Chapter 57

  For a few minutes, Jake traversed the underground tunnels of the city’s sewers. It was dark and damp, with putrid, dirty water trig along the tunnel floors. Here and there, murky water ran in rivulets down the walls as well. A foul st permeated the air wherever he went.

  In some areas, sunlight filtered in through the cracks above. The deeper ses of the sewers were shrouded in total darkness, though. Fortunately, it posed little trouble for Jake. His enhanced sight allowed him to see pretty well in the dark. Uurbed by the ck of light, the foul st, and the damp, dirty ditions of the sewers, he tio navigate the underground tunnels.

  The scariest part about the sewers was the mutants that inhabited the city’s underground tunnels. But Jake wasn’t afraid. In fact, he was eager to enter ypes of enemies.

  Aside from the gurgle emanating from the running water and the spshes from his footsteps, silenveloped the tunnels. While he khere had to be unknowures lurking somewhere in the darkness of the sewers, he had yet to find them. They must’ve been somewhere in the deeper parts of the sewers.

  He reached a four-way juncture. The front, left-hand, and right-hand tunnels all looked identical to him, and Jake paused for a moment, listening carefully to decide which way to take. He thought he heard faint, distant sounds like water sloshing from the right-hand tunnel, so he turhat way and tinued on.

  For a few more minutes, he plodded through the tuhat looked almost identical to the others he’d passed through. The absence of cracks in the ceiling cast this se of the sewers into total darkness. The water level appeared slightly elevated here, with streams of grimy water spshing over his feet. Uerred by the dampness and ck of light, Jake pressed on.

  At st, he spotted a gathering of several creatures in the distaaking care to move stealthily, he slowed his painimize the noise he made. The critters had her notior heard him yet. Drawing closer, he began to dis more details about them.

  Jake focused his attention on one of the disgusting critters and called up its stats.

  Mutated Rat – Level 10

  Special ability: None

  He’d first entered those rat-things and watched them from up above when he was a survivor. Now, up close, he could dis more details about them. They resembled kangaroos in form and size, but their snouts and tails were akin to those of pre-Colpse rats. Their dark, greasy fur atchy, showing bald spots in multiple areas and revealing rge sores on their skin, some of which were oozing yellowish pus. The stench emanating from their bodies even surpassed that of the sewers themselves. Despite Jake’s calm and collected mi as a morphus, he found himself repulsed by those vile creatures. But he tio move toward them heless.

  The critters dowunnel were preoccupied with pig at the rotting dead body of another creature, which looked just like them. The group of the repugnant critters hadn’t spotted him yet. Drawing closer, he studied them and came to the clusion dealing with them shouldn’t be too difficult. He tio move dowuoward the group of mutated rats. Despite his attempts to move quietly, the spshing sounds of the water he sloshed through gave him away soohan he’d hoped.

  Two of the rat-like creatures withdrew their gore-smeared snouts from deep withiti of the dead body to gnce back at him. Their red, malevolent eyes squinted as the vile creature hissed at him. Alerted by the he rest of the critters swiftly turheir heads to gre at him as well. The mutants had discovered him way soohan he’d anticipated. While he’d hoped for the ideal sario of sneaking up on them and taking out at least o before beied by the others, he remained unfazed by the turn of events.

  All the mutated rats had turo face him by that point. However, they seemed relut to attack him as if unsure of what to make of him. Having never entered anything like him before, they appeared wary and unsure of how dangerous he might be.

  Before they could decide whether to flee ht, he charged at them. Some of them flinched in fear, and for a moment it seemed like they were going to scatter in panic. It didn’t happen, though. Instead, they darted toward him, bounding on two legs like kangaroos. Jake was gd they did. He wouldn’t have wao chase them through the dark tunnels of the sewers.

  With a mental and, he morphed his hands into cws and shed out at the first mutant to reach him. His talons pierced its forehead, cutting through the skin and scraping against its skull, doing little to no damage to the creature. He dodged to the left as the monster luoward him, attempting to take a bite. The wide tunnel provided ample space for Jake to maneuver, allowing him to evade the creature’s teeth with ease. The mutated rat luoward him once more, but Jake avoided its attad raked the side of its neck with his cws. He must’ve pierced a major blood vessel because a red fountain poured from the wound. The creature wailed as it lurched away from him, defeated and with no fight left in it. The critter bounded a little farther dowunnel before it succumbed to the wound, colpsing to the floor and spshing stinky water everywhere.

  Jake was already dealing with another mutated rat, slig the side of its body open with a flurry of swings. These creatures were pretty fast but no match for his own agility and speed. The sed rat-thing dropped to the wet floor where it vulsed for a few seds before it died.

  It didn’t take Jake long to deal with the remaining critters. When only one was left, it tried to bound away, but Jake didn’t let it. Ramming into the rown rat, he tackled it to the ground, unleashing a brutal attad ripping its side open.

  He then stood up, surveying the area. All the monsters were dead, and the blood that spilled from them mixed with the murky water. A system notifierged in his mind.

  Multiple enemies killed. +150 XP

  He’d sin five critters, which meant a mutated rat was worth 30 XP. Not too much, but still better than the 25 XP reward for ex-human leapers. Besides, leapers were pretty rare—out of every ten ex-humans he entered, nine were walkers and only one was a leaper. If those rat-things were abundant in the sewers, he could lihere for some time to gain experience points.

  For the half an hour or so, he traversed the sewers, every now and then entering groups of mutated rats and fighting them. He tio explore the underground tunnels for a while but had yet to e across a single mana able, which was disappointing. It ossible that those preagical items simply didn’t spawn in the sewers.

  After he dealt with anroup of mutated rats, a system notifierged in his mind.

  You have gained enough XP to level up. Your level went up from 8 to 9. You have gained 1 SP.

  Jake opted to allocate the skill point at a ter time.

  At some point, he arrived at another four-way juncture where a group of rats were sging through a pile of waste. Just as Jake was about to front them, some noise echoed from a side tuhe rats instantly tensed up, raising their heads and turning their attention toward the source of the sound.

  A sed ter, a massive bear-like creature emerged from the shadows. It was the size of a grizzly bear but had scales all over its body, and its head and tail were those of an alligator. Jake summos state with a thought.

  Devourer – Level 15

  Special ability: None

  The mutated rats scattered at the sight of the huge monster, sending spshes of dirty water flying everywhere. The devourer made to give chase, but then it noticed Jake. Its sinister red eyes studied him for a moment. Apparently unimpressed, it released a deafening roar before lunging toward him.