Part 1 - Pet hunting

 

“Hey, Uria?”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Why do you keep snea-- Oh yah the promise.”

“Heh.”

Pushing Uria out of the bed, Urist knitted his brows with his hand. He didn’t sleep well last night thinking about how bad this rat swarm was going to be. His eyes were bloodshot and his mind was pounding with a headache.

Waking everyone up to get back to work Urist turned to Uria, “Hey can you take care of new ones? I wanna spend more time with the expedition and plan out what we’re doing.”

“Fine. But you owe me, you can’t dump all of your responsibility on me.”

“Alright, alright I owe you one and promise to make it up to you.”

Skipping out the exhausting bit of the day, he gathered the expedition team and headed out earlier than usual. He wanted to check the condition of the bamboo as early as he could so when he opened the gate everyone's eyes opened wide. The bamboo had turned completely blood red and had seeds the size of around two fingers.

That wasn’t the only change on the forest ground the ground was covered with seeds and there were rats lazily eating the seeds around them. Seeing this his worst fears were realized seeing all the food and the rats current size.

You could consider on average a rats size give or take about the size of a fist depending on where you lived on earth. Compared to the other day these rats had grown to about the size of two fists and there were thirty of them lazily eating the seeds ignoring the dwarfs.

With the hair on his neck standing up, Urist said coldly, “Kill them all. Reaver let your pets go wild.”

“Understood boss! Go forth my little darlings~”

The lazy tigers and golden retrievers walking next to the tamer's ears perked up and looked around and started to snarl before jumping into the pack. The rats now sensing danger from predators tried to flee only it was too late for them!

To lead the pack into battle unexpectedly was the tiny white tiger Rex and his big buff sister Rama splitting off into two directions. They each led one of their siblings and one of the retrievers on a path of slaughter grabbing the rats swinging them back and forth as their teeth bit into them severing spines and crushing organs.

Not to be shown up by Reaver’s pets the rest of the expedition team joined their loyal companions to wipe out the rats. It didn’t take long for the rats to route and the battlefield lay two dozen fat rat corpses bleeding and crushed.

Collecting up the dead rats Urist gave them to Reaver to feed her pets dogs and tigers to help them grow. They had done well in that little battle killing about twenty out of twenty-four rats with Rex getting the most kills.

Urist raised an eyebrow at how well Rex had done, killing six rats with Rama taking five. Their killer instincts were top-notch out of the group. Inwardly, he made a note to check if there were more tiger cubs for sale and if not get some more dogs.

Even if the two dogs killed two rats each it was still better than the dwarfs who got barely any kills. With that test out of the way, Urist ordered, “Alright guys, it's time to head off! Fatty at the front, Emu, Uroa, and Reaver at the center. Reaver, have your pets cover Fatty flanks, Rat and Elrish you will be covering their flanks and I’ll cover the back.

“Our first order of business is to check the traps to see if we caught anything. The second is to count how many rats we see above ground and kill as many as we can. And while we’re out we will gather as many seeds and rat corpses back to base which… as you can see won’t be that hard. Does everyone understand?”

““““““Understood Boss!””””””

…

Meanwhile, on Uria’s side, she was currently commanding the workforce at the base. She had the new people that came today their jobs were Carpenter, Earth mage, Pottery Maker and Shield Warrior.

The Earth Mage, Carpenter, and Pottery Maker were put straight to work in helping strengthen the wall. The Shield Warrior was handed over to Unicy’s Matilita unit to get a hold of learning each other's strengths.

Despite Unicy being a General that specialized in Cavalry Archers. She had the basics to teach warriors fighting with different weapons a way of working together. With how well Unicy was training the troops Uria placed most of her focus on finishing the wall.

By now the wall was about fifty-five percent done with most of the watchtowers skeletal frames in place. Thanks to the extra Earth mage the pace of enforcing the wall would be finished faster than expected.

The wooden pulleys that Urist bought were being placed on the finished parts of the wall and running through with rope. The metalsmiths were working in rotations letting their bodies rest when one of them grew tried. In the corner, Runesmith and Blood Mage were taking the maces and enchanting them.

With what they wouldn’t say, the two were grinning ear to ear talking to each other in hushed tones that pissed her off. Urist before leaving told her to let them do whatever they want since they seemed like good people.

