Chapter 9: [Arc 1] Chapter 4: The 101 in Pest Extermination

Wheeze, wheeze, damn it all. These last floors have been killin' me...

I mean, who makes the fifth floor a freakin' water coaster!? Not to mention without life rings or lifeguards!! And the 'car' is just a simple big shell! AND the floor had several cobras, whose size told me they were the missing link between the normal cobras and the king cobra from Floor 9!

Before that, on Floor 6, I needed to play a trapeze artist over a chasm filled with stuff I didn't even wanna look at! The only good thing was that there were barely any monsters and lots of food (veggies). If it wasn't for that stupid cursed chasm...

But the worst was Floor 7! "Why", you ask? 'Cause, it was a freaking WAR ZONE!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I arrived there. Tons of tortoises, spiders, and dinosaurs were fighting those Sahuagin guys from before. And they had dinos to help them as well!

The blueish spiders were creepy large, half a size bigger than me. Their abdomen was smaller than a regular spider, to the point of not being there. They fought by spewing water in powerful bursts at the opponents. There was also a bigger type of spider, with its head being formed like a human's upper body, arms and everything included. It didn't look too much like an Arachne though

The dinos looked like those velociraptors, I think? I'm no dino-professor, but they looked like those from the famous movie of the dinosaur park. Their bodies were colored with a mix of dark grey and dark blue.

Also, some of those guys looked like the evolution of the raptors. They were bigger than the raptors at least. Then they had some fin-like kinda stuff on their arms and legs. Quite pretty, if they weren't on a bloodthirsty carnivore!

The tortoises looked the same as usual. But they had some evolved friends with them as well. A bunch of bigger tortoises with TWO heads! Come on!

The Sahuagins looked like they usually did. Guess those guys at Floor 9 were a recon party, 'cause it sure looks like the Sahuagins are trying to conquer this place.

The strangest thing is, the Sahuagins also had some dinos on their side. And of the same race as well! The only difference was that the Sahuagin dinos had equipment on them so that people wouldn't mistake them for those of the other side.

And that's just the rank-and-files of the war. There were, from my point of view, three leader-rank monsters on each side of the conflict.

On the "Glavras" side, there was a big, Tyrannosaurus Rex-looking monster, probably another evolution of the dinos. Then there was some stupid-big spider with an abdomen bigger than the rest of it! And it was pulsating like a heart to boot. Ew. Finally, we had what looked like the top evolution of the tortoises, a freaking hydra with a shell! 

On the "Sahuagin" side, there were three super-dinos. One of them looked like a spinosaurus with blades all over its body. The second guy looked like an ankylosaurus. The third looked like a raptor again, but it had quite the colorful plumage. It looked like one of those shamans from cartoons.

Needless to say, it was obvious that I had no chance against this "All-Star battle royale of the Water-Knot". My [Stealth] and [Camouflage] skills each passed Lv.10 long before I had managed to sneak around the battle. Seems like I can't complete the Quest for the seventh floor, that is if the Quest goes that far.

Well, back to the current floor. Floor 4 looks more like an ordinary cavern system than any of the other places. There are not too many monsters either. I think the Dungeon was forced to move all their forces to Floor 7 to stop the Sahuagin invasion, leaving only a bare minimum of personal in the other floors, except for Floor 9, which the king cobra guards. It must be the Dungeon's final line of defense.

Well, guess I can start hunting now. I'm tired of chewing on weeds all the time. Not that I can cook the meat... will my stomach be okay?

Anyway, hunting on the fourth floor's too risky. I need to get to the first one before considering anything like that. However... I need some real way of attacking. The closest thing I have on hand is that [Aura of Darkness], and that's closer to a debuff than an attack.

One of the requirements for the Rogue class was to kill creatures undetected by others. And I need to do so 50 or more times!

I need some way of getting the deed done, or else I can kiss any hope of obtaining Kur Kigal goodbye. I need to start looking... but first, I need a good night's rest. Where's the camping area?

---

One homemade, spiderweb base later...

It took some time, but I managed to build a secure resting place for me now. *Sniff*, it's been too long since I've had a good night of sleep.

I discovered a small, hard-to-see opening in the wall, and it led to quite the cave. 'This place's perfect for a hideout', was my thought when I saw it, so I started to work on it the moment after I had checked the place was danger-free.

I covered the entrance with a cloak of the same color as the Dungeon walls (self-made, don't ask about the quality), then I set up some real, deal, spider webs. These took some serious training exercises to learn how to make. And seriously, they aren't that well either. Better than nothing.

Well, I've got a camp, some (questionable) defenses, and a not-sticky web-bed. I've even collected a huge bag filled with greens for snacks! I'm gonna get the best sleep ever. And that tells something.

Now that I have my camp, I can start looking over means of attacks. I was planning on getting Heretic attribute skills, so an attack of that nature? No, maybe not. The Heretic attribute screams "I'm wasting MP!!" in big letters and in stereo too. [Aura of Darkness] needs all the MP it can get, so I need something MP-green, and it should be related to the Rogue class, aaaand, Kur Kigal. 

Hmm..., what about poison? That sounds rogueish. And even more assassin-ish. I'll check what's up for sale.

That was more than I bargained for. Am I that poisonous? They all only need SP, so they are kinda what I was looking for... what the heck's [Poison Tongue]!?

My brain must be tired. Let's get some sleep before I collapse. 'Night.

---

Zzz...! I'm up! I'm up, I'm up!

What's going on? I'm far from feeling refreshed, but my sleepiness has completely disappeared. And for some reason, I'm getting the chills here. 

... Something's coming. My [Danger Sense] is telling me that. And my very soul screams to follow what it says.

I made a rope outta threads and positioned myself over the entrance to the cave. Whatever that's coming won't see me up here with the first. So who's our unfriendly visitor?

......!? Roaches!?

Oh, I was wrong. Wait a sec! That's roaches! Big as a cat, yes, but still!

*Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch...*

Hey! They're eating all my veggies! Wasn't that emotionally connected to them, but still... And now they're eating the thread bag? And the rock I used to keep the bag standing!?

Does [Stealth] work on these guys? 'Cause getting eaten by roaches isn't how I want my final moments to be. Please don't fail me now [Stealth]!

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Seems like the roaches have finished their... "devouring"? They're leaving the cave now, not spring a single glance towards me. Phew, that was-!? Two of them looked at me! Don't look at me, I'm not food!

... The two roaches looked towards where I am, then they turned to each other, and... made faces as if they saw something disgusting, then they left.

......... Alright, you damn roaches! Calling me disgusting? It's on now!

---

I kept on looking for where the roaches had gone to. An easy task, as all the tunnel paths they had taken, was left bare due to them. How much can they stuff into those small bodies of theirs?

As I searched the tunnels for the pests, I discovered that the inhabitants of this floor were either the usual Glavras spiders, a type of frogs double as big as the roaches, which was called Pond Frogs, and several mouse species. 

I didn't care so much about them, except for the rats. I must be able to defeat those at least? They had the same stats as the other pests, but they didn't have any secret weapons like the roaches' swarm strategy. 

The rats are called Greycave Rats, due to them often being seen in caves, and because they can eat rocks and dirt to replace real food. They act as the bottom-feeder of the bottom-feeders, according to the Kigal-Note. Tough luck for them.

After some more searching, I found the roaches. And boy, this was more than I expected! A whole cave the size of a baseball stadium, filled with wall-to-wall roaches. Layers of them even! And in the center of the cave was a whole different roach, the size of a small car. It had some golden-colored horns on it, so maybe a king roach? Wait, it's a queen. It just gave birth to some new roach eggs. Urk...

But yeah, my flames of revenge just died out. I mean, it's way too many of them down there! It's like a pest exterminator's worst nightmare! 

It's only because the tunnel I peek out of is around 50 meters in the air that I can spy on them without being noticed. But the moment I try to attack, the swarm will climb up the wall and drag me down, or just eat me here. 

Thinking about it, the spiders from before looked like they were patrolling with determination before. Was it because of the roach infestation? The only possible way looked like to take care of the groups that patrolled the tunnels with patrols of your own. The Dungeon's heavyweights were all busy with the Sahuagin invasion after all.

