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[indent][indent][indent][color=gray][sub][right][color=dc143c][b]Location:[/b][/color] City Sewers -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria[/right][/sub][/color]
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[color=dc143c]"We're goin' on a rat hunt,"[/color] Graves sang to himself as he walked, a little off tune. He kept a few paces behind Rael to avoid getting thwacked- again- with the butt end of her spear every time she gutted a rat. It was dirty, mundane work, suited more for janitors than people like them; but almost nobody else was willin' to take on those monsters wandering the woodland outside Thorinn. It frustrated him just recalling those arguments again. Sure, it was dangerous now, but takin' on that dungeon had been a [i]hell[/i] of a lot harder and they'd managed to get through it just fine! Somebody had to quell the tide soon or shit was going to get much, much worse for everybody.

[color=dc143c]"Gonna catch a big one,"[/color] He continued, lifting his lantern higher to better illuminate the slick, stone path ahead of them. This work may not've been as important or exciting as what he'd like to be doing, but it was better than nothing. Better than running around topside, desperate for something of worth to do with himself...the last couple weeks hadn't been easy. The dreams had gotten worse with every day, unless he hit the sack so exhausted his brain couldn't even dredge up the effort to torment him.

[color=dc143c]"...What a shitty, terrible day."[/color]

Something came rushing at him from out of the dark. Fat and drenched in muck as it was, the dire rat was quick as lightning. It leapt. Two gargantuan teeth sunk into the armor on his arm, tearing through lacquered leather like it was copy paper. Graves bellowed, grabbing at the back of the rat's neck, grasping flesh and fur. He slammed its face into the nearby wall. And then he did it again, and again, and again, until its skull buckled and it stopped squirming.

After a moment of concentrating he drained its bulbous corpse dry, letting it repair the wound it'd just given him. [color=dc143c]"What a waste of time."[/color]

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