Even though he said that she still didn’t trust that blood mage who smelled of Iron and kept asking for blood from everyone.

‘If he tries to harm us I’ll have Unicy beat him up!’

Uria had a headache coming on with ordering everyone about to get the wall finished faster. She was beginning to understand what sort of pressure Urist was always under to keep everyone alive.

‘Guess I’ve been pretty selfish. So this is the pressure he feels weighing on his shoulders.’

 

Part 2 - The Birth of a King

 

Crouching down on the ground Urist looked at the rope trap that had gone off. While doing this the rest of the group surrounded him as he studied the trap. What he found made his face turn grim. Inside the trap lay a choked rat, which was good and all if the rat corpse wasn’t half bones.

Around the corpse, he could see rat tracks surrounding the body, meaning after its death its kind had eaten it. This made him scratch his head wondering why they would eat each other with all this food on the ground. He had already decided to inspect the rat closely to see that the skull was removed and the brains were eaten. Turning the rat over he found the rat was disemboweled, these parts had the most gruesome wounds. 

He hypothesized that the rat stomachs and brains held a concentration of the bamboo seeds effects. There would be no other reason for the rat to eat the corpses with all the food on the ground. Removing the corpse and resetting trap, Urist moved forth to check the other traps to see if his hypothesis was correct.

They moved from trap to trap gathering seeds along the way. His investigation bore truth as he found that every rat corpse had it’s brain and intestines eaten. That wasn’t the only thing they came across, they saw about seventy rats out and about feasting on the bamboo seeds. They were able to kill half of them while the rest escaped into the ground.

Collecting bags full of seeds Urist called the expedition to return after checking and resetting the last trap. Unknowingly, the group passed by a rat that was up to their knees in height burrowed into the ground. If Urist saw the rat he would recognize that this was the rat he took the eye from. It stared at them with murderous intent wishing to tear the two-leg walkers to shreds as it ate brains and stomach contents hey gathered from that body.

In the hole, a dozen or so shin-class rats were awaiting the big rat orders in utter obedience. When the dwarfs left, the big rat raised its arms and began to screech at its subordinates to collect more brains and guts. It grinned evilly if the dwarfs were going to make his growth easier then he might as well take the opportunity.  

…

Back at camp now the expedition placed the seeds into the crystals storage. They then sat down inside the cave to take a rest, before they had to head out to collect more seeds.

While they were resting Urist was mulling over his thoughts as he felt that just sitting around and doing nothing was a waste of time. Seeing as the branches were going back thicker he decided to make everyone in the expedition to handle an axe to cut down the bamboo in hopes to reduce the seed spawning rate.

A quick rest and the expedition headed back out. While he moved he inspected the wall to see that it was three-fourths done. He found out that they had gotten another Earth mage in the morning which made his tense heart have some ease.

Before night comes the wall should be finished and the watchtowers along walkways should be close to finishing. The oil trench has been dug out and ready to be used in case of emergency. On the finished parts of the wall, I’ve noticed that the pulleys have been put in place having about half the maces placed. 

But will this be enough?

The question kept nagging at the back of his mind for some reason he couldn’t explain. 

I mean no matter how big the rats got, this strong and sturdy wall would be enough to protect them easy enough. I have no reason to be this paranoid. sure some rats had their brains and stomachs taken out from the traps. A strange habit for sure, but it wasn’t the strangest thing animals are known to do.

So why target eating the brains and guts?

Searching through his hazy memories he tried to make sense of the behavior while he collected the seeds. He couldn’t make heads and tails of why the rats would cannibalize their dead in such away.  

He thought for hours to figure out the answer while collecting seeds and killing any rats that came into their sight. When it was time to call it for today the expedition team went home and ate dinner with the others.

Everyone looked at the completed wall and felt pretty good at the protection it gave them. Even if the rat swarm wasn’t a big deal at least they now had protection from the outside. They wouldn’t have to worry about something like a tiger coming into their camp trying to kill them anymore. 

While the dwarfs were lively Urist was eating his soup in silence, thinking about the question on his mind. The one who noticed his quiet demeanor was a fairly new member that had been teleported here recently.

The dwarf that smelled of blood Vlad leaned over to Urist, “What are you thinking about boss?”

