Chapter 85 Bane of Rats

Jay entered the stink-rat marsh.

Once more, he was greeted by the sickly rotting smell. The air felt thick, warm and moist; Jay’s face automatically grimaced in response.

“Eugh, I forgot how hot and humid it was here.”

[Debuff Applied]

[Stink]

– You are distracted by a horrendous smell

– -5% dexterity

“Oh yeah, that debuff… I suppose it still doesn’t affect me very much though.” he shrugged,

“Now, first I have to cross that giant log… Let’s get this over with.”

Jay found the same giant log that stretched into the horizon, after walking he found the other log that had fallen on it. He began crawling on his stomach up the make-shift ladder.

He still had vivid, horrible memories of when he tried to walk up it the first time he was here.

One on top of the house-sized log, he gazed around.

“I’ll summon the skeletons before I jump down, they can start collecting while I get down; save myself some time.”.

Jay shifted his necrotic ring, summoning Blue and Sweeper first before summoning Red and Lamp with the remaining bones. This was to make sure Blue had a full skeleton.

He then took out the blue bone swords before giving them instructions.

“Alright boys, here’s your Ossein swords.” he handed them the swords.

Normally, Jay would toss them on the ground and not bother, but they were on top of a huge log, and he didn’t want to risk one falling into the swamp water on either side.

“Three objectives today: Kill the rats, eat the bones if you need to, and bring me the teeth. I want a small pile of teeth laid before me… we can worry about corpse collection later.”

As opposed to last time he was here, he no longer looked like a homeless man hunting rats for dinner, rauther he had an air of respect around him. He seemed more like a military commander now – or at the very least, an officer.

Jay pointed into the swamp.

“Go.”

Instantly, the skeletons jumped off the log, plunging waist-deep into the swamp water before they found some solid ground to walk on and could sprint at full speed.

With zero hesitation, they then shot off into the murky land, creating trails in the tall swamp grass as they snapped the reeds from their sheer speed. The mud didn’t slow them down one bit.

“Now, let’s see…”

Jay began to look for a place to jump down – somewhere where he could land that wasn’t water or mud. Cautiously, he began walking along the giant log.

It wasn’t long before the experience notifications started, causing Jay to smile.

[15 Exp][15 Exp][15 Exp]

The soap rats were level one, so the skeletons were all hunting individually. This allowed them to kill a greater number of them at once.

Jay finally found a way down, he jumped down, and thankfully the ground was solid.

“Awesome. This is going much more smoothly than last time..”

Jay looked around for a moment, wondering what he would do while waiting.

“I guess I’ll read my book over a few times, maybe I can unlock the next page if I understand it.”

After he began reading, it wasn’t long before Blue returned – dropping a soap rat tooth before Jay then promptly went off to hunt again.

“Nice work Blue” thought Jay, pocketing the tooth and going back to his book – though he soon got tired.

Jay began to rummage through his inventory, finding something that might occupy his time.

“Hmm, I completely forgot about this… I guess saving Anya distracted me.”

Jay brought out a small green crystal with a glowing core from his inventory.

[Minor Crystal – Green] (Charged)

[Alchemy ingredient Tier 1]

[Spell channel Tier 1]

[Discharge] (1 charge) – 5 Electrical damage. 5% chance to stun for 2 seconds.

“I completely forgot about this… I was going to use it in an emergency, but now, 5 damage seems like it won’t really help in a dangerous situation. The enemies I’m up against have too much health.”

Jay checked its other uses.

“Spell channel or alchemy ingredient… hmm. Well, I don’t know alchemy…not yet at least. Perhaps I can try something with its spell channelling… but how?”

[15 Exp]

Two more skeletons returned with soap rat teeth, dropping them before Jay and returning to the hunt.

“I should be fine wasting some teeth as I try something.”

Jay held the minor crystal in one hand and a tooth in the other.

The tooth began to vibrate and levitate in his hand as it was filled with his necrotic power.

After it was sufficiently full, Jay released the spell.

*Bang!*

The tooth exploded on a nearby rotting log, causing small bits of the black wood to fly everywhere.

[15 Exp][15 Exp]

Jay then put the crystal away, casting another [Unstable Teeth] spell on the same log.

Comparing the holes made by the spell, they seemed to be almost identical.

“Clearly, it has no effect using it like this…I’ll have to try something different.”

Jay thought for a moment about what else he could do.

“Well, it says ‘channel’ so maybe I hold the crystal in the same hand as the tooth?”

The crystal was about the thickness of a sausage, and half as long, so he could easily hold it in the same hand.

Jay had one tooth left, but he wasn’t worried as he knew that more were on the way.

Putting his plan into practice, he began to channel another spell while holding the crystal in his hand.

“Hmm it feels different…” Jay’s necrotic energy was flowing around the crystal, as if it was trying to avoid it.

Nevertheless, the tooth still charged and began to float.

*Bang!*

Jay released the spell on the same log.

“Damn… I guess that wasn’t it?”

The spell created another identical hole.

“What else can I do…” Jay racked his brain, trying to think about what to do.

For a moment, he channelled his necrotic energy, attempting to have it enter the crystal – but nothing happened. It was like it was being repelled somehow.

“Yep, I’m stumped… I guess you can’t always win huh…” he pursed his lips.

“I remember Anya saying you could just hold it to use it as a spell channel or something… But maybe I’m doing it wrong. Perhaps there’s a technique.”

Jay gave up for now, storing the crystal away.

After casting the spells and getting nowhere, he decided to slowly walk towards where he remembered Stench-rat Molodus was.

It was better to fight rauther than waiting around doing nothing anyway.

“I might as well make use of my time” shrugged Jay.