Giant Rats (3)

In a classroom, rows piled upon rows of exquisitely arranged desks. The teacher is writing on the board. Across the windows, the sun's gleaming rays bring light into the room. Meanwhile, the birds perched on the tall trees just outside the class. The scents of different perfumes, combined with the robust and powerful fragrance of adjacent flower nectar.

A student sat at the last row on the furthest right near the entrance to the classroom, preoccupied with something in front of him. no one else could see it except for him, a grey rectangular window was floating in front of him. that was red, our protagonist.

Name : Red Max Hp : 410 / 440 Max Mp : 200 / 200

Level : 4 To next level : 260 / 400

Class : Unknown Title : Unknown

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STR : 6(+5) VIT : 5(+6) AGI : 3(+8) INT : 20 WIS : 6 LUCK : 5

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LP : 0 CASH : 489.37 $

"I need to save up 2000$ and purchase the Summon Skeleton skill. I'll need someone who rushes in while I attack from the back." says red.

"Red, want to come up here and solve this for us?" asks the teacher.

"Oh.. Yes sir." says red as he gets up from his seat.

Red wasn't paying much attention, after going up to the board, he looks at the problem and thinks. since his INT hit 20 his memory improved tremendously which helped him remember everything the teacher explained which helped him solve it with ease.

"Good job red. go back to your seat." says the teacher.

Red walks back, catching his eyes a girl that sat in the second row, her hair was orange, bright red lips and brown eyes, her hair looked puffy which suited her a lot. that was Jen. Red and her were classmates for two years but never spoke. red was fairly attractive but no one approached him since stan was an annoyance and made it hard for him. Jen was a red crush for a while, every time he looked at her, his heart skipped a beat. While walking back he couldn't help but keep his eyes on her and that got her attention. He got a bit flustered but he saw her smile at him, it was a friendly smile but it made him so happy.

"Hey, you still like her?" asks sam.

"What? Who said I like her?" red declines.

"Dude, you keep staring at her. it's obvious." says sam

"Ok, just forget it. she barely even notices me" says red with a sad face.

Ding dong ding ♫

Red and Sam separate each going home. It's the weekend, red has multiple things he's preparing for. He turns the keys and enters the house, looks around he sees his mom in the kitchen cooking. He's not used to her being around much but it felt like the good old days a little.

"Hey mom, i'm home." greets red.

"Hi, How was school." his mom asks.

"The usual... i got you something, wait i'll bring it with me when i come down." reports red

He heads to his room and pulls out 100$ from the system, he puts it on his desk and goes to shower. Red heads downstairs with the money in his hand, he approaches the kitchen finding his sister helping her mom. He gives her the money and helps setting up the table. Red kept getting flashbacks to when they ate together like family everyday. They finish their meal and Red goes to his room.

After a long time of repeating the same dungeon and clearing the same room, red got something interesting.

After 5 repeats red got :

'Mana Bolt Level Up'

Mana Bolt : A skill that attacks by emitting mana. Attack power increases by INT. Range is 20m. mana consumed -%10. (Level 3 / Active)

'(22 Giant Rat meat / 18 Bones / 9 Lesser Life Stone) Looted'

'Level Up'

'INT+5(20 -> 25).......To next level : 360 / 800 ...... CASH : (889.37 $)'

'New Title : RatSlayer'

"New title?" red questions as he presses on the title word. a small window pops up with the Rat Slayer title on it, he presses it and sees this.

'Title : Rat Slayer Increases the drop rate and damage dealt by 20% to rat monsters.'

With the new equipped title red was able to eliminate the monsters a lot faster which got him very close to the skill he wants. After 8 repeats.

'Blunt Weapons Mastery Level Up'

'Blunt Weapons Mastery Level Up'

Blunt Weapons Mastery : Allows the user to freely handle blunt weapons. 20% increase in attack damage with blunt weapons. 15% increase in attack speed with blunt weapons. (Level 3 / Passive)

'(26 Giant Rat meat / 16 Bones / 12 Lesser Life Stone) Looted'

'Level Up'

'INT+5(25 -> 30)........To next level : 360 / 1600 ...... CASH : (1689.37 $)'

'New skill acquired : Mana Regeneration'

Mana Regeneration : An ability given to those of special heritage that allows instant recovery of MP, 5 mana per minute. (Level 1 / Passive).

"This is good, usually i would only recover MP when i sleep or level up. but now there is another way that might come in handy" Explained red.

It was late, red didn't have school tomorrow but he wanted to wake up early anyways... Morning came, The colors merged into neon pink and peach. Red woke early and left, heading for anitas restaurant, he wanted to see her.

The restaurant had few customers, three rows of circular wooden tables, a white cloth on top of each with four chairs around. on the register stood a woman with dyed short boy-ish blond hair and brown eyes. she looked in her early thirties. Red approaches her, ordering some food. she was happy to see a new customer, she seated him and went to relay the order. That's when Red saw Anita, a beautiful yellow dress with flowers everywhere on it with an apron wrapped around her. she notices red sitting in one of the tables, after a bit she comes over with his food and sits with him.

"Hey good morning, what brings you here?." asks Anita with a smile.

"You, I wanted to see you." answers red

"hehe really, why?" asks Anita laughing.

"I still owe you from last time, i thought maybe i can get your number so i can make it up to you somehow." said red.

"you don't have to really. but here's my number anyways." said Anita while grabbing reds phone.

No new customers came in so they talked for a while, getting to know each other... What Red learned about her was that it was her and her mother, her father was ill and unable to leave the hospital so she has to work here as well as go to high school, they can barely afford his hospital bills. Her mother has another job so it's Anita, the only one that manages the restaurant. red left after a while, heading to the construction site.

After getting there, he went into the second floor of the unfinished building. it was empty, just an unfinished floor with some walls, then started hunting the rats again.

'(5 Giant Rat Meat / 10 Bones / 3 Lesser Life Stone) Looted'

'To next level : 760 / 1600 ............. CASH : (2089.37 $)'

Red managed to get the 2000$ for the skill, he navigates through the shop and purchases it.

Summon Skeleton : an apprentice-level Conjuration spell. It summons a Skeleton that will fight as the caster's ally. (Level 1 / Active)

'...... CASH : (89.37 $)'

"Ok, let's try it." red states.

After saying the skills named red saw from the shadows a skeletal figure can be seen crawling out of the ground, he saw it. a skeleton with a rusted sword stood next to red. He did not move unless ordered. The only action he can be ordered to do is to move somewhere, he did not pick up anything or listen to anything else. so he had to test him.

After entering the dungeon red ordered it to attack a rat and it did, running to it and attacking it with its sword. The attack didn't have much effect but neither did the rats attack, it had nothing to bite but bones. unaffected the skeleton kept slashing at it until it died.

"The damage done by the skeleton isn't much but it's a start for now."

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After 9 more repeats :

'(31 Giant Rat meat / 29 Bones / 14 Lesser Life Stone) Looted'

'Summon Skeleton Level Up'

Summon Skeleton : an apprentice-level Conjuration spell. It summons a Skeleton Soldier that will fight as the caster's ally. (+5% damage dealt) (Level 2 / Active)

'Level Up'

"Status." red ordered. (INT 30 -> 35).

Name : Red Max Hp : 410 / 440 Max Mp : 350 / 350

Level : 7 To next level : 60 / 2000

Class : Unknown Title : RatSlayer

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STR : 6(+5) VIT : 5(+6) AGI : 3(+8) INT : 35 WIS : 6 LUCK : 5

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LP : 0 CASH : 989.37 $

Red sat on the unfinished wall, it looked like they just started building it so it was short and reachable. after looking at the inventory and the items he collected so far...

