16 : Venom Rats – 1


“Login”
Yes, it was the 2nd day since CNP’s service started.
Holidays were a good thing and so I immediately logged in after finishing some morning miscellaneous tasks.

“Today’s objective would be searching for another level in the Tower of Mice, I guess. I took a look at the bulletin board, but there was little to no information on dungeons, so I’ll have to think for myself.”
Since it was the 2nd day, I snuck a peek at the official bulletin board.
However, the only information that I didn’t really know was the fact that you couldn’t enter the town if your abnormalities was too high.
Yeah, even if I knew about it now, it held no real meaning.
After all, the current me wouldn’t be able to exit this dungeon anytime soon.

“Fur bag ready, potion kettle ready, tooth knife ready, fur clothes ready. Well then, let’s proceed.”
I left the safety area and by way of the right office, I stepped into the sector between the left and right offices with the multiple small rooms.
Nearly all of the doors to the rooms were damaged and the inside only had rubble or ruined desks scattered about.
Seemed like there wasn’t much to see.

“Jyuaaa!”
“Whoops”
Within this small room, a Poisonous Bite Rat pounces towards me, baring its front teeth. I quickly jumped, avoiding the attack.
Then, I landed on its back and while I was straddling it, I used the tooth knife in my hand to slit its throat.

“Jyuaa!?”
“Yep, the end.”
With just that, the Poisonous Bite Rat’s HP is drastically reduced due to the poison and blood loss, ending its life.
The body disintegrates and only the front tooth of the Poisonous Bite Rat is left over.
The consumption from the Poisonous Bite Rat’s Tooth Knife was a mere 5 HP, an amount that could be simply recovered if I just relaxed for a bit.

“Yeah, I’m getting used to this.”
A single Poisonous Bite Rat couldn’t be considered a threat anymore.
It was probably okay to say so at this point.

“Okay, my HP has recovered too.”
Speaking of, HP was automatically recovered upon entering the safety area due to the aura effect of the bowl of restorative water.
Outside of the safety area, it seemed like natural recovery relied on your mental state.
Thus, depending on the mindset of the player, if you stayed composed even in battle, it might’ve been possible to recover other player’s relaxation state as well but…… I’d think it’d be impossible for me if it wasn’t a subordinate or someone I was familiar with.

“Hm?”
I felt like there was one pile of rubble that seemed out of place within this small room.
It was a stack of debris that appeared to have created a slope. Moreover, part of the ceiling was missing as if it had naturally became a way of traversing to the upper floor.
This was…… A pattern that was similar to the entrance of the Tower of Mice.

“This was basically the second level wasn’t it.”
In order to stay safe even if there happened to be an abrupt drop in curse concentration, I lowered my posture as far as I could and if I started to feel unwell, I’d simply turn back towards the slope and naturally tumble my way down. Nevertheless, I began to climb up the slope.

“Fumu……”
When I started to be able to see the floor of the second layer, I held my left hand over above my head and used the eye attached to the back of it to begin surveying the vicinity.

“There’s hardly any walls in here.”
The Tower of Mice’s second layer had battered pillars with exposed rebar and concrete, uneven flooring, a perforated ceiling, and the exterior wall had a large hole opened in it. The furnishings from the small rooms and offices on the first layer as well as the walls that divided those rooms were practically not found here.
It appears that the rats’ carnage had progressed greatly.

“10 Poisonous Bite Rats at the very least.”
There had to have been no less than 10 Poisonous Bite Rats prowling the 2nd layer.
Dealing with them alone would’ve been no problem at all, but I’d prefer to avoid fighting 2 or more at a time.
Well, it’s not as if Poisonous Bite Rats in the 1st layer showed any signs of cooperation anyways. Maybe it’ll be okay if I walked along the areas where their alert radiuses don’t overlap.

“Stairs in 2 spots.”
There were 2 ascending staircases on each side of the 2nd layer, most likely leading to the next.
They were proper stairs as well, unlike the one I was currently on.

“Let’s deal with them one at a time, then kill the last one with just poison. I wonder if that was an alright way to go about it.”
I added the steps to my 2nd layer capture strategy and searched around for the closest Poisonous Bite Rat.
Then, I decided on who I wanted to aim for. Once my opponent turned its back towards me, I leapt off the stairs with that timing.

“First was……”
Using my levitation and insect wings, I launched off the ground with minimal power so that my movements produce nearly no sound.
From what I could see, the Poisonous Bite Rat with its back turned had not noticed me yet.
Then, it happened when my hand was about to come in contact with the Poisonous Bite Rat’s back.
The eyes on my wings perceived a presence behind me. To the rear, there was another Poisonous Bite Rat facing me with its large mouth open.

“Jyuaa!”
“!?”
A deep-green liquid gushed out from the mouth of the Poisonous Bite Rat behind me.
I was completely in a attacking stance so there wasn’t any leeway for me to dodge, thus I was hit directly in my back.
The damage reduces around 20% of my HP bar.
At the same time, a Poison (10) display appears.
And the other problem besides that was……

“Agu!?”
“Jyu!?”
I was blown away by the liquid, falling down and rolling right in front of the Poisonous Bite Rat that I was attempting to attack earlier.
The confusion and pain from the unforeseen attack I received caused my next action to be delayed.
If such a person entered enemy territory in that state, it would definitely spell the end for them.

“Jyuaa!”
“I messed up-……”
The Poisonous Bite Rat that I was going to attack, grabs my head with both of its hands.
It opens its mouth wide open and the depths of its throat approaches closer.
The front teeth of the Poisonous Bite Rat pulverizes my head, and I die.

“Alright, so that’s the 4th death……”
When I regained my consciousness, I was staring up at the ceiling of the safety area.

“Haa…… Aah yep, this was clear carelessness on my part. Rather, if you’re moving up to the next level, it should’ve been obvious that there would’ve been a point where things started to switch up. I probably should’ve been a bit more cautious……”
The feeling of being shot in the back, the sense of being inhumanly grabbed by the head and having said head crunched down on. Of course, those sensations were all gone.
Because of that, I immediately decided to have a post-mortem meeting.
Well, even if I say its a post-mortem meeting, I already knew what I needed to reflect on.
In the next level, it’s supposed to be common game sense that the enemies would become stronger, yet I simply rushed in without probing around for information.

“A rat that can spit out poison huh…… Now, I wonder what should I do about this.”
At a glance, its appearance looks almost identical to the Poisonous Bite Rats.
However, the range of its attention was broader and the speed of its attacks were faster. I couldn’t help but brood over the sudden arrival of a formidable enemy.

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