Bab 47: Chapter 47
With Issei
You have slain Rat OgreX5! You earn 2600 EXP!
[Short Sword Mastery] has levelled up! LV4-LV5!
[Close Combat Evasion] has levelled up! LV2-LV3!
[Close Combat Evasion] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!
[Evade] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!
[Basic Swordsmanship] has levelled up! LV4-LV5!
[Poison Resistance] has levelled up! LV7-LV8!
[Lesser HP Regeneration] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!
[Force Reduction Field] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!
[Bronze Skin] has levelled up! LV2-LV3!
As a result of a specific action, the skill [Improvised Weapon Mastery] has been learned!
[Improvised Weapon Mastery] (Passive) [LV1, 00.00]
Most weapon disciplines deal with using specific weapons that are in a uniform shape and size. Not so much with this skill! With this, you can pick up just about anything and use it as a weapon! Some things, most noticeably soft things like tissues and pillows, cannot be used with this skill and fall under [Improbable Weapons Mastery]. All items applicable for this skill will be updated with an entry saying so from this point onwards.
- Raises damage of any item classed as an [Improvised Weapon] by 1.
As Issei trudged through the passage, which was thankfully devoid of traps, he was quite pleased with the way his skills had levelled up over that last fight. There again, he would rather not have to fight five Level 9 Rat Ogres at once again. He had almost panicked half a dozen times before his [Gamer's Mind] kicked in and enforced some calm onto him.
What had worried him, however, was the bulging barrier at the top of the arena. Had something trying to break through it into the arena, or were the ratmen trying to freak him out? Whichever it was, he hadn't stuck around to find out. Collecting any loot at a run, he had entered the door and the forcefield went up behind him just as the large one broke.
Reminded of the loot, Issei brought that screen to the forefront. Most of it was rather gross; claws, fangs and the like, but one item caught his eye.
X2 Rare Candy
He halted and one eye twitched. Was he a Pokémon now?! In the game, Rare Candy was used to immediately raise the level of a Pokémon by one per candy. As per the name, they were relatively hard to come by and should be used sparingly depending on what Pokémon you were raising at the time.
But he was no damn Pokémon!
[Rare Candy]
Rare Item
Consumable Item
As you think, this sweet (which tastes lovely, by the way) automatically raises your level by one. On the downside, it resets your level progress counter to zero. Up to you if you want to eat it or not.
The other eye twitched in sync with his first one. That almost decided it; there was some sort of intelligence in his [Gamer's Gear] and it was a snarky bastard!
He was going to find a way to talk to it, just like he had Ddraig, if for no other reason than to punch it in the mouth!
Bringing them out, Issei saw that they were about half the size of a jawbreaker and were pastel pink. This was a tough situation…should he eat them and raise his level to the recommended level for this dungeon? That would wipe out the nice chunk of EXP he'd gotten, both from the Rat Ogres and from some of the Clanrats, which would be a shame.
He checked how much EXP he had to go until he levelled up and discovered that it was less than a thousand. Well, that would be a crying shame if he wasted all that effort! He'd store them again and only eat them if he was in serious trouble.
Mind made up, he placed them in his inventory and carried on walking down the path ahead of him.
It took a couple of minutes, but he finally reached a large ornate door that bore a giant horned rat, surrounded in a circle by thirteen odd-looking symbols. Clan symbols, he realised. Touching the horned rat symbol made the outer ring of symbols light up in clockwise succession before the door split in half and opened inwards.
"Come into my web, said the spider to the fly…" Issei whispered before he drew two new swords from his inventory. He only had a dozen or so left. Damn this corrosive air!
Advancing into the new chamber, he saw that he stood at the top of one of five sets of stairs leading down to a raised dais in the centre, one that held a table set with thirteen seats around it, accompanied by thirteen banners hung above them.
"The Council of Thirteen." Issei muttered, remembering the Deathmaster saying something about how he had slain one of them already.
Cautiously descending the stairs, the Sekiryūtei felt his nerves singing with tension. Of any room he had ever been in, this one screamed 'TRAP!' to him the clearest. If the ratmen set Jezailiers to snipe at him from the top of the outer rim of the room while he was in the centre, he'd be helpless to guard against all of them.
When he reached the table, he blanched under his mask. There were dead ratmen bodies around the table, twelve of them. All of them had had their throats slit. They had been assassinated, and at least a day ago, judging by the dryness of the bloodstains.
"Snikch…!" he growled. The Master Assassin of Clan Eshin had murdered the rest of the Council of Thirteen, including his own boss judging by the shadowy clothes born by one of the bodies. But why?
"Silly man-thing!" a squeaky voice cackled from behind him. Issei whirled around to see Teeksqueak, the Warlock Engineer who had reanimated the body of Boneripper to attack him as a Flesh Golem. The cybernetic ratman stood at the top of the set of stairs opposite from the set Issei had come from. Flanking him on either side were two teams of Jezailiers.
"This was Snikch's doing, at your behest, I am guessing." Issei said neutrally, gesturing at the Council table with one sword.
"Correct." Teeksqueak smirked rattily at him, "The old rats were getting too fat and lazy, so the next generation decided to…have them retire."
Some retirement.
"How typical of a rat king, not wanting to get your paws dirty." Issei remarked with disdain.
"The leader's place is in the rear-rear, man-thing." The Warplock Engineer sneered back at him, "You will make an excellent scapegoat to blame their 'tragic' deaths on. A thirty heartbeat moment of silence will be held in their honour."
A rat's heartbeat was very fast, if memory served Issei correctly. A thirty heartbeat length of time would be ten, maybe twenty seconds at most.
"I can see that you're just broken up over this." He deadpanned.
"Hehehehe…putting up with those old rats for two years…you have no idea of my pain, man-thing!" Teeksqueak snarled, "Kill-kill him!"
At the order, the gunner teams raised their weapons to point at Issei, who just sighed and deactivated [Bronze Skin]. He was running low on MP, so only keeping up [Force Reduction Field] was the most sensible course of action here.
"I've killed over three-hundred of your kind, Teeksqueak." He said softly, "If you want a fight…then you've got one!"
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Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone