I smiled to myself, even though I started the update anxious, things were turning out pretty well. The rats were more wild and ferocious than normal, but completely oblivious to their own surroundings or even their own selves. It made them easy targets. If there weren’t so many it would’ve been closer to a game than a battle. Aureus was flying a few feet away, he had taken up the job of thinning the herd before they could get to where I was within the walls.


    After the first couple of minutes I’d noticed that the rats weren’t actually focused on me, and some literally ran directly into me. They didn’t seem to have any ability to think whatsoever. The under rats that I’d gotten used to were cunning and clever creatures. They avoided fighting large groups of humans unless there were significantly more of them, and targeted lone weak people.


    But these… they were… different. It was like they had lost their mind and only knew bloodlust. The few that had latched themselves on my legs were desperately clawing and biting at them with no regard to their own pain or survival.


    “Boss.” Noel’s voice echoed from behind me, I didn’t bother to turn around as I swung my staff in a wide semicircle. Blood and bone sprayed as their bodies crumpled. Faint euphoria tickled my tongue as I decimated them. They were so weak.


    “Yeah?” I forced out when I realized I’d waited just a bit too long for a reaction.


    “The spawn point is weird, looks like they’re just popping out from the walls.”


    “Walls?” I asked, I didn’t understand how he was so eloquent when he had multiple clones to control and had to fight as well. I was giving him simple responses and I just had myself. Well, and Aureus maybe.


    “Yeah, the walls of the Underhollow we’re in. They just kind of appear there and run towards the center. Well, I guess they’re technically appearing under the rocks there, but there’s no way that-”


    “Okay, cool so we know the pattern. Thanks.” I replied. A crunch sounded as I stepped onto a rat that had bit down on my leg. I was being a bit short with him, so I added. “It’s good cause that means they aren’t specifically targeting us.”


    “Well yeah, actually a majority of the ones that are near the exit are leaving to the surface.”


    “HA! Good. I hope they wipe out those nazi bastards and Theo and Tali while they’re at it.”


    A grimace snuck its way onto my face, I didn’t mean it. Not yet. A nagging voice prodded me, ‘You should hear them out. You don’t know the circumstances. What if they were threatened?’ I shook my head and sunk a dagger I held in my left hand into a rat as I grit my teeth. We didn’t need them. I can do it. I can protect everyone else without them. It’ll be fine.


    I glanced over my shoulder towards where I thought Noel was, but of course there wasn’t anything there. Just as I was dismissing it and turning back again, I noticed a small black mass on the wall behind me. The inner wall had a build up of rats. Frowning, I asked Aureus to keep an eye on the entrance for me and took off towards the inner wall.


    A puddle of blood slowly widened as tens of rats desperately clawed at each other and the wall trying to make their way up to the people on the top of the wall. My nose scrunched up at the disgusting sight. Most of the rats at the bottom were already dead, but this presented a new problem. As bodies built up, eventually they would use them to climb their way up into the middle of the camp. Not to mention the small hole they were slowly carving into the rock.


    “Hey, Mia.” A soft voice broke me out of my thoughts.


    “Oh, Jeong. What’s up? Why are you here?” I asked, he was supposed to be on the opposite side.


    “There wasn’t much happening on my section of the wall so Damien agreed to supervise and I was sent here to help you.”


    “Will that be okay? The reserves in the middle were meant to be replacements when the outer groups got tired.”


    “Yeah, really we had like twenty rats there. Dunno why.” He shrugged.


    We both looked over at the rats twenty feet from us that were still struggling to climb up towards the people on the wall. “Maybe it’s because you’re not close to the edge…” I muttered. “Uh… Well if you could keep an eye on the build up of corpses and I guess kill them if they get past me that’d be great.”


    “Alright, I can do that.” He said languidly as small plants sprouted around the bottom of the pile of rats against the wall. Deep purple flowers bloomed as their stamen scooped up rat corpses. The corpses were dragged into the center of the flower as the petals wrapped around them turning back into bulbs. Some grew larger while others sprouted thorns. Bones snapped and popped and the wretched stench of the flowers filled the air. Its sickly sweet aroma and the pungent smell of melting meat wafted from the plants.


