adventurers in the sewers

The gray rotting rat, engrossed in its meal, was unaware of Louis's approach, and the pungent stench of the sewers effectively masked Louis's own scent.

He slowly approached the gray rat from behind, and the moment its head burrowed completely into the corpse's abdominal cavity, Louis pushed off with his feet, his entire body like a taut bowstring, and lunged at the gray rat.

He gripped the rusty dagger tightly with both hands and pressed it down forcefully the instant he pounced on the gray rat.

*Pfft*

The fairly sharp blade pierced through the filthy fur, grazing the hard spine as it went deeper.

Louis pressed himself down on the gray rat, using his weight of over a hundred pounds to drive the dagger all the way into the rat's body, half of his body submerged in the sewage.

"Squeak!!!"

The gray rat, firmly pinned down, let out a mournful cry. Despite its fatal wound, its survival instinct still made it writhe and twist its body.

Louis could clearly feel that the gray rat was emanating a strength no less than that of a medium-sized hound, almost pushing his thin body away.

It's just as hard to press as a pig during Chinese New Year.

He gritted his teeth and continued to press down on the beast, forcefully spinning the dagger.

A few seconds later, the struggle beneath her became powerless and eventually disappeared completely.

When the notification sound rang in his ear, Louis knew that he had completed his first kill since joining the adventure.

[A pickable attribute has been detected. Pick it up?]

Pick it up.

[You have picked up the corpse of a level 0 monster 'Grey Rot Rat'. Attributes: Extraordinary +0.1, Skill 'Sewer Creature' *1]

The skill "Sewer Creature" has been unlocked.

[Sewage Creature (Passive) (Beginner: 1/10): Your adaptability to the harsh environment of the sewers far exceeds that of ordinary people, and you are immune to common germs and toxins.]

Louis was somewhat stunned as he heard the notification sound in his ear.

The gains he made from looting the corpse this time were unlike anything he had ever seen before.

So, it turns out that cheat codes can not only change attributes, but also skills?

He could understand the latter; the skill "Sewer Creature" was clearly one of the abilities possessed by the Gray Rot Rat.

In the future, even if I accidentally get injured or bitten by a gray carrion rat while working in the sewers, I won't have to worry about the wound getting infected.

But what exactly is this "extraordinary" attribute?

Soon, as if he remembered something, he immediately brought up his personal panel.

Name: Louis

[Extraordinary Profession: Unawakened (0.1/10)]

【生活职业：锻造LV1（1/10）耕种LV1（1/10）】

Ability Stats: [Health: 5]

Concentration: 5

[Endurance: 5]

【Strength: 5】

Dexterity: 6

【Intelligence: 6】

[Faith: 0]

[Sensitivity: 5]

Skill: [Level 0: Sewer Creatures (Beginner: 1/10)]

Looking at the points added to the 'Exceptional Profession' section, Louis thought to himself, "Just as I expected."

This world has extraordinary professionals. As far as Louis knows, whether they are warriors, mages, thieves, or priests, their power comes from a special power called "Mana," commonly known as magic.

Every professional needs to accumulate Mana during their apprenticeship. Only when the total amount of Mana reaches a certain level and certain conditions are met can they change professions.

However, Louis, being a commoner, had no idea how to accumulate Mana or what the specific conditions were for changing jobs.

"Could it be... that this so-called extraordinary attribute is actually magic?"

Louis pondered to himself.

But he quickly dismissed this guess, because he felt invisible forces spontaneously flowing into his body.

However, this feeling only lasted for a short while before disappearing.

Louis sensed that these invisible forces integrated into his body might be the true Mana.

"So, the extraordinary attribute doesn't bring magic power, but rather the maximum mana bar?"

Louis felt he had discovered the truth.

This conjecture excited him even more.

Looking at his personal panel, the attribute required to awaken a transcendent profession is only 10 points, and a single gray rotten rat increased his progress by one percent.

If you calculate it this way, wouldn't killing a hundred gray rotten rats be enough to become a superhuman professional?

Those who possess extraordinary skills are truly superior to others, an uncrowned aristocracy!

Now, the door to that social class has been opened a crack for Louis.

After taking several deep breaths, Louis managed to suppress his excitement and slowly pulled the dagger out of the gray rat's corpse, then looked at the human corpse piled up next to the rat.

It was a highly decomposed corpse, gnawed beyond recognition.

However, Louis did not find him dirty or disgusting; on the contrary, he found him quite endearing and quickly reached out to touch him.

But Louis was disappointed by the result of this touch—the notification sound indicating that the pickable attribute was detected did not appear.

"Could it be that if a corpse has been dead for too long, its attributes will disappear?"

Louis frowned as he looked at the body, which had clearly been dead for more than a week.

This significantly cooled down his almost feverish excitement.

While the cheat system is powerful, it seems to have many hidden limitations in terms of acquiring attributes, preventing him from achieving instant success.

Composing himself, Louis marked the spots on the map and then headed towards the remaining unexplored areas of the sewers.

Over the next few hours, he encountered two more corpses and obtained attributes from one of the less decomposed bodies.

[You have picked up the corpse of the 'Farmer Adventurer' and its attributes: Farming +1]

"Another farmer-adventurer? It seems there are many people who can't make a living by farming and have no choice but to become adventurers to survive."

"I heard that this country is at war and that taxes on farmers are very harsh."

Louis glanced at the increased farming skill proficiency on his personal panel and sighed.

Then he became somewhat doubtful.

Why was it that I was able to pick up both ability points and life skill proficiency from the previous corpse, but only the latter from this one, even though we are both farmer adventurers?

"Could it be that... the acquisition of stats like strength, dexterity, and stamina is related to the corpse's stats before death?"

"Whether they are blacksmith apprentice adventurers or farmer adventurers, they are not outside the realm of ordinary people, and none of their stats exceed 5."

"When their stats are higher than mine, I can pick up that attribute. But when all their stats are equal to mine, their attribute becomes useless to me, so I can't pick it up?"

Louis scratched his head.

Aside from his faith, all of his other abilities have reached 5 or higher.

Does this mean that if we want to obtain attribute points for various abilities, we must start by taking the corpses of the strong?

These goals don't necessarily have to be for professionals; they can also be for ordinary people like strongmen or sprinters.

There must be corpses like this in the sewers too.

As Louis pondered this, he walked along the waterway.

Just then, a crisp system notification sound rang in my ears.

[High-value corpse detected. Proceed to collect attributes?]

Louis was taken aback at first, then his face lit up with surprise.

So this cheat code actually proactively alerts you when a high-value target appears nearby?

Just when I was wondering how to continue gaining attribute points, this was like a godsend.