Chapter 61. Rat King
Rhys squinted. The rat with the quirked tail looked like the one he’d rescued. No—it was the one he’d rescued! He scanned it with his mana to be sure, and when he found no impurities, he was convinced. That rat was the one that had been trapped under the cauldron, which had nodded at him when he’d freed it. The other one was still full of impurities, but it gave him a look with strangely intelligent eyes.
He looked at the first rat, then back to the new one. “You… want me to take your impurities?”
The rat edged forward, nervous but eager.
Rhys scanned the rat with his mana. Both the one he’d saved, and this rat, both had some amount of mana in them. Not enough to qualify as Tier 1, but maybe enough to qualify as the bottom of Tier 0. Since mana improved everything about a human being, why wouldn’t it improve everything about an animal, to include its intelligence? Rhys stretched out his hand, offering it palm-up to the rat. The rat scurried over. It hesitated just out of reach, its heart beating visibly in its tiny body, then bridged the final gap between them in a lunge and put a paw on his finger.
Rhys drew its impurities into his body. The rat tensed, and then its eyes widened. It chittered at him in amazement.
“You’re welcome…?” Rhys guessed. He didn’t speak rat… if these rats were even intelligent enough to develop a spoken language. Eh, rats are pretty smart. If the mana really props their brains up, then why not?
The rat chittered some more at him, then ran back to the first rat. The two chatted for a moment, then ran off over the trash.
Rhys watched them go, then shrugged to himself and turned back away, going through the trash again. He didn’t mind. More impurities for him was always a good thing. And if the rats brought more friends with more impurities—
Chitter!
He turned. A wave of rats crested over the trash, rushing toward him. Rhys startled. He reached for his sword.
The rats slowed. They came to a halt, forming a half-moon around him. Almost worshipfully, one approached. Its head was low, its body profile lowered into almost a bow. It raised a paw to him.
Rhys looked at all the rats. He scanned them, searching over them for impurities. They all gave strong responses, all with second-tier or even third-tier impurities, more powerful than anything he’d seen so far. “Oh… all of you?”