The following story is actually part two of an ongoing series (or maybe part three? It's a little vague). The first part is the aforementioned Rodentia Adventures, with the maybe second part being Rodentia Journeys. The confusion lies in the fact that RJ was originally intended to be purely a side story which took place within the same world, even if it did sneak one kind of crucial piece of lore in there, right at the end. The quality of the story isn't quite there, either. As this story, Rodentia Wars was written, however, it ended up having more and more little connections to that one, and here we are.
Anyways, this here will be a general summary for those people who stumbled onto this one but have no desire to spend their precious, finite time on earth reading an extra thousand plus pages about talking mice who fight with plastic swords. It should go without saying that there will be massive spoilers for the previous works, and anyone interesting in potentially reading them in the future should probably skip this chapter. Much of this story is fairly stand-alone, anyways, involving mostly new characters and written in a way that knowledge of the other works shouldn't be too necessary. Still, there are surely no shortage of things in this work which will make little sense to those who haven't read the other stories, not to mention a few things which will still make little sense to those who have. These are surely due to details which will be fleshed out through future works, and not at all related to the fact that I've been largely improvising this whole thing as I go. Oh, this will also be somewhat long because I want to give a clear summation of the major events of both works, I want to mention anything which could potentially pay off later, and also due to the fact that I doubt that I could write a grocery list that was under three thousand words.
Anyways...
LAST TIME ON RODENTIA ADVENTURES:
The story begins with a lone mouse girl, lost in a series of dark, underground tunnels. After a long and difficult trek, during which she overcomes a number of dangers, both real and imagined, she finds herself inside of a human kitchen where she collects a bunch of crumbs from the floor, which act as both food and a currency back home. In the process she also loses her reflection for some reason, but finds the object of her search: A pincushion set on a table from which she takes a single sewing needle from, convinced that the eye of it is a handle designed specifically to be held by mice, and that it therefore must be a powerful, magical weapon designed to destroy evil. And then she goes home.
Once there, an argument breaks out with her family over whether or not it's safe for a mouse of her somewhat vague age to go out and risk her life fighting. Being the protagonist, she, of course, wins the argument and embarks on her grand quest, without ever explaining what exactly said grand quest entails. Her older brother, an experienced adventurer and general source of negativity insists on joining her, in order to keep her from dying for at least a few minutes.
From here there's some general city description and world-building, the city itself existing under a large, rusted out abandoned truck, and largely made out of garbage. The mice call the humans "Makers" since they, well, make things, seeing them as rather mysterious, Godlike beings which they seek to emulate. Meanwhile, back at the actual plot, Jerin and Aaron (yes that's their names) take a trip to the general store to supply themselves and maybe threaten the owner over having sold Jerin a bad map. That doesn't happen, however. Instead they encounter a one-eyed and very well dressed mouse who is incredibly interested in Jerin's sword, and tries to take it from her. A battle breaks out, Jerin contributing little as she'd never fought with the new weapon before, and her older brother having his own difficulties with trying to navigate the densely packed store shelves to wield his large hammer. In the end, Aaron destroys a building support, pulls Jerin from the structure while she engages in some last second shoplifting, and leaves their attacker to be crushed underneath the rubble, where he dies but not really.
The siblings flee the scene of the crime, talk for a long time, have a quick training session, and then talk some more. There's some more world building involving a mouse cult which worships something called the 'Starman', which promises to pay off eventually, and the pair encounter Mathias, the thief. By encounter, of course, I mean that Jerin is unknowingly robbed by him, only for him to give her money back as he finds himself smitten by love at first sight, overwhelmed by her mighty protagonist charms. Jerin insists that he join them, Aaron dislikes the idea, since he dislikes most ideas, and the thief happily agrees, without having any idea of what he's actually joining them on.
From here there is a flashback to Jerin's family when she was younger, living in a small outdoor village, which is attacked by a black cat that demonstrates bizarre and terrible powers, for some reason. A younger Aaron tries to protect his sister but is effortlessly defeated, severely injuring his shoulder in the process, and Jerin ends up with her tail severed, needing a fake tail made of multicolored yarn which she now wears. The village is entirely destroyed and most of the mice are killed, but the creature, the dark lord, Midnight, chooses to spare the two wounded siblings on a whim. He's also not the only 'dark lord'. There are a lot of them. Basically, it's a title denoted to anything big and scary that kills mice. Well, aside from humans, of course, who have their own title.
