I tinued looking at the turrets for a couple more seds before I turned back around towards the main tuhat wasn't illuminated like the mirand started heading into its depths to get the xp farming I came here to do done.

  ...

  About 100 feet in, small pockets of earth and rock missing along the tunnel's surface began appearing. Finding it odd, I curiously walked up to several of them and checked them out and upon closer iion; they seemed to be made up of an accumution of g and gnawing marks.

  I suppose I'm within mole rats' territory at this point... Well, I better take one of my ons out and keep it at the ready so I dispatch them as I e across them.

  As soon as I fihat thought, I brought out my 12G Laser Pistol that I had hidden in a pouy War Belt and holstered it on one of the mags on the belt for ease of access. The moment I had it in pce, I tinued heading further into the mine along the main tunnel. Sometime ter, the pockets that I noticed initially had begun to transform into tunnels of varying sizes ranging from 3 to 4 feet i to even an odd one here and there reag 5 or so feet i.

  I should’ve made those caltrops. They would've been quite helpful here to slow down any mole rats from ing out of these holes, sihere is a possibility they could use these to fnk me and cut me off from the entrance. However, it's a bit too te to turn baow, so I'll think about making a lot of them for my rip into the mines.

  Dohinking about making additional equipment for my future hunting trips, I proceeded onward, into the darkness of the main tunnel, where I eventually started to pick up what sounded like g and chittering further up ahead.

  And what could that be...

  Prioritizing caution, I stopped in my tracks and paused for a moment, fog both my vision and my head mounted light dowuo see if I could locate whatever was making the he very sed I did, I spotted a group of 3 mole rats digging away at the floor and walls of the tunnel's surface, searg for food, I presumed. However, on sed thought, that didn't seem to be the case sihey wouldn't be able to find much of anything down here, so they must be digging for some other purpose.

  Hmm, they appear to be unbothered by the light I'm shining at them, so I guess they are truly a blind variant of mole rats, just like I heard. Now do I want to dispatch them now or should I test out their other senses... I'm in no rush and information is king, hence I might as well go with the tter.

  Sing around the general viity around me for a sed, I found a small roearby, picked it up, and lightly chucked it, around 15 feet away from them. Ohe small roded, they all stopped what they were doing and immediately looked in the dire of where the stone nded. A few seds ter, the 3 of them collectively returo what they were doing previously.

  This species of mole rat appears to have a very good sense of hearing or the ability to sense vibrations in their surroundings and, if not that, maybe it's a bination of the two. Let me perform aest so I'll kly how they seheir surroundings.

  To test out their senses further, I reached my right hand towards my war belt where my 12G Laser Pistol was holstered and released it from its magic hold. When I had the pistol within my grasp, I poi at the tunnel wall about teers aulled the trigger letting off a scatter of several ser beams that lit up the tunnel with a red hue for a split sed in a retively tight grouping.

  *Zzztt*

  Before I could register the ser beams, they impacted the tunnel's wall, leaving behind multiple scorch marks on its surfa a simir pattern to 12 gauge buckshot, although tighter and more uniform. As I registered the sound made by the ser pistol, all three-mole rats began turning in my dire.

  Guess I have part of my questiarding their senses answered now. I'll just o do some further tests at a ter date to make further determinations... actually that probably won't be necessary since I will more than likely get my answer as I eliminate more of the pests.

  With that part of the test finished, I sed targets to the mole rat a off one shot, sg a crit and disiing the mole rat o me instantly. Ohat fel had been killed, I rapidly sed targets again, took aim at the one directly right of its deceased friend aed my as, getting the same result within seds minus the disiion part.

  That the seole rat finished off, I started ging targets again to the st remaining ohat was located along the opposite wall of the tunnel. Just as I was about to have my 12G Laser Pistol lined up with it, I saw it stand up on its hio perform some sort of unknown a. But before it got the ce I lined up my on with the poor bastard and pulled the trigger for the final time, letting off my fourth shot of ser fire, disiing part of its body into ash and leaving a good portion of the rest charred and bloodied.

  My prey easily dispatched, I sed my surroundings for any immediate danger. After a short period sing said surroundings and what I could see of the tunnel's depths, I didn't deteything. So I re-holstered my 12G Laser Pistol on my War Belt along my right side, just above my hip.

  Well, that was easier than expected. But before I tinue my farming trip further into the main tunnel, let me py back my fight in my head to see if I missed anything of importand do a bit of thinking.

  Whilst I was repying my very short enter with the small group of mole rats in my head, I noticed ohing that I hadn't thought of previously.

  This didn't occur to me previously, but this species of mole rat could also have a det sense of smell. I don't know whether they do or don't with certainty, therefore I'll o perform additional tests ter on to firm whether that is the case or not. However, seeing how they weren't able to pick up my st even with me being as close as I was to them, most likely means that isn't the case, otherwise they would've detected me and been on my ass right off the bat.

  The other thing I noticed from this enter was the strange movement that the third-mole rat was going to perform. That rat was either going to go for a leap attack or it might've beeing ready to make a screech of some kind. I'm not 100% sure what it was going to do, but I have a feeling in my gut that it was trying to perform the tter.

  If it was irying to make a screech of some sort and had gotten it off, it could have called in additional reinforts, possibly. That would either be a positive for me if I hahe amount they throw at me or a ive if I 't, which could lead to a game over for me, something I'd very much rather avoid after spending 10+ years building myself up so far.

  Moving on from that, there isn’t really anything of value I retrieve from their corpses, other than maybe turning them into pnt food. There are potential issues with that though, such as the pnts abs the radiation from their corpses possibly, which would obviously be bad in the case of food crops. Thus, it probably won't be worth the trouble of taking them with me sihey'll most likely end up tossed away, anyway.

  Dohinking about how I could pull more value out of each mole rat other than the exp I receive for dispatg them, I activated my Pip-Boy to see how much exp each kill was worth. Once everything froze like usual, a holographic s popped up within my vision, dispying my status as it normally did, I began perusing.

  It didn't take long for me to find what I was looking for and what I discovered was that each mole rat was worth 20 experience points on average. And with my exp modifier added on, they were worth 35 experience points.

  Not too bad I should be able to level up pretty quickly, as long as I find enough of these vermin.

  Following that, I tinued browsing my status until I arrived at the skill se of it where I noticed a ge in the value of one of my skills, specifically sneak, which had gone up by a point.

  That's a bit odd, I wasn't being all that stealthy when I took the three of them out. I also haven't really been w on my stealth all that much retly. I wonder if it has anything to do with that small amount of bat I was just in. It may have been enough to raise the skill and push it over the limit... That's probably what happened, but that seems like a bit too much. Maybe bat raises my skills at an accelerated rate when pared tur training. I'll have to keep a close eye on things to see if it truly does.

  Alright, that's enough about that. Let's check the rest of my status to see if anything else has ged.

  ...

  There don't appear to be any other ges aside from the slight increase in my sneak skill I already took note of. I guess I better get back to xp farming to find out whether or not bat has any effect.

  With my status taken care of, I closed out of my Pip-boy s, resuming time again within a few seds as per usual. As soon as it resumed, I was unceremoniously hit in the face by the overwhelmingly strong stench of blood, courtesy of the other two-mole rat corpses that didn't disie fully.

  Hmm, I got an idea why don't I use these mole rat corpses to test out their sense of smell. And if any of them get drawn in by the stench, I use it as an opportunity to take a few of them ht off the rip before moving in on whatever enemies are still remaining.

  As I thought about that sudden idea more and more, it became increasingly appealing, thus I decided to go with it. Drawing one of my bat Knives from my War Belt, I walked over to the 2 mole rat corpses and started opening them up so the blood would drain out of the corpses and start pervading the surroundings more than it already was. Once I finished my gruesome job of cutting up the corpses, I backed up a couple doze and waited to see if my ret kills would lure anything out.

  Around the 15 minute mark, I began to hear a hurried pitter-patter sound approag right for the three mole rat corpses. As the seds ticked by, the sound of the movement got louder due to whatever rodug the noise growing increasingly near. Eventually, I was able to make out a dozen mole rats st over toward my handiwork from the darkness.

  The moment the group of mole rats finally arrived in front of the corpses, I observed them patiently to see what they would do. At the beginning, they started off by prodding each of the corpses and ohey had dohat for a short bit, something seemed to have clicked ihem and the whole bunch of them began to beore and mitated by the sed.

  Several moments passed when, all of a sudden, the rgest mole rat of the group issued a high-pitched chirp. Right as that chirp was issued, one of the mole rats he rear of the group started to break off from the group and ran towards the depths of the main miunnel.

  They seem to be quite intelligent for simple mole rats. But that aside, they also appear to have a sort of and structure and if my intuition is correct, that mole rat scurrying off down the main tunnel is heading off to get more reinforts. I could be wrong but if that mole rat is indeed bringing reinforts it shouldn’t be too much of a problem for me since I’ve brought plenty of MFC Grenades with me. Ten in total, just in case I ever came across a blockage ot myself involved in a situatiohere was an overwhelming number of enemies...

  Hopefully that mole rat heading off into the depths of the tunnels brings its friends because I'm going to need as much exp as I get so I'll have the best ce of survival in this harsh world. That said, let me prepare for whatever possible situation I may fa a short while here and move the MFC Grenades I have stored in the pouy War Belt and attach them to the belt directly. So I have easier access to them on the off ce the backup the mole rat brings is a bit too mue to handle.

  As that idea finalized in my head, I started putting it into a the very moment by opening the pouy War Belt and attag the many grenades i directly to the belt one by one via magic attach points running along it. After around 40 seds, I had every st one of the MFC Grenades secured to my belt.

  Now that I got all those MFC Gretached, I might as well take care of the mole rats in front of me in the meantime while I wait to see if any reinforts show up. And I think I'll s ons for this group of mole rats.

  Ready to make a move, I picked up a nearby rock from the tunnel floor and slowly started ing my way toward the group of mole rats on the left side of the tunnel as stealthily as I could. Within moments, I reached my desired distance, hehrew the rock I had in my hand further into the tuo get them to face the other way for a sed. The instant the rock impacted the ground, all the mole rats within the area began turning in the dire where the small roded, just like I wahem to.

  If you're looking something else to read, that's simir to this, chey other webnovel Wastend queror. It has a lot more chapters released.