Dozens of red eyes stared out from the darkness, and for the briefest moment, Damian’s skin crawled.
There was something uniquely disturbing about seeing so many small creatures packed together in the darkness, each pair of eyes reflecting faint crimson as claws scratched against stone and angry squeals multiplied throughout the cave.
His instincts told him to retreat, create distance, stand outside, then bombard the entrance.
Instead, Damian tightened his grip around his staff and did something that would have looked completely insane to anyone watching.
He charged forward!
"Alright then!"
Damian rushed directly toward the cave entrance, and the reaction from the vermin was immediate.
The tide of Feral Giant Rats that had begun gathering within the tunnel froze, several of them recoiling in terror.
Others directly scrambled backward into the darkness, colliding with those behind them and triggering a wave of confused squealing throughout the nest.
Damian almost laughed.
The creatures were aggressive for sure, but they were still rats at the end of the day.
Even enlarged and emboldened by numbers, their instincts remained fundamentally cautious. A prey animal, or anything they considered prey, was supposed to hesitate when confronted with dozens of snapping jaws.
It was not supposed to charge directly into their nest!
To the rats, Damian’s suicidal advance could only mean one thing; he was planning something horrible!
And of course, they were absolutely correct!
Unfortunately, Damian’s glorious charge lasted all of eight seconds, and by the time he reached the entrance, his lungs were already burning.
"Haah... haah..."
Damian planted his staff against the stone and leaned on it slightly, his heart hammering and his legs feeling embarrassingly heavy.
The rats stared at him with confusion and bewilderment.
Damian stared back while struggling to breathe.
Brother, his STR was 3, his AGI was 2, and his CON was 3.
For all the magical knowledge suddenly packed inside his skull, his physical body was still the same exhausted, poorly conditioned body that had spent years being abused by overtime, stress and insufficient rest.
Running several dozen meters uphill had apparently been enough to expose that ugly truth.
One particularly large rat poked its head forward, its nose twitching as Damian continued panting.
Another rat emerged beside it, then another, and the atmosphere changed.
The terrifying creature that had charged their nest like a madman was now bent over his staff and breathing like an elderly dog after climbing a staircase.
The rats understood immediately that they had been deceived!
"SKREEE!"
One Feral Giant Rat squealed furiously, and the others joined in.
Damian raised his head.
"Oh, come on..."
The swarm charged forward, dozens of clawed feet striking stone as the creatures poured forward, their mouths opening to reveal filthy yellow fangs.
Damian did not move, and that was the point of his seemingly rash action to rush up here.
Rather, he straightened and began chanting.
The words came naturally through <Arcane Knowledge>, each syllable carrying carefully structured intent as his mind reached outward and seized the mana surrounding him.
Unlike a Cantrip, a proper Level 1 spell required considerably more work when cast naturally.
Mana gathered around Damian, coiling through the air in visible currents as his staff began to glow with a steady, intensifying light.
The first rat was already less than ten meters away, yet Damian continued chanting without fail.
From seven meters, to five, then to three, with each step closing the distance in rapid succession as the rats surged closer with every second.
His instincts screamed that he had waited too long, but War Caster held his concentration firm as Damian completed the final gesture.
"Macte Virtute!"
Golden light erupted around his body, forming a translucent shell over his robes that clung to his outline like a second layer of clothing made entirely from condensed radiance.
[Mage Armor activated.]
[Mental Energy: 51/70.]
Twelve whole points.
You could be sure that Damian felt the expenditure.
It was not painful merely in a statistical sense, but also brought an immediate pressure to his mind, almost like losing an hour of sleep in a single instant.
Then the first rat struck him, its claws scraping across the golden barrier covering his chest as sparks flew and the creature bounced backward.
Damian’s eyes widened as his heart leapt to his throat, but still another jumped at him, its fangs snapping around his forearm.
Or trying to, at least.