After learning about the actual quest, to challenge and destroy Midnight, Mathias happily joins in on the suicide mission, only to learn that neither she nor her brother have any idea of where the black cat can even be found. The thief suspects that his great grandfather, an expert on dark lords and general mystical matters might know, and so the three travel to the lower levels of the university. Once there, another pointless action scene breaks out, as spiders have seized control of the deeper chambers, giving Jerin the chance to grow a little so that she doesn't just suddenly become skilled at fighting out of no where. The battle is won, the spiders driven off and the three meet Rowan, an ancient and mildly confused sorcerer, who doesn't know where Midnight is, but sends them on yet another side-quest to potentially find out. Jerin also uses her natural protagonist powers to convince him to join them, and now, with a strength based member, a dexterity based member, an intelligence based member and an all-rounder, the adventuring group is finally complete.
From here, the perspective cuts to a group of three dark lords, watching the group through a magical, shimmering gateway, and saying general villain things. One of these cats is revealed to be Midnight himself, despite the fact that there is a bit of an ongoing mystery among the heroes as to whether or not the cat still lives nearby or is even still alive, rendering that subplot entirely pointless before it has even begun.
After another four hundred pages or so of arguing and general world-building, the group finally leaves the city. Jerin suffers from some minor agoraphobia, but gets over it quickly. Mathias is revealed to have minor psychic powers, for some reason, namely glimpses of the future, a detail which will probably pay off eventually, but certainly no time soon. On the journey, the group get heckled by some birds which offer some vague foreshadowing, before they finally reach their goal: A dark lord, presumably much less violent than Midnight, who Jerin meets, alone, seeking his wisdom.
After some vaguely philosophical ramblings about the immutable nature of time, the old canine finally tells her something that is actually relevant to the plot: That he sees the future, all of it, and knows, for a fact, that she will ultimately fail in her goal to defeat Midnight. Jerin refuses to accept this and leaves, having learned virtually nothing. The three then return to the city, staying at an inn, despite the fact that they all have their own homes, Jerin has another brief training session, her mood improved from the previous day, and everyone talks again for a while.
The dog did give a vague hint that they should visit the local tavern, which they do, because as everyone knows, that tends to be where adventures happen. Instead they encounter four trouble-makers, three unknown, one familiar: Smirk, the mouse who had attacked Jerin and her brother in the general store, and had miraculously survived the destruction of the building which had failed to hurt either of them. He still wants the sword, Jerin wants revenge against him, and the tavern owner wants the whole group gone, so as a compromise, both groups head to the designated brawling area and break off into their own fights.
Aaron finds himself outmaneuvered and outclassed by Theos Facepuncher, a large unarmed mouse. Mathias gets into a trash-talking fight with Johanas the Chopper, Rowan finds himself in a logical debate with Myriandas, the Divider, and Jerin faces off with Smirk, who is also revealed to be Rowan's former apprentice. Aaron ends up being beaten, not able to keep up with the surprisingly quick opponent with his large hammer, and Jerin narrowly squeaks out a victory (no pun intended... because, you know, mice squeak), earning herself a stylish pair of pants which she looted from the foe that she had killed but not really. Oh, and Mathias and Rowan won, too, sort of. Despite winning himself, Theos considers the battle lost, takes his allies and leaves, surely never to return to the story again, despite being named characters and therefore obviously important.
With another pointless action sequence out of the way, the group finds themselves no closer to their goal, until a random bar patron just happens to hand them a map leading to their desired destination. Aaron is, of course, skeptical, as he is of everything, and usually rightfully so, but with no other leads, they decide to follow it. To get there, they need to cross the flats, basically just a road, which is both full of dangerous cars, and offers no possibility for stealth, and would leave them dangerously exposed. They decide to go the sewer route, instead.
There, they encounter a clan of zombie mice which exist for vaguely explained reasons. First, it seems that they're nice, but not really. Then it seems that they're evil, but not really. In the end, they're revealed to be nice again, wanting the living mice to also become immortals and join them. Seeing as how the characters all becoming immortal would completely break the story, they instead refuse, continuing on their way.
Their ultimate destination is a human house, which they believe to be the lair of Midnight. After finally getting inside, they quickly realize that it is not, instead being the home to Seraphim, a white cat who commands the 'holy' element. Mathias tries to talk their way out of a fight, but of course, fails, and a convoluted battle involving a lot of lasers and singing breaks out. It's fun in concept, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. While completely outclassed, the heroes still sort of win, or at least don't die, when the overconfident dark lord accidentally defeats and traps herself. Once again, the heroes learn nothing, and are forced to return to the city.
Once they get back, they are greeted as heroes by the local populace, who have all, somehow, learned that the four had managed to defeat a dark lord. Jerin is unhappy that it wasn't Midnight, but after some more talking, it's decided that they should be content with their victory. From here, the head of the local adventurers guild tells them that they have earned enough experience points for a class promotion, with Aaron becoming a Marauder, Jerin becoming a Paladin, Mathias, eventually, becoming a Dark Knight and Rowan choosing to remain a general sorcerer, not wishing to further specialize. The group briefly splits up, with Aaron and Mathias sort of working out their differences, Jerin and Rowan having an overly long conversation, and finally, all four learning that the king of the kingdom has summoned them to his castle.
Upon meeting the good king Deathlocke Soulcrusher, he asks for her sword, intending for his metal-workers to create more of them, but Jerin refuses, insisting that she still requires it, but saying that she will consider giving it up once her journey is done. Much to the parties surprise, he agrees, seemingly fine with it, and after a little more exposition is shared, the group again departs. Once they do, it is revealed that Smirk has been working for the king this entire time.
They have bigger problems, however. Just as they are leaving the castle, the entire city is shaken as the heavy gates protecting it are ripped away. Another dark lord, Fury, seemingly avenging the defeat of Seraphim attacks the city, and none of its guards or defenses prove even close to a match for the powerful feline. Jerin and her allies rush to confront him, and she manages to sort of bluff her way into convincing him that they can't fight here. He agrees, telling them to come to the car-yards, where they can settle the fight once and for all, before departing.
With a sizable portion of the city in ruins, and no shortage of wounded, the group has no choice but to go after the cat, knowing that if they don't, the creature will surely return to finish the job, killing who knows how many innocent mice in the process. While feeling guilty and badly shaken, Jerin and the rest travel through an underground tunnel, in the process finding a treasure chest full of loot which doesn't have much impact on anything, but does further flesh out the world slightly, and helps to elevate Jerin's spirits.
They finally reach a junkyard full of old cars, more talking follows, before finally confronting Fury himself. Mathias tries to talk their way out of the fight which, of course, fails, and the battle begins. While nowhere near as flashy or demonstrating the strange powers that Midnight or Seraphim had, the cat makes up for it by being seemingly impervious to damage. Aaron tricks it into letting him land a critical hit against the cat's eye, which does nothing. Rowan conjures a spirit bomb which does nothing. Jerin repeatedly stabs it, which does nothing. Eventually, the cat gets bored and lets out a roar, sending everyone flying, causing Jerin to drop her needle sword which a heavy paw stomps into the ground. Unable to retrieve it, and left largely unarmed, face to face with the invincible dark lord, Jerin is forced to flee, the cat giving chase.
Mathias gets a glimpse of the future, utilizing it to try to bury the cat under a pile of cars which works until it doesn't, and in the end, an exhausted Jerin armed only with a plastic dagger is forced to face down the dark lord, Fury, alone. This goes poorly, as a single claw-swipe destroys her shield (oh, she also had a shield all this time, but it didn't really matter), and sends her tumbling into the road where, at the last possible moment, she finds herself saved by a case of truck-ex-machina, and Fury is killed, but not really.
With another sort-of victory under their belts, the injured group reconvenes, and Jerin goes back to retrieve her sword, only to find the black cat, Midnight, waiting for them. He says some more villain stuff, but of course doesn't kill them yet, because if he did, there would be no more story, instead taunting them a little, and vowing that they would die at a place and time of his choosing before teleporting away. With all of them injured and exhausted, and Jerin's sword severely damaged in the fight with Fury, they return to the city, knowing that they'll need to ready themselves for the final battle as quickly as possible. On returning, their legend grows further due to their victory, and upon deciding that they need to repair the sword as quickly as possible, they petition the king for aid, having learned that he employs many skilled metal-workers.
Then, in a shocking plot twist, king Deathlocke Soulcrusher is revealed to have been a bad guy all along. When Jerin refuses to give up her sword, somehow sensing that he is untrustworthy, she finds herself attacked by his guards and isolated from the rest of her allies. Exhausted, outnumbered and without a proper weapon to fight with, she is ultimately defeated by the court magician, Smirk, and arrested. As this happens, the rest of her group mysteriously disappears.
Aaron and the others had found themselves rescued by Theos and his two allies, who, after a long exposition dump, reveal their true identities. Theos is the rightful king, with Johanas and Myriandas being the royal chef and accountant, respectively. It just so happened that the betrayal of the heroes occurred right at the same time that the deposed king had planned to reclaim his throne, having been previously distracted by drinking and brawling in taverns. Aaron is mad about having to leave his sister behind, but in the end accepts that they were too badly outnumbered and that there was nothing that they could have done. Him, Mathias, Rowan and his new allies, now having escaped through a secret passage, now find themselves outside of the city walls, needing to sneak back inside, despite all of them now being wanted fugitives.
Meanwhile, the now captive Jerin has a discussion with the king, trying to figure out why he did what he did. The king proves to be fairly reasonable, ultimately wishing to join forces with the girl, in the form of a political marriage. While not opposed to the idea of marriage, Jerin does dislike the idea of being a queen when she, instead, always wanted to be a princess. This ends up being an irreconcilable difference, leading to the end of the negotiations.
The frustrated king leaves Jerin in Smirk's custody who, naturally, decides to just kill her. Not in a sensible or practical way, of course, instead going with the slow and ironic method that is full of potential failure points which villains are known to love. She is taken to the newly discovered lair of a dark lord, and left as a sacrifice. For absolutely no reason beyond pure plot contrivance, this just so happens to be the home of Midnight and his owner. There is a brief confrontation, but being weak and demoralized without her sword or allies, Jerin gives up, refusing to even try to fight, accepting her fate. Midnight, in turn, decides that she isn't even worth killing, letting her go. Only there is nowhere to go to. The owner of the cat has returned, and the blindfolded Jerin had no idea where she had entered from. As a result she is discovered by the human, trapped under a glass, and eventually dumped into a hamster cage, minus the actual hamster, of course.
The human owner is something of an animal lover, much to the annoyance of Midnight, deciding to keep the tail-less mouse as a pet. As for Jerin, she thinks it's pretty great. There's free food, clean water, an exercise wheel, all sorts of fun wood shavings, and she can poop wherever she wants. Still, she can't just abandon her friends who are in trouble. After somehow convincing herself that the cage is actually a sort of divine training ground, she vows to become stronger, spending the next few hours grinding for experience levels through exercise. In the process, she and Midnight also connect, learning that he really has nothing against mice, and is, instead, just bored and seeking a little bit of excitement. While not the most satisfying explanation, every mouse dreams of having a cat for a best friend, and therefore, Jerin is quick to forgive him.
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Back to the rest of the group, they find the city walls impregnable, with all of the obvious entrances heavily guarded. After some more talking (seriously, this summary doesn't give justice to exactly how much talking the story has), Mathias summons a clan of vampires, which are both apparently a thing and is also, apparently, something that he can do, which fly the group over the walls, to the base of tall tower within the city where they suspect that Jerin is being held. Theos and his allies distract the guards, while Aaron, Mathias and Rowan rush to the top, to find Jerin, but not really, held prisoner there.
This is quickly revealed to actually be Smirk, under a magical disguise, which is apparently something that he can do. More plot is revealed, including the goal of the king, to summon and harness the power of a dark lord, which he had required the needle for. Having extracted the magical energies from it, the king gave the still powerful weapon to Smirk who intends to use it to destroy the three warriors. Another fight breaks out, with Smirk's previously weak magics now dramatically enhanced by the sword, quickly dispatching Mathias and Rowan, leading to a one-on-one fight between himself and Aaron. It goes poorly for him. Despite not being the protagonist and therefore not being allowed to actually win any fights, Aaron is a skilled warrior, overwhelming the physically weaker magic user. It's only when the older brother is forced to protect the downed pair of allies that he accidentally lets his guard down and ends up getting stabbed by the needle.
All this time, Jerin has used her persuasive protagonist powers to convince Midnight to help her, and he agrees, on the condition that they can get her back to the cage before his owner returns from work. The cat effortlessly jumps over the wall of the city, and seeing the magical energies flying from the top of the tower, Jerin figures out that's where her friends are, effortlessly dispatches the many guards, runs straight up the wall of it, leaps and slams her new sword, a half of a broken pair of scissors, down towards Smirk just as he was about the finish Aaron off, destroying half of the tower in the process. Clearly completely outclassed, Smirk doesn't even try to fight her, promptly giving up, much to her annoyance. On the bright side, she does get her needle sword back, along with his snazzy red outfit. Already having a much bigger, and therefore better sword which she can somehow wield despite being gigantic, she gives the needle to Mathias, who had previously lost his weapon when it was destroyed in the battle with Fury.
Then, upon seeing the non-lethal wound on her brothers shoulder, she promptly faints, her previously foreshadowed deathly fear of blood finally revealed after all this time. She quickly recovers and everyone is brought up to speed, as she learns about Theos and the others, her allies learn, sort of, about her reconciliation with Midnight, and everyone learns about the reckless plans of the current king which they need to put a stop to.
They all rush to face the heavily guarded king Leon (his true name), with Jerin effortlessly defeating the many armored guards, using the flat of her blade to not harm them, and partially succeeding. None of them end up cut, and none of them die, so therefore they must all be fine, after all. Johanas and Myriandas are also forced to stay behind as a distraction, buying the characters that actually matter some time. Upon finally confronting the king in a secret ritual space behind the castle, they're kind of thrown off by the fact that the king seems to sort of have the moral high ground in this situation, and have trouble arguing their own case. That's when it is, of course, revealed that the ritual has already been completed, and the king summons the dark overlord, Ahnymah Ex Mortis into this world.
A great, black raven appears, shrouded in dark energies, which scares Midnight so much that he flees in terror, leaving the mice to their own devices. After pulling everyone into a shadowy boss arena, despite being incredibly respectful and not going into a megalomaniacal rant, the overlord promptly betrays their summoner, because they're just that evil. Theos rushes in to save his younger brother from certain death (oh yeah, I think I forgot to mention that they were brothers), only for a great chasm to appear underneath them, swallowing them up, leaving the characters that actually matter on their own to face the final battle. Mathias, of course, tries to talk their way out of it, but, of course, it doesn't work.
There are a lot of lasers, but thankfully no singing this time. Jerin gives a big speech about friendship and believing in yourself or something, her three allies get trapped, freed and trapped again, she regains her reflection for some reason, she sort of overcomes her fear of blood, and just when things start looking good for them, her scissor sword is broken in half by one of the aforementioned lasers, partially melting the metal and badly burning her paws. With none of the heroes able to fight, all that they can do is accept their fates. That's when Theos, for some reason, returns, now finding himself standing directly on top of the dark overlord. As even the most powerful magic users can tell you, it's pretty bad news for them to have a melee fighter right up in their face, as Ahnymah Ex Mortis quickly finds themselves repeatedly stun-locked and pummeled, dying but not really.
The day is won, either way, as the mice, including the wounded king Leon all return to their realm. Theos declares himself the new king, and none of the nearby citizens disagree. That's when a wounded messenger arrives, warning that the shadow king, Mollenoch and his army of cyber mice are marching (well, not literally, as it turns out) on the kingdom. This was all foreshadowed earlier, but not mentioned in the summary, because it's way too long as it is. With most of the guards crippled by severe head injuries, and Theos himself stuck filling out government paperwork, the citizens implore Jerin, the great hero, to fight to protect them. She immediately refuses.
It turns out that adventuring is hard work. Her feet are sore, she still hasn't quite recovered from her injuries from the battle with Fury, the villains are a bit underdeveloped, and that generally, adventuring is highly overrated. She misses her mom and dad, and decides to go home. When asked what will be done about the shadow king, she says that someone else can handle it, like that guy, picking a random face from the crowd. The citizens promptly declare the confused farmer that she pointed to, to be the new great hero, as Jerin and her friends walk away.
Aaron ends up becoming the new captain of the guards. Rowan decides to go off and spend the remainder of his days alongside the aged and wise undead mice. Mathias goes off on his own quest to purify the needle blade, which was, apparently, corrupted when it first tasted blood after stabbing Aaron. King Leon goes to watch a puppet show, Ahnymah Ex Mortis is revealed to be the daughter of the sinister Frank and Edna Ex Mortis who are endlessly disappointed with their directionless, slacker kid, the Starman is sort of revealed to be an actual thing, and despite being an obvious "here we go again!" type ending, the thoroughly unnecessary sequel is set up. Oh, also Aaron is apparently actually a prince, Mathias' pet fly who has thus far gone unmentioned in the summary becomes the worlds first true immortal, Fury gets adopted by Midnight's owner and the sacred tome that the mouse city has based their entire world upon is revealed to actually be a 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons book.
Which takes us to...
LAST TIME ON RODENTIA JOURNEYS:
This one should be a bit shorter. It's one week after Jerin's final battle, and it begins with a new fight. This fight, however, has blood and death so that's how you know that this is a serious and mature story for grown-ups. Since Jerin's battles with the dark lords, the confidence and equipment of the mice has improved, to the extent where they are actively fighting the creatures more often. It still often goes poorly for them, such as in this case, where a heavily armed band find themselves completely cut to pieces, unable to lay so much as a finger on a mysterious dark lord which has no clear face and lacks a shadow.
There is one survivor, however, an older, naked mouse woman (you know, just to give the male readers something to fantasize about), the designated healer who was stocked with their recovery potions, frozen in fear. The creature senses something interesting in her, and rather than simply cutting her down, it instead pierces her right between the eyes with a claw, killing her but not really. She awakens all alone, surrounded by her dead comrades and returns to her village, only to find that once she arrives, nobody remembers who she is, and stranger still, she somehow can't remember her own name, although nothing else is forgotten to her. Worse, they all see her as some sort of strange monster, driving her from their midst.
She flees, and only on seeing her reflection in a puddle does she notice that her eyes are now similar to those of a cat, the flesh between them dried and darkened. She sees three other objects as well, blinding pillars of colored light, and having no idea where else to go, she randomly follows one of them. This takes her further outside of the human city, to the outskirts where she eventually reaches the mouse kingdom. There she meets the head of the adventurers guild, Helena, someone who from the beginning of the first story was clearly meant to be a significant and recurring character, along with a well geared knight known as Frederich.
Upon learning of the curse mark, partial amnesia and a few other relevant factors, the adventurers guild head proudly declares that the woman is eligible for the super rare 'Protagonist' class. Upon hearing that one benefit that it offers is a massive experience buff to her allies, Frederich, a wannabe hero himself, is eager to join alongside her. There's then some more general nonsense about how the experience system works and a little more world-building before the reluctant woman finally agrees, mostly in exchange for some food.
Having forgotten her own name, she first decides to go with 'X' before deciding that that was too stupid and edgy even for her, finally settling on 'K' or 'Kay', more specifically. With her stomach filled, despite wanting to ditch the tag-along warrior, she can't deny that she owes him a debt, and also does find herself strangely driven to find the source of those strange towers of light. This can only lead to one thing: A shopping trip! Frederich takes him to the local blacksmith, who is revealed to be Jerin who needed a new job after retiring from the whole 'hero' business at the end of the last book.
After finding a delightfully stupid, overcomplicated anime-weapon that proves to be way out of their price-range, they are approached by Mia, a shy young sorceress who offers to buy it for them, in exchange for taking her along on their quest, whatever it might be. They are both skeptical, Frederich assuming that she just wants easy experience points, too, but in the end she reveals that she is, instead, eager to learn more about dark lords, recognizing that Kay's mark must have come from one. There's more exposition, namely revealing the general premise that there are said to be three powerful artifacts which, if brought together, will grant all of your wishes. From there, theres some general conversation, along with a quick training dungeon before the journey finally begins.
After a long walk they find themselves at the first pillar, a hardware store at the end of a strip-mall, filled with humans. Frederich laments the fact that their first real dungeon ends up being a stealth mission, and after taking a very long time figuring out how to get inside, they search for the artifact. Mia is excitedly chattering as they go, fascinated by all the human tools and devices about, while the others try to stay silent. Finally they find it, a brightly colored glowing key sitting on a human's desk. After some more stealth, a quick distraction, getting caught, escaping and a final chase to freedom, they have the first key within their grasp.
Kay finds herself suddenly able to see names and experience levels, which results in more general banter. The key also seems to draw fiends, or insects, which the group are forced to constantly deal with as a form of random encounters, quickly wearing on their nerves. Eventually they reach the second pillar, learning a little more about one another in the process. Mia is revealed to actually be secretly running from an arranged marriage, but insists that it's only temporary, and that she fully intends to return. Frederich talks about why he wants to become a famous hero, and Kay is her usual quiet, somewhat angsty self.
The next pillar leads to a water processing plant which is much larger but mercifully less populated with humans. After navigating the massive, labyrinthian hallways, they reach another office, an empty one, only to find that the key is missing. Some quick searching later reveals that it was taken underground where the party follows. There they encounter a not entirely unfriendly group of rats who tell them that the relic that they seek was most likely claimed by the dreaded rat king. Upon further exploration they eventually do encounter said king, but with both parties demanding both of the artifacts. Both sides agree to disagree, instead deciding to resolve the matter through violence.
The king himself is revealed to not be a single rat, rather a conglomeration of many, fused together by their tails. While heavily armed, the entity lacked cohesion, ultimately defeated by their lack of mobility, not to mention a conveniently timed workers revolt. After a hard fought battle, with both the heroes and the reader learning much more than they cared to about the sexual proclivities of the rats, they begin their quest for the final artifact.
Despite their recent successes, Kay grows increasingly irritable, as the curse continues to spread, eating away at her, no longer allowing her to sleep and causing constant pain. Some unwelcome prodding from Frederich makes her finally tell them about herself, namely the large family that she used to have, her husband and each child dying from sudden unexpected tragedies. After a little time apart, things cool down and Frederich suggests that they use the wishes to bring back her family. Kay was quite skeptical of this whole wish business from the beginning, and largely, but not entirely, dismisses the idea.
The final pillar leads them deeper into the human city, a place that Kay is very much at home in, but Frederich and Mia are not. There they find a veterinarian office filled with sick and injured animals, a large portion of which are suffering from tiny bullet wounds. They are all caged, with no humans in sight, the final key seemingly unguarded. Once claimed, Kay collapses, overcome by pain, the intense light of a final pillar filling her eyes. That's when one of the patients breaks free, a recently operated on cat, drugged, confused and incredibly hungry. Mia launches an impressive array of spells at it, ending with crushing it beneath a rain of magical meteors. Between the unusual strength of the creature, the fact that it no longer feels pain, and the natural health regeneration buff of the animal hospital, it quickly recovers from its injuries, leaving Mia also incapacitated, entirely drained of mana.
With Frederich the only one left standing, he takes on the cat. An experienced fighter, he does well, but is ultimately outclassed. All this time Kay wallows in her own frustrations over her current useless state and the unfairness of the entire situation, before trying to fully embrace the power of her curse. It works, as she effortlessly defeats the sick feline, but loses control in the process, mostly because that's the sort of thing that happens in these cursed powers type stories. After seemingly killing the cat, she then turns on Frederich, who is only saved by Mia's healing magic as she expends the little bit of energy she regained to bring Kay back to her senses. The cat isn't dead after all, however, fully recovering in moments as the group flees, only for the dark lord to be then defeated by an unseen assailant.
While Kay's mood has improved a lot, her body continues to weaken as they rush to what, they hope, is their final destination: A tall, looming apartment complex, with the final pillar at the roof of it. It's a long, difficult and rather depressing climb as the group use each of the keys, in turn, to finally reach their goal. What they find is a seemingly empty storage shed, but on closer examination, a strange dark portal is found hidden in a corner.
At this point, the group meets an unexpected intruder, Helena, the head of the mouse kingdom's adventurers guild (remember her?). She had been, apparently, shadowing the group all this time, intending to claim their prize for herself. Frederich attacks her, only to be effortlessly defeated, with the still weakened Mia suffering a similar fate. The guild mistress, having claimed a 10% experience point tax from all of her clients has now risen to a level far beyond what the heroes could hope to overcome. Even relying on the curse mark's power, Kay is hopelessly outmatched, unable to even cause any damage to the mouse woman, taking severe injuries herself, only still able to fight thanks to the power of her curse, but soon even that isn't enough. A bone breaking strike ends the fight, with Helena claiming all three keys which she takes into the dark portal.
