Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Floor 1. First Use
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Kaaaaagh─!!!
After hiding nearby and waiting a moment, the booming voice that had been wildly swinging an axe to butcher the rats came back as a scream.
As expected, no matter how high your specs, you can't beat a gang-up.
What can you do if they surround you and take turns beating on you?
Of course, if you have the right items or artifacts for the situation, you can slip away leisurely. That's what makes this game great.
Whether that'll happen for me is another story.
With a silent prayer that the criminal had cleared out the enemies before dying—or that they'd moved elsewhere—I headed back to where the criminal had been kiting and hunting them.
The closer I got, the thicker the fishy stench grew, blending with the damp sewer air until it felt like it would soon turn into a rotten stink.
The water flowing through the sewer ahead was dyed red, like someone had dumped crimson dye into it.
Gulp.
"This is brutal... Fuck, it'd have been better if this was that haha-hoho pixel paradise."
Four corpses of giant rats with their heads split in half.
One sewer spider corpse, its body and head severed.
One criminal sprawled out, chunks of flesh torn off everywhere.
Chitter-chitter─
And finally, the last remaining giant rat clinging to the criminal, busily working its jaws.
'...Fuck.'
⚔ ENEMY STATUS ⚔ 『Giant Rat』 Lv. 01 Health: 6/19 ■■■□□□□□□□ 'Kill it. I can do this. Just stab it once.'
The last giant rat had taken a hit from the criminal too, judging by its poor condition.
My stamina could definitely finish it off with one stab.
It wasn't some sudden surge of righteousness. Even if I killed this rat now, another one would eventually come and finish off the corpse.
I just needed it gone so it wouldn't interfere with looting the items.
The thought of approaching that yellow-toothed beast made my stomach churn with visceral disgust, but I had to descend this dungeon.
I didn't know if clearing it would let me go home, but I had no choice. Backing away meant tumbling off a cliff to end up like this criminal—body torn apart by enemies.
Steeled my resolve and took a step forward.
My pounding heartbeat felt deafening, but the rat was too focused on devouring the criminal's flesh to notice me yet.
'To clear this dungeon, I gotta kill tons of enemies. If I can't even take down one rat pup, how am I supposed to survive... I'll do it... Do it!'
One step away from bringing down my dagger, raised high overhead for a plunging strike.
Clack, rolllll.
Chitter?
"You little shit..!"
A small stone I hadn't noticed in the dark got kicked by my toe, clattering across the stone floor.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [The Giant Rat has discovered you.] "Fuck it! I'll ram my long, pointy thing right into you! Die, you harbinger of doom, you mangy beast!"
Caught or not, it was all or nothing. The giant rat was nimble, but I had the advantage starting my downward stab first.
In a shit-flinging contest, the one who moves first wins.
Before I knew it, the rat pup had spun around, baring its yellow teeth in a savage roar.
My dagger sliced through the dank, chilly air in a flash.
Aaah─this is steel. Teeth are nothing compared to steel.
Crunch-crunch-craaaack─splat.
The weighty plunging dagger shattered the giant rat's yellow teeth with a gruesome sound, splitting its snout clean in half.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [You dealt 11 damage to the Giant Rat.] [You defeated the Giant Rat.] Splatter!
That part was fine, but its head split open, spraying its filthy blood all over me.
"Kieeeek! Gross!!! Take this inhumane game off the platforms right now!!!"
The blood was hot.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "I wanna wash up..."
I scraped off the now-dried, dark red crust with my nails, but the filthy feeling lingered.
Aside from getting drenched in that dirty rat blood, though, I'd scored quite a haul.
⚙ LOOT ACQUIRED ⚙ [You obtained Emergency Rations.] [You obtained a Canteen.] [You obtained Tasty Meat.] [You obtained 56 GOLD.] [You obtained Tasty Meat…] I dismissed the log windows clogging up my entire view.
I considered rinsing off the blood in the ankle-deep water, but it was just as murky.
"How the hell am I supposed to survive in a place like this? What did I do to deserve getting locked in here?!"
Trapping an upstanding citizen like me in a dungeon.
The people outside had to be demons torturing the innocent.
Still, leaving my soiled state as-is raised the risk of disease, so I tore strips from my ragged clothes to make cloths.