The teeth sank into the ethereal layer surrounding him and stopped several millimeters away from his actual skin.
The rat squealed in confusion before Damian shook his arm and threw it aside.
"Hahaha! Okay, this is pretty damned useful!"
<Mage Armor> was not an absolute barrier.
At Damian’s current level, its defensive ability was roughly equivalent to wearing an exceptionally high-quality suit of light armor or lower-grade medium armor while retaining almost complete freedom of movement.
Against Giant Feral Rats?
It might as well have been plate steel.
The problem was the cost.
Mage Armor consumed a point of Mental Energy every minute simply to remain active.
Unlike <Shield>, which formed a powerful defensive barrier with a finite amount of force it could endure before collapsing, Mage Armor operated differently.
As long as Damian possessed sufficient Mental Energy, it persisted.
Damage caused tiny distortions throughout the magical structure, and the spell immediately consumed additional Mental Energy to repair them.
Against one stronger opponent, that efficiency was excellent.
Against a swarm constantly scratching, biting and striking from every direction?
The drain could become horrifying.
Damian knew that, yet he had cast it anyway because the spell was never meant to win this fight, but to buy him several seconds.
The rats continually flooded around him, but Damian deliberately planted himself in the narrowest section of the cave entrance.
His shoulders were not yet broad enough to completely block the opening, but between his body, staff and the rocky walls, only a handful of rats could squeeze around him at once.
But that did not stop the others from trying as more and more emerged from behind.
The creatures began piling over one another, scrambling across backs and tails as they fought to reach Damian.
One jumped toward his face, and Damian recoiled instinctively as claws scraped across the golden light covering his cheek.
[Mental Energy: 49/70.]
Another latched onto his thigh.
[Mental Energy: 48/70.]
A third sank its teeth against his side.
[Mental Energy: 46/70.]
Damian’s smile vanished.
"Whew... that really goes down fast."
Yet he did not retreat, not yet at least, even as the rats became increasingly excited.
Their squeals turned almost gleeful as more bodies crowded around the seemingly trapped Mage. Beady red eyes glittered with vicious excitement, and several creatures climbed directly over their companions trying to reach his face and throat.
Damian endured it, his pulse racing as his Mage Armor flickered repeatedly.
One rat was annoying, five were uncomfortable, and twenty looked like a nightmare, yet that was precisely why Damian had chosen the cave entrance.
He looked past the creatures immediately surrounding him, noting that the tunnel was packed, with rats filling nearly every available section for several meters.
Some stood atop one another while others were trapped beneath the swarm, creating the perfect formation for Damian.
"Got you!" he muttered as his eyes sharpened.
Damian began chanting again, and the spell he selected was technically already prepared through <Mage Initiate>.
He could have released the prepared version quickly, with no chanting and no material requirement, but Damian deliberately didn’t.
His prepared Spell Slots were valuable emergency resources, and these were CR 0 rats.
He refused to waste one unless necessary.
As such, Damian cast <Burning Hands> naturally.
The formula formed inside his mind and his fingers moved through the required gestures even as the damned rats clawed at his arms.
Once again, War Caster proved its immense value.
Without it, trying to maintain a spell formula while several rabid animals attempted to chew through his defenses would have been significantly more difficult.
Damian reached into the component pouch attached to his belt, his fingers closing around a small amount of warm volcanic ash specially refined and sold as a standard Mage casting material.
The rats continued biting as Damian finished the spell.
He thrust both hands forward, scattering the ash into the air.
"Arde!"
WHOOOOM!
Fire exploded outward in a roaring cone of orange flame that filled the cave entrance!
Five meters, which was roughly seventeen feet, of condensed magical fire swallowed the entire swarm!
For one terrible instant, Damian heard nothing.
Then, came the screaming.
"SKREEEEEEEEE!"
"SKRIIII!"
"SKREEE—!"
The squeals were horrific.
Rats nearest Damian disappeared behind flame as fur ignited instantly.
Several collapsed on the spot, their bodies simply too fragile to withstand direct magical fire at such close range while others were blasted backward into their companions.
Those farther away caught fire across their backs and sides, thrashing violently against the stone while spreading panic deeper into the cave.
The smell arrived a moment later, and Damian’s awed expression immediately collapsed.
"Oh God!"
He immediately stepped backward and covered his nose.
Burnt hair, cooked flesh, and something rancid from the rats’ filthy bodies combined into an odor so foul that Damian’s stomach lurched.
He turned away sharply.
"Ugh!"
His eyes watered.
For several seconds, winning the battle became less important than preventing Garrick’s excellent chicken soup from making a return appearance.
Damian swallowed hard and slapped himself, trying to fortify his mind.
Eventually, his stomach settled.
[Mental Energy: 31/70.]
The natural <Burning Hands> had cost him heavily, with a price of 15 points Mental Energy.
Between the raw spell expenditure, maintaining Mage Armor and the repeated damage repairs, Damian had burned through more than half his estimated Mental Energy reserve in less than a minute of actual combat.
Still...
The result spoke for itself.
The cave entrance had become a graveyard of charred rat corpses, with more than half the swarm dying instantly and the remainder burning for only seconds before falling still.
Damian cautiously lowered the hand covering his nose, noticing some movement.
Three rats near the rear twitched, another attempted to crawl deeper into the cave using only its front legs, and two more had survived beneath other bodies, protected from the full flame by their companions.
Damian frowned.
"Indeed, even a rat can be lucky twice a day."
They were alive, badly injured, but still alive.
On top of that, walking close enough to finish them with his dagger would be foolish and using more expensive offensive spells would be wasteful.
A Cantrip could work, but there were several targets, so using one for each was even worse.
Then Damian remembered something.
"Voco."
Mana gathered, and a translucent hand materialized beside him.
[Mage Hand activated.]
[Mental Energy: 26/70.]
The spectral hand floated toward Damian’s waist, its fingers wrapping around his newly acquired dagger as it drew the blade.
Damian looked at the first wounded rat as the Mage Hand floated toward it.
Stab!
The dagger entered the creature’s skull with a disgustingly wet sound, the hardened metal superior to the rat’s flimsy cranium.
Damian flinched slightly, but still made the magical hand withdraw the blade.
Stab!
Another rat bit the dust.
Stab!
A third rat stopped twitching.
The entire thing was messy, very messy.
Damian quickly discovered that using a floating magical hand to repeatedly stab injured giant rats did not somehow make killing palatable.
But what it did do was make it safe and efficient, which mattered more.
By the time the final survivor stopped moving, Damian released Mage Armor and allowed the golden radiance around his body to disappear.
The sudden reduction in magical strain was immediately noticeable.
He also dismissed Mage Hand after retrieving his dagger.
Damian stood before the cave entrance and breathed slowly.
Silence returned, with no claws, no squealing, and certainly no attacks.
The young man looked down at himself, his robes intact and his skin untouched.
Hey, not one bite or scratch on him, huh?
Agnes’ words returned to him.
The question was not whether he could win, but whether he could win perfectly!
Damian smiled and folded his arms smugly.
"I’d say that counts."
Then he looked at the bodies, his smile weakening as he realized the unpleasant part had finally come.
Traditionally, Adventurers needed physical evidence of every kill, like rat tails, goblin ears, slime cores, monster teeth, or whatever easily identifiable body part the Guild accepted as proof.
Damian had absolutely no intention of cutting tails off nearly thirty roasted rats unless forced.
Fortunately, modern magitech had solved that problem too as Damian activated the Guild card and a pale light swept across the nearest corpse.
[Confirmed: Feral Giant Rat.]
[Status: Slain.]
[Quest Contribution Recorded.]
Damian sighed with relief.
"Thank you, Alexander Smith."
He moved from corpse to corpse.
The process was slightly tedious because the Guild card did not possess a proper video-recording function. Each corpse needed to remain identifiable enough for the scan to confirm species, condition and approximate time of death.
That was another reason fire magic could become problematic.
If Damian had thrown something ridiculous like a Level 3 <Fireball> into the cave and reduced everything to ash, the Guild would have had difficulty confirming exactly how many monsters he killed.
Thankfully, <Burning Hands> had merely cooked them.
...which was a sentence Damian wished had never entered his thoughts.
By the time he finished scanning the bodies, another translucent interface appeared before him.
However, this one did not come from the Guild card... it came from Valoria itself!
[Combat concluded.]
[Generating Post-Battle Report...]
Damian paused.
"Post-Battle Report?"
The interface expanded.
[Post-Battle Report]
[Name: Damian Baines.]
[Main Class: Mage — Level 1.]
[Encounter: Feral Giant Rat Colony — Outer Nest Group.]
[Enemies Defeated: 27.]
[Highest Challenge Rating: CR 0.]
[Party: Solo.]
[Damage Sustained: None.]
[Experience Evaluation in Progress...]
Damian’s eyebrows rose.
Well, well, well... this was certainly new.
Apparently, Valoria’s Character Sheet system did not simply throw Experience Points into his status every time something died, but rather analyzed the entire encounter.
That seemed to align with what Roland had explained.
Experience came from meaningful Class-related activity, growth and accomplishments rather than mechanically farming corpses.
The report updated.
[Experience Points Awarded: 2.]
Damian’s smile froze.
"...Two?"
The interface helpfully explained.
[Experience Breakdown:]
[+1 Experience Point — First confirmed kill achieved using the capabilities of a Standard Class.]
[+1 Experience Point — Solo defeat of a hostile group numbering more than ten Level 0 creatures while at Level 1.]
[Additional Experience: None.]
Damian stared speechlessly.
Twenty-seven rats for a measly two Experience Points?
His eye couldn’t help but twitch.
"Surely there’s some group bonus somewhere?"
Unfortunately, nothing appeared.
Damian opened his Character Sheet.
[Name: Damian Baines.]
[Race: Human (Otherworlder).]
[Overall Level: 1.]
[Main Class: Mage (Lv.1).]
[Subclass: None.]
[Experience Points: 2/10.]
[Attributes: STR: 3, DEX: 4, AGI: 2, CON: 3, INT: 7, WIS: 8, SPI: 10.]
[Feats: Mage Initiate (Origin), War Caster.]
[Skills: Mage Hand, Firebolt, Frost Ray, Burning Hands, Mage Armor, Magic Missile.]
[Specializations: Valorian Overworld Language (Master), Arcane Knowledge (Novice), Survival (Novice), Persuasion (Novice).]
[Titles: None.]
Damian stared specifically at one line.
[Experience Points: 2/10.]
Only eight remaining, huh? That certainly sounded small until he remembered what he had just done.
His first combat had achieved twenty-seven kills, an entire swarm defeated solo!
And Valoria had looked at the accomplishment before casually handing him two points?
Damian’s excitement faded into concern.
"Huh..."
He had assumed ten Experience Points for Level 2 meant progression would be almost comically fast.
Perhaps complete a quest, kill a handful of monsters, level up, and then enjoy his ridiculous One Feat Per Level ability immediately.
Apparently not.
Experience requirements might begin at only ten points, but Valoria was incredibly stingy about deciding what actually deserved a point.
Grinding rats certainly was not going to work.
Damian looked deeper into the cave, his expression becoming thoughtful.
Leveling in Valoria might be considerably more difficult than he originally believed, and that was mildly alarming.
Then again...
Damian tightened his grip around his staff.
If ordinary progression was slow, he would simply have to find better ways to progress.
After all, he did possess something ordinary Adventurers did not.
An entire second world.
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