Chapter 46 – The Sleazy Rat

Fatty led his pet Gary the rat to Ox-Horn Mountain. He was already sick of Butterfly Ridge, so he decided to change a farming location and relax. Since he has reached Level 20, Fatty’s attack improved greatly, allowing him to completely roll over monsters at the level of a Jumpy Antelope.

Ding.

A pleasant ring sounded out. Fatty’s rat was now Level 1, and grew a bit larger.

Pets only have a single inborn skill when they are hatched that is unlocked at Level 1. Then, they would gain an additional skill every ten levels.

“C’mon, show Lord Fatty how your skill is,” Fatty directed Gary lazily.

Gary got onto the ground and went into the ground, leaving a fist-sized hole on the ground, in the blink of an eye.

“What the hell? What skill is this!?” Fatty was shocked. Do you think you are a real rat? Why did you just randomly go underground?

Fatty opened his pet’s status board, then read the skill Gary had – Burrow.

Burrow… Fatty was speechless. The other pets can either fight, tank or even occasionally heal? Ugh, so I got a kid who can burrow into the ground and run away. Just what’s gonna happen when I’m fighting with another player? This kid’s just going to burrow into the ground and refuse to come out!? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

“My LIGHTNING BIRD!”

Fatty commanded Gary to come out, but when he saw that the rat only did so reluctantly, he couldn’t help but get angry.

“Go, bite it to death!” Fatty pointed at a Jumpy Antelope and ordered. Gary looked at Fatty, then leaped over bravely. However, Fatty had to quickly put Gary into his pet inventory almost instantly. He checked the rat’s health. There was less than 1% remaining.

“Not bad,” Fatty was quite pleased. “Although your skill kinda sucks, an obedient kid is a good kid.”

Fatty summoned Gary out again, but he didn’t dare to order Gary to attack anymore. Instead, he told the rat to stay in one spot and not move, while Fatty himself went off to kill monsters with his dagger.

In less than two hours, Gary reached Level 10 and gained an extra skill – Earth Bullet.

“Gary. Earth Bullet!” Fatty pointed at a tree.

Gary opened its mouth and loud out a magical ball around the size of the bullet. When it collected with the tree, it merely seemed to cause a breeze and nothing else.

“Not bad, you’re accurate,” Fatty praised.

Gary chirped, while the system notified that Gary’s loyalty towards him increased by 1, and was currently at 81.

Then, since Fatty didn’t have much to do, he cleared off all the monsters he found at the foot of Ox-Horn Mountain with Gary.

…

Two days later, Gary finally reached Level 20.

This time, Gary’s new skill was Size Alteration, which allowed it to alter its size at well. The smallest it could shrink to was when the size it was when it hatched, while the largest size scaled with its level.

Furthermore, Gary’s physical size would enlarge every level. At Level 20, Gary was already the size of an adult wolfhound.

“You have to work harder. When you grow a bit larger, Lord Fatty wouldn’t have to go and capture any mounts,” Fatty looked at Gary hopefully as he recalled the size of the Diggy Rat boss monster.

Since Gary was already Level 20, was the same level as Fatty, so it couldn’t gain any more experience. Thus, Fatty decided to go and do his class enhancement mission. During the two days of farming to level up Gary, plenty of people had already reached Level 20 and successfully gotten their class enhancement, so Fatty was already off the leaderboards.

“O respectful mentor. I have come again. Please give me my class enhancement,” Fatty stood in front of the pretty rogue mentor and admired her slender form.

“The class enhancement mission is killing 200 Vampiric Bats and bringing back 100 Bat Fangs,” the mentor replied emotionlessly.

“Okay,” Fatty clapped, then left the Class Enhancement Hall.

…

The Bat Cave was situated in the south east of Black Tortoise City. It was filled with bat monsters above level 20. They were quick with a moderately high attack. What’s more, the Bat Cave itself was extremely dark, and the Vampiric Bats hid in the shadows, making it a poor place for farming levels. Yet, the Bat Cave was also filled with high grade ores like gold and silver ores. Sometimes, it was even possible to mine Darksteel, making the cave itself an ideal place for mining. That’s why some players would still head over despite the danger.

Fatty frowned as he stood in front of the Bat Cave. It really is a poor farming spot. Aside from the few players mining ores, there wasn’t really one else here.

“Heh, here comes another one. Be careful, the bats here are very fast and powerful,” a player mining at the entrance to the cave, who looked to be less than Level 15, reminded Fatty out of good will when he saw Fatty come over.

“Thanks,” Fatty nodded, then stepped into the cave.

Whoosh.

He felt a gust of cold wind, then a black figure shot towards Fatty’s neck.

Although Fatty was able to react mentally to the incoming threat, he was unable to do so physically. He could only watch the figure bite him on the neck before leaving.

-96

Wow, the monster has a pretty high attack. That nearly took up 100 HP, and I’m a full Dexterity rogue. I only have 300 something HP taking all the equipment into account. Even I can’t handle a few more of those. No wonder so little people dare to come over to farm.

Gary squeaked.

Fatty looked down, and was furious. The little fellow actually shrank itself at light speed, then burrowed into the ground.

