At this, the injured adventurers had no choice but to push themselves to move. No matter how painful their bodies were, they had no choice.

Durgan was the first to react. He grabbed his shield—which was now greatly damaged and at its last defense points—and pushed the rats with most of his remaining strength.

The momentum almost made him fall down, but fortunately, Marcus and his long arms managed to grab his back. The weight also caused Marcus' wound to open up and bleed again.

"Fu%@shts!!"

Various expletives came out of the blonde's mouth, as if it could give energy to pull back his comrade and kick down the damned rats at the same time.

Similarly, Leiah and the others also started to take down the rats and push them down. However, their reactions were much slower due to the pain. Nona even found herself finding it difficult to keep her eyes open.

Her specialty was in her speed and dexterity. Sadly, the other stats were a bit lacking and were unable to keep up with the strain of all the fights and the succeeding explosions.

Marcus and the rest looked at her in concern. He gently nudged her to the side, and she fell down without consciousness.

"HEY! What are you doing!" Durgan asked, looking at him. Even Leiah gave him a look while she held the raven-hair in her arms.

"I didn't push her that strongly!" Marcus gasped, guilty, but he also knew his strength, especially with his weakened state. Nona fainted, but it wasn't because of him.

Sadly, before he could check on her, more rats appeared. He had no choice but to focus on swiping the rats away.

Fortunately for him, the other two were observant and mature, and they quickly realized that Nona had just fainted due to tiredness. However, their dangerously low HP and stamina, as well as the loss of one fighting member, took a heavy toll. They ultimately couldn't keep the rats down completely.

Soon, the rats reached their level, and the group found themselves pushed back bit by bit until they were in a corner. They could barely manage to defend themselves, and they were literally starting to lose skin in the process.

Brootrats were much weaker than they were, but their low defenses and their numbers would be enough to get them killed.

They could only grit their teeth as they bled, slowly losing all hope as they lost their remaining stamina.

Suddenly, though, before they could give up, a large halberd appeared at the mouth of the cave, stabbing at the monsters from an angle below, and then swiping them off from the side.

They watched as the man entered amongst the rats, stabbing and slicing. They were not targeting him at all! They were even avoiding him!

The adventurers gaped and watched the newcomer harvest the monsters with ease, soon clearing out the cave!

…what?

…

Finn stabbed and swiped as he walked into the crowd of rats that made way for him.

He found out about this place when a smaller group of rats came to his area while he was gathering cores from his 'rat massacre'.

He had lost track of time, and he forgot the wind direction, and a small group of rats ended up near him at some point, attracted by all the blood in this direction.

Since his beast repellent was still active, he didn't waste the opportunity to kill more. He followed the direction from which the mob seemed to come.

Anyway, Finn followed the traces and saw a creepy mass of greenish-gray at the side of the mountain. After a few blinks, he realized it was hundreds, if not thousands, of brootrats trying to climb up.

He knew that brootrats, in particular, preferred to move in large groups, but this was ridiculous.

Then he saw the cave that had smoke billowing out of it.

The first thought at the time was: People?!

While that amount of smoke was too huge for a bonfire, the fact that rats were trying to climb up so desperately meant there were worthy targets in that area.

Or it could be their nest. Either way was fine. Calculating, he still had some hours left in this batch's repellants. He'll just run away if it were the latter. It wasn't like he was bleeding, anyway.

And so, Finn, thanks to his still-active repellants, breezed through to the mouth's cave while harvesting dozens and dozens of the damned rats. It was like playing golf!

[Killed! Brootrat (Awakened)]

[Killed! Brootrat (Awakened)]

[...]

[Active Mission (Flexible): Kill Brootrat mobs]

Information: A large mob of Brootrat mobs had escaped from an Eastern dungeon. Their fecundity is strong and they multiply rapidly in warm zones. If left unchecked, certain sectors may become too difficult to pass for the typical adventurer.

Kill: 1000 Brootrats.

Progress: 512/1000

Time Limit: 68:03:25

Reward: 5,000 Hearth Points

Punishment: Suction of Barrier Energy for 5 days.]

Still some ways to go~

[Killed! Brootrat (Awakened)]

[Killed! Brootrat (Awakened)]

[...]

But then some rats would fall on him as if it were raining rats, and it made him cringe so badly. Many of them were falling down, and he decided to change position.

Using a combination of his [Feather Step] and [Sticky Soil], where he'd soften the soil on specific spots he couldn't find a foothold on, he managed to climb a couple meters above ground to the side of the cave.

Of course, he didn't forget why he was climbing up in the first place. It so happened that he saw more and more rats coming in, and he harvested them, too.

As he got closer, he could hear the sound of blades clashing with the monsters as well as some people speaking.

He took a peek and saw four battered people inside the cave, desperately fighting off some rats that had very much attached to their skin. He saw a few actually managing to take a small portion of someone's skin.

He blinked. "...people?"

There were actually people! No, actual potential customers!

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