Mature Content Warning: There is a bit of foul language in this chapter.

Author's Note: This will probably be the last chapter for a few days. :) Enjoy

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Chapter 6: Am I Trolling you, Rat Bro?

The soft music of the grassland was a gentle, cheerful tune. The grass swayed in a breeze that carried the scent of wild flowers and freshly watered earth. After the rain had passed, the grass had grown quite a bit.

“Man, the town needs to hire a few goats to come out here and clear a path!” Scott laughed at his little joke then stepped further into the grass. It was only knee-high, but that was already several inches higher than it had been the day before.

He had been wandering through the grassland for hours already. Every so often a rat would pop up and he would easily crush it. Scott had lost track of the number of rats that he had faced. Yet, they kept coming.

The grass rats had become such an easy monster to hunt that he no longer used his spells. He had outgrown them, and he would need to move on soon if he wanted to keep gaining levels at a rapid pace. The amount of experience necessary to reach each new level was twice what it was before. Yet, the grass rats seemed to be giving less experience per rat now.

During the last two days, Scott had religiously hunted the rats. He easily managed to find and defeat over two hundred per day, and he was close to reaching level six. Yet, after he had reached level five the experience from the grass rats had dropped by half.

That fact was why he intended to do something that would be potentially stupid. He would aggravate the rats!

He had traveled a few hours away from town specifically to try his new hunting method. Before doing so, he decided to check his status one more time.

Name: ScottClass: SorcererRace: HumanAge: 18Level: 5EXP: 603Next: 17Ability Points: 14Health: 53[53]Mana: 50[50]Attack: 19[124]Defense: 14[259]Strength: 17[17]Agility: 19[8]Accuracy: 15[15]Intellect: 22[22]Luck: 14[14]

“My agility and health have increased a bit...I should be able to handle this.” Scott took the grass skirt out of his inventory.

He looked at the shoddy piece of equipment then equipped it like an apron since it was too small to be worn as a skirt.

You have ruined your perfect armor set by equipping an incompatible armor item. Bonuses are lost.

Scott winced. His agility dropped by one point, and his defense dropped by twenty-three. Without the perfect armor-set bonus he lost the ten percent increase for wearing compatible armor, and he also lost the agility penalty reduction. Still, it had the desired effect.

Your blasphemy has been noticed...

A few seconds later three grass rats popped out. Scott didn’t give them a chance to dance or leap. He immediately laid into them with powerful strikes. Rats continued to pop up one by one every minute and he killed them without fail.

A few minutes into the battle he increased his level to six and his stats rose accordingly. He ne no longer cared about the loss of defense as he hit the jackpot and increased his agility by the max that he could increase it per level currently, seven points. That increased his defense by twenty-eight points.

Something else surprising happened as well. A new screen popped up.

Your class and stats have aligned to grant you a new function as a Champion of Origin! Your intellect has reached twenty-five. You can now access the bestiary in order to review information about defeated opponents.

“I have a bestiary? Hell yeah, that could be useful!” Scott wanted to check it out, but more rats popped up.

He killed them quickly but he decided to put off checking the new function until after he had gotten done hunting for the day. The rats were distracting.

After about two hours of the constant rat massacre a strange new screen popped up. Scott read it casually while dodging an incoming rodent.

The grass rats have grown angry and frustrated... Their rage increases.

The number of rats increased exponentially after that. Now three of them popped up every minute! Scott was in murder-grind heaven! At this rate he would pay off his debt in only a few days!

He quickly spun to the right and launched a powerful back fist that whipped into a leaping rat with bone-crushing fury. A hard axe-kick shattered the spine of another hapless rodent. He caught one rat in mid-air and snapped its little rat neck without cause for concern. He had become drunk on his blood thirst!

This was amazing. He had never been so ruthless before, but it was like the stupid little rats were just begging him to turn them into money and ability points! Several rats leapt toward him at once and he whirled around with his arms out.

The spinning attack caught two of the rats, killing them instantly. Two more of them bounced harmlessly off of his armor. Two quick heel kicks ended their lives.

Two more rats that popped up saw his actions and attitude. They began to squeak furiously. Scott laughed, crazed battle-lust overtaking him. “What’s wrong rat bros am I trolling you?”

The rats raced toward him, destined to become his experience. Scott had never experienced such a rush, and he continued to laugh like a moronic madman.

However, after a half-hour passed another message popped up.

The grass rats have reached a high-level of agitation. Your blasphemy and casual disregard for their land has caused them to cry out to the gods... in search of justice.

“Justice?” Scott snorted at the screen. The little bastards attacked anything that moved in the area and they wanted to whine about justice? Sure, he was wearing their sacred grass skirt at the moment, but they attacked him first anyway.

Ten grass rats popped up out of nowhere, but they were at a distance too great for Scott to kill them instantly. They did not attack him either. He stared in confusion as the little rats stood up on their hind legs and began to chitter and dance.

Suddenly, the grass rats each uniformly clasped their chest with one paw then thrust the other into the air as though they were beseeching the heavens. They cried out in pain and they all die as one! Scott watched them turn into motes of light, a confused expression on his face.

“What was that all about...?”

Scott blinked. The music suddenly shifted to a high-octane heavy metal sound track that felt both electrifying and dangerous. A large white pentacle appeared in the air and began to rotate. The blood lust began to leave Scott as he realized something was happening. A new message informed him of what was to come.

The Gods of Justice have heard the plea of the grass rats... Their sacrifice was accepted as proof of their great need. They have been granted a champion to serve their cause...

“Shit!” shrieked Scott. The biggest damned rat that he had ever seen had leapt out of the summoning circle. It was the size of a delivery truck! The black-furred monstrosity had bright red eyes, large curling horns, and rodent teeth the size of a short sword.

The battle music changed again, this time it became a deadly and dangerous orchestrated tune with an electric guitar emphasizing the one of the moment.

Gnarl Tooth the Grass Rat Overlord has appeared!

The name of the rat appeared above its head in bright green letters. Scott took an involuntary step back. What the fuck was this?

Gnarl Tooth roared loudly, and six grass rats appeared at its side. The dog-sized rodents raced toward Scott with speed far beyond what the speedy rodents normally showed. He easily defeated them, but it did not matter. More showed up to take their place.

While he tried to get around the rapidly growing hoard of rats he was forced to dodge and weave around them to prevent the possibility of a critical hit. Gnarl Tooth took advantage of the moment and leapt high into the air!

Scott noticed the movement and hurled himself backward then rolled away. He completely ignored the smaller rats to avoid what was coming.

The Grass Rat Overlord easily cleared the hundred foot distance by jumping dozens of feet into the air. It crashed down with incredible force, right atop the spot that Scott had been standing only a second before. A pulse of energy lashed outward in a wave that knocked Scott onto his ass. A bright red number seven floated up from his body.

He had taken damage from the impact wave alone! Had that attack hit, he would have been crippled or killed in a single strike.

Scott was forced to dodge rats for several minutes while Gnarl Tooth jumped and dived toward him. It used its bulk as a weapon and due to its surprising speed Scott rapidly lost health He did not lose as much health each of the times that the rat jumped compared to the first time, he had learned to anticipate its movements better. However, he was close to the halfway point. One miscalculation and he would die.

He had no choice. He would be briefly vulnerable, but he had to try using his magic to clear space. Otherwise he would never get close to the rat. Scott fired off his freeze spell and immediately rolled to the right. Several more roll-and-spell combos passed. His mana rapidly drained, but it provided him the chance that he needed.

Before, he could not get close to Gnarl Tooth because of the sheer number of rodents aiding it. Now he had a path leading directly to the furry overlord. Scott somersaulted over a leaping rat, completed the movement with a forward roll after hitting the ground then immediately struck out at the overly large monster.

A bright red number one floated upward from the creature. Scott had barely damaged it!

The battle stopped. All eyes turned to Scott. The smaller rats stared at him in a mixture of pity and awe. He had dared to do such a thing?

Gnarl Tooth looked at him then tilted its head. Scott looked at it in horror as the rodent opened its mouth and it actually managed a rodent approximation of a feral grin. Faster than Scott could react, its pink tail whipped around with bone-crushing force.

Scott screamed in pain as four more of his hit points floated away. The rat tried to whip him again, but he rolled sideways. He unleashed his favorite spell, Freeze.

A bright red zero floated upward from the monster. The little rats chittered cheerfully in response. Their champion was so cool.

The sorcerer was whipped again, almost casually. Five more hit points floated away. At this point his body was a mass of bruises and he could feel his movements becoming sluggish. He had been battered and beaten with only a few strikes.

