Zane pushed open the door and walked into a large room. In the middle of the room was a large creature that was ravenously consuming one of the rats that he had been killing out in the hallway. It had the head of a rat, but its body was misformed and bulbous. It was standing on all fours, but the front legs look like they were half leg and half arm. There were large blisters all over this creature's back, the clear skin showing the liquid inside it sloshing around as it hungrily consumed its meal. The whole sight made Zane a little queasy.
It suddenly stopped eating and sniffed and its head snapped around. It's stared at Zane with intensity as it picked up the rat it was eating, pulling the dead rodent close to its chest. Without taking its eyes off of Zane, it lifted the rat to its mouth and ripped out more of the meat, it's arms shifting to hide the rat from him.
The cat jumped off of Zane's pack, standing in front of him and hissed at the strange creature. It hissed back and took another bite. Considering it was intent on finishing the dead rat, Zane carefully took off his pack and set it on the ground. Once he had done that, the cat took its place on top of it and sat staring at the creature.
At this point, it's shoved the rest of the carcass into its mouth and stood on its hind legs for a moment, before leaning forward onto its front legs. It reminded him of a strange mutant experiment that had gone wrong. Its red beady eyes stared intensely at Zane. Zane set himself into a battle stance. It screeched at him and ran at him, slobber and blood trailing out of its mouth.
It did not jump at Zane when it reached him, but slashed at him with its claws. Zane blocked the attacks with the shield. He began to move around the rat mutant, surprised at how slow this thing was. In the hallway, the rats had not been fast, which made it easy for Zane to dodge and kill them. This thing was definitely faster than them, but he had no problem following its movements and deflecting or dodging them.
Its movements became increasingly erratic as its frustration at being unable to hit Zane was becoming evident. It stepped back and screamed at him before attacking with a renewed vigor.
Zane decided that he had had enough and blocked an attack with his shield and stepped forward, slashing with his sword and removing the rats left arm. It's squealed in pain, jumping back. Zane flowed forward, taking the other arm. He then slashed its chest twice in an x pattern and then plunged his blade into the chest of the mutant.
Gurgling sounds came out of its throat as blood erupted from its mouth. It fell to its knees and then to the floor. Zane shook his head as he wiped his blade on the thing's fur. It sucked to be right about this. This was like the rest of this dungeon floor, a disappointment. These things moved so slow that, even though he didn't have any experience fighting, it wasn't hard for him to defeat them.
After a few moments, the rat mutant's body started to disappear. After it had completely dissolved, Zane noticed that there were two stones on the floor. He picked them up and noticed that they both had the word crush written on them. It was a little confusing, but Zane didn't care. He gripped the one in his right hand and applied pressure to it, as much as he was able. After a few moments of resisting, the stone crumbled into powder. The powder didn't fall from his hand onto the floor; it wrapped itself around his hand and arm. He could feel the energy from it entering his body.
The blue screen that usually held the information about his stats and skills suddenly popped up. He then heard a voice in his head and saw words on the screen. "Welcome, Zane. You have gained access and unlocked some higher functions of the system."
"What?!" Zane said.
"You now have access to these features: inventory, percentage representation of completion of current level of skills, and greater explanation of each individual trait and skill."
"Interesting," Zane studied the words in front of him. "Inventory."
"Welcome to the inventory. If you wish to place items in the Inventory, simply touch desired item and say 'store'. If you wished to take an item out, think of said item and say 'retrieve'. The item will appear in your hand. Please note that only non-living items may be placed in your inventory."
Zane pulled out the rat's teeth he had been keeping in his pockets. He held them in his right hand and said, "Store." He saw a stack of ten rat's teeth appear in the window. This was awesome. This would make carrying around things much easier. He looked down at the other stone in his left hand and crushed it.
"You have successfully applied 'Life Sense' to 'Monster Knowledge'. New skill recreated: Monster Identification. Please refer to skills page for more information."
"Skills."
Skills
Martial arts (basic) 2%, Weapon training (basic) 5%, Parkour (Intermediate) 2%, Cooking (basic) 1%, Monster Identification (basic) 1%, Life sense (basic) 1%, Summon Truck-Kun (Basic, restricted) 1%.
"Monster Identification."
Monster Identification will show the race, level, health, and mana of monster you encounter. Advancing the skill will give more information about targets weak points, stats, and potential loot. Activation will remain on until deactivation.
This skill will be very useful as he moves further into the dungeon. "Activate Monster Identification." Zane looked back at the kitten on his pack. There were several sets of question marks floating around the cat and then a window popped up stating 'Identify skill too low'.
"This thing can't even identify a kitten," Zane said to himself. Or was the cat really not what it seemed to be. Zane thought about it for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. It hadn't been a problem yet, so he wasn't going to worry about it. This dungeon was what he needed to concentrate on.
He went over and put on his pack. He supposed he could have put it in his inventory, but where else would the cat sit? He picked up the kitten and placed it on the top of the pack. He grabbed his sword and shield and made his way to the stairs.