Spirit Taming

"Can these things leave us alone!" Reese had grown tired after they had entered the third storage room that had brown rat beasts in it. He had been the only one fighting unless Brad had to step in to block an attack.

"I know it seemed like a lot to handle, but we need to get through all the storage rooms to get to wherever the stairs are. This was a city underground. We are lucky that the dungeon had divided it up in to floors." Clark tried to tame Reese’s frustration. However, he had been wondering too.

The dungeon had somehow been created from just pieces of this city. Wherever had done it was powerful and had created a strange place. But there was a lot of space. The first floor had been fairly small and easy to traverse. Yet, the second floor was massive and open by comparison.

The sheer size of the storage areas proved that whatever the city had been, it was large. Many storage places meant that the population had also been massive. A massive population needed a lot of stored foods for the off seasons. When there would not be fresh foods.

"Why? Shouldn’t we just sprint past the rats then? There are so many and they are not helping us." Reese still felt that he needed to get somewhere better. That they were wasting time.

"If we do that then we will not see what you can do. I have been watching the same as Clark. Brad has also been training his defensive abilities. Especially his skills to discern real danger from panicked danger." Maria pointed this out. It was not just Reese that had been facing annoying opponents. Clark and Maria had been focusing on their mental abilities while Brad was training his mind and body.

"You have already seen a lot of my sword style by now. I have trained it in camp too. But my beast keeps getting dirty with this rat blood and it is not fair." Now Reese had made a good point. His abyssal sword beast had been his partner forever. It was a blessing in his family because they only trained in the abyssal sword style. Now Reese was seeing his partner suffer from this.

"Since that is the case, we should skip through the side passage and go toward the less traveled area. The stairs are easy to find but I would not mind defeating a plague rat or two." Devi had been exploring on his own. The mental communication was key here.

The rooms that Devi had been attracted to were heavily filled with remnant death energies. They would not cause him to grow infinitely stronger but were perfect for s small increase in strength. The reason for this energy to be there were the brown rats that were nesting together. They brought food back that had been hunted.

Beasts, unfortunate tamers, and other creatures that made their way in to the dungeon without luck were their prey. A nest that gathered enough food and members would often have at least one plague rat that became the leader. It was the one that was the oldest and had consumed enough viruses or diseases to fully grow in to what the brown rats could only hope to be in life.

"You want me to fight a plague rat? What if I get scratched or bitten? I will get sick and die within a day!" Reese was a little shocked. His battles had pulled away his normally hyper focused and calm exterior showing off the rougher interior. The rougher person that needed to continue to refine their personality along with their sword skills.

"That is what I am here for. Lit and I are sure we can heal you with the proper methods. If we fail, we have healing potions and other methods. Do you think Clark would challenge you if there were not any ways to save you?" Maria silenced Reese easily. She expected him to fight back with this.

"If we are doing that I will be fine. My new shield and sword are good enough to stop any problems." Brad had been getting more worn out walking with the heavier weapons. However, he was exuberant still. He enjoyed the weapons and he was happy to be part of them. He could also sense that his possessed helm was making small bursts in growth due to the iron blood palace taming space he now had.

"Follow me." Clark took off toward where he could feel Devi. the untraveled paths were ignored because so many people had long ago cleared them out. The rooms were just places where beasts would gather now and then until someone decided to take them out. Much like Clark and his group were about to do.

There was a distinct difference in the feeling of a well traveled and a barely traveled storage area. It was clear that many of the adventurers that bothers to walk these paths and used them for unsavory acts or just to completely dump trash. But they had also been perfectly used by the beasts.

"That’s a green roach!" Brad noticed the beasts were moving along the walls. They were the smallest ones that would be too afraid to touch anything. But they had not seen them at all since entering the dungeon because they had been hunted so much.

"They must be hiding to grow back to their normal size. Those are just hatchlings. They would normally be five times that size." Clark knew that he could easily stomp these green roaches to death if he wanted. They were not even a threat if they landed on them now at all.

Due to the lack of travel and abuse when it was traveled, the next room that the group entered had a lot of broken stone shelving thrown around the room. It looked like a child had thrown a tantrum but in reality it was just fools abusing a weaker floor. Not that it was what the four had focused on. They were more amazed to see the pieces of fabric, furs, and the odd bone or two in a large pile in the back corner.

"That is the brown rat nest. A mass of trash that perfectly hid them. It also has their food and eggs in it. But mostly it has a plague rat. What should we do?" Reese was on the spot with Clark’s question. He could have been preparing for this.

Unfortunately, the dungeon was still an amazing place in his eyes. He had too much to take in. if he had been in more longer, he might have had a better chance to answer. It all came down to the difference in level of education between the regular class and the elite classes.

Before anyone could do anything, Reese picked up a piece of stone from the ground that had broken from a shelf. He threw it at the pile and watched the sudden movements of the nest. "That’s how to scare them out, right?"

"Or make them angry." Maria lowered herself in to a battle stance. She knew that they would be facing multiple beasts at once.

The brown rats that emerged with squealing and screeching were easily double the size as those that Reese had dealt with before. They were better fed in the nest than the young ones roaming around for food. The nest didn’t stop there though, the screeching of the brown rats had called out the plague rats that lived there. Not just a single plague rat, but three plague rats.

The darker furred plague rats were larger. They had more vicious looking claws and sharper teeth to gnaw through bones. The eyes were yellow and held a clear hatred for those that had just disturbed its nest.

"In the future, make a plan and tell us." Clark shook his head. It was a true example of why Reese needed more education and real life experience. "You have to handle at least one plague rat. I will take down one, and Maria will handle the other. The brown rats are for Brad. get used to your shield and we will rest." Brad heard the challenge but had already been preparing to fight them all. He wasn’t really paying attention to anything but his new shield and sword. His tired appearance disappeared.

The rats didn’t hold up. They felt they had free food after they were angered. Of course they would dash at what they could potentially eat. Who wouldn’t? That was why Brad had to take a forward position and show off the skills he already knew when it came to shields.

The shield bash was basic, it was for repelling anything and everything. Therefore, Brad used it to slam in to the two front brown rats and push them back. This left the three plague rats to circle toward his side. It split them up so that Calrk and Maria could take one side and Reese the other. Their speed was well above the brown rats but too slow to catch the group unaware. The battle had started!