Alchemist In The Apocalypse: Rise Of A Legend!

[Third Person POV],

Looking at the oddly shaped humanoid rat in front of him, Andrew Dawn reflected on how he ended up in this circumstance.

.......

Andrew Dawn and his men wasted no time starting to rush through the tunnels after entering the earth rat nest through one of the holes on the rocky hill.

Even though Celeb had already told Andrew Dawn about his previous experience with earth rats, Andrew Dawn continued to search the den using this method despite the fact that doing so would likely cause noise and might even attract the earth rats in the den to them.

He didn't disbelieve what Celeb told him due of his power, which gave him the self-confidence to disregard it.

He had the power to be arrogant because, after all, he was much stronger than them and didn't think that a small number of rank 1 rats, or even the bulk of the rats in the den, should be able to stop him or threaten his life.

What he didn't anticipate, however, was that even the rats he had previously undervalued eventually profited from the very same thing he was looking for, proving that his assumptions had only been valid a day earlier in the den.

Because there were so many tunnels underneath and it was easy for them to become lost if they continued changing directions, Andrew Dawn decided to speed through the end of each tunnel at a time, changing directions only when he reached the end of each tunnel.

Thus, he kept moving further into the den while frequently switching directions until he at last came across a tunnel that was distinct from the others he had passed through since he entered the rocky hill.

This tunnel was bigger than the others in the earth rat den, and it contained multiple glowing crystals on the walls that lit up the surrounding area.

Previously, Adrew Dawn had to use a magic lantern to illuminate the area since the tunnels were so dark, but not in this one.

Andrew Dawn called out to the two men walking with him, "Looks like we've encountered something special this time boys so increase your guard!" as they slowed their pace and began moving slowly down the tunnel.

Andrew Dawn felt confident in his ability to handle the rats, but that did not mean he acted carelessly.

Since this tunnel was definitely different from the previous one they had travelled through, there had to be something unique about it that the other tunnels lacked. They have to be cautious since they might not even be dealing with rats at this point.

There being nothing else but the lighting crystals on the wall that lighted the area up that could provide some sort of hint as to why this tunnel differed from the others, therefore Andrew Dawn made the decision to first investigate what the glowing crystals were using the primordial chronicle.

...…..

[Glowing Crystal]

A crystal made from solidified earth that has been heated with magic.

...…

"Well, that explains why this area seems hot", Andrew Dawn thought as he turned to look around the tunnel to see if there was anything distinctive, but all he could see were the shining crystals that lined its walls.

"Let's move," Andrew Dawn urged his men as they proceeded to advance deeper into the tunnel.

Andrew Dawn was surprised to discover that the tunnel grew bigger as they descended more into it. It grew so big that the distance between the ground and the tunnel roof increased to a few dozen metres.

Even though it made no sense, it was one of the few things that people in the true world could accept since they had witnessed stranger things.

The glowing crystals on the walls also grew larger and more brilliant as the light inside the tunnel was identical to that outside. It shone so brightly.

The only time Andrew Dawn and his men stopped was when they came across a earth rat, but this one was very unlike the others they had previously killed.

It was a human-like rat. As bizarre as that may sound, Andrew Dawn and his men did in fact come upon this particular monster.

The earth rat noticed them as well when they spotted it, but before it could utter a sound, it saw a flash of black light pass by and its vision dimmed.

Before anything could happen, Andrew Dawn beheaded it with the sword he took from his storage ring.

After killing the monster, Andrew Dawn turned to its corpse on the floor and checked the information in the primordial chronicle.

[Corpse of a mutated earth rat],

This didn't give Andrew Dawn any information because it was clearly obvious that a humanoid earth rat had mutated.

Andrew Dawn had already seen the two types of earth rats that Celeb had encountered—the brown-skinned one, which represented a regular earth rat, and the black-skinned one, which represented a mutated earth rat—but this one stood out from the other two because, in contrast to the ones Celeb had seen, it had scales all over its body. It was also red skinned.

Even though Andrew Dawn didn't anticipate encountering another kind of earth rat, he and his men continued moving along the tunnel as they descended farther into the den.

Along the way, they also encountered a lot of other earth rats of the new variety. As they descended farther, the humanoid rats also grew stronger, but they were still nothing compared to Andrew Dawn and his men because they were still significantly more powerful than the enemy.

When Andrew Dawn and his men arrived at a specific location in the tunnel, everything changed.

The tunnel they were in was still rather spacious, but it suddenly grew bigger as the ground a short distance away seemed to sink.

When Andrew Dawn and his men noticed this, they cautiously moved to the forward only to encounter a massive hole.

It wasn't exactly a hole, but the rate at which the ground abruptly dropped made it appear as such, and within this hole was something that even gave Andrew Dawn goosebumps.

There were thousands of red-skinned humanoid earth rats in the pit in front of them, and because so many of the new mutated earth rats were gathered there, it appeared to be on fire.

Andrew Dawn was finally able to feel what Celeb had been feeling before thanks to this sight.

They were feeble, but there were simply too many of them.

It wasn't even as if the new mutated earth rats were weak on their own. Because he was simply too strong for them to even show off their strength, Andrew Dawn continued to believe that they were weak.

Andrew Dawn was tempted to turn around because of the numbers in front of him, but just as he was about to order his men to leave, he noticed something in the center of the mutant earth rats.

Another mutated earth rat that was larger than the other rats of its kind was in the centre of the mutated earth rat gathering. It stood roughly 4 metres tall, but that wasn't what Andrew Dawn was interested in.

Andrew Dawn's attention was actually on something that was on a platform in front of the large mutant earth rat.

It appeared to be a beating heart and was hovering one metre above the ground.

At than 4 metres in diameter all around, it was a really large heart.

This was the dragon heart that brought Andrew Dawn to the den, and when he finally saw it, his heart began to race with excitement.

After all, this was an item that would make him powerful beyond his expectations, but Andrew Dawn couldn't go down to grab it since the number of earth rats down there made him reconsider.

"What do we do now, my king?"  As sweat dripped off his cheeks, one of Andrew Dawn's men inquired.

In contrast to Andrew Dawn, his men felt a lot of pressure from what they saw in front of them.

The other man opposite Andrew Dawn murmured, "If only we can somehow just grab the heart without fighting," as he felt two eyes on him immediately.

"W-what?" The man stumbled, wondering if he had said anything improperly as he looked at his king and colleague.

"That's quite a good idea", Andrew Dawn stated as both of his men turned to stare at him curiously.

He didn't need to hear them speak for him to understand that they were interested in learning how he intended to remove the heart from the centre of the mutant earth rats without engaging in combat. Fortunately for them, they didn't have to wait long to learn his plan.

If only his strategy was as strong as his confidence.

"We don't need to fight or anything," Andrew Dawn began, adding, "All I have to do is sprint as fast as I can to the heart and grab it, and then we'll make a run for it before these rats respond."

"M-my k-king.......", Andrew Dawn's men wanted to speak out and tell their king that his idea was too simple and that he should think it over, but they couldn't say anything and just kept silent in the end.

While not realising it, Andrew Dawn continued to underestimate the earth rats in his mind because of his strength and the trump cards he could rely on in his storage ring.

It was alright if he had this mentality about the regular earth rats, but it wouldn't take him long to see how incorrect he was regarding the red-skinned rats, especially given that something powerful caused their mutation.