Chapter 39: Why so serious? (Patreon)

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Cayden strode confidently down the tunnel of the dungeon, though not without caution. His pace was much faster than the pace he and Elise had set in their first exploratory delve, but he still took the time to glance into all of the side tunnels for enchanting materials and listen for the tell-tale sounds of sneaking ratlings.

So far, he had heard and found nothing.

He wondered if the ratlings were somehow tracking him, waiting until he got deeper before springing an ambush. Would his faster pace foul their plans? How quickly could the ratlings move through the side tunnels to surround him?

Cayden didn’t know, and frankly, he didn’t really care. He came here to push himself and kill ratlings. While he wasn’t going to abandon strategy completely, he didn’t feel that most potential strategies would be particularly helpful or necessary.

There were no teammates to coordinate. No enchanted items to craft. No friends to protect. It was just Cayden and his claws against the world. Now, he just needed the world to supply his targets.

He grinned ferally when he heard the scritches of ratling claws against the earth.

Cayden wasted no time in pulling the vitality boost potion from his armor, popping the cork with a stab of one of his claws, and chugging down the drink. It was sweeter than a healing potion but just as easy to get down, and a second later he tossed the empty vial to the side.

It went against his instincts to litter so casually, instincts built from hours of picking up trash along the side of the road in an orange jumpsuit, but this was a dungeon. Even if there weren’t vastly more important things for him to focus on, the dungeon would clean itself up in a few hours after Cayden left.

Cayden flexed his claws, waiting for the ratlings to arrive. With how narrow the tunnel was, he’d left his spear with Elise at the entrance to the dungeon. His claws would be better against the swarms of agile ratlings anyway.

It felt like both an eternity and less than a second, waiting in the light of his glowstone for the ratlings to attack, the sounds of their claws echoing deceivingly in the dark. He periodically swung around to check behind him, having learned from the previous delve, but he was always alone in his small circle of light.

Until he wasn’t.

Three ratlings ran at him from out of the darkness. None of them were ratling princes. All three dashed forward on their hind legs, hunched over their grasping claws, beady red eyes focused on their target.

Cayden felt a wave of déjà vu as the monsters approached. But this time, instead of waiting for the ratlings with his hammer held at the ready, he ran forward to meet them.

His agility wasn’t much higher now than it had been on his previous delve of the ratling dungeon. Only eighteen compared to the previous fifteen. But this time he had the claw mastery skill, which boosted both strength and agility by thirty-nine percent after factoring in [Boost Passive], bringing his agility up to an effective twenty-five.

In many ways, Cayden didn’t fully understand stats. While he’d boosted his stats via level-ups on several different occasions and gained a few skills that gave large boosts to specific stats, any controlled tests of those changes occurred in the courtyard behind the guild with either a training dummy or against someone more powerful than him who would lower their abilities to match his level. Against a monster he had fought just a few weeks earlier, how much difference did an effective increase of ten stat points truly make?

The answer, it turned out, was significant.

Cayden moved past the ratlings almost as if they were standing still. He slashed out with his left clawed hand, eviscerating the lead ratling before it even had a chance to react. The second ratling was slightly faster than its brother, just barely managing to dodge back from Cayden’s initial strike as he ran past. The third ratling, despite having an extra split-second to prepare, wasn’t ready for Cayden’s charge and died just like the first.

Cayden knew that the second ratling would attempt to take advantage of Cayden’s exposed back after his charge, and so he whirled in place, ready to slash the attacking ratling out of the air. But he hadn’t fully comprehended his increased agility, and was surprised to find the ratling was still back where he had left it, only just starting its attack on Cayden’s previously exposed flank.

He waited patiently for the ratling to approach, the monster’s beady eyes fixed on the glowstone secured in the middle of Cayden’s chest. Without anything else obvious for the creature to steal, the orb of light was the most tempting target. Cayden welcomed its attempts with claws bared.

The ratling lept at Cayden, and Cayden met its attack claw-to-claw.

His claws won.

With blood dripping from his claws and a feral smile on his face, Cayden turned back down the tunnel and resumed his trek.

Soon enough, four more ratlings were revealed out of the darkness, and Cayden increased his walk to a sprint. These ratlings seemed even less prepared than the previous three, and Cayden dispatched them all on the first pass, more adjusted to their agility and attempts to dodge his charge.