Mia heals Kay as best she can, and the three, still badly wounded, rise up, following through the portal, ready for the big, epic final battle. Which doesn't really happen.
They find themselves in a strange, overly red magical realm, the domain of the faceless dark lord who had first cursed Kay, the name revealed as simply "Null", and it's true form that of television static in the shape of a cat. Helena petitions the dark lord to grant her wish, to enhance the experience leveling system that she created, so that all mice can rise up through their own merits. The dark lord refuses, saying that the keys are worthless trinkets, and that her idea is stupid. Helena is insistent, attacking the dark lord, but even with her immense power, she can't harm the strange creature, and is instead killed by it, but not really.
A long conversation/exposition dump happens, where we learn the source of all mouse magic, along with the experience and class system, and a whole bunch of other things it all ties together: That mice have the power, for some reason, to subtly alter reality through sheer belief and force of will. The dark lords were invincible and had strange dark powers because mice believed them to be. Ever since Jerin, the protagonist of the first story had claimed victories against the creatures, however, mice became much less afraid of them, and therefore the power of the dark lords began to diminish. A convenient plot device with the awesome power to hand-wave any any nonsense that happens in the stories, past and future.
With neither mice, dark lords or even humans close to powerful enough to face a coming threat, the dark lord, Null (which isn't really their name, but as good an identifier as any), had a plan: To slowly acclimate a compatible mouse to her power, and merge with them. Kay would grow incomparably stronger and lead the mice, but in the process lose all of her memories. The loss of her name was the first step to this, and the dark lord saw this loss as a gift, so that Kay could finally forget her grief.
The wounded but still alive Helena hears all of this, and in a final act of spite intends to spoil the dark lords plans by killing Kay. To her surprise, this fails as she finds her hundreds of experience levels lost in an instant. When asked why, she learns of the inherent contradiction of knowing her own experience system is a delusion, yet also real, because it is a lie. While only a minor philosophical inconvenience, the addition of a little dark lord magic and general plot contrivance leaves her trapped in an endless mental loop, leaving the guild mistress catatonic.
As for Kay, she refuses the offer, believing that losing herself is just another sort of death, and unwilling to let go of the memories of her family, even if so many of them are painful. The dark lord warns that without the energy within the mouse being properly stabilized, it will kill her, but Kay knows she has been living on borrowed time anyways, and should have died in that first encounter. She chooses to end things her own way, expecting the dark lord to destroy her out of revenge for their plans being ruined. Instead it simply removes the curse from Kay, much to her surprise, letting the three go.
A problem quickly arises, however. With the curse mark gone, Kay is now feeling the severe, perhaps mortal wounds she received in the fight with Helena, and is in desperate need of medical treatment. As final gift, however, the dark lord taught Mia a new spell, one she had always been interested in: Teleportation.
The three are whisked away, back to the University, surrounded by bickering and disagreeable mages, as Mia finally blows up, shouting all of them down, and taking control of the situation at large. With her injuries being tended to, Kay finally remembers her true name, Catherine, the same name that she had given her weapon, and as she rests, she starts telling a story about one of her children, being tired of trying to run from her past, and finally choosing to embrace it.
Time passes. Catherine recovers, and starts an orphanage to take care of the many young mice about who have lost their parents. Mia chose to still get married, and now rules the University with an iron fist. Frederich inherited Catherine's old weapon, thinking it a shame for it to go to waste, even if he's still struggling to pay for it. Helena never recovers, and as a result, the adventurers guild falls into decline and eventual collapse, the experience leveling system disappearing along with it.
Finally, the nameless dark lord appears once more, meeting with the old dog prophet, expressing no regret over their failure, as they still have other plans in play. The two are both revealed to actually be overlords, and declare that the fourth will awaken shortly, but that their coming will also herald the beginning of the end of all things.
LAST TIME ON RODENTIA TALES: DINNER AND A SHOW:
Approximately two weeks before Jerin finds the needle, a cat and a mouse go for a walk.
...and, that's about it. Now, we return to Rodentia Wars, already in progress!