I have finally reached the rat den, which has been torturing me for the last couple of days. Now the only thing separating me from the den is this gate. It is a massive gate made of an unknown metal. According to jack, this is supposed to be the first line of defense for a den

It is called the gate of limit and it supposedly closes when the creatures in a den fall below a certain threshold. To break the gate of limit is an impossibility, at least among the beings that inhabit these lands. There are legends about beings able to destroy the gates of limit, but those are things that I don't need to worry about right now.

Anyway, The gate of limit always only opens when there are a certain number of creatures in the den. Right now it is closed, but we won't have to wait for a lot. This is the hunting season and those are rats, they will reach whatever number that they need soon enough.

To enter the den, I will have to stabilize the quarry first and foremost. it took me almost five days to clear the quarry of the rats. By the fourth day, it had become almost a slog to do so. These tunnels are long and very complex, you see.

It is very easy to miss creatures in this quarry and the map that jack had was not of much use. It looks like the rats have been digging their tunnels out here, making the quarry even more unstable and certainly very complex. I have finally completed clearing the tunnels, at least to a level that I can be confident that I won't be ambushed in the process of stabilizing the quarry.

The quarry has always been unstable, right from the moment that a pickaxe hit the ground, but right now these tunnels will certainly collapse any second. Construction is not something that I have a whole lot of experience with, but stabilizing mines is something that I have a lot of ideas about. One of the worst worlds I ever visited was as a miner. At least that taught me the process of building pillars out of anything, to make sure that these tunnels do not collapse in on themselves.

I don't have much to work with, but you would be surprised just how much you can do with a few basic pieces of rock. It is all about feeling the rock. Once that is done, we can finally enter the den.

I certainly don't want to be stuck in the den, just because some idiot swung his sword in the wrong manner. This is something that should have a proper troop to handle, not two goblins and an undead armor.

So time to get to work, I suppose. This is delicate work.

(After a couple of days)

finally, I have completed my primary task. The quarry is relatively stable. As long as there are no major explosions, it will hold. I hope so at the very least.

Right now we are standing outside the gate. The gate of limit has opened half a day ago. According to jack, the gate can close any minute. The worst enemy for a creature in a den is supposed to be another creature in the den.

Well, I am used to that kind of chaos, so Jack's description of their infighting doesn't particularly scare me. It is something that we could be able to use.

Soldier one- troop master, how long are we going to wait here. The gate of limit might end up closing.

Me- well, do you want to be stuck inside there with that door closed behind you.

Jack- the door will close regardless of when you enter. Our job is to reduce the number of creatures here and the gate still closes if we are good at our jobs.

Me- still, is there any way for us to keep the gates open. These rats would make for very good protection against the night wolves. We could trick them into here.

Soldier one- right now, that is a risk that we cannot take. We will most likely end up crushed before they even start fighting.

Jack- for now just let's focus on clearing the den. The night wolves are not enemies that we can deal with right now. We can start that by entering the tunnel.

Me- fine, time for us to enter.

it was at this time that we entered the den and the very first thing that caught my attention was the construction. These tunnels are the exact opposite of the quarry outside.

They are built out of some rock that I don't recognize. I take out my sword and swing my sword on the wall next to me. The sword harmlessly clanks off the wall, with sparks emerging.

Soldier one- what the hell.

Me- sorry about that, I was just checking the durability of the wall. You guys can fight properly here.

Jack- you need not worry about all of this. All dens are made up of soul rock. Even the elder has never really managed to make a decent-sized hole in soul rock. Well, we finally have something to fight here.

jack points to a bend in the tunnel ahead of me, where a rat snout was visible.

Me- well, you have heard me blabbering in the last couple of days. So, you know what to do.

we enter into a ready stance while waiting for the creature to come closer. Once again I can see differences between the rats in the quarry and the rats in the den. This one is almost twice the size of the rats outside and I can see the poison leaking out of its mouth.

Somehow, I don't think that people will like to get bit by that creature. But the most annoying difference I can see is the mana that is present in the creature. As for what kind of magic it can use I will know about it soon enough.

Anyway, time for us to get into action then. I am the first to move, striking the creature with my sword. At the same time, Jack uses one of his mana bolts. Soldier one is the one that holds back, staying in a defensive position to make sure nothing happens to jack.