(Iron Rod / Giant Rat meat*84 / Bones*73 / Lesser Life Stone*45)

He sold the giant rat meat and bones earning 409$..... (CASH : 1398.37 $). thinking about needing another attack skill, Red navigated to the shop and tried to change the level for the skills to see what new ones he'll be getting.

From level 1 -> 9 the skills stayed the same but when he tried the level 10 option new skills popped up, red didn't bother to check them after seeing the lowest price which was 10,000$ he's not even level 10 yet but even when he does reach that level it'll take some time for him to start earning that much. so red only had his sight on the Defensive Posture since it's an absolute defense skill where any type of attack will have zero effect upon striking the caster, a one time use spell but can be cast again with enough mana.

"Enter Dungeon." red yelled. being teleported to the familiar cave room again. He moved forward entering the tunnel and then entered the first room, but it was empty, no monster there, all the rats were gone.

'First room unavailable, please proceed to the second room with caution.'

"What? did i go too far? i though i can keep doing this but i guess whatever this place is, it didn't like what i was doing" said red. he had no choice but to proceed to the second room. he summoned the skeleton soldier and ordered it to walk in first just in case, like the message said... proceed with caution.

The tunnel leading out of the first room was a bit different from the other one. The tunnel slowly changed from dirt to rock blocks, with torches lighting up the way instead of the stones but the torches held no flame, at the end of it a glowing stone was emitting the light, it looked similar to the one red saw at the first tunnel but brighter.

It was silent, only red footsteps can be heard. Red reached a room but instead of being cave like, this place was more square and refined using blocks of rocks to build it. At the end of the room there was only one monster.

"Quest received : Eliminate the Rat King in the second room 0 / 1" The female voice spoke.

Black in color but similar to the Giant rats in the other room with the size of a minibus, it was terrifying. but Red was calm, he wanted to try fighting it, since he could defeat the other giant rats like they were nothing now, he might have a chance.

He ordered the skeleton soldier to attack, it started running in its direction bearing its sword in the air ready to attack. With a simple swipe of its tail, the summoned skeleton soldier was destroyed, bones flew in the air turning into dust, the monster turned to face Red, but he didn't hesitate to summon another. it cost 30MP to summon it so for now he had enough. Too bad he couldn't summon more than one. (MP : 320)

When the monster was going for the same attack with its tail, a Mana Bolt hit it in its face taking out its left eye, which made its tail miss the target and opened a chance for the skeleton to stab it in its neck. The sword was stuck, the monster lifted it's leg and pressed on the Skeleton soldier killing it, with the sword disappearing from its neck, blood came out of it, red quickly summoned another soldier and sent 2 Mana Bolts at the monster. the skill Mana Bolt has gotten a lot stronger with the INT increase, it was as strong as a rocket launcher, one bolt missed but the other hit it in the same spot as the first one, damaging its face further, it lost a one eye from the first bolt but this one made it bleed and worsened the injury. The skeleton soldier couldn't do much damage to it with its attacks, only the stab did something, which is why Red only ordered it to do that. (MP : 263 which became 268 from the regen skill).

The monster started running towards red, but due to the excessive damage to it's sigh and the concussion it couldn't run straight and slammed to the walls left and right. it was hard for red to aim at it now since it moved so much but he remembered the tactic he used for the first room he can use it here. Since the monster is huge it can not enter the tunnel with him, it can barely hold 2 people at the same spot let alone that thing. He hid in the door and kept throwing Mana Bolts at it. The scene was gruesome but Red didn't hesitate one bit.

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'Quest Completed: Eliminate the Rat King in the second room 1 / 1'

'Reward : (1000 $ / 1000 xp)'

'To next level : 1060 / 2000 ...... CASH : (2398.37 $ $)'

'(Rat King meat / 2 Giant Bones / Life Stone) Looted'

'Achievement Unlocked : First Boss Monster!'

"System updated."

'Reward : Alchemy / 40 xp'