2 Predicament!
Squeak!
A small sound of a rat or a mouse echoed inside the silent cave.
It came from the adjacent wall to the right of Ivan. The cave made of rock had already plunged into darkness. Even if he wanted to lit a piece of cloth, it was too late, nor did Ivan had the energy to do that.
Squeak! Squeak!
The sound came again. The rat seemed to have traveled to the middle of the cave where all the rotting corpses were piled. It seemed to be enjoying feasting on the flesh of those dead people since the rat made quite a few cheerful sounds while eating.
Squeak! Squeak!... Squeak!
At least someone had something to eat; Ivan couldn't even lift his head anymore.
More sounds of the rats squeaking traveled to Ivan's years. They must be the friends or family of the previous rat who also came out of their holes to have their dinner. Ivan wouldn't have bothered with few disgusting rats enjoying their food, but the sound had started to annoy him a little.
"Damn you, rats! Eat quietly, or I will fucking have you for dinner!...!!!"
Ivan's head suddenly woke up with that sentence.
"I... can not eat human corpses but... even though you all are disgusting and filled with diseases... I can fucking eat you!... Dammit, the hunger had made my brain go stupid." How could he ignore food when its right in front of him. Even though they are unsanitary pieces of meat, but at least they are not human meat.
With food so close to him, Ivan stood up while squeezing out energy from his weak body and used his will to survive as fuel to walk towards the uncaring rats in the distance. They don't seem to care about the sound of footsteps. Ivan couldn't see anything, but he could locate them because of their sounds.
Ivan suddenly gritted his teeth in pain when a rat accidentally bites his barefoot.
Immediately after that, Ivan grabbed the big fat and dirty rat by his hands as it dared to attack him and also because he could catch it easier than the others.
The rat seemed to feel the threat. It squeaked continuously and tried to escape from Ivan's grip.
Even the rats down on the ground started making noises.
"Squeak!...(Release my husband, you dirty devil)"
"Squeak! Squeak!...(Father I will avenge you in the future when I get bigger.)"
"Squeak!...(Goodbye my old friend... Your wife will now be my wife, I take care of her...)"
Ivan ignored all those noises and also ignored the pleading eyes of the rat in his hands, only because it was too dark even to see his hand.
Ivan twisted the rat's head mercilessly. A chime sounded in his ears, but he was too hungry to register it.
He walked over to the closed exit while picking up a sharp bone from the ground.
Ivan didn't have the necessary materials to roast the rat and eat it afterward, nor did he have the energy to follow all those processes. He punctured the rat's body with a sharp bone until he felt blood flowing down his hands. He hovered his hands over his mouth and then the rat to let its blood fell directly inside his mouth.
'Its a juice... its a juice... it's only a juice of a bitter gourd!' Ivan chanted in his mind while forcing himself to not puke.
When Ivan felt his thirst subsiding, he used the bone's sharp end to skin the rat.
After that, came the main thing which Ivan was reading his mind for all this while. Eat the raw meat of the disease full rat.
The hunger was too strong to suppress any kind of protest appearing in Ivan's mind.
Ivan didn't what part of the rat he was eating, but after chewing it and swallowing the meat down his throat, Ivan felt a little better. In no time, he finished eating the rat and threw the leftover part to the side.
A small rat wasn't enough to feel his stomach, but Ivan didn't want to keep on eating the rats, or he will die due to food poisoning.
When Ivan was not looking at the text that floated in front of him had vanished. But when he thought about it again, those texts appeared again.
<<Name: Ivan Jaeger
Race: Human
Level: 1 (Exp: 1)
Status: Apprentice Warrior
Strength – 15
Dexterity – 11
Defense - 11
Intelligence - 13
Vitality: 13
Charisma – 3
Class: Freeman
Adventurer Class: None
HP(Health Points): 11/26 (Fever/ Hunger)
MP(Mana Points): 26(Locked)
BSP:(Battle Skill Points): None
AP:(Ability Points): None
Battle Skills: None
Ability: ??(Dorment)
Weakened state - All stats reduced by 75%>>
Ivan noticed two things had changed. One was that his stats are only reduced by seventy-five percent from ninety percent, and the other thing was Exp with 0.5 written to its front.
When Ivan focused on it, another line of text appeared to its side.
