Standing in front of the entrance of the dungeon, it felt as if a steady stream of mana was flowing out towards me. After readying myself, I quickly skittered through the entrance of the dungeon and entered a vast room with winding paths.

The ground and the ceiling were covered in jagged, sharp black rocks. On the wall were vines that glowed brightly in the dark. Standing inside of the dungeon, the mana in the air felt even stronger.

To keep myself inconspicuous, I crawled on the walls and ceiling of the dungeon as I headed down a random path. Every few minutes, I would arrive at several branching paths. This was one of the problems with dungeons.

There were no straight paths ahead. There were stairs along with several paths leading in different directions. It was common for parties to spend days or even weeks inside a dungeon, searching for the boss monster. A lot of the time, they would even get lost and eventually run out of food and water, not to mention the exhaustion from constantly facing monsters.

The higher the dungeon’s rank, the more complex it was to navigate. It was getting increasingly harder to keep track of where I was. I’ve turned so many paths that I didn’t even know if I was going in a circle.

Realizing this, I decided to make an upgrade.

[10 biomass has been spent to double the sensory function of your antennae]

Immediately as the upgrade was made, a torrent of overwhelming information began flowing through my mind. I began noticing things that I couldn’t before. I knew the temperature of the dungeon, the humidity, the types of creatures that traverse its floors.

It felt as if I could analyze every molecule my antennae came in contact with.

-New Skill-

[Lv. 1 Analyze: at level 1 it allows the user to analyze the basic information of any non-living object]

I ascertain information about the creatures that had passed through this dungeon path, and even though I was far away, I knew where the exit was by feeling the wind current on my antennae. The evolution was too much for me to handle as my mind felt as if it was going to split apart, so I had to make another evolution to process everything.

[10 biomass has been spent to improve brain function by 25%]

Slowly, the information coming in from my antennae seemed more manageable as my brain was now able to process it all at once. Putting the information I received together, I knew exactly where I was in the dungeon and could now retrace the path I took to get here.

-New Skill Acquired-

[Tunnel Sense: Passive skill that allows users to know exactly where they are and the directions to where they want to go in an enclosed space. Also allows the user to form a mental map which encompasses the places they’ve already visited]

This skill was exactly what I needed to navigate the dungeon. Now it was as if I had an instinctive awareness of my surroundings.

Just then, as I marveled at my new skill, I noticed something... footprints.

These footprints looked as if they belonged to humans. My antennae told me that much; it was definitely humans. Counting the footprints, there were roughly about 4 of them in total. If there were humans here, then there was a high possibility that they were players like me.

If there were players here, then it would be smart to keep an eye on them.

Maybe they could possibly lead me to something valuable.

Thus, I followed their tracks. The trails they left behind couldn’t be more than 3 days old. There were even luminous crystals placed on the walls, forming a path. The more I followed them, the more trails I encountered. Except these trails looked like they belonged to beasts.

If I had to guess, there were hundreds of them. The frightening thing about these monster trails was that there were trails coming from areas in the tunnel the party didn’t even enter. Some were even on the walls.

I continued to follow the human tracks until I came upon a horrifying discovery.

I saw the players. Their corpses, to be exact. Chunks of rotting flesh and limbs were scattered across the room. The entire party lay in a pile of torn-apart corpses. Their armors were broken like glass and discorded like useless scraps of metals.

Maybe they can be of some value.

Looks like I was right. There were 4 of them. The bodies were covered in small scratches and bites.

This was the first time I was seeing a corpse. Not to mention, these were shredded to pieces, but for some reason, it didn’t bother me much.

At that moment, all I could think about was what a waste of biomass they were. Since they were covered in maggots and other parasites, I wouldn’t even think about eating them.

But if they weren’t...

I felt that I wouldn’t have hesitated to melt them down with acid and devour what was left of them.

Regardless if they looked like humans, if it meant I would gain biomass, then I would do anything.

Just then, as I examined the various small footsteps on the ground, I sensed something: a subtle shift in air current.

There was something headed my way.

Moving quickly across the walls, I hid in a corner of the ceiling just above the entrance to the tunnel leading my way.

I waited patiently until finally a creature emerged. The creature was roughly twice my size, and it moved on 4 legs. Its fur was light grey, the color of sewage waste, while its tail was furless and was a light shade of pink.

’Is that... a dungeon rat?’

Yep, I was certain of it. I saw a picture of one on the forum. It was one of the weakest beasts to be found in a dungeon. It had a danger level of F, which meant that this dungeon was also an F-ranked dungeon!

Realizing this, I could hardly contain my excitement. If this dungeon was anything higher than an F-ranked dungeon, then I would have to leave. I was extremely lucky.

The rat had its nose to the ground as it smelled for food. Its eyes were milky white, which showed that the creature was blind, but even then, I had to be careful.

Weak creatures like these usually moved in groups, meaning that it was unlikely for it to be alone. I read stories that if you attacked one of them, then it would let out a high-pitched scream to alert the others of its kind. Within seconds, hundreds of dungeon rats would be pouring out from every corner, crevice and tunnel, creating an endless stream of attacks.

In higher-ranked dungeons, the wave could last for days but in lower ranked dungeon, it lasts for a few hours but that was usually more than enough to kill weak parties. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

When facing them, one of 2 things happens. Either your party somehow wipes them out, or exhaustion eventually sets in, and the members run out of mana or become too tired to swing their weapons. Once that happens, it only takes a few seconds before they are covered by the endless wave of dungeon rats, and they are ripped to pieces.

Still, I wasn’t certain that I could kill this creature even if it was by itself, which meant I had to be careful and come up with a creative way to hunt them. These dungeon rats must’ve been the ones that wiped out the party before me.

If they could do that to an adventuring party of 4, what would they do to someone like me?

When the average person looks at these foes, they see a monster they are better off avoiding, and since the dungeon rat is blind, this is normally easy.

But I was different. When an avid gamer like myself sees one of these monsters, they see a creature that can be farmed for biomass!