My sword struck true to its target, hitting the creature right at its snout. Not that it has much of an effect. The mana present in the creature flows out, forcing my sword back. It took me all my strength to not lose the grip of my sword.

Jack's mana bolt is much less successful as it doesn't even strike the creature. It strikes at a point just before the rat, dangerously close to me.

me- what the fuck are you doing, Jack. Do you wanna kill me.

Jack- it was not my fault troop master, the ambient mana here is under the control of somebody.

Me- you retreat then, soldier one help me out.

Soldier one- yes troop master.

in all this time, the rat opposite to us has been circling us. While I was directing these two, the rat has been looking for a chance to attack me.

It does not take long for this creature to make its move. It jumps at me with a surprising velocity. I could not react to its attack as it bites into my left arm. I can feel a pang of pain in my body.

Ignoring the pain, I strike my sword at the creature. Again my sword is blocked by the mana barrier of this creature. Thankfully, in this time soldier one makes his move. His spear strikes the side of the rat. This particular strike draws blood. The creature's barrier seems to have failed finally.

Time for me to be the tank. I quickly swing my sword at the rat's head. The rat naturally dodges this strike, but it at least gets distracted from striking soldier one, who while maintaining his distance stabs his spear into another of the creature's sides.

The creature is losing blood and that too very fast. That seems to put the creature in some kind of frenzy, which naturally made it pretty impossible to read the creature's movement, a task that I have been doing very badly until now. Well, this body of mine can handle some punishment, and by how this is going to, I will need to suffer quite a bit of damage.

me- soldier one, retreat.

Thankfully he listens to me as the berserk rat puts all its focus on me. The creature makes another move at me, this time by suddenly scurrying to my legs and taking a bite before I can react. Before the creature can retreat I swing my sword right into its face, leaving behind a pretty serious gash on its face.

This pain does not make the creature leave me as it holds on. I keep swinging my sword at its head, almost entering into a frenzy myself.

This seemed to go on forever, as I feel the creature's grip weakening and finally falling limp, biting my leg all this while. It has cut cleanly into my armor.

(After ten minutes)

me- so Jack is the gate closed already.

we had sent him, the only one among us that is not exhausted to check out the gate of limit.

Soldier one- troop master, I don't think that we will be able to survive down here for long.

Me- me too, soldier one. Those fucking creatures managed to screw with me so nicely. It will take me at least a day for me to repair this damage.

Jack- how did that creature manage to damage you so much. The toxins of any kind of rat should not be able to do this.

Me- this is not poison, Jack. This is some kind of acid. Something capable of corroding bone. I don't think anything else would be able to explain that kind of damage.

Jack- so what are we supposed to do. We can't ignore these creatures now, can we? Especially now that we are actually inside the den.

Soldier one- no, we shouldn't ignore these creatures. If they know that we exist and know the route to us, they will never stop coming. They are always nearly starving, so they won't say no to any type of food, even us goblins.

Me- are these rats even supposed to be so strong. I had assumed them to be weaklings based on your explanation.

Jack- you can't predict what the strength of a species is based on what we know about them before. If they get lucky and get a good mutation.it is not rare for an entire species power to grow twice or thrice.

Soldier one- I think it would be wiser for us to keep at it down here. This is a place where we can grow our power very quickly. I already am on the verge of my first mutation. The power boost won't be too much, but every scrap of power is something that we need to survive right now.

Me- I know, but we can't end up in a situation where we end up dead because we overestimate ourselves. How much life force do you need to grow stronger anyway.

Soldier one- I just need to kill another ten of the quarry rats or one of the den rats.

Me- well, we can proceed further later on. For now, we will retreat to the top. We have been down here for too long. I don't want to grow my strength down here to find night wolves ambushing us when we return to the base. We will leave once I repair myself.

saying that I shut up soldier one who seems to be oddly aggressive about proceeding further. Well, using bone king is something that exhausts me completely and I will need to use that this time. It is still not a very comfortable feeling to rely on a world will to cast my magic. So time for me to stop this magic for some time. Can't have a potential enemy reading my thoughts now can we?