King of the Giant Rat Tribe

King of the Giant Rat Tribe

Deep in the sewers lay the oldest section, dug out when the city was first built. As the city expanded over the years and its administrators neglected the sewer system, this place, located at the very bottom of the sewers, had long since been forgotten by humanity.

And precisely because of that, it had become a paradise for the Giant Rat Tribe. The stone slabs used to build the sewers had long since rotted away under the corrosion of time and wastewater. Countless holes covered the entire ground, with giant rats crawling in and out of them. Even deeper beneath this section of the sewers, the giant rats had long since transformed the area into a vast Underground Kingdom.

As more and more giant rats were born, their Underground Kingdom continued expanding without pause. Every adult giant rat would dig out a burrow of its own, causing the kingdom not only to grow larger, but also to spread its exits throughout various locations.

In the darkness, the giant rats, which had evolved Dark Vision after living in the sewers for so long, all raised their heads and looked in a certain direction. The next second, the countless giant rats covering the ground seemed to receive some kind of order and parted from the center, opening a path leading straight to the deeper levels of the Underground Kingdom.

Amid the rustling sounds, a group of giant rats carrying bundles on their heads crawled into the hole before them. The hole was clearly far too large for their bodies. Nearly five meters wide, it contained a passage whose bottom could not be seen.

In the blink of an eye, those giant rats carrying the bundles disappeared from sight. The giant rats that had cleared the path returned to their previous positions, and once again, the dim surroundings held nothing but the rustling of crawling rats.

"So many giant rats. What on earth are the administrators of this human city doing? Aren't they afraid that a tidal wave of rats will swallow the entire city clean in the middle of the night?"

Inside a rocky hollow in the sewer wall, Lu Minghao quietly observed the densely packed giant rats below. The entire space was completely crammed with them, unconsciously reminding Lu Minghao of a scene he had once seen: countless white maggots gathered densely on a rotting corpse, their bodies constantly writhing.

At this moment, the giant rats covering the ground below looked exactly the same to Lu Minghao, except that white had been replaced with black.

And these were only the giant rats on the surface. Lu Minghao had just seen the human who was captured being carried underground. Everyone knew that rats were born burrowers, let alone giant rats that were Monsters.

There were already so many rats before Lu Minghao's eyes. It was easy to imagine how many more were hiding in their burrows. That was why Lu Minghao had wondered what the city's administrators were doing. Once so many giant rats poured into the city, everything inside would be devoured within half an hour at most.

"Forget it. What do human affairs have to do with me? Besides, I'm not even human anymore. And whether the humans in this world are the same species as the humans from my original world is debatable. After all, when I was human, I couldn't use things like magic."

After speaking, Lu Minghao quietly poked his head out of the rocky hollow and looked at the densely packed giant rats below. To anyone with trypophobia, it would have been an utterly terrifying sight. But to Lu Minghao, they were chunks of meat that could help him grow rapidly. Leaving aside the giant rats underground, if he ate all the ones before him, Lu Minghao was confident he could grow into a Mid-tier Monster.

As for becoming a high-tier Monster, that was unlikely. Although there were indeed many giant rats, they were still only Lesser Demons. As Lu Minghao grew, the nutrients he required would continue increasing. By then, even with Gluttony's ability to perfectly absorb nutrients, mere Lesser Demons could no longer provide him with much nourishment.

As a Lesser Demon at present, Lu Minghao had been able to increase his strength by at least one-third after devouring a giant rat when he had just been born. Now, the nourishment from a single giant rat was barely a drop in the bucket, let alone after Lu Minghao advanced again in the future.

"I've almost finished digesting, so it's time to start hunting."

The next second, Lu Minghao silently melted into the shadows and began heading toward his food storehouse. The giant rats below had no idea that a monster with bottomless hunger and digestive ability had set its sights on them.

Elsewhere, Diri, who had thought he was already dead, finally woke up. He opened his eyes and stared blankly at his surroundings. The pitch-black space was illuminated by Magic Stones, while giant rats nearly as large as adult humans stared at him from all around. Though they had rat faces, Diri could see humanlike greed and mockery in their expressions.

It was as though they were looking at an enemy who had once stood high above them but had now become a piece of meat on a chopping board, ready to be torn apart and swallowed with a slight opening of their jaws.

"Where is this...?"

Looking at the densely packed giant rats around him and feeling the pain coming from his body, Diri finally understood that he was still alive. For some reason, the giant rats that had surrounded him earlier had captured him and brought him back to their lair.

Moreover, judging from the expressions and gazes of those giant rats, Diri was certain they possessed intelligence no lower than that of ordinary humans. Driven by his will to survive, Diri decided to negotiate with them while observing his surroundings and searching for a chance to escape.

"Human, give up your hopeless struggle!"

The instant Diri spoke, a voice came from behind him. Footsteps followed, drawing closer and closer. Diri also clearly saw the giant rats that had been staring at him greedily lower their heads one after another, flattening their bodies into postures of submission.

"Human, this is our first meeting. My name is Dikas, King of the Giant Rat Tribe. I, too, was once an existence that escaped from that hell just like you."

"What?!"

The instant Diri heard that the king of the Giant Rat Tribe before him had escaped from that place just as he had, he immediately raised his head and stared fixedly at the ratman crouching before him. His eyes were filled with disbelief.

"You don't believe me?"

Dikas looked at Diri staring at him, smiled faintly, and stood up. His nearly three-and-a-half-meter-tall body cast a vast shadow like an iron tower. A huge, scaled tail coiled around his waist, while his golden, vertical pupils gave off the sensation of being watched by a snake.

"How about now?"

As he spoke, Dikas raised both hands. One arm was covered in fine black scales, and its hand ended in three curved, saber-like claws. The other looked like a human arm, except that it was covered in black-and-purple barbs. Drops of thick purple fluid gathered at their tips and fell to the ground, instantly corroding it into small holes.

Dikas's thick, muscular legs were covered in black fur, giving him an impression of immense strength. Combined with the pitch-black armor covering his body and the long blade on his back, Diri was utterly certain that once this ratman entered a battlefield, he would become a meat grinder.

And it was precisely Dikas's appearance that eased Diri's fear slightly. To become like Dikas, one had to undergo that hell. Both of them had successfully escaped from that hell.