Well over half his health was gone, yet he had managed to only hit the big bastard for a single point of damage. What level was this thing?

Desperate Scott, flipped over the whipping tail and launched a different spell in the hopes that it would do damage. The Burn spell impacted hard against the side of the beast and did another point of damage. Obviously, magic was not the answer.

He partially avoided the next tail whip, but he still lost a little life. Gnarl Tooth seemed content to only beat him with its tail. It was like it was completely unconcerned by his actions. Scott had toyed with the rats, and Gnarl Tooth would toy with him.

“God Dammit...!” snarled Scott, before he unleashed a series of furious kicks and punches that slammed against the body of the rat. Each attack did only a single point of damage if they did any damage at all. Gnarl Tooth simply sat there and watched. The tiny little man’s attacks were futile, just as futile as the attacks of its brethren had been when they had faced off against the man.

After a full-minute of aggressive attacks were allowed to pass, Gnarl Tooth whipped Scott once more. The sorcerer’s health fell to critical status and his frustration and panic increased. He could not possible run away, not with his injuries.

What he needed was a critical strike! Yet, he could barely injure the monster’s body. He needed a soft spot, something that did not have this thick rat pelt.

The hideous red eyes of the monster caught his attention. He received another whip of the tail for his efforts but he suddenly knew what he had to do. If it did not work, he would die. There was no doubt of that.

Scott rolled forward when the tail lashed out again. He landed directly in front of that sword-tooth maw and thrust his hand up. “Flash!”

The lightning spell had an extremely short attack range. However, the light it emitted had a chance to paralyze. He had only used it once, on a rabbit. Freeze had always been a better spell for crowd control and its slow effect.

The rat, its eyes sensitive to bright lights, screeched in pain! Its mouth opened wide and for a brief instant it was completely vulnerable. Scott fired off a Burn spell directly down its throat. The explosive power of the spell erupted inside the massive creature and a bright red thirty flashed vividly over the monster’s head. It fell over and kicked feebly at the air for, temporarily stunned due to the forced critical hit that it had experienced.

Scott did not give it a chance to recover. He shot off the rest of his mana via Burn spells that raced down its gullet. The name of the monster changed from bright green, to red. Each strike had been a critical hit! He was damaging it internally and the explosive force in the confined area did tremendous damage.

Out of mana Scott, had no choice but to punch and kick at the monster. Now the little rats had gotten over their shock and they tried to take him down. However, it was too late. Scott repeatedly slammed his steel clawed fists into the stunned rat overlord’s eyes. Various numbers appeared overhead ranging from seven to the occasional forty-three when a critical hit landed.

The repeated critical hits kept the rat overlord stunned at confused for nearly a full-minute. It was just enough time for

Scott to annihilate its absurdly high health. The sorcerer ignored the little rats altogether. If they managed a critical hit, so be it. He could not allow himself to become distracted. He’d done hundreds of points of damage by now, but the damned overlord had not died!

Yet, just as it started to recover from the repeated critical stuns, Scott launched a desperate and brutal series of rapid punches to the face and eyes followed by a kick to its jaw. The hit connected with great force and the jawbone snapped.

A brilliantly flaring number one hundred six appeared overhead along with the word “Overkill!”

A pulse of light flared through the monster and it screamed in agony. The smaller rats screeched in shock and anger then began to flee the scene at all possible speed.

The body of Gnarl Tooth began to undulate. Columns of light speared upward from it and a roaring sound, similar to waves crashing onto a desolate sea shore emanated outward from its feebly kicking form.

Scott panted heavily as he watched the death of the strongest monster he had ever faced. It was the death of a monster that by all rats could have absolutely destroyed him. He wanted to feel joy, elation at defeating a powerful foe. However, he only felt sick to his stomach.

That entire battle had been nothing more than the giant rat toying with him. He remembered how he had treated the grass rats and he felt a wave of nausea. If Gnarl Tooth had taken that fight seriously, it could have easily killed him within a few strikes. Yet, it had played with him... taunted him. The rat overlord had treated him in the same manner as he had treated the rats and it had died for it.

Scott reached up and rubbed his cheek where the grass rat had landed a critical hit on him a few days prior. This battle had ended the same way. Gnarl Tooth was dead because it had thought itself invincible compared to its weak opponent.

The sorcerer took his fingers away from his cheek then curled his hands into fists. He would not do that again. If he was killed it would be because his opponent was simply better, not because he was being an ass.

He watched as the last motes of light left the area. The song changed to an upgraded victory tune, though he did not feel victorious.

Victory!

You have defeated a powerful foe, a creature far more capable than you are. Such creatures always give the most experience possible for their level. Due to the difference in capacity you will gain all possible items from the defeated major opponent.

+275 EXP

+210 Fayth

+44 Ability Points

-- You have defeated numerous lesser opponents during the same battle! --

+126 EXP

+126 Fayth

+42 Ability Points

Item(s) Acquired:

--

Rat Pelt X 37

Rat Fang X 12

Rat Tail X 39

Rat Eyes X 14

Grass Skirt of the Aggro-Rat X 5 [Rare]

--

Gnarl Tooth’s Fang X 1 [Unique]

Massive Black Grass Rat Pelt X 1 [Rare]

Massive Black Grass Rat Tail X 1 [Rare]

Black Grass Rat Eye X 1

You have gained a level!

The exhausted sorcerer panted softly and pulled out a few things from his inventory. He nibbled on a cheese biscuit and drank a bottle of milk. Both items would increase his health regeneration several fold. However, they were not health potions. It would still take time. He was effectively done hunting for the day.

Scott looked around. He noticed that whenever he allowed his vision to linger on a specific grass for more than a few seconds, it would tremble and then a loud squeak would be heard. After a minute passed a new message popped up.

You can feel the eyes of the local wildlife gazing upon you. The creatures of this land tremble due to a mixture of anger and fear while they wait silently for what is to come. Their one hope is that the shadow of death will pass them by...

“Seriously?” Scott did not know what to say about that. Was he supposed to feel triumphant? Honestly, the message made him feel like a terrifying asshole. He reached down and removed the grass skirt.

Immediately, the tense atmosphere disappeared. The grass nearby ceased it’s shaking. Without his blasphemous actions to infuriate them, the rats were too afraid to attack him any longer.

He decided to check his stats. Somehow, he doubted that he was in much danger from the grass rats any longer.

Name: ScottClass: SorcererRace: HumanAge: 18Level: 7EXP: 1274Next: 1266Ability Points: 640Health: 11[65]Mana: 5[61]Attack: 30[173]Defense: 25[301]Strength: 29[29]Agility: 31[20]Accuracy: 22[22]Intellect: 35[35]Luck: 16[16]

“Six hundred forty ability points and two levels? Yeah, definitely a good day hunting.” Since his level had increased, he had automatically regained the health and mana that the level increase brought. He was still in the critical health range, but at least it was double digits.

He decided to go ahead and boost his health according to his original plan. As many ability points as possible would go to health. The fact that it would restore some of that health for the trip back to town was also a major reason for his decision. He had more health now, even in a critical state, than he did at level one overall. Yet, he felt vulnerable.

Scott pulled up his upgrade screen and looked at his health. He had already chosen the plus-one modifier per level. He could not choose it again. He had taken two health boosts at five points each. He took another five boosts, which cost him four hundred seventy-five points total. That left him five points short of another health boost.

“The next boost is one seventy, and the one after it is two hundred... It almost feels like a waste to just gain another five points to raise health.” He wanted to continue to train his health, but the truth was that his other stats needed attention too. Specifically, he needed to take the plus-one modifiers for his other stats.

Scott quickly spent one hundred sixty points to add in modifiers for his intellect, mana, strength, and accuracy. That meant that only attack and defense remained without a plus-one modifier among the stats that he could influence. Luck could not be improved at all at the moment; he did not have an upgrade for it. Attack and defense upgrades were the least necessary of all his upgrades currently. Over time they would add up, but an extra point of strength equaled four attack points. That was a better upgrade than a plus-one modifier for attack only.

“So, I’ve almost gotten my stats in order.” He would have to hunt some other creature now, so quick ability points would be a problem. Still, he had accomplished his immediate goal. Ninety hit points was a much better position than the ten hit points that he had at level one!

Scott noticed something and smirked. “My intellect modifier... That’s neat.”

His ability upgrade manipulations had added two points to his intellect modifier. The sorcery upgrade had added a point, and the recently upgraded extra modifier had increased it again. His class gave him a plus-two modifier to intellect automatically. That meant that his minimum level-up potential for intellect was four points. The least amount of intellect he would gain was equal to the maximum that a non-mage or lore class could gain.

At this point, several of his stats were close to that milestone. His rat grinding and recent boss battle win had given him ability points beyond his level. It was nothing that someone who spent a lot of time hunting could not achieve, yet it was definitely hard work.

The sorcerer sighed and decided to head back. He was not too worried about immediate death now that his health was back in the thirties. It took him two hours to make it back to town. Along the way, he decided that he should save his development points to add modifiers to his attack and defense next. That would allow him two more decent passive bonuses.

His problem was that he did not know where to hunt. Slimes might be useful, but if they were around the same level as rabbits, they may not want to come out and play. The rats had still attacked until he had fought and defeated their champion. It was possible that slimes would still want to attack him. The only issue was whether or not they would give any experience.

Scott rubbed his chin. There was still so much to do. He needed to acquire the skills of that lore ring. He needed to make a lot of money in a hurry. He also needed to get his armor looked at. While walking he had discovered several cracks and dents in the material. Gnarl Tooth definitely hit hard.

The sorcerer walked through the town gates and sighed loudly. He had survived an incredible encounter. He felt like garbage due to how he had acted today, but now that it was over he started to also feel a sense of pride. He had managed to survive an extremely tense situation!

A short few minutes passed before he managed to reach the general store. He spent some time speaking with the shop keeper before selling off everything except for the rare and unique items that he had gained from Gnarl tooth. They were worth several thousand Fayth, but he might be able to find some use for them in the near future. Scott checked his finances after he left the store.

Fayth: 3376

“Not bad.” The rat items were not worth much, but he had defeated nearly one thousand of them in the last few days. If he could have battled like that every day he would have been able to pay off his debt in less than two months!

He sighed. His armor needed to be fixed, though. He had no idea how much that would cost. Scott went to see the armorer to find out. Unlike Erido, the armorer in Victory Station merely customized and repaired equipment. Daine, the armorer, was a short stocky man. He was skilled at his trade, but typically brusque in his mannerisms.

Scott walked into Daine’s store and the man raised a bushy eyebrow at his appearance. Before the sorcerer could even speak, the armorer snorted and said, “You should treat your armor better, lad.”

Scott fought down his rising urge to snap at the man. “I know. It saved my life today.”

“Did it now?”

The sorcerer pulled out Gnarl tooth’s fang and showed it to the man. “The grass rats called for aid and their overlord Gnarl Tooth popped up.”

Daine’s eyes widened. “You fought an overlord in equipment like that?”

Scott looked at him owlishly. “Well, yeah. What’s wrong with this equipment?”

“Nothing really, it’s alright for fighting rats and rabbits. You’ll want decent equipment for anything stronger.”

“Well, I’m a sorcerer... I have to keep it light.”

Daine spit into a bucket nearby and nodded. “True, it’s actually rare to see your ilk having enough sense to even wear armor. Half of ‘em run around talking about how they didn’t need it. Supposedly they are their own armor or some shite like that.”

“Yeah, I like armor. It keeps my insides, inside.” replied Scott.

The short man smirked. “That it does, lad. Still, don’t pay attention to that shite about agility penalties being a problem.”

Scott stared at him in confusion. “Yeah, but every point of agility I lose costs me four points of defense...”

Daine snorted at him loudly. “Lad, do yourself a favor and think for a moment. Armor has more going for it than just raw defense points!”

“Well, I can’t really afford anything with options...”

“Options are good, but I’m talking about other things. Armor can intimidate enemies, or defend against critical attacks! Have you had withstand any of those yet?”

Scott nodded at the man. “I’ve taken a few... all when a rat or rabbit managed to tag my exposed bits.”

The stocky armorer shook his head. “Exactly, lad. Armor blocks that shite! Which do you want more, the ability to bounce around like one of those fancy dancing fools, or to survive?”

“Well, critical attacks are how I won that fight today...So, you have a point.”

Daine acknowledge Scott’s response and went on to say. “Armor doesn’t feel pain, lad. Your flesh does. Critical attacks overload the nervous system and stun ya. Don’t skimp on armor because you’re afraid of a damnable agility penalty! Just train your bleedin’ agility more!”

“Is this armor really so bad?”

Daine spit again then shook his head. “No, not bad. Expensive to repair compared to metal or leather, but not bad.”

Scott felt his anal sphincter begin to clench. Money matters had that effect on him. “How expensive?”

“Just lookin' at ye, I’d say you’re gonna have to cough up at least twenty-four hunnid Fayth, reinforced ironwood armor can’t just be patched or welded back in place. You have to reinvigorate it and make it grow back. It costs me money to do it, because I ain’t no magical fancy lad such as you.”

“Twenty-four hundred?” Scott’s anus clenched so tight that he might never have a bowel movement again. The sheer expense of such a thing! He could buy new armor for that! He could live in the poshest inn in town for three days for that amount of money. That sort of luxury included scantily clad women bathing him and everything! Not that he cared for such services...

“Aye, lad. Do yourself a favor. Just go ahead and get yourself a set of full body iron. The penalty is higher than you might like, but the defense makes up for it in the end. That stupid penalty isn’t that much higher than what you have right now!”

“Wouldn’t the penalty be like, two or three times higher?”

“Aye, I’m thinking that it’d be round thirty or forty points.”

“I don’t even have that much agility!”

“Ye don’t?” Daine blinked. He stared at Scott crookedly for a moment then asked him if he’d be willing to admit his level. It was rude, but Daine was not exactly one for social convention.

“After the fight with Gnarl tooth, I made it to level seven.”

“Seven! Lad, how many times have you reincarnated? How many people were in yer group? That’s incredible!” Daine’s eyes widened in both shock and delight. He had never heard such a thing.

“Uh, I’ve never reincarnated... and I don’t have a group.”

Daine’s awe turned to outright disbelief upon hearing that. “Lad, I don’t take kindly to liars.”

“Who’s lying? I nearly died. If I hadn’t stunned him with a flash spell then fired off a few explosive blasts down his gullet, he’d be gnawing on my bones right now.”

“Down his gullet? Lad, would you tell me how the fight went down.” Daine was suddenly interested again. He was not a magical fancy lad, but he certainly enjoyed hearing about a good fight.

Scott regaled the not-quite dwarf with his tale of being whipped all to hell. Daine stopped him now and then to ask questions. Whenever Scott mentioned his withstanding attacks, Daine would look his armor over and nod.

“Well, lad. It’s a fantastic tale, something out of a book to be honest. Still, it seems you are tellin’ it true.” Daine scratched his scraggly chin for a moment.

“Most adventurers that come into this shop seem to want to treat me like I was their servant. Yet, there ain’t a one of ‘em that could tell me a tale true like that one. Tell you what, since you’re just getting started and you seem to have some sense about ya, I’ll do the repairs for two thousand. I’ll even customize your gauntlets with that fang you found, fair nuff?”

“I’d appreciate it! Thank you.”

“Bah, no need to go thankin’ me for takin’ ya money. Besides, I could use the experience from the commission. Unique items used for materials will give me a lot of experience points.”

“Is that how it works?”

“Aye, you people who run round killin’ things and raiding tombs do it your way. We artistic types does it our own way.”

Daine stuck his nose up into the air while referring to himself as artistic.

Scott laughed at the man’s antics then shook his head. He was the first person who he had really spoken with at length besides the general store owner and the friendly guard sergeant. Erido didn’t really count, since that had been all business.

He handed his claws and the fang over to Daine then took off his armor so that the man could repair it for him.

“Repairing ironwood takes a while lad. I can start the process but it has to finish on its own.”

“How long will it take?” asked Scott.

“Hmm, this level of damage... I’d say it’ll be done maybe in the morning. There are a few dings and cracks, but they are surface things for the most part.”

“That’s good. I was afraid it would take weeks. I can’t afford not to hunt that long.”

“Why’s that lad?” asked Daine.

Scott bit his lip for a moment then confided to Daine regarding the fact that he was in need to money to repay a debt.

The bushy-eyebrowed man frowned. “That damned loan shark Erido is at it again, huh?”

“Loan shark?”

Daine sighed. “Yes, it’s legal of course. Still, those loans of his are designed to keep you on the hook for years.”

“Yeah, I figured that. I just didn’t know what else to do unless I wanted to hunt rabbits and rats for a few years.”

“True, the adventurin’ gets in your blood and you got to go. Till I settled down as an armorer, I did a bit of it. That’s why I don’t take kindly to random wet-eared snots talking down to me.”

Scott could understand that. There were probably a lot of people who went adventuring when they were young, just to reach level one hundred. Afterward they would settle down and when they were old and ready to start over they would reincarnate and try to do it all over again. There were probably a large number of level one hundred shopkeepers in the world.

“I’ll fix your claws right up lad.” Daine went to work on Scott’s equipment.

The sorcerer watched as the armorer placed the items side by side and inspected them. After a few minutes passed, he went to a chest in the corner of the room and pulled out a few random looking items.

Daine etched a symbol on the gauntlets then carved it onto the fang, before he loudly proclaimed, “Custom Upgrade!”

Scott expected some fantastic lightshow to occur. Instead, a window opened in front of Daine and the man looked it over. Scott could not see what was on it, but the man nodded his head a few times then made a few selections.

The gauntlets and the fang began to glow. The expected lightshow occurred not long after. The gauntlets and fang turned into balls of light that merged together. The light roiled around for a moment before elongating and forming into bone-white gauntlets with a single blade on each piece.

“Ah, good news, lad! It was a critical success!”

“Oh? What happened?” asked Scott.

Daine offered the gauntlets back to Scott. “Check for yerself.”

Scott equipped the gauntlets then looked at the information screen.

Fangs of the Rat Overlord [Unique]

These gauntlets were the creation of master armorer Daine, of Victory Station. Using the unique item of a powerful named monster, and common steel claws, a unique weapon was crafted.

Attack: 40

Defense: 30

Value: 12479

Special: Deep-Puncture - High potential to cause a bleeding status effect.

Additional Bonus:

Improved Critical hit % 0.1

+ 10 Agility

“Holy shit!” exclaimed Scott. Additional agility was great. That would virtually eliminate his agility penalty for wearing the armor! However, it was the high probability to inflict a damage-over-time status effect on top of increasing damage by thirteen points that he truly liked.

Daine laughed. “It’s a good weapon for ya, for now lad. Claws and the like don’t have a very high attack rating, but at least they have good defense. That special function should do you right till you find better.”

“Man, this thing is worth about half my armor-set combined.” Scott shook his head. That was amazing to the man.

Daine snorted. “It’s worth more than that considering the increased durability.”

“Durability? I can’t see that stat.” Scott had honestly wondered why he could not see such things about his equipment.

“Aye, no doubt of that. You’re no armorer and probably don’t even have any survival skills.” Daine spit into a bucket then sighed.

“Well, no.”

“I suggest you learn some soon, lad. Crystals are expensive, but there are so many things in the survival skill-set that are vital to surviving as an adventurer.”

Scott definitely wanted to use his lore ring, but after checking the amount of experience necessary to learn it, he had cringed. Enemies did not give him enough experience yet to warrant the time it would take to learn it! He hoped to rectify that soon.

“I appreciate the help, sir.”

“I ain’t no sir, lad. Name’s Daine. You know that.”

Scott smiled at him. Yes, he knew that name and would remember it. “Well, let me pay you for your work. I wouldn’t want to bother you all night.”

Bushy eyebrows waggled a little and Daine held out his hand. Scott pulled two thousand Fayth from his inventory and handed them over. They looked like little coins with rabbits and rats engraved on them.

Daine looked them over and smirked. “Lad, you’ll definitely want to start hunting better paying monsters if you owe ole’ Erido money.”

“Any suggestions?” asked Scott.

The armorer rubbed his chin and took on a thoughtful expression. “Well, yer a fancy magic lad. I say head to the slime forest for a while. They drop interesting things and give a bit more Fayth and experience than rats.”

“Good to know. The rats started to get stingy with the experience points.”

A barking laughed signaled the return of Daine’s mirth and good humor. “Aye, they all do. Stick with the slimes for another few levels, then consider heading toward Askrida. I hear they are having trouble with a different kind of rat.”

“A different kind of rat?” asked Scott.

“Yeah, a bunch of bastards called corpse rats. Jes a bunch of low-level trash monsters, no offense.”

“Gee, why would that offend me?” asked Scott sarcastically.

Daine snickered at the low-level sorcerer then waived him off. “Git. I got work to do, lad.”

After Scott left the armorer’s shop he received a few updates to his map and a quest lead. Quest leads were not actual quests, but reminders that something has been said that might lead to a quest. He actually had five such leads at present. None of them were for the local area, though.

Scott’s stomach growled fiercely. “Guess I should go eat and rest for the day.”

The sorcerer wandered off toward Neerdles. He would pay for his shower and dinner then head to bed. Tomorrow promised to be the start of a brand new adventure, and he wanted to be ready for it.