Chapter 35

The second was a [Hand of Glory]. It was a rather disgusting looking carved wooden hand with a candle in it. According to [Observe], if he placed the candle in the candles grasp, it would come alight and only he would see the light it cast. No one else. It was really rather useful, especially since the only light in the chamber he stood in came from the open door at the top of the stairs.

It did cost him 1 MP Per Minute to keep the flame alight, and the candle would only last an hour before running out, but as he had neglected to bring a torch, this was a suitable alternative.

Setting the [Hand of Glory] up, Issei pulled out his [Rapscallion Wave Blade] and set out through the only door out of the antechamber. He halted when a pop up appeared in front of him.

[In order to clear this dungeon, you must find and defeat the five ratmen lurking in the darkness before confronting their master.]

Well, that was a load of use. Rats had superior senses of hearing and smell, if memory served, so the ratmen, assuming they shared that trait with ordinary rats, would easily be able to avoid him and attack him with impunity…

Oh. The ratmen might be able to hide, but their little name bars and title bars shouldn't be affected…unless they had a stealth skill or something. Which was rather likely given this pitch black darkness. Lovely. And here was him without any fire magic.

Resigned to a thankless task, Issei set out into the darkness…and almost walked into a wall. What an omen for this dungeon.

"Man-thing…man-thing…" a mocking voice called out to him, "I can smell you…I can hear you…but you are blind-blind!"

"Do these rats have to say words twice every so often?" the Sekiryūtei grumbled before raising his voice, "Yeah, so I assumed. Are you going to dance in the darkness all day or are we going to fight?"

"Kekekekekeke…be careful what you wish-wish for, man-thing…you may just get it!"

The only warning that Issei had was a slight whistling sound in the air to his right. He raised his sword and slashed at where it was coming from. The screech of metal-on-metal sounded before whatever had been thrown at him clattered to the ground. Looking out of the corner of his eye, Issei saw…a shuriken? Seriously? Ratmen ninja?!

"Lucky shot." The voice growled, "We shall see how you do-do when my disciples are finished bleeding you out."

A slight scuffle of cloth on stone and Issei assumed that the voice, who almost had to be the dungeon boss, had left. Great. The guy was hoping for an easy kill, but decided to leave it to his minions when that proved to be not possible.

The guy was an eighties Bond villain.

Sighing, the Sekiryūtei drew his hood off his head, as he guessed that it was insufficient to counter any anti-stealth skills that these rat ninjas had up their sleeves. At the very least, the boss could see through it, so he might as well get used to being seen by these lower levelled ninja.

The sword attack slammed into his Menpō with the force of a pile driver, sending him flying back, but Issei managed to keep his footing. He glared at the ratman who had attacked him. It crouched low with a ninjatō in one hand, black clothing similar to shinobi shōzoku covering most of its grey-furred body. Its tail had a bladed tip attached to the end of it. Issei's senses screamed 'danger!' at him. Even Byral, Farsqueaker and the two iterations of Boneripper hadn't done that to him.

Gutter Runner LV12

[No Need For Second Strike]

You have lost 50 HP!

From one strike?!

"[Force Absorption Field]!" Issei hissed. The bubble, invisible to any but him, appeared. He had experimented with it in the last two dens and it had proven rather useful. Something that he hadn't known was that not only did the field reduce the physical force of the blows; it also slowed down their actual speed as well. Well, either that, or it had been added when the skill had levelled up to Level 2.

Without even a sneer, the Gutter Runner launched another attack, the blade flashing in its hand as it attempted to disembowel him. Issei silently used the [Parry] skill, deflecting it and earning a [Riposte], which severed the tail of the creature.

You have severed a limb! Enemy Gutter Runner has had the [Bleeding] status inflicted upon it!

"KKKKeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" the ratman shrieked in pain before drawing a dagger from its waist. Issei noted idly that it was dripping a foul greenish fluid. Probably made from a mixture of Warpstone and other foul things. No way was he going to let himself get hit by that!

"[Earth Shot]!" Issei fired a chunk of rock at the assassin, who nimbly dodged out of the way. It left itself open to a counterattack, which Issei used to score a long gash up its off hand, forcing it to drop the dagger. Hurriedly disengaging, the Sekiryūtei locked blades with the ratman when it charged.

"Die-die-de gozaru!"

"You're a ninja, not a samurai!" Issei unleashed a tsukkomi on instinct before kicking the ratman between the legs. Ordinarily, he wouldn't break the bro code's most important rule, never hit the nuts, but this was no bro.

The ratman's eyes bulged out of its head as it staggered back, dropping its sword as it cradled its jewels. Issei ended it with a single cut of his sword.

You have slain a Gutter Runner! You gain 335 EXP!

Do you wish to loot the body?

Y/N

Hitting Yes, Issei watched with interest as the list of loot lined up.

X1 Crude Steel Ninjatō

X1 Weeping Blade

¥600

X5 Average Steel Shuriken

X5 Unknown Vials

Examining the description of the [Weeping Blade], Issei shuddered. A Warpstone/steel hybrid blade that literally wept a virulent poison from its edge that could cause a heart attack with long enough exposure and dealt pretty bad poison damage in the time between. He marked the [Weeping Blade] and the vials to be sold, as the vials were likely poisons or other drugs. He earned a whopping ¥5000 from the sale of both of them!

The ninjatō was more interesting to him.

[Crude Steel Ninjatō]

A steel sword forged in the shape of the popular film-only Japanese swords. It was simply poured into a mould and sharpened, but it is a decent weapon, albeit one easily used and discarded once broken.

Durability: 25/30

Short Sword

Slash Damage: S+20

Pierce Damage: S+15

A Durability stat? Oh hell. This meant he'd have to start maintaining his weapons! He really hated it when the [Gaming Gear] added patches when he wasn't looking! Still for a crude and hack job of a sword, it really wasn't too bad. He'd use it instead of his [Rapscallion Wave Blade] for now.

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