Special Abilities and the Suspicious Village
Chapter 39 – Magical Beasts and the Suspicious Village
“Dear guests, we apologize, but our store has a no-pets policy.”
The chef’s words seemed to put Batus in deep thought for a moment. Then, with a sense of resignation, they replied, “If that’s the store policy, I guess we have to follow it.”
And just like that, I found myself kicked out of the store. I stood bewildered at the door, scratching the ground with my claws.
— I haven’t even chosen a dish yet!
I clicked my tongue in annoyance, my mouth watering in anticipation, but the door remained closed.
With a mix of frustration and suspicion creeping in, I began to circle around the shop.
Maybe it’s just my imagination, but the faint scent of beast emanating from the shop owner matched the village’s mention of “The Ancient Nest,” leaving me with a bad feeling.
‘Should I have said something to Batus? But I couldn’t just blurt out that the village feels suspicious out of nowhere.’
As I paced around the shop, the clattering of dishes and the bubbling sound of something cooking caught my attention from the wall of the restaurant.
I held my breath, sneaked over to the back door, and slowly opened it.
Through the crack, I caught a glimpse of a man cooking in the kitchen. At first glance, everything seemed normal, but my face contorted in disgust.
‘Ugh, what the heck is that?’
The kitchen floor was teeming with rats the size of my paw.
They were gnawing on vegetables everywhere, making a mess in the soup pot. As someone with modern sensibilities, it was an unacceptable level of filth.
‘So, this world lacks food hygiene regulations? That explains why there were no customers apart from us.’
Squeak.
Just then, a rat scurried out through the crack I had opened. I swiftly pinned its long tail down with my claw.
‘Was that the source of the beast smell?’
I sniffed the rat, trying to see if the scent I picked up from the chef came from this rodent.
But all I could detect was the smell of vegetables and grass.
What puzzled me the most was that the scent from the chef had an oddly familiar note to it.
The problem was the faintness of the smell made it hard to identify.
Squeak. Squeak…!
The rat wiggled desperately beneath my claw. Just then, Yingyi, who had been clutching my neck, pounced on the rat in my hand.
— Gyuuiing…!
Yingyi’s squirming caught me by surprise, and I struggled to separate Yingyi from the rat.
— Hey, that’s not food! Yizhi, Yizhi!
— Yihing…!
But by the time I managed to set Yingyi down, the rat I had been holding had vanished.
‘Yingyi just ate a rat…!’
Seeing Cloudring, who had only been fed fruits and fresh vegetables, devour a whole rat left me utterly shocked.
I could only imagine how I would feel if my pet cat or dog caught a cockroach.
— Grrr.
Yingyi emitted a rumbling growl, shaking as if preparing for something big.
The bright blue of Yingyi’s body darkened ominously like a storm cloud.
— Grrrr!
A charge of energy—or whatever you might call it—crackled around Yingyi.
Something unusual was clearly about to happen, so I cautiously extended my claw towards Yingyi.
— Hey, calm down. Calm down.
Crackle.
— Whoa, what a shock.
The moment my claw touched Yingyi’s dark cloud-like body, a jolt surged through my paw. The static made every hair on my body stand on end, sending chills down my spine.
Just as I was flustered by the tingling in my paw, Yingyi launched herself high into the air like a rubber ball bouncing off the floor.
— Gyuuiing!
Entering the restaurant’s kitchen, Yingyi began attacking the rats on the floor with intimidating growls.
“What the heck! Where did this little one come from?”
The chef, focused on his cooking, was thrown into a panic at the sight of Yingyi.
“Get out of here, you little beast…!”
The chef grabbed a kn*fe from the cutting board and pointed it at Yingyi.
Unable to just stand by, I rushed into the kitchen and swung my paw. The chef crumpled to the floor before even letting out a scream.
— Yingyi!
— Are you full now?
— Gyuuiing.
That reminded me I hadn’t fed Yingyi fruit in a while. Looks like the feeding schedule comes up quickly.
‘No matter how hungry you are, eating a rat is a bit…’
I shook my head at the now-rat-free kitchen.
