Son of the Night - Volume 2 Chapter 17

Akira was eating his breakfast in his room while sitting at the desk next to his bed when he heard a knock on the door.

You can come in, said Akira, after quickly swallowing a mouthful of food.

The person who entered the room was Freid.

Sorry to bother you so early, but I have other things to do this morning. So I decided to come over and give you the last mission before I go, said Freid.

It’s no problem it saves me from having to walk to your office, replied Akira.

There have been troubling reports from both travelers and merchants that have passed by the monastery. The reports say that the travelers have been attacked on the roads and in the surrounding areas, and the culprits seem to be the giant rats. I suspect that the rats have a nest somewhere around there. Your task is to find the nest and if there is one, you are to destroy it, along with everything inside so that there will no longer cause any more problems for our monastery and those who use the road. Since you were able to take care of the ones in the basement, you should have no problem with this mission, said Freid.

You have been asked to find the nest of the[Rats]causing problems for both the monastery, travelers, and merchants.

Difficulty:F

Quest requirement:none.

Reward:

Experience

Will you accept?:

Yes | No

I’ll do my best. If you can tell me the exact area that they have been seeing the rats, it would help me in my search for the nest, said Akira.

Freid reached into his robes and pulled out a medium-sized scroll of paper and unrolled it to reveal a well-drawn map of the surrounding area. Laying it down on the desk, he pointed to a spot in the upper right corner above the monastery on the map.

The most reports we have had indicate that it should be somewhere here in these hills. That’s all the information I know as of now. We have only started to receive the reports of the sightings this last week. You can keep the map, as we have plenty of them, replied Freid.

Thank you. I’ll get started when I finish eating, said Akira.

Freid nodded his head and left the room without saying another word.

Akira studied the map, taking in the all the markings, villages, and environment. It only showed the west part of the Kingdom of Freeopia. Even so, it was a precious thing to have and he wondered where the original copy had come from.

When he finishing eating, he equipped his leather chest piece, sword, and shield, before heading out to the gates of the monastery.

As there were no guards currently at the gates, he had to open and close them himself.

Surveying the area in front of him, he could see the vast plains that went on and on to the east and the south. The hills he was looking for were to the north of the monastery.

After gaining his bearings Akira set off on a quick paced walk towards the small hills rising in the distance.

It only took him an hour to reach the first of the hills. He began searching each hill as he passed looking for any sign of the rats.

Another hour of searching passed, Akira was nearing what seemed to be the middle of the hills when he found the ruins of an old building. After a short and cautious search inside, he found nothing of interest. There was no nest inside, nor was there any trace of the giant rats.

As he walked back out, he noticed footprints on the ground leading to the backyard of the house. Akira followed the footprints to a small hill with wildly grown bushes and large rocks.

The footprints disappeared into the bushes.

He walked up to the bushes and unsheathed his sword and started hacking away at the bushes. After removing the obstacles in his way a small hole in the ground just big enough for a human to enter that had been hidden by the rocks and the bushes could now be seen.

Akira gave a fist pump and said,Jackpot. Found the nest. It didn’t take that long to find it either.

As Akira walked closer to the hole, a message popped into his vision.

You have found the newly formed dungeon[Rat’s nest Rank F]This dungeon has been causing problems in the area. Clear the dungeon to complete the quest.

Difficulty:E

Quest requirement:Failed if you are killed.

‘What, a dungeon? This is not good! If it’s not taken care of, it could lead to an overflow. I don’t know if I can clear this on my own although the dungeon is quite new. I better go back and see if I can get some help. At the very least, I need to get some more supplies before attempting to clear it,’ Akira thought to himself.

He memorized a few of the areas features so he could find it again and left quickly backtracking to the monastery and reaching his destination after an hour and a half.

Akira went to Freids office to see if he had returned from whatever business he had to do in the morning, so he could ask for help and supplies.

Freid was busily working on paperwork and gave short answers to Akira’s request. He refused any help as the monastery needed the only two guards it had. Instead, he agreed to let Akira take the supplies he needed for the mission.

