A Champion of Rats - Chapter 5

Tutorial (4)

I waited for the goblins near the ratlings’ old feeding ground.

Before long, four or so goblins emerged, armed with clubs and crude spears.

‘It’s a damned game, why am I feeling so nervous? This is really unnecessarily high quality!’

Splash. Splash. The goblins waded into the standing water.

They started running from place to place to catch the croaking frogs, and when they’d completely scattered, I gave the signal.

“Now!”

The rats who’d been hiding in the water pipes jumped out at the same time.

Thirteen rats quickly surrounded the goblins.

“Keeek?! What?!”

“How are they here?”

It was a very successful ambush. The goblins were too surprised to respond in any meaningful way.

In that moment, I could smell victory. And it wasn’t just me.

The rats, smelling the same smell, savagely attacked the goblins – the kids, the elderly and the young ones, all of them.

Although they were armed, the goblins couldn’t properly resist due to the surprise attack and the fact that each of them were ganged up on by from at least two to as many as four ratlings, and they quickly fell down one by one.

“Cut their throats immediately. So they can’t make a sound.”

Fortunately, the rats remembered my command. Even if they looked sloppy at first glance, they were a species that sometimes became surprisingly effective at stealing, fighting, and conspiracy.

The goblins died without being able to make a commotion due to the fangs of the ratlings. I didn’t even get a chance to to step out.

‘Maybe they’re better at this then I thought!’

But did I end up taunting Murphy? A sudden and unexpected problem revealed itself.

We had to prepare for our next move right away, but the rats were busy devouring the meat in front of them!

“Meat! Goblin meat! Looks delicious!”

“Eyeball! Brain! Balls, good for stamina!”

“Mine! I caught him! Mine! Don’t touch it!”

My stomach was twisting itself up in knots. If the hunting team didn’t come back, they were going to send others soon.

Impatient, I caught the rats who were hurriedly eating the goblins and tried to make them listen.

I was hungry too, so it was understandable, but there were priorities.

“Calm down you bastards! I know you’re hungry, but in a little while you can eat as much as you want! Get ready for the next one –”

“– Let go! Mine. Don’t touch it! It’s mine!”

“No! Mine! Mine!”

Literally five minutes after the opening act. Some even showed their fangs to me.

They dared say that to me. Me who was taking the risk and hunting the goblins for them.

Almost unconsciously, I swung the club in my hand and hit the ratling who’d bared his fangs.

The impact was so hard that it blew him away. His head was crushed with a crack.

“…”

The atmosphere became tense. Everyone looked at me. Now they were scared.

“What are you doing? If you don’t start moving right now…”

◆◆◆

As expected, the goblins reappeared. Six in total. A good number.

As soon as they arrived, they started searching for traces of their comrades, and soon found them lying scattered on the ground.

Because they were stupid, they didn’t pay attention to their surroundings, and they raised their fallen comrades up. After a while, they couldn’t stop their astonishment.

It was because the fallen had their eyes, noses, and lips eaten by the rats, and at that very moment I cried out.

“Now!”

At my signal, the rats all jumped down. Just like before, they surrounded the goblins.

Bewildered goblins, numerical superiority, and an angry me.

I was again confident in my victory.

Again, the numbers were around the same. The only difference was that we had four more armed guys at our side.

A battle ensued again. It was rough, but I won again, and luckily there were no casualties.

While the rats with weapons stood guard, the rest quickly went around biting the goblins’ necks.

At this point, I was thinking the rats might actually be stronger than the goblins as long as they had any semblance of organization.

Then courage welled up from inside me.

‘Is there a need to play hide-and-seek like this? Let’s go forward with this momentum and destroy them! This is a game anyway! What’s the problem with that?’

And maybe there was something else mixed in, too.

◆◆◆

The goblin shaman kept casting the spell for five seconds or so, before lightning flashed from his staff.

The power was strong, sure, but the main problem was its enormous range, and it roasted three rats in one go.

Gathering momentum, the goblin chieftain fired an arrow and shouted.

“Don’t be afraid! We are stronger!”

In fact, the goblin’s arrow accurately pierced the head of one of mine, resulting in an instant kill.

