Quill walked through the Grand Station, up the stairs and down the hall towards Ssevinac at the end. He had continued to stay here for a bit longer but now he felt like he had enough supplies to kill the last five cursed sins.
Though some of that decision had been spurred on by Ssevinac who mentioned that he should probably get a move on if his goal was to kill all the cursed sins before the time in the tutorial dungeon ran out. He didn’t want to be racing against the clock after all, especially when there was no clock to check.
As he made his way towards Ssevinac he took note that the Grand Station itself had really livened up with all the rat kin here. At first Quill wasn't entirely sure if there would be enough room for all of them despite how much bigger the Grand Station was. But turns out that with the freeing up of one of the platforms, they could fit all of them in livable conditions and it wasn’t even snug.
Plus the rat kin themselves no longer looked at him with fear, which was nice, but now they seemed to look at him as some kind of jester or amusing novelty. Ssevinac had tried to quickly put a stop to it at first but after Quill told him he didn't mind he relaxed.
“Don't know why you told him that, it clearly still bothers you.” she grumbled inside his head. The animosity clear in her voice.
“It's such a minor thing.” Quill hastened to speak hoping to calm her down. “No need to get upset over such a minor thing that doesn't matter in the short or long term.”
She huffed in response but didn't go further so he hoped that was enough to placate her. He neared Ssevinac while he was talking to Rrepia who was apparently his pupil before they were saved/taken by the system.
He had actually asked Ssevinac what level or rank he was before the system took him and reset him to zero. He didn't say his level but he did tell Quill that he had been in early D-rank. Unfortunately since he had no real frame of reference he wasn't sure how impressive that was or not. Sure he said it was impressive, but he wasn't exactly an unbiased source either.
He walked up towards Ssevinac who nodded towards Rrepia and she quietly scuttled away before he turned his attention towards Quill.
“I assume you are about to leave us? Do you really intend to kill the other five cursed sins? Even though you have gained a few levels since your last encounter, fighting them is no easy task. You almost died the first time if your story is to be believed.”
Quill had told Ssevinac a heavily edited version of his first battle. The rat kin obviously knew he was leaving stuff out but chose not to push it which he was thankful for. However he did not know of Quill's quest to kill the other five. He had no issue with telling him but she heavily advised him against it for whatever reason.
“I don't need a reason, I just don't like him. Which if you want to be technical is a perfectly valid reason.”
“Yeah yeah,” he responded to her before looking at Ssevinac who was now used to what he likely perceived as Quill talking to himself.
“You said that living beings inside the tutorial would be brought out once it ended. That would also mean those cursed sins would come out too. I'd rather deal with them now when I have more of an advantage than deal with them later when they are no longer pacified, and potentially at a higher level.”
“Do not mistake me Quill. I fully support your decision to kill these cursed sins as they will prove to be trouble later if they live. But are you sure you are ready?”
“Pfft. No, not in the slightest, if I thought I had more time I'd want to try and get my skills to a higher level and if I thought I had the option, I'd also try to level up more too. However, since the stupid system didn't think to put a fucking timer on this tutorial I'm kind of flying by ear and for all I know I only have a few hours left. So I got too make do with what I have”
Ssevinac openly flinched when Quill insulted the system, his eyes starting nervously as if the system was going to spawn some Eldritch Horror out of nowhere to eat everyone in the vicinity before looking back at Quill. However, before he could even say anything Quill cut him off.
“Yeah I know, don't go insulting the system around any of you. Though if the system didn't want to be insulted, perhaps it wouldn't be such a glitchy mess” he added that last part barely as a whisper.
“You know he is a rat, he can probably hear you. Good job on making him even more uncomfortable!” She spoke with delight and judging by Ssevinacs ear twitch he definitely did hear Quill but didn't comment.
“Anyways,” he spoke, trying to move on. “The point is I want to kill these things as soon as I can and I believe I have enough bombs and potions now to make that happen as safely as possible.”
“Not to question your judgment but I do not think trying to have the sins swallow a bunch of bombs is a good and safe way to try and kill one of those things. You got very lucky the first time, And perhaps you'll be the lucky the second and third, but at some point that luck of yours will run out.”
“ not to worry” Quill said, barely holding back a grin “I do have a plan for that too.”
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“ And that would be?” Ssevinac asked, clearly interested and knowing full well he was being prompted.
“I'll tell you after, if the plan fails I'll look like a dumbass for thinking it will succeed. This way I can spin the narrative to make myself look good no matter what happens." That was actually her idea but he found it funny enough that he thought he might as well go along with it.
