The Distinguished Mr. Rose Chapter 9: Chapter 9: The Totally Fun and Safe Tutorial Where Nothing Bad Could Possibly Happen!

Read chapter 9 of The Distinguished Mr. Rose by QuiteTheSlacker on NovelPedia.

Chapter 9: The Totally Fun and Safe Tutorial Where Nothing Bad Could Possibly Happen! The party froze in place, eyes centered on the revolting sight of flesh and gristle. They knew not what to do - run? Fight? They were reminded of it: of a stalker explicitly told they could not win against. But it was the young Jack who first broke the tension. Unlike Mili and Marco, he did not seem nervous. He broke away from the group, marched forward, and raised his spear. Splat! He jabbed the shambling flesh with one swift motion, and although he failed to puncture it deep due to his, well, not-so toned physique, he managed to slay the creature nonetheless. It splurged and vomited a sickly stream of blood before falling still, very much dead. “Phew…” Jack wrenched the spear out of the corpse and turned back towards the others. “Don’t worry, it’s just a mob. Remember the message window? It called this place the ‘Maze of the Horned Exile’, and I didn’t see anything resembling a horn on that… thing. We should be safe.” Despite his claim, Mili was still a bit on edge. She carefully tip-toed over to the fleshy growth and poked it with her guitar, leering at it until she was a hundred-percent sure it was really, truly dead. “Huh, guess you’re right. Almost kinda anti-climatic how weak it was. Still gross, though. Yuck…” Marco followed after her and crouched down onto his knees. Without any hesitation, he plunged his bare hand into the flesh - what exactly for Lucius didn’t know. But Jack and Mili were both equally horrified. “What the heck are you doin’, big guy!?” Mili said. “Gah, that can’t be sanitary.” Marco didn’t respond at first. He focused on his task, wriggling around inside its corpse, before eventually pulling his hand out with a squelch. “Had to know if it was safe to touch,” he said. “My skin’s not stinging, at least. I tried to see if it had a heart or any organs too, but the thing’s all cartilage. Nasty. Don’t even know how it was alive, moving and lurching around like that.” Lucius offered him a handkerchief, which the old mobster gratefully accepted. Jack watched on with a confused look. “Wait, that was like the third one. Where are you getting all those handkerchiefs from—” Mili interrupted him before he could finish. “Yeah, sure I guess, but did you really have to stick your whole goshdarn hand in there? Coulda started with a finger or something.” To that, Marco chuckled and showed off his unblemished hand. “It’s fine, lass. I’ve got a recovery skill. Speeds up my natural healing. If I get hurt, a little spit ‘n grit will fix me up just fine.” Jack nodded along and joined in on reassuring Mili. “It’s not as if they’re that dangerous in the first place. The fleshy thing only had a strength of two—” He suddenly coughed and choked on his own spit in a grand, intentionally disruptive, show. When he recovered, Jack cleared his throat and tried to act nonchalant. “Er, I mean, it didn’t look that strong to begin with. A kid probably could’ve taken care of it by themself.” “Hm, alright," Mili relented, but not before crossing her arms and giving the two men a stern frown. “All I’m sayin’ is to be more careful next time. Just because it looks wimpy doesn’t mean it can’t have a mean bite.” With her grievances out of the way, the party got back into formation and resumed their exploration of the maze. Jack came up with a plan to better aid their growth, saying, “If we encounter more of those things, we should take turns landing the killing blow. This way we’ll all level up at the same pace.” There was no reason not to what with the low danger encountered thus far, and so they all came to an agreement. Further in, they descended into the halls. There were more crossroads, more twists and turns with no clear sign of actual progress. Occasionally they would come across more of the shambling flesh, but the things were dispatched in a much more casual manner now—Marco pummeled with his fists; Mili bashed with her guitar; Jack poked and stabb