Since he asked Urist turned to Blood Mage Vlad, “It isn’t much, it’s just the traps we checked the rats caught had their brains and guts eaten. Do you have any idea why? The question has been on my mind for some time now.”

It was at this time that the dwarf breaking of blood smile turned serious, even a hint of fear appeared on his face, “Are you sure about that.”

This utterly confused Urist, “Yes, every corpse checked in the traps had the same thing happened to him. Do you know anything about it?”

Instead of answering Vlad sat up, heading straight over to where the dwarfs had skinned the rats that the expedition team brought back. He had been working together with Rune Smith Ajan to create some magical items and hadn’t collected the blood yet.

Seeing him acted weird Urist followed after Vlad who now stood over the blood-stained rocks. Waving his hand over the rocks he gathered up the blood turning it into a crystallized form. 

Finished making the crystal the size of a fist. He sighed to himself muttering under his breath, “What bad luck. To face another one those after dying to one before.”

“Face another what? And you died?”

Vlad had a sad expression on his face when he turned to Urist, “Oh that’s right, I never told you how I died... Since it’s closely tied to what’s about to happen I might as well tell you the tale. The birth of a king.”

 

Part 3 - Origin Blood

 

The once bright air around the campfire turned heavy at Vlad's remark. Everyone's eyes were drawn to Vlad who was staring at the blood crystal like an old friend. The flicker of the fire illuminated the sadness plastered along Vlad's face. The sun was steadily sinking into the horizon, which made the clouds seem like they were bleeding.

It was at this moment Vlad stopped looking at blood crystal and tilted his head towards the group.

“I guess the best way to start this tale is from the beginning. As you all know I practice the arts of blood magic, and I know some of you frown upon such magic.”

He cast a look over at the commoners he was transported with and smiled at their displeasure.

Vlad then turned his eyesight towards the fire, “And their fear isn’t unfounded. Blood magic users are known for their cruelty in their path in deepening their understanding of the art. As every mage that calls themselves mages will always be drawn to the research of magic. A nature that is hard to repress, remember from this point on that magic isn’t innately bad. It is the user who decides to use it for good or evil.”

Usbain snorted, evidently fed up with Vlad’s explanation, “What does this have to do with your death and our ‘impending doom’? Don’t you see that wall? It’ll protect us from those vermin!”

Vlad just smiled and continued, “We had walls that would put our wall to shame; we had hundreds of magicians all coming from different branches. Warriors of great renown that flocked across the continent and an army in the tens of thousands. All for one purpose and you wanna know what that was?” 

Stopping for a moment he took in the expressions he saw. He wanted to see that everyone was paying attention to the weight of his words. 

Urist asked completely focused, “And what was it?”

A bitter look appeared full on the blood mages face, “Just one thing boss. To slay a Monster King. My story leads up to that event, you see back to what I was saying about mages hunger for the knowledge they choose a field to study. The field I choose to learn was bloodlines that focused on King Bloodlines.”

Mentioning this his eyes glowed with wanderlust, “You see Bloodlines are an interesting subject. Some theories state that origin bloodlines can control all its descendants and if so how much can they control. And so I began my experiment on a weak insect creature the praying mantis.”

As Urist listened he could feel a nagging idea where this was headed, “Don’t tell me you…” 

A little pride showed on Vlad expression, “Yes after ten years of research I managed to produce a king bloodline of praying mantis using a special method of invoking it. It was simple really, all I had to do was feed the test subjects their kind. Then I had those that survived to fight each other allowing the winner to eat the loser. 

“Eventually after years of research, it bore fruit. One day I came back into the lab to see a strange sight, the other night I had a dozen of my best playing mantises fight it out. Low and behold one was alive and it was different than before. 

“This one actually was one of my first specimens I had gotten my hands on the twenty-first to be exact. It had fought dozens of battles, killed hundreds of his brethren, and had scars litter its body. But that little bug always survived when I thought he would die. if he had maybe things would have happened differently…”

Vlad took a bit of silence before continuing, “The bug before me had changed considerably. It’s once green body had turned pure white and its eyes were now pure gold.

Urist asked a question, “Wait how did you know it was the 21st if its body had become white?”

Vlad replied calmly, “I was quite lucky to catch it while it was shedding to allow me to catch a glimpse of its number. Now back to the story. That wasn’t the only thing that caught my attention, all of the praying mantises alive in their cages acted strangely… They were… They were bowing to the twenty-first.” 

