A Rattling Monster

Chapter 12: Second Evolution

Don't worry faithful subjects, your king has returned from the outside. Stronger than ever and ready to repair the wrongs done to our race. He will even undergo an evolution, as expected of such a great character. It would have been better if they even existed, my dear subjects. But the evolution was not a lie. Let's review my three choices. I have a Ratman, a Plague Rat, and the Undead Rat. I suppose that the first would have been the usual evolution but the fact that I have eaten a lich gives me 2 more choices.

First, Ratman. The name says everything, that means that I will at least be 1-meter tall. I don't expect a 2-meters giant rat, it's the first upgrade so I will be the height of a Halfling. But the most important is, a Ratman is intelligent. From my knowledge, they are on par with the goblins and the dwarves on technologies. Or at least they have discovered more than the human. Since I took the Small Rat path, if I pick that evolution, I will improve my agility a lot. Stronger too and more health that if I stay as a rat. Capable of using both his hands to do stuff, I can finally create real weapons and not those mediocre spears. Some very good stuff but one and important drawback. I will not be able to escape the sight of the guards that easily. Between a 20 centimeters rodent and a 1-meter creature, one is more discreet than the other. And I won't be able to leave the sewers, the grid is too small. So if I want this, I need to evolve outside.

The second choice is the Plague Rat. I don't think it will improve significantly my attributes but I will gain either some actives of passives skills. Probably, I will be able to create poisons, diseases, increase the fatality and the propagation of those. In a city like that, if I begin to poison the wells, I can create a pandemic and gain a lot of experience from it. I don't really know if the most basic poison can kill humans, but the weaker animals will all suffer from it. The best scenario would be that no humans feel really sick by it but a lot of mouse, cat, dogs, and birds die from it. The authorities will be clueless about the death of multiple animals but they won't investigate with the same strength without human victims. The disadvantage is nothing since I don't change my current form.

The last choice is the Undead Rat. That evolution is most likely just a transition. That allows me to enter the world of the undead. Same advantages or disadvantages than my current form but, no more stamina used. Sometimes when climbing trees in the forest I needed to rest but this will prevent those situations. The only potential problem that could arise is the aura of the dead. What if it is permanent and cannot be prevented? That means an undead presence could be felt inside this city. And with the great number of adventurers, at least one or two will feel it. And when I will need to exit the city, I would need to be extremely careful at the security check. Just thinking about the fact that a human body could be cold when near me and therefore expose my position is terrifying.

So, of the three choices, one will prevent me from hiding in the sewers, one can make me more easily detectable and the third let me stay in my current and pleasant situation. Sorry System, today you will not be fully unlocked. For this, I would need to choose the Ratman but I need to be a lot stronger before appearing in plain sight. At least more than the current me. When I can at least flee from the seven Gods of Destruction I will stop being low-key.

-Marc Cassidy chooses: Plague Rat!

"System acknowledge the choice of the user, the evolution: Plague Rat has been chosen."

"Attributes:

Name:???

Race :Rodent

???

Level : 0/20

HP:60/60

MP :85/85

Strength:10.0

???

???

Wisdom:17.0

???"

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I finally get to see my current level. And it's 0/20, that means 20 more level. Pretty self-explanatory. And some of my attributes. I guess I have five of them with one being Strength and the other Wisdom. Out of the three, one should be constitution or vitality, on probably intelligence and the last either agility or dexterity. Standard RPG stuff. The holy five attributes, two for melee combatants, one for survival and the last two for magicians. And apparently, that lich stuff was bountiful. I have nearly two times more Wisdom than Strength and I think that none of my attribute gains were on Wisdom.

But now I need to understand what those values mean. Do I need to consider that 1 is the most basic level of a rat? So that would mean that I am stronger than ten rats combined? Let's roll with that. Since I can't say:

-Marc Cassidy describe attributes!

As expected. One thing is absolute, the System will not go easy on me. But I should take a look at my skills and maybe the passive ones were unlocked.

-Marc Cassidy open active skills.

"Active skills open: [Sneaky-Sneaky lvl 3] [Venomous Bite lvl 1] [Infected Claws lvl 1] [Create Poison lvl 1] [Create Disease lvl 1]"

Good news, my [Sneaky-Sneaky] has improved. Maybe it was when I passed that security check. But it's weird, it's like a passive skill because it is always on but it is on the list of the active skill. Maybe because I am a rat it is always active. Now let's check the others. Venomous, it's for fighting, the infected too. I guess the first is for poison and the second for a disease. The two other are simple to understand. But what does it really do? Let's try because I don't really understand how you can "create" poison or disease like that. But how do I activate them? Do I really have to do the full user command? That's stupid. No, let's just think really hard about the skill. Think [Create Poison], think [Create Poison], think [Create Poison] and WHAT THE HELL???

(Since it's pretty hard to explain from his point of view, I, your humble narrator will do it. Currently between his fingers was falling some green liquid. When this liquid touch the garbage that was laying around in the sewer, they began to slowly destroy it but not entirely. Just some small vegetables turning brown and stuff like that. It was organic garbage, not an iron or even stone waste. You didn't really expect a new power to be that broken right?)

So the first level of this is destructive enough to affect all the rotten vegetables nearby. That is really impressive. As expected of the Plague Rat. And if I try the same with the disease. It does nothing. Well, maybe it did something. But I can't see the virus with my eyes. I need to capture a test subject. Not a rat but a bird. A cat is still too powerful for me in a real fight. A bird should be weak enough for my disease to kill it. I wonder if the passive skills are open.

-Marc Cassidy open passive skills.

-Marc Cassidy open passive competences.

-Marc Cassidy open passive abilities.

"Passive abilities open: [Scavenger lvl Max] [Language of Aria lvl Max] [Night Vision lvl 2] [Poison resistance lvl 4] [Disease resistance lvl 3] [Craftsmanship lvl 1] [Pain resistance lvl 2] [Plague Bearer lvl 1] [Poisonous Being lvl 1]"

Great, that is great. So let's guess what everything does. Scavenger should be me eating stuff and gaining his attributes. And it either was level max right at the start or my lich meal has improved it. Night vision it's easy, and the language. So that's why I could understand the human talking. That is definitely the reincarnation bonus. If I didn't have it how could I live in that world? I would need to go to school, slowly remember the conjugation and verbs, learn to write. That would be a nightmare. And the level maximum means that I can understand everyone one that planet. Except for the rat tongue. Maybe that was not counted when they were listing the languages. Being a rat, the poison and disease resistance were expected. After that craftsmanship means the System itself recognized my brilliant spears. Pain, let's not talk about it. And the plague and poisonous are the upgrades from the evolution.

So I have checked everything I could. Now I need to test two things. The first is the power of my poison and the second the power of my disease. No test subjects, no test. No test, no test. For both, a rat will probably have too much resistance, so it will be useless. Even if they don't have the same level than me, just the basic one will probably cancel the deadliness of my spells. Let's do my first idea, capture a bird. Now that is a problem. How am I supposed to capture a bird?