Ever since he got the Attribute Panel, Sulu had been trying to gain experience points.
As it turned out, ordinary reading or physical exercise was basically useless.
Unless... he read books with special abilities or defeated red-named monsters, like the three Combat Club instructors. Only then could he earn some experience.
There were conditions, though. First, the enemy had to be around his level. Second, he could only farm them twice, and the experience from the second round was cut in half.
The last method was killing.
It was too wicked a method, so Sulu had only tried it on ordinary rats these past few days.
As it turned out, if the difference in strength was too great, he wouldn't get even a single point of experience.
It wasn't until just now, when a mutated rat died, that he finally earned 10 experience points!
"That was rough. Really rough!"
Sulu nearly wept with relief.
Since the Combat Club, he had finally found a second source of experience!
"Nice one, Sulu!"
Sean laughed heartily and gripped his pickaxe, waving it at the rats. "Come on, you filthy scum!"
"Squeak! Squeak!"
In the next moment, a huge number of mutated rats shrieked. From deep within the sewers, a black shadow came writhing toward them.
Looking closely, one could see that it was made up of ordinary rats—at least several hundred of them—being controlled by the mutated rats and forming a rat tide!
"Run!"
At the sight, Sulu immediately dropped his pickaxe and fled without looking back.
He was so furious with Sean that he could have torn his mouth off.
That Crow-like jinxing talent combined with his rotten luck had to be some kind of supernatural power, right? A walking calamity?
Squeak!
The two of them bolted, with a huge swarm of rats chasing after them.
Fortunately, they soon came to a sewer entrance, and Sulu scrambled out with Sean right behind him.
"Huff, huff!"
Beside the manhole cover, the two of them watched the rats fail to follow and let out a long breath in unison.
"Looks like that sanitation worker was bitten by a mutated rat!" Sulu said. "If we want to keep clearing the sewers, we'll need to buy a lot of snap traps and rat poison! The workload will go way up, too. Ten silver dollars definitely won't cover it!"
"That damned swindler!"
Sean had made up his mind. "I'm going to file a complaint with the student council. He committed contract fraud! No matter what, I'm not doing this anymore!"
He looked at Sulu apologetically. "Sorry... I dragged you into this, but I promise it's over now!"
In truth, even a complaint might not get them anywhere. Rats in the sewers—even huge ones—were probably within the bounds of normal, weren't they?
A swindler like that was bound to have a whole spiel ready.
The best-case scenario was getting out of the contract. If they were unlucky, they might even have to pay damages.
But Sean had already decided to take all the blame on himself.
"I think... we can still keep doing this job!"
Sulu didn't agree.
To him, the sewers were a treasure trove of experience. He couldn't let it go to waste like this. "We're people, after all. We have Wisdom. We can flood them, burn them, and use rat poison. It should be possible to wipe out a whole swarm of rats. Let's just keep the costs within reason!"
"Brother!"
Sean was so moved that he nearly cried. "Thanks for everything you've done for me, but you really don't have to..."
"No! I'm sticking with it!"
Now that things had come this far, Sulu was willing to do the job even at a loss.
The two talked it over, and in the end Sean was persuaded. They decided to rest for the day, then Sean would try to buy a batch of rat poison to kill the disgusting vermin in the sewers.
Sulu, meanwhile, went back to upgrade his gear, especially his protective suit.
With teeth as sharp as those mutated rats', even ordinary leather jackets probably wouldn't be enough to stop them from biting through.
Seven days later, in the sewers.
Wearing a reinforced protective suit and carrying a pickaxe, Sulu left a trail of destruction wherever he went.
Over the past few days, he and Sean had racked their brains and used every underhanded trick they could think of. They'd tried flooding and burning, traps and poison. At last, they'd wiped out most of the ordinary rats in the sewers.
As for the mutated rats?
They seemed to have a certain degree of intelligence. After falling for a trap once, they refused to take the bait again.
Sulu had also managed to confirm something.
"Do I have to kill them myself for the experience to count? As for schemes and traps, nothing counts unless I get personally involved, no matter how close I am?"
He'd more or less figured out how the Attribute Panel worked.
Now, he was taking advantage of the opportunity to finish off the last of them.
"Come on, little cuties! It's just me!"
When he reached the spot where they'd been ambushed that day, Sulu shouted to taunt them.
There was a chance those mutated rats were intelligent. After losing so many of their swarm, perhaps they wouldn't stay and fight to the death here. Maybe they'd move somewhere else?
After walking for a while without anything happening, Sulu couldn't help missing Sean.
With his jinxing talent and rotten luck, something would definitely have happened by now if he were here, right?
"Squeak!"
Just as the thought crossed his mind, a huge mutated rat leaped out of the darkness.
"Die!"
Sulu swung his pickaxe, striking the exposed belly. Blood spilled everywhere.
"If killing rats earned achievements, I would probably have completed tasks like [Rat Bane] and [Rat Slayer] by now..."
He shook the pickaxe, letting the mutated rat's corpse slide off. Seeing [XP+10] appear on the Attribute Panel, he couldn't help smiling. "It still hasn't left? Something's up!"
Avoiding danger and seeking advantage was an instinct shared by all living things. At this point, if the rats still hadn't given up, something was definitely going on!
"Just now... I think I was attacked when I reached this intersection!"
Sulu retraced his steps to a fork in the tunnel. "They attacked me, but they don't realize they're just leading me to where I need to go!"
The thought lifted his spirits. He followed the branch of the tunnel farther in.
Splash, splash!
Water gurgled through the surrounding sewer channels.
The oil lamp in his hand cast a dim yellow glow, illuminating the area.
Holding the lamp in one hand and the pickaxe in the other, Sulu's ear twitched. He spun around. "Crane Style—kill!"
His right hand moved so fast it left only a blur. The pickaxe swung rapidly, and two large mutated rats fell to the ground, twitching and covered in blood.
At that moment, the experience value on the Attribute Panel had already reached 40!
And at last, the long-awaited "+" had appeared after Krav Maga Combat Arts.
[Spend 40 experience points to increase Krav Maga Combat Arts by one level? Yes\No?]
"The first upgrade cost only 10 experience points, and the second cost 20. The third one has gone up to 40... Still cheaper than [Corpse Maiden Creation]. Yes!"
Sulu immediately confirmed his choice.
Before you continue