    I tried not to look disgusted, “Great, thanks. I’ll be at the front with Aureus. Please let me know if you need me.” Quickly I turned on my heel and ran back to my post.


    Just as I got into the rhythm of squashing rats the rocks under my feet cracked and shifted as a worm lurched out of the ground in an attempt to gobble me up. Its screech grated against my eardrums as I shot a clumsy lump of mana towards him in surprise. I glanced over at my mana 180/440. I clicked my tongue as I lurched towards the worm and pulled my dagger along its already gaping wound.


    What a waste of mana. I thought to myself as it collapsed in a sticky mess and slid awkwardly back down the hole it’d arrived in.


    Don’t worry, we don’t need to use much against these. I’ll use more physical attacks for a bit. Aureus replied nonchalantly.


    Okay, me too.


    After the first couple of levels I stopped putting all of his points into intelligence for Aureus. If he was able to use my mana, then it felt like rather than making both of us highly mana focused builds he could be more well rounded. On the other side of that same coin, I’d stopped putting points into stats other than intelligence, I needed as much mana as I could get. I also rationalized it since I could easily keep up with mana-usage if for the most part they were using mine. Or at least that’s what I was thinking, I didn’t have more than one familiar yet anyway. Honestly I wasn’t really sure if I was making the right decisions, but it wasn’t like there I could use a guide or anything.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    The whole wave only lasted a few hours or so, and the last thirty minutes were mostly stragglers. After that everyone spent their time cleaning up the area and corpses. Caro, Reid and the gods were badgering me about how I was doing and just spamming me way too much for my liking. I stopped to read through the messages that’d piled up over the last few hours.


    [ “Call of the Void”: Hey, you ok? ]


    [ “Priest of Golden Light”: What happened over there? ]


    [“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” chuckles as they exclaim that humans are so predictable.]


    [“Traveling Spring Painter” urges you not to take their immorality to heart.]


    [ “Call of the Void”: Oi. I waited before, but now the wave is almost over. What’s going on? Did Tali and Theo really disappear? ]


    [ “Priest of Golden Light”: Do you need any healing or anything? I can drop by. I’m not too busy ]


    [“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” asks why you dislike the plants.]


    [“Traveling Spring Painter” echoes his query.]


    [“Playful Cat Hates Yarn” complains that the upgrade is too boring.]


    [“Abandoned Bloodied Sword” scoffs and states that it’s a great battlefield.]


    [“Reflection of an Empty Throne” agrees with “Playful Cat Hates Yarn” and argues that smaller scale fights with stronger enemies are more entertaining.]


    I groaned as I scrolled through tens of messages. There was no way I was responding to all of them. Ultimately I decided to send a single response to both of the Gallaghers saying that I was fine and I’d explain later.


    “I can’t believe you’re not satisfied after we put effort into defending from those rabid rats.” I feigned a pout.


    [“Playful Cat Hates Yarn” scoffs and exclaims that you had more fun than they did.]


    [“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” complains that of course they wouldn’t be satisfied since the plot has yet to be wrapped up.]


    [“Traveling Spring Painter” frowns.]


    [“Reflection of an Empty Throne” asks if you would enjoy watching innumerable ants fight mice.]


    “What does that have to do with me? Y’all are the ones who set up the mice and ant fight!” I whined.


    [“Reflection of an Empty Throne” mutters under his breath.]


    Before I could continue arguing with the GGC a different notification caught my attention. How long had that been there?


    [ Monster Repopulation Spawning in 19:21:22 ]


    I took in a sharp breath. The repopulation… I’d completely forgotten about that little tidbit on the patch notes. The wave wasn’t too bad, but that was just for me. I had no clue how the others were doing. No, no. I had to do this mostly on my own. The other sides should be fine. They… should be fine. Plus we had time to rest and prepare, we’ll all be fine. Just fine.


    I leisurely jogged over to where I’d left Jeong earlier, he was bent over one of his plants and carefully examining it, “Did the rats attack your plants?” I asked as I came up behind him.


    “Uh, no not really… It’s just that I found something strange.” He said with a muted look of confusion as he held up a familiar red crystal.


