A Rattling Monster

Chapter 8: Prey or Predator?

(After a restless night, thanks to the proximity of enemies, Marc has decided to leave his cave again. He hoped that the next hunting day will be enough for him to evolve past the rodent race.)

It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming. On days like this, rat like me should be starting to hunt. I really want to know the range of the detection of enemies. Because right here and right now, I see nothing. No dragon, no troll, no wolf, not even a rabbit. Apparently, I spoke too soon, I see a worm. Such a dangerous threat, the mighty worm can probably kill me in my sleep. I have to be careful of something that cannot even reach me in my cave, made of stone. Wait that means that I possibly have an enemy detector? I guess it should be locked since after my brainstorming session yesterday I didn't activate it. Truly a weird system.

Anyway, first I should construct my spear. Now that I am a small rat, I can probably be better at dexterity stuff, like weapon craftsmanship. Yes, finally, I can use my claws to design my spear. No more bad taste in my mouth. Since I am still the same rat and I didn't get bigger, the length of it stays the same. But I can still feel that I am a little bit stronger so I should pick a thicker branch. Yes, that one is good. Now that I have my spear, let's go hunting.

I think I have already slaughter enough rabbit, let's try another thing. I think that since killing insect grant experience, killing an unborn bird in their egg should grant it to. Yeah, no rabbit in sight but a nice looking tree with a nest. I think it's a nest. Hard to say from the ground. That's a 10-meters tree. The biggest I have ever climbed. I can do it anyway; I just need to rest on some branches before reaching the nest. 3, 2, 1, go. Just two more sessions and I reach it. Go. Let's rest a little, that is pretty high. Don't fall. Go. Ha ha, some defenseless eggs waiting for me. 4 new victims, that's enough. Let's use the spear as a hammer. And it directly explodes. No change in the attributes. I don't think that an unborn bird is worth as much as a rabbit. Another kill, still no changes.

Splash, Splash.

I have killed the entire family but I got nothing. And I don't want to wait for mom and dad. So let's just get the hell out of here. Truly weird, maybe I need more experience for the level up. But how much? Let's kill some bunny to see.

(After hunting many other eggs but failing to see any adorable mammals that are linked to chocolate, the rat with the mind of a human began to doubt his condition. He was, after all, a human reincarnate into a fantasy world as a rat with a system. Doubt can happen in this type of situation, more often that one would think.)

Maybe I can only evolve once? Maybe the experience for the second evolution is thousand times more than the first? I have killed at least fifteen eggs. Or fifteen birds. And two worms but that doesn't really matter. Or maybe it does, I mean I evolved thanks to a worm. But still, do I need to kill something dangerous, like a wolf or a fox? I have seen a wolf but no fox at all. And I cannot it kill even with my new spear and my surprise attack from above.

Rustle Rustle

Speaking of the wolf. Here comes another one. Lucky for me, I was still in the trees. It doesn't look like he is hunting. No, I see a dead rabbit in his maw. That should be one of the reasons for their disappearance. He doesn't notice anything weird, he is just walking. Maybe he is returning to his den? If I could follow him, I would know which places I have to avoid. Like if I see the burned tree, I am close of the wolves. But even with my [Sneaky-Sneaky] skill, I will get caught if I am too close. And jump from tree to tree? I can try, I mean besides dying if I fail there is no problem. But that branch is close by, I don't even have to jump. I am losing sight of the wolf; I need to be quick.

Forget everything I say about jumping from a tree. They are so close together that I can always find a way to travel amongst them. It's just slow. I have already lost my first wolf but soon after a second one has appeared. My luck is excellent. And after 15 minutes of tracking wolf after wolf, I finally end up above their den. And I see quite a number, there are at least 10 wolves down there. Two are still cubs but the rest are armed to the teeth. My best shot would be to kill one of the two babies but they won't exit the den anytime soon. Nonetheless, information is power and power is power. So my first meeting with a wolf was really bad luck, the distance between the entrance of the undead cave and here is huge. For a rat. Even for a wolf, I would say it's big. Since I have nothing to do let's go back to bir

"Get the hell away from my path wolves!"

"Just die already!"

What the hell? Who is this? Why does the sound of their voices sound familiar? Wait, that's the adventurers of the cave. Why are they killing wolves? Did they lose weapons against them too?

"Jimmy, you sure the shortest way is through here? I don't want to kill wolves, how the newbies will train without them?"

"I already make a detour to avoid 2 more dens since it was only a minute quicker but if we avoid this one, we will lose 15 minutes. Are we really going to give that monster 15 more minutes?"

"No way, we already gave him a full day. The moment I see this damn ghoul I will make him meet my axe!"

"Ok, let's kill them all quickly and move on!"

Looks like they are hunting a dangerous creature. They are not even caring about the wolves at all. Not that they really need it, 1 hit from them and the wolf is already dead. That's payback for the spear. In less than 10 seconds, the adventurers have broken in, killed everyone and left. If it is not a grave business I don't know what it is. Even I am feeling a little sad for the wolves. They didn't have the chance to defend themselves, even the cubs were crushed. Notice for myself, if I ever see one of those seven adventurers I need to leave. The Gods of Destruction are less scary than them. There are body parts everywhere. Guess it's time for me to ea

Rustle Rustle

More wolves??? Wait they followed the adventurers? And now they are going to fest on the battlefield? And me? Nothing again? Think positively. The nearest den is destroyed so more rabbit for me. There is nothing left for me here so let's go back near the cave. By the tree of course, with so many predators down there I will get eaten if I go down.

(Praise the justice, the poor spear was avenged. In the end, wolves are always the problems. And adventurers are not really a solution either. But you have to give it to them, even after 2 days of travel and nearly no sleep they are still fast and efficient. If only they had a little more brain.)

The seven veterans finally arrived at their destination shortly after. They quickly light their torches and began to explore the cavern.

"Irion, use your undead detection so that we can track that damn monster."

"Take it easy, do you have any idea how much undead presence there is nearby? It's a lich lair, a weak lich but a lich nonetheless. But after a few days, the undead presence is less important."

"Yeah, yeah, we got it just tell us where?"

"Ok, left, left again and left. Again. Hey, don't look at me like that, I am telling what I am feeling."

"I don't see anything, you sure you detect something around here?"

"Yes, right here!"

The priest pointed toward a small pile of rocks. If they didn't have cast their sights on it, they would have probably missed it. But now, they all found these stones weird. It was not natural at all. But the important part was not that.

"And the presence is frail, but it didn't go deeper into the cave, it comes back to the entrance."

"So, you are saying that"

"The creature we are tracking"

"is currently outside???"

As usual, the three warriors Pedro, Miguel and Mario were stating the obvious. But even if they understood that a ghoul matriarch was dangerous, Khozak and Richard didn't explain it enough to understand how bad it was. And when the trio asked the question, the holy knight began to fear for the worst.

"Kh-Khozak, the guild master said that the ghoul feeds themselves on bodies right? And after that, use them to create more ghouls?"

"Yes, what are you asking this? But we didn't notice any body or corpse on our way."

"Didn't we just kill an entire den of wolves, like, 1 hour ago?"

Once again, the all group of adventurers began to rush again toward the exit and the location of their massacre.