Chapter 22

As he pressed the cut-out block with Genbu on it in place, the lock started making noises, like that of gears turning. Issei stepped back cautiously as the box sank into metal housing before the doors creaked open inwardly, darkness hiding the room within.

"And that really builds up my confidence." The Sekiryūtei muttered uneasily. He perked up as another window popped up.

As a result of a specific action, you have gained the skill [Puzzle Solving]!

[Puzzle Solving] (Passive) [LV1, 00.00 EXP]

Puzzles, riddles, tricks and traps are the enemy of any dungeon explorer aside from the monsters that dwell within the dungeons. While traps aren't covered, puzzles, tricks and riddles should be easier to solve with this skill. Any mystery devised by mortal minds can be solved therein.

- Passively adds 5 to WIS.

- Passively raises the chance of solving a puzzle by 10%.

- Passively raises the chance of solving a riddle by 10%.

- Passively raises the chance of solving a trick item by 10%.

"Useful." Issei commented before squaring his shoulders and walking through the doorway, the doors clanging shut behind him.

As soon as they did, torches mounted on the walls started to catch afire, more eerie green flames dimly illuminating a corridor that was sloping upwards, with roughly hewn pillars spaced evenly along the walls.

For some reason, he had a bad feeling about this, so he walked softly near the wall to his right and strained his eyes to try and spot any enemies that would appear ahead of him.

He paused after about five minutes when he heard a rattling noise coming from up ahead. Peering up, Issei's eyes widened before he dived to take cover behind a pillar. Just in time, as a massive rattling wheel with several ratmen inside it sped past, rolling over where Issei had been just a short moment ago.

"Did I just barely avoid getting run over by the world's biggest hamster wheel?" Issei forced himself to ask aloud, as if to confirm the absurdity he had just witnessed. There was the supernatural, and then there was the plain weird.

Advancing up the path again, Issei dodged two more supersized rat wheels that tried to crush him. It was actually fairly easy to avoid them, as the loud rattling sound they made as they trundled down the sloping corridor was very obvious.

Eventually, he made it to the top and peered around. Seeing no sign of any more wheels of doom, he advanced into the room ahead and stopped. Ten Clanrats stood guard in the room, armed with crude spears and shields. Careful examination of the room showed that there was no sign of any other traps or hidden guns in the room, nor were there any large areas that were hidden by boxes or furniture.

In other words, an area he could cut loose in.

Clanrat LV10

[Hired Help]

Clanrat Claw Leader Vrrkin LV12

[Squad Leader]

Interesting. So one of them was stronger than the others and was the leader. Based on the actions of the Ratmen in the past, the leader would send the others to fight Issei first before reluctantly fighting himself.

Deciding to take advantage of his new [Ambushing] skill, Issei carefully manoeuvred himself around the seemingly randomly patrolling ratmen until he was behind two who were chittering to each other in that odd language of theirs. He flipped down his hood and attacked, beheading one of the ratmen and seriously wounding another. The wounded ratman screeched in agonised fury, alerting the rest of the rats to Issei's location.

You have slain a [Clanrat]! You earn 125 EXP!

"Man-thing! Kill-kill!" Vrrkin ordered. Unlike the rest of the Clanrats, he was equipped with a serrated sword that dripped a foul-looking black ooze to the ground. Issei resolved to not get cut by it.

Evading a spear thrust, the Sekiryūtei swiped the wounded Clanrat with his [Rapscallion Wave Blade], finishing it off before chopping at a spear that came at him from the other side. Fighting against polearm weapons like this was seriously hard. He had to dodge or block every single blow with his swords or armguards to reduce the damage he took from the blows to less than 10 HP pet hit, which left him with few chances to attack. He did manage to make the occasional attack though, thanks to his longer arms and height, and the numbers of Clanrats thinned.

Once the last one fell, Issei was down seventy HP and facing the leader of the squad of ratmen, Vrrkin. Now that Issei had the chance to look at him closer, he wished he hadn't. His eyes were red and froth was spilling out of his ravening maw as he cackled.

"Man-thing foolish. You should have killed Vrrkin when you had the chance!" the ratman sneered, "Now you shall die on the Sword Eater!"

"That name is lame." Issei deadpanned.

With a shriek, the ratman lashed out with his sword, forcing Issei to parry it with his steel sword. He was glad he had done that with the ordinary sword rather than the [Rapscallion Wave Blade] as the muck that Vrrkin's sword excreted started eating into the blade, rusting it.

'Crap!' Was all Issei could think as he dodged and blocked with his rusting sword. He had to do something here! He couldn't lose his swords like this!

Just then he remembered something from when his father had the plumbers in a year ago…copper doesn't rust, it oxidises. If the only thing that sword did was make swords made of iron or an iron alloy rust, it should have no effect on his copper or bronze swords.

"[Observe]!" he hissed as he glared at the sword that was causing the problem.

[Sword Eater]

A sword forged from the blood of five true innocents and enspelled with curses against iron. It is the bane of any sword forged of iron or an iron alloy and will rust it into nothing over an extended period of time.

Standard Sword (Ratmen)

Short Sword

Slashing Damage: S+17

Piercing Damage: S+20

Special Effects: [Iron Corrosion], [Iron Alloy Corrosion]

A very effective sword indeed. One might even go so far as to call it a counter-sword in modern times due to all swords, other than ceremonial swords, being forged of steel. Fortunately, Issei had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Disengaging slightly, he threw his steel sword into his inventory and drew out a bronze sword that he then used to block Vrrkin's next slash with [Sword Eater]. The surprise in the ratman's eyes when the bronze blade didn't start to rust was priceless.

"Now then…where were we?" Issei snarled. Pushing Vrrkin back, he stabbed the ratman in the leg with the [Rapscallion Wave Blade] before drawing back quickly so the rusting sword couldn't be employed against it.

It didn't really take long after that. With his trump card neutralised, it took only a few minutes for Vrrkin to fall, much to Issei's relief.

You have slain X8 [Clanrats]! You earn 1000 EXP!

You have slain [Vrrkin, Clanrat Claw Leader]! You earn 200 EXP!

[Sword Mastery] has levelled up! LV2-LV3!

[Lesser Draconic Charisma] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!

As a result of repeated actions, you have learned the [Evasion] skill!

[Evasion] (Passive) [LV1, 00.00 EXP]

The ability to quickly move out of the way of attacks. Sometimes called dodging, it is nevertheless a valuable skill for a fighter of any stripe.

- Passively raises the chance of avoiding ranged attacks by 10%.

- Passively raises the chance of avoiding close combat attacks by 12%.

Issei nodded. That was some good skill levelling there. Surprisingly, [Lesser Draconic Charisma] levelled up as well. Was he being charismatic as he fought as well?

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