Project: Mage - The Frugal Mage - Chapter 32: Golden Treasure Rat

The interior of the forest was dense and dimly lit, the mood calm but heavy. Sometimes it was possible to hear sounds of creatures roaming and fighting.

Upon entering the forest a bit, we can see a group of nine young people walking, they were one of the groups that entered the forest, and that was Liu Yang’s group. The group was walking slowly toward the inner of the forest.

As a leader, Yao Mu was in front of the group while being followed by the rest, he was feeling great about it. For it gave a sense of superiority over others.

“Stop” Yao Mu raised his hand to signal that something was wrong ahead.

“What happened?” One student asked he was after Yao Mu. All the students stopped.

“It seems on the front is some kind of creature. We need to check before we move on. Junior Liu Yang, as the group leader, I choose you for this task. “Yao Mu spoke with a leadership tone, but internally, he was laughing. Yao Mu would use this opportunity to do Liu Yang suffer a little.

“Fine” Liu Yang figured Yao Mu would do something like that, and he didn’t care about that, as he could find some hidden treasures like that.

“Darling, I’ll go with you” Liu Xia, who was holding hands with Liu Yang, spoke up.

“Junior Liu Xia, this assignment has been assigned to Junior Liu Yang. You don’t have to go with him. ” Yao Mu didn’t like to hear Liu Xia calling Liu Yang as darling.

“Senior, if my darling goes alone and the creature is too strong, I can save time for him to run away.” Liu Xia also understood that Yao Mu was making things difficult for her man, she wouldn’t easily let it go.

“If junior insists, you go with him” Yao Mu spoke in a soft tone, it seemed he was not caring about that, but internally, he was burning with envy and jealousy, as Liu Xia manifested to go along with Liu Yang

The seven members of the group saw Liu Yang and Liu Xia holding hands as they walked to the front spot.

…

Some minutes later…

The couple came back holding hands, but unlike their serious face, they had a cheerful look and smiled as they walked hand in hand. But there was something different about them, something that wasn’t with them when they went to look at the place.

A mouse, on Liu Yang’s shoulders, was a small black-skinned mouse with gold stains, the size of the mouse was the palm of an adult. This was the beast they found looking at the place, where Yao Mu said there was a creature. The mouse was quite cute.

“Juniors, what is that rat on your shoulder?” Yao Mu was curious to know, the other students were also curious to know what this rat was.

“This little mouse is a creature we encountered when we went to check out the front place. The creature that was in the place before was an adult Gray Horned Wolf, but for some reason, the wolf ran in the other direction, and when we were coming back, we found this little mouse, my darling made a contract with it. “Liu Xia talked a little bit about what happened at the front place.

“I see … But what is this little mouse?” Yao Mu began to sweat cold along with the other students, they knew what the words Gray Horned Wolf meant, the wild beast was at the top of rank 2 and almost in rank 3. If the wolf attacked the group, many would suffer heavy injuries or even die. Luckily, the wolf left.

As an intermediate element of the water element, Yao Mu was more sensitive to the humidity of the air, he felt that the humidity was a little strange ahead, and realized that it belonged to some kind of powerful creature. As a mage who came from an influential background, he was trained early on in his element.

Because of this, he could use the special effects of his element. But his control was slightly below average and because of that, he lost to Liu Yang.

Wild beasts were ranked by ranks from lowest to highest, the higher the rank, the more powerful the beast. An adult beast of rank 1 was equivalent to a level 9 novice mage, only this fact showed how powerful an adult wild beast was.

Puppies were just like level 2 or 3 beginner mages, youngsters were like 5 or 6, and adults ranged from 7 or 9.

However, this also depended on the type of wild beast, the higher level wild beast pups were much more powerful than the low-level wild beast pups.

“This little mouse is a Wild Rat, it had the power to detect danger ahead, it can smell other creatures nearby. Because of this power, my darling made a contract with it “Liu Xia explained.

“I see…” Yao Mu and the other members of the group were laughing internally at what Liu Yang had just done.

(A Wild Rat? Is that serious? I thought you were smarter than that, making a contract with a wild rat is the biggest waste I have ever seen in my life. This beast is pointless and meaningless. ) That was everyone’s thinking when they heard Liu Xia’s words.

“As the danger is gone, we can keep going. The sun will set already and we have to hurry and find a good place to camp. “Yao Mu controlled himself not to laugh, the other members did the same thing.

…

As the group walked to look for a place to set up a camp.

In a distant spot of the forest was a small fortress with high stone walls, this place was the base that instructors used to monitor students within the forest.

Inside one of the rooms were dozens of soldiers wearing military uniforms, each of them looking at the screens, these screens showing images of the students walking in the forest. Each soldier group was watching over one of the groups.

“Commander, do you think these students will be able to pass the challenge?” One of the soldiers asked the commander was Wang Liang.

“I don’t know, but there are some promising students among some groups.”

The soldiers were talking while monitoring the students.

“Commander look at this !!” One of the soldiers shouted. This attracted everyone’s attention.

“What happened?” Wang Liang asked curiously, it was rare for soldiers to scream like that. Some soldiers also gathered to look at the screen.

“Look at this” The images on the screen were of a couple holding hands, they were walking through the forest when they saw a giant gray wolf that had a horn on its head. The couples were Liu Yang and Liu Xia, while the wolf was the Gray Horned Wolf.

“Looks like they’re in luck, the wolf didn’t notice them and went in the other direction,” a soldier commented.

“What’s here?” Another soldier asked they saw a black glow running across the screen.

The instant the glow stopped, the figure of a little mouse appeared, it began to dig with small claws a part of the ground, but because of the small claws, it took a long time to dig.

Liu Yang and Liu Xia approached the little mouse, it was scared and wanted to run, but what it wanted was in the underground. The couple realized this too, that there was something of value buried.

When the couple came close to the rat, it tried to run but was struck by the power of darkness of Liu Xia, Liu Yang held the little mouse in his hands to not let its escape.

After handing the little mouse over to Liu Xia, Liu Yang began to dig the hole with his hands, he would not let Liu Xia do this work. When the little mouse saw this, it began to get agitated, as if something precious was stolen from its.

Finishing digging, Liu Yang saw a small sphere, but dirty because of the earth, but a great deal of energy could be felt.

“This is … This is an Earth Truffle !!!” One of the soldiers shouted in surprise when he saw that little brown sphere covered with earth, he was jealous of the couple’s luck.

“This couple is very lucky to find something like this, even luckier to find this mouse that was digging the truffle”

…

The soldiers began commenting on each other’s fate. But they went crazy when they saw what Liu Yang had done.

“What he is doing???!!!”

“This is very wasteful !!!”

“I wish I was this rat now !!!”

…

The soldiers saw Liu Yang give the truffle to the little mouse, no one imagined he would do something like that, and neither did Liu Xia oppose it, on the contrary, she agreed to do so.

When the little mouse saw the truffle handed to it, it was extremely happy and began to eat as if it were the most delicious thing in the world.

Seconds later, the little mouse’s fur began to glow a faint golden color before disappearing.

The mouse looked at Liu Yang and jumped on his hands and bit his finger when blood dripped, the little rat licked a little. A mark began to emerge on the back of the mouse, that was the mark of the contract, the little mouse made a Life and Death Contract with Liu Yang, it would be his faithful pet.

The Life and Death Contract symbolizes that the little mouse would share its life with Liu Yang. If Liu Yang died, the little mouse would die together, but the opposite would not happen.

“This is a dream????!!!!”

“I don’t believe what I am seeing !!!”

“This is not just any mouse, this is a Golden Treasure Rat!!!”

“That boy is really lucky, without him knowing, he handed over a treasure and got a rarer treasure!!!”

“It seems that this sentence is true: To get something, you have to give something back.”

…

The soldiers started screaming again after seeing that Liu Yang had managed to form a life or death contract with the little mouse.

“Instructor, it looks like this boy will be one of the students who will benefit most from this challenge.”

“Don’t you think he has received too many benefits?” Wang Liang was scared of what he just saw, but he laughed then. Liu Yang was only able to form a contract with the mouse because he gave the mouse the truffle, otherwise, it would never happen.

(Every action results in a reaction. The boy handed the truffle to the rat, and the rat reciprocated by forming a contract with him. This boy is very lucky, he probably doesn’t know the blessing he just received. But why a Golden Treasure Mouse would appear in the forest? Something strange happened?) Wang Liang thought he was imagining that Liu Yang did not know that the little mouse was very precious. But then his face turned serious, he did not know why the rat appeared, because there should not be one of them inside the forest.

The Golden Treasure Mouse was a wild beast that had a special power, they could smell nature’s treasures, any kind of naturally formed treasures, they could smell it. This made these rats highly sought after by hunters, but they were very rare to find.

The soldiers did not understand why one of these rats appeared in the forest.