Lanek awoke with a pounding headache that put him in an incredibly foul mood. Meanwhile, Isaac left him to his misery and patrolled their surrounding, giving Maximilian time to get his own sleep. Apparently, Maximilian had been unwilling to leave Lanek unprotected after he passed out and the Crown had dismissed Isaac as soon as Lanek lost consciousness.
The afternoon, for Lanek had spent more than twelve hours unconscious, was spent cleaning the blood and gore off of his body. Thankfully, he didn’t have to wash his coat as dismissing it just took the coat, leaving anything else behind. Unfortunately, that also meant that any dirt, debris, blood, or monster bits showered down on Lanek when the coat disappeared.
Once more bemoaning the lack of coffee, Lanek begrudgingly choked down some breakfast before calling out to Isaac. The spirit materialized next to Lanek and looked at him curiously.
You called? You already know that you can talk to me without having me materialize. Isaac asked curiously.
“Yeah, I’m aware. The thing is, if we can talk out loud and if you materialize, it makes me feel less insane. It would also help when we’re talking to a group.”
“Ah, understood. I will materialize and speak unless we are in combat or need to be silent.” Isaac responded.
“Thanks. So, I have a few questions about the rat things we just fought.” Lanek said, grimacing at the memory of the fight.
“I figured that you might. Go on, I’ll tell you what I can. Just bear in mind that you could get better information about them from a dwarf.” Isaac said.
“Why is that?” Lanek asked curiously.
“Well, they fight over the same territory quite often. At least they used to back before the gaunts. I couldn’t tell you what it’s like now for obvious reasons. The ratmen live beneath the earth, typically even further down than the dwarves mine. From time to time, the dwarves will break through into a ratmen warren or the rats will expand the warren to accommodate their growing numbers and break through into a dwarven mine. The two races kill each other on sight.”
“You mentioned dwarven mines in the hills back there, do you think they broke through?” Lanek asked.
“Possibly. There is also a chance that the ratmen found out about the dwarven settlements in the hills and set out to seize them. While the rats do hate being above ground for long, they will do it out of necessity. For example, if they were driven out of their previous warren and had knowledge of a convenient and already built home that they just needed to conquer.”
“That sounds like a lot more planning than I would give them credit for, those things looked insane and desperate. Did they get that way because of the gaunts?” Lanek asked.
Isaac laughed. “Oh, no. The gaunts could have affected them, but the ratmen my people encountered were always like that. Do not underestimate them though, what you saw and fought were the absolute dregs of their society. They live in a caste system with the higher castes being far more intelligent and deadly. Things would have gone far differently if any of the other castes had joined the fray.”
“How bad are they?” Lanek asked.
“A few members of the mid-tier castes in that battle alongside the dregs would have overwhelmed you. They can enhance and direct the bottom castes with a number of different spells and auras. Without the dregs, I would say that you could take several members of the mid-tier on your own. If a single member of the upper caste had been present you would be dead, with or without any allies helping it. Lucky for us, the upper caste rarely come to the surface.”
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“Seriously? That bad?” Lanek said incredulously. He found it hard to believe that the starving, piteous creatures would be a threat without overwhelming numbers.
“Yes. That bad. Laethon lost several kings to upper caste warriors despite having worn the Crown and trained for decades. You see, as the ratmen evolve they enter a higher caste. I don’t know what the lifespan of a mid-tier or bottom-tier member is, but the upper caste are functionally immortal according to the dwarves. Sickness or age will not put them down, only a violent end. So, be aware that if you run into an intelligent ratman, you might just be facing something with centuries of experience, all of it involving violence and death.”
“Seeing how many were out there with no end in sight and the possibility of evolving into ageless variants, how have they not overrun everything?” Lanek was confused, he was missing something.
“I had that same question when I first became an adventurer, until a dwarven companion explained it to me. He said that there were three reasons that were certain and a lot of unproven theories. The first certainty is that the ratmen kill everything, even each other, so there are many clans constantly warring with each other. The second reason is the availability of food. The ratmen will only eat meat.”
