Momma's not happy.

Using the bat earned him two more levels of the achievement by the time he cleaned up the last of the 30 rats, as well as the third level of Muscle of the Operation. With the last of the rats exterminated, he had a total of 37 rat teeth. Thankfully, they could all be kept in the same inventory slot.

John checked the time remaining on the quest and saw he had just over 12 minutes remaining before the quest auto-completed. He still had the Broodmother to kill, so without wasting any more time, John set out to find her. It didn’t take him long.

John was forewarned by the sound of a heavy pattering on cement near a junction. Rather than rush around the street corner to face the broodmother, he carefully peeked around. To say the broodmother was huge would have been an understatement. While the rats he had previously killed were only about 80 pounds, the broodmother was easily twice John’s size and fucking disgusting. Perched on her hind legs and sniffing the air, she had exposed the grimy gray hairs on her underbelly, which was moulting. So John could see in all too vivid detail the pale pink skin underneath. To add to that, sulphur coloured saliva dripped from her aged teeth. Evidently, the broodmother was looking for him too.

Mutant Rat Broodmother (Lvl 10)
HP: 200/200
The mother of the rats you’ve been killing. Looking to avenge the **** of her children. This giant mutated rat has a venomous bite, and it’ll probably cause salmonellosis.

John saw a few interesting tidbits of information. His relationship with the Broodmother was -200, go figure, and was way tougher than her offspring and six levels stronger than John. Not to mention he’d have to worry about being bitten; the venomous bite was nothing next to the risk of diarrhea and vomiting. John checked his current mana count to find it was just over 40. That was only 4 casts of Mana Power Attack.

A quick calculation told him that if he managed to score a direct hit with every attack he’d deal a total of 104 damage. That would leave just less than half of the broodmother’s health which he would have to manage with the baseball bat. John was none too thrilled about having to get in close to deal the last bit of damage.

‘Do I seriously not have anything else that can help me?’ John wondered, pulling up his skill sheet.

His highest levelled skill was Masturbation at level 18, but something told John now was not the time. Jokes aside, the only other skills that were potentially useful were Possession and Sneaking. There wasn’t anything around that John could possess, but Sneaking might actually come in handy. A common feature of RPGs is the sneak attack. It wasn’t exactly a leap and a bound to say the same feature would be included in John’s ‘game’. If John could get a critical hit from a sneak attack, it would be a huge step towards defeating the Broodmother.

With this plan in mind, John waited. It cost one mana per second to use the Sneaking skill, so he planned to delay its use as long as possible. The Broodmother continued down the street, edging closer to his location.

Finally, it drew close enough. John activated Sneaking, lined up the shot and fired a mana attack. A subtle chime played as the shot landed, telling John his plan had succeeded.

New skill: Sneak Attack Lvl 1
Combine any attack with the Sneaking skill to unleash a guaranteed critical attack for x2.0 damage. Must be undetected at the time of the attack.

That meant he’d hit the giant rat for 52 points of damage! John was giddy that his plan had actually succeeded. There were another two notifications, but John had little time to read them. The battle was on! Without hesitating, he stood up again and stepped out into the open to fire another attack.

The Broodmother’s furious eyes locked onto him, and the rat charged. John wasn’t going to stand still and take a hit from a hulking rat with salmonella. He dived back around the street corner desperately, landing chest first onto the pavement and shaving 3 HP off his health bar. As he landed, the queued messages in his HUD ticked up to a three. The Broodmother continued her charge, colliding with the bricks of the building that was John’s cover. Interestingly, that chipped off another 15 HP from the rat.

Checking its health bar, John saw it still had 107 hit points remaining. John only had three mana attacks left to fire before he was out of mana again. Quickly scrambling back onto his feet, John fired them all in quick succession. With the Broodmother so close, it was hard to miss, but John was nonetheless pleased he hadn’t wasted a shot. But now that the beast had recovered from its collision with the wall, it snapped at him with its giant front teeth, bits of spit spraying as it did.

John took several steps back and then another. A fat no to diarrhea. Then he remembered he was out of mana and would have to finish the last of the Broodmother’s health with the baseball bat. Thankfully, he would only need to land two hits.

John switched to a two handed grip on the bat. It would be a challenge to get close without being bitten. But he didn’t even have the time to get in himself, as the Broodmother launched its huge body forward, jaws open as it aimed for John’s head.

For the second time, John hastily dodged out of the way. The Broodmother had launched itself with some impressive ****, managing to slide several feet when it landed on the pavement. But John had no time to admire its inelegant form, he dashed into range with his baseball bat and slammed a direct hit on the disgusting rat’s head. As the hit connected, the chime that signalled a critical hit played in John’s ears again.

The double damage from the crit safely eliminated the last of the Broodmother’s health bar, and the creature burst into experience points that totalled up to a satisfying 120 points. John let out a heavy sigh of relief. Then he noticed the backlog of notifications he’d have to sort through.

Achievement Unlocked: I am the Gamer
Use video game logic to invent a new skill. You really are a massive nerd.
+1 Intellect

Skill Level up: Mana Power Attack is now Level 2
10 MP → 8 MP Activation cost.

New Skill: Evade Lvl 1
A mana boosted dodge.
Activation cost: 5 MP.

New Skill: Counter Lvl 1
Immediately following up a successful dodge, block, or parry of a physical attack allows you to perform a counter attack for x2.0 damage.

Achievement Unlocked: Home Run!
Deal a killing blow with a critical hit and headshot with a baseball bat.
+1 Strength

Quest Complete: Pest Control
Exterminate 30 rats in the area. 30/30
Bonus objective: kill the broodmother. 1/1
Time Remaining: 00:06.34
Rewards:
300 xp
$100
1 Skill Evolution Point

Achievement Unlocked: The Rat Brood
You defeated the Rat Brood. That was a lotta Rats you killed! Consider that Stage 1 complete!
+1 Endurance

Quest Complete: Level Up
Level up by the end of the day (8:00 pm)
Reward:
3 extra stat points to spend on level up.

Level Up! You are now Level 5.

“Well, I guess I’m rolling in rewards,” John voiced, not really reading all that goddamn text.

Sneak Attack, Evade and Counter were bound to be useful in the future, and the decrease in casting cost of his mana attack was equally good. Continuing to level it would likely decrease its cost again. However, the biggest mystery right now was the Skill Evolution Point. John clicked on the icon in his stat sheet, pulling up an explanation.

Skill Evolution Point:
Used to evolve a skill into a new and more powerful version once it reaches level 10.

That was pretty damn good, but he had nothing to use it on right now. Aside from the SEP, killing the broodmother hadn’t yielded much else in the way of items, except for a giant version of the rat teeth. With no more enemies, John had no reason to linger in the I.D. With his mana just over five, John wasted no time casting Escape I.D.