Trash In The Apocalypse

And he had the right tool just for that.

The mutant rats kept jumping and swiping at the platform causing ripples and loud splashes on the water.

Jun stretched his arm forward and poured energy into the pebbles in his hand causing them to glow brightly. Seconds later, Jun opened his hand and let them freefall into the mutated rats below.

The pebbles expanded into one-meter boulders that caused a lot of damage to those under. The unfortunate mutated rats that were struck in their heads fell unconscious and started bleeding while those who were hit in their tough backs manage to squirm their way out of harm"s way, not without troubles since they were still sent away.

With a jumping pedestal for him to jump on and with the pack of mutated rats in disarray, Jun took this chance to go down into the lake.

He skillfully skidded down the wall and jumped on the temporary boulder he made. He used Waterstriding to kept himself above water, so his movement wouldn"t slow down. He killed the trapped and unconscious mutated giant rats by stabbing them in their heads and noticed something wrong about the situation.

The bodies of the mutated rats weren"t disappearing even after getting killed!

He stabbed them a few more times to make sure that their healths really reached zero and yet, the bodies still remained!

"Am I still in the dungeon?" Jun thought to himself wondering what was happening. He was then reminded of that one instance where a mutated giant rat was actually harvestable.

After pondering over the matter, Jun stared at the dead mutated rats and the ten feet giant rat sitting on the mineral deposits. Jun thought, "Can I turn this into a rat-meat farm? This should be possible, right? If that mother rat only needs to eat minerals to give birth to giant rats then we could get a steady supply of meat! Not many people would like it, but unless we can find a breeding pig or sets of chickens and ducks, we can"t start a meat farm. And even if we actually found them, it would take too long to breed them into hundreds that could sustain a whole town."

While Jun was thinking, the mutated rats that were sent away due to the shockwave and collision of boulders finally got up and started charging at Jun. There were at least nine of them charging at him at the same time.

Jun summoned Buruth"s Warhammer since he wanted to investigate the cavern quickly. He would pummel mutated rats with the blunt side of the Warhammer when they lunged at him and use the ax to deal the killing blow on the back of their heads.

The Warhammer was like a stick as Jun swung it around although having a weight of more than fifty kilos.

After killing all of the mutated rats, Jun sent a message to the guild chatroom. It was the group chat publicly accessible to those who have the smart.w.a.tch.

[Jun: "Anyone who knows how to butcher giant rats? Please come to the unexplored cavern on the third floor of the Northern Mine."]

After sending the message, Jun noticed that the ten feet giant rat was staring at him. Unlike the mutated rats that have bristled furs, the mother rat had smooth furs all over its body. Despite its humongous size, the mother rat appears scared and wary of him.

Jun operated his smart.w.a.tch and sent another message to the group chat.

[Jun: "Also, if anyone knows people who know how to mine ores and gems, hire them and send them here ASAP."]

[Mike: "I"m on the way. I know how to butcher them. And please, if anyone knew who took my cooked rats last time, I beg you, don"t take everything and leave something for me."]

[Evo: "I"ll ask Bernard if he had some information about survivors who knew how to mine."

After reading the messages, Jun closed the hologram and focused on the problem in front of him.

The mother rat decided to stand up and show him its real size. It"s height immediately doubled almost a few meters from hitting the crystals on the ceiling. Still, it only defended and shrieked at Jun from a distance.

Jun decided to try and talk to it. He inched closer and held both hands in the air. "h.e.l.lo, little rat. My name"s Jun, I"m a friendly person and a lot of people like me. Do you think we can be friends?"

Wait... that seemed wrong. I"m befriending it so I could eat its pups?

"Squeak!" The mother rat roared and became frenzied, not because it understands Jun nor knows what he was thinking. It was purely because it was already backed against the wall and yet Jun still kept walking forward. It felt threatened and scared.

The mother rat lunged at Jun with its humungous body and clawed at him. To dodge the attack, Jun plunged into the water and used Waterstriding to swim like a fish. After getting away, he rose up like a dolphin and stood perfectly fine dripping with water.

"If you"re not going to listen to me, then I have no choice but to kill you!"

Jun covered the Warhammer with energy and charged forward. With a shout, he activated Threaten, Howling Rage, and Empower.

"Take this! Bladestorm!"

Jun jumped high in the air while spinning with his Warhammer. The mother rat shrieked and instinctively clawed at Jun. The first cycle of the spin cleaved the mother rat"s hand while the second struck its stomach. By the third rotation, Jun was already falling and torn the muscles at its leg.

The mother rat continued screaming as it fell down into the lake.

"What is this? Why is it so weak?"

Jun didn"t know it but the mother rat was an evolved animal. It evolved by eating minerals and its life change after evolving. It relied on ores and gems to increase its power.

The reason why it became so big was that it had been left alone for more than a month. No one really bothered to explore the deeper parts of the mines since nothing drops except gold. Monsters resp.a.w.n at a higher rate compared to the cemetery dungeon but the XP they receive was always the minimum.

Unlike other evolved animals, the mother rat has never fought humans in its life. It was the reason why it was scared to fight back despite its humungous size. Dogs and other aggressive creatures could have been a problem for Jun if those were the guardian.

After successfully killing the mother rat, Jun decided to secure the cavern. The blood of the giant rats blended with the water and the crystals that reflected the glowing gems gained a red hue.

Mike arrived after some time, together with Nik"s group. Grandma Teresa and the rest of the leveling group stopped by the Faction Base to get some rest. They also registered as citizens since they were already staying at the faction hall.

Mike held a butcher"s knife and activated his skill, Butcher. The butcher knife he was holding became enveloped with red energy. He then tapped the dead giant rat floating on the water and the energy in the knife encapsulated the body. After getting wrapped by energy, the energy slowly dimmed and the meat, hide, and bones of the giant rat separated from each other.

It was a curious sight and Jun spared no time and hastily learn the skill. Mike"s instructions were to envelop a body with energy, then imagine separating what you need. 

This skill requires a high level of energy control and a large amount of energy that can wrap around the target. With his high wits and expanded energy pool, Jun easily achieved a basic understanding of the skill.

Jun followed Mike"s advice and managed to successfully use the skill in his first try. He didn"t even need a knife as he only willed for his energy to become sharp to cut the meat into pieces. Due to being inexperienced, Jun would sometimes cut the skin too thick and sometimes too thin causing the rat hides to become low quality.

Just as they were celebrating for getting meat, Jun was reminded of the mineral mountain at the center of the cavern. He strode towards the piece of land and brushed his hand on the gems and ores sticking out of the rocky mountain. 

With his Warhammer, Jun tried whacking the mountain of their ores and gems. The blunt side only crushed the ores and gems to dust while the ax side slipped and grazed at the stones.

"Do you guys have pickaxes? It"s better if it"s enchanted."

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