After our first encounter in the sewers, I curiously was more relaxed than before. While the rat I had killed was plainly disgusting, it gave me something to expect, instead of the strange, anticipatory paranoia, vigilant for whatever the developers of Irminsul had cooked up for me. While I wasn’t quite certain that they wouldn’t be evil enough to add some sort of jump-scare, maybe a zombie leaping from the foul water next to Roknar and me, trying to grab me to drag me into it, I was expecting more rats, maybe some sort of predator that hunted them and similar things.

And so, with added confidence after murdering the first filthy rat, we continued on, towards the location Roknar thought was down here. He had alluded to some sort of gateway, something that would allow him to teleport us out of here, but that was it. Sadly, the fact that he was locating whatever he was looking for using his magic meant that, his directions weren’t given from knowledge of the location, like a map would, but by heading, like a compass would. Something like that was great when on open plains or in locations where you could change direction at will, but down here, it was slightly annoying.

The next two rats that attacked us came at us together, crawling from two different pipes at just the same moment. It made Roknar help with fighting, instead of standing back, watching me. It was quite interesting, now that we were out of the arena, he seemed to be more confident and willing to use his magic, I’d have to ask about that, later. The strength-buff he placed on me was quite welcome, allowing me to smack the rats around with ease and he even added a few rock spikes, sharp magical projectiles that knocked them off balance. His participation made what should have been a slightly annoying encounter, thanks to their stacking debuff, into a walk in the park.

After both rats were dispatched, a joyous chime went off in my head, informing me that I finally had murdered enough beings in this world, allowing me to advance to level two. With a smile on my head, I opened the character-window, checking what the level-up gave me and also looking at the attributes in detail. I had seen that there were nine and postponed checking what they did, not that I had a great deal of equipment to increase them, so it hadn’t mattered at all. But now, I had five points to increase them and finding where to place those was important.

The list of attribute was mostly normal and what I expected but it had a few outliers.

Strength, normal enough, added physical damage. What I thought curious was that it not only increased melee damage but all non-magical damage, the factor depending on the method, or rather weapon, used.

Next was agility, also a standard attribute, but instead of increasing ranged-damage it was responsible for movement, increasing the dodge-rate and decreasing the stamina-costs for a few things.

Dexterity, an attribute sometimes used but mostly in place of agility, so a little surprising to see both. It governed hand-eye coordination, increasing the accuracy of attacks, casting-speed and crafting-quality. However the absolute effect on all of those was rather limited, making it an attribute that was useful to everyone but not a priority to anyone, other than crafters.

Intelligence, just as usual, added magic damage and maximum mana, no surprise there. It wasn’t completely wasted for a character like mine but far from a priority.

Intuition, normally they’d call it Wisdom or Willpower or something like that, increased perception and mana-regeneration, allowing you to see stealthed creatures and hidden objects. Similarly to intelligence, not wasted for me, but also not important.

The next was Charisma, which had the main-purpose of increasing buffs given by you, to other people and decreased the chance that you were spotted while in stealth. So, control over your aura or something like that? Interesting. But not for me.

Willpower, which normally did what Intuition did in Irminsul, decreased the effect of crowd-control effects, gave a chance to resist some forms of magic and reduced the chance that your spell-casting was interrupted by damage. I would have to see how important it was, maybe very, maybe not at all, it was dependent on my enemies after all.

Next, endurance, increasing my stamina and it added some physical damage resistance, making it important to me.

And finally, Vitality, increasing my health, quite plain and simple but important for everyone nonetheless.

At a glance, I saw three attributes that were definite winners, Strength, Endurance and Vitality, with three that were interesting, Agility, Dexterity and Willpower. Sure, the other three were useful in their own right but not as good as the others.

With that in mind, I placed two points in strength and one in Endurance, Vitality and Dexterity each. There was no major effect, a few points of Attack, Health and Stamina, but nothing earth-shattering, not that I’d expected that.

Still, I felt bolstered by the success and continued on, keeping an eye out for dangers or hidden opportunities and a few minutes later, I spotted something that might very well be one of those. Looking down a side-tunnel, I noticed something I hadn’t seen down here yet, something that made me curious. Earth, loose dirt, barely visible around a corner, but it was interesting enough to investigate.

“You are going the wrong way.” Roknar told me when I turned, not walking over the small bridge that allowed us to pass over the dark water flowing from the side-tunnel I had turned into.

“I know, but there’s something back there, a cave-in or something similar. I’d like to check it out, maybe I can find something better to wear, compared to, well, nothing.” I explained, gesturing with my sword.

“As long as we don’t take too long. They might have noticed that we are missing and started looking for us already. I’d rather not be found.” he grumbled, but followed after me. I was curious what the limits on non-player followers were, he seemed to be useful and, at least from what I’d gathered, he didn’t reduce the EXP I gained, making him super-useful. Still, I doubted that I would be able to keep him, game-developers wanted players to play with each other, not having a gaggle of NPCs following them around, so followers were often less powerful than players or limited in other ways.

The earth I had seen was pushed out, the stone-wall gone, maybe fallen into the dirty waters below, I certainly wasn’t about to dive in, looking for it. It created a small, maybe a meter high tunnel that led somewhere. When I approached, I heard some scratching noises and, before I could get there and look inside, a furry thing came crawling out making hissing noises at me. Focusing on it told me that it was level five and, while Roknar cursed softly behind me, I was looking forward to fighting the black-furred thing, even if its large claws were quite intimidating.

“That’s a giant mole-rat, watch for the claws.” Roknar spoke up, giving me his strength-buff but not adding any useful information. Given that its claws were easily the size of the dagger I had given him and stood out quite well thanks to the contrast with its black fur, I would have had to be blind to miss them.

And so, activating Fighting Rage, I started to take a few steps, starting to gather speed, while attacking. I would have loved to use both hands on my sword but that would have been a bigger hindrance than it would have helped, the handle was just too short.

With a wide smile, I got into the fight, even giving a guttural war-cry when I got in range, trying to transfer as much of my momentum into my sword when I swung at the mole-rat. I even layered the power-attack on top of my charge-attack, knowing that it was risky but it might be well worth it.

My swing came from the lower right side and, similarly to the dog I had killed before, it was quite powerful, the combination of power-attack, fighting rage and strength of the mountains working to create massive damage and impact. Contrary to my expectations, the mole-rat was not tossed about, it kept its footing despite taking damage. Not that it was a lot of damage, just some.

Off-balance, I was unable to dodge its attack, taking almost forty percent of my maximum health, while my attack had merely taken twenty percent of its maximum health. And that was with all my buffs, the running start and power-attack. Cursing, I jumped back, barely dodging its next attack. For a second, I considered just turning around and running, the mole-rat was higher level than me and right now, I saw the difference but I wasn’t quite ready to run yet.

Waiting for it to attack again, I stepped back, guessing at its range, causing it to miss and allow me to get a quick stab in before having to retreat again. It worked, I took a small chunk of its health, maybe five percent, without taking damage in return.

Hoping that the low-level monster only had one style of attack, I waited for the next attack, dodging it, stabbing and retreating, taking another five percent. After that, the rat waited for me to make a move, while screeching, maybe trying to call in support. If that happend, I would have to run, so, hoping to interrupt whatever it was doing, I attacked again, using power-attack as I had the option. My attack hit, causing the rat to lose ten percent HP and become silent, but it also allowed it to land a glancing blow while I was a little off-balance, taking another ten percent from me. As I recovered, a couple of rock-shards from Roknar flew by, taking another ten percent from it, making me smile.

With only half my HP remaining, I settled in, waiting for it to attack, knowing that patience was the name of the game.

It turned out just like I hoped, the mole-rat attacked, I dodged and got a stab in before retreating again, creating a cycle that allowed me to stay healthy while whittling it down. It didn’t try to screech again, but, after a few of my attacks, my Fighting Rage wore off, my mana depleted. The rat had still fifteen percent remaining, between my attacks and another rock-shard from Roknar, it had taken a beating. Yet, my next attack only took two percent from the rat, causing me to frown.

But, just because I dealt less damage didn’t mean that I would abandon my tactic and after two more rounds and another set of rock-shards from Roknar, finished the rat off, giving me a hundred EXP, making me wonder if it was worth it. Still, it was dead and I had a secret room to explore.