"Come, come. To surface!"

Rex gestured for us to follow him as he started walking back into the tunnel we had just come from. On one hand, that very much looked like a trap. When we passed through that area, there was no side entrance or anything that could possibly help us get back to the surface. But on the other hand, it wasn't as if we had much of a choice. And having to fight against a group of rats could be a good idea. At least we would be done with that instead of just struggling with the decision of fighting or not.

Astrid waited for me, but the idea of following that giant rat person clearly didn't bother her. Or at least she felt he was inoffensive enough. Frederick, well, the kid looked like his own shadow was scaring him, so his opinion would be far from not being biased.

What the Frosted Lumberjack said echoed in my mind before I started to move. 'What other choice do we have?' And that was a fair question. We were stuck here and was very little recourse about what we could do. Our options were either stay still for a long time or risk going somewhere random. With someone to guide us, at least we were not going in blind.

After making my peace with that, I started following Rex, dragging Frederick along. Even if I didn't think the rat was going to hurt, I made sure to keep the boy behind me. Just in case. I didn't like it this situation. It was too weird to put my life in the hands of what was, by all accounts, a monster. He might be able to talk, but that didn't change the fact he was still a giant rat.

Still, we followed him. Walking up the tunnel that we took getting closer and closer to the area where I had set up that lock with the boulder, but he stopped some more before and waved his hands towards the ceiling. A large piece of rock shifted to the side very slowly as the red monster grabbed the air and dragged it to the side. After almost a minute, he stopped, revealing a considerably large tunnel that was maybe 2 meters [6.6ft] by 2 meters [6.6ft]. Rex was gasping and sweat was dripping from his brow, which he cleaned up using the back of his leather sleeves. It was hard to call that the sleeve when it was more a rag than anything else.

"Ok. Follow me," he said as he jumped into the hole and started to screw up towards nowhere.

Before I started moving again, Astrid turned and asked, "No offense, but do you think you can fit?"

The Frosted Lumberjack frowned and approached the hole before passing it out. "Tight. But doable," she said and turned back to me.

"Then go first. Frederick goes in the middle and I will take up the rear."

Astrid then jumped into the hole, quickly following our rat guide. I had to almost push the kid that we came to save into the tunnel since it became very quickly clear he did not like this idea. I couldn't blame him, but at the same time we couldn't just leave him behind and come back later. Splitting the group was never a good idea.

The tunnel was tighter than I was expecting. Even for me, which only made it weirder to consider how Astrid was able to traverse it without getting stuck anywhere. Then again, her body status was higher than mine and she had a couple of skills that improved her physical abilities. Maybe she was just forcing her way through, leaving Frederick and me to deal with the repercussions of whatever she was doing.

There was no light in this small tunnel and nothing to help us keep track of how far we had gotten. The only thing that you could tell was that we were encased in rocks, moving at the steady face forward. The only sounds were heavy grunting caused by our strain, in addition to the constant skittering coming from Rex. It was not a pleasant experience by any stretch of the imagination and the more we climbed, the worst it got. Frederick was also clearly having some problems, as I could hear him starting to hyperventilate.

Yet, after just around 10 minutes, which felt like the longest 10 minutes of my life, we saw some light up above Rex moving around and calling all to Astrid. Heading up for just a few moments, Frederick jumped out of the tunnel and started mumbling something while kissing the ground. I could understand how bad being stuck in a tunnel was, but that looked like a bit too much. Maybe the kid was not as mature as I thought.

"Good, good. All safe. Move. Need close hole," Rex said.

"Are we doing that so they will not find us?" I asked the giant rat. It seemed very counter intuitive since the opening we used was still there for anyone to see.

Rex just stared at me for a moment. "No. Hole on ground, if open, people trip. Why hide tunnel?" The giant rat scratched his head with the confused look.

"Enemies might follow," Astrid replied.

Rex paused, thinking for a moment before nodding. "True. True. Human wise."

The Frosted Lumberjack smiled. "Call me Astrid."

Rex gave a big smile and put out a hand for Astrid to shake. She did so, being careful not to hurt the Rodenti while I activated the System to tell me a bit more about this rat man in front of us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rexeuska - Rodenti - Tier 1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I was slightly surprised the creature was just tier one. Maybe had just got them to an adult age? But then again, the other we found was also around the same level. It was very hard to gauge the power of those creatures with just two samples.

Rex turned towards me, that big smile still plastered across his face. "Glad to help. Now with friends." He put out a hand for me to shake, which I did while saying thank you for the help.

"I am Cassandra. But I'm sorry. I don't know if I would call us friends. Not yet."

He paused and believed me slowly but said, "You say name. I say name. We are friends now."

"Is that how that works for the Rodenti? If you tell your name to someone and they tell them theirs, you become friends?"

"Yes, yes. If they tell. Someone else, no friend."

I nodded. "That is an interesting way to interact."

Rex turned to Frederick with expecting eyes and I just told the kid, "Go on, introduce yourself."

The boy asked, "I don't want to be friends with a rat!" he protested, making me shake my head.

Even if I could understand where he was coming from, we were still being helped by the creature. Antagonizing, it was the last thing we should be doing especially since it seemed to put so much value on being friends. Which was understandable in the human sense, but this still felt awkward.

"I'm sorry about that, Rex. This is Frederick."

Rex shook his head. "Ok. Not everyone wants friend. Rex used to that. Two new friends already make Rex happy."

The Rodenti started closing the passage that we just took, and once again that took some time and effort, but there was nothing we could do to help. During that period, I asked the System if it could confirm if Rex was truly using a skill or not.

[System is unable to confirm the presence of particles in the current area without user touching the minerals being affected. Likely, Rexeuska is utilizing a skill in order to perform this text.]

'But can you confirm if he does have the System?' I asked making sure not to speak out loud.

[Yes. Being know as Rexeuska is currently possession of a System and according to information acquired by the remaining particles on the tunnel System can confirm that Rexeuska has full access to System abilities.]

'Which also means the rest of the Rodenti should have access to it too, right?'

[That is a likely possibility. Although it is not a guarantee as not all humans have access to the System.]

'Yeah, but Rex came from a rat. And their evolution happened very quickly. The only thing that could be able to do something like that would be the System. Unless they are actually aliens and, in that case, that is a whole different can of worms.'

[Does user find the possibility of the Rodenti existing in the old world impossible?]

I nodded, realizing too late that it was irrelevant to the System.

'Yes. Pops told me about the old world and how people used to live everywhere. Considering how many people were existed back there, I doubt a civilization like this somewhere hiding. Which means that they only became who they are now in the past few decades. And by evolution standards, that is way too fast. Maybe I could understand if they had just became bipedal. But they are capable not just of conscient thoughts but also language, not to mention the buildings they created here. It feels very much like a stretch. As if there was something else at play.'

[After considering users statement System must agree. It is highly unlikely that the Rodenti existed in the old world, at least in their current form. However System is unable to tell why they were dancing were able to evolve so quickly.]

Before I could continue the conversation, Rex finished closing the tunnel and turned to me with a smile. Sweat still dripping from his brown forehead.

"We go now, yes?" I smiled at that but sounds of skittering started to approach making us stop any other plan.

I glanced at my rat guide and whispered, "What do we do? Do we hide?"

"Cannot hide. No place."

"Then what?"

A group of Rodenti came rushing down the hallway. There were four of them and every single one was wearing some combat ready armor. It was made of leather with a few pieces of wood here there, just to cover the more exposed areas together with some spider carapace to give it not just a bit more protection but also a more intimidating look. Although there was one of them in particular who was very strange as the legs into wrap around its chest almost like it was trying to create boobs which just did not make sense considering that rats had nipples along their body not just on their chest.

"Rex? Why you here? Why you with meat?"

"I take it you are not with them," I whispered to the rat.

Rex shook his head. "We not kin."

Turning back to the rats, I asked the System to tell me who they were. Three of them were also a tier 1, but only one was a at tier 1 and also saturated. Meaning it was at least at level 10.

"I don't think we can talk away out of this. And if they call for help, we are in trouble," I told Rex, who nodded.

"Only call if alive."

Figuring out this was the best confirmation was going to get, I jumped at one of the three weaker creatures. Triggering {Formless Ice Devil Lunge} to make sure I could either finish them off quickly or damage them enough to knock them out of the fight. The particles that formed around my staff slashed at the rat's leg just as I spun my body to the side, slamming the other end of my weapon its face, knocking the creature out cold.

Astrid was just a step behind me, going for a shoulder charge on the weakest one at the opposite end of the tunnel. For a moment, I thought Rex was not going to help. Which honestly, I could not even blame him because of that. But suddenly a rock came flying from the back and slammed on the face of the third weakest Rodenti. The impact destroyed one of its eyes, but before he could say anything, another piece, a more jagged and pointy stone, pierced its throat, killing the rat instantly.

I glanced back, only to see a few more rocks rising from the ground around Rex, who was about to fire them at the last enemy. The one that was saturated. But before any of us could do anything, the strongest of the rats roared and slammed his spear on the ground. From the tip where there was a giant spider mandible, some white thread unraveled and blocked the entire corridor separating us from him. Just after that there was a loud screech coming from the other side, which made Rex's eyes go white for a moment before returning to its regular brown color.

"We ran. Now," Rex's voice was full of urgency and fear.

"What? What was that?" I asked.

"That warning. Call help. Lost more coming."