A Rattling Monster

Chapter 3: Adventurers

Aaaaaargh, aie, aie, aahhhh, that hurts, that really hurts. Who said that reincarnation was painless, I bet he didn't experience it. Well, I guess not a lot of people have done that. But, like every part of my body hurt, my head hurt, my hands hurt, my legs hurt, my Wait for a second, what is that thing, on my back. It's moving??? Ok calm yourself, open your eyes before, to see the situation and it's all dark and a little cold. Like really dark, I can barely see some stone wall, natural stone not a stone refined by men in a building for example. So I am in a cavern or a hole? The part where she said something something something can't choose where you are born is a total lie. Well, I guess my blackmail was a little too much so I forgive her because I am a just and noble future Hero. But let's go back to the "thing" stuck at my back. Even if I am in the dark I can still see my hands and WHAT THE HELL!!! My hands! My poor and human-looking hands! Where are they? Instead, I got some weird claws. Hold on, so she could choose where I would have been born AND in what form I would have been reborn? And she chose a dark cave and what looks like a rat? Yes, that weird thing moving is my tail. Ok calm yourself, it's not a big deal, you just have to survive as the first trash mob met in every good or bad RPG that you know about. Not really hard. Not really hard your mother!

"Aria, you dirty daughter of a "

(After a few minutes of intense and rude insults, our hero has recovered his spirit.)

"I will fu"

(I guess it was too soon, but now it is time for him to adapt to his new condition.)

So I am now a rat. Wonderful. What are the advantages, small, quick, resistant to disease and poison, can eat nearly everything I guess? For the disadvantages, it's easier. Weak, weak, less dangerous than spiders or bats alone, the prey of everything, not enough strength to kill something bigger than itself. But I have something special, behold the mighty SYSTEM!!! Not working? SYSTEM!!! System? Character? Inspect? Open? Personage? How do I open it? Normally I would click with my mouse or use a keyboard shortcut. Wait, my mind is the computer, my name is Marc Cassidy so open Marc Cassidy?

"System launched"

"User: Marc Cassidy"

"Attributes:

Name:???

???

???

???

HP:1/1

???

???"

Wow, wow, wow, why nearly everything is locked under some "???". I clearly and explicitly said that any creatures or monsters could use it easily. Yeah, I was thinking that she would double-cross me and turn me into a non-human so I said monsters too. But why can't I use it, I am a monste Is a rat not a monster? But it's a creature, I said creature. I didn't just say creature, I think I shot myself in the foot on that one. So the System will not be working as I expected. But still, I can see my HP and bloody hell. 1HP. So if someone steps on my tail I can probably die. Great. The good thing is, for the past 10 minutes I have not seen a single living creature. So I can adapt to my new body.

First, lift the front left paw. Ok, good now the other front. Wonderful. Bottom left, good and bottom right excellent. Now, walking and 1, 2, 3, 4 and 1, 2, 3, 4. Good, very good, excellent even. There is a rock like 2 meters away from me, I'm going to run as quickly as I can. 3, 2, 1, GO. So, in 7 seconds I have reached it. For a rat who is 10 to 15 centimeters long, I guess it's good. Now, can I stand up? So, I push on my front paws and utter failure. Damn it, another try and c'mon c'mon c'mon noooo! I was so close. Maybe I could use the wall to help, and yes it's easy with it. And while I am in this position, it's my tail that helps me be stable, ok I got it. I am now a perfectly functional and independent rat. Can I have some Exp for that? You know like a quest for those actions? Nothing? Guess it's still locked.

The first objective then, finding something to eat or drink, or both. The second objective, don't die. The third objective, find a way to level up or improve the System. Since I have a system, I will probably just have to kill something weaker than me. Weaker than a 1 HP rat. I need some small insects like flies, beetles, scarabs. Since none of those are in sight, I guess I have to travel. Ok, I am in a tunnel, in a cave, so left or right. Which way has the hotter air? Left, so go for the left.

(After half an hour of walk without meeting anything alive, our friendly rat meets an unexpected event)

"I told you Richard, we need more than 1 priest when we enter a cave full of undead."

"And I say, I am a holy knight they can do nothing to us, look, we have been fighting for 30 minutes and none of us is dead, they are only skeletons, they are weak."

