Kenny’s eyes widened as he read the screens. He was happy that he was going to get some loot after all the trouble he went through, but to receive bonus loot on top of the loot he was expecting. That was a blessing in disguise. He was excited that he was going to get more things that when the smell of the burning rat finally hit his nose he was taken by surprise.

Kenny quickly threw both hands over his nose to block the smell, but as he did that he smelled something that almost tied with how bad the burning rat smelled. The smell of the blood, sweat, saliva, and odor from punching both the Alpha Rat and the smaller rats.

Kenny fought his hardest not to gag and throw up whatever contents he had in his stomach. He heard the door behind him swing open and was thankful as the stench started to make its way out.

He waited for a long moment for the room to air out and risked taking a big gulp of air. While the room had aired out some, the smell of the burning rat was still prominent since the rat monster still had a flame running over its body. Deciding to hurry up and get his prizes so he could leave, Kenny made his way over to the chest.

The moment he placed a hand on it he heard the click that meant it was unlocked and pressed it open. He looked inside and frowned. He wasn’t sure what to expect when he looked inside, but from the size of the chest he was expecting the item inside to be much…bigger.

Instead of seeing something bigger like maybe a weapon he could use, he found a bracelet and a book. The bracelet was made out of some silverish metal with a clawed bone foot resting on it. The book was a plain blueish colored book that looked almost worn out. He grabbed both items and inspected them to see if he could get a better idea of what he was getting.

[Spring Step Bracelet (Common). Tier 1.]

[Gives the wearer an extra boost when leaping forward. Uses a small amount of Stamina when used.]

[Skill Tree Tome of Stacking Magic (Uncommon) Tier 1.]

[Skill Tree Tome of Stacking Magic - Skill Tree Requirement: Support. Focus Requirement: Not Applicable. Any Requirements: Must have any kind of stackable magical abilities, and an empty Unspecialized Node, 1 Free Skill Point. Unlocks an empty Unspecialized Node in the Support Skill Tree giving the user the Passive ability Stacking Magic. Stacks magical Buffs, Debuff, or any other magical abilities that causes status effects, positive or negative. Effects stacks up to four times. Each successful effect stacked after the first gives a certain percent less effect than the previous successful effects landed.]

Kenny stared at the two items. He was confused. He had believed that items placed in these loot chests were designed for the one who participated in the fight. Since he was the only one who took on this Grey Haired Colony Nest then he should have received items that only pertained to him. While the Spring Step Bracelet was something he could use to engage in a fight or escape quicker, the Skill Tree Tome of Stacking Magic was the opposite.

He didn’t have any magical abilities that caused Buffs, Debuffs, or any status effects. Hell, he didn’t even have his Support Skill Tree awakened yet. So the question still remained, why did he get something he couldn’t use? Was this the Tower’s way of foreshadowing? Was he going to get some sort of Buffs or Debuffs? Or did the Tower give him this as a sort of sell item for him to make money later? Maybe places like this didn’t follow the rule he was led to believe?

Kenny thought about his classes. He tried to remember if anyone had talked or mentioned anything about loot and if there was a possibility of receiving items that didn’t pertain to you. After thinking about it he did remember a guest Ascender talking about how there were times they or their party would receive an item that was completely useless to them. However, that only pertained to weapons, armor, and accessories. They never mentioned anything about Skill Tree Tomes.

Speaking of Skill Tree Tomes, he couldn’t recall anything about them either. He remembered lessons on weapons, armor, accessories, and even items like potions and talismans, but a Skill Tree Tome? He would have remember something as useful as a book that could fill in an empty slot in a Skill Tree. Maybe they taught it on a day he had missed class?

That was another thing. Empty Unspecialized Nodes? He remember hearing about Unspecialized Nodes, but he couldn’t remember much about them. He also didn’t remember hearing about there being empty ones. He had thought they were filled in just like the other nodes that came with awakening his Skill Trees. However, if that wasn’t the case then he needed to learn quickly so he didn’t screw up.

As Kenny placed the book-like tome in his pack he frowned. When he read that he was getting a bonus loot item he wasn’t expecting something he couldn’t even use. He didn’t want to sound ungrateful, but at the moment he needed all that he could get to help him progress. Having something he could sell later was more of a long term gain than a short term one.

After he threw his pack over his shoulder, Kenny inspected the room once more. He was standing by the alter where the chest was so he had better vision of the dimly lit room than when he was by the door. He was about to head out but stopped as something caught his eye.

It was the opened slot on the wall where the rats poured out of. Inside he could see a faint outline of something. He wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but judging from what he could see the shape wasn’t that of a rat and the thing didn’t move so he ruled that out. If it wasn’t a monster then there could only be one other option.

Kenny’s eyes grew slightly as he slowly recognized what the shape was. It was a smaller version of the chest that was sitting on the alter. There was more loot in this room.