Cayden left their corpses behind him before continuing forward. He planned to harvest as many experience crystals as he could on his way back out of the dungeon, but he didn’t want to waste time in his advance. He didn’t exactly have an excess of room to store any harvested crystals, and storing them in a pouch on his belt was just asking for a lucky ratling to carry them away when he was distracted. As long as he didn’t take too long in the dungeon, the corpses would still be there waiting for him on his way out.

If the ratlings held to the same pattern as they had previously, then the next wave should be coming up in…and there they were. Three more ratlings were accompanied by a ratling prince, slightly taller and with a glint of intelligence in its eye.

It was hard to interpret any expression on their monstrous faces, but Cayden thought he saw a hint of surprise from the ratling prince. Were they not expecting him to keep moving forward through their waves so quickly? If so, that was just one more reason to continue his charge.

The first ratling was dispatched with ease, but the ratling prince stepped forward to engage with Cayden before he could do the same to the other two. For the first time, Cayden paused to size up his opponent.

Though it felt like it after the first two waves, he knew he wasn’t invincible. He had promised Elise that he would be careful. He needed to know he could defeat a ratling prince without just bulldozing it down before it could strike back.

The ratling prince stood just outside of Cayden’s range and stared at him, the two smaller ratlings huddling behind their liege and hissing their displeasure. Cautiously, Cayden took a step forward, and the prince hissed, a glob of saliva slinging out of its mouth past its fangs. Cayden took another step forward and the prince hissed again. This time, at the prince’s signal, the two smaller ratlings rushed forward like unleashed dogs. Cayden slashed out with both of his hands, catching the ratling on the right in the neck and killing it instantly. Despite his training, Cayden wasn’t ambidextrous, and his strike against the ratling on his left was slightly off. It caught the leaping monster’s hindleg, knocking the ratling back and almost completely severing the appendage. The ratling fell to the ground where it struggled to pull itself toward Cayden with just its forelegs.

Cayden didn’t have time to finish off the downed opponent, though. The ratling prince had made use of its subordinates’ attacks, charging up the middle while Cayden had been distracted with strikes to either side. The prince reached for him, sharp claws extended, faster than any of the lesser ratlings. Fast enough that Cayden wasn’t able to interpose his claws between himself and the leaping monster.

Despite the gaudy jewelry adorning the prince’s body, it wasn’t distracted by the bauble on Cayden’s chest; no, this ratling was smart enough to aim for Cayden’s neck, going directly for the kill.

Cayden didn’t have the agility to knock the ratling prince away before it would strike, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t able to react at all. He activated [The Moment], tucked his chin protectively over his neck, and turned his shoulder. But still, he wasn’t quite fast enough.

The ratling prince’s claws scraped against the vulnerable flesh on the side of his neck.

And didn’t break the skin.

An instant later, Cayden slapped the ratling prince to the side, his claws raking across the prince’s body. It didn’t kill it, but it did leave four bloody gashes across its side. His neck stung, but after pressing the back of his hand against where the ratling had scratched him – the one part of his hands that wasn’t covered in ratling blood – it came away unbloodied.

Cayden couldn’t help it. The adrenaline surging through his veins. The exhilaration of combat. The relief that he wasn’t wounded. The simple thrill of being alive.

A laugh bubbled out of his throat as he grabbed the downed and disoriented ratling prince around the throat, showing the monster that his claws were sharper and its defenses were weaker than his own, slicing through its neck with ease and dropping the two halves of the monster to the ground.

Through his laughter, Cayden barely heard the click of claws against earth. He whirled in place.

In the same way that the ratlings had ambushed them the previous time, the horde had once again snuck up behind him. It was smaller than the horde that had harried him and Elise in their desperate escape, but larger than anything he had yet faced on this delve, and Cayden choked down his laughter.

But the exhilaration didn’t fade. This was what he came back here for. Him against the ratling horde. No one else to protect or interfere. Just him versus the monsters in glorious combat.

No one to judge him.

Cayden allowed his laugh to once more grow in his throat, and the horde of ratlings, previously creeping silently towards their target, collectively took a step back.

New skills available:

Intimidation (active): Intimidate a nearby target or targets, causing fear, confusion, and hesitation. Small mana cost.

Berserk (active): Enter a state of heightened passion, boosting all stats by 30%, vastly increasing pain resistance, and gaining a moderate heal-over-time. Vastly lowered cognitive control. Lowered ability to identify friend from foe. Medium mana cost.

Cayden’s laughter only grew.

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