Chapter 58

  Jake watched as the devourer ran toward him, spshing stinky water everywhere. Despite its bulky body, the bear-alligator moved surprisingly fast. When it got within biting distahe monster ss long jaws filled with razor-sharp teeth at him with lightning speed. Yet Jake was quicker, dashing to the side before the creature’s teeth could sink into him. The beast let out a frustrating roar before turning to face him once more.

  As it turned out, the monster was quite clumsy and sluggish, uo turn quickly. Jake circled the huge creature and shed out at its side. His cws scraped against the tough scales, dealing little to no damage to the monster. Caught off by the iive attack, he froze for a sed. Then the devourer finally pleted its turn, smming into him with such force Jake was knocked over.

  He colpsed to the floor, sending spshes of stinky water flying every which way. Jake was stunned for a moment, amazed by the sheer strength of his oppo. The beast wasted no time barreling toward him, its jaws opening in preparation to cmp down on him. Jake mao roll to the side just in time, hearing a resounding cck as the alligator jaws snapped shut on the empty space he’d occupied a fra of a sed before.

  As he circled the huge monster, Jake unleashed a relentless barrage of strikes on the beast’s body, exerting all his strength to pee its resilient scaled skin. He felt a sense of satisfa when he mao draw blood from the creature. Despite the devourer’s tough skin, he found that with enough force, he could pierce its scales with his cws, though it required more effort than his usual frontations with other mutants.

  The battle dragged on for ten grueling minutes, dispying the devourer’s impressive strength and endurance. Eve rofusely bleeding from multiple wounds Jake had inflicted on it, the beast refused to yield and tio fight. Jake was as agile and swift as always, stantly moving around the creature to stay beyond the reach of its lightning-fast jaws. The beast proved to be extremely strong and surprisingly fast when moving in a straight line, but its sluggishness during turns allowed Jake to easily dodge its snapping jaws.

  When the devourer finally colpsed to the watery floor, creating a chaotic explosion of wet spshes, Jake finally allowed himself to rex. Physically, he didn’t feel tired, but mentally, he was exhausted. The fight with the devourer was intense indeed.

  Enemy killed. +90 XP

  Jake couldn’t help but feel disappoi the meager 90 XP he gained from defeating the devourer, sidering how much time and effort he’d ied itle. Yet he had no choice but to begrudgingly accept the oute. Taking a moment to catch his breath, so to speak, and recuperate from the exhausting fight, he then randomly picked a dire and pressed on with his exploration of the treacherous sewers.

  Over the wo to three hours, he roamed the dark, damp tunnels, engaging in bat with their uling dwellers. So far, he’d entered only two types of mutants in that pce, mutated rats and bear-alligators called devourers.

  pared to ex-human walkers, mutated rats were somewhat more difficult to kill. To sy a walker, he only o ssh his cws across its throat. The body of a mutated rat, oher hand, was more resistant to damage, requiring him to exert a little more effort. heless, dealing with groups of mutated rats posed no challeo him.

  A devourer was a much more challenging oppo, however. Its scaled skin was hard to pee, and as Jake had retly learhis type of monster could take a lot of damage before dying. Despite its massive body, a devourer could move at an impressive pa a straight line and snap its alligator jaws with lightning speed. It was a bit clumsy and couldn’t turn its body quickly, though. In the ret fight with a devourer, Jake had no trouble cirg the monster and ung attacks on the creature’s vulnerable sides. But as he’d also learned, its scaled skin was surprisingly tough and hard to pee. His cws had no trouble tearing ex-humao shreds, but slig open a devourer’s scaled skin had turned out to be a lot harder.

  For that reason, Jake wao avoid having to get into frontations with devourers as much as possible. They weren’t all that dangerous for him, but sying one ed too much time and energy while the experience reward for it was only 90 XP. Jake would rather deal with three mutated rats, iing much less time and effort but yielding higher experience rewards iurn.

  As it turned out, it was nearly impossible to sneak past devourers in the close fines of the underground tunnels without being noticed by them. The waterlogged tunnel floors made silent movement impossible, and the devourers’ acute senses made dete iable. Despite Jake’s efforts to remain silent and evade a devourer’s sight, the slightest disturban the water from his movements betrayed his presence. As soon as a devourer spotted him, it immediately charged at him at full speed. So even though he was relut to waste time and energy engaging in bat with those powerful and damage-resistant monsters, he had no choice but to front them. At least, there were much fewer devourers in the sewers than mutated rats, and the former alrowled the water-filled tunnels alone.

  Navigating through the sewers, Jake relied on his Enhanced Intelligence skill to preveing lost. It seemed as though this skill was creating a mental map in his mind, allowing him to sult it whenever he o orient himself. It was truly impressive how this skill worked. Without it, he would easily have gotten lost in the maze-like underground tunnels.

  At some point, he came upon a peculiarly ored door. ing to a halt in front of it, he gazed i the t double-leafed door adorned with intricate patterns. It was very tall and seemed to be crafted from some metallic material. Intricate runes were etched in the four ers of the door’s surface. From the ter of the double door protruded a promi relief sculpture depig the skull of some beast or demon with sharp fangs and long horns. The hollow eye sockets of the skull appeared to stare directly at him.

  For a moment, Jake just studied the door, looking at the demon skull in the middle, the intricate relief work, and the mysterious ruched in its ers. Jake was getting more and more vihat the door led to some kind of dungeon.

  The door cked a handle, but it had a big keyhole. The key that opehis door should be pretty rge. Jake retty sure the door was locked, but he tried to open it anyway. He pressed his palms against both leaves of the door and pushed. Just as he predicted, it didn’t budge despite his best efforts. It looked like the door couldn’t be forced open even with his mutant strength, but just to be sure, he decided to try one more time, exerting all his mutant might.

  As he did so, a piece of text materialized in his mind.

  You need a Skeletoo open a Dungeon Door.

  Jake took a step back, staring at the demon skull in the ter of the door. He gave a mental and to appraise the door, and a piece of information surfaced in his mind.

  he Maze of Torment

  Floors: 5

  Reended Level: 15-20

  So this door led to a dungeon. This discovery excited Jake a great deal. A dungeo lots of challenging enemies and lots of experience points along with other rewards. He had no Skeleton Key on him and had no idea where or how to acquire o, but he was sure he would find out at some point. Whe his hands on the key, he would return to the entrance.

  Turning away from the dungeon door, Jake strode away, tinuing to explore the damp, reeking sewers and w what else he might find in that pce.