They offered basically zero defense anyway, so no qualms about ripping them up.
They had a minor warmth effect, but that was solvable by a campfire if my body temp dropped.
Splash-splash-splash.
I soaked the precious cloth in my canteen water and wiped the blood from my body.
The damp cloth brushing my skin felt awful, but no helping it.
"Phew... That's better."
Sure, now I looked like a pervert wandering the dungeon half-naked, but it beat getting sick.
Desperate measures for survival.
"You damn User ㅇㅇ. When I find you, I'll tie you up and toss you in here myself."
Anyway, I'd thoroughly looted the criminal who'd fought six enemies to the death. No more business here.
The sensation of cleaving that rat pup's head still lingered, making my hands shake, but sticking around in this blood-soaked spot would just invite an ambush.
I needed to find a room to light a campfire before nightfall.
Splashing through the water in search of a room or secret chamber, something up ahead was wriggling and shaking.
Wriggle-wriggle.
An amorphous creature with a translucent blue body.
The moment I spotted it from afar, my head started aching.
The iconic enemy of the underground sewer section.
⚔ ENEMY STATUS ⚔ 『Blue Slime Blob』 Lv. 05 Health: 21/21 ■■■■■■■■■■ 【An amorphous predatory lifeform made of sticky, slippery liquid. Dull senses mean low aggression, but swords don't work well on it.】 ⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [You learned about the Blue Slime Blob.] "Ah... Annoying. How do I even kill this thing."
It didn't trigger the same physiological revulsion as the giant rat—looked more like a bag of water—but its traits were the problem.
My weapons were dagger and club: pure physical attacks.
Its innate ability halved all that damage, effectively doubling its chances to strike back.
Magic damage doubled on it instead, but I had no wand or scroll handy.
'It's slow, so I could just run...'
The map showed a straight path with no branches from the criminal fight spot to here.
Too far to backtrack without wasting time and stamina.
Wriggle-wriggle.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [The Blue Slime Blob has discovered you.] I was pondering my options when the thing, ambling along aimlessly, suddenly spotted me.
"No! They should add a 'time stops if you're standing still' feature! It used to be turn-based!"
Real-time D.D., huh.
Whoever came up with that was a sick bastard.
The blue slime blob wriggled its squishy body toward me, hopping along as if sizing me up as easy prey.
"Shit... Hold up. I have magic."
Come to think of it, I did have magic. Sure, it was embarrassingly lewd, but better than nothing.
A creature that doubled magic damage? Perfect test subject.
No other enemies nearby either, so even if it flopped, I could handle it.
"Slime blob onahole, huh..."
It cost a whopping 25 MP, so I needed to test its performance properly to make use of it.
"Whatever comes out has to be better than rat onahole."
Thinking of that suicidal rat hole made the slime blob look like a fairy.
Wriggle-wriggle.
"You little... Hya!"
I charged at the blue slime blob's midsection and kicked it like I was booting a tiger.
As expected, its physical damage halving made the impact feel mushy and questionable if it even landed.
"Onahole Creaaaatioooon!!!"
Squelch─
I slammed my fist straight into its body, sinking deep with a puuuk like punching jello.
The inside was soft and sticky—felt kinda weird.
Twitch.
The slime blob's wriggling halted for a split second, as if trying to melt my arm inside it, then froze completely.
At the same instant, a bizarre weakness drained the strength from my whole body.
"Oh? Ooh? Oooooh─?"
A strange sensation flitted by, one that'd have me sticking out my tongue cutely and rolling my eyes back.
Luckily, I didn't end up in that pathetic state.
It burst with a pop!, the blue slime blob exploding into smoke.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [You used Onahole Creation on the Blue Slime Blob.] [The Blue Slime Blob has full health.] [The Blue Slime Blob tried to resist Onahole Creation...] [The Blue Slime Blob was vulnerable to magic.] [The Blue Slime Blob became an onahole.] [You defeated the Blue Slime Blob.] [You learned about the Blue Slime Blob.] Squelch.
⚙ ITEM ACQUIRED ⚙ [You obtained a Slime Onahole.] The smoke cleared, leaving a translucent blue droplet about half the slime blob's size in its place.
"Oh."