"Clik!"

Knowing how any sound may travel far and wide in this hollow tunnel, Oscar was all focused on finishing the rat in one hit or as quickly as possible in fear of attracting unwanted attention from other possible monsters. 

The tunnel wasn't large enough for him to hide, nor did it give him much space to move back and forth. Oscar was only able to crawl forward since the tunnel only allowed a one-way passage in a uni-direction at a time.

Fortunately, the rat monster was back facing him, seemingly busy collecting the magic crystals. 

'Doesn't matter a human or monster, all have but one common weakness, their neck' Oscar flexed his claws before approaching his target, silently. 

Just when the rat picked up the dropped-down crystal with its tiny claws, its ears twitched, making it turn back cautiously only to face a green creature's oncoming assault. 

"Scrii!"

Without batting an eye, the rat thrusts its forehead bone-spear, rotating at an Insane speed right back at the goblin's face. 

"Ghiii!"

*Ding!*

Barely able to dodge and avoid getting impaled through his stomach, Oscar sticks flat-faced against the tunnel wall to his right at the last moment. Letting the rat monster get past him, drilling straight at the floor he crawled out from. 

"Phu!" 

'Fu*k!' Spitting the mud outta his mouth, he cursed for failing his sneak attack before picking himself up and throwing his body at the rat unicorn's back. 

*Puchi!*

"Sciii!" 

With a stab to its neck, the rat screeched.

Followed by its body turning back in fury burning in its beady eyes, only to feel like carrying extra weight on its back and more pain from its neck. 

"Scuiiiii!" Not able to impale its enemy, it squealed in frustration. 

Enraged yet feeling threatened for its life, the rat vehemently banged itself against the side walls, hoping to crush that pesky goblin riding over it. 

'Shit!' Oscar embraced himself for the impact. Digging his claws deeper caused the rat to squeal in pain, but the layer of fat on its neck gives the rat enough time to break Goblin's bones into thousands. 

*Bang!*

Wide-eyed, Oscar almost lost his grip at the first impact. He felt an insane amount of pressure against his back. But before the rat could pull and thrash him against the wall on repeat, the goblin grits his teeth and hacked at the same spot again and again. And soon, it became a competition on who will give up first: the Goblin's hundreds of bones or the Rat's single neck bone? 

"Ghaaa!"

Eventually, the Goblin digs past that protective layer of fat first, and stuck the critical blow against the rat, causing it to squeal weakly one last time before its tensed muscle relaxed and the unicorn rat slumped down in defeat. 

"Urgh!"

Climbing down from its back, Oscar massages his sore hand muscles and many broken backbones. 

'Finally killed it' he smiled seeing the screen, but felt a little disappointed for not leveling up. 

'That froggy lizard was lv3 and this rat is lv2, equivalent to mine... So, I doubt I would get much exp from it' Shrugging, he thought before he clenched and unclenched his fist feeling a little better from the muscle soreness. And fortunately not any important bones were broken in his back. 

'Hmm...' Focusing on his hearing, he checks if all this commotion has attracted any other creature that may be running around this deep magic tunnel before turning back at the dead rat when finding none. 

'Now let's taste this fatty... Slurp~' he thought, sucking back his overflowing drool

Learning from his mistake, Oscar firstly dragged the rat back to his cave-ly abode, while making sure to clear his trails. He didn't touch the pile of magic crystals for having his hands full, but that didn't stop Oscar from tugging two or three in his made-up pockets. 

'So the goblins are the only ones that sucks at being tasty' he concluded after finishing his meal with a satisfied grin, still reminiscing of how the fat and muscle meat created a great combination 

'As much as I'm open to eating raw meat, I would still prefer it if it's cooked...' He thought, licking clean the bone of its meat by scraping it thoroughly. 

Having his confirmation, his hand nails grew a little longer with more thickness and sharpness at the tip. 

Oscar chooses to delay in collecting enough Gene aliments to get the 'Poison fangs' after seeing his trusty claws failing to penetrate the neck deep enough, while he wanted to upgrade his claws to the top making them sharp like 'Excalibur' to avoid encountering this kind of situation ever again, he couldn't. Since, he didn't have enough Gene aliments nor did his level cap allows it. 

*Crack!*

With a single slash, the rat's leg bone snapped into two easily, making him spread his big toothy smile wide seeing the sharpness is now upto the task. 

                                                           

*Du!Du!Du!Du!*

After exploring the tunnel's further insides for some time, and taking turns at many divisions twice, Oscar met with another rat unicorn. Working like an underpaid miner, digging out the magic crystals and collecting them in a pile. 

He wasn't that lucky to meet yet another stupid rat to face his back at him, though, it was working by keeping an eye on both sides of the tunnel. 

Stopping just before the turn, Oscar waited for it to turn its back on him. But the hard-working rat kept on digging out crystals after crystals, and only turned back to pick and drop the crystals into that pile on its side for a second.

'Argh! Stupid rat, just take a break will you? Nobody's here to supervise... Well, other than me but I don't count, and what are you even collecting these magic crystals for?' As he waited, his mind wandered to other things. 

'Do they know the uses of these magic crystals?' His eyes sparkled at that thought 

'Yea, if they don't know what these are, I doubt any normal monster or even animals would start mining some random stones out in a tunnel, doesn't matter how shiny those stones seems'

Picking up the nearby magic crystal, he contemplated. While trying to feel anything from it but just when he felt a subtle vibration, the rat finally turned its back to start packing the pile with its tiny claws, probably to move across the tunnel. 

Not wasting any second, he regulated his breath while quickly traversing the short distance, making double sure to make no mistake this time. And before the rat could take a step forward, It felt a deadly grip at the back of its neck causing its eyes to widen with an ominous shadow of death looming above its tiny head. 

*Puchi!*

A bunch of green knife-like nails pierced straight through its neck, tearing any obstruction with less difficulty than before. 

"Screeii!" 

The rat tried to turn back in hope of thrusting its forehead spear at its assailant before making a quick dash out of the danger, but it didn't take long for Oscar to slither his agile hand and grasp its spine with some minor errors before snapping it in half. 

*crack!*

"Scrrraaa!" With a painful cry, it finally swings back its forehead spear one last time which successfully grazed the goblin's shoulder who didn't take its one last ditch effort in his calculation. 

"Ghaap!" Oscar holds his painful groan as he puts pressure on his injured shoulder, trying not to make more noise than the dying rat has already created. 

With a slow whimper, he leans against the wall before taking some deep breaths while withstanding the pain. 

'Fu*k! Still no level up?' He grimaced. Hoping to get a free heal from this level up, but he was only met with disappointment… Or not. 

Instead, he got the much-desired sneak skill which uplifted his mood a little. He was able to distract himself from the pain by reviewing his past mistakes, like failing to hide his smell... He didn't know how to hide his smell before, but now he had an idea to cover up even though as little as possible. 

After a moment, he was able to move his shoulder a little bit with less pain, and the bleeding had already stopped. 

'Bastard! You better taste as great as your brother or this goblin won't leave your bones intact' 

Grumbling. Oscar pulled the rat in the direction he felt the wind flow was different, same as his original cave-ly abode, since he didn't want to keep dragging it back that far just to eat clean, while also not wanting to be an idiot by starting to eat right here. 

He hadn't dragged the body for long when he found the same burrow with an opening above, leading outside. 

'Strange...' He frowned when he saw its opening was also blocked, hidden well enough that nobody from the cavern would be able to notice, just like the previous burrow he was using as his sort-of turf. 

'Whatever, gotta eat and get my level up. This hurts damn it!' Shrugging. He came down, and starts tearing down the skin from its meat and bones out of its tendons. 

'At last...' He was happy with any of his skill level-ups, and more than satisfied with getting this skill as he was able to eat the best parts first while avoiding the bad ones. And not to mention, he was only able to locate its spine within a second giving it a quick death, while avoiding the layers of fat protecting its neck unlike before. 

Decided to gain his much-needed level up, and remove the scar on his shoulder which somehow didn't hurt and had already healed making him admire the goblins' ability to stay alive even after taking a beating, Oscar sets his foot back into the tunnels.

Knowing well that he probably won't find this easy prey in the dungeon caverns, going by the footsteps he was hearing, they seems more than he could handle with such ease. 

'And I'm curious, what these little buggers are hoarding these magic crystals for...' 

Oscar was just curious, he's definitely not going after them because they're weak and look easy to bully and give juicy meat to eat, with a nod he convinced himself.