The Rat King was feasting in the cathedral. Although the priests managed to evade the monster's pursuit, most of the wooden furniture and furnishings suffered this undeserved disaster.
The elderly priest, who was chosen to come up with a solution, watched as the Rat King trampled over the tables, chairs, and benches that the priests had carefully maintained. Even the wooden floor was left with deep grooves after the Rat King had trampled over it.
Countless gnawing sounds mingled together, seemingly echoing in the hearts of the priests.
Seeing that their attacks were ineffective, the Low Tier priests, who had been relentlessly pursued by the Rat King, began to flee in panic. The Rat King, who could smell the presence of living people, darted into a secret passage, broke through a hidden door, and appeared in the basement.
This is the underground prison where the Treant Hunter are held. It is the middle of the night, and the Treant Hunter are still carrying out a city-wide cleanup as ordered by Antiya Lisi. Even the newly transformed Treant, [ Clear Soup Master ], is wandering aimlessly through the city.
But the place wasn't empty. There was still a prisoner who hadn't been fully converted being held here; he was the same prisoner that [ Clear Soup Master ] had brought back from outside [ That's Good Then ].
Because the transformation process was too boring, he hadn't been online for long in the past few days, and he wasn't in the game right now. He was just waiting to log on and start fighting again tomorrow after his body had completely Tree Transformation.
Unfortunately, accidents always happen so suddenly. The Rat King didn't care whether its prey could run away or not; in fact, it preferred prey that couldn't run away.
The Thorn Rat gnawed open the wooden prison door and quickly devoured the transforming body of [ That's Good Then ], which was suspended in the air by vines.
After enduring three days of treant transformation, this unfortunate player lost his physical body in this world before even experiencing the new class.
Having eaten half a full meal, the Rat King continued onward, leaving the underground area through the exit of the prison commonly used by the Treant Hunter.
A new prey appeared on its inevitable path.
The Rat King's scarlet eyes swept over the old man before him; he didn't consider the old man a match for him.
It quickly launched an attack, but the old man in front of it showed no intention of dodging.
He raised his head and looked at the Rat King, who was much taller than him, and revealed a strange smile:
"A trivial skill..."
He waved his hand seemingly weakly, and the Rat King's movement speed inexplicably slowed down.
Countless scarlet eyes dimmed little by little, like light bulbs that had been turned off. In almost just two breaths, the once unstoppable Rat King came to a standstill in front of Antiya Lisi.
The enormous, swollen ball of flesh collapsed like a deflated balloon. Antiya Lisi didn't give the aggregated creature another glance. With a wave of his hand, countless roots covered in hard, sharp thorns sprouted from the ground, wantonly dismembering the already dead ball of flesh.
This scene was witnessed by [ Howling Pothos ] lurking in the distance. Although he had anticipated the strength of an archbishop, he couldn't understand why the other party could instantly kill a Rat King.
As one of the first players after the server opened, [ Howling Pothos ] personally participated in the battle with the Rat King. They were only able to win with great difficulty thanks to Ed's help. Although the Rat King was much smaller and fewer in number than the one that had just died in front of them, its attack methods and behavioral logic were not fundamentally different.
He thought about it carefully and quickly came to two conclusions.
First, even if the number of Thorn Rat increases exponentially, the Rat King will not escape its Low Tier nature; it will still be instantly killed by Middle Tier enemies.
Secondly, Antiya Lisi possesses a method that can kill enemies in a short time. The triggering principle is currently unclear, but it does not seem to have much to do with plants.
What happened?
Why does an archbishop look like a dark sorcerer?
Just as he was puzzled by this, the archbishop in the distance suddenly turned his head and looked in the direction where he was hiding.
At this moment, [ Howling Pothos ] felt a decrease in its control over its body, and a significant increase in the delay of commands issued by its consciousness.
They've locked onto me!
Just as he was about to make a desperate gamble, Antiya Lisi looked ahead again and slowly walked towards the empty underground prison, as if he hadn't seen anything.
"What does this mean...?"
Before he could finish his Howling Pothos, he felt a distinct slowing of his body. Looking down, he saw that a thorny root had somehow sprouted from the ground, encircling his ankle and embedding its barbs firmly into his flesh.
Before he could make a move, the sound of hurried footsteps could be heard nearby.
[ Howling Pothos ] looked toward the source of the sound and saw three Treant Hunter running toward him.
That old man, Byd, he's just marking himself up!
He cursed inwardly, and without caring whether this was in line with the game's rules, he turned and began to flee.
The Rat King's rampage in the chapel had already caught the attention of the night watch priests. After confirming that the orphans were still asleep, [ Zhong Lele ] once again took out a signal flare.
[ Pond Fish and Old Abyss ] saw her take out a prop and asked in confusion:
"Why are there still more?"
[ Zhong Lele ] explained:
"This was prepared for later plans, but I think tonight is suitable."
"You mean..."
"That's right."
[ Zhong Lele ] nodded firmly and said:
"We'll send these orphans away tonight."
After a brief hesitation, [ Pond Fish and Old Abyss ] finally agreed to this somewhat risky plan. The night watch priests had already been awakened and were downstairs surrounding the Rat King, who was feasting on food.
After tonight's Rat King incident, churches of all sizes will undoubtedly be under tight security for the next few days.
The three originally planned to release rats to annoy the priests, but the rat plan has been upgraded to the Rat King plan, so it is reasonable for the subsequent plans to change.
After confirming the general procedure, [ Zhong Lele ] immediately ran up the clock tower, broke the signal stalk, and began calling the army of Soldier Bee, while [ Dark Archmage ] began waking up the sleeping orphans one by one and leading them to the top of the clock tower.
As for [ Pond Fish and Old Abyss ], he was stationed at the top of the stairs to prevent the priests below from revealing their whereabouts by going upstairs for various reasons.
The signal flare, broken into small pieces, quickly released a large amount of pheromones. The Soldier Bee stationed outside the city picked up on this message and immediately began to take off.
At the same time, the Grand Knight Commander of the Second Order of Knights of the Holy Crusaders had already led his men to completely surround the chapel.
Through the dilapidated walls, they saw the enormous monster battling the priests.