“Hahaha! Yes! Yes!”
“I finally got out of this damn place.”Cain excitedly shouted with his head facing the sky after bursting out from the grassy ground.
He pumped his tiny bloodstained forepaws in the air while standing on his two hind legs as he triumphantly shouted after getting out.
Anyone who saw this scene would have been greatly shocked and amused at the same time. Cain’s reaction was simply too human-like.
He would have looked even more lovable and cute if it wasn't for his current appearance. He longer looked like a fluffy and adorable little black and white rat anymore.
After spending hours digging out the dark gloomy tunnel, his entire body was covered with mud and dirt. His fluffy and thick furs have now turned brown with mud.
All of the furs on his body were sticky and mucky. His current appearance was like the embodiment of a loathsome rat.
However, Cain was simply too engrossed in his happiness and joy to care about his current appearance.
He truly thought he was going to be trapped inside that damn gloomy dark cave. His little forepaws were all injured and bloody. It was truly an arduous journey.
After a minute or so of rejoicing, Cain finally regained his calm as he began to survey his surroundings.
It was already dusk and the afterglow of the setting sun poured down like a bloody glow that tainted clouds and mist.
At this moment, Cain found himself standing next to a giant boulder at the waist of an enormous mountain.
This mountain seemed to be quite old and tattered as if it had been scorched by flames. No vegetation could be found around this mountain since it was very dry.
It was surrounded by a magnificent and beautiful mountain range that was like layer upon layer of unbroken waves.
Many of these mountains were dozens of kilometers tall and wound up high into the clouds.
These mountains stood high and low with various bizarre shapes as if numerous enormous beasts of ancient times were silently settled there.
Compared to its surroundings, this desolate mountain seemed to be completely out of place despite its towering size.
On the ground, there were also large rivers that resembled silver serpents that surrounded these numerous mountain peaks like a jade belt.
Everything here was full of life, and the worldly energy even permeated the air. It gave off the feeling as though this was a land of the immortals in the legend.
“Such beautiful scenery.” Cain inwardly thought as he was enthralled by the magnificent mountain range ahead of him.
The mountain range went on one after the other and there seemed to be no end. It was truly a sight to behold.
As Cain was engrossed in the beautiful scenery in front of him, his stomach suddenly growled as an intense hunger hit him.
“Damn! All the digging drained all of my energy and make me hungry.” He annoyedly thought as he patted his empty stomach with his tiny little paw before looking around to see if there was anything edible.
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He was so famished at the moment that he could devour an entire cow down to the bone by himself.
“I guess I'm gonna have to go down the mountain to look for food.” He mumbled to himself after realizing that there was nothing edible nearby.
“How the hell did these people get here.” He added with a surprised expression in his eyes as he looked around the steep mountain peak.
Unless one were to directly fly into the waist of the mountain where there was this small flat surface, it was nearly impossible to climb there.
Even the most skillful mountain climber would find it difficult to climb or even descend this mountain peak due to its bizarre steep rocky shape.
However, it wasn’t that difficult for Cain who was no longer a human anymore but a rat.
Rats were amazing climbers. It’s one of the reasons that this type of loathsome creature was able to migrate throughout the whole world.
They had a few anatomical advantages when it came to climbing compared to humans. For starters, their claws and pads were equipped for latching onto virtually any surface.
They had five phalanges “fingers” on each paw that were extremely sharp. The pads of the paws also helped.
They also had microscopic dermal ridges that helped them increase friction and allowed them to grip.
They could also use their tails to balance themselves or wrap around cords, ropes, etc. furthermore, there’s their leaping ability.
They had a vertical leap of around 36 inches, and they could also leap 48 inches horizontally. In all, most of these little fuckers were natural-born climbers.
Even though Cain hasn’t been a rat for long, it didn’t take him long to get the hang of his rat innate abilities.
At first, he found it a little hard and uncomfortable but as he continued to go down, he became better and better at it. He even found it enjoyable.
He felt as though he was recovering something that was once lost. Before long, he was already able to use his innate rat climbing ability like an expert.
After an hour or so, Cain finally made it to the base of the enormous mountain peak.
“Now, where the hell should I go,” Cain said with a serious expression on his face as he glanced at the grassy area in front of him. Each one of these grass was several times taller than him.
Lifting his head, he could see ancient pines that were centuries or millennia old, blotting out the landscape
“With all of these weeds, dense vines, and trees which have been around for who-knows-how-long, even if a venomous snake or other dangerous beasts were just a few feet away from me, I still probably wouldn’t see it.”Cain grew apprehensive.
He was truly afraid at the moment. Such thick and tall grasses were the perfect hiding spot for snakes. For all he knew, there could even be one in wait right now.
Even when he was a human he was afraid of snakes, let alone now that he was a weak and defenseless little rat.
With his size, he wouldn’t even be enough to fill the gap between the teeth of one of those gigantic snakes or any monster beasts for that matter.
“Don’t worry there’s no way you’ll be that unlucky, you are blessed by the gods!”
“Don’t worry there’s no way you’ll be that unlucky, you are blessed by the gods!”
“Don’t worry there’s no way you’ll be that unlucky, you are blessed by the gods!”
Hypnotizing himself with these thoughts, he fearlessly leaped into the grassy area in front of him.
No matter how scared he was at the moment, he had no choice but to move forward otherwise he could only wait to die of hunger.
Dry leaves covered the entire area, with each step he took, they crackled and popped. Ancient vines and weeds could be seen everywhere.
Due to his small size, Cain's vision was completely blocked by the densely pack weeds and vines. It was no different than walking within the dark gloomy cave.
Nonetheless, even though Cain couldn’t see ahead of him clearly, he was still fearlessly moving forward.
Anyone who saw this scene might think that he was moving aimlessly. However, it wasn't the case.
He was relying on his highly sensitive sense of smell to coordinate his movement as he made his way within the densely grassy area.
This was something he had realized when he was descending the mountain peak. Rats had pretty good sniffers.
He planned on taking advantage of that ability to locate foods as well as avoiding any other powerful monsters.
As Cain continued to move forward within the densely pack weeds and vines, his nose suddenly twitched as a trace of a strange aroma wafted toward him from an unknown source.
‘Eh? This aroma! It has to be something edible!’
Cain instinctively had this thought as he caught the aroma. This had to be the sweet smell of food.
He raised his head to sniff it carefully and found that it came from the woods on the left-hand side.
“However, I also smell blood in that direction as well.”
Although the sweet aroma of food was stronger, he was still able to smell the fleeting smell of blood.
At this moment, he found himself in a dilemma. He was debating whether or not he should follow the aroma.
“Fuck it! The greater the risk, the greater the rewards.” Cain steeled himself as he turned around and followed the aroma, walking into the woods comprising of the oddly shaped trees.
He couldn’t see anything, but that didn’t bother him as he followed the sweet aroma like a beacon in the night.
The further he walked, the stronger the aroma became. She had also detected some other faint aromas, but he didn’t give up on the one that he had caught in the first place.
He moved through the tall grasses and vines like a snake, pushing aside the weeds and vines with his head to create a path where there was none.
Some vines and leaves with thorns scratched his skin, but he felt nothing. He continued to move into the woods, sensing the source of the aroma getting closer and closer.
“Almost there!” He happily said as he increased his speed. It didn't take him two minutes before he arrived at the location.
However, the moment he reached the location of the source of the aroma, he couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath as he looked at the atrocious scene ahead of him.
‘Holy smokes! What the hell happened here?’
Near a dead and fallen tree, he saw the corpses of four men and two women. The six corpses had not yet rotted much, but the bite marks on them were very visible.
The corpses had all been dismembered. A male corpse had half its leg eaten, and a giant hole ripped in its belly, with his severed intestines laying strewn about.
Half of a female corpse’s head had been eaten, leaving behind a single eyeball and a white skull bone with a few strands of hair attached.
However, it wasn't the gruesome scene that caught his attention the most. He’s used to seeing similar gruesome scenes before.
What caught his attention the most was a small azure ball the size of a golf ball near one of the corpses. It was the thing that was emitting the strange aroma.
[2nd Rank Monster Core]
“So, that’s how a monster core looks like.”Cain inwardly thought as he was looking at the monster core on the ground with a greedy look in his eyes.