While pondering the Dungeon's local governing, I went out of the tunnel and out to the crossroad. Let's see, I came from the path that leads downwards from here, but there's another one leading upwards. I had only taken the path I was in right now because I heard the noises of the roaches, but couldn't this road upwards lead to the next floor?

With that idea in mind, I kept on going upwards... only to have my idea popped with a needle. The tunnel ended in a T-junction, with the lower end being the path I'm currently in, and the other two having flattened and not going any further upwards.

Oh well. I've gotten quite higher up now, so I should have come closer to the next exit... what's that sound? A muffled, but still powerful sound came from somewhere. I went into the junction, careful for anything around the corners, and tried to listen after the source of the sound.

It comes... it comes from the wall? I leaned my... body... towards the wall, and... it's water. Tons of water is flowing just behind this wall. 

Then... that water coaster from before... did all the water come from this floor? Or, is the fourth floor a simple pipeline system that gives water to the water coaster on the fifth? This... I can make use of this.

---

A patrol of Glavras Aquarects, spider monsters of the Water attribute, kept their many eyes open after the pesky vermins that had occupied this floor of the majestic Dungeon. 

This was a futile effort, as the vermin had a Queen that could reproduce the pests in less than a week. Still, as loyal guardians of Glavras, the Aquarects could not let the vermin roam loose. 

The Aquarects decided to move closer to the area where the Queen had laid lair. They were not foolish enough to attack the swarm as a whole, but shaving off some of the vermin the moment they left the safety of their lair is an idea they could live with.

Just then, one of the Aquarects noticed something strange on the floor. A single stripe of white, with two more stripes creating an arrow at certain intervals, pointing up the tunnels. 

The Aquarects was dumbfounded by the strange sight. They tried to touch the white stripe, but it was stuck on the ground. It looked like it was leading somewhere. While the Aquarects were not stupid, as they figured out the possibility of a trap, but the novelty of the strange substance had awakened their curiosity. Also, the Aquarects were the guardians of the Dungeon. Why should they not investigate a strange occurrence like this?

The Aquarects kept on following the stripe of white, only to find it leading to a wall. There was a deformed-looking picture of one of the vermin drawn on the wall. The vermin was laughing as it pointed towards the viewers, meaning the Aquarects.

Blood instantly went to the Aquarects' heads. Without caring about the probability of it being a trap or not, the five Aquarects blasted the painting of the wretched vermin with their [Water Cannon] skill... only for the wall that the picture had been drawn on to collapse. 

The Aquarects couldn't believe their eyes. The walls of the Dungeon could withstand anything! That was what their common sense told them, so the shock of it being crushed before their eyes delayed their reactions so much that they could not do anything before they were swept away by the raging torrent.

---

Score! Jackpot! Banzai! 

Those stupid spiders did just as I wanted! It was worth weakening the wall with [Aura of Darkness] all this time. I wasn't sure if they would get the roach I had drawn on the Dungeon wall, but they reacted just as I hoped! 

I was in one of the other paths in the T-junction, watching over the water leaking from the "pipeline" flushing down the tunnel. Most of it was going to flow down the path I had originally taken there, but some of it was going to the roach cave! 

A level up even! That's a nice bonus... but shouldn't I get more? It was five of those big-ass spiders. Or maybe I only got a small chunk 'cause I only lead them to take their own life with their stupidity? Eh, whatever. I got some EXP from this without having to risk my life, so I'm happy.

And this is... the water must have reached the roach cave. It doesn't look like I'm getting EXP for that, but Skill Points works as well.

Now that my mood's been lifted, let's go to the next floor. I found the exit just past this tunnel here, so there's no need to stay in this roach hotel. That, and the water gushing outta the hole in the "pipe" is more than I expected. I'm not gonna stay here only to be flushed away when more of it breaks due to the water pressure!

Further Information:

A title granted as a reward for those who slay vermin.

It is different from regular Hunting Titles that have upgraded versions of themselves, nor does it grant any damage corrections against vermins.

Another point is that one does not need to be directly responsible for the death of the vermin. One only needs to play a notable role in the extermination of them.

Alvatria's comment: This title was added after the suggestion made by all the goddesses.

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