Starting with the goblin extermination

But they still have to keep going downhill.

The further down you go, the denser the water droplets seeping from the rock face become, dripping onto the tracks with a hollow, ticking sound.

Logan suddenly paused.

Thanks to the Night Vision Potion, Logan could clearly see the top of the mine tunnel not far away, where a bristle-covered shadow was silently hanging upside down.

Cave Spider (Challenge Level: 1/4).

Its compound eyes gleamed faintly in the darkness, and it stretched out its eight barbed limbs, preparing to spray its webs at Logan, who was walking ahead, to catch its prey.

Elsa clearly noticed something was wrong, and in an instant, she flipped her wrist, drawing her dagger.

But Logan was faster than her.

[Thrust]

Before it could even hiss, the cave spider's abdomen was pierced, pinning it firmly to the rock wall above its head.

[Proficiency +1]

Low-level monsters like the Cave Spider are no longer something Logan needs to use stamina-consuming combat techniques to kill. But following the principle that even a small effort is still an effort, every bit of proficiency gained is valuable.

Of course, this was just a minor incident on the road.

The two continued to descend deeper.

After walking for a while, the narrow mine tunnel finally came to an end.

Suddenly, the view opened up, revealing a vast underground space.

This should be the open area of ​​the first level of the mine, with a large number of rusty picks, rotten wooden boxes, and overturned mine carts scattered around.

According to the information Logan consulted, this is the outermost foraging area of ​​the ferocious rats. Here, they can encounter a small number of ferocious rats, enough for them to complete Adele's ferocious rat eye collection mission without risk. Further in, in the more dangerous lower levels of the mine, it is said that large swarms of ferocious rats inhabit.

But at this moment, a strange sound echoed in this huge space.

rustling sounds...

It wasn't the sound of the wind, nor the sound of underground currents.

It sounded more like the frantic scraping of thousands of clawed creatures against the rock surface, accompanied by a pungent stench.

Elsa stopped abruptly; her hearing and sense of smell were far more acute than Logan's.

"Something's wrong." Her pointed ears twitched slightly with unease. "The sound is coming from down below."

Logan didn't speak; he squinted, staring at the enormous black hole at the end of the open space, leading into the depths.

The next second, his scalp suddenly exploded.

A red light shone in the deep darkness.

Not one pair, not ten pairs, but countless scarlet dots of light, like stars in the sky, like a rolling sea of ​​blood surging wildly upwards from the mine tunnel below, accompanied by the sound of sharp claws scraping against each other!

Ferocious rat.

Their goal for this trip was something Logan never dreamed it would be such a desperate number.

Several ferocious rats, as large as vicious dogs, were the first to rush out of the hole.

One of them charged straight at Logan and was instinctively stabbed to death with his sword. But strangely, the other ferocious rats didn't even glance at Logan and Elsa as they passed by.

Their eyes were red, and they were squeaking and screaming as they fled towards the exit above like madmen.

They weren't hunting; they were fleeing for their lives.

"run!"

Damn intelligence! According to Logan's information, the depths of the mine are filled with nothing but ferocious rats, but no one told him that there are even more powerful monsters deep inside that can make the ferocious rat swarms escape!

The terrifying underground tremor not long ago may have signified the awakening of deep-seated demons, which in turn led to this rat swarm!

Soon, the horde of thousands upon thousands of ferocious rats will sweep across this open area like a flood.

Faced with overwhelming numbers, let alone an unemployed adventurer, even a fully armed professional would likely be torn to shreds by countless sharp teeth within seconds.

Elsa reacted quickly, grabbing Logan's wrist, and the two turned and ran back towards the narrow mine tunnel they had come from.

This is a desperate race against time.

For the first time, Logan felt that the return journey through the mine tunnel was incredibly long.

The rustling sounds behind him had coalesced into a deafening roar. The gust of wind, stirred up by thousands upon thousands of rats the size of vicious dogs stampeding forward, had even reached the back of Logan's neck.

Ahead lies a long and physically demanding uphill climb.

Logan felt his lungs burning.

The surging black rat horde approached rapidly like a mudslide. Logan could even clearly feel the sharp claws of several ferocious rats running at the front scratching the edges of his legs several times.

Behind them was a swarm of rats that devoured everything, and ahead lay a long, endless uphill slope. The two men were rapidly losing their strength and had nowhere to turn.

In that desperate moment, Logan's eyes, glowing with the blue light of night vision, suddenly caught sight of the rock face on his right.

A crack that wasn't originally there appeared on the rock face.

The fractured rock strata were extremely fresh, perhaps the result of a violent tremor not long ago.

Logan could see that there seemed to be a fairly large independent space inside the crack.

"Over here!!"

Logan grabbed Elsa abruptly and shoved her roughly into the crevice. The half-elf girl's supple body slid into the dark gap in an instant.

Logan followed closely behind, then suddenly sidestepped and squeezed inside.

Almost at the same instant his shoulder squeezed into the crack, a terrifying swarm of rats swept over the crack like a black wave.

The mine tunnels had become a slaughterhouse of blood, flesh, and fur. Countless ferocious rats trampled, tore, and crushed in the narrow passage the two had just been in, their sounds of breaking and screams merging together outside.

Before he could even see the space inside the rift, Logan drew his sword and wedged it firmly at the entrance.

He didn't want to find a safe haven only to have it filled with ferocious rats squeezing in through the cracks.

Occasionally, a few ferocious rats, forced out of the main group by the swarm, would peek out and be greeted by a flash of silver sword light.

puff!

Logan gripped the longsword tightly with both hands, using it like a short spear. In this narrow crevice, he didn't need to use combat skills; he could efficiently harvest the rats that had squeezed in simply by using the sharp sword.

One, two, three...

Blood and brain matter quickly smeared the rock walls at the crevice. Logan had no time to care whether the eyes of the dead rats scattered on the ground were intact; only one thought occupied his mind—

All the beasts that tried to squeeze into this refuge were nailed to the outside.

Gradually, the corpses of the ferocious rats that had been stabbed to death piled up at the crack, eventually becoming an obstacle and effectively preventing the influx of subsequent rats.

Fewer rats squeezed in.

I don't know how much time has passed.

Logan's hands were already twitching slightly.

Finally, the deafening roar outside began to subside, fading into the distance above the mine. The screams and trampling sounds also gradually disappeared at the end of the tunnel.

Adventure is always accompanied by unexpected events, but they still survived.

Logan leaned against the rock wall, resting his sword on his hand, panting heavily.

A flame appeared before her eyes, and Elsa rekindled the torch.

This hidden space, exposed by accident, came into view before Logan.