After having my share of fun, I looked at the time and noticed that I only had two hours left to do my chores before the guys came back. I didn’t hesitate and started following my usual routine. It’s not like I loved it and I wished for someone to do it for me, but I thought of my daddy and my brothers and of course someone had to do it for them as well. I just had to find a fifth person to do all the house work so we could live like kings.
After a while, I was able to finish up everything with the exception of getting my dad’s sweaty clothes from the basement’s gym. I loved to go there when he wasn’t home and sit on the big benches and try to lift as much as he could. It was a daily reminder of just how fucking big, strong, and masculine my massive daddy was. I would smell the odor left of his sweaty ass on the bench and just marvel at the thought of being closer to him somehow. I was about to start daydreaming horny things again but decided to stop, it was 4:30 pm already and needed to be done with everything by five, which is mostly the time the boys are back.
I opened the door to the basement and smiled as I felt the breeze of the basement hit my face. It smelled so good. However, once I stepped into the first step of the staircase, ah message popped up.
||This is the entrance to the King of Rats dungeon - Beginner. Would you like to go in?||
I knew I had my chores, but the curiosity was stronger than my wish for responsibility at the moment, so I decided to go inside. After accepting, I noticed that the steps changed, turning from wood to stone.
“This is so cool…”
I said to no one as I climbed down until I reached the floor. What was in front of me was a clear maze of darkness and stone. I was in what could be described as the sewers of a castle of some sorts. I could hear water running someplace far, but I didn’t have enough light. Thus, I decided to take one of the torches hanging on the wall and take it with me. I had my other hand prepared to blast whatever came across with one my mana strikes. I was a little bit scared, but I figured I would never level up if I didn’t venture myself to this kind of things.
Then, as I was walking, I heard a noise at the far end of the hallway I was in. I crept closer as quiet as possible and, once I had reached the corner, I took a quick glance to see what was around it. There, I saw a massive rat, probably as tall as I was. It had a long tail and it was easily distracted chewing into something. Before jumping into any action, I decided to take the most logic path. I used Identify on the monster.
||Ratman – Monster level 2. A mammal creature often found in dark places. Their nests tend to be very big yet hide many treasures. They have tough hide resistant to flesh cuts.||
Luckily, I didn’t use a sword as a weapon. I gulped before doing anything and I made sure that the creature was still there completely alone. Noticing there wasn’t any other ratmen on the vicinity, I crept my hand from the corner and pointed my palm at the creature. My attacked worked and I was able to destroy the creature once the mana strike landed. I didn’t think it would die so easily, but apparently they were weak to magic attacks like mine.
Once the creature perished, a new message popped up.
||Level up!
You have earned +10 stats points.||
I couldn’t believe I was already level two. And, more importantly, that I got 10 points for leveling up. My base stats, the ones I had when everything started only summed up to 13 points in total and suddenly I had earned 10 more to allocate at my will. I also knew that training in different ways could help me improve my stats, as learning so many things from using Identify had helped me earn +4 Int.
This was just level two, I knew I still had ways to go, but I thought it would be best to improve my stats all around, so I can have a nice base, and then go just for Intelligence. Thus, my new stats ended up as following:
Player: Hunter Atwood.
Age: 16
Class: Mage – 2
HP: 45/45
MP: 80/75
STR: 5
DEX: 5
INT: 12
CHA: 5
Skills: Identify lvl 3 – Mana Strike lvl 1 – Enlarge Object lvl 1
It looked pretty good to me. Now it was just a matter of patience and practice to keep improving them. With the first ratman being so easy, I decided to continue at my normal pace. The place was massive and one could easily get lost, but I would use a rock to mark the paths and entrances I had used. As I kept on advancing and exploring the place, I fought a lot of other ratmen. It was quite scary at times and wished for my daddy to be there to protect me, but they were actually pretty easy to kill. Once they were out, they would just disappear on a trail of dust.
Apparently, I also had an Inventory window from which I could add and remove items, as well as money. I didn’t know how to use the money, but I already had 850 coins, getting around 50 per rat. Through my adventure, I kept increasing my level, as well as the level of my Mana Strike. After what could have been easily been two or three hours, I felt like I needed to go back. I was getting really scared and the place was a mace, I didn’t want to get trapped. I decided I would get to level 5 and then I would go back home before anything happened.
However, once I went through a turn, a little room was waiting for me with a chest right in the middle. Once I checked there was no monster around and I identified the chest with my ability, I opened it with increasing difficulty, as the wooden box was pretty big and my hand didn’t reach high enough for me to open it all the way up. I checked inside and I found something unexpected. Sitting on a small cushion was a purple scroll. Once I took it, a screen popped up again.
||You have acquired the Summon Familiar Scroll.
Would you like to learn the spell right away?||
I did not hesitate and learned the spell immediately. Once I had learned it, I knew I needed to get back home in order to use it. I was also running low on mana, so there was no point in continuing further. Besides, after the little room and behind the chest, I noticed the dungeon kept going, though the stone of which the hallway was meant to be looked… reddish. You could tell it was probably a whole different section of the maze.
As decided, I went back all the way I came following the marks I had left. It took me a while but the running and exploring throughout this whole place increased my DEX by two points. Once I was able to get back to the entrance, I slowly went up the stairs until I reached the door. I slowly opened it thinking my family was back already. I was sure it was after dinner already, but I didn’t hear anything. I peeped a little bit and saw no one. Usually my dad and my brothers are really loud. They are very heavy men and you can hear how they stomp the floor when they are in their rooms. However, the house was dead silent. Once I got in, I noticed the clock again and it said that it was still 4:30 pm.
“Awesome!”
I said to myself, noticing that time seemed to be frozen here while I was down there. I kind of wanted to go back and continue hunting, but decided better not to. Now I had a new spell and I needed to use it before I headed out into the dungeon again. I went through the kitchen looking for our spare bag of salt. Then, me being the gay I was, I took the fancy candles I had saved for those relaxing aesthetic baths that you see on tik tok sometimes and got to work. With the salt y drew a circle and some strange glyphs. I didn’t know what they meant, but did know they would work. However the spell worked, it was now the perfect time to use it in case it was flashy, as there was no one home yet.
I made sure to lock the door and then I started the ritual. The floor started to glow in a purple light and I could feel how the circle started to drain my mana. According to what I knew about the ritual, it was meant to summon a familiar that would stay forever by my side. Supposedly, it was meant to be a partner based on my own personal qualities. The light kept flashing as I chanted until, finally, I finished and I saw how a shadow started to emerge from the middle of the circle.