Raising Rats

After going deep underground and walking along the sewers, they reached their destination.

Charles had the servants beside him release several rats.

These rats had all been raised by Charles recently. After using Rat Speech, Charles could communicate with them in simple terms.

Rats had some intelligence, but not much. With a carrot in one hand and a stick in the other, Charles had brought more than a dozen rats under his control.

All these rats had been caught in the sewers. He only took away those willing to communicate with him and those that seemed intelligent.

Under Charles's careful training, even without using Rat Speech, the rats could roughly understand his orders and carry out simple commands.

These rats had now become Charles's scouts and eyes.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"

The black-furred rats crawled at Charles's feet, squeaking nonstop as Charles cast Rat Speech.

"Eat, eat, eat!"

"Boss, eat, eat, eat!"

The rats' thoughts were simple. They now regarded Charles as their boss and traded their labor for rewards.

Charles grabbed a handful of dried meat and scattered it over the ground. At the same time, he said, "Go. Two rats to each passage. If you spot goblins, send one back to notify me!"

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"

"I eat, eat, eat!"

"Got it, got it!"

The rats squeaked chaotically, but squeaking was one thing—their minds still processed Charles's command.

These rats had only undergone brief training. They were barely usable; claiming they were highly effective would be pointless.

Of the dozen or so he released, two or three might get lost by the time Charles finished his work.

But whenever he left, Charles would replenish his supply and take a few more rats with him.

Among the dozen or so rats he had raised, several had already become quite obedient. As long as Charles summoned them in time, they could return promptly.

As for the summoning tool, it was a small bugle. Once blown, its sound could travel quite far through the sewers.

With the bait laid and the scout rats released, the servants hid far away. The preparations were now completely finished.

All that remained was to wait quietly.

After this period of study and spellcasting, Charles's casting speed had improved again, especially for Bone Needle Bee.

Because he cast this witchcraft so often, its casting time had been compressed to under a second, practically instantaneous.

Recently, Charles had also been studying how to add runes to increase the attack power of the sharp bone spikes generated by this witchcraft, or perhaps increase their number.

Just as he was quietly pondering, faint goblin noises drifted from the passage.

Sound traveled far in the sewers. Since the noise was so faint, it meant the goblins were still some distance away.

At the same time, a black-furred rat came racing over and reached Charles.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"

The rat clung to Charles's boot and squeaked incessantly.

Through Rat Speech, Charles had already obtained the information from the rat. He patted its head, then tossed a piece of dried meat in front of it.

The rat grabbed the meat, huddled off to one side, and began gnawing on it.

From the rat's squeaks, Charles already knew how many goblins were coming.

There were sixteen or seventeen goblins. As for their strength, the rats in their current state could not distinguish that.

But Charles was already familiar with these goblins. Among a group this size, at most five would be comparable to knights. The rest were all weaklings.

Sure enough, as the goblin noises drew nearer and they gathered around the bait Charles had arranged, he had already prepared for battle.

After more than a month of hunting, Charles had optimized the placement of his bait.

Previously, all the bait had been piled together. The goblins would swarm over it to fight for it, and once he killed one, it was easy to alert the others.

Now things were different. The bait was divided into several piles and spread out at a distance from one another.

So after this group of goblins arrived, they unknowingly split into several groups, with three or four goblins in each.

Charles stood in the darkness, his eyes covered by dim vision.

As he traced the runes, three sharp bone spikes floated beside his ears.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

A faint gust swept past. Three unlucky goblins were instantly shot through the head, and the sounds of their heads bursting did not alert the other goblins at all.

Then came the second round, then the third.

By the second round, some goblins had already noticed their companions and grown wary.

But Charles cast far too quickly. In less than a second, even if the goblins noticed, they had no time to react.

"Gah!"

One goblin suddenly discovered that the three goblins beside it had all toppled headfirst to the ground. One had even crashed straight into the pile of bait, thoroughly jolting the goblin awake.

"Gibber jabber!"

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

The goblin hurriedly cried out. In the time it took to rise and turn around, Charles had already fired another round of Bone Needle Bee.

Only then did the goblin realize that of the original seventeen goblins, only five remained.

All the ordinary goblins were dead, wiped out cleanly.

"Run!"

In an instant, every goblin lost its nerve. Each wished its parents had given it two more legs.

But with them running down the same passage, they were nothing but targets for Charles.

He emerged from the darkness and, aiming in the direction the goblins were fleeing, first cast the witchcraft Greased Ground.

The floor of the passage immediately became slick with grease.

The running goblins did not notice the change at all. The two in front, running the fastest, stepped onto it and slipped at once, sprawling flat on their backs with limbs flung skyward.

The three goblins behind them could not avoid them in time and rushed straight in, all tumbling into a heap.

After casting Greased Ground, Charles immediately cast a second witchcraft behind them: Web Bomb.

A basketball-sized white web bomb shot forth and struck a goblin that had just climbed to its feet.

"Bang!"

The web bomb exploded instantly, and the webs it launched enveloped all the goblins.

Sticky white webs surrounded them. Every struggle only caused the webs to cling tighter.

"What is this?!"

"Run! Get up, hurry!"

The goblins wailed dozens of meters away, struggling wildly, yet they could never break free.

Still, the restraining force of a single Web Bomb was a little weak.

One goblin had nearly torn free and was about to leave the area of control.

But Charles's casting speed was faster still. Another Web Bomb followed close behind.

"Bang!"

The instant one exploded, the next arrived.

Several Web Bombs in succession firmly stuck the five goblins together. For the moment, they could not move even if they wanted to.

They were like rats caught on a glue trap.

Charles could not even be bothered to approach these goblins. From far away, he began using Stunning Spell.

"Urgh!"

"Aah!"

Amid the goblins' repeated screams, all five were stunned. Charles had resolved the entire battle without even getting close.

The sensible combination of witchcraft had greatly increased Charles's combat power.