Dxd Issei : The Gaming Gear
Chapter 45: [45]:Villain

Chapter 45 - [45]:Villain

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With Issei

"Achoo!"

Issei barely managed to cover his fifth sneeze in as many minutes. Was someone talking about him behind his back?

Shrugging, the Sekiryūtei approached his destination. It was an abandoned building on the outskirts of Kuō Town. It also hid the entrance to the second to last Rat Den. This was one that Issei hoped would lead him to the Purifiers rather than just for more EXP and loot.

Although EXP and loot was always welcome.

Checking that the coast was clear, he snuck into the house through an open window before equipping his armour and cloak. Not many people came to this part of town, but it never hurt to be careful. A quick search of the ground floor revealed nothing, so Issei descended into the basement.

The basement of the house had solid concrete walls and numerous pipes along one wall, which was immediately suspicious. No way were all of them for this house, which only had a bathroom, a toilet and a basic kitchen sink. That added up to twelve pipes or so, and there were in excess of thirty here.

With a mutter, Issei activated his [Puzzle Solving] Skill, which, even at Level 2, showed him that there were thirteen valve handles in a circle and not all of them were facing away from the wall that the pipes were snug against.

And, sure enough, when he twisted the valve handles around to face away from the wall, the pipes sunk into the ground, as did a rectangular section of concrete, revealing a dark doorway, with steps leading down into the darkness.

[Warning!]

[You are about to enter the dungeon [Lair of the Gutter Rats] (LV 12)

Once entered, you must clear the dungeon in order to leave.]

[Do you wish to enter?]

[Y | N]

Hitting yes, Issei took a moment to flip his hood up and activate his cloak's obscuring ability before descending down the steps. Yes, the dungeon's level was slightly higher than his level, but defeating enemies with superior levels gained him more EXP...at least, it should. That's how it worked in ordinary games, so the [Gaming Gear] should do that too.

At the bottom of the stairs was another treasure chest, just like there had been in all of them. This one held two things. The first was a pack of ten [Average Quality Throwing Knives]. They were specially designed to be used with the [Knife Throwing] skill and added an extra +10 to both accuracy and damage when used with that skill.

The second was a [Hand of Glory]. It was a rather disgusting looking carved wooden hand with a candle in it. According to [Observe], if he placed the candle in the candles grasp, it would come alight and only he would see the light it cast. No one else. It was really rather useful, especially since the only light in the chamber he stood in came from the open door at the top of the stairs.

It did cost him 1 MP Per Minute to keep the flame alight, and the candle would only last an hour before running out, but as he had neglected to bring a torch, this was a suitable alternative.

Setting the [Hand of Glory] up, Issei pulled out his [Rapscallion Wave Blade] and set out through the only door out of the antechamber. He halted when a pop up appeared in front of him.

[In order to clear this dungeon, you must find and defeat the five ratmen lurking in the darkness before confronting their master.]

Well, that was a load of use. Rats had superior senses of hearing and smell, if memory served, so the ratmen, assuming they shared that trait with ordinary rats, would easily be able to avoid him and attack him with impunity...

Oh. The ratmen might be able to hide, but their little name bars and title bars shouldn't be affected...unless they had a stealth skill or something. Which was rather likely given this pitch black darkness. Lovely. And here was him without any fire magic.

Resigned to a thankless task, Issei set out into the darkness...and almost walked into a wall. What an omen for this dungeon.

"Man-thing...man-thing..." a mocking voice called out to him, "I can smell you...I can hear you...but you are blind-blind!"

"Do these rats have to say words twice every so often?" the Sekiryūtei grumbled before raising his voice, "Yeah, so I assumed. Are you going to dance in the darkness all day or are we going to fight?"

"Kekekekekeke...be careful what you wish-wish for, man-thing...you may just get it!"

The only warning that Issei had was a slight whistling sound in the air to his right. He raised his sword and slashed at where it was coming from. The screech of metal-on-metal sounded before whatever had been thrown at him clattered to the ground. Looking out of the corner of his eye, Issei saw...a shuriken? Seriously? Ratmen ninja?!

"Lucky shot." The voice growled, "We shall see how you do-do when my disciples are finished bleeding you out."

A slight scuffle of cloth on stone and Issei assumed that the voice, who almost had to be the dungeon boss, had left. Great. The guy was hoping for an easy kill, but decided to leave it to his minions when that proved to be not possible.

The guy was an eighties Bond villain.

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