Chapter 2 – Floor 1. Startled Little Rat, Squeak Squeak

Fortunately, even though my starting skill was strange, the items in my inventory at the beginning were exactly as I remembered.

An emergency ration and a bottle of water in the worn backpack hanging at my waist, firewood to light a campfire, and a few roots with unknown effects.

Enough supplies to last about a day if I stayed put.

But knowing that just staying still wouldn’t get me anywhere, I started moving.

‘Since the map is randomly generated anyway, I have no choice but to wander aimlessly… Can’t I see a map?’

The place I’d fallen into was an intricate network of underground sewers.

Even though I was a D.D. veteran, now that this was reality, it would be unreasonable for someone like me—not a special forces soldier—to navigate without a map while remembering every path I’d taken.

Wondering if it might appear like the status window from earlier if I spoke it aloud, I muttered:

“Map. Or should I say, ‘map’?”

WHOOSH—

As if it had been waiting, an octagon appeared, seemingly representing the cavern from earlier, with a yellow dot that appeared to represent me.

Though lacking detailed information, like a simplified drawing, it was definitely a map.

“That’s a relief… At least I won’t get lost. Since you’re giving me that, might as well throw in some overpowered items too, you bastard.”

I couldn’t really know if that anonymous poster was truly responsible for throwing me into this modded version of D.D., but I couldn’t help cursing with every step as I navigated the darkness of the damp sewers.

***

Thud. Thud.

Despite walking carefully, each footstep resonated through the air, carrying far into the distance.

With such poor stealth abilities, it was obvious that if I tried a stealth build, I’d be immediately detected and beaten to death.

‘I’ll put the stealth build on hold for now, and a pure swordsman build too… I don’t think I could manage that well.’

Naturally, now that D.D. had become reality, even if I planned a perfect build, I had to question whether I could actually execute the abilities that build required.

And as a 21st century adult with no relevant experience, I couldn’t find anything I was capable of.

I hadn’t properly exercised, never learned swordplay, and wasn’t a magician.

All I had was Onahole Creation, which I had no idea how to use.

When would anyone ever need an onahole in a dungeon? Throw it at pursuing monsters so they could masturbate?

Wah, I’m such an idiot.

Still, judging from the text description, there were a few potential uses that came to mind.

“Clearing obstacles blocking the path. Dealing with high-evasion enemies. Making them to sell.”

If it worked like a transformation potion, changing the target, it might actually be a somewhat useful spell.

Of course, there were problems—using a whopping 25 MP just to create a sex toy, and not knowing what abilities the onahole item might have—but I wanted to imagine something hopeful.

“I should be able to use magic if I find a magic wand, and using my charm for an animal farm build would be problematic in terms of probability.”

Even characters who never learned magic could cast spells stored in staves, so even I, who knew nothing about magic, should be able to use it.

That Onahole Creation was categorized as magic, after all. The problem was that I had no idea how any of this worked here.

‘Originally, you’d have to spend multiple runs to figure all this out.’

Not knowing what would happen if I died, I couldn’t afford to die. The roguelike genre, where you fearlessly descend into an unknown dungeon with nothing but your bare hands, truly only made sense as a game.

Squeak— Squeak squeak—

Just then, a thin, high-pitched sound of a small animal mixed with the flowing water sounds reached my ears.

I couldn’t help but get goosebumps at that sound.

‘…Wait, I’m sure the name of the enemies in the sewers was…’

Eerie red eyes gleamed from the darkness, staring at me.

Slowly emerging from the shadows to reveal itself: a long snout, razor-sharp buck teeth like well-sharpened knives, and yellow claws.

An appearance and stench as if it had risen from hell.

It was too large to simply be called a rat.

『Giant Rat』Level: 01
Health: 19/19 ■■■■■■■■■■
【A giant rat living in the sewers. A greedy creature with a gluttonous appetite that will devour anything edible.】

Squeak—

[You have learned about the Giant Rat.]

“KYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!”

I ran without looking back.

Seriously, how is it possible for a rat to be as tall as my waist?

If it bit me, it would clearly take off my entire arm, not just a finger.

“Run awaaaaaay!!!”

I moved my feet quickly to escape the Giant Rat. Not even a delisted coin could catch me!

***

“Huff… huff…”

Only after running for quite some time did I realize that the squeaking sounds from behind had stopped, and I was finally able to take a rest.

My throat, dry and parched with a rising acrid taste, screamed for water.

“Status. Brief version.”

