After almost 30 minutes of torturing my two victims, it became obvious to me that now I had reached a decision point.
I never thought that Rats would be able to inflict fatal injuries, let alone end a life. But through sheer set of circumstances, the straggler had collapsed in a very precarious position, hitting his head and sustaining a fatal wound around his brows.
I was sure, though I had not confirmed yet, that I had earned several points from fatal injuries.
But judging by how the guy was bleeding, if I kept this going, he would soon pass out and likely die.
He wasn't that far from it seeing he had stopped even fighting the rats.
For a second I was tempted to go for the kill. I could easily edge the adult rats closer to more sensitive areas, like the throat or the eye. But I had to restrain myself there.
I was moving too fast, too fast. And a dungeon that moved this fast and began to kill too early was a dungeon that would draw attention of more powerful guilds. Soon enough, adventurers with bigger ranks than I could handle would be sent in. And then that would be the end of me.
Let them go, I ordered.
I felt a pang of regret because honestly, I could have still earned more energy stones from the taller guy, I Hadn't farmed enough pain from him yet.
However, if I wanted the straggler to be saved, then it had to be the taller guy who would help him because he didn't look that much worse.
In fact, he had gotten to a point where he had braved the pain and pulled off one of the girl baby rats that had been perched on his nipple.
It hadnt been without sustaining injury to himself, because now blood was streaming from his left breast.
Immediately all the rats responded to my command. Well, except the two that died.
They all retreated further towards the corridor that bordered my pond.
Immediately on seeing he was free, the taller guy yelped in gratitude as he jumped up.
I mean, he had been halfway running out naked when he remembered he needed his clothes.
He swiftly retreated back and took his pants and the rest of clothes before rushing out again.
The straggler gave a feeble attempt to call out his friend, but the man was too scared to turn back.
He straight rushed towards the exit, granting me a few more points from pain and fear.
I had not foreseen that. He had left his friend behind
Once out of the cave however , I observed the scout's hesitation .
He quickly, without even wiping the blood that was streaking out of his clothes, slipped into them and paused for a while.
maybe he still had balls. They were injured, but...
this one would likely make a good adventurer if he got the right guild support... Not that shitty gallant guild
Despite the fact that they were my opponent, I felt some respect towards the taller guy as I watched him turn again and began to trot back inside the mine.
My rats no longer showed up although he still had two huge rocks in both arms...
Good move but too late...
Had he thought of that earlier he might killed more than one rats, that had been one instance where a bloody rock was more important than a sword.
Soon enough he had reached the corridor where his friend was now attempting to crawl up.
Quickly, he forced the straggler's clothes on before gathering their few belongings and pulling him towards the exit.
'A good friend that one', I thought to myself.
Once they were outside the exit, the taller guy did not even stop to consult his friend.
He quickly reached inside the rucksack which belonged to the shorter man and pulled out what looked like a small rod.
Without much thought, he tossed it as deep as it could go inside the mine.
That moment caught me unaware.
For a while I thought it was some sort of explosive... and it was in a kind of way.
But it wasn't my modern perception of explosive.
This one burst, and a streak of light spread through the cave.
Immediately, a more urgent notification rang across me.
You have been discovered by an adventurer.
Adventurer's name. Leo frost
Rank Weak f
Guild affiliation. The Gallant Guild.
Guild level. Rock
'frost' I Amused over the name. He didn't look that cold to me
Something told me this wasn't the last time I was seeing this guy.
If anything, I could tell he had the makings of a great adventurer.
The passion, the resilience, and loyalty.
These were the ingredients that bred ambitious men.
As for the discovery, That had been my plan all along. To get myself marked.
If I needed to develop myself, then I needed a steady flow of adventurers.
Based on the report, he would likely be submitting to the guild.
The guild would be mad to send adventurers higher than E rank.
Mostly because the mention of rats would see to that.
Rats were the lowest of monsters... If at all they considered them that.
To even admit that you had been attacked by one to the level of sustaining fatal injury was shameful and insulting to an adventurer.
Most likely, frost and his friend would hide that fact.
But even if they revealed it, the guild would try to supress that information.
Because if a dungeon threat level ascended too fast, then it would be taken out of their jurisdiction.
And there is no guild that would want such a move to happen.
Especially not when they were recruiting people to find dungeons for them.
Now I turned my attention towards the array of notifications.
I just breezed through all of them just to see how much points I had sustained so far.
I had accumulated 120 points.
30 points just out of fear instances.
40 out of pain.
And 50 out of injuries inflicted.
I was thrilled if a mine could ever be.
Now we are talking.
I turned my awareness to the actions available And notifications danced Around me.
Alert.
Monster evolution is now available.
Alert.
Theme development available.
Just beneath the monster evolution, I saw that the rats, I now had six of them.
I could now evolve them into feral rats.
Which essentially were still dungeon rats.
Only now they had bigger bodies.
And even bigger and stronger fangs.
To evolve them would cost me 30 credits for all six of them.
That balance of my energy stones was also enough to evolve them to their next level also.
Which were now the hunting mice.
These now would be able to act like a pack.
With coordinated attacks and a heightened level of intelligence.
They would also grow bigger than the feral rats.
And the attack would be more deadly.
But I hesitated triggering this course of action.
Mainly because other levels of monsters had been unlocked.
For example, the leeches were now available.
And now for 30 credits of energy stones that I was paying to evolve the rats, I could receive a swarm of 10 flesh leeches.
That was a lot for just flesh leeches.
Their main way of earning me energy stones was through pain and attrition.
But that was not what drew me to them.
What drew me to them was the next level in their evolution line.
The flesh leeches could be evolved into mana leech for a price of 15 credits more.
For the entire swarm of 10 leeches.
Now that was the most important difference.
Mainly because they were mana leeches.
Unlike the rats that would just have physical advantages, the mana leeches were a little bit inconspicuous.
They attached themselves into adventurers.
And at first they could even pass without notice.
Since what they were mainly attacking was the mana from an adventurer.
Only if prompted would they induce pain.
And this was a very important aspect because I knew something.
The next set of adventurers to come here, if frost and his friends confirmed that indeed I was an F-rank dungeon, would be probably very well-skilled F-rank adventurers with a sense and a touch of mana or even E-ranks.
Most guilds often send slightly higher ranked adventurers into dungeons that are a level beneath their rank.
So in this sense I would most likely receive E-rank adventurers.
And you could bet one thing that this time they wouldn't be as helpless or disorganized as the victims I have so far encountered.
In this sense rats therefore were a bit useless.
Because for an adventurer who used mana, getting rid of plain rats wouldn't be a struggle.
The leeches on the other level were completely different because they would drain without their knowledge, slow by slow.
Actually for another prize of 20 credits I could involve them into blood leech which would drain both blood and mana at the same time.
And could also resist barriers or shields that adventurers could apply to their flesh.
But I did not go for that.
Instead I allowed the evolution of the purchase of flesh leech.
I felt a bit bitter because there was no option for me to just use 30 credits to just evolve the leeches directly to mana leech.
Apparently the system only allowed you to evolve monsters that you had already spawned.
And seeing that I had not spawned leeches, I had to spawn them in order to evolve them.
Which actually was a kind of double taxation.
So I had no choice but to just purchase them and almost immediately evolve them.
The swarm appeared right just above the pond and I could sense them.
Lucky for me, their anatomy was well developed and I could see their mouths were equipped with what looked like clippers that would sink inside adventurers' flesh.
That looked like it could induce a shit ton of pain.
Though I had to guess they had some aesthetic ability that could restrain the pain perception until triggered.
I would see to their distribution shortly but before then I turned my attention to the other aspect that was glaring to me now.
The core integrity.
If I was being honest, I brushed with danger of discovery quite too much for my comfort.
My current position was not the most ideal for me to conceal myself.
Even if an adventurer broke through all of my monsters and managed to get towards the end of the mine, it shouldn't be that easy to retrieve me.
So I had to think of a better way to protect myself.