C51-As If To Be A Squirrel_Omniscient [Monster tamer LitRPG]

The encroaching horde is literally, like, christ man it’s not even a tidal wave it’s a whole tsunami… I think I might’ve underestimated the amount of rats around here to begin with, cause I know I said a few dozen, maybe a few hundred, but I think I’m going to have to update that to a few hundred minimum.

Good experience, for sure, for sure! But what the hell is this?! I don’t even have the aoe to deal with this, I’m going to get ZERGED man!

First things first, Jasper is in absolutely no condition to swing right now, so-[Recall]-we’re getting her out of here, at least until she heals off the… what was it, ten damage?

227/237

The yes, ten damage, that [Song of Wrath] deals. Presumably she’ll also be well enough to fight afterwards, and I’m going to need her to do so because I’m going to need [Wild Hunt’s Call] at the ready.

Anywa-GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME!

Without even having really noticed it, the rats have crept up on me already. I’d imagine this to be a nightmare scenario for some. There’s like, a phobia for this right? Surging sea of furry little bodies coming up to bite the shit out of you? There’s gotta be a phobia for that.

Good thing I don’t have it!

Immediately backpedaling with my newly increased speed, I reach for the sword at my side, pulling it out and… I grab nothing.

Oh yeah, my sword’s broken… Well, these are like, normal sized rats so I guess it’s not that much of an issue? It’s not like I could just stab and stab and stab and keep stabbing, I’d get swarmed and overrun. That’s still a very valid concern and likely will end up happening in, give or take half a minute… so how am I going to go about not letting that happen?

“Hey Screech!”

Continuing to backpedal, I change directions before I slip back into one of the more narrow paths that filtered towards this clearing, instead hugging close to the wall in case I need to climb up to escape the horde.

…Why isn’t she responding?

“NOW IS NOT THE TIME! WHAT DID WE TALK ABOUT?”

“We talked about testing a theory why what is it?”

“Ffhhhhghhh-okay, alright, I’m unbothered. Here’s a theory for you, can you use your skills while transformed like this?”

“Oh yeah I figured that out ages ago I definitely can it’s not very difficult.”

“So then, would you mind?”

They are literally nipping at my heels and I find myself with almost no way to meaningfully attack these little furry bastards. At least not a way to do so without casting myself into the horde… at which point I would be quickly annihilated by at least three dozen in every direction swarming me.

Now that’s DEFINITELY a phobia. And I think I might have that one, cause for some reason the thought of being eaten alive isn’t a very fun one. Who’da thunk?

“Mind what?”

“...I don’t know-actually, you know what, you don’t take very well to sarcasm do you? I do KNOW what you can do, FIREBALL THEM!”

“Now why would I do that?”

“Because I’m GOING TO GET MURDERED-”

“No no no you misunderstand it’s not an issue of me not wanting to do it it’s just that while I’m transformed like this my intelligence stat is a lot lower because my stats have been pushed into strength and agility. As a result the spells that I could cast are a lot weaker than they would usually be so if you want me to do that then I’ll need to cancel this transformation first.”

“Oh, my fault.”

That was actually surprisingly to the point, eloquent, even.

I mean I’m still about to get murderized, but cool thanks for the explanation, really no beating around the bush just bang, there it is.

Alright…

Now what the hell am I supposed to do then???

These rats… these “Karst’s Scourge” are like, fast. Fast, fast. I think agility is the only thing they have leveled up to begin with.

Karst’s Scourge-LVL 5

And they’re also, all exactly level five. Well, maybe there are a few outliers, but I can’t tell and frankly, it’s giving me a headache to keep backpedaling while scanning a few hundred of them. I’m gonna use that mental power of mine to think up a plan here!

Right now, I’m just about keeping pace ahead of the crowd. I’m making turns and swivelling away and back towards the wall to avoid getting pincered or otherwise shmacked by the horde, and obviously staying well away from the center of this here clearing so I don’t get mauled. Of course there’s the occasional group of scourge that I actually can’t avoid, and need to dance around them, maybe take a hit or two, but given they deal 3! Or maybe 5! Damage at best, [Featherguard] isn’t at risk of being canceled. But speaking of [Featherguard], all of this is definitively made possible via its grace.

I think without it, I’d unironically get out-sped by level five monsters. Damn.

I’d run a [Tame] on one of them to check out what their stats and skills are since they all seem to be identical, but once again, can’t get in close to deal damage to weaken them in the first place without getting brutalized. On top of that, I can’t even be sure if brute forcing a tame would work on any of them like it worked on Jerry. No shade but he’s uh… he’s very “receptive” to force.

Anyways, anyways, back on track, these hordes are all well and good and not too much of an issue, and I haven’t even fallen below two thirds of my health yet, but as more and more of these groups well, group up, it becomes harder and harder to find places to break away from them. There are, like, at least enough to cover a whole third of this entire clearing? So the more that start chasing me, the worse it gets.

I give it… twenty, thirty seconds at best before I’m completely surrounded with nowhere to go? And it’d likely be difficult to escape given they’re all around fifty something agility in terms of speed… so I don’t think I have many options here…

So clearly, disregard all of that, just going to have to kill them as they come. Now, the question we must ask is; uh, how?

I can’t go in for a melee or I’ll get ripped to shreds by the hundred or so rats on my proverbial tail, Screech can’t blast them to hell with magic because she’s giving me a speed boost. Well, theoretically she could, it’d just be a lot weaker than it otherwise would… and… actually, why not give it a shot how much stamina does she have right now?

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

112/121

Oh, yeah, let’s go for it! Nothing to lose!

“I know you just said your magic would be weaker, but could you at least take a shot with a fireball and see where it leads? Anything is better than nothing right now.”

Jasper is also an option, but… her own presence of mind is just barely starting to flicker back to life right now. She’s still dazed, even being at full health. I get it, I really do, that [Song of Wrath] hits hard. And she probably has better hearing than I do, tis to be expected she’s a cat- …feline, not a house cat, and I’m human.

What I’m trying to say is, I’m not throwing her into the horde when she can barely count how many claws she has.

“Alright!”

“Oh and don’t use too much MP.”

“Oh. Okay!”

Ah, I was worried I was just gonna be a moment too late there, just like the other few times where I’ve tried to stop her from doing something but she ends up going through with it right before I’m able to tell her-”

“I uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh kind of already charged 57 MP into this fireball!”

“Bruh.”

She can… she can do that to begin with? Charge a theoretically infinite amount of MP into one attack? I mean, that’s good to know, but…

Resisting the urge to facepalm, I leap up into the air and latch onto a protruding rock from the wall at my side.

I get the feeling they’ll just jump up and bite at my ankles, or maybe World War Z themselves into a pile to me, but I’m a good… four, five feet off the ground? It’ll take them a second or two, hopefully a second that Screech uses properly! Twould be a real shame if I got got.

“Can you cancel your transformation and reorient your stats into intelligence before you fire the spell?”

“Uhhhhhhhhh I’m not actually sure I haven’t tried that before that’s actually a really interesting idea I’m gonna give that a go right no-”

“NEVERMIND! You’re taking too long just shoot the damn thing, let it rip!”

“Fiiiiiiiiiiiiine.”

At first, I really thought this was going to be… upsetting. Like, pitifully weak, for shame, why did you even bother if you knew it was going to be THIS trash. But… when those flames start to form, it’s genuinely a little intimidating.

Presumably, she has almost zero intelligence right now. I can’t imagine a bunch of feathers has much of a “brain” so to speak. If not for game logic, Screech probably wouldn’t even be conscious right now. So on that front, she also has basically no modifier affecting her spell power. Strength isn’t the be all end all for damage as evidenced by the difference between me and Jasper, but it is still important, very much so and very clearly.

Screech has a whole, almost seventy intelligence counting her [Seeker Of The Divine] passive.

Given how [Elemental Magic] says that intelligence just straight up replaces strength for the scaling of the attacks it produces… I have to assume the scaling is similar as well.

Now, take me and Jasper for example… An attack from me does like, thirty on a good day, with ten strength. Meanwhile Jasper with… twenty eight, deals around fifty, given that same “good day”.

A difference of a mere… eighteen… results in an extra twenty damage. Maybe the scaling falls off the more you get, but either way, that’s a pretty big difference for a… relatively small amount, so to say, provided scaling is similar… that’s a different of forty two… when compared to that twenty eight strength that Jasper have.

So, the amount of damage that Screech is losing, on this already literally spine-chilling attack given her intelligence is shot right now, is mind boggling.

And EVEN, STILL. This spell, charged with a whole 57 MP (and presumably she can use EVEN MORE), is enough to make me just about shit bricks at the sight of it! I have to imagine she wasn’t using anything close to this amount of MP when she was attacking me, so I have to wonder what gives there, but oh well…!

Oblivious to the attack that I feel, might be able to one shot me upon direct hit, the rats just continue to pile up. Placing themselves directly under the incoming nuclear bomb.

Their funeral I guess.

Without a word, Screech launches the projectile. So, I’ll fill in for her!

“Here comes the sun~ Doododoodo-”

114!

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108!

10-

Holy shit-

+7 exp!

+7 ex-

C51-As If To Be A Squirrel

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