After taking a minute break by the room exit, I decide to go further down the hallway. As far away from the sleeping giant cat as possible. While I am a bit nervous if there any more dangerous monsters down the hallway, I can’t imagine any of them being scarier than that sleeping panther boss. And now I at least have a dagger to defend myself.

I continue down the hallway for at least another half an hour which was mostly empty with the exception of a few giant plants here and there, during that time I tried to identify the dagger to see if it did anything or what kind of dagger it was but no no avail. Trying to use things like “Appraisal”, “Identify” and etc obviously did nothing since I had no such skill. The only hint I got what the dagger did was comparing the status screen before and after. The dagger seems to give: +3 STR + 2 AGI +2 INT. Which is a pretty decent boost to my stats if I don’t say so myself considering how worn out this dagger looks.

At the end of the hallway, I come to a room which seems to split into five paths. Using my [Smell Sense] skill, I sniff each hallway to try to see where there is fresh airflow. I was a bit worried on how accurately I’d be able to discern that but luckily it was pretty obvious based on the odors coming from each path. So without hesitation I follow my nose. I travel down the passage for about an hour and a half, and the terrain seems to have changed from catacombs to a large cave. Along the way I met other creatures like large bats and slime like creatures. But strangely enough, none of them have attacked me. Not that I am complaining or anything. Now generally slimes are usually a beginning monster that is easy to level up on. But that is only in game theory. In reality slimes are resistant to physical attacks, other than their nucleus they are pretty much untouchable. And trying to kill a slime by attacking their nucleus with a short dagger is like serving yourself on a platter. Personally, even if I meet a low level monster, unless it is half dead lying there I’d rather not fight it at this point. I have no armor at all and if I get heavily injured while knowing where I am, I am guaranteed to die. This isn’t a game where the protagonist takes heavy injuries after a fight and then walks out and collapses on the road only to be saved by a passing merchant. In reality, thieves will pass by, steal all you have an waste you right there. I mean this is a world of swords and magic which generally means middle ages where life was cheap.

My plan as far as leveling is pretty simple, realistic, and level headed. When I come to town, I will sell this dagger, find a part time job that provides some housing and slowly build up my stats. Since I managed to get +1 MNT from that incident, I imagine other stats can be trained to an extent. Once I raise my stats a bit, I will build traps and kill weak monsters via traps. You might call me playing dirty or being a disgrace of an adventurer or even a scary cat. But I’ll call you a total retard! It isn’t even about shying away from a fight but simply common sense! I am right now Level 1. To get a non-combat profession you need to be level 10. Which means that an adult in this world is at least level 10 if not more. Even if we assume in the most unlikely scenario that a normal Level 1 Catkin starts out with all stats at 1. By gaining 9 Levels their combat stats should be at least: 28 STR : 37 AGI : 28 VIT : 19 DEX which is a total of 119 combat stats. My total combat stats without the dagger is only 52. Effectively, a new Catkin farmer is over 2X stronger than me right now! And if they have same stats as me at Level 1 they would be 3X stronger than me. Sending me to fight in this condition is like sending a newborn baby with a dagger to fight! If you want to go commit suicide playing hero, go on without me, I am fine as I am thank you very much.

Though I really do wonder why the monsters here are so docile. If this was a real dungeon the monsters would be swarming me rather than ignoring me. Maybe this used to be a dungeon in the past but the dungeon died and the monsters just roam free in the ecosystem that existed for a long time? Looking at the worn out dagger, though I am not a specialist I’d estimate it is at least a thousand years old. I also see no indicator of any kind of human traffic. Which makes me wonder where exactly am I? I hope I am not in some place hundreds if not thousands of miles from civilization. That would be pretty devastating.

As I was thinking that, I suddenly come to a dead end in the cave. Worried, I use my [Smell Sense] again and pick up air flowing through a somewhat small hole behind the foliage which I may be able to barely fit in. I decide to take a short half an hour break to recover the best I can and then proceed to climb through the hole.

As I reach the other side, I hear a somewhat loud hissing noise. As I take a glance I see a giant rat staring right at me making hissing noises. This is the first time that anything so far has made an aggressive motion toward me. Maybe it is just being territorial and if I quickly leave it will leave me alone just like all the others.

As I take a step forward, the giant rat quickly jump on top of me and bites me in the left shoulder and I fall to the floor with the giant rat on top of me.

You have taken 35 damage. You are now Bleeding.

“Ouch! That hurt! Let me go! I don’t want to fight!”

Not listening to my helpless please and not willing to let me go no matter how much I try to push it away. I instinctively hold tight on the dagger and stab the giant rat in the neck!

You have dealt 15 damage to the [Giant Rat]!

Despite my feeble attempts and hitting it to the neck, I barely do much damage due to my poor aim and its tough hide, it also does not help how dull this old dagger is either. In a panic I continue to stab at it again and again!

You have dealt 15 damage to the [Giant Rat]!

You have dealt 14 damage to the [Giant Rat]!

You have dealt 18 damage to the [Giant Rat]!

Due to my frantic attacks, the rat seems to have loosened its hold on my shoulder slightly giving me a ray of hope. But to my dismay the rat bit down even harder than ever!

You have taken 82 damage.

In less than a minute, I am almost half way through death door! Why does he hurt so much while I do so little damage?!?! This isn’t fair! I am a freakin’ cat, being done in by a mouse is like the worst death I can think off! Of course during this time I continue to stab at its neck the best I can but at this rate it is pretty clear I don’t stand a chance!

You have dealt 19 damage to the [Giant Rat]!

You have dealt 22 damage to the [Giant Rat]!

I need to come up with a strategy and quick! Looking at the damage it seems that my damage is increasing little by little over time. And I doubt it is because I am doing better with using a dagger as I am stabbing like mad. Not to mention despite stabbing it in the back of the neck it isn’t taking much damage overall due to its thick skin at the back of the neck. Me stabbing it over and over at same spot is weakening its hide defenses, but not quickly enough.

As I was thinking that...the [Giant Rat] sinks its claws into my body.

You have taken 12 damage.

“Argh!”

With that, my HP has officially dropped below half. But it was not done just yet, after sinking is claws it extended it’s left arm and did a sudden slash for my body at high speed right as I stabbed it again in the neck.

You have dealt 25 damage to the [Giant Rat]!

You have taken 96 damage.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

The pain that I felt was astronomical! At this instant I knew that I was going to die again. With less than 10% HP left I was effectively a goner. But even so if I am going to go down then I will take this bastard down with me! I aim my knife and stab it straight in the eye!

“Hssssssss”

[Critical Hit] You have dealt 73 damage to the [Giant Rat]!

For the first time, the giant rat fully let go of my shoulder and fell ton its back to the floor hissing in pain. I did not lose this opportunity and jumped on top of it and continued to stab it on its soft underbelly.

You have dealt 35 damage to the [Giant Rat]!

You have dealt 40 damage to the [Giant Rat]!

You have dealt 32 damage to the [Giant Rat]!

You have dealt 56 damage to the [Giant Rat]!

With that the rat finally stopped moving…

With the battle done I take a look around to see where exactly am I since I got distracted by the giant rat and check to see if there is some place I can rest. But as I turned by head I finally fully took in the surroundings. I was in a small cave system and about a few dozen meters I could see the exit of the cave to the outside. Of course life is never really that simple because between me and the exit there are five hissing [Giant Rats] staring me down in attack position.