Once they closed the door again Jay sunk in deep thought. This would be an extremely dangerous task. They not only had to kill 100 massive rats but they also had to cross the room, preferably without losing any of his troops. After thinking for a bit he decided on a rather simple plan. 

When they opened the door earlier the rats didn’t move whatsoever, this likely meant the rats had some difficulty seeing or hearing. This was further reinforced by the fact they were family of ‘ancient’ beings. Such creatures often had problems with their sensory systems.

When the door opened once more most of the men got rather nervous. After all, getting killed by a hundred rat-bites was a pretty awful way to go. Despite this none of them thought of retreating, Other then the ‘Blind Follower’ trait this could also be attributed to the respect they had for their Lord.

The only soldier that didn’t seem nervous was a man named Geralt. He had been part of the first farmers Jay had ‘spawned’. Soon after his creation, he was taught how to fight by a burly commander named general Green. The training was incredibly harsh but rather than wishing it would end he wanted to keep training and get stronger.

After just a few days of this training, he was already sent out to defend First City. He then fought with vigor but the wild goblins still overwhelmed him and he was pushed back to the city wall.

But no matter how hard he fought, it didn’t help. He got scratches all over his body and didn’t have a choice but come to terms with the fact that he was going to die.

It was then he truly met the Lord. A man that strolled on the battlefield as if it was his home. When the goblins started attacking him he saw his emperor’s face. He didn’t look nervous, nor did he look angry. He was calm, killing a goblin with nearly every strike he made. His hands were soaked in green blood but his face was as clear as ever. As if untainted by the situation he was in. If every goblin would attack him at the same time, Geralt still felt like this man could defeat them.

Once the Emperor had felled a number of goblins he felt his blood boiling, one of the goblins he was fighting earlier was in a daze and a single trust with his spear was enough to kill it. After this, everything happened quickly, within just a few minutes all the goblins were dead.

When his wounds were healed, he was once more called upon. The Lord had found the location of the goblins’ nest and they were going to attack it together. But when they arrived he didn’t get into the tough fight he had expected. Instead, there were goblin cubs scattered around the floor with nobody to protect or feed them.

So with a stone weighing on his stomach, he slaughtered them under the Lord’s command. This changed his views somewhat. Since he wasn’t able to believe that the Lord would be wrong, it was his own views that needed changing. Yet after he completed his task they came into the next room. When he saw the elven women he gripped his spear, shaking somewhat. He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to deliver mercy.

But then, the Emperor glanced at him, and then to his shaking spear. Then he gave him a sad smile before walking forward himself, delivering mercy to those beyond saving.

At this point, he believed in this man unconditionally, as if it had always been his sole purpose to follow him. 

"Attack those on their own while we move, our priority is to find the other door."

Even though the majority of the rats were on the pillars there were still those walking on the floor, the plan was to first make their way to the door leading to the exit, then they could worry about the quest.

As for the rats’ corpses, he wasn’t too worried. The floor was covered with rat bones and it looked like these creatures cannibalized each other for food and energy.

Only killing a rat here and there, the group slowly made its way to the other side of the room. Other than a single occasion where they alerted 5 rats at once, everything went according to plan. After walking slowly for a dozen minutes they arrived at the other door. At this point, Jay knew the room was about 100 meters by 30 meters with a total of about 30 pillars with a few hundred rats on each pillar.

After making sure everyone was in formation not far from the exit, Jay ordered one of the spearfighters to walk forward and attempt to stab one of the rats on the pillar stealthily. But when he stabbed the rat something rather unexpected happened.

Unlike what he had expected the other rats on that pillar didn’t just wake up, every single rat on every one of the pillars woke up. The moment after the first rat was stabbed, thousands of little eyes looked at them at the same time, not a single sound could be heard. But once that moment passed all hell broke loose and all the ancient rats ran towards them.

Jay instantly ran towards the door behind them but when he pushed against the door it wouldn’t open, it was locked. Furthermore, the way to the entrance was now blocked by an insane amount of rats, they had no choice but to fight.

The onslaught of rats arrived quickly. The first few dozen rats were easily dealt with since they ran straight into the spears, but the rats didn’t care about their dead companions, they would climb over them in a moments notice getting closer to the intruders.

The second row of rats was killed by the axemen and swordsmen. Thus giving the spear bearers the time to pull their spears out in order to take the next line of rats. Meanwhile, Jay shot a tiny shard of ice at any rat that seemed to be getting through, delaying them so that his men would be able to take them out. 

Soon the quest was completed but Jay didn’t have the time to check it right now, instead, he was trying to keep his troops alive.

Yet soon tragedy struck. The reason wasn’t that the soldiers weren’t strong enough but instead, it was because of their gear. As one of the spears broke in half after stabbing a particularly large rat.

The very next moment Jay was forced to take his place, making him unable to slow any of the rats that were about to breach the line of defense.

One after another breached, biting the ankles of the warriors before them, completely messing up their rhythm. As expected, this caused the situation to instantly take a turn for the worst. As more rats came through, the first victim fell.

Lidia was one of the soldiers in his group, she fought hard but when a dozen massive rats bit into her legs she collapsed. She screamed loudly when the rats bit into her body. Her left breast was torn into shreds in an instant causing her a tremendous amount of pain, but soon her scream halted as the rats moved on to her neck and face, causing for a particularly gruesome scene.

At this point, the group got entirely split up. Most soldiers were forced to move to the cracks in the wall so they wouldn’t be overwhelmed as easily, while Jay stood alone at the same spot as earlier.

Whenever rats got close to him they hesitated, after a few seconds they retreated. Jay took full advantage of their unwillingness to attack.

The sound of thousands of paws hitting the ground and agonizing screams coming from his soldiers arrived in his ears. Jay struck out constantly, moving fasted by every second that passed. Rat guts covered his soldier as he stood in a pile of corpses mixed together with shit, innards, and blood, an immense amount of blood. Covered in the red liquid from head to toe, he was blinded, unable to open his eyes. But then something happened.

When another rat tried attacking him from behind Jay sensed it as he kicked him hard. The kick caused the rat to fly backward, hitting the door Jay was close to, causing it to fly open.

"The door is open!!"

A yell came from one of the survivors as everyone moved towards the door as quickly as they could. Meanwhile, Jay's head was still full of killing when he saw the door open. Yet when he saw all survivors had entered and were holding it desperately waiting for him, he managed to grasp a moment of clarity, swiftly disposing of a few more rats before heading through the door, promptly closing it behind him.

In the end, only 4 soldiers remained. Each of them with a number of ugly bites on their legs, causing them to promptly fall down once the adrenaline subsided. Jay also suddenly felt exhausted as he sat down to rest, cleaning some of the blood out of his eyes, he looked at the notification he got earlier.

| Mission: kill 100 rats completed. |

| Reward: 100 health potions, next door has been unlocked. |