"Thud!"

Oscar didn't even give the unicorn rat enough time to scream, and alert the worker rats in the adjacent tunnels before killing it in a second. His claws were going in from the back of its neck, and protruding out from the front, covering in the gruesome blood of his prey. 

In terms of proficiency, Oscar has now more than enough to kill them in seconds: condition, if they're alone and dared to turn their defenseless back on him. 

After learning from his past mistakes and with the help of his new 'Sneak' skill, it wasn't hard for Oscar to successfully kill the next six or so lone unicorn rat workers. Managing to level up twice in the process and reach, 

While also raising 'Sneak' and 'Sharp Nails' twice, since both the skills are the ones he had been using to one-hit-kill these rats. 

After expertly dragging the rat into the nearby exit tunnel while clearing his trails as much as he could, the Goblin starts gobbling down the raw meat as his knife-like fingers danced along its skin, splitting the muscle meat apart from its bones with the scent of fresh blood permeating the air. 

'Somehow their tails are rather elastic' Oscar would have thrown away all the remains of the monster rats, but after checking the elasticity of their tails he thought otherwise. 

So, he hides the bundle of these tails in one place after binding them together with tight knots, hoping to make use of them in the future. 

'I got level-up after killing 3 rats in total, and after that, the exp got reduced for killing them. So, I was barely able to gain level 4 by killing more than six... Hence going by this theory, shouldn't I have more Gene aliment points?' Frowning, he doubted the numbers. 

Oscar was trying to guess the maths behind his reduced Gene aliment points, but not after a minute has passed, 'I give up!' 

Raising his hands in defeat, he sighed 'How did I even pass my mathematics exams?' 

He wondered before it clicked to him. 

'Ah! I didn't... Have to retake the exam thrice, only for the teacher to force-pass me. In order to maintain her good teaching records' 

Now he's regretting it. But, Oscar was one of those who never questioned the cashier. Believing, they wouldn't cheat him on some small change. 

Shrugging, he opens the mutations available to him. 

'Maybe...' He contemplated having a driller on his forehead just like those rats, but thought otherwise. He doesn't think swinging his head against your enemy like an angry bull is a wise choice, and 'I just don't like it' 

Other than that, he didn't find any new mutation that could interest him. 

'Yea, make my fangs sharper than the Dracula' 

Suddenly, he lost the sensation in his mouth before feeling two pulls at the sides, the spots his canines were placed, accompanied by a strange itching above his mouth; like an additional gland was coming into existence. 

It didn't take long for the process to complete, and he got two sharp fangs that could stretch further with his thought. 

"Urgh!" 

He gasped, clutching his forearm with two poke marks. He felt a sudden dizziness, and a little nauseous before he saw the upgrade in his poison resistance as some gentle feeling soothes his nerves.

'Guess, it worked' he smiled, having to finally raise his poison resistance before selecting the skill he had his eyes set on from the moment he saw it. 

Having his confirmation, his scalp started itching subtly for a moment. While he felt a horde of ants crawling over his skin, making him shudder with some cold sweats covering his back before he came to his senses. 

From the moment he was able to feel a slight link with the Magic stone, this skill popped up for him to purchase making him excited and hopeful. 

Stretching his hand, he could now perceive the visible Magic particles floating around. Even though the particles still passed right through him and he couldn't do much other than just feel a lightweight as if a feather had touched upon his palm, when he picked up the crystal he could now feel it. And as he focused his mind solely on it, he could tell that the crystal was responding or reacting to his touch. 

"Fuu!" Taking a breath, he rubs his head 'It's tiring but... Worth it' smiling tiringly, he thought. 

Who doesn't like doing something magical, Oscar was no exception to this. And that's why he had practiced to make the crystal glow, whenever he was not hunting rats or eating rats for the past two days. 

'Now, time to hunt and gotta dump all my skill points to max this skill at my next level up' 

Oscar wasn't lazy to keep practicing more, he was just smart enough to level it up automatically, following the saying 'Why work hard when you can work smart' 

Of course, he would refrain if he finds a more interesting skill to spend his skill points than this. 

Tugging the crystal back inside his hidden pockets, he jumps back down inside the burrow while wearing a coat made of the ra'ts black and red fur to use as camouflage, just in case. 

'Huh?'

Oscar hadn't even moved far in the tunnel, when he caught the scent of many rats moving in one place. 

Taking double precautions, he moves more slowly and stealthily as possible. Making sure to rely on his sense of smell and hearing more, but because of being underground and him trying to focus on tens of rats at once, he couldn't tell which one was further away or near him as they all seems to overlap one another. 

Feeling frustrated, Oscar decided to simply upgrade his ears for once. 

Fortunately, his fear was unfounded and it didn't increase his already large ears; instead it improved the inner functions and changed the structure a little, making his ears look sharper and better at capturing the sound coming from afar. 

Having a better detector. Oscar keeps moving forward while avoiding the lanes the rats are moving in advance, by taking some detour to reach through another tunnel. Other than killing the two rats seemingly guarding the passage and almost caught his presence first, he found no traffic. 

The tunnel size keep raising, the more he explored further till it reached the normal size cavern without a shred of any Magic crystals growing from the walls. 

Coming closer to the place he kills the two guard rats, by distracting the first one with his rat fur coat and taking down the other one that growls angrily at its disappeared partner with some difficulty, Oscar pulls the bodies aside and hides them behind a random boulder. 

'Fuu... Almost got caught. Now… huh?!' 

Peeking through the end, Oscar was dumbfounded when he saw the cavern was connected to a giant room like Hall riddled with many holes, the size of any normal rat worker to pass through. He could see rows of rat workers picking and dropping the magic crystals, collected by the other smaller rats coming out of the side wall tunnels, onto the giant heap; seemingly making a small mountain. 

*Crunch! Crunch!*

Meanwhile, standing in the middle was a giant bear-looking rat, with two rodent teeth and whiskers of 7ft in height or ten times larger than the little Oscar, munching on those same crystals leisurely like some snacks. 

'What kind of... Raticulous rat is this?!' He means ridiculous. 

With a silent gulp, he shuddered from fear as he remembered that giant snake from before. 

'And wait, can we eat these?' He questions himself, seeing that giant rat swallowing those magic crystals like popcorn. 

But before that 'Let's get the hell outta here' 

With a nod, he silently backed away. But he didn't get past some twenty meters away from that Hall, when he heard an alerted squeal from his side, the place he had hidden those guards' corpses. 

"Squiiiii!"

'Can't you wait for me to get away before wailing for your dead girlfriend?' 

Cursing at that bastard who somehow had already alerted the nest and most probably the Raticulously giant Rat, He picked-up his pace and dashed towards any nearby small burrow he could find. 

He could tell from how much the ground shook behind, that the giant rat had come out to check the commotion and it didn't take long for the monster to shriek loudly at the runaway intruder. 

"Kkhrriiiii!"

Following it was the powerful booming of hundreds of squeals, and hordes of rats flooded all the tunnels, the one he was running in didn't come in the exemption. 

'Sh*t!' 

Shedding any sense of former humanity, he runs on all fours like a rat. Dearly hoping to outrun them, but his hope dashed away when he picks on the rats drumming behind one corner away. 

"Hap!"

Taking a quick turn, he jumps up at the exit tunnel leading outside at first. But a rat soldier, at the lead, caught him in the act at the last moment and followed him. 

*Puchi!*

With a surprised snap-like bite, Oscar Punctured its hide with his sharp fangs. And releases a slow poison that puts the low-leveled monster in a drowsy state, while not killing it outright and its body blocking the other rat soldiers to check upon this exit, making them run ahead after feeling nothing wrong. 

'Ahh...' After checking if there's more rats coming this way, Oscar sighed in relief. 

Although, he could kill one or two easily in one-hit, adding the surprise factor. He definitely isn't capable of defeating a horde of rats at once. 

Coming out of the exit from the burrow placed in an inconspicuous place, Oscar pulls out the sleeping rat with him. 

Though not dead, its body was slowly dying. 

'Should I eat it?' Frowning he thought of that rat boss monster 'Yea if he can then... Why not me?' 

With a simple mind, he was about to swallow the crystal in one big gulp before a red prompt popped up, stopping him in mid-track. 

'Hmm... ' On second thought, he puts down his hand and runs his brain for a moment to find an alternative 'Why take the risk, when others are ready to take it for you...' 

With a toothy smile, showing his fangs and teeth. Oscar grabs the dying rat by the mouth before forcing the mana crystal down its throat, making it chew thoroughly first by pressing its jaws together to crush the crystal, and then pulling its neck up to force the dying rat to swallow it all.

The rat could only squeal in pain as Oscar roughly handled its limp body. 

Standing, Oscar keeps staring at it. Observing the changes that may happen to its body. 

But after nothing happens other than the rat slowly taking short breaths because of his poison, he got disappointed. 

'Tch!' With a click of his tongue he again was about to swallow the mana crystal, to see if this could raise his magic power in the status, but stopped when he felt an abrupt change happening with the rat's body. 

'What... Is... This!!!' 

The change was too sudden, and outrageous even. 

He couldn't even think twice before a blinding light shone from the rats every orifice, enshrouded the cavern. Its skin starts cracking like a boiled egg shell, leaking out a dazzlingly bright light making him force shut his eyes for a moment and a deep sense of foreboding caused him to take cover beside the strong-looking boulder, and just when he dives to hide... 

*Boom!!!*

A loud explosion takes place and the rat dies with its body blasted into innumerable parts flowing throughout the cavern, painting its wall in a bloody red and gore. 

"Cough! Cough!"

Coming out of the rubble in a fit of cough, Oscar was stunned from seeing the aftermath of the explosion. 

'Why it didn't say the one who eats will literally explode!' 

Dusting himself, he grumbles while feeling lucky for not eating that thing himself and thanking the dead rat for being his guinea pig. 

"Here! The sound came from here!"

'!!!' Startled by the sudden voice, Oscar turns back in alert. 

'Humans?' He thought, since he doubts a regular monster could made such sophisticated noise, save for their some unique deep growls and grunts as way of communication.