He waited to heal, guessing he'd go for a health of 10 before returning to check over the room for loot. After all, there were still the babies to worry about, and even 1-point bites could be a problem if he was already wounded. Hopefully they would stay trapped under the bookcase.
As his health ticked up, he could move more freely, and when it hit 4 he climbed back up to view the Leader Board to pass the time. He found himself at around 3.2 billion. A bit confused, he checked his Tombstone, which now showed a Rank of about 2.1 billion. Slowly, he worked it out (as his health ticked up to 5) and realized this was considered an entirely new "dungeon run", and his current Rank had nothing to do with his previous Rank.
Curious, he scrolled to the "worst" Rank (now in the 34 billions) and found "Slimeboi" - a juvenile Green Slime with no Class listed. "What kind of idiot would pick THAT?" he pondered - but then realized Earth had plenty of idiots. But who knows? Maybe there actually some sort of strange title or achievement for getting last place on the list??
Checking the top spot, the found "Deepdiver" - a Shadow Rat Pitiful Rogue who died of "Dungeon collapse" on level 28. Curtis wondered how he had possibly managed that one, and what he'd gotten out of it. Almost all the top 100 had gotten their high score in some kind of mass suicide event, from what he could see. It wasn't very inspiring. Spot-checking the 10 million range, he found someone alive that seemed to have a decent play style - "Vark" a Stone Wraith Pitiful Rogue, Player level 4, on Dungeon level 10. The guy was obviously doing a great job of sneaking around after managing to kill at least one of the monsters that had killed Curtis himself.
Overall, it seemed like players in the 1-10 million rank range were what could be called "fairly competent". Many were alive and had levels around 4 or 5 - still mostly Mundane Human Pitiful Rogues, possibly not yet realizing there were respawn mechanics and playing it as "Hardcore mode" - never risking death if they could avoid it. That would also mean they never saw the tombstone or leader board.
After a while, it hit Curtis that he hadn't seen any more health return, and he felt worse, if anything, rather than better. Going down to the mirror, he found:
Mundane Human - Curtis
Class - Pitiful Rogue
Level 1 (17/100)
Health 5/15 (diseased)
Diseased! Those rats! If there hadn't been an onset time, he'd already be dead, he realized. Now he'd REALLY have to be careful, or this run wouldn't last much longer. Still, he needed to check that library for loot - there might even be books or clues he could use, or even supplies - he was starting to get hungry, but didn't want to use his only food ration just yet.
Carefully heading back down the corridor, he heard faint squeaking sounds, and minor rustling. Peaking inside, he was sickened (more) to see the baby rats feasting on the bodies of the adults, visibly larger than when he last saw them (health 2/2). There were 4 of them, but they were fairly small and bloated from their feast.
More careful now, Curtis ran in - not at the rats, but to jump on top of the fallen bookcase, gaining the high ground before they could react. He got lucky - 3 of the 4 were simply intimidated and ran off to hide. The last one charged him, but he was ready. Fending it away with the torch, he finished it off with a single dagger blow before it could bite.
With no more opposition, he was finally free to look over the room. There were two other exits, both wooden doors with rat-size holes chewed through the bottom edges, and the bottom metal hinge of each nearly rusted to nothing. There were also a couple patches of rust-colored floor, indicating to Curtis that "Rust Rat" was more descriptive than he had at first thought. Checking his dagger confirmed it - worse than he thought - "Rusty dagger 1-2 damage".
Sorting through the trash, debris, and rat-dung on the floor and assorted shelves took a while, but was fruitful. Curtis turned up 4 "Magic Scroll" and an "Unknown potion". He also found 3 copper coins and a silver coin - the first currency he'd come across. The coins had an outline drawing of a nude man on one side, and a nude woman on the other. The images looked familiar, but he couldn't place where he'd seen them before. They reminded him somewhat of Da Vinci.
He also found "tattered cloth scraps", and "waste paper", but his big find was "Spellbook". The scrolls simply showed an "Activate" option when he gazed at them, with no further description. The Spellbook showed "Requirements not met, try anyway?" - which looked almost like another trap. Maybe that was the kind of thing that had caused fireballs or dungeon collapse.
As he looked over the scrolls, Curtis noticed that two of them seemed identical, while the other two were each very distinctive from the rest. Two copies of the same spell, possibly? Well, since he had two, using one of them seemed a reasonable risk to take. He retreated back to the mirror room again to attempt it - the last thing he needed was for a rat to make a sudden appearance and disrupt things.
Calming himself, he activated the scroll:
Identify: Choose target - scroll, scroll, potion, book, self
Well, THAT was useful - but which to pick. While he really wanted to know about the book, he already knew he didn't qualify to use it, so it was out for now. Hopefully the mirror was telling him enough about "self". So it was between the potion or a scroll. He had seen enough "Poison" listings on the "cause of death" leaderboard listings - so he chose the potion:
Potion of minor healing (3-6 health restored and bleeding reduced 1 level)
Nice - but it didn't include disease, unfortunately. The second identical scroll now showed as "Identify" when he gazed at it - another big step forward! He checked the mirror again.
Mundane Human - Curtis
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Class - Pitiful Rogue
Level 1 (39/100)
Health 4/15 (diseased)
Curtis swallowed - good news and bad. He's just gotten 20 xp from something, and all he could think of was item identification. If that were true, he had another 10 xp sitting there waiting for him with the other identify scroll. The bad news was that his health had deteriorated a point - possible from too much activity while diseased? He certainly felt bad enough for that to be a possibility.
Well, he had two unknown scrolls and one Identify - it was worth using the other, he decided. Doing so, and targeting a scroll:
Scroll of summon monster (summons 1 random monster of current dungeon level to the user)
Well, THAT sounded like a bad idea. Checking the mirror, he was now at (44/100). He'd been hoping for 49 - maybe knowing something was bad wasn't worth as much as learning about something good?? Still, it was progress. The question now was to try the last scroll or not. It was a gamble, but he had the "Minor Healing" to help if it wasn't instant death. He took a deep breath and activated it:
Scroll of Purify - Target: self, dagger
Well, self, for sure! Repairing the dagger would be nice, but HE needed to be functional first.
"+1 health, lesser afflictions cured"
It worked! And the mirror confirmed it, as well as now showing him at (54/100). To celebrate, he ate his ration bar and drank another vial of water. He was feeling FAR better about everything as his health ticked up to 6 a short while later.