"Look at the face of Irion, in less than 5 minutes, he will not be able to heal us or bless us."

The face of the priest Irion, was clearly tired and only the threat of the undead was keeping him fighting.

"But we are near the treasure, how many undead do you think are still capable of fighting. We have killed at least 200 of them."

"Maybe, but we are all tired, the seven of us, even if there are just 30 mere skeletons, we could have casualties, so it's better to retreat now and come back in a few hours. If we don't and something unexpected happens, we could die."

The last man that talked, the chief of that group, a berserk of 2m10, was clearly more cautious than the holy knight. Deep inside him, he was wondering why so many weak monsters were in this dungeon. And if a threat much more dangerous was waiting for them nearby.

(Of course, all that exchange was captured by the nearby rodent that no one noticed, either the skeletons or the adventurers.)

Did my luck turn? Is it the legendary fateful encounter with a group of high level mobs that I can kill? But why are they retreating? They should push, be tired, get injuries so big that, at their last breath I can do the killing blow and gaining all those juicy Exp. Are you human, I heard you, you talked about treasures, why are you not greedy? Seven clearly experienced warriors fearing some skeletons, some don't even have all their arms. Wait, no, that's a bad thinking. They are human, you know compassion, stuff like that, the ten commandments, thou shalt not murder. Don't kill the orphans or the widows. Well, you know what dear me, we are not on Earth. And they are probably some terrible people, criminals, no one will regret them. So, if they are mortally wounded, I will spare them horrible sufferings and end their lives peacefully.

Anyway, it's still weird that none of them have noticed me. I mean why, of course, I am hiding behind a rock more than 20 meters far but still, I have a life force or whatever the thing that all living have, at least the undead should notice me. Or maybe they are too low-level. They are really low-level so that can be true.

Too bad for me. I won't be able to kill them if they just retreat and even if they keep going I need some big bad monster, otherwise, they won't even get a scratch. Here we go again, trying to catch an insect. But there is nothing at all, even animals are missing. That's good they won't kill me but that's bad I can't even have the choice to kill something. I guess what the adventurers say is true then, it's a cave full of undead only.

I can see them beginning to retreat and Did it get colder? Yeah, it's really colder all of a sudden. Is it a Boss? Please be a Lich, please be a Lich. And it's a LICH! Finally, something scary. And now, the adventurers are fearing for their lives. They will make mistakes, maybe even split up. Great, Great, hold on. Why are they fighting? Why is the lich losing? Seriously, they are winning? No, no, no, don't, don't win. And they won. Like that. Was it a trap? Like "we are weak and tired, one attack and we will die, I hope that no monster will try to fight us"? And now, all the undead are dead, for good. All the skeletons disappeared.

So they are leaving like that, without casualties, without even a near-death companion. They took something from the chest of the lich, it looks like a crystal. So there are the monster cores in this world. And the priest is taking the bag of the lich. Probably some spell scrolls, manuscripts, parchments. All the rest are a bunch of broken armors, swords, and bones from the skeletons and the lich body.

What should I do with that, I can't eat bones, and a lich body, just the number of curse on it will not be low. But there is nothing else. To eat or not to eat, this is the question. If I was a normal rat, I would probably not do it but I have the mighty System. So let's try.

"[Curse of the dead] activated, reduce all attributes by 50%"

Great now my HP goes from 1/1 to 0,7/0,7. That's just 30% decrease, not 50%. Is my System broken? Or did I gain HP? So I eat a part of the lich body, I get a curse and I gain more life than before. So let's eat again. Bless you mighty System! Bless you! Eating make me gain more HP after each bite. From 0,7 to 40,5 after eating all the lich body. So I have gain attributes, but no Exp I guess? Still, from losing against anything to survive and maybe beat some animals, that's a great day for the rat race. However, the System didn't change at all:

"Attributes:

Name:???

???

???

???

HP:40.5/40.5

???

???"

How ignorant I was, thinking that the legendary encounter has failed me. There is no way that it didn't work. But still, I don't really know if it's enough. I should probably leave before the adventurers come back, I ate that undead corpse for a very long time. Just one small question, where is the exit?