    I gasped, it was my second time seeing it. My greed wrapped around me urging me to take it from him. His confusion deepened as I stared at his loot. I took a deep breath, “You’re really lucky. I’ve only ever found one of those, they’re quite useful. Just smash it in your hand, they’re much more brittle than you’d expect.”


    He looked from me to the crystal and back to me again, it was obvious he didn’t quite trust what I was saying. I couldn’t blame him, when I’d first found one I only broke it by accident and panicked thinking I’d ruined something valuable. I gave him a small smile and a nod, and after a few seconds he crushed it as I suggested.


    Watching the process of him absorbing the crystal was much more interesting than experiencing it first hand. Rather than calling it a crystal it made more sense to call it a container of sorts. The shell broke away, disintegrating and mixing with the small sand-like particles it contained. Glowing they swirled around him and eventually settled in a ring that gently floated as the light dimmed and glowed brighter in intervals. Finally as sudden as it had been the first time the red ring converged quickly on his chest. As it did the light glowed brighter, and a faint shine remained as if emanating from his chest.


    I chuckled as he flinched the way I had the first time it happened, “See, not too bad right? Check your status, I''m sure you’ll be pretty satisfied.”


    His face brightened as he looked into the air in front of him, I wondered if I’d ever get used to watching people look at things I couldn’t see. It had already been over a month probably – time here was something I still struggled to get a grasp of – and yet every time someone got that far off look in their eyes while reading something I felt a shiver down my spine. It was unnerving.


    “Wow… thank you Mia. I never would’ve thought to do that…” He finally said as he lightly examined his chest for any changes. Of course there weren’t any, the light had already dimmed.


    “No problem, it wasn’t like I knew how to do it the first time I found one either. I did that on accident.” I left out the part where I’d broken it in a fit of rage, he didn’t need to know.


    “That’s pretty lucky, we could’ve easily just chucked them in our inventory waiting to get some crafter to use them and lost out.” he replied with a small smile as he straightened up. I looked up at him, I’d forgotten how short I was. Well, really I was about average, but I’d gotten so used to being on Aureus’ back that being on ground level with people had become a bit strange. His dark eyes looked down at me warmly, I guess I’d finally earned his trust with that. Before he always looked at me with an empty gaze; he looked at most people that way, even some of those in his party.


    “Well either way I guess we should see how everyone fared, and I guess we’ll end up on repair duty.” I said with mock disappointment as I pointed a thumb over my shoulder at Aureus who was happily eating the rats from a pile of unusable corpses I’d made.


    “Let’s put that off for a moment, Rosalynn wants everyone to meet up in the middle to discuss.”


    I sighed, I didn’t really feel like explaining that their friends were traitors and talking about the repopulation and impending map changes. “Alright, that’s true I guess.” I muttered. When we landed in the center Rosalynn and Damien were already in a heated debate while Rosalia was sitting not far from them looking like she was having the time of her life.


    “She wouldn’t do that!” Damien shouted.


    “Of course she wouldn’t! That’s why she’s here helping defend her assigned area. I didn’t think Theodore would do something like that either but you’re all too comfortable saying that he’d be willing to leave us high and dry like that.” She replied sarcastically.


    Damien rubbed at his tense brows, it was pretty obvious that he had a lot of trust in Tali. I couldn’t blame him, other than the twins, Tali was the first person that he’d met after everything that happened. Hell, she was the person his dad died to save, it made sense he’d want to defend her too. Our eyes met as his hand lowered, his expression was dark and unreadable.


    “Uh… Hey…” I said awkwardly, what else could I say when they were in the midst of arguing about what I’d reported.


    “Can you explain to me what happened, what you saw, everything?” He asked with a quiet voice.


    Rosalynn sighed, but didn’t add anything. I recapped my experience starting from when I’d heard the explosion while I was at the temple to when Noel told me they were running off. Damien listened intently, his expression didn’t change once. He was such a hard person to read.


    “Okay, I get it. I’ll believe you for now, there’s no reason to disagree at this point. I wanted to trust her, but she just disappeared like that… it’s difficult.” He muttered. I nodded solemnly, the only thing that kept popping up in my mind after that incident was his dad’s death. I wondered if she really was running from the gang or if she had always been a traitor. Not that I could say anything about that then.