Chương 104: A Door to Knowledge

Sitting on the edge of the old, weathered tree stump was a small Rat. It looked straight into Susanne's eyes. Susanne was truly shocked. Seeing the rat, she thought she was hallucinating. Did it just speak? She was sure she had heard a human voice, and it had come directly from the direction of the sitting rat. She looked around to see if any human was standing behind or to the side of the stump, but she could see nothing but the rat. Would it be weird if I were to ask the rat who just spoke? she thought.

She felt embarrassed by this action. However, since no one was around her, there would be no embarrassment in talking to animals. Thus, pushing her awkwardness aside, she finally asked.

"Did you just speak to me?"

"Of course, I spoke to you. Who else is here?" Susanne heard the answer to her question. Now, she could see that the voice was indeed coming from the rat, and the rat was moving its mouth as the voice rang out. Thus, she was confident that the rat was capable of speaking.

"What are you?" Still in confusion, Susanne asked what kind of animal the talking rat was.

"My name is Natalie Couture. What is your name?" the rat introduced itself to Susanne. However, at that moment, Susanne was taken aback. She knew the name Natalie; it was one of the Herbalist girls who was in the Deep Sleep at the Safe Spot. Suddenly, something clicked in her head. Hadn't her grandmother explained that the people in the Deep Sleep would help her on her Trial, especially in terrain? She could even remember Nickolas asking how they would help them, but her grandmother had refused to reveal that.

"You are Natalie Couture, the Herbalist?" Susanne asked with a bewildered expression. She had never expected that help would arrive in such a way.

"Yes, I am Natalie Couture. But what is an Herbalist?" The rat accepted the name but questioned the profession. Susanne did not answer the question immediately; instead, she thought for a moment. Clearly, Natalie's consciousness that resided within the rat did not remember everything about herself. She could clearly remember her name, yet she had forgotten her profession. However, the real question was whether she should explain everything to her.

No one had given any instructions regarding whether they should reveal these details. She could explain things to this rat, but what would the outcome be? Would it fall to her advantage or her disadvantage? Susanne remained silent for an ample amount of time, prompting Natalie to speak.

"Why are you so silent?" Natalie asked. Snapping out of her own thoughts, Susanne replied, "It is nothing. So, what are you doing here alone?"

"That is a strange question, considering I live here. But the real question is, what are you doing here?" Natalie questioned in return.

"I am trying to find a place called [Pollux]," Susanne stated, revealing what she was doing here. [Pollux] was the location she needed to find. She did not know what this place was, nor did the Ratkin people. They only knew that she would find the deity at this [Pollux].

"Pollux?" Upon hearing this name, Natalie simply stayed still, as if she were trying to think about it.

"Very well. I will try to help you find this place," Natalie said. Hearing this, Susanne was dumbfounded by how Natalie immediately decided to help her, especially without Susanne even asking yet. She was indeed about to ask for help, considering her grandmother's words. They needed to use the terrain to their advantage. The terrain was also important in order to complete the trial, and the beacons that would lead them forward were precisely these people who had fallen into the Deep Sleep.

Yet, she was still surprised by how actively they tried to help her. Is this also the doing of the trial? she thought.

"Why are you suddenly trying to help me? I could be a bad person trying to kill you," Susanne could not help but ask. She wanted to know the reason behind it.

"That, I cannot tell you. I have my own reasons to do this. If you want my help, you can have it; otherwise, we will part here." Natalie did not like that question one bit. Susanne was taken aback by the harsh pushback. Perhaps asking personal questions might lead to unwanted behavior.

"No, no, I want your help. Please help me," Susanne quickly said, trying to calm the rat, Natalie.

"Not a problem. I will help you." The rat, Natalie, quickly dashed and sat on Susanne's shoulder.

"Let us go this way; it is a little easier to walk." The rat, Natalie, pointed to the right side of the direction Susanne had walked previously. Hearing this, Susanne walked. Although she had a lot of questions to ask, she restrained herself and walked toward the pointed direction. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Who is this Roddy you are talking about? My name is not Roddy," a voice spoke to the person in front of it.

"Then what is your name?" Nickolas asked in frustration.

"My name is Roddy."

"That is what I said. Your name is Roddy. Did you forget about it?" Nickolas asked.

"But my name is not Roddy; it is Roddy." The voice insisted on not being called Roddy, but rather, Roddy.

"But aren't both names the same?" Nickolas asked.

"No, the two names have a lot of differences," the voice replied. After Nickolas met with the clan people, he received his Trial. Since he had a short time period, he immediately ventured out. He had asked a few people to come along with him to show the direction to the other clan's settlement, but those people blatantly refused to go with him. They stated that if they were to go with him empty-handed, and those people found out, they would kill all the children.

They had set a rule: unless they brought the ransom they asked for, no one was allowed to enter their territory; otherwise, they should forget about their children. The only clue to finding the clan was a simple location that the elder of the clan had pointed out with his finger. Nickolas walked in that direction for two hours. The terrain was rough with rocks. It was literally all rocks; even the trees were made of rocks. The bushes, the ground, and the grass were all made of rock materials.

It was a very strange place for these people to live. Even the food looked like a rock. Fortunately, it could still be eaten, and it had the taste of the food he used to eat at home. Upon his departure, he had received some provisions from the people for his journey. After walking for two hours, he decided to sit down, relax, and eat some of the nuts they had given him, which tasted exactly like peanuts. It was at this time that he met a talking bird made entirely out of rock.

At first, Nickolas thought it was merely a bird coming to beg for some nuts. However, he was startled when the bird began to speak, casually talking to him. At that moment, he remembered the people who had gone into the Deep Sleep; they were supposed to guide him to his destination. He then realized that this bird was actually his friend, Roddy MacGinnis. Initially, he was overjoyed, thinking he was fortunate to have his friend help him on his first Trial. However, this was not the case.

When he casually spoke about the things that had happened after arriving at the Trial, he discovered that this bird could not remember anything, not even his own name.

"Okay, that is enough. I believe you are not Roddy, but Roddy." Nickolas was fed up with this conversation, as it was not leading anywhere. Since his time was very short, he had to travel quickly to rescue the children.

"So, Roddy, I am new to this place. Could you guide me to the Serato Clan settlement?" Nickolas asked.

"Very well. You seem to have urgent business. I will help you," Roddy agreed.

"Now, give me a few nuts; I am hungry."

His calculations regarding the Faunite Crystals needed to hire a Great Grand Master were not very effective. When the contract was initialized, using exactly 160 Crystals, or around that number, simply did not work. It was then that he learned the quantity required to hire any Status Skeleton was based on its profession, its rarity, and the abilities that came with it. He had spent a total of 410 Faunite Crystals to hire one Great Grand Master Skeleton.

Although this decision was made with great time and care, he still felt an enormous ache in his heart just from spending that much amount. The main reason for this was Mayo. After going out to find more places, Mayo had surprisingly found two more locations that could be mined. However, the tiers these places could yield were only [Trace] and [Moderate]. One more reason for the mountainous contract payment was due to the skeleton's ability to communicate. It was his first talking skeleton.

However, the decision made him more happy than sad, since this skeleton would be his Mentor hereafter. [Worker Status] Name: Cecil Designation: Mentor Specialist: Versatile Professional Status: Great Grand Master Communication: Conversational Monthly Maintenance Cost: 250, 000 Credits Contract Payment: Faunite Crystals After mining for a while, Arthur hired a few Expert Status Miner Skeletons. He greatly restricted himself from spending Faunite Crystals on Miner Skeletons with a higher status, like a Master.

Because he currently did not have any great urgency, he could afford to mine the crystals slowly, spend them slowly, and use the Crystals for other useful skeletons. With these Expert Miner Skeletons taking care of the mining, he decided to learn to master the Faunite Crystal Core. Although his next plan was to learn how to master the Faunite Crystal Core, the urgency and courage to hire a Mentor Skeleton with a huge amount of Crystals came to him while he was striking the rocks.

Back when he was hiding in the Crater Cave chamber, he had suffered an unknown attack. He never knew what had happened, nor did he know what had caused his blood to spill everywhere. At that time, however, he had forgotten to use the Faunite Crystal Core to turn his brain into crystal. It was merely a thought: would he have survived if he had done so? It had not crossed his mind back then. But now, thinking about it calmly, there could have been a chance of surviving that cruel death.

Thus, to protect himself from those kinds of attacks in the future, Arthur decided to master the Faunite Crystal Core. Once he achieved this, he would be able to consume more Faunite Crystal Elixir, granting him a greater chance of survival in the future. Currently, the sun had already set. Although he had not gone outside, he could guess this simply based on the amount of time he had spent inside the chamber. The Luxstone provided enough light to roam freely throughout the tunnel and the chamber.

Errol was doing some cooking in the corner. Meanwhile, sitting in front of Arthur was a skeleton wearing a fancy dark coat decorated all over with intricