Ratkin

Around thirty humanoid monsters appeared before Avilan in a grand procession.

They were small in stature.

Their equipment was crude.

They looked filthy and lacked intelligence in their expressions.

Still, their intelligence probably was not nonexistent. Some of them carried swords and shields, while others held stone axes and bows.

Avilan immediately took out the notebook Zhou Yu had prepared for him.

They were Ratkin, notorious monsters that attacked adventurers and stole property from villages!

These Ratkin were gigantic rats that stood upright, covered from head to toe in dark brown fur, with a pair of incisors in both their upper and lower jaws.

Standing on two legs already made them look ridiculous, but these Ratkin truly were disgusting.

Even from more than a dozen steps away, he could smell the stench of sewers coming off them.

Their swords were rusty, and their armor was shabby. One of them was even wrapped in a strip of filthy cloth.

Avilan looked toward them, and the one who seemed to be their leader spoke.

"Guga, mighty one... what important business brings you this way?"

The Ratkin could actually speak.

They had surrounded Avilan with weapons in hand, yet they spoke to him with utmost respect.

What were they thinking?

It piqued Avilan's interest.

It appeared they had no intention of attacking him.

Considering the rats' terrifying reproductive ability and Despair Fortress's severe shortage of labor, these creatures might be weak, but they should still be capable of working.

If they were so weak that they could not even work, he could only slaughter them all and sacrifice their flesh and blood. That should summon quite a few Horned Demons.

With that in mind, Avilan decided to talk to the Ratkin.

Avilan glanced at the Ratkin.

This Ratkin group had probably already tried their best. They gripped their weapons warily and kept watching Avilan. Unfortunately, a few of them could barely hold on and were preparing to flee.

Among this group of Ratkin, their leader truly lived up to his position. He never took his eyes off Avilan and stared at him the entire time.

Hmm.

This one seemed somewhat intelligent. Perhaps Avilan could communicate with him.

Would it work?

Avilan spoke.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Avilan, and I am a traveler who lost his way."

The Ratkin immediately began clamoring. Clearly, their leader lacked the prestige and strength needed to command their obedience.

"What do you want with me?"

The other party spoke politely, so Avilan did not act overly forceful. He wanted to know exactly how many Ratkin lived in this tribe.

But fear of Avilan was written all over their faces, so he tested them with a somewhat imposing attitude.

"I see. If you go that way, you will encounter our village. We came out to investigate because we sensed that the auras of several powerful monsters nearby had disappeared."

"The auras of powerful monsters disappeared?" Avilan was somewhat surprised. It seemed these Ratkin were not entirely useless.

"The monsters that blocked my path were slaughtered by me." Avilan chatted with the creatures before him with interest.

More precisely, Avilan was now extremely interested in this entire other world.

"Guga, gugaga. Mighty human, you are truly powerful! We apologize for our earlier offense and beg for your forgiveness!"

The Ratkin promptly fell to their knees as one, continuously kowtowing to Avilan and admitting their mistakes.

Naturally, Avilan was not angry. Instead, he kindly reassured them.

Afterward, Avilan spoke with the Ratkin a little longer, and before he knew it, the conversation had turned into an invitation to visit their village.

They seemed quite willing to let Avilan stay there. They looked shabby, but they were rather friendly.

Although Avilan did not need to sleep, resting there for a while would not be bad. Thus, Avilan decided to accept their invitation and go to their village.

Along the way, they told Avilan quite a few things.

For example, a massive earthquake had recently struck the Messiah Great Forest, causing many monsters to riot.

Furthermore, capable human adventurers had been invading the forest more and more frequently.

Things like that.

As Avilan and the Ratkin conversed back and forth, their speech gradually became clearer.

Avilan chatted with them as he followed them into the village.

"Huh, this is your village?"

The place was so terrible that Avilan could not help feeling nauseous. He should not have expected anything from these rats.

It was practically a small mountain made from an enormous heap of garbage. Countless holes covered the mound, and Ratkin could occasionally be seen going in and out of them.

Avilan was no longer in a good mood. With a cold expression, he said, "Bring out your chieftain and your strongest warrior!"

Sensing the abrupt change in Avilan's bearing, the Ratkin who had led the way scrambled off in terror, his eyes filled with fear.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting, honored guest."

As he spoke, a Ratkin approached.

The Ratkin leader who had guided Avilan here accompanied him at his side, helping support his body.

"Good. Tell me, how many people are in your village?"

The Ratkin elder also realized that Avilan was angry, but there was nothing he could do. The Ratkin were the lowest of the low.

After pondering for a moment, the Ratkin elder said sorrowfully, "Our village has a little over three hundred Ratkin. More than one hundred are male, and over two hundred are female..."

Avilan frowned slightly. The number was somewhat low, and the ratio of females to males was unbalanced.

"Fine, I'll be honest. My territory is several dozen li from here, and it needs a large number of workers for repairs. Starting today, I am requisitioning your entire village. I will provide you with enough food. As long as you work hard, I will give you a better life than you have now." Avilan waved a hand before his nose and spoke irritably.

"Very well, my master." The Ratkin elder agreed with remarkable calmness.

"Will there truly be enough food, my respected master?"

Avilan was somewhat dumbfounded. These Ratkin had no principles at all. He had merely said a few words while standing there, yet they agreed and even called him master. Did they have any self-respect whatsoever?

"Yes. I guarantee that you will be able to eat your fill every day, so long as you are willing to work." Avilan replied impatiently.

"Wonderful, we shall pledge our loyalty to you! Please protect us. If you are willing, we swear our loyalty to you!"

Upon hearing that they could eat their fill, they immediately swore allegiance to Avilan. Their happy, excited expressions left him even more stunned, to the point of feeling utterly at a loss.

He felt as if he had fallen into an enormous trap.

Though he could not guess what scheme was at work, Avilan first gathered the Ratkin who were capable of labor.

But once they had gathered, he instantly understood why the Ratkin elder had been so excited. These Ratmen were starving to the point that their chests clung to their backs. Forget working—they would be lucky if they could even make it to Despair Fortress.

After watching the Ratkin pack up their belongings, Avilan continued.

"Village chief, it's inconvenient to call you that. Do you have a name?"

The Ratkin elder shook his head. How could something as wondrous and noble as a name possibly belong to lowly monsters like them?

"Then don't you normally have any form of address?" Avilan asked in surprise.

He truly could not understand how they normally communicated, such as when calling someone.

Perhaps the Ratkin elder saw Avilan's confusion. He gestured toward the Ratkin leader beside him, and the other Ratkin immediately ran over.

"Village chief, did you call for me?"