Inside of a thin tunnel just past the dungeon entrance, five giant rats come running towards us. The sight freaks me out a little, and I take a step back. I’ve really become a lot weaker since I’ve started genuinely appreciating the fact that this is another world, not a video game. However, despite my recoil, Elli immediately acts and attacks the rats. She quickly slashes at two of the rats and kills them easily. One of the rats jumps at her and bites her in the shoulder. The other two run directly at me. Now isn't the time to be afraid. I need to fight back.

“[Fireball]”

I launch a fireball at the approaching rats, it’s a lot weaker than the last time I used it, but it’s still able to deal significant damage to the rats in front of me. I quickly run forward and finish them off with my dagger. I look over at Elli, and she has quickly managed to finish off the rat that bit her into her shoulder. I can’t help but compliment her.

“Wow, Elli, you’ve really gotten strong!”

“Thanks, it means a lot to hear that from you.”

“Your shoulder got bit. Let me go ahead and heal that up a bit. [Triage]”

The wound quickly scabs over, and while it isn't fully healed, it certainly isn't bleeding any more. [Triage] is a handy skill for keeping the pace in battle. Elli decides to poke some fun at me.

“Wow, you learned some healing magic. You really are a support, huh?”

“You didn't believe me?”

“How could I with how you fought before?”

We continue to walk deeper into the dungeon, experiencing some forks in the path. We are looking to thoroughly explore the dungeon, so we’ll continue down all of them. It’s surprisingly quiet, many rooms look like rat nests, but surprisingly, they are all empty. None of the rooms we enter have any treasure or anything at all. There’s something wrong here. There should be more monsters. I look at Elli, and she seems to have a similar idea.

Finally, we find a passageway leading to the next floor. At the bottom of the passageway is a vast room. Once we get inside, I notice a bunch of shapes moving near the walls. Just then, I realize it, all the rats from the first floor have moved and gathered here on the second floor. If we get into a fight with these rats, we might not be able to survive. What can we do? Run? We might be able to just barely escape, but the rats are going to chase us down, and they can move a whole lot faster than we can. Wait… I think I may have an idea. I whisper to Elli.

“Elli, can you summon that fire dog you summoned before without collapsing?”

“The Flare Wolf? I should be able to manage it now. I’ve gotten quite a bit stronger than before.”

“Start making the magic circle now.”

The rats are slowly closing in on us. There’s maybe 30 or so. This is undoubtedly going to be a brutal fight. Soon the flare wolf comes out of Elli’s magic circle, and now the three of us are surrounded by rats. Alright, time to strike.

“[Fireball]”

I fire a fireball into the crowd of rats. The flare wolf does the same and breaths a few blasts of fire into the rats. Elli immediately charges into the rats, slashing wildly. The rats naturally attack in swarms, and we’re left fighting the rats with a mixture of fire and steel. I continue to blast the rats with as many fireballs as I can possibly muster. Luckily it seems that the rats are quite fearful of fire. Seeing this, the flare wolf moves to protect Elli with its flaming body.

After an intense battle, most of the rats lie dead on the ground. A few of them managed to run off further into the dungeon. We are left mostly okay, but with a dozen or so bites on each of us. As we rest, the flare wolf also dissipates into the air. It seems that Elli can only summon the wolf for around five minutes at her level. I quickly use [Triage] on the bites, and we’re ready to keep going. The large room that we are in is also empty. We’re on the second floor, and there hasn't been a single piece of treasure. I have to say this dungeon is a little disappointing. Nothing is interesting about it at all. I guess it’s interesting how all the rats were grouped up to ambush us, but I still don’t get it.

We take a short rest in the large room as well as slowly gathering up the rat tails. Bringing these back to the guild will get us a pretty decent amount of prestige. Really, I found out that dungeon exploration quests are among the most profitable quest types in terms of prestige and actual rewards. The only thing more profitable is large scale subjugation quests such as defeating a dragon. Large monsters earn a lot of money since they cause a lot of damage to towns. After we finish gathering all the tails, we sit around and talk casually while we rest.

“Wow, Elli, that battle was quite something.”

“Yeah, who would’ve guessed that all of the rats would group up and try to attack all at once! I thought we wouldn’t be able to win, but good thinking with the fire.”

“I figured smaller animals such as rats wouldn’t be well equipped to deal with it. Turns out I was right. Still, this dungeon feels like it’s out to get us.”

“Monsters behaving like this is certainly out of the ordinary, but it’s not completely unheard of. Dungeons, like any other living things, react when they feel threatened. It must have felt that we are, in fact, a danger to it, so it is reacting in kind.”

“I see…”

Perhaps it’s because I’m technically a dungeon master that the dungeon considers us a larger threat than your average adventurer? Or perhaps it knows that I’ve been given abilities by the [God of Order] and told to destroy monsters and dungeons. Either way, it’s probably my fault that it is reacting like this. We decide to continue traveling through the dungeon. There are a few rats here and there but otherwise nothing. As expected of a place called the [Rat Cave], there is nothing but rats here. It’s actually gotten a little boring, well it’s still fun exploring a large underground space. Dungeons truly are fantastic. That being said, my dungeon will be way cooler than this silly [Rat Cave]!

Finally, we reach the third floor's bottom, and ahead of us is the passageway to the fourth floor. I seem to get a feeling of danger ahead. Perhaps it's the boss's room?

“Elli, let’s take a quick break here.”

“huh, why?”

“I’m pretty sure the boss room is ahead.”

“Last, I heard, this dungeon didn't have a boss, are you sure?”

“Yeah, this dungeon is afraid of us. It definitely has something waiting for us ahead. It’s desperate to get rid of us.”

“Alright, I trust your instinct. Let’s take a break.”

We rest just before the passageway. We have some low-grade potions that boost our defense that we quickly gulp down. We double-check our weapons and sharpen them on the spot. Finally, we are ready to strike, and we strengthen our resolve one last time. We walk down the passageway, and at the end are two giant doors with a rat skull engraved into it. Yeah, that is a boss room if I’ve ever seen one.

“Seems you were right.”

“Yeah, good thing we prepared.”

We slowly push open the doors, and inside we see our enemy. In the middle of the room stands a massive rat, the size of two and a half people. This rat is far more massive than a “giant rat,” and truthfully, it is terrifying. The room slowly lights up with torches on the wall. Once we enter the room, the door behind us closes. Uh-oh, we have to get serious here. Luckily since we’re still in the entryway, the rat hasn't begun to attack yet. Elli seems to recognize the boss.

“A Were-rat, we’re definitely outclassed here. That thing is classified as a gold level monster, and it usually takes multiple gold ranks to defeat. It is not a monster that we can beat easily.”

“And yet, we have to beat this thing, we can’t run. Does it have any weak points?”

“Well, like any creature, its eyes are susceptible to damage, and its belly is also soft.”

“Do you think it’d be possible to cut off its tail?”

“That’s a good idea! With a good solid hit, that might throw off the rat since it uses its tail to balance.”

“Can you summon anything?”

“I certainly can't manage a flare wolf this time. To be honest, nothing that I can summon can really do anything to this guy. We’ll have to make it with just what we have. I did gain a new skill today called [Air Blade] that extends my normal slashes, that might be able to do something.”

“Alright, we have to do this somehow.”

“Kazuki, there's something I need to tell you, in case we die.”

“I hope I don't trigger a flag saying this but save it for after the fight. We’ll survive.”

“Alright, I trust you. We’ll survive if you say so.”

“Time to do this!”

We take a few more steps into the boss room, and the massive rat finally notices us. It slowly begins to walk towards us. Right away, I carefully aim my staff towards the eyes of the large rat and cast my spell.

“[Fireball]!”

The rat recoils quickly in pain. I managed to get a solid hit on the eyes of the giant rat. While the rat is blinded, Elli runs as fast as she can towards the rat. She charges directly at the rat’s tail and pulls out her knife.

“[Air Blade]”

Combining the skill with her slash, she manages to dig deep into the rat’s tail. Unfortunately, the tail is not entirely cut through, and the rat quickly spins around, launching her quite a distance away. She hits the ground hard and rolls over—the large rat, after shaking the smoke from the Fireball out of its eyes, charges at Elli.

Damnit! I won't let you hurt Elli. I run at the rat and jump onto its tail, hanging on with all of my strength as I’m dragged across the ground. I pull out my dagger and dig it into the cut that Elli made. I slash and slash and slash. Finally, after chopping away like a lumberjack, the tail comes off, and the rat rolls around in pain. Luckily, I managed to do it just before the rat got to Elli. The rat flails around, desperately trying to calm down.

While the rat continues to regain its strength, I quickly make sure that I use [Triage] to treat Elli’s scrapes. We’re pretty beat up, but so is the rat. Eventually, the rat manages to get back up and immediately goes to attack me. The large rat comes down with its mouth open. It’s going in for a massive bite. In a split-second reaction, I can cast a fireball into its mouth.

“[Fireball]!”

I manage to deal a lot of damage. However, it doesn't stop the rat from biting down hard into my shoulder with its massive fangs. Elli manages to stab it in the neck, causing it to let go of my, I [Triage] myself and try to make some distance. That bite definitely hurt. If it hit me in a vital area, I would be dead instantly. This rat is no joke. Do I dare use overdrive? No, it’s still sealed, and even if it wasn’t, I can’t leave Elli to pick up my near-dead body and pay another three gold to heal me again. Elli is facing off with the massive rat as best as she can. I quickly move to join her. It hurts to move, but it would hurt to die a lot more.

I jump onto the rats back and attempt to climb up it. It’s shaking around, trying to get me off of it, but my grip holds. It stands up, exposing its soft belly, opening it up for a solid attack from Elli. The rat then decides to ignore me and drop on Elli. She abandons her knife and rolls to the side, just barely dodging the rats’ attack.

Meanwhile, I manage to get up to the rat's head and bring my dagger into its eye. It’s difficult, but I manage to get a critical hit in. It causes the rat to shake in pain. We’ve caused a lot of damage to the rat, but it’s still too strong. We have no way of dealing the rat, a fatal blow. All we can hope for is killing it through a ton of tiny wounds.

How can we defeat something that has so much vitality? We have to aim at its vitals, its brain, or its heart. If Elli can create an opening, I might be able to cut into its chest then launch [Fireball] into the cavity to finish it off. It’s gruesome worth a shot.

“Elli, I need you to create an opening to attack its heart. I doubted we’ll be able to keep this fight up for much longer. We have to make this attack count.”

“Alright, I understand. I’ll do what I can to make it raise up.”

Elli immediately does what I did previously and climbs onto it’s back. Elli, you’re a genius! After taking a serious hit from me last time, the rat focuses its full attention on Elli. The rat has wholly lost its focus on me. I quickly get into position.

The rat finally stands up to try to get Elli off and creates an opening for me to attack. With my dagger, I charge forward as fast as I possibly can. Just before I hit, my speed increases and the dagger dives straight into the rat’s chest all the way. The rat, however, still seems to be moving. How tenacious. I quickly reach behind me and slam my staff into the open wound with the dagger and use my finishing move.

“[Fireball], [Fireball], [Fireball]”

The fire burns into the rat’s heart, causing it to become scorched. This causes the rat to fall over to the ground. It makes some last movements, but then it slumps over on the ground. The rat has been defeated.

I feel a little lightheaded but manage to keep myself from passing out. I look around for Elli and get worried when I can’t seem to find her. Then I hear a muffled voice.

“Hey, a little help here?!”

I hear Elli’s cry; it seems that the rat's massive body fell on top of her. I can’t help but laugh a little bit inside. It’s pretty heavy, but I manage to pull her out. She’s not injured, just a little dazed. She lets out an optimistic sigh.

“Wow, we really did it!”

“Heh, and you thought we were going to die.”

“Haha, Nah, we’re way too strong to die.”

“So, what was that thing you wanted to tell me?”

“It can wait until we get to safety. You don't mind waiting, do you?”

“Boo, no fair.”

We have a good laugh and slowly pack up the rat tail onto my backpack. The rat’s tail is much heavier and larger than expected, but I still manage it. We continue through the other side of the boss room. Finally, we reach a room with a treasure, there isn’t much, but there is some stuff. I find three of the skill candies that the guild told me about. I also find a nice new short sword that I decide to take. Finally, I get a nice new robe that Elli says has some good magic resistance. We leave the rest of the treasure and head into the next room. Inside there is a beautiful floating crystal on a pedestal.

“Wow, Kazuki, we conquered this dungeon. This is the dungeon’s core!”

“It’s quite beautiful, but where’s the dungeon master?”

“Dungeon master? What are you talking about?”

Oh, maybe I’m the only dungeon master?

“Oh nothing, so what now? Do we have to destroy the core?”

“We were only told to explore the dungeon, not to destroy it. Dungeons are fairly important to adventuring. You can’t just destroy them without a second thought. You’re only supposed to destroy the core of [Rogue] dungeons or [Creeping] dungeons without permission. but this one isn't in that category.”

“I see, well, this one really gave us some trouble, though. Maybe we should crush it. I mean, it’s only fair, right? Mr. dungeon master of the [Rat Cave]!”

I ready my sword as a bluff. I’m trying to see if I can draw out the dungeon master. If I can’t, oh well, it’s not like I’m actually going to destroy it, and I might as well use this as an opportunity to learn something.