Ssevinac himself let out a small chuckle, clearly finding it amusing as well. “Very well. I would send someone with you to help, maybe even come myself but if one of the cursed sins decides to take any of us as a host after you destroy the original body, I doubt we would be able to resist its corrupting effects.”
“ No offense but I don't think you'd be much help anyways. Those things are terrifying and if I can't successfully kill them I'm not sure how much any of you would be able to help anyways.”
Ssevinac nodded and then reached into his bag and pulled out a wooden rat totem and handed it over to Quill. “Here. When the tutorial ends, there is a good chance we will end up in separate areas, especially if we are separated as it ends. This totem will help us find you and vice versa” Ssevinac pulled out a second rat totem and held it for Quill to see.
“Just pour some mana into it and watch.”
Quill did as he was asked and saw the totem glow a faint blue color as a small string of light pointed towards the other totem, fading out of existence after only a couple of inches but he got the general gist.
“They’re better ways to keep track of one another but this is the best we can do for now. Hopefully it won’t come to that but you never know.”
Quill nodded and exchanged goodbyes with Ssevinac, he had already said goodbye to Ttemin and Wwennep so all that was left was to go back to the other Grand Station where he would be hunting the cursed sins. He sure as hell wasn't going to be doing it here where all the other rat kin were.
He wouldn't go as far as to say they were friends or anything but they were certainly friendly. Even if they viewed him as a little nuts they clearly were grateful to him for helping kill everything that was trying to kill them. And it could be the depression talking but it was certainly nice to have somebody appreciate you, even if that appreciation came with what would probably be some severe PTSD later on.
“ Oh please, you aren't going to develop PTSD. You need to go through trauma in order for that to happen and how could you have any trauma when you have me here keeping you company.”
“ I don't think that's how it works” he spoke, thinking she was just being her silly self.
“Maybe not now but it will. And then any potential PTSD you might have gotten from here will swiftly go out the window. Trust me, my pet. you won't need to worry at all.”
He pursed his lips but didn’t respond before jumping back down into the tunnels and began his journey towards the other Grand Station. Only after confirming with her that she will correct him if he made a wrong turn.
“Hey so while we ha-. Turn left, not right-. while we have time I was wondering if you had maybe reconsidered my little suggestion about the cursed sins” she spoke in a way too innocent and cutesy tone.
“No” he answered with a deadpan expression while still following her directions. “I am not going to torture them to death. Quite frankly some of what you were asking me to do was nauseating. And if that isn't enough of an excuse for you. Then you will just have to settle for the fact that they are just too strong to risk keeping alive in order to fulfill whatever sadistic need you might have.”
“Excuse me, but it is not a sadistic need. It is proper Justice. Nothing, and I mean Nothing is allowed to possess, claim, or have any kind of influence over you in any way shape or form. Frankly I think torturing them is being all too merciful. your own sweet nature is rubbing off on me I swear.”
“The answer is still no. You will just have to make do with whatever messed up method of justice you will do when you stop the cursed sin from corrupting me” he let out a sigh and as he spoke.
“Boooo! Lame!”
“Boo me all you want, I'm not changing my mind.”
“You will one day. So for now I suppose I'll capitulate but under protest so mark it down.”
“Consider them marked.” He responded as he continued to make his way through the tunnels. He kind of wondered how big this whole dungeon was. Like what was its width or diameter. but he wasn't curious enough to check it out. At least there wasn't a second level or something like that. Not that he knew of at least. He certainly wasn't going to ask or try and find out. The system would 100% try and capitalize on that and give him some bullshit Quest that was even harder than killing the cursed sins.
“In fairness. If your current plan works out, killing the cursed sins might go fairly smoothly. Perhaps the system foresaw this and knew you could handle it. Wanting to push you so you could become stronger.”
“I feel like there were plenty of other ways to do that without putting my life in danger. Also we don't even know if this is going to work, just hoping that it will.”
Eventually he wandered into the roach area of the stations, Taking a wide berth around the dome where he killed all of those bugs as the smell had gotten horrible. He was definitely hoping all of their rotting gross remains didn't come out of the tutorial when it was done because wherever they ended up it would likely kill any creature that had a slight sense of smell.
He then walked down the tunnel towards the Grand Station where he fought the ninja roaches. Naturally his dumbass triggered a trap that he somehow missed which earned countless laughter and playful mockery from her before getting inside the Grand Station itself.
“so, which of the cursed sins are you thinking about killing?” she eventually asked
Quill went through the contents of his storage ring putting aside what he thought would be enough to kill the next one. “Probably the white one. it was the first one I saw and it damn near made me shit my pants upon seeing it. seemed like the most appropriate one to do now”
“Excellent. I look forward to watching that worm squirm.”