Akira left the office and went to his room to get the small bag he had not had a chance to use yet, and then walked to the warehouse where he piled up a large amount of food and herbs for healing.

He filled up a few water skins at the well and began to place everything into the small bag.

As he was doing this a window appeared with a Ding! The name at the top of the window was[Small bag inventory]. There were five rows of ten slots and the food and water were taking up two of the slots. There was a number next to each of the images of the food and water, it was the exact amount he had put into the bag.

This is a common small bag. There are 50 slots to hold the user’s items. Multiple of the same item will stack and only take up 1 slot. Each slot is able to stack up to 100 of the same item.

Foods and other perishable items are able to stay fresh for a longer period of time while in the bag.

What? This bag is magical!? I thought Freid said it was just an old spare? Akira shouted in surprise at the amazing magical bag in his hands.

Akira put his hand into the bag and rummaged around inside. The space inside seemed to be enormously larger then what the actual size of the small bag. It was so big his full arm was swallowed up by the bag and he still couldn’t touch the bottom.

This is too weird, I should go and check in with Freid, to see if this bag was given to me by accident, said Akira.

After reaching the office, he knocked on the door and entered after hearing Freid’s voice.

Not wasting any time, Akira asked about the small bag, I thought you said this was an old surplus bag, but it seems to be a magical bag. I have a lot of items in it right now and it can still hold a lot more.

What? Let me see, said Freid.

Akira handed over the bag that was still as light as it was before he had added the food water and herbs inside.

Freid opened the bag his hand felt the inside of the bag and then he looked inside.

The bag is empty. I’m not sure why you’re fooling around here when you have to take care of that dungeon. If that’s all you wanted to say, then I need to get back to my paperwork, which doubled because someone had to go and get large amounts of blood on old documents that were in storage, said Freid with a stern look at Akira.

Huh? …Um, sorry for bothering you, said Akira confused while he received the bag back from Freid and exited the room.

He looked inside the bag and saw everything was still inside. ‘Can no one other than me see the items inside the bag?’ thought Akira as he walked through the courtyard and out gates heading back towards the Rat nest dungeon.

***

Akira was able to easily find the dungeon again. He sat down outside the dungeon to rest and eat lunch before entering the dungeon.

Got to be at full power when I enter, otherwise it might cause me problems, said Akira as he closed his eyes and rested for a few minutes until he felt fully recharged and ready to fight.

Standing up he drew his sword and readied his shield. After making one last check over his equipment, he jumped into the hole. It was a short enough fall that he did not receive any damage.

Ding!

Fame:+10

XP and loot drops have increased by 50% for 24 hrs.

Sweet, more XP for just being the first to enter. I wonder what it means by loot drop, said Akira.

The air seemed to be thicker and harder to breathe, and it took Akira a few minutes to fully adjust to it.

In the top left of his vision, he could see a grayed out map of the dungeon. He really did love the magical map as it made it so much easier to navigate the areas he had already discovered and not get lost.

As Akira’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, he scanned the area around him for any danger. The room he was in was empty. On the stone walls, he could see an odd type of moss was growing. It was giving off a dim light that was lighting up the room.

Well, this moss sure makes everything easier for me, no need to fumble around with a torch.

Akira readied his sword and shield and started walking forward. Leaving the room he dropped down into, he entered a small dimly lit pathway that led to another open door further ahead. While moving forward, the grayed out map began to reveal itself.

As he drew nearer to the room’s entrance, he began to hear many screeches coming from the inside of the room alerting him to the presence of his enemy.

Just outside of the entrance, Akira took a few deep breaths and readied himself before running into the room. With a quick scan as he entered, he was able to count five giant rats.

Continuing his charge at the surprised giant rats, he jumped forward and used a powerful swing to cut at the nearest giant rats head.

The attack was able to cleanly cut off the head before it or any of the others could react.

A message popped up with the XP earned. He ignored it. turning and again he charged forward to attack the remaining four left enemies in the room.

Skreeeeeeeee! x4.

The giant rats enraged at being attacked by an intruder and seeing one of their own getting killed so easily, all jumped at Akira in a joint attack.

Akira who already had a large amount of experience fighting the giant rats due to killing hundreds of them the other day, was now able to dodge the initial attacks by rolling out of the way and leaping back to his feet. He readied his shield just in time to block the wild attacks of the giant rats.

Needing to buy himself a bit of breathing room, he swung his shield in front of him. It the shield slammed into the giant rats, knocking them back and causing them to be stunned for a short period.

Ding!

Shield Bash (Beginner: Lvl 1 | 0.00%)

A skill used to knock back enemies while doing minor damage(10) and stunning them for a short period depending on the enemy’s size.

Skill usage cost: 20 Mana.

What’s this shield bash? Did I just created a new skill? asked Akira.

As soon as he said the name of the skill, his shield arm began to move on its own. A dim light emitted from his shield and smashed into one of the giant rats that had regained its feet and was about to attack him.

‘Whoa, what was that? Was that the skill? I only said the name and it activated.’ thought Akira while he blocked another attack. He quickly killed the attacking rat by stabbing his sword through its eye into its brain.

Shield Bash, said Akira testing out if the skill would activate again. It did, smashing into two of the three rats trying to attack him.

He parried the third rats bite with his sword. The giant rat bit down onto the sword trying to break it with its powerful teeth.

Akira’s muscles bulged as he used all his strength to pull his sword out of the jaws of the giant rat. He succeeded and in the process killed the rat by sliced off the top half of its head.

Akira ran towards the last two giant rats that were just now recovering from being stunned and attacked twice cutting one of them in half.

Shield Bash! shouted Akira swinging his shield that was emitting a dim light and smashing it into the last giant rat.

He continued to use skill Shield Bash to see how many times he could use it until he received a message alerting him that he did not have enough stamina to use the skill.

Interesting, said Akira. He then quickly killed the last giant rat that had been nearly bludgeoned to death from Akira using the skill[Shield Bash]multiple times.

Akira quickly scanned the room to see if there were any more giant rats, waiting to jump out at him, he also checking the map in the top left corner of his vision before sitting down with a sigh of relief.

‘The dungeon air is much harder to breath making fighting even harder.’ Akira thought while drinking some water from a waterskin, he continued resting to regain his stamina.

A short time later, he got up and moved to the other side of the room where the exit was and looked through the doorway. Just another hallway leading to a room at the end.

He followed the path cautiously until the hallway began to open up and he could see steps leading down to a platform at the bottom of the large domed room.

Akira gasped and his breath stopped for a moment as he saw what was standing on the platform at the bottom of the room.

Staring at the creature brought up its name and level.[Mother Rat: Lvl 5]

The mother rat was the size of three giant rats combined. Its back was filled with odd-looking ancient runes.

That must be the root of the problem, muttered Akira quietly.

Apparently, it wasn’t quiet enough as the giant mother rat turned its head to look at Akira.

The mother rat let out a loud Skreeee! As if communicating orders three giant rats that Akira had not noticed before started to run up the stairs towards him.

He intercepted them and was able to kill each of them in under a minute, receiving the small amount of XP that they gave.

Seeing this the mother rat became enraged and started to stomp the ground repeatedly in rage casing the ground to vibrate. Turning her body towards Akira, she started to swiftly run up the stairs, loud thuds sounded out each time it moved a foot.

Akira stood at the top of the wide stairs to keep his advantage of the high ground. Before the mother rat reached the top Akira shouted out, Shield Bash!

His shield slammed into the face of the mother rat, knocked her down a few steps. Immediately, she got back up and ran forward her eyes set on Akira, now even more enraged.

‘So I guess this monster is too big to stun,’ Akira quickly thought.

He readied his shield and blocked the charge, but instead of standing firm, he was thrown off his feet into the wall behind him and had the wind knocked out of him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the HP bar had gone down slightly from being slammed into the wall.

