gem at the top.

It looked like…a Gandalf-damned magic staff.