===========================================

Health: 44/44 ■■■■■■■■■■
Magic: 26/26 ■■■■■■■■■■
Hunger: 61/100 ■■■■■■■□□□
Thirst: 43/100 ■■■■□□□□□□
Temperature: ◁■■■■■■■■□□▷

===========================================

After flicking my dry tongue a few times and waiting until my breathing returned somewhat to normal, I drank from my water bottle.

Sweet moisture that seemed to be sucked down automatically.

Only after drinking about a third of the full water bottle did I feel like I could survive.

I wanted to pour water over my head to cool down my hot body, but drinkable water was precious here.

Although water flowed through these sewers, the water here—where rats and various monsters lived—had an extremely high chance of causing disease if drunk.

It was a measure to be attempted only when there was absolutely no other water available and I was at my limit.

‘I died a few times because of that.’

The elevated temperature from running would go down if I waited, given the naturally cool temperature of the underground sewers, even though it wasn’t decreasing yet.

“But seriously, fuck… this isn’t right. How does a rat get that big? Does it work out or something?”

The biggest problem wasn’t immediate access to water, food, or temperature control, but how to kill monsters.

Basically, to descend to the next floor, I had to conquer the dungeon.

That necessarily involved killing enemies I encountered and claiming loot.

Not just for gaining experience, but because resources would be insufficient if I only picked up items dropped on the ground.

“I don’t think I could kill it with one hit to the head… No, even in D.D., it took two hits to kill.”

The damage a level 1 player character could inflict with one physical attack was usually around 9-15.

To kill a Giant Rat, I’d need to hit it at least twice, maybe three times if I was unlucky.

Of course, 9 damage was what you’d barely get with Strength 8 using a weapon with low base damage like a dagger, so in reality it was mostly two hits.

“You bastard 112.311! I’ll remember you and block you!”

If he received my furious blocking, he would surely shed tears of regret, thinking he shouldn’t have scammed the gallery back then.

“But seriously, what do I do now? I feel like I’m going to be one of the 32% of idiots who can’t even clear the first floor.”

My courage wasn’t enough to face and kill a Giant Rat head-on.

‘Maybe I should find some poison.’

“HYAAAH!!”

Just as I was considering finding poison arrows or darts to pursue a poison build, a resounding shout echoed off the walls nearby.

It was a human voice. Probably one of the criminals who had scattered from the cavern.

The enemies appearing in the sewer area from floors 1 to 5 were mostly Giant Rats, spiders, and slime blobs.

If you were looking specifically for humanoid enemies, there were only the shopkeeper, the mini-boss that occasionally appeared on the 5th floor, and the criminals distributed throughout the area.

And criminals had a unique AI algorithm—they were hostile to players like other enemies, but were also hostile to monsters.

‘That’s why there’s a tip about luring monsters to criminals, running away, then ambushing whoever survives and collecting items.’

A pretty useful strategy for me right now, wasn’t it?

Guilt is something that can only develop after I’ve survived.

If we’re being picky, the anonymous poster who deceived innocent me—who just wanted to experience the soft, tender flesh of the newly decorated dungeon—is the bad one.

Muttering a curse that I would downvote every post they made, I walked toward the source of the sound.

Finding the origin of the sound wasn’t difficult.

I had an awesome map that showed the complex sewer paths after I’d traversed them once, and above all, the loud battle cries never ceased, as if they were trying to gather all the monsters on the first floor.

“HAH! HYAH! HAH! HYAH! HAH! HYAH!”

KYEEEEEK-!

Squeak, SQUEEEAK-! SQUEEEEAK!

There, a criminal wearing tattered clothes like mine was facing Giant Rats and spiders, swinging a double-bladed axe with peculiar battle cries.

『Sewer Spider』Level: 03
Health: 4/27 ■□□□□□□□□□
【A giant spider living in the sewers. It hunts prey directly without spinning webs. Its eyes have atrophied, so it relies more on tactile senses.】

[You have learned about the Sewer Spider.]

『Criminal』Level: 08 [Status: Poisoned]
Health: 17/46 ■■■□□□□□□□
【A poor criminal thrown into the underground labyrinth for committing crimes. Ready to slaughter everything in sight to survive, but reality isn’t so forgiving.】

[You have learned about the Criminal.]

Two Giant Rats already split in half and one Sewer Spider.

Considering that criminals had similar specs to level 1 players, he had clearly put up quite a fight.

However, the criminal’s remaining health was close to critical, and there were still three Giant Rats left, plus he was poisoned.

‘Perfect opportunity!’

I’ll come back later to collect the items.

I quietly backed away to avoid being detected by the Giant Rats.