“So that’s why there were no signs of animals in the hills?” Lanek asked.
“Exactly. The ratmen will strip their territories of meat, especially in times of war. One of the theories is that they have some type of livestock native to the depths that they use to maintain their population. However, the dwarves believe that since the ratmen seem to breed incredibly quickly, the newborn rats are divided between the low caste and livestock.”
“Wait… They EAT each other?” Lanek asked, his bile rising at the thought.
“Yes, which leads to the third reason for why they haven’t conquered everything in sight. The upper caste don’t want any competition for their positions, so they carefully manipulate their people to ensure that the lower caste doesn’t evolve in great enough numbers to ever pose a threat. They keep the low caste as slaves, forcing them to do hard labor and to live on the brink of starvation their entire lives. This causes them to be incredibly aggressive and reckless when the chance for meat is available. If one of the slaves becomes strong enough to survive this cycle and evolves, then they are welcomed as a valuable addition to the next caste.”
“That explains why they were so desperate to kill us even though Maximilian and I couldn’t have provided enough meat for their numbers.” Lanek shuddered, he did not like the idea that he had been no more than a meal that had been conveniently delivered to ratmen’s doorstep.
“Aye, exactly. While the rats do eat each other, they far prefer the meat of other creatures. To what little was left of their minds, the best case scenario would be that you fell and they would then fight over your body. In the worst case, which is what happened, you would escape after killing a large number of them. At that point, they would still have the meat from the corpses of their brethren.”
“Fucking hell. You would think that a society like that would wipe itself out fairly quickly.” Lanek mused.
“That is probably why there are so many theories, no one knows how they have managed to survive for so long. Since they don’t speak to other races, we have no idea if there is some kind of force or higher power leading them or where they originated. Dwarves have found old ruins in the depths of the earth that are at least as old as the oldest cities of mankind, but considering how deep they’ve been found, there could easily be far older ones even deeper. This could potentially mean that they are as old as the draconids and saurians, possible older.”
“We’re going to have to find another way to get to the north, aren’t we?” Lanek asked, feeling a bit defeated at the thought.
“Definitely. You do not have the numbers to force your way through and there is no way that you could cross stealthily enough to avoid their watchers.”
“Do you think I could sneak back to the battlefield once they’re done eating? They had weapons that my people could use.” Lanek stated.
“You could sneak back, but it wouldn’t be worth it. They would have taken the weapons back into their warrens after eating the corpses. If any were left behind, it was because they were broken and useless.”
“Dammit. We really need better weapons. I don’t suppose you know any places up here that I can loot some? I doubt they would still be standing, but any guidance would be appreciated.” Lanek said.
Isaac went silent for a moment, pondering the question. “I don’t know what you could find, but I can only think of two places that aren’t too far away. There was a small trading port to the northeast, but even if you stayed in the forest until you reached the coast and turned north, you would still be in the hills for a while before reaching it. Odds are, that is ratmen territory as well.”
“Yeah, that sounds a bit risky. I’ll do it if I have to. What about the other place?” Lanek asked.
“To the west there might be a small garrison. It’s further away than the trade port, but it will take less time to reach as you can take a direct path there rather than the indirect route needed to get to the port with the least amount of danger.”
“That sounds promising, but you said ‘might’, do you think it was destroyed?” Lanek said, his mind already planning a loot run.
“I’m sure it would have been destroyed, but I said might because I don’t know if it was ever constructed. It was a project being discussed by the Adventurer’s Guild as a place for the villages and mines in the Garad Hills to post quests and request help. It was essentially going to be a glorified guild hall with fortifications, room for the staff, and space for the adventurer’s to sleep and train between quests. The idea was that adventurers would be attracted to the place despite being in the middle of nowhere because there were numerous areas within a day or two of the proposed building spot that had high level monsters.”
“Really? Show me the way.” Lanek’s eyes were glinting at the possibilities such a building could be hiding.