Feeling satisfied, Yingyi returned to her light blue color and snuggled back into the nape of my neck.
Glancing at the chef sprawled on the ground and the cooking pot, I clicked my tongue. I couldn’t serve food that had been frolicked with by rats to people, so I tossed all the dishes out through the back door.
In that instant, the rats that had been hiding everywhere seized the opportunity and rushed in to feast on the food.
Squeak.
— Gyuuiing.
As Yingyi began to react again, I hastily shut the kitchen door.
The sounds of rattling feet and squeaking cries grew louder and more chaotic outside the wooden door.
‘There are a lot of rats.’
If only I could get a cat or dog to deal with them, but it seemed the only beasts roaming this village were rats.
I made my way through the passage connecting to the kitchen and entered the main hall of the restaurant.
Batus and the others, who had been seated at a table waiting for their food, spotted me and acknowledged my presence.
“What’s up? Alpha, why are you coming out of there?” Vitali asked.
I spat on the floor and replied.
— This place’s cooking is horrendously filthy. From the plates to the pots, the rats are everywhere. Eating that would make you sick.
“What are you talking about?”
Vitali didn’t understand me, but Batus and Leaf frowned heavily. Batus looked as if he was deep in thought, resting his chin on the table.
“Hmm….”
— The entire village is just… off. We should leave quickly, and it’s not just because I was kicked out of the shop.
Instead of responding verbally, Batus stood up from his seat. He slowly walked towards the kitchen to check things out.
After examining the rat droppings scattered everywhere, he clicked his tongue in annoyance.
“No matter how poorly managed the kitchen is, there are too many rats. I’m fine, but anyone who eats this would be dead in no time.”
The “anyone” he referred to was probably Shuleiman.
Batus examined the chef’s neck, sprawled on the floor.
Maybe he wanted to confirm something, because he began to undress the chef’s shirt.
— What’s this?
Looking at the chef’s upper body revealed a series of scars, countless marks standing out like scales on his bony frame.
“These are bite marks from rats. You’re right, Alpha. This place is anything but ordinary. We should leave before anything goes wrong.”
Batus covered the chef with his shirt and got back on his feet.
Crash.
At that moment, a huge commotion erupted from the restaurant’s main hall.
“Ahhh! What is that!”
*
The restaurant hall was covered in what looked like a black fur carpet. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t a carpet at all but rather a massive swarm of squeaky rats.
Vitali, Shuleiman, and Leaf stood on the table, looking down and screaming in embarrassment.
— There are too many rats!
Leaf was kicking at the rats trying to climb onto the table.
Trapped on the table, unable to move, they resembled a deserted island precariously floating amid a black tide.
“It’s too late now,” Batus said, reaching for the great sword strapped to his back. But perhaps realizing it was too confined here, he pulled out a dagger from his waist and readied himself.
Squeak. Squeak, squeak!
The rats began to swarm towards me and Batus.
Some were the size of fists, while others were as big as an adult man’s forearm—definitely not a pleasant sight.
Their red eyes and sharp front teeth made my stomach churn.
— You little rats, do you know who you’re messing with…!
I swiped my tail across the ground like a frantic broom, sending dozens of rats soaring through the air.
But as I had just mentioned, they surged in like a wave, and one swat with my tail wouldn’t keep them at bay for long.
— Hey, do something!
I continued sweeping aside the rats with my tail and urged Batus.
The suspicious human, Batus, must know a thing or two about dealing with this rat fiasco, given how strong he seemed.
“Hmm!”
Batus returned the dagger to its sheath and grabbed Yingyi, perched atop my head.
— Gyuuiing.
“Alpha, keep them busy for a moment!”
With that, Batus began to rub Yingyi in his hands repeatedly.
— Gyuuiing!
— Hey, what are you doing!?
“W-What’s the plan, Boss!?”
Vitali, pale-faced, looked at us.
The pile of rats stacked up at the table was approaching like a tsunami, ready to bury Vitali, Leaf, and Shuleiman in their path.
If things continued like this, they would soon be chewed to bits without a trace.