Growing excited but also wary, Kenny cautiously made his way over. While he was excited there was another chest he did find it suspicious that it was hidden inside the area where the rats had poured out from. He was hoping it wasn’t the case, but after what had happened when he entered the room, he didn’t want to be taken by surprise again.

As he approached the opened windowed wall area, Kenny inspected it. He looked all around the edges of the opened area, inside the hidden room, and even around the floor where the chest sat in front of. He didn’t know what he should be looking for nor had any trap detection skills, but he still felt he needed to look.

After determining, and desperately hoping he was right, that there wasn’t any traps that would be sprung, Kenny reached out to the chest. As his hands touched the sides of the chest and was about to pull it out, he heard a click that echoed out and made his swiftly pull his hands away from it. He quickly into an offensive stance and scanned the area for any signs of movement. However, the only movement he saw was the lid of the small chest bounce open.

Furrowing his brows, Kenny looked inside the small chest and saw a circular object with a skull resting on it. After inspecting the item he noticed the shape was similar to the Spring Step Bracelet he had just received. The difference between the two items were the Spring Step was made out of some type of metal while this item looked to be made out of a bone that was sanded and cleaned. Instead of a clawed bone foot resting on it, it had a small rat skull.

[Bone Vitality Bracelet of the Alpha Rat (Uncommon) Tier 1.]

[A Bracelet made out of one of the Grey Haired Colony Alpha’s bones. Due to its Stat Talent in Vitality bleeding into the item it has giving the wear a +3 to their Vitality and gives the wearer the ability Nourishment Consumption only when wearing this item. Nourishment Consumption - Consumption of any type of food or liquids increases health regeneration for a short five second period. Can not stack, will repeat again if the user eats or drinks after the timer of the effect has disappeared.]

A smile slowly crept on Kenny’s face as he saw the item. It looks like when it spoke of bonus loot, it wasn’t referring to the second item in the first chest. It meant a second chest in general.

That was amazing news. If this is what it meant then the fact there were two items in the first chest must have meant this Nest was going to award two items anyways in the single chest. He wasn’t sure if he was right, but seeing this made him think he was.

He needed to do more of these types of rooms to see if that was the case. Especially if they contained items like this. Sure the bonus stats weren’t a lot, but it gave more than his current equipment did and that added bonus of increasing health regeneration when eating or drinking something…that could be a lifesaving thing in the middle of a fight.

Kenny placed the bracelet on his right wrist and stared at it. He now had two bracelets. One that increased his Vitality, and in turn, his health pool and gave him a short health regeneration ability. The other didn’t give him any bonus stats but instead gave a boost to his leaping. He needed to test that out to see how much it did as well as how much stamina it consumed. He didn’t wait long to try it out. he looked at the front door, bent his knees a bit and leapt forward.

To Kenny’s surprise, the amount of space he cleared was twice the amount he normally would have been able to. He could see potential in this when he was in a fight. To be able to approach a creature quicker before they realized it could increase his initiation game and if he needed to get out of a sticky situation he would be able to without worry. He did see a few problems with it though.

If he leaped like this his feet were dangerously close to the ground. If he wasn’t careful, he could snag his feet in a root while trying to leap at a monster or even hit a few rocks or any uneven terrain. He would need to test it out a few more times to see how high he was able to leap forward before determining if this would be a problem.

The other thing he noticed was how much Stamina it consumed. While his movements when striking, dodge, and even tanking hits drained his stamina, all those movements weren’t a problem due to his high Endurance. This increase in leaping though, it consumed twice as much as him running and throwing fist after fist combined.

The amount of Stamina he was seeing drop when he was in the middle of a fight was around ten to fifteen points per forty seconds to a minute if he was constantly moving. This one single leap took about twenty five of his Stamina Points. Since he only knew how to replenish his Stamina swiftly through drinking potions and slowly from resting, he would need to think carefully when and where he should use it.

For the next two hours, Kenny tested the limits of his new Spring Step Bracelet. He tested it in a few fights and even outside of battles. He confirmed his suspicions that the non-recognized ability, as he was seeing it as, did have its limits. It did nothing when jumping straight up as well as if he leaped forward at a certain height.

It looked like the height requirements for him to have it activate was high enough for his feet to barely lift off the ground. He would need to be more mindful of the terrain when using this as well as if he could strike when approaching a creature or not.

The reason for this latter part was because he needed to position his body in a way where his upper half was leaning forward enough as if he was going to attack. If his body were too straight up the leaping power wouldn’t activate.

He also tested to see if this was something he could continuously use after landing or if there was some sort of hidden cooldown. To his relief there didn’t seem to be any cooldown. However, he needed to have both feet planted on the ground before being able to have it activate.

The other thing he tested while in and out of combat was the effect of his other bracelet. The Bone Vitality Bracelet of the Alpha Rat. While it did say that during the consumption of any food or liquids he would receive an increase of health regeneration he wasn’t sure exactly how much of an increase he would receive. Not only that, but it had a time limit. It was small and not really a problem though. Just the amount of time one would need to swallow and take a breather before consuming again. However, what it didn’t say was how much he needed to consume before it worked.

His first test was to learn how much he needed to consume to activate this time and possibly lifesaving effect. He decided to try it outside of battle after a tough battle. He ended up having to eat three big bites of his bread before he noticed a sudden spike in his health regenerating. The amount that had suddenly shot up was roughly forty points within five seconds. However, after that five seconds were up, it stopped.

Forty points in five seconds was a lot better than forty points in two minutes or however long it took naturally. However, the amount he needed to eat in order to get that boost in health regen was a problem. First off, trying to eat that amount while in the middle of a fight was not only reckless, but would be hard. Having to dodge, run, and eat…he would die to choking before falling to a monster. Secondly, he would run out of food before reaching the last day if he used this part of the activation too much.

The eating portion wasn’t all bad though. When he needed to take a break and was hungry he could increase his health regen and wouldn’t need to wait long for his health to reach max, especially if he spaced out how much he was eating at a time.

The next test was the liquid way to activate the regen boost effect. Kenny was surprised that all it took was either one big gulp or two small gulps. Something more manageable and doable both in and out of the fight. He was glad that the liquid aspect of the activation didn’t require any special type of liquids.

He really only had his flask of water and the Basic Canned Soups. He didn’t want to open up and drink a cold uncooked can of soup just to test it out. He felt it would have been both gross and wasteful at the same time. The only issue he had was how he was going to drink something during the middle of a fight.

Like the issue with the food, he would need to use either one or both hands to get the flask of water out and open it so he could drink it. If there was a lull in the fight that would be fine but with Agility Stat Talented creatures and how many there were, he didn’t get any opportunities to be able to do so.

He could try and have it by his side, so he didn’t need to pull it out from his pack, but there was no loop for him to attach it to. If he was going to keep this bracelet for a while then he was going to need to come up with a plan in the future.

Something else he had discovered over time was a function of his Poison Constitution ability. After some time had passed after receiving the message that he had absorbed the faint poison he was hit with after an accumulation of bites and scratches from the rats nest, he received another screen asking if he would like to expel the absorbed poison.

Kenny decided not to since it was only one percent full. At most a small droplet would be expelled. He wanted to wait for the ability to absorb and store more so he could get a better idea on how it was be expelled, where it would come out of, and how much at a time.

Since there wasn’t any poisons or creatures to really help with that he needed to wait and be patient. After some more time had passed the same screen popped up again to ask him the same question. The intervals in between when he rejected the screen and received it again was around an hour. Even though he couldn’t test one thing out he still got something out of waiting, which made him appreciative.

Throughout the testing and fighting he was doing, Kenny hadn’t realized how much time had passed nor how far he had gone. It was only when he turned the corner of the hall he was in he had finally realized where he was.

As he turned the corner he noticed something different than all the other hallways he was previously in. First, the hallway wasn’t long. There weren’t any turns, but there was an exit way into a much bigger area. At least he believed it was a bigger area since the area expanded outside of the archway not too far from him.

As he slowly approached the archway he focused on what he could see as the view of the room he was getting closer to was expanding. He could see that the floor was the same as the entire area he was walking, same with the walls and ceiling. Familiar torches lining the walls or filling a couple of chandeliers.

The room was much bigger than what Kenny was expecting. It looked to be as long as two classrooms with plenty of space to run. Another thing to note was the lack of objects within the room. Besides the Torches, nothing else was in the room. No tables, chairs, bathrooms, kitchen stuff…nothing. Not even a single monster resides inside.

Kenny felt something was off as he stopped at the edge of the hall and scanned the area even more thoroughly. He felt like if he could spot something that seemed out of place then he could prepare himself for what was to come or if it were something he didn’t need then turn around and find what he needed.

After looking as hard of as he could and not finding anything, Kenny finally decided to step inside the room. Fixing his problem with the last room he just leisurely walked into; Kenny cautiously and slowly walked in.

After his first step he stopped and waited for something to happen. When nothing did he took another step. Once again nothing happened. After taking his third and seeing nothing happen, Kenny started to walk normally. However, he groaned after taking three more steps inside and hearing the sound of something heavy slam down behind him.

He believed he knew what it was since he heard the sound of metal scraping against stone but still decided to look anyways. The archway he had just stepped through was now filled with a metal cross gate, blocking his escape from the room. His attention then turned him back around as he heard something heavy drop and a deep guttural growl filling the room.

To his surprise it was a dog. It was no ordinary dog though. This creature stood up to his chest from what he was able to see. It had a deep dark color to its short haired fur, red eyes, and very sharp looking teeth. It had a muscular build and looked to be a mixture of a Doberman Pincher and a Bulldog.

[1^st Area Boss. Guardian Stone Hound. Level – 5. Stat Talent – Strength.]