Chapter 10: Dire King (1)
After 5 minutes of slowly climbing the stairs that lead to the second floor, he has arrived at the surface. Nash braces himself for the confusion that is about to happen.
The Crimson Moon not only buffs the monsters of the Dungeon but, in some cases, makes the dungeon floors with confusing mechanics transform into something more confusing.
The 2nd Floor is known for its rodent enemies, but also its confusing structure. A maze, though it has been traversed easily thanks to the adventurers who created a map for the maze.
However, The Crimson Moon makes the maze change its structure every minute. Making every route that has been memorized useless due to the effects of the Crimson Moon.
The only way to escape the ever-changing maze is to climb up top or follow the small rodents. The small rodents live at the corners of the dungeon platform; the exit during its Crimson Moon phase might appear on the corners.
"That's wishful thinking. The odds are stacked against me right now, so… Maybe my luck will come through. please?"
RNJESUS, PLEASE BLESS MY LIFE WITH FORTUNE.
As soon as he steps foot on the platform, the maze structure changes. There are 2 entrances, left and right.
"Right is always the right choice!"
He quotes as he nonchalantly enters the entrance on the right side of the maze.
Nash continues to walk in a straight line, finding 3-to 4 paths he can take but most of them are dead-ends. His footsteps silently tread through the maze, the entire maze is pure silence. As if, there were no people or monsters inside the maze.
"That's weird… There should be squeaking noises at every corner…"
The lad turns in another direction in hopes of hearing some squeaking. Dire Rats tend to make noise when they idle, making it easy to hunt them down. As soon as he reached a certain distance, a very pungent smell invaded his nostrils.
"What the fuck…?!"
𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝…! 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝…!
Nash covered his nose and started breathing through his mouth instead, but the act of inhaling that pungent air was too much, even by breathing through the mouth. It's as if his health is being ticked down by poisonous air.
"That pungent smell came out of nowhere…! How… the hell?"
As soon as he turned his body to the right, he found himself staring at a dark part of the maze. However, there was something that was protruding out of that looming darkness. Tails, countless tails being woven together at the center while it is surrounded by…
"Carcasses of Dire Rats?!"
....
Random fact, do you know that there's a rare phenomenon for rats to have their tails entangled together due to their sticky skin? They cannot survive for that long in that condition, but the way they form around is disgustingly fascinating.
They are called a "Rat King".
....
"T-that– When did this happen on Infinite Dungeon?!"
Dire Rats forming together a Rat King isn't possible! Not even the game had it!
[ Unique Event Started. ]
[ Escape The Maze or Defeat the Rodent King ]
Two pop-up interfaces appeared right in front of his face. Nash was given two options, to escape or to fight. Fortunately, there are no time limits. However, there's already a time limit that came from the main objective.
One of the rats twisted its head and stared back at the human. Its mouth moves, teeth shake before finally releasing a loud screech.
𝙎𝙆𝙍𝙀𝙀𝙀𝙀𝙀𝙀!!!
Then, the entire mass of rodents turned their attention to the figure who was located behind them. The ground shakes, they move, and each of their large, sharp feet scratches the floor as they try to run towards him but burdened by weight, they could only wildly rush towards the man without any coordination.
The Rodent King lunges towards the man, but Nash immediately rolls to the side and runs from the way he came from.
"GODDAMMIT! THERE… WEREN'T ANY.. UNIQUE EVENTS ON FLOOR 2!"
Complaining, he continues to run but hits a dead-end. Before he could turn back, he heard something breaking, a crack. Then, pungent air invaded his nostrils again, he tried covering his nose before…
𝘽𝙊𝙊𝙈! 𝘾𝙍𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙎!!
The wall beside him exploded as if a large object had been thrown onto it. Nash flew across the other wall, hitting his left shoulder in the process. Fortunately, his head and legs were safe from the concussion. However, that wasn't the end of it. What came through the wall was none other than the Rodent King itself.
"It has the strength to destroy walls…?!"
Panic overrides his brain. This is the first time he has ever encountered this event, and the unfamiliarity of the scenario is making him act irrationally as if he's back to being a novice to the game, Infinite Dungeon. Nash looks at the Rodent King, its nasty eyes glaring back at him before a red interface appears above its head.
[ Rodent King Lvl.??? ]
Impossible…!
The lone individual widened his pupils, and his body froze. For the first time in his life, an enemy with an unknown level has been encountered. He felt his body shaking, legs quivering as he felt weak that he might just bend down.
"Fuck this…!"
Once again, he ran. At every corner, he always takes the right side before hitting another dead-end and then, the rodent king destroys the walls. For 10 minutes straight, all Nash did was run away while the Rodent King kept destroying the walls without any signs of it stopping or getting stronger than before.
Of course, Nash didn't just run for the sake of escaping. Forming a plan while being chased is more difficult than what it looks like in anime or novels.
"You authors lied to me…! We can't think and run at the same time…! Ha…!"
[ Exhaustion %: 29% ]
Can't keep running forever. I'll get myself tired again and might get paralyzed this time. For now, the Rodent King is not near. How? Its extremely pungent smell can't be smelled from here or there. Loophole to that conclusion? None, before it breaks the wall, I can smell the disgusting scent on the air getting stronger.
That means I gotta torture myself by using my nostrils to pick up that dirty ass smell to know if he's nearby or not. Besides, the ground shaking is an obvious hint already.
It means that it's rushing towards something and will probably break another wall. Is that enough observation? No, it's not. The maze keeps changing, I don't think I've made a single progress at all. Which means…
"I gotta kill that bitch…!"
An interface pops up and Nash pushes his hand down to it before pulling out his Hunter's Bow and all of his silver arrows. The Archer stops his movement and turns around with an arrow pointed toward the dark, narrow hallway of the maze.
"Alright, come out you disgusting rodent fuck…!" He squints his eyes, tunneling his vision for a better focus on the incoming enemy.