Uria who had now replied with a hint of awe, “Like subjects to a king.”

Vlad's face looked like that of a child finding recognition from an adult. “Exactly, it was then I knew that I had found a way to invoke a King’s Bloodline. I was the first person to document the process of making a king. Natural kings had been born in the wild such as a goblin king, but no one knew of a way of artificially create them.

“Everyone thought I was crazy in my theory that a king couldn’t be born in such a brutal way. Only my father was kind enough to lend me money for my research and he was the first one I showed my discovery too! And then… and then...”

When he got to his father Vlad faced noticeably darkened. As if hitting a sour note in his memory Urist could see confusion, hatred, and sadness all mixed up in one.

And so Urist asked, “What happened Vlad.”

The darkness that covered over Vlad twisted in rage before he took a breath and settled down, “I’ll tell you what happened, I made the biggest mistake of my life when I told my father… when he had company. I was so blinded by the success that I told my father of what I had accomplished, I didn’t notice the general he was talking to.” 

Tears leaked down the cheeks of Vlad’s face, “It was until my father forcefully shut me up that I knew I screwed up. The general used space teleport to leave our house for fear of being silenced.

“Not even a day later, that hateful general sensing profit told the city lord and they raided my lab allowing the King Praying Mantis to escape in the confusion. That was the beginning of everything going wrong.

“I and my father were thrown into the dungeons not allowed to leave until I gave up the knowledge of my research. The city lord wanted to use my research to create loyal King class creatures to rage war on neighboring nations to increase our territory.

“I and my father were stubborn in the city lords attempts to get the secret out of me. While I told the city lord to go and kill the King Praying Mantis. He did not heed my warnings and instead, for two months we wasted inside that prison. And that was enough time for the king to truly gain strength...” 

Vlad truly had a bitter expression on his face full of grief, “First it was a dwarven village that was killed off in a single night without a sound leaving not a single corpse. At first, someone thought it was wild beasts that had overrun the village so a squad of knights was sent out. The squad of knights did not return. 

“Then another village was wiped off the map, then another. And as more warriors were sent out to discover what was causing it. Over a dozen towns were cleared out in a brief period of time. As soon as it was about to become a national crisis the attacks suddenly stopped. After one month the people had thought the breast was appeased and decided to not worry about it anymore after thoroughly searching all over the nation.

“I didn’t hear any of this until one of the guards watching over us said something to us. It was at this time I decided to crack and tell the city lord everything if he went back to searching for the beast.”

He picked at the soup in his bowl listlessly, “That bastard agreed, but it was already too late. The King had grown too strong, after building up its strength for so long it finally attacked a town razing it to the ground with over ten thousand three meter-sized kin.”

“A town of five thousand dwarfs were killed and were used as nutrition to grow the king's army. That wasn’t the end, the army moved through the air going from town to town killing all they could see and increasing their numbers.

“The nation was put into high alert and all remaining citizens were evacuated to the city. Every man woman and child old enough to hold a spear was enlisted to fight the now two hundred thousand strong army of bugs.”

He paused after his long story to let the full effect sink in before continuing. 

 

Part 4 - Head Eaten

 

Golden flames flickered in Vlads eyes as he took another sip of his soup. By now the sun had hidden away from sight, with the stars taking its place in the night. The dwarfs were waiting around for Vlad to continue his story.

He didn’t disappoint.

“When the national crisis hit, everyone in the prison was set free to fight against the bug horde under the orders of the city lord. Of course, my father and I were also set free and sent to the frontlines to fight. You might not know it judging by my looks, but I learned a fair amount of blood magic in my time. Although it seems my memories are being repressed like most of you, so I’ve forgotten most of my spells, unfortunately.

“Back to the story. Well that bastard of a city lord already had the information so he didn’t need us anymore except to be meat shields in the grinder. And so we fought, pulling out all the stops to kill one more bug. 

“We killed and killed for a day as the bugs kept coming. I watched brothers and sisters killed by the bugs only fueling my rage as I gathered their blood to keep on fighting. Every drop used to fight against the bugs caused by my mistake.

“In the end, we were overrun and we had to retreat to the inner wall. I only managed to make it to the inner wall thanks to my father blocking a killing blow aimed at me with his body. With the last of his strength, he pushed me through the closing gate and told me to live.”

His hands trembling, opening and closing tears flowed down his cheeks. Urist saw the utter rage in Vlad’s twitching body wishing to take his anger out.

“I… I caused my father to die. Not listening to his dying wish I cut my wrists and charged right back out. I don’t know why I did it but it must be a move hidden in my memory. All I remember was entering a berserker rage killing dozens and dozens of bugs in my path using my own blood. The blood of the bugs. The blood of the fallen. Until I couldn't move anymore.

“Eventually I used up all my blood after killing at least a thousand by myself alone. My body weak, skin dried up, I hung on by a thread of life. I closed my eyes and awaited death, but I felt no scythe run me threw.

“It was at that time I opened my eyes weakly to see a beautiful woman in white stand before me. She was surrounded by bowing praying mantises. At the time I couldn’t believe a king had taken humanoid form. It had never been recorded that kings could take human form so I was quite shocked.

“We stared at each other for a long time before the king bowed her head slightly to me and said to me. ‘Thank you for raising me, father.’ Before she grabbed me by the arms and raised me at eye level. Her jaw expanded and clamped over my head and that's how I died. With my head swallowed.”

Vlad started laughing as he rubbed his neck, “Can you believe it? A king called me a father after how inhuman I treated her. Then ate my head!”

He was laughing so hard that Urist went over to him and held him by the shoulder, “Are you ok?”

Vlad suddenly stopped laughing and fell over from his seat and started to stare at the stars.

Urist thought something happened to Vlad so he tried to help him up only for Vlad to hold up a hand to stop him.

“I’m fine boss. It’s in the past, Nothing can change it. Since I’ve been given a second life, I’m going to live my life for my father this time. I owe him and everyone's life I killed because of my curiosity. I must… Repent… Will you allow me, boss?”

Vlad smiled bitterly as tears gushed out of his eyes. 

Urist pulled Vlad by the hand forcefully making the dwarf startled. 

Looking him in the eye Urist replied, “That's expected, you can’t die until I say so and thank you for sharing that painful memory. I’ll make sure you live well for your father!”

Leaving the stunned Vlad, Urist turned to the crowd, “That goes for the rest of you! You are not allowed to die until I say so! I care not of your past as this is your new life. Make a difference and fight to live. Do not waste your second life. Is that clear!”

“““““Understood boss!”””””

Everyone cheered on filled with fighting spirit. They were shouting that rats wouldn’t kill them. That they would survive. That they would live on.

Vlad looked at the back of Urist with wide eyes. Looking at how someone so small could have such a large back that seemed it could carry the weight of the world. He felt the bitterness and hatred in his heart lessen when staring at the back. It was at this moment Vlad inwardly pledged his loyalty to Urist up until his dying breath.

…

Elsewhere in the dark forest of bamboo, the rats moved to and fro from a certain hole in the ground. Inside was a rat up to the size of a dwarf kneecap feasting on the flesh and blood of rat intestines.

With each bite digested the rat grew at a visible pace. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say the rat would grow to be the size of a dwarfs hips by morning. While it ate it watched it subordinates dig down to create a larger living area. 

By now the place was about the size of a hundred feet. The rat smiled evilly as seeds and flesh poured into nearby stock plie that it gorged itself on. It wasn’t the only one eating from the pile countless females feasted on the pile, did the deed, and shortly after birth rats. Feeding the newborns for an hour the newborns were ready to eat and soon birth more rats to then be put to scavenging or breeding.

The rate of propagation was outstanding. If any scientist saw such a scene on earth their hair would have become white from seeing such an explosion of a population. But the rat king wasn’t satisfied at the progress, he needed more if he wanted revenge.

He had personally gone to see the construction of the base of the tall ones of and it was grand. With the intelligence, it had gained he knew if he charged at the base right now they would be slaughtered.

Crunching sounds filled the cave as the rat thought. He would eat and grow strong to repay the injury he had so unjustly gotten. He would raise an army to topple those walls. And when his army swarmed in he would find the one who took his eye and devour his entire being!

The rat king let out a screech of hatred which all his subordinates mimicked. 

He would have his vengeance!

Rat Tide timer activated 5 Days 11 Hours 22 Mins

Beast Swarm timer activated 13 Days 11 Hours 22 Mins

Point Amount:  7343