Thanks to this, the twelve rats were reduced to eight before we could even get close.

An archer and a wizard. Close combat would be one thing, but eight goblin warriors were making a wall in front of me, so I couldn’t get close.

In the meantime, lightning flashed again, and another arrow flew in, killing three more of my alleys in total.

Defeat was staring us in the face for all to see. At that moment, the courage of my allies burst like the bubble it was.

“Run!!”

When one coward shouted that, every single one of them abandoned me and ran in different directions.

If they think they’re going to win, they’ll be braver than anyone else, but if they’re going to lose, they’ll run away immediately.

That was my first time experiencing this.

In the end, I too had no choice but to run. And I regretted it. I should’ve been more careful.

But it was too late for regrets, and I ran away alone as fast as I could.

In fact, running away wasn’t a problem. Compared to goblins, rats run like Usain Bolt.

Rather, the problem was hunger. First might’ve spouted some nonsense about how rats should eat a lot to get strong, but the sudden surge of hunger that hit me made it so that I couldn’t even walk.

I didn’t realize it until later, but at that moment, I fell into [Starvation Frenzy].

A unique characteristic of ratlings, that appears when hunger is at its peak.

Their strength increases manyfold, but they enter a berserk state which is like a double-edged sword, where they’ll perish before long if they can’t find any food.

At that moment of crisis, a goblin that’d been chasing down the rats appeared in front of me. How lucky!

“Kyakyak-! Found you, rat. If I cut off your tail and give it to Chief, he’ll definitely reward –”

At that moment, I opened my mouth wide like a crocodile’s maw and bit the goblin. No, instead of saying I bit him, it was more like I bit parts of him off.

And I swallowed.

Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp, gulp.

In just a few seconds, I ate up most of the goblin who’d been about my size. Only his left leg was barely holding its shape. At that moment an arrow flew in and pierced my side.

“You bastard!”

When I turned to check, the goblin chief was standing there, enraged. He was alone, without any escort.

He must’ve gotten alone while chasing the scattered rats.

I pulled out the arrow stuck in my side and looked at it. An arrow. Normally, it should’ve been painful and frightening, but fortunately I wasn’t in a normal state.

To wit, I was starving!

“I was fucking eating, you motherfucker!”

I held out the arrow to the chieftain. And shouted –

“I’m gonna stick this arrow into your asshole!”

I was being serious. The goblin chieftain’s face turned black with rage. But I just rushed him regardless.

In my head, there was only anger, revenge, and a desire to dismember and eat the body of that goblin chieftain alive while savouring his screams.

I didn’t realize this at the time. That I was gradually assimilating into being a ratling.

The goblin chief loosed another arrow. But I instinctively burned all the nutrients inside my body and narrowed the distance between us in the matter of an instant.

Was he scared? The chief’s arrow hit me in the shoulder, not in the head.

I pulled out the arrow as I ran.

“I’ll put this into your eye!”

And I soon kept that promise.

“Take this! For my shoulder!”

Snikt-! With a loud roar, I plunged that arrow through a goat-like eye. Then that majestic chieftain got cold feet, and tried to run away, screaming in pain.

“And this is for my side!”

The goblin chief collapsed, still screaming like an animal.

He couldn’t straighten or get up properly because the arrow was stuck in his ass, so I took the chance to stand over him and slam my club on his back.

Fortunately, it wasn’t covered by his armour, so there was nothing to soften the blow. There was the sound of something cracking. Foam began to drip down his chin.

But my rage didn’t leave me. Isn’t that natural? What would you do if somebody bothered you while you were hungry?

I hit the goblin chief as if to vent all the rage that had piled up inside me. I struck the hand he’d stretched out in an attempt to live, I broke the legs that were still kicking, and I crushed the broken shoulder and the back of his neck.

“Aaaaaaahhhhhh! C’mon, turn over! Lie on your back!”

It was, literally, madness. However, despite that, I felt a pleasure no other game had ever provided me. I felt alive.

There was nothing but the pure liberation brought by unfettered violence, free of petty ethics or morality.

Just then, two goblins appeared out of nowhere. But I didn’t need to do anything, because they were scared stiff at the sight of me screaming and beating the chief like he was come common street dog.

I turned the battered chief over, stripped off his armour and rammed my snout into his soft belly.

The fresh meat and hot blood brought strength to my body.

Eating meat, really, not metaphorically, healed my fatigue and wounds.

I ate the entrails, chewed the muscles, gnawed the bones, and even munched on the heart!

The goblins found their feet and ran away. But I didn’t care. I only continued to revel in my feast of flesh.

Hunger was the one and only thing that dominated my being.

‘It’s good! My god! Delicious! This is no joke, it’s more delicious because it’s the chieftain! Gotta grab a female! Raise cattle! Ride them later too! Yeah!!!’

By the time only the skull and the pelvic bones were left, I was feeling full, so I got up and stretched. My muscles felt longer, and my bones were slotting properly into place. It was a refreshing feeling. I was growing.

There was only one thought running in my brain that was drowning in adrenaline.

“Fuck yeah! Now this is what you call a game!”

◆◆◆

Do ratlings grow if certain conditions are met? Or if they eat a lot? I didn’t have time to think it through.

I just wanted to test my new strength and punish the evil goblins who had humiliated me so.

“Boys for meat! Girls for cattle! Hee hee hee!”

If that doesn’t sound normal, you’re right. During a ‘Starvation Frenzy’, you lose your reason.

After killing the chief, the battle became easy. Thanks to them scattering to chase us, I was able to take the goblins down one by one.

While moving through the complicated maze of passages in the sewer, whenever the smell of goblins got thicker, I used my speed and terrain to conduct repeated raids and ambushes.

My grown body surpassed the goblins in physical strength, so I was even able to fight them two-on-one.

One blow to the head was enough to finish one off. You get one shot! And you get one too! Everybody gets one!

‘Fuck yeah! This is what a game should be like!’ As I killed the scattered goblins one after another, I kept thinking. I wondered if the warmongers throughout history had also felt this feeling when they fought. Trampling on a weak enemy was so much fun!

At that moment, while I was careless, I saw an actinic flash of lightning, along with the faint smell of goblins.

I quickly ducked into the nearest passageway.

“You damned monster rat!”

It was the goblin shaman.

‘Damn it, I should’ve gotten rid of him first!’

I clicked my tongue quietly. That light felt like it could kill me in one hit. Even if I survived, I’d be very poor shape. I knew from the arrow wound last time, how meticulously this shit game implemented the feeling of pain.

‘Should I run away and set up an ambush?’

I recalled my memories of hunting monsters stronger than me in other games in the past. I’d either chip their health down with arrows from range while running away, or pretend to run away and then strike from behind.

As I was thinking about how to do that, a rat that I’d thought had run away appeared. The one who’d made the first call to escape. The very first one to abandon me!

“Falk. Found you. I saw. All right. Thank god. You. Can win. I get it. Me too. Again. Help.”

And then I stumbled upon a devilish idea. It was so amazing that my own creativity surprised even myself.

“Oh? Great. I need your help!”

And then I grabbed the bastard. Like you’d grab a dog by the back.

“Falk? Falk?”

I came out of the passageway. As expected, the goblin shaman had been waiting. A lightning bolt raced towards me right away.

And I threw the rat in my hands as hard as I could to block it. This was the power of friendship!

“Falk?! Falk!!”

The guy who became my shield left a last will and testament like that, and was baked to a crisp mid-air. I was running past him before he could even fall.

On all fours! With all my might! Whiskers fluttering in the wind!

The goblin shaman was taken by surprise, just as I’d hoped. He belatedly tried to cast another spell, but I was faster.

“Shit!”

That was the last will and testament left by the goblin shaman.

I used my speed to imbue my club with force as I hit the goblin shaman in the mouth.

His teeth flew out. His face became a bloody mess. And then I proceeded to tenderize him like I’d done to the chief. The more you beat the goblins, the more delicious they become.

After a while, before the shaman had even stopped breathing, I buried the snout in his flesh and started eating. At that very moment, someone spoke to me in my head.

[Congratulations. You have successfully completed the tutorial, ‘The Saviour’.]

Editor’s Notes:

None for this chapter.