After I checked my status I fell to sleep ridiculously fast. Woke up probably soon but it was really scary. I almost thought I died.

Pretty sure the status wasn’t the culprit though and I just needed to sleep because of my newborn body. Picking where I left off after I woke up, I just opened the status again.

Monster status Name: None                                                                                         Combat Power: 1 Race: Small Black Rat                                                                         HP: 3 Level: 1                                                                                                   MP: 0 Fame: 0   Skills: Bite lvl.1, Jump lvl.1, Scavenger, Alpha test player, $@&*. Evolution: None Ver. 0.5

 

Not sure how I feel about this.

Certainly more vivid but it also partially blocks my view. Well a trade off that I will happily accept. It was also moving really smoothly, chasing my gaze.

Now the important stuff… it would seem that I have lost access to quite a bit of resources.

I cannot get SP and BM mainly… that’s concerning. I am also pretty sure that there are things I didn’t have before. In particular the scavenger and alpha test player…

Ignoring the weird symbols that were strangely familiar I decided to try to ask the tutorial voice.

Hey tutorial? Can you explain anything about my current status? Tell me anything.

¨…………………………………….¨

Hmm… seems I am getting the silent treatment. I mean sure I was a bit mean to it but shouldn’t it serve me without any reservation? Weird.

Despite all that is going around me I am just being oblivious and think about all that happened. I was contemplating everything. The way I evolved, the creatures I met, the fates of mermaid, Candace, Aelin, even the stupid Aine and the fairies… there are too many things that I don’t want to forget.

I will not forget, never. I will do my very best to get even stronger this time. I have my serious doubts it will be easy though. Still I will try…

Well after a little bit I was unable to ignore my surroundings and the little creatures were finally not having, me ignoring them for all this time. They wanted to play with me.

I suddenly realized after one of them literally jumped at me and started to wrestle with me.

Well now you have done it… I will show you what having months of experience with this body can do.

It wasn’t that easy though… despite my advantage our bodies were ridiculously weak and he had the upper hand of jumping at me.

You little cretin!!!...

I got completely engrossed in playing with my siblings. I have no idea how much time has passed but I had fun. It almost fell surreal considering the place and all that happened.

Did I got affected by something? I don’t think I could enjoy such simple thing in the past.

And I won btw.

Sure it took me all that I had and I was basically cheating with all the knowledge that they probably have to learn about slowly but my pride wouldn’t stand it. I couldn’t lose to these weaklings.

I am one to talk though… defeating baby rats is pretty much the definition of low but it made me feel extremely proud.

Hmm… I mean I am a baby rat too for now so maybe I shouldn’t be so negative about it. We all had fun and they probably learned few tricks from me already.

There was one problem though. I spend an entire day doing something completely useless for me and once we started to feed off mother we just all fell asleep again. Me included.

Shit…

Waking up extremely pissed about my stupidity… shit.

How could I have forgotten that I am currently in a fucking dungeon. I literally wasted a day by playing.

Sure… it isn’t like I could just explore when I am still growing but shit I should’ve at least properly checked out the place we currently reside in.

My vision got a bit better while I was playing with my siblings so it should’ve been my priority number one. Nothing happened though so it should be okay.

I am not taking any chances today though. No way.

My siblings even tried to start playing with me again but I just brushed them off and managed to lose them shortly.

As I was about to explore and properly ascertain our place… no other than mother intervened. She blocked all my attempts to leave this cave.

My vision sucks but that much I can tell. We are currently in a cave and only mother is there with us. She keeps guard nonstop at the entrance and never other than to feed us she intervenes in what we do.

So… in other words we are completely defenseless when she feeds us but other than that it is reasonably well guarded place. I just hate the fact there is only one entrance and exit.

If anything managed to snuck in or kill mother… we are all dead and without any chance to escape. That’s scary af.

The other scary thing is that the cave even has a hole in the ceiling so that the sunlight can freely pass trough… but that also means something that can fly is basically having a free ticket to a small feast. It isn’t even that small hole so bigger things would fit too. I am getting really terrified by thinking about all this…

Judging by the current growth speed I would assume we all will mature either tomorrow or even today though. So there is at least that.

About twenty four hours? Okay. Should be fine.

I tried one more time to sneak past mother to at least get a peek but she wouldn’t let me and even fairly lightly smacked me with her tail. It still send me flying over to the others… oof.

That kinda hurt… oh well I guess I can understand that.

What then though? What am I going to do after we all mature? What is this mother even planning on doing? Will she abandon us? Are rats even having packs? I don’t remember that much about them… besides it could be very different in here anyways.

Man… thinking about all this is pissing me off. I have no idea. Whatever will happen will happen. I got the luxury of taking it a bit easy right now so lets do just that.

I was pleasantly surprised that my siblings tried to lick me to good health after seeing my abrupt entrance. It even worked to some degree… at least mentally and I sprung up and started to play with them again.

I honestly don’t think we have much of childhood left… I don’t want to ruin it for them. I also don’t want to ruin this chance to help at least a little bit.

I spend the last day of my growing phase trying to learn them all tricks I have learned from my past live. It was honestly laughable because with my current body it was extremely weak but we were getting there.

It was almost shocking seeing how rapidly am I and my sibling growing.

I also noticed that I don’t even have the stats that the status screen showed. So it was most likely showing me what I will have after the growing phase. Not that it matters that much but still.

From that I can tell one important thing.

Debuffs wouldn’t ever show me how much weaker I got…

It is a small thing to know but it could potentially be important. Probably not.

Now… shortly before we would completely catch up to mother in our size she came and fed us for the last time. At least that is what I think because I doubt she would feed us once we mature.

I really think this milk is good. I don’t have anything to compare it with but I really love it. May be some mental thing but still it feels good to fill my belly.

We were all enjoying our last meal and I could see even more rapid growth spurt happening right now. I estimated our growth speed fairly accurately.

All of us… me included, literally matured in middle of the feeding. Mother even interrupted it as soon as all of us were mature. Funnily enough I was the last one.

Now… what will happen?

I am extremely curious. I really wonder. They kind of grown on me over the past two days… so?

Mother stood up and went outside. My vision was still crappy but we all could clearly see it. We are being abandoned. Shame…

I was getting a bit depressed and I clearly saw my siblings in a similar state of distress.

All seven of us scared and completely lost at what to do… well I expected as much anyways.

As I was about to leave the cave mother came back and seemingly angry motioned for us to follow her. My vision was crappy but her squeaks and overall movement led me to believe that’s what she wanted.

It also appeared that my siblings understood these intentions too.

Cool. A pack huh? Great!

It makes me a bit sad and curious about the father but well… cannot be helped. He most likely died.

Now, that we kept following our mother out in the open… I was welcomed with an amazing spectacle.

The jungle on floor five was nothing compared to this and I have never seen something similar in any documentary or a book. Simply ridiculous.

The importance of following mother took precedence over anything else though so I just vaguely brushed all my amazement off.

Still… I really hope my vision gets better asap. This place is insane.

Huge trees, never ending grass around me. I even saw many bird and insects right as I left the cave. I couldn’t pick up on details so that saddened me a bit.

I understood immediately though. This is a real jungle. Not an imitation like the Stonehenge one.

Taking all that into consideration was starting to get a bit stress full so I was trying to focus on the mother the most. I finally had time to try to properly check her out.

She also seemed to be a black rat but I have no doubt that is not even possible. Maybe I am wrong though. We are almost the same size and there is not much about her different except something on her skin.

I could also tell she has mana. Despite not having mana myself no one can take away from me the feel for it. I am sure that my senses are extremely garbage but I can tell. It is much harder to notice and feel but it is possible for me.

Cannot really tell how much though. I just feel the mana and I also know there is a lot of it around us everywhere. Literally everything around us has some mana.

Except me and my siblings…

I tried to focus on understanding what is it that she has growing from her skin and the answer just came to us by itself.

As we were following our mother past infinite layers of grass… she led us into a place full of crystals. That was also what was growing from her skin. I was certain that it is also the same kind of crystal.

She then started eating them and motioned us to do the same.

This is… I mean I am certain she is trying to help… however… I immediately understood that I am in front of a really important decision.

There is no way in hell this is safe. There is also absolutely no way this doesn’t affect evolution in some way.

The problem is I have no fucking idea… other than it has mana… what the fuck this shit does.

My siblings were surprisingly not even hesitant and were about to just dig in but after they noticed me not even a single one started eating.

They noticed my hesitation and everyone stopped… fucking hell. Now I also have their fates in my hands? I don’t want this kind of responsibility.

Mother… I am sorry I just don’t fucking want to blindly risk anything.

As I was contemplating everything and tried to make any sense of it and at utmost speed I realized something simple. It better answer me this time or I swear I will be mad.

HEY! Tutorial voice? Please… please tell me what this crystal is. At least that much please.

There was an awkward silence… everyone now mother included were looking at me and waited.

COME ON! Help me! Are you not a tutorial? You should know at least something…

¨Alright… scanning for available information… done! ¨

¨Mana crystal. Crystal formed purely from mana. Effects unknown. ¨

¨Scanning for further information… failed! Access denied. ¨

¨That’s all. ¨

That’s it? Jesus. That’s not really helpful. I literally knew that already. Well mostly. Fuck!

My mother was starting to get impatient. I could clearly tell… I am sorry but I am not desperate enough to risk it. It might have some serious drawbacks for me in the future if I just dig in without worries now… no thank you.

I made my intention clear as a day and my siblings were all intent of following my lead. Not sure if I like it that much but I can understand that. Shortly before I basically defeated them all at once… well that would be probably impossible now. Those cretins learn fast.

She was not having any of this though… she was furious and I could clearly tell this spells trouble. I remember myself how can parents be unreasonable even as I was human. I doubt she can chill about it at all.

I don’t think I stand a chance in any form of battle with her… and from the looks of it… that would be about the only way how to reason with her right now. Fuck.

I tried my very best anyways.

¨Squeak, squak,squeak squeak squakk squeeeak? Squeak squeak squeeaaaaaaak. ¨ Please understand!!!!

¨SQUEAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!!!!!! ¨ Oh… I guess I cant really beat her verbally either.

Well… I am probably dead. Seeing as she is making her way to me. I don’t think I stand a chance no matter what I do. She would be faster, stronger and there is also no way I want to kill my mother.

So that’s my end. Well wasn’t so bad for a second run. Maybe there will be a third one? Hah. I doubt it. Unless the god is extremely cocky and stupid I doubt he would let me reincarnate for the third time…

I really thought she would kill me. Instead she forcefully fed me the crystal.

WHAT THE ? She binded me with her tail and forcefully opened my mouth with her hands. She almost ripped my mouth because of my resistance.

She then forced my siblings to help her in this crime. They were hesitating only for mere moments! TRAITORS! Probably didn’t want to end up like me but still TRAITORS!

They fed me the weird crystal and she was still not letting go. She made sure they fed me several of them before she let go. All this time looking me straight into my eyes.

HOLY SHIT! IT WAS DISGUSTING AND I ALMOST CHOKED. FUCK.

What a lovely way how to show me your affection mother!!!! JEEEZ.

Just as I was about to started venting and squeak at her… it started.

OH MY GOD. OH NO. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?

My vision was getting hazy... I was getting really sick. My stomach hurt so much… I felt like my stomach was on fire.

And that fire was spreading throughout my entire body. My veins, organs, bones, eyes, fur and even skin… all of it was affected.

I felt an insane itch and pain and everything really hurt. I couldn’t move either. I was paralyzed and slowly I felt my skin bursting and the crystals were growing from inside of my body. Even my tail wasn’t spared.

URGH!!!!!!!! END! FINALY! END THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It felt so horrible and despite it was starting to get better I was definitely not happy about this. It hurt like hell. Overall it was very unpleasant sensation all around my body that was still there.

The only consolation prize is that I already felt something far worse than this so it was bearable to some extent. Especially compared to that…

Oh well… It was getting better and to my surprise my vision picked up a lot better afterwards. I even had color in them again. My body was still experiencing changes but I could already tell most of them were for the better.

I felt a bit stronger. I know i have access to some mana as well. Nothing extreme but it is better than nothing and most importantly… my senses seemed to be a lot better.

Whiskers started to pick up like a small radar and ears functioned a lot better too… I really hope that the thing I just heard isn’t what I think it is…

¨GRRRRRRAAAAAAAWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRR¨

Honestly I don’t even think it is that close but I bet I would hear that even without the upgrade. What the fuck is that insane roar? It is so different from the one Aelin did but it has this… pressure? I also cannot shake the feeling I already heard it before somewhere. In a movie?

No matter. Mother was calmly observing as my siblings had even more trouble integrating the crystal into their bodies. So I shouldn’t be stressed by that sound… I also guess I adapted quickly. Not bad.

I cannot tell exactly how long it took me but I am sure they are taking a lot longer. Also some of them ended sooner. So it is a personal thing. Maybe even affected by which crystal you eat.

Probably few hours later we all had our crystals.

I also noticed that now with my upgraded eyes I can clearly see that not all of them are the same? In fact none of us have the same color.

I have blue crystals and mother purple. Then my siblings each, has their own color.

Blue, purple, red, white, black, green, yellow and pink… Hmm… should I name them with their colors? That can wait I guess…

Well now that we all got our crystals… I really fucking hope there are not massive drawbacks for this thing. Really.

Now the funny thing is after mother made sure we are all well equipped and okay she really abandoned us. This time it was certain.

None of us could follow her even if we wanted to. She was just too fast for us. I guess that was her last gift and that’s it?

I mean I get it. I really do get it. I highly doubt dungeon is a place where you can be all dandy and have your big happy family and all that.

Especially because we are rats… I doubt there will be many things weaker than us.

Now there are several problems… I have no idea how to go about them either. Like really… what am I supposed to do? I know what my goal is but how to get there? What to do meanwhile? Most importantly what to do RIGHT NOW?

My biggest issue is that surviving in this place will be insanely hard and all of my siblings are still intent to follow me. I have no doubts that they will all die or many of them will die if they follow me. I don’t have the strength to protect anyone. I probably don’t have the strength to protect even myself for now.

Even mother ditched us as fast as possible. She probably knew she doesn’t have the strength to do it either.

I am also getting hungry. Like really hungry. Most likely because of the crystals and I think mother also meant for this to happen. If I feel like this… there is no doubt my siblings do as well.

Which is definitely not funny… besides me we are all wild animals and I am pretty sure rats are not so picky about what they eat.

Right now we also know that the only somewhat beatable prey is us…

I don’t want to be part of this massacre… it will happen almost surely because they wouldn’t be able to fight with their instincts. Shame…

The hunger is getting really ridiculous even for me. I really have no doubts it is because of the crystals. Fuck you mother. You ruined one of my plans to have a small army to start with. Really fuck you.

As I was about to slip past my siblings and watch from the safety of barely hidden place I could feel someone approaching. There were three of them as well. Whatever that was, it was relatively fast and already knew about us.

Well all the more reason to hide.

Only short moments, before they revealed themselves my siblings started to fight with each other. They were abruptly interrupted by the entrance of something really surprising for me.

My senses were not as sharp as before. It barely functioned and the only reason I even knew something is approaching us was because they have mana too. Not much but still.

And it was… really, really surprising. I have not expected THAT!

HOLY SHIT !? ARE THOSE RAPTORS?!

WOW!

Undoubtedly those were really raptors and their entrance was not really pleasant.

All three of the raptors jumped from the distance and pretty much instantly killed three of my siblings. Their claws were buried deep in their bodies and they bit of the heads with ease. Even before they finished landing.

That’s an insanely clear power advantage. We are so dead… but my siblings wouldn’t have it. I almost felt obligated to go there and die with them after seeing them try to fight them off but it was a massacre. As I predicted.

Only a bit more surprising… it wasn’t because of our hunger but, because of the raptors.

Still I am extremely frustrated. I am almost blinded by my rage, sorrow and hunger of my own… I swear I was about to go against them but the quick massacre stopped me in my tracks.

I should be happy they didn’t notice me.

Somehow miraculously my siblings managed to kill one of the raptors and I am extremely proud and ashamed at the same time.

Cannot be helped. It wasn’t my fault. I would die too if I went there.

Raptors didn’t even consider their fallen comrade and ate all of the meat presented to them. They at least had the decency of not eating the dead raptor before they left. So there is that.

I didn’t have the luxury of being picky about what I eat so I waited for them to leave and came back to eat the raptor.

Considering all that happened I wouldn’t expected to be surprised so quickly again but… after I started eating I was almost shocked.

I could clearly tell I am getting experience for eating. What the fuck is happening? Why?

¨Scanning available information… done! ¨

¨Scavenger skill in effect detected. Generating experience. Exact effects unknown. ¨

¨Scanning for further information… failed! Access denied. ¨

¨That’s all…¨

Nice… again. I literally know that myself though? Will you only tell me things that I already know? Well thanks I guess. At least I know that it is caused by scavenger skill.

After I finished eating half of the raptor I was full and I know I leveled up. It actually happened shortly after I started eating and I was sure it is my max level as well but I kept eating because I was hungry. The meat was decent… I don’t have much complains there but it could certainly be better.

So… I have no idea why… but I guess when I eat something I get experience for some reason? I wonder… Scavenger huh?

Well nothing that important right now. I should probably just check my status one last time before evolution and then do just that.

Monster status Name: None                                                                                  Combat Power: 1+10 Race: Small Black Rat                                                                 HP: 4 Level: 2                                                                                           MP: 0+50 Fame: 0   Skills: Bite lvl.2, Jump lvl.2, Scavenger, Alpha test player, $@&*. Evolution: Partial crystallization (parasite). Ver. 0.5

 

Fuck you mother. Clearly a nice gift… but…

FUCK YOU.

Eh… I am getting really pissed by these things. My family sucks. My first encounter I survived by pure luck… and I already have a parasite as well.

Great. Things are off to a great start.

Well let me at least hope that my evolution isn’t screwed because of the crystal. Please… really. PLEASE!

Anyways… I had to actually find a safe space to do my evolution and honestly blindly scouting around and hoping nothing eat me or I will manage to stumble randomly upon a great hiding place is very stupid.

So instead I decided to just go back to the cave. I was born there and it feels only natural that I will evolve there.

It took me only about half hour to get back somewhat safely. I didn’t even dare to approach anything and was trying my very best to stay hidden all the time.

After I managed to safely navigate past trees that had snakes waiting for ambush on them… I reached the place. Finally.

I made myself a bit comfortable and even though it is still risky I need to progress myself and no time to waste. With that in mind…

I was trying to fall asleep and it wasn’t really that hard once I started screaming evolution in my mind.

EVOLUTION!!!!!!!!