First floor- Second zone
[Change of location: First floor- Second district]
As he entered the passage, Naruto saw the system message appear in front of him.
Second? Is there more?
He thought that it was the same as before but another way out. It seemed that wasn't the case.
Naruto was extremely cautious this time, as he didn't want to call another pack of rats.
The place had the same type of elements: fluorescent mushrooms, bones, torches, moss. But there was a new element: Water. He could hear the sound of running water underground.
It's the first floor but does it have another zone?
He continued walking throughout the passage, slowly but steadily. A few minutes later, he noticed something different.
In front of him there was an open space. It had some plants, mushrooms and other things he had never seen before.
Rats could be seen in different parts as they sought for food, but there was nothing they could eat in this place, most of the plants and other elements were sprouts and needed time to grow.
The place had torches in the pillars and some sticks could be seen nailed to the ground. They marked two directions: the way he had come from, and another that pointed deeper into the dungeon.
Other climbers must have left these before...
He approached the stick, but the system message didn't appear. He needed to know the dungeon first If he wanted to use these things as a guide.
Looking away, he continued his path. This place wasn't remotely similar to the other passage. As he continued, the differences became more obvious. The plants weren't the same and he could see rooms, they were of different sizes but most of them were empty.
I could check as I did with the weapons before?
With curiosity, he grabbed some things in the rooms, trying to understand more, but only those which had already grown up showed information.
[Rat mushroom: Rats feed on this, it has poison.]
[Fluorescent mushroom: Provides a small amount of light, grown in groups]
[Ground vines: serves as food as long as you can endure the paralysis.]
[...]
Naruto was speechless. None of these things could be eaten by him.
After continuing walking throughout the passages, he soon arrived at another open space. This time it had rats feeding, he didn't know what they were eating but it looked disgusting.
Naruto continued looking at the surroundings, but only a small pack of rats were eating. He started counting them and there were 8.
Maybe I can kill them if I'm fast enough?
With that thought in mind, he slowly approached the rats. But they weren't all enjoying their food, every few seconds a rat of the pack lifted its head to be sure no one was near them.
With his limited vision, Naruto didn't notice it and continued approaching.
As he continued walking, the nervousness rose in his chest. He was just a few meters from them. As he planned his attack, the hammer appeared in his hand. He had enough strength to use it with one hand.
That was his mistake, he didn't know how to properly cover his steps and even though the sounds were small, he continued making sounds as he walked.
When he raised the hammer and wanted to land a strike on the rats, a hiss sounded from one of them and they dispersed. Naruto's strike only reached the ground.
Damn it!
He started to run down the same pathway; he didn't want to be surrounded by rats again. The fact that the ground was covered in dirt helped him, so he didn't make much noise this time.
Returning to the big hall, he took another pathway. The entire room had several of them, but not all had the same amount of light.
He only takes those that had torches in them.
As he walked, he noticed that this place had less traces of the rats. The mushrooms he found were almost fully grown.
After he walked for 5 minutes, the passage changed.
Room doors began to appear in the walls.
He looked in it, but only had some plants and nothing more, maybe he needed to go deeper if he wanted to find something.
In some rooms, he could see the collapsed wall, with more space behind it. The moment he saw any one of those rooms, he quickly moved on to another.
Soon he left the passages, and a giant hall appeared in front of him. This had remains of tools, suggesting there had been other adventurers before.
Continuing into it, Naruto noticed that the next place was separated into rooms as big as the one he saw before.
This time he saw them; some rats were there. They weren't eating, only looking at the surroundings.
Seeing them in that state, an idea came to him.
What if I use rocks? Will they approach?
Returning down same path, he grabbed some small rocks. He looked for a way to retreat if things went bad.
With everything ready, he snuck into the room and hid behind a pillar. This time he was more cautious. When he saw that the rat was looking to another spot, he threw a rock near it.
Startled, the rat was ready to run, but there was only a single sound. As he saw the rat visibly relaxed, he threw another rock, this time closer.
The rat was cautious, but it was obvious by its actions that the sounds caught its attention.
Good! Come closer, I want to greet you and thank you for what your friends did to me. Naruto gritted his teeth.
The rat, unaware of what Naruto wanted to do to her, continued approaching. After so many rocks, she was near the pillar.
Naruto held the hammer tightly. He was just waiting for the opportunity.
Bending down a little, he was ready to crush her as soon as she was in his range.
3...2...1...
The moment the rat was nearby enough, Naruto didn't hesitate and went straight for the rat's head.
The rat didn't expect that and wanted to run, but Naruto's speed wasn't a joke. Even if he didn't know how to mold the chakra, he could use it as brute force to enhance his speed. The disadvantage was that he harmed himself in the process, luckily, he had the red chakra to heal minor injuries.
Naruto didn't feel any discomfort seeing the scene he caused. Only disgust.
They started it, now it's my turn. One down! I will kill them all!
The life in the village stressed him and now he only wanted something to vent his anger.
When he was watching the rat's body, he noticed something. Something was shining in the rat's body. Looking closer, a system window appeared in front of him.
[Soul fragment found. Collect?]
"???"
Collect
As he thought that, the shine in the rat's body disappeared and he felt something inside his body.
[Strength fragment: 0.1%]
What is this? It doesn't change anything. He didn't understand but it was harmless, so he continued.
Using the handle of the hammer, he moved the rat's body and threw it into another place. He didn't want to scare the rats by showing them the corpse of their friend.
Once the crime scene was clear, Naruto continued with the same method.
Threw a rock, a rat appeared, another rock, the rat got closer, another rock, the rat was in the position, bonk.
As he continued like that, after one hour he had killed 23 rats, and each one dropped a soul fragment. His stats changed a bit.
[Vitality: 54% (Yellow)]
[Strength: 19.4%]
[Dexterity: 12.8%]
[Agility: 14.2%]
[Adaptability: 78%(Yellow)]
[Mind: 50% (Yellow)]
[Intelligence: 16(Colourless)]
He didn't feel any change in him, but the numbers changing gave him a wave of happiness every time.
"What should I do now? Mm?" When he was thinking about it, he heard some hisses from the other room. He slowly walked and saw it: rats were gathering, he could see almost 60 of them.
His neck felt numb, he didn't want to go through the same thing once more.
Running from the scene, Naruto continued looking for another victim, no, he just wanted to help them to rest in a better place.
Convincing himself, he went deeper into the passages. The place started to feel wet; it was because the watercourse in the underground.
Cleaning a spot on the floor, he put his ear to it. He could hear the water continuously moving.
This place It's not going to flood, right? Right?
He felt nervous, but he could only continue. He needed to clear the whole floor to go to the next floor.
Getting up, he slowed down his pace. This place felt different; the atmosphere was heavy.
As he continued on the way, he started to notice it. The rats were getting bigger, not much but he could notice it.
After walking for another 6 minutes, he found another pack of victims.
These were of the same size as the ones he had killed before.
But they were protecting something: a human skeleton.
Naruto's face turned pale seeing that.
That's a corpse?!
His mind was a mess, seeing another human dead scared him, even if it was only a skeleton.
Retreating a little, he tried to calm himself. That was terrifying, even if the only thing on that "body" was bones. He didn't want to think about it, but the image of a human corpse being eaten by the rats gave him nausea, he wanted to vomit but nothing came out.
He had already vomited up his breakfast the first moment he entered the floor.
Trying to regulate his breath, he sat down with his back against a wall. Grabbing his bag, he took the water bottle and took a sip. It won't make him feel better but at least the nausea goes down.
Huf...why does the first person I find in this place need to be a corpse? Ugh...
Naruto didn't have a problem with the rats, but seeing a human corpse? That's another matter, it's the first time he saw something like that, and he felt weak.
But he knew that he couldn't stop here.
He was facing rats, not humans. That was true for now, but one day...
Dissipating those thoughts from his mind, Naruto took a deep breath and was ready to return to the corpse room.
He knew that this time the rats were more attentive, and the same trick wouldn't work calling one by one. He needed to be prepared to fight against several at once.
The cloth armor gave him protection for his torso and the gloves for his arms. He only needed to be careful with his legs and avoid being bitted in that place.
He didn't want to do it, but he tore the bag and used it to cover his ankles so as not to leave any skin exposed.
Putting the water bottle in his inventory, he was ready.
Grabbing his hammer tightly, he slowly walked to the room. He didn't want to make any sound.
If he wasn't worried about hurting his feet, he would take off his shoes.
Looking into the room, the rats were in the same position. They didn't move a bit, as they were protecting the corpse from any intruder.
Memorizing their positions, Naruto took a step back and started throwing rocks.
The moment the rock hit the ground, he could see it.
Three rats raised their heads and started looking for the source of the sound.
Damn it...
Naruto didn't stop, he continued doing it. He tried to be careful, trying to only attract the same three rats. When another rat raised his head, he paused for a moment until she relaxed again and continued with the same three.
After doing it for three minutes, the rats were near him. Even now he was surprised by their size, they were bigger than his feet.
Luckily that time only a small one bit me, if there were some of these... He didn't continue imagining the scenario. If some of these rats bit him, his limb would become their dinner.
The rats were now only a few meters from him. He wanted to crush them, but he knew that his agility wasn't enough to do that. Hiding behind the wall, he threw the rock in front of him, just waiting for the rats to appear.
He didn't need to wait long. The first rat was slowly approaching the rock. The other ones just waited for their friend to give the signal.
When the rat started to smell the rock, Naruto didn't wait any longer and landed his hammer straight on the rat's head. The rat wanted to move aside, but Naruto was faster. The impact made a thud.
The rats rapidly approached, and they could see their best friend being crushed by a two-legged monkey. They flew into a rage and attacked him, straight for his ankles.
Naruto was slow to recover his hammer and could only take a step back, but one of the rats managed to reach his leg and tried to bite his ankle, but the bag he had torn up before saved him. Feeling the sudden pain, he hit it with his other leg.
If I don't tear the bag... when will this damn place give me a break?... Naruto complained
He was faster than the rats, but he didn't have the same agility as them.
Recovering his hammer, he went straight for the rat he kicked before. A kick imbued with chakra, even if only a rudimentary use, was enough to almost kill the rat.
Ending his suffering, he turned to the other rat. She kept trying to bite him, but he dodged it. Baiting it by showing his ankle. He waited until the rat was close enough and crushed it.
This time he couldn't hit the head, it was too fast, but at least he managed to hit the body and that was enough to incapacitate her.
Raising the hammer again, he ended its life.
Collecting the soul fragments, he retreated from the place.
The fight wasn't hard, but he never expected that fighting with rats would be so tiring.
The only thing that comforted him was seeing the numbers rising.
What will happen when I reach 100%?
Thinking while he rested, 10 minutes passed quickly.
Getting up, he returned to the room and did the same.
It wasn't hard to kill the rats after a few attempts, but sometimes they managed to bite him on his legs. The bite didn't go deeper, but he knew that he couldn't continue like that.
Why does it have such a short range? Ughh... I should have chosen the spear or a sword?
Those thoughts continued appearing in his mind, but he could only feel repentance.
As he continued fighting with the rats, he was getting used to it. Now he could dodge faster, and his reflexes were better to deal with them, they weren't fast in a straight line, but they were agile.
Time passed and he was fighting for almost 1 hour, the rats slowly disappeared from the room. He didn't fight with three every time, sometimes he needed to do it with four or even more.
He didn't run from the fight; he knew that these rats could hiss and call their friends. He knew running would be suicide.
His hand started to hurt; he was gripping the hammer so tightly.
This habit started when an impact with the ground made him lose his weapon. He had to fight only with his legs, because his hands were too slow and he needed to bend down to hit them.
Another 20 minutes later he finally cleaned the room of rats. The only thing left was a sea of rat corpses. He killed more than 100 this time.
He didn't have time to collect the fragments during the fight. Even after 15 minutes of continuous fighting, more rats kept appearing.
All the rats dropped fragments.
This time he could feel a small difference, it wasn't much but with his tired body, he could feel it.
[Vitality: 54% (Yellow)]
[Strength: 20%]
[Dexterity: 18%]
[Agility: 17%]
[Adaptability: 78%(Yellow)]
[Mind: 50% (Yellow)]
[Intelligence: 16(Colourless)]
"Eh? Why do I have more points?" Naruto tilted his head in confusion.
The numbers changed more than the bodies he counted. He didn't know the reason, but it was okay, as long as the numbers kept rising, he was happy.
With the rats dead, he finally could enter the room.
[Change of position: Safe zone (small)]
The skeleton was in the same place, with its back against a pillar.
Approaching it, Naruto could see that it had been dead for a long time. Bowed to it, he continued looking and he found a pair of boots on it.
Check
[Leather boots: serve to protect most scratches from vermin. In good condition] [+1 Defense]
...
"I guess you don't need this anymore, if you'll excuse me..." He moved carefully to grab the boots, waiting for something to happen. But no, he just grabbed it and put it in his inventory.
Opening his status window, he equipped the boots.
Seeing the silhouette in the status window, he noticed something.
[Attack: 18 (hammer) [21(bare hands)] [Defense: 3]
"What? Why is it 21 in bare hands?" Looking at his fists, Naruto didn't know what to think. Is it more efficient to hit them only with his hands? No, never mind. Just continue with the hammer.
Erasing those ominous thoughts, he noticed that behind the man there was a small pool of water.
Check
[Pool of clean water: Helps cleanse and purify minor wounds. It's not just for human use]
"Ah, that's why those rats were here, and he died. The rats were chasing him, and he died surrounded by them..."
What a sad death.
Approaching the pool, he started to clean the wounds from the previous battle. It was slower than the fountain in the center, but it worked and that was enough.
With his body relaxed, the hunger ran through his whole body. He hadn't eaten for hours and vomiting the only meal he had today didn't help...
When he wanted to take a sip from the fountain, he remembered the Dwarf's words.
"Don't use the fountain as food, you need to find it in the dungeon."
"If you try to get anything for nothing, be prepared to pay the price"
...
Food in the dungeon?
Looking at the rat's corpses, Naruto thought of something scary.
"No way."
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Naruto is faster, stronger than the rats. But he's only a kid, he didn't know how to fight against things that were several times smaller than him.
There are safe zones in the district, but safety is a relative term.
He will need a long time to clean this place.
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My doctor prescribed me other meds. I have a few chapters I can publish in these days but after that, I think I need to take some time until I can write again.
Thanks for reading.
Have a nice day.