Whoosh.

The black figure attacked once more. Fatty couldn’t scold Gary. Instead, he prepared himself and deflected the attack and used Appraisal.

Vampiric Bat

Level: 20

Attack: 114 – 125

Defense: 80

HP: 900

Coil!

Fatty casted his only crowd control skill the moment the Vampiric Bat attacked for the third time. A silver python appeared on the Vampiric Bat’s tiny body. The bat suddenly stopped in midair and fell onto the ground.

Slap.

The Vampiric Bat fell onto the ground. Then, a bullet size rock pellet shot out from a small hole and hit the monster, instantly dealing around ten percent of its max health as damage.

The Vampiric Bats were fast with high attacks, but at the same time, they also had very weak defense.

“So sleazy,” Fatty did not hold back his comment even though it was his own pet.

Squeak squeak.

Several rock pellets shot out from the small hole, causing the Vampiric Bat’s health to rocket down. Then, Fatty decided to just screw it and step on the bat, then smush it into the ground.

The Vampiric Bat let out a final wail, then finally died.

Fatty bent down to pick up a Bat Fang. It was crimson red with a few traces of blood still on it.

Meanwhile, a weapon was beside the corpse. Fatty picked that up as well and used Appraisal a few times.

Shadowbreaker

Bronze

Dagger

Level Requirement: 20

Attack: 22-28

DEX: +3

HP: +20

What a great bronze weapon, it even has higher attack than Frostfang! However, Fatty soon realized that he shouldn’t be surprised. Although Frostfang was a silver weapon, it was still a Level 10 weapon. It was already very nice for him to be able to use it at Level 20.

“This is great start,” Fatty immediately changed the his dagger and sliced it through the air. There was only a small sound of it cutting through the air. The dagger itself had a rather dark edge, which would allow it to be hidden in the shadows.

Then, Fatty called out to Gary. However, even after a dozen times, Gary was still playing dead in the hole and refused to come out. Thus, Fatty could only enact the only option he had. He put it back into the pet inventory, then summoned it out again.

“Much wow!” Fatty gritted his teeth as he glared at Gary. At that moment, he really wish he could cook Gary into a pot of rat stew.

When Gary saw Fatty’s menacing look, it seemed to feel slightly afraid, and chose to scout out the path ahead. Fatty snorted, then followed behind his pet.

Although the entrance of the cave still had a bit of light, the light seemed to dim down the deeper they ventured in. After a dozen meters or so, the light was already so dim that it was just like a newly risen moon.

Squeak squeak.

Gary suddenly called out. Then, two black figures dashed towards Fatty at an impeccable speed.

Damn rat. Fatty cursed. Since the two Vampiric Bats disregarded Gary and locked onto him, he understood very well that his rat must have burrowed into the ground again.

The Vampiric Bats were merely the size of a palm and were very fast, making it very hard to hit them. That was even more so in a dark place like the cave. The environment was perfect for born-killers like the Vampiric Bat. In that regard, they could even be compared to the Skeletal Assassins on the fifth floor of Mass Graves.

Fatty quickly retreated. He could win one on one, but one on two was a bit tough unless he forcefully take the hits through potion chugging. That despicable rat! It ran away after luring the monsters over!

Fatty ran and ran, and finally lost the two bats when he ran out of the cave. He once again recalled Gary back into the Pet Inventory and summoned it out again.

“You have got guts. I’m telling you, you’ve got guts,” Fatty disregarded the looks of shock from the surrounding players. He grabbed Gary by the tail and dragged it into the cave.

“You’re gonna hide, right? I’ll get all the use out of you first!” Fatty dragged Gary around with a snort. Then, when he walked back into the cave, he threw Gary into the darkness. “Get me 5 Bat Fangs, and don’t even think about coming back out until you do so.”

Squeak squeak.

Gary’s squeaks seemed extremely depressing. However, Fatty didn’t care about so much while at he was angry.

“Think about who’s your dad! He’s a boss! The Rat King of the Beginner’s Village, the one who commands thousands of rats! Think about just how amazing he was. Then look at you. You hide the moment you see a single bat. What the hell. Kill them all! Don’t come out until you get me 10 Bat Fangs.”

While Fatty scolded Gary, he felt rather troubled. Why the hell is my pet so smart? It actually knows how to hide.

Gary squeaked a few more times, then disappeared into the darkness. Then, a few bat wails sounded out from the interiors of the cave.

Fatty waited for a while, then couldn’t stand it anymore. He snuck in quietly and noticed a few bat corpses on the ground. A bit deeper into the cave, he saw a few bats cycling around in the air, while a rat head the size of a dog’s head was coming out from underneath the ground and spitting into the air.

Each spit was actually an Earth Bullet, which was rather powerful. Although only twenty or thirty percent of the bullets hit their target, the few that do did do significant damage to the flying Vampiric Bats.

Screech.

One of the Vampiric Bats most likely got sick of being attacked, but unable to strike it return. It let out a loud screech, then dashed down.

Gary instantly shrunk his head back into the hole in the ground, then opened its mouth and bit down. Thus, the pitiful Vampiric Bat ended up in a bloody mess…

My god, is it still a pet!