<<Host killed a rat - Gained 0.5 Exp - Bonus 0.5 Exp for killing first of its species>>
Ivan looked to his front unblinkingly. He could understand what these texts meant, but he didn't want to acknowledge any of it. He had read lots of novels featuring such settings where a person suddenly get transmigrated to another world or goes back in time and activate a system or another type of golden fingers, but he only fantasized about it. Truthfully, Ivan never wanted to experience it personally.
But no matter how many times he tried to negate it as a dream or hallucination, the fact would always force his mind to face reality.
"Daniel, you bastard. Just you wait, I will come back for you and beat into a pulp for making me try your era-changing Virtual helmet first." Ivan cursed his friend. He didn't know the real reason for all of this happening, so he could only pin the blame on the virtual helmet of Daniel.
"These texts should be my status screen. I can probably level up after gathering enough experience. Maybe that will help me elevate my hunger or even heal me to full health. The rat gave me 0.5 Exp, and 0.5 as a bonus Exp for killing the first rat. I don't know how much experience I need to level up, but it still has to start from somewhere."
Ivan stood up again and went to the same spot where the rats had been feasting. It seems they were not scared even after one of them was killed and taken away by him.
Ivan was holding the sharp bone in his hand and used it as a spear to stab the rats after vaguely locating their position by sound.
Puchi!
He missed the first time and stabbed a corpse instead. Fortunately, he didn't spook those rats for them to escape away.
Chime!
A chime sounded in his ears the second time he stabbed his bone towards the ground. A rat has been skewered on to its end, ending its life almost immediately.
When Ivan focused on bringing his status screen again, he saw it appearing to his front.
<<Name: Ivan Jaeger
Race: Human
Level: 1 (Exp: 1.5)
Status: Apprentice Warrior
Strength – 15
Dexterity – 11
Defense - 11
Intelligence - 13
Vitality: 13
Charisma – 3
Class: Freeman
Adventurer Class: None
HP(Health Points): 11/26 (Fever/ Hunger)
MP(Mana Points): 26(Locked)
BSP:(Battle Skill Points): None
AP:(Ability Points): None
Battle Skills: None
Ability: ??(Dorment)
Weakened state - All stats reduced by 75%>>
<<Host killed a rat - Gained 0.5 experience>>
Ivan felt relieved seeing the changes made to his experience tab after killing the rat.
It means he was thinking in the right direction.
Ivan started stabbing the bone towards the ground after removing the dead body of the rat on its end and throwing it aside.
Chime!
Puchi!
Clank!
Chime!
Chime!
Clank!
Chime!...
Ivan killed nine rats in total, including the first one. His experience points increased by 0.5 every time he killed a rat.
<<Name: Ivan Jaeger
Race: Human
Level: 1 (Exp: 5)
Status: Apprentice Warrior
Strength – 15
Dexterity – 11
Defense - 11
Intelligence - 13
Vitality: 13
Charisma – 3
Class: None
Adventurer Class: None
HP(Health Points): 11/26 (Fever/ Hunger)
MP(Mana Points): 26(Locked)
BSP:(Battle Skill Points): None
AP:(Ability Points): None
Battle Skills: None
Ability: ??(Dorment)
Weakened state - All stats reduced by 75%>>
Ivan searched for more rats around the whole cave and killed another eleven rats of big and small sizes.
He gained another 5.5 exp points after killing all the rats he could find.
<<Name: Ivan Jaeger
Race: Human
Level: 1 (Exp: 10.5)
Status: Apprentice Warrior
Strength – 15
Dexterity – 11
Defense - 11
Intelligence - 13
Vitality: 13
Charisma – 3
Class: Freeman
Adventurer Class: None
HP(Health Points): 11/26 (Fever/ Hunger)
MP(Mana Points): 26(Locked)
BSP:(Battle Skill Points): None
AP:(Ability Points): None
Battle Skills: None
Ability: ??(Dorment)
Weakened state - All stats reduced by 75%>>
But unfortunately, Ivan didn't level as he thought after gathering ten experience points.
"Do I need a hundred points to level up? Won't I have to kill two hundred rats then? How will I find so many of them here?" Ivan felt depressed, thinking about his predicament.
---------------------------------------------------------
Authors Note: Do read my first novel 'The Pleasure Lord' that has more than 250 chapters uploaded. Please do give it a read after finishing this chapter. You can find the above Novel's link in the synopsis or just search the name. Be sure to add it to your library. Its updated every day with 3CHP/day.
