I blinked at the house that shrank back into the hillside behind it, its roof becoming one with the grassy verdant ground populated with large dandelions. White sheets were strung on a laundry line spanning the small garden next to it. While the house appeared small, only just large enough for a single person, the map said otherwise.

According to the map, the house took up at least four fifths of the hill alone…and it was a rather large hill, too. Indeed, the only thing that was not engulfed by the hill was what seemed to be some sort of entrance hall, in which to take off one’s boots and coat. There was even a window next to a quaint red door that was more of an elongated elipse which came up almost to the small tiled roof Which only barely covered the porch step before melting into the green and yellow dandelions.

My imagination took flight as I imagined what sort of person this Miss Pearl could be.

A freckled woman with curling red hair near-bursting out the blue silk kerchief she had tried to tame it with opened the egg-shaped door with a cheery greeting.

“Why hello there! Come on, come in, I’ve been expecting you for a while now. I’ve heard from Ryuu. You must be Jade, the hero-in-training that I’ve come to hear about.”

“What?” I asked, not remembering doing anything heroic that would warrant people hearing about me. Ryuu cleared his throat behind me. It seems like he clears his throat an awful lot…Does he need a lozenge or something?

Mrs. Pearl smiled and waved them in through the entrance, making sure to shut the door firmly before taking her hands off the latch. “The darned thing keeps sticking on warm days like these. I should get a magician to enchant a perfect fit, but enchants aren’t cheap, you know.”

Mrs. Pearl looked me up and down once, then glanced at Ryuu before continuing. Although I noticed the minute exchange, I couldn’t tell what she thought of me, or what she was trying to glean from Ryuu.“Well!” She sighed with a smile and a nod. “Now that you’re here, I suppose it’s time for business. I think the Mayor gave you something to give to me?”

I blanked for a bit before I heard Ryuu murmur “The errand coin? The official one that Big Kuma gave you after registering?” behind me. I nearly smacked my face when I remembered the dandelion coin that the mayor had flipped at me.

“Oh, right…” I murmured before reaching into my bag. From the heat collecting on my face, I was pretty sure that I was blushing terribly.

“It’s okay, it happens to the best of us, my dear. I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached to my neck, don’t you know~.” Mrs. Pearl kindly laughed it off with a joke. Even though it was a rather old joke, I smiled. I just couldn’t seem to get upset with Mrs. Pearl.

Mrs. Pearl examined the golden coin that I had given her for a few moments. Then, with her thumb, she flicked it up into the air, and caught it when it came back down, putting it in her apron pocket.

“Well, everything seems to be in order, so why don’t we get to work, then, shall we?” She grinned. And that’s when I realized why she was called Mrs. Pearl, as her grin sported a perfect row of pearly-white teeth.

It was slightly off-putting, like seeing an actress play the role of a poor, ugly girl. Not that Mrs. Pearl was ugly, mind you- it’s just that her kind of beautiful didn’t fit into the world of actors or actresses.

With a freckled, tanned face, and warm hazel eyes, not to mention her mane of red curly hair, she’d hardly be considered a beauty, yet there was something beautiful about Mrs. Pearl, nonetheless-which made her smile all-the-more charming. It was like walking down a shaded tunnel in the trees near a spring and suddenly coming out into the warm, bright sunshine.

It seems I blanked there for a second.

“Eh?...I’m sorry, could you repeat that?” I asked.

“Sure, my dear, I don’t mind at all! You’re first mission is to gather ten eggs from the barn. Be sure to look thoroughly! Oh, and if you find any extras, then those are yours to keep. Here’s a basket to place them in.”

I noticed that the mission icon blinked at the corner of my vision. Huh. Somehow I must have missed the blue box notification? I looked down at the basket in my arm, which had a red checked cloth covering it. Then I looked up at Mrs. Pearl. Then I realized that the actual part of the house was small. The part that took up the hill must be the barn.

I pointed down the hallway further into the hill. “The barn is that way?”

“Uhuh~ Good luck then!” She nodded then looked out the window as the sudden sounds of rain pouring down rattled against the windowpane. She blinked for a few moments before gasping.

“OH FIDDLESTICKS! I forgot the laundry!” Grabbing her cloak and a basket, Mrs. Pearl tugged the door open-squealing hinges and all- and rushed outside.

I blinked. Should I go and help her out first? Ryuu sighed. “Don’t. If you help her with that, she’ll have you helping out all over the place and then your mission will be forgotten by the end of the day.”

I turned to look at him. How did-?

He smirked. Urk! That’s never a good sign. Suddenly, I don’t feel like I want to know. I thought to myself.

“It was written all over your face. Even though you usually are just frowning or inexpressive, even this king can see that you were wanting to go help.”

I turned my head away. How rude! I’m not inexpressive! And the reason for my frowns is this AID here! For now, I refused to look at him.

---------------------

Uwaah! This place is huuge! I thought looking around at the barn. Obviously, since it was a barn, there were a lot of hay bales…everywhere. I blinked taking in the sight of it all. A hole in the ceiling let light filter down, illuminating the walls of haybales stacked neatly to the sides.

Looks like a maze. You could hide an awful lot of surprises behind these haybales.I noted. Then I saw a cat streak by, running for its life. It stopped and turned around, hiding behind me and Ryuu.

“What is it? Is a mean old dog chasing after you?” I asked. Uehehe! It’s a fluffy! An orange tabby no less! Come, let us see who would dare chase my beloved fluffy! I grabbed a nearby pitchfork, and turned to face the cat’s foe, and froze.

Rounding the corner of the haybales chasing after my cute fluffy were three of the largest rats I’d ever seen.

“Ah. That explains it.” Ryuu nodded. “They must have burrowed in here somewhere and taken over the barn using size and numbers. We should probably hurry if we wish to save the chickens eggs from being eaten up. Isn’t that right, little miss hero in training?”

But I didn’t really hear much at that point. “…rats…why…WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE RATS!!!” I suddenly screamed. Honestly! They may have fur, but they are SO NOT CUTE! They are the scum of the fluffy kingdom! NO! They give fluffies a bad reputation! And those tails composed of skin are so shudder-inducing! I can’t bear to have them in my presence another moment!

And with that, I saw red for a bit….

When I came to, all I could see were their corpses disappearing into pixels. “Ah…what did I..?” I glanced down at the pitchfork, whose metal spines had been completely bent out of shape. Sigh. It happened again. I looked back, and the orange tabby was hiding behind Ryuu, shivering uncontrollably. Ryuu just stood there, staring at me as if I had completely broken reality or something.

Lots of blue boxes then opened up in front of me.

You have killed a level 5 rat Congratulations! You have leveled up. You have killed a level 5 rat You have killed a level 6 rat Congratulations! You have levelled up. Congratulations! Due to your immense hatred for rats, you have learned the skill ‘Overkill’

After tapping on the word for an explanation, another blue window popped up.

Overkill level 0:

This skill boosts your attack power against any creature at least five levels higher than you whom you bear an immense hatred for. Active: +10 strength +10 attack power Time limit: 360 seconds

Congratulations, you have found hidden stat: attack power. Tehee~ I'm keeping my eye on you~ Congratulations, you have earned the title: [Rats Bane]. +10 attack against all Ratkind.

I blinked for a few minutes before opening my status menu. I immediately equipped my Title: Rat’s Bane

Name

Jade

Class

Rookie

Level

2

Title

Rats Bane

HP

87/140

MP

158/168

Stats:

Points:

Strength

10 (10)

Defence

10

Vitality

14

Intelligence

12

Wisdom

14

Agility

12

Dexterity

12

Charm

10

Luck

16

Bonus Stats:

4

Skills:

Beginner’s Luck: Beginner Lvl 2

No death penalty and double experience points up to Lvl 10. This skill is lost upon reaching level 10. Automatically levels with your character.

Appraisal: Beginner Lvl 0

Unlike [Inspect] one does not have to be in contact with an object, monster, NPC, or player, in order to know its stats. Range is dependent upon level

Range: 0 (you have to touch the object to appraise it.)

[Substitution]:

can switch two designated targets instantaneously. It can also supply for a missing ingredient in alchemy or cooking by using mana points. Range between the user and the objects in question will increase with levels. Don’t use this to steal, please.

Overkill: Beginner Lvl 0

Boost your attack power against any creature over five levels higher than you whom you bear an immense hatred for. Active: +10 strength +10 attack st: 10 mana per cast time limit: 10 seconds(x level) cooldown: 60 seconds

I suppose the number in parentheses next to the attack power is the bonus from the title. But, wouldn’t that get really complicated if I have multiple bonuses on top of each other for different things? Do they all separate out, or are they all placed together- mah. Now’s not the time to think of these things.

I noticed my health was down by almost half. But in the short time since the fight, a little of it had been restored. So I must have some sort of minor regenerative ability. Or is this the result of raising vitality? Ah, but if regeneration is this slow, then that’s not good! I should learn some sort of self-healing skill or boost as soon as possible.

I also noticed that this new skill costs mana. Perhaps that’s how I managed to kill three rats? Calculating numbers based upon my remaining mana, I can cast this skill about 15 more times before I’d have to rest to recover my mana.

I also noticed that the item drops were stored away in my inventory. Ugh. Rats tails and teeth? While I would love to discard them, I cannot go against my frugal gamer’s spirit. I may not be discarding them right now, but I am selling these as soon as possible.

Closing my status menu, I looked over at Ryuu and the adorabl-ahem lovely little orange tabby, and found that they hadn’t really moved since the last time I looked. However, Ryuu seemed to have gotten a bit more composed.

I took a step towards them only to see the orange tabby flinch and run away, vanishing into the hay bales. DON’T GOO MY FLUFFYYY!!! I cried out in my heart. But it had already vanished.

“If you’re quite finished here, we should get going.” Ryuu said, looking seriously at the surrounding hay bales. “It could be there are more rats around here. If we’re not quick, they could end up finding and eating the eggs that we’re supposed to be collecting. Not to mention terrorizing the local tomcat population.”

That got my ear. HOW DARE THEY TERRORIZE MY FLUFFIES! I WILL KILL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! I gripped my (bent) pitchfork and marched boldly forth into the maze of hay.

-er…right after I had a break and rested to heal my HP up back to normal, of course. Ryuu was insistent that rest was essential after a battle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That day, a new tale of the massacre of the rat colony in Tanpopo Village spread among the ratkins.

“Whatever you do, don’t go to Tanpopo Village. There is a demon there who targets ratkins with a giant twisted fork. If you are caught and killed by the demon, then you will surely be eaten.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Milady, why do you hate rats so much?” Ryuu muttered, watching Jade slaughtering a group of five rats with her back to a wall of hay. “I know that they are good experience points for you, but somehow it is unpleasant to watch...Or rather, why aren’t you asking for my help?” Ryuu could only inwardly grieve as he watched and waited for Jade to remember him and call for his help.

End Login Diary Entry 3

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