Chapter 428: Ratman Frenzy
Owen, accompanied by the Zombie Girl, stealthily infiltrated the third floor. To his shock, the place had already become a domain of Fel.
How long has it been? The Fel Ratmen’s efficiency is too high, Owen thought as he took a deep breath. Only the Zombie Girl, already dizzy from the Rat Nest’s complicated terrain, felt nothing but nausea.
In the spacious cavern, pipes fixed to the walls carried flowing water with a faint green fluorescence. Its purpose was unknown. The seemingly inconspicuous wall lamps, in reality, emitted highly penetrating Fel radiance. It was evident that living here meant constant exposure to Fel radiation. If one didn’t die, they would be corrupted into monsters by Fel.
Not only was the environment harsh, but well-equipped Fel Ratmen were also patrolling back and forth, forcing Owen to cautiously hide in places where the Fel lamps couldn’t reach. He hadn’t expected Fel to have such a significant impact on other energies, causing the power of shadows to be greatly weakened. If he wasn’t careful with his concealment, he could be easily discovered by the Fel Ratmen.
Previously, he could have disregarded this casually placed chess piece, but the current situation had drastically elevated its importance. Therefore, even though he could easily eliminate these Fel Ratmen, Owen still held his breath and cautiously hid.
Fortunately, many caverns had just been excavated and hadn’t been fully furnished yet, so Fel hadn’t reached an omnipresent level. If Owen concentrated, he could continue infiltrating by seeking out areas where Fel was thin. This was undoubtedly good news.
Along the way, he encountered more and more Fel Ratmen. Judging by their equipment, besides the familiar Felcasters, there were also close-combat units using simple exoskeletons, carrying Fel backpacks, and wielding coil-wrapped spears. Additionally, in some caverns, Owen saw Fel constructs modified into engineering mechs busy at work. It seemed that after leaving the Fel Secret Realm, the Fel Ratmen hadn’t stopped progressing. On the contrary, their evolution speed was like cheating.
Seeing all of this made Owen feel increasingly uneasy. Therefore, he forcibly drew upon the might of his Original Body to utilize shadow power, infiltrating towards the area with the densest Fel energy. He wanted to see just how far the Fel Ratmen could go.
When Owen reached the area with the densest Fel energy, he was surprised to find that it had been transformed into an industrial zone by the Fel Ratmen. They had actually achieved industrialization!
Upon entering, the most eye-catching sight was a massive machine resembling a meat grinder. Driven by gears, the tightly bound Lower District civilians on the conveyor belt were dropped into it like cheap raw materials. Amidst their desperate wails, their flesh and souls were converted into Fel, providing a continuous supply to the increasing number of Fel machines around them, producing more and stronger Fel equipment. The residue was made into canned food, used as military rations or provided to the Ratmen on the second floor to transform them into new Fel Ratmen.
Owen gasped, feeling a pang of pain in his teeth. The Fel technology originally learned from the Goblin Mechanical Army had been perfected in the hands of Gray Dwarf and Gnome artisans and had begun to evolve. Now, not only had it become more refined, but it had also diversified into various models. This made him feel a great sense of unease.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Owen, upon returning, first informed his Original Body and then spent the night creating dozens of crystal balls, having the Zombie Girl secretly place them throughout Mithril City through believers.
The Ratmen, brainwashed repeatedly by Old One-Eye, didn’t care if they died. It could be said that even if they died, they wanted to die on the streets rather than rot in the Rat Nest’s sewers and become fertilizer for mushrooms. Therefore, every Ratman unhesitatingly charged into fierce battles with the well-equipped Middle District guards, wielding their crude weapons. Relying on their suicidal determination and numerical advantage, they gradually approached the Upper District’s city gate.
Owen, who had originally intended to cause some destruction, no longer had the heart for it. There was no saving them. They were doomed.
As the long, low-pitched whistle echoed through the Rat Nest, the Ratmen, who had been toiling day after day, suddenly stiffened. As if a switch had been flipped, countless Ratmen, their eyes bloodshot, emerged from the Rat Nest tunnels that spanned the entire city. It was like sewage from the sewers flooding onto the streets, quickly submerged by the gray-black tide of rats.
With the Ratmen’s reproductive capacity, coupled with the domineering nature of Fel and the leaps in Fel technology, Owen didn’t dare to imagine how far these Ratmen could go. At the very least, a single Mithril City wouldn’t satisfy their appetites.
After painstakingly infiltrating, Owen discovered mountains of Fel individual equipment and newly appeared Fel Tanks in a nearby heavily guarded warehouse. The most striking sight was the numerous variations of Fel Mechs. All of this made Owen feel that Mithril City was doomed.
The residents of Mithril City’s Middle District weren’t like the Lower District civilians who only wanted to survive. They clearly understood what this meant. Their expressions changed drastically, and the quick-witted ones fled without taking anything. The once-prosperous Mithril City would soon become a monster that devoured life.
The sights Owen had witnessed in the Rat Nest were projected by the activated crystal balls onto the most populated areas of Mithril City, causing an immediate uproar.
However, the fastest to react wasn’t Mithril City’s Matriarch Council but Old One-Eye, who sat stunned in its rat hole.
The Middle District guards, composed of Drow warriors and Gray Dwarf heavy infantry, were caught off guard at first. Then, upon seeing the Ratmen attempting to storm the Upper District’s city gate, they were utterly terrified.
Old One-Eye hadn’t expected the Fel Ratmen to secretly build a Fel empire beneath the Rat Nest without its knowledge. It hadn’t expected this matter to be exposed. And… there was no “and.” Not wanting to die, it immediately blew the rat whistle, summoning its subordinates, mobilizing the Ratmen to form an army, and launching an attack towards the surface.
Still squatting atop its mountain of treasure, Old One-Eye tightly gripped the crystal ball in its hand. First came terror, then despair, and finally, only madness remained.
If any Ratmen breached their defenses and entered the Upper District, even if they only destroyed a roadside flowerbed, the guards would be turned into fertilizer for their negligence.
The guards couldn’t retreat, and Old One-Eye couldn’t retreat even more. Only by controlling the Drow Matriarch Council could it have a sliver of a chance to survive. Therefore, the increasingly shrill rat whistle drew more Ratmen into the war. Under the influence of the mob mentality, the Ratmen became even more frenzied. Even though there was a significant disparity in strength, they still attempted to smother their enemies with their bodies, to choke them with their blood.
While Old One-Eye was fighting desperately, the cunning Fel Ratmen didn’t participate. Instead, they immediately sealed all passages from the Middle District to the Lower District, including those secret sewers and tunnels, trapping Old One-Eye’s Ratman army in the Middle District and forcing it into a death match with Mithril City. This move nearly infuriated Old One-Eye to death.
However, Old One-Eye was already overwhelmed. If it couldn’t break into the Upper District before the Drow Matriarch Council reacted, the most brutal fate awaited it.
