Even though the creature in front of me was an incredibly imposing beast, I knew I could still win. Previously, after escaping from its wrath, I had dreamt about the meridians of rats. I could envision the internal network of qi within my opponent. All I had to do was strike at the neck.
The giant rat’s cautious behaviour came to an end. It charged at me. Penrin and Newmill both retreated, allowing me to fight alone as I had foolishly requested. Despite the giant rat being stronger, its movements seemed even more predictable than last time.
It ran at me directly. As it came close, I jumped and rolled to the side causing the rat to run straight into a tree. The HP bar above its head reduced by a tiny fraction. If I did that one hundred more times, perhaps I could knock it out.
Except that the rat learned from its mistake and approached me more like a slithering snake. It weaved between trees so I could not easily predict where it was going. The rat was large but still nimble. It was faster, stronger, and more flexible than me. Some rats have all the luck.
I quickly scrambled up a thick tree to escape the giant rat. I had done this before, so I knew it would take a while for the rat to gnaw through the tree trunk. When it began to chew through the bark, I would drop an acupuncture dart at the rat’s pressure point, and the homing effect would kick in.
The rat reached the base of the tree and chomped straight through the trunk in one bite.
I began to fall. I hadn’t quite taken into consideration that the rat was much stronger, and therefore it could fell a tree with one chomp. My balance was lost. Gravity pulled me straight down onto the rat’s head, but this was a golden opportunity. With a sturdy needle in my hand, I positioned myself to land close to the rat’s neck, so I could strike at it’s Life Pond and knock it unconscious.
It was fortunate for me that the rat was distracted by the large falling tree. It avoided the falling trunk, and while it did so, I leapt onto its neck and sunk my needle into the rat’s pressure point.
With that, it was defeated… Except that the rat kept moving. I knew something was off the moment I pierced it with my needle. The needle could not penetrate far enough into the thick pelt of fur. There was too much distance for the thin piece of metal to travel. The rat bucked to get me off its back. I held on for dear life, but the rats tail lashed at me.
[-91 HP]
I was flung across the forest. My whole body screamed in pain. That hurt more than anything I had experienced in my life. I was writhing in agony. The rat had dealt enough damage to kill me if I hadn’t levelled up my Body. I thanked my past self for having the good sense to increase my stats, and then I cursed my past self for bringing me into this situation.
“Ow! Ow! Ow!” I clenched the part of my body that the rat tail had struck. The left side of my body was badly damaged. It would take months for it to heal naturally.
The rat barrelled towards me. I was in no position to dodge or run away. “Help!” I cried out to my comrades. If they didn’t help, I was dead. “I take back what I said before! Please help me.”
“I guess we should step in,” said Penrin, looking at my miserable state.
“What if it’s a test? Maybe he wants to see if we’ll trust in his previous words or if we’ll intervene?” wondered Newmill.
Penrin did not wait to see if that was true. She dashed over to me and picked me up before the giant rat had a chance to reach me. She carried me away like a princess in her arms. “My hero,” I said. My joy at living another day was apparent in my voice.
“What’s the plan now, Yarm? Shall I kill it?” Penrin said nonchalantly.
She made it seem like she was capable of killing the monstrosity easily. “No. We should avoid killing if we can.” I was surprised at how fast Penrin was moving while carrying me. It seemed like I weighed nothing at all in her arms. The rat could not keep up with us.
“Bring him to me, Penrin,” Newmill shouted.
Weaving through the trees and escaping the rat’s sights, Penrin carried me over to Newmill. The prince laid his palm on my side and green particles of light entered my body.
[+1 HP]
“Amazing, Newmill. Your System didn’t say you were a healer.” I was happily surprised by this new revelation.
“This power isn’t from the System. For a long time, I’ve refused to level up since it requires killing monsters. Instead, I’ve been studying healing magic so I can help others,” Newmill explained. His touch felt refreshing. The green light particles that danced out of his hand and filled my body were rejuvenating.
[+1 HP]
“Does that mean you’re a study mage?” I asked.
He shook his head quickly. “No, no. Not at all. Study mages dedicate their lives to the arcane. I merely dabbled in learning a little healing magic. Plus, I don’t shun the System for what it gives me like they do.”
[+1 HP]
“Ah, I see.” I didn’t want to complain about the help I received, but I had to ask, “Isn’t this a little slow?” Notifications about the healing effect popped up every ten seconds.
“I can’t help it.” Newmill’s lip turned up and his chin wrinkled. “I’m not very good at this.”
[+1 HP]
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to disparage you. You’re doing great. Keep it up.” I instinctively looked at the non-existent watch on my wrist. How long was this going to take? Penrin had evaded the rat already, so it wasn’t like we were in a rush.
After about ten minutes, my HP had reached 82.
“That is all I can manage,” said Newmill.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m out of mana.”
“But you had 470 MP! How can you be out of juice already?”
“I’m not very efficient, ok? It’s much harder to cast magic without the System’s help. There’s a lot of complicated processes that go into it. I’m trying my best.”
“You’re right, sorry, sorry. I should be thanking you. I appreciate it, Newmill. Oh, and you can let me down now, Penrin.” She had been carrying me for the entire treatment. She let me go and I hit the ground with a thud. “Ow.”
She playfully nudged my body with her foot. “Are you ready to start considering us as equals? Looking down on us as if we were children almost resulted in your death. It’s pathetic to reject our assistance with one breath and then cry for help with the next. If you keep that condescending attitude of yours, you won’t make it far.”
I hated admitting I was wrong, so instead I admitted she was right. My arrogance had been my downfall many times already. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Penrin, Newmill. Please help me.” Penrin lifted one of my arms and Newmill lifted the other to bring me to my feet. “Here’s the plan…”
The three of us discussed our next actions before returning to the giant rat. It was still skittering through the woods, looking for us. Since our bodies were smaller than it, it was simple for us to hide out of sight. On the other hand, the large rat could not hide from us. Its body was far too noticeable, and its sheer mass created a lot of noise from moving around.
Penrin’s small frame ran into the rat and body-slammed it. It was astonishing how such a little girl could generate so much force. The rat was lifted off of its feet. It rolled onto its back and then continued rolling back onto its front.
However, the sheer strength of the blow had momentarily stunned it long enough for Newmill to cast Fireball at its neck. The fire burned away a circle of fur which allowed me the opportunity to run at it and stab it in the neck. I sprinted as fast as I could towards it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very fast.
During my sprint, the rat got up. I missed my chance. By then, I was still the furthest away out of everyone. “Why were you hiding so far away, idiot?” shouted Penrin.
“I didn’t want to be accidentally attacked by the rat! It could kill me easily.” I was still running. I finally made it to where Newmill was, but the rat had recovered enough to fight.
With one sudden movement, the rat prepared to bite Penrin.
“Watch out! That thing’s bite is lethal,” I shouted.
Penrin lifted her forearm and used it to defend against the rat. The giant rat sunk its teeth into Penrin’s arm but did not sever it. The same chomp that had split a tree trunk could not break Penrin’s defence. The girl smiled as the rat tried to futilely gnaw at her forearm. “You’re telling me to watch out? Do the Barbarian and Berserker title mean nothing to you, Yarm?”
“I mean, yeah, kind of. I don’t know what those do.”
“Oh.” She seemed disappointed by my response. I realised that she probably wanted to look cool.
“Keep it still! I’ll finish it off.” I rushed towards the rat to land the decisive blow. My legs moved fast. I would make it there soon. However, as I ran, I tripped over a tree root and went tumbling to the ground. An amateur mistake like that would’ve cost me several seconds, but I managed to tumble into a kip up. I only lost a second at most before getting back on my feet.
“Any day now, Yarm!” Penrin shouted while the rat continued to sink its rodent teeth into her forearm.
“I’m almost there!” As I ran, I suddenly felt my hand was empty. I had dropped my sturdy needle after tripping over the tree root. I went back and started searching through the grass to find it.
“I can’t keep this up forever!” Penrin let me know. I was glad that her body was turned away from me, because I was sure she would blow a fuse if she saw me sifting through the grass on all fours.
“Help me look for the needle,” I whispered loudly to Newmill. He got onto the ground and started searching with me. My great mind then realised that I had more needles in my bag. I pulled out one of those and charged at the rat. Into the bare skin on its neck, I plunged the needle. This was the exact spot I believed the Life Pond to be on a rat’s body. I was right.
The rat went into unconsciousness and collapsed.
Penrin shook off the saliva that clung to her arm. “Eugh, disgusting.” I was amazed that there was not even a scratch on her. The rat had not hurt her at all.
“Good job, team! We defeated the rat without killing it,” I said.
“I found the needle!” Newmill shouted happily.
“Well done on that end too, I suppose.” I walked up to the unconscious rat and placed my hand on it. “Time for you to go back to the Demon Kingdom.” I activated my Spare Monster skill.
[Banished: Level 21 Giant Rat]
[+1 Giant Rat Pelt, +1 Giant Rat Eye, +79 GP]
[-3365 XP]
[XP loss due to sparing a monster.]
[+1 Level Up]
[+1 Level Up]
My eyes went dizzy from all the popups that appeared in front of my face. The first one gave me the heebie-jeebies. Did the System take away the monster’s eye and skin to give to me? Hopefully not. Probably not. The Spare Monster skill gave me rewards for using it, but those rewards did not seem to be taken from the monsters. For example, I knew this rat wasn’t carrying around 79 GP in its pocket. That was created by the System.
“This is strange,” said Penrin. “Why have I gained XP? You didn’t kill the monster, did you?”
“No, I teleported it away. We got XP for sparing it,” I explained.
Penrin’s eyebrows furrowed together. She did not seem to trust my explanation. “There’s no such thing as gaining XP for sparing monsters. It has never been documented that allowing a monster to live gives you XP.”
“Huh.” I paused to think. Perhaps acquiring XP from sparing monsters was something that only heroes and villains could do. Wait a minute. Getting XP? “Did you say you gained XP, Penrin?”
“Yeah, enough to give me a level up.”
“Are you sure you didn’t lose XP?”
The girl tilted her head. “What do you mean by losing XP? It’s impossible to lose XP. You can only gain it.”
“What? Is that true?” I looked at Newmill who nodded at me. “What about if you steal? Or if you do something against the law?”
“You still wouldn’t lose XP, no matter what you did. XP does not lower.” Penrin was confused by my confusion.
Interesting. For sparing this rat, I had lost experience points. XP was shared among party members, so one would assume that Penrin and Newmill would have lost XP too. However, it seemed to have converted into a gain for them.
I looked above Newmill’s head and whistled. “Looks like you’ve gained the most, huh?”
He stood holding his arm close to his body. “Yeah, I levelled up four times. I didn’t think it was possible to level up this much without killing monsters or completing quests. It feels like a dream.”
Before we could celebrate, I heard a rustling coming from a bush nearby. All three of us turned towards the noise, ready for another battle. Emerging from the bush came a small blue jelly-like creature.
I started running away immediately. “Everyone, run for your lives! Save yourselves.” I quickly left my two comrades behind.
Newmill and Penrin stared at each other, dumbfounded. “He just defeated a giant rat and now he’s scared of a slime?” asked Penrin.
“Maybe he has some past trauma?” Newmill guessed.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter