Miles remained crouched over the same wooden box, observing in silence. His kindred eyes breached through the darkness, focusing on two horde rats.

One was barely a few meters away from him, sniffing the air, as it carefully scuttled forwards, moving closer and closer to his position.

From prior experience, he knew this rat would smell him out pretty soon.

The second horde rat remained inside the wall, within the safety of the hole, watching over its companion as it explored the area for possible dangers.

Without a doubt, the one inside the wall would be the first target.

Clunk!

A metal ball clattered onto the floor directly before the hole, alerting both the rats.

Hiss!

It shattered into two halves, as a familiar yellow gas hissed out into the air. It didn’t take long for the gas to reach the closest rat, the one who had been inside the hole in the wall.

Having heard the sound, this rat had already turned around, preparing to scurry back and escape.

Unfortunately for the poor creature, the paralysis gas was far too potent. Its movements quickly became slow and sluggish, barely able to take a single step forward.

Squeak!

With a weak cry, perhaps of defeat and indignation, the rat collapsed sideways, its body lying still within the hole.

The second rat, only a few meters away from the wall, had seen what had happened to its comrade. And with the ominous yellow gas floating next to the wall, it wisely stayed away, safe and unaffected.

Too bad for the rat, Miles was here, with way more of where that came from.

Clunk!

Barely a second had passed, as a second metal ball split right next to the frozen rat, hissing out another dose of paralysis gas.

Soon enough, the second rat collapsed as well, facing the same fate as the other.

Reaching into his pockets, Miles pulled out the extended black pole.

With a quick series of practiced prods and pushes, the paralyzed rats plus all the metal pieces were soon stowed away in his hiding spot, along with 20 other rats, all debilitated and terrified.

Once again the room was clean and clear, with no visible signs of danger to any inquisitive rat who might poke its head out of the hole.

And yet, Miles couldn’t help but frown.

While he had succeeded in taking down the two horde rats, this had been quite different from all the times before.

The familiars had come in pairs, with only a single one moving forwards and the second hanging back, almost as if it was a lookout, prepared to escape and warn the horde in case of danger.

This was the very reason Miles had targeted the rat within the wall first.

In fact, all of the last few rats had exhibited similar behavior.

While they hadn’t exactly come in pairs, they had still been careful and wary, as if they knew that something was wrong, but... not exactly what.

If it had not been for the fact that Zhan Shen’s paralysis gas was quick to affect their small bodies, it was highly possible some would’ve escaped.

‘As expected... These horde rats are not just some dumb animals. They must have sensed something was off, somehow. Smell? Sound? Or just plain instinct?’

Before he could think any further, Miles was forced back to reality as he noticed a sudden shift in the behavior of the remaining horde rats. His eyes gazed through the walls, glowing with the red light of Blood Vision.

Something was wrong.

There had been three or four rats making their way towards his tunnel, more prey for him to paralyze, when all of a sudden they had turned around and scurried back.

In fact, all the rats, even those that had been exploring the tunnels elsewhere for possible escape routes, surged as one towards some location at the center.

A quick look at the holographic map on his ring confirmed that this was one of the few large open spaces within the walls. Possibly, the largest.

“They found out?! F*ck!” Miles cursed with a scowl.

It was obvious that the rats had learned of the situation somehow; that they were being captured by him, one by one.

But Miles could think of nothing that might have given up the jig. 

Maybe other than… that rat in the wall! That last squeak!

If the horde rats could somehow communicate, or at least exchange basic information, that last cry might’ve been the human equivalent of a scream or a shout.

Miles had assumed wrong.

That had not been a cry of defeat or indignation. But one that had warned its brethren. It had been an attempt to disrupt his relaxed attempt to take down the rats, one that had actually succeeded.

Although the network of tunnels within the walls spread throughout the entirety of the property, even ordinary rats had excellent hearing. Not to mention that with the assumed existence of Sonokinetic rats, the sound waves from that squeak would not have gone unnoticed.

It was obvious that they had heard the scream and informed the rest of the horde.

This was the only explanation Miles could think of.

But despite the wrench in his plans, he still wasn’t particularly worried. All the possible escape routes were sealed off and pumped full of monster repellant. There was no way the horde rats were getting out.

All he had to do was find a way to get them out of the walls somehow, and have them killed. 

He was sure he could handle that. 

Meanwhile, almost all the rats had gathered at that open space, spreading out in a distinctly structured pattern. 

With Miles’s blood vision, he couldn’t exactly see the walls or the tunnels. What he could see instead were the silhouettes of the rats in scarlet red, along with their white crystal hearts.

At the moment, these rats were making slight movements, twitching, and chittering among each other, almost as if they were conversing or discussing something.

But in less than a minute, this came to a stop.

Instantly, all the rats began to rush out, quickly separating into four groups.

Exactly fifty remained together, while the remaining six moved out in pairs of two.

Miles raised an eyebrow, unable to see what these rats could do to escape the reinforced concrete walls, even if they were organized.

As he watched, the three pairs of horde rats continue moving in different directions finally coming to a stop, just before reaching three possible exits. 

Unfortunately it was impossible to move any further, as the paths were blocked and filled with the monster repellant.

There should’ve been nowhere to go, besides turning back.

But somehow, they did.

Slowly they turned to the side and began to move, one behind the other.

Miles couldn’t help but scratch his head in confusion, as he glanced back at the holographic map on his ring.

‘What the hell?! Where are they going? No. How are they going through that?!'

Each of the pairs of rats was moving along paths that didn’t exist, or at least, shouldn’t have existed. It was supposed to be pure reinforced concrete where they were.

The map was supposed to be perfect and since it didn’t show these paths, he was confident they didn't exist.

There was simply no way the Lykaon network had made a mistake.

Worst of all, if the horde rats continued down those paths, they would escape the walls soon enough and appear outside the property.

The only saving grace was that they were moving quite slowly.

Beginning to feel a bit worried, but still mostly confused, Miles tried to make sense of what was happening.

That was when he noticed it, that the rat in the lead seemed to be biting and scratching something, as it slowly moved forwards, moving through where the reinforced concrete was supposed to be.

‘There’s no way, right? Are those rats eating and clawing away the concrete?!’

It seemed absolutely impossible, but he couldn’t refute what he could see with his own eyes.

The rats were somehow digging through the reinforced concrete! As if it was dirt or sand, instead of powerful material capable of handling Epsilon-level attacks!

'Holy hells, that explains it! I had been completely lost as to how these tunnels could have formed naturally inside the walls. So it was these rats who dug them in the first place!'

Either way, the current situation wasn’t ideal, but thankfully Miles had been prepared for any and all complications. He had been far-seeing enough to prepare insurance.

And this insurance had a single name; Zhan Shen.

He hadn't left the powerful old butler outside the property for no reason. He was the last line of defense, in the event something went wrong.

With a quick tap on the Lykaon ring, Miles contacted his guardian.

“Old Zhan, there’s been a change of plans. Six rats are on their way outside, they’ll be breaking through the wall sometime later. If possible, try to capture without killing. But no matter what, they cannot be allowed to escape. I trust you’ll be able to take care of this?”

The reply crackled through almost immediately, “A change of plans, eh? Well of course Master Miles, I can handle six measly rats. You can leave this to me. Best of luck with the rest.”

With a word of confirmation, Miles clicked off the call.

Now that that was taken care of, he would have to handle the fifty rats remaining inside.

However, for the moment, the horde of rats remained stationary within a random tunnel. There wasn't an exit for quite a distance, and the walls around this tunnel didn't lead outside either.

It seemed he could relax for now, and he would make good use of this time. 

Immediately, Miles's eyes fell on the twenty-two rats paralyzed before him. While he had hoped to gather more, this should have to be enough for now. It wasn’t like he was letting the rest of them get away.

With merciless eyes, he raised his palm.

Ironblood Spike (¼) x24!

It was difficult, a challenge even, to form so many blood spikes at the same time and maintain them. But technically speaking, he had only activated the skill six times, each giving him four quarter spikes.

So it was still somehow manageable.

Miles felt the blood points leaving him, forming exactly 24 needle-like blood spikes before his hand.

[Blood Bank: 88/100]

Considering the high blood consumption, it was good that he had filled up his blood bank to the brim before beginning the assault on the rat horde.

It was just too bad that he had made 24 blood spikes to kill 22 horde rats. Unfortunately, since the quarter blood spikes were made in multiples of four, he simply had no control over this.

Whoosh!

The blood spikes launched out at the same time, cleanly following his intent and targeting the paralyzed rats.

Crack!

The ominous cracks of 22 rat skulls rang out simultaneously as a single sound.

It had to be mentioned that Miles's accuracy was impeccable, perhaps because he had improved, but more likely because the targets were paralyzed and stationary.

This also meant that he had no need for the two extra spikes, but they stabbed right through the guts of two particularly unfortunate rats anyway.

With the deaths of the horde rats, it didn't take long for the notifications to begin ringing out.

Ding!

[You have slain {Horde Rat (Base)/ Bound Familiar (Enhanced)} x9]

[You have slain {Horde Rat Listener (Evolved)/ Bound Familiar (Enhanced/ Meager Sonokinesis/ Perfect Memory)} x4]

[You have slain {Horde Rat Smeller(Evolved)/ Bound Familiar (Enhanced/ Scent Manipulation-Lesser)} x8]

[You have slain {Horde Rat Digger(Evolved)/ Bound Familiar (Enhanced/ Meager Super Strength/ Sharpened Fangs and Claws)} x1]

Ding!

[Kindred Class: (Newborn) has reached Lvl. 4- Stat points allocated.]

A familiar sense of power rushed through his body, as the stat points enhanced his physique even further.

Ding!

[Multiple Blood Sources consumed. +2.2 BP gained.

Horde Rat blood absorbed (Base, Listener, Smeller, and Digger variants.)

No stats gained. Insufficient volume for further options]

[BP: 90/100]

It appeared that the variation of the type of the horde rats and the small amount of blood in each, had made it so that he did not have enough blood from either type of variant rat. Which translated to being no bonus gains.

While disappointing, at the very least, he had leveled up.

Suddenly realizing that he had 3 free points left, Miles was just about to figure out what to do with them, when...

CRASH!

A sudden crash, one that should have been barely audible, but clear to his enhanced ears, rang out from inside the property.

He shifted his gaze towards the source, eyes glowing with the light of Blood Vision once more. His gaze fell upon a certain area, basically the main living room, conveniently right next to the wall where the 50 remaining rats had last been seen.

Miles’s eyes widened in disbelief.

It appeared he didn't have to worry about getting the rats outside the walls anymore.

Unfortunately, they weren’t just 50 individual rats anymore. 

They were… something else entirely. 

Miles immediately rushed out of the basement, his target the living room.

This might end up being tricky, but also, interesting.