‘That was a stupid idea,’ thought Akira as he tried to regain his feet and breath. The mother rat did not allow it, using its tail, it knocked Akira of his unsteady feet and back onto the ground. He was forced to roll forward down the steps in order to escape the oncoming claw attack of the mother rat.

With an angry cry, she turned around and followed right behind him as fast as her legs would allow.

Akira reached the bottom of the steps and dizzily rolled into a stance allowing him to stand up with the momentum and dash a few more feet away from the bottom of the stairs.

The mother rat lunged at him from the middle of the stairs, its mouth wide open intending to bite off his head with its large teeth.

Akira sidestepped and stabbed his sword into its side with his full strength. He quickly jumped back to distance himself, using the motion to pull his sword out of the wound, causing a large amount of blood to spill out continuously.

The mother rat spun around its eyes flashing with rage in the dim light. Slashing out with its claws, it swiped at Akira’s sword arm.

Shield Bash!

Akira’s shield intercepted the oncoming paw and knocked it away unbalancing the mother rat for a few seconds.

Akira took the chance to attack and stabbed near its heart twice and then distancing himself.

The large body of the rat mother was leaking blood at an extremely fast rate. Its legs quivered for a moment as it tried to stay standing but it fell to the ground and did not move again.

Phew that was tough, said Akira. He turned around to check and see if there were any other enemies in the area and found nothing else.

He looked at the map and saw a red dot moving towards him it almost on top of him. Before he could fully react, his back was attacked by a large claw piercing his leather armor and causing four shallow wounds on his back.

He was knocked forward by a second swipe from a claw behind him, sending him rolling a few times before he could regain his feet to see what had attacked him.

It was the mother rat. It was still standing although heavily wounded. With a screech, it charged after him again.

‘Damn it! I have gotten a little too rusty, to keep making so many mistakes. Get ahold of yourself,’ Akira berated himself.

Sidestepping the rampaging mother rat, he swung his sword down, aiming to cut open its side but the attack missed its intended mark and ended up slicing off half of the tail.

The mother rat whirled around in a frenzy and attacked him with its sharp claw. Gritting his teeth from the pain in his back, Akira managed to block the attack with his shield and a moment later, jabbed his sword out successfully piercing the mother rats right eye and sinking deep into its brain.

Ding!

Level up! You are now Lvl 5!

Fame+5

You have cleared the dungeon.

Level up you are now Lvl 6!

Fame +15

I guess I should learn from this and not let my guard down until the XP rolls in, said Akira falling to the ground with the heavy dead body of the mother rat while breathing heavily.

Akira’s breathing quickly returned to normal he felt a deep warmth washing over the pain as his wounds were healed from leveling up, along with his energy being restored to its max.

The mother rats body began to disappear like dust in the wind. In its place, a small colorful stone was left on the ground along with what looked to be a small pile of copper coins.

Standing up, he walked over to the items on the ground taking a closer look at them.

‘Where did these come from? I’m sure I would have noticed them laying on the ground during the fight,’ thought Akira. He reached down and picked up the stone to inspect it.

When he touched it a window appeared.

The floor began to shake reminding Akira that since the dungeon had been cleared, it would soon collapse in on itself.

‘I can inspect it later but I need to get out of here.’

Stuffing the magic stone into his bag he started to hurriedly pick up the copper coins. With the last coin thrown into his bag, he took one last look around the large domed room scanning for any other valuables but found nothing.

He ran back up the stairs and towards the entrance, through the short hallway and into the room where the giant rats had first attacked him. He noticed that the bodies had disappeared from the room only blood remained and that to was slowly being absorbed by the walls and the ground.

Upon reaching the entrance, Akira quickly grabbed onto some vines and climbed out of the hole.

The wind blew against his sweaty face the air around him became much less dense and became easier to breathe.

After a few minutes of rest on a nearby stone along with a drink of water and eating a bit of food, he began his walk back to the Monastery.

He could hear the sound of the collapsing dungeon behind him as he continued onward.