‘Looks like I have no choice but to take care of this myself.’
I leaped briefly into the air and unleashed the special move I had recently acquired.
— P-Purge Sphere!
Perhaps due to the ceiling blocking my high jump, my speed and rotational power decreased, but it should still be enough to deal a good amount of damage to the rats.
Squeak!
Sizzle!
My body swiped across the rats like a spiked chariot going through them mercilessly.
As I felt the rats explode against my body, Batus shouted loudly.
“Everyone, close your eyes!”
— Gyuuiing…!
With Yingyi’s rising cry, a flash of light abruptly filled the restaurant hall.
When I regained my senses and opened my eyes, charred rats lay scattered on the ground, screaming in agony.
“Perhaps they’re too small—unlike Eve, I can’t completely obliterate them all.”
Batus kicked the rat remains off the floor and approached the table.
Yingyi, floating in the air, seemed to have used up all her energy, fluttering like a broken kite before nesting into Leaf’s arms.
— Wow, did you do this?
Leaf exclaimed brightly, looking at Yingyi cradled in her arms.
The electricity released from Yingyi had both incinerated the rats and wreaked havoc in the restaurant.
‘Didn’t they say clouds could do whatever they want?’
I recalled Cloudring’s attributes mentioned by Sungseong and Judah.
“Batus, do you know what the heck just happened? Why did the rats suddenly go berserk?”
The old gentleman, Shuleiman, adjusted his spectacles and wiped the sweat off his neck and forehead with a handkerchief.
Batus began to clear away the rats lying dead at the table with his legs.
“This seems like some sorcery or spell. There must be someone in this village who doesn’t want us around. Let’s get out of here quickly.”
“Y-Yes, that sounds good.”
Shuleiman grimaced as he glanced at the pile of dead rats stacked in one corner. The smell of the burnt flesh wafted from the crisped rats.
‘Can I eat this?’
I picked up a small rat with the tip of my claw.
Since it had been instantaneously cooked due to the high temperature, the fur was messy, and the flesh looked nicely browned—it actually didn’t seem half bad.
As I gulped it down, it slid down my throat straight into my belly.
‘No experience points gained.’
Apparently, the rats didn’t yield any experience points. So, I figured I didn’t need to force myself to eat it with a disgusted face.
“Let’s hurry and get out of here.”
“Of course, that’s what we plan to do, old man.”
Shuleiman and Batus flung open the restaurant door wide.
“Ugh…”
“Curse those hunting sc*m…!”
At that moment, the villagers—foaming at the mouth—came rushing toward the restaurant. With their eyes rolled back, it was clear they weren’t in their right minds.
Some of them had been smiling brightly and carrying straw bundles just a few hours earlier.
Their rusted pickaxes and axes looked menacing.
‘What’s going on? Is this because of me?’
I began to suspect that this mess might stem from me having downed the chef. There didn’t seem to be any other reasonable explanation for the chaos unfolding.
Batus pushed back the humans trying to charge in and shut the restaurant door again.
“Are they controlling not just rats but also humans? Looks like we’re dealing with a big player. First, we need to figure out what to do and then get out of here.”
Bang, bang, bang! The sound of pounding on the door grew louder. Shuleiman and Batus barricaded the entrance with nearby knocked-over wooden tables.
As Shuleiman adjusted his spectacles, he spoke cautiously, “If it’s sorcery, I know a thing or two about it. To activate such a broad and encompassing sorcery, the caster must be positioned nearby.”
“So if we take out that caster, will that fix things?”
Vitali asked, and Shuleiman shrugged his shoulders.
“I can’t say for sure, but it should help. However, that caster will likely be hiding in a sneaky and mystic location. It won’t be easy to find them.”
“Then what do we do?”
Shuleiman offered no response to Vitali’s dishearted inquiry. It seemed even the wisdom of an old man found no clear solutions.
‘Could this be related to The Ancient Nest and the mention of a long-tailed hideout?’
I began to think that maybe I could turn this turmoil around.
The only thing that came to mind was the faint scent of beast I had picked up from the chef.
