Chris made his way to his new home at Arnveld. Madam Rubymane wasn’t lying when she said it was a few miles outside the city, and he was thankful he had stopped before leaving and bought some travel bread, cheese, and a waterskin from one of the vendors. He was pretty sure he had been overcharged for the value of the items, but he didn’t waste any more time haggling the vendor down. He traveled for almost an hour before he noticed a worn wooden sign marked “Arnveld” which pointed down a path off the main road. He turned and headed down the path and almost a half hour later, as the sun began to sink behind the mountains, he finally made it to the manor house. It happened to be in the corner of the property furthest from the main road.

He approached the manor house cautiously, as a quest almost always meant some sort of enemy lying in wait, but all was quiet. The house was definitely more than a bit run down. Glass panes in the windows had been shattered, some of the stone sculpture and detail work had crumbled or been worn down. The front door hug a bit ajar, almost as if someone had given it a few good kicks and broken a couple of the hinges and then hastily abandoned their attempts to get in.

Chris tried the door and was surprised to hear a click as it unlocked at his touch, although he supposed it had something to do with him holding the title to the property. He pushed the door open, applying pressure to try to keep the hinges somewhat straight and keep them from squealing. Stepping forward into the entryway, he could hardly see anything for several seconds. After several seconds, his eyes adjusted, and he could see almost as well as if it were daylight. His notification icon blinked, but he didn’t click on it as he recalled that dwarves had an innate skill called Night Vision which must be affecting his sight.

He looked around, noting the disarray and mess around him. Furniture lay toppled, various household items lay broken on the floor, and he couldn’t help but notice the odor. The strong, musky odor almost made him gag, but he pressed on.He stepped into several different rooms, making mental notes of things that would need to be done as well as items that would need to be replaced.

As he rounded the corner, something furry flew at his face, not even giving him the time to react. He felt a claw as it tore into his cheek before he quickly swatted the creature away, but not before the damage had been done. His health bar dropped just a bit, and a new status icon appeared below it. He quickly glanced at it and saw that it noted that he was now bleeding and his health would drop by 1 point every 3 seconds for the next minute. He drew his seax and equipped his buckler and was finally able to focus on what had attacked him.

Before him sat one of the largest rats Chris had ever seen. It bared its teeth and hissed and him, and Chris quickly held his buckler in front of him. A solid force thumped into the shield, and he swung out blindly with the seax. He felt as his clumsy swing managed to actually find purchase, and jumped back a bit before surveying the damage. The rat was bleeding, but still seemed mobile, and Chris stepped back, readying himself for the next blow.

His preparation was not in vain, and again the rat smacked up against his shield. This time, however, Chris swung out with his shield, attempting a Shield Strike. It connected, and he saw his stamina bar drop significantly. The rat fell to the floor, stunned, and he quickly stabbed it once more with his seax. This apparently was enough to deplete the rat’s health bar, and after a couple seconds it disappeared in a flash of blue light leaving behind a small pile of ash. Chris picked up the few copper coins in the remains and continued down the hall. The bleeding effect had faded and he could see that his health was slowly replenishing - probably thanks to the food he had eaten earlier.

He hadn’t gone far before he was accosted once more, this time by two of the mangy house rats. Out of curiosity, he attempted his Identify skill on the creatures and was rewarded with some information about them, including a semi-transparent overlay of their health bar. They didn’t seem to be overly bright and appeared to follow an attack pattern similar to the first rat. Using a combination of Shield Strikes and attacks, Chris defeated them, picking up a few more copper.

He systematically cleaned out the first and second floor of the vermin before making his way to the final section of the house. He had saved the basement for last, since he had always hated dark places, and he was sure that it was where the main nest was located. The rats he had exterminated thus far had netted him almost enough experience to reach level two, he just needed a little more to get over the hump.

His opportunity came as he opened the door to the basement. Another rat lunged at his face, but this time Chris had his buckler up and ready and the creature fell back, stunned. A few sword strikes later, the rat was dead, and his notification icon blinked steadily. He accessed it and read through the pop-ups before dismissing them.

Level Up!

Congratulations, you have reached Level 2! You now have 10 stat points to distribute.

New Skill: Analyze

With this skill, you are able to view pertinent information about enemies. The higher your proficiency, the more information that is revealed.

Current Progress: Novice (5%)

New Skill: Bladework

Well, you still look like a toddler swinging a pool noodle, but you at least have managed to hit your target some of the time. Levels in Swordplay increase your accuracy, as well as increasing the chance for you to deal critical blows.

Current Progress: Novice (15%)

Chris opened up his stat sheet and added two points in Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. However, when he tried to add points to Intelligence and Wisdom, he received a notification that those stats could only be raised through gaining knowledge and study. So, he instead chose to add two more points to Strength and two to Endurance. He wasn’t quite sure what kind of character he was building, but he knew the additional Strength points wouldn’t hurt.

Having dismissed all of his notifications, he attempted to stealthily make his way further into the basement. Thankfully, his Night Vision made it appear much brighter than it actually was, and he quickly saw the large hole in the wall where the rats had burrowed their way into the manse. As he surveyed the rest of the room, he quickly noticed that he had a problem. Not only were there several more rats, but a much larger version lay restlessly sleeping in a nest in the opposite corner. He used his new skill, Analyze, and was rewarded with the information that it was a Rat Queen, and the rats milling around nearby were all Guardian Rats. They looked to be a bit tougher and had more HP than the rats he had fought thus far.

He took a moment, trying to figure out what to do. He was pretty sure that he would not be able to take on the Queen as well as her three Guardians. There had to be some way to thin them out before taking on the Queen. He inched his way backwards, almost tripping over a small stone that was behind him. At the sound, all three of the Guardians turned their heads in his direction and began sniffing inquisitively. He paused, waiting for them to lose interest, before stooping to quietly pick up the stone. Making his way slowly up to the top of the stairs, he turned and chucked the rock back down into the darkness.

Several squeaking noises emanated from the basement, and Chris took a couple steps further back into the room. Seconds later, two of the Guardians burst from the staircase, teeth bared and hissing furiously. Chris, however stood ready for them. Unfortunately, these weren’t the mindless drones he had faced throughout the rest of the house. As one leapt for his face, he knocked it down with a quick Shield Strike. The other rat, though, had gone low and had latched onto his leg, biting deep into the flesh of his thigh. Christ quickly swung down with his sword, knocking the rat loose, but not before he had taken several HP of damage and gained a new status icon.

A sickly yellow-green skull flashed below his HP bar and he glanced at it, confirming his fear. The bite of the Guardian rats carried disease, which was very similar to poison. Instead of knocking off HP like the effect of bleeding, the disease affect steadily dropped points off his stamina bar. As he watched, the bar began dropping, and it had already been a little low due to his Shield Strike.

“I’m going to have to finish this quickly,” he thought to himself. He dodged the rat that had bit him and took advantage of the dazed status of the second rat, striking it several times in quick succession and doing a good bit of damage. The second rat was not dead, but when it recovered from the dazed status it had a limp and had a bleeding indicator beneath its health bar. It hung back a little bit, trying to gain some breathing room as the first rat came back in for round two.

Chris turned to face the first rat, raising his shield. As it jumped for his face, he quickly struck out with his seax and saw the creature’s health bar drop drastically. His Bladework skill had kicked in and he had managed to score a critical hit. The rat paused, stunned at the blow, and he took the momentary pause to back several steps away. Both rats had now sustained a good bit of damage, and a few more carefully times strikes and blocks finally put an end to the battle.

As he sat back, recovering and waiting for the diseased debuff to fade, Chris was definitely glad that he had not decided to try to take on all three Guardians and the Queen at one time. While he knew he couldn’t die permanently in the game, he didn’t really want to experience death this soon into his adventure and the possible consequences such a death would bring. He took out a bit more food and water from his bag and ate quickly, restoring a bit more health, then rose and headed once more into the basement.

———————

The Queen Rat knew something was off. She wasn’t quite sure what was happening, but she knew that something had woken her from her sleep and the two of her guards that had gone to investigate had not returned. Her one remaining Guardian kept close to her side, its nose twitching as it tried to figure out what was going on. The Queen chittered out an order and the remaining guard headed towards the stairs, but before he could get all the way there the source of the noises was revealed. Both the Guardian and the Queen barked in rage as the intruder to their home made his presence known...

———————

Chris had just made it down the stairs as the last Guardian made its way in his direction. He heard as they barked in anger, and then paused for a moment as he saw the final Rat Guardian seemingly grow in size as it ran towards him. He guessed that the Queen must somehow be buffing the Guardian, and he was now definitely glad he was not facing three of them in her proximity. Having fought multiple rats, he was ready when the rat leapt, and instead of standing his ground he dropped down, slashing at its underbelly. It squealed in pain, but still managed to get in a quick nip at Chris’ hand before backing away.

Rather than backing away, Chris took the opportunity and forged ahead, slashing at the Guardian and scoring several hits. The damage, however, was much less than in previous battles - most likely due to whatever buff the Queen had managed to place on her champion. During a lull in the fighting, Chris managed to sneak a quick look back to where the Rat Queen had been nesting, and just caught a glimpse of her look of hatred as she hastily turned and made her way back into the tunnel leading outside the manor.

The momentary lapse in his concentration was all the Guardian needed, and once more it was on the attack. It scored another bite attack on Chris’ sword arm before being bashed with a Shield Strike, leaving it stunned. Chris swiped and stabbed at it several more times, and then - in a burst of inspiration - stabbed forward, putting all the weight and force of his body behind the blow. As his seax struck the rat, the short sword glowed blue momentarily and then sunk into the Guardian’s body as if it were made of tissue paper. Chris received several notifications, but waved them away before noticing that the Guardian was dead. Chris stumbled his way back up the stairs, closed the door leading to the basement, and sank back against it, exhausted.