A Rattling Monster

I travel from oasis to oasis. Thanks to some details on the map, like the position of the trees inside them, I easily find my way. They are really meticulous on those maps. Of course, at each pond of water, I drop some acid inside. You never know, maybe another monster will die from it. Now that I think about it, I forget to do that on my training oasis. Well, one out of five, that's not a big number. Finally, I begin to see the same group of skeletons that I hunted. Always less than 5 but rarely alone. From what I can deduct, I am in the middle of the day, but I should arrive at the first temple at midnight.

That is, if I don't end up killing some skeletons every five minutes, and wait to retrieve my mana. But I have to do that, otherwise, I will get near a lair of a powerful monster with just one spell that I can cast. Even with my improvised bombs, I can't use them for just a minor threat. And I still don't know the power of those Tomb Kings. Only that the djinns are rather pleased to not fight them and send a ratman to do their dirty job.

While I am fighting the skeletons, I try to do the basic leveling stuff that you do against low monsters. I try to dodge their attacks and fight them with my claws. Unfortunately, I never learn a passive related to either action. And my claws are not strong enough to really cut the bones, so every time I hit them, that hurts me a bit. So in the end, I have to activate my aura.

I try to fight more than ten groups like that, but nothing came out. Even my pain resistance is just patiently waiting, not improving at all. And I said I won't hurt myself, only some maniacs would do something like that. I like my flesh where it is, clean, safe and not bleeding.

I fight during all the night and only when dawn was coming, did I finally saw the sun and the temple. And by temple I mean, some rocks clearly organized standing in the middle of the desert. I was expecting something like, I don't know, a pyramid? Maybe a temple like the Egyptians made, in the Valley of the Kings. But no, it's more like a tomb with extra ornaments. And I can see stairs. So it's underground. They didn't say anything about that.

So I approach the building and I instantly see some real warriors. Like, nothing is similar to the others undead. The one I fought was barely standing, slow and had broken sword most of the time. What I am currently seeing, are heavily armored undead. Shields and spears, helmets, plastrons and leggings. A little lackluster compared to the djinn army but infinitely better than the previous skeletons. And they are in formation. I can see five of them forming a wall and five others right behind with their spears raised. The only good thing is the lack of any ranged threat, there is no casters or archers in sight.

The problem is, even if I can melt the bones of the trash mobs surrounding me, can I do the same to those elites? I wonder how many years they have spent in this formation, but I am certain that the moment they see me, they will advance in order toward me. They will not break the wall. So that means, they are slower than me. I hope. But if they find that they can't catch me, maybe they will throw their spears. No, they will much likely throw their spears instantly, I think I can see some javelins in the back of the undead.

The sun is rising, so my new dark spell is useless. And I don't want to throw a crystal on them. Even if they are a big threat, they are not the main boss. They are at the best just the guardians of the door leading to the boss. Maybe some undead even stronger are down the stairs. And I have only nineteen crystals for, let's see, at least 8, no 9 temples. Or nine tombs. Yes, it's more a tomb than a temple. And I don't know if the core of the lich is working the same way as my crystal.

But as I keep examining the terrible soldiers in front of me, details that don't match their apparent strength kept appearing. For example, while I couldn't see their legs because of the leggings when I found another place to watch them, I noticed that half of the first line of undead are missing a leg. And some of the backlines are missing part of their rib cage and arms. If I was directly looking at them by the front, I won't notice anything suspicious. But since I am a ratman, they didn't detect me when I was circling around them.

The tomb is in such ruins that some of the walls have a hole inside it. Their back is still protected by the walls but the flanks are not. Even time or fight have taken their toll on their bodies. I am not fighting a full force of ten strong skeleton warriors. I am facing some injured, elderly undead. I am not even sure they can really leave the top of the stairs where they are standing. Let's just try something.

I stop being discreet and stand up in front of them, with a hundred meters between me and them. I notice that they find me because all of their empty skulls are looking at me. That look war between eyes and empty sockets is in a stalemate. But that confirms my thought about their immobility. They know that if they leave their position, their weakness will be exposed. That's an intelligent strategy. So either they can think about that, or it's the lich behind them that have given the order. I bet on the lich.

Finally, they begin to move. I can see marching toward, toward nothing? They are aligning themselves, to make way for me. With their arms, or sometimes missing limbs, they do a final military salute. And then get disintegrated. I can see the armor and weapons falling on the ground and do a huge noise. What happened? Is the lich so weak that it decides to stop maintaining his warriors? That doesn't make any sense, especially to do that in front of your enemy. But, the path is clear I guess.

I slowly and very carefully walk on those stairs. At each step, I stare at the march, calculating its size, comparing it to the previous one, checking if there is an abnormal thing on it, like a trap. But except losing time, I find nothing. Even when I exit the stairs, no trap was activated. I see a long corridor in front of me, opening on a huge room. With a seat and the end. Not a throne, huge and majestuous. No, just a seat, made of stone and a little broken. On it, is sitting the lich, wearing the same clothes as the brigadier general and the prince of the djinn. So either the djinn stole that from the Tomb Kings or they have the same source for their clothes.

But his face is not concealed, I won't say that he is not hideous but I expected worse. His nose is missing, his lips gone and there is a hole in his left cheek. His flesh is rotten of course, but it's a lich. He is leaning on his right fist, probably on this pose for centuries. His eye sockets are filled with a blue flame. I didn't face the lich that was killed by the adventurers so I can't compare their eyes. The flame was probably extinct when I was eating the body.

As I walk on the first slab of the room, I can see the lich move, toward a more impressive posture, his back straight, his hands joint in front of him, like if he was planning some evil deeds and world conquests.

"Kakaka, only after ninety-two years do you finally have decided to finish your massacre, Kakaka. So be it, I will not resist, we shouldn't have survived for this long, we shouldn't have survived five millennia ago either, Kakaka."

So I met a depressive lich. Not that I care about his mental state, but apparently the ratmen have tried to destroy the Tomb Kings before. And before that, they nearly survived against something that happened 5 millennia ago. Maybe I am not obliged to kill it right away, maybe I can understand this world a little more and since he is resigned, he probably won't try to kill me.

"Kakaka, wait, you are not marked by the treacherous god, the bane of the universe. You are even followed by our god. Who are you? Are you really a ratman? Kakaka, even if you are here to kill us, please will you grant our race one last wish? Will you listen to our story? Will you, the one followed by Oslo?"

"Congratulation to the user for unlocking a title, the title is [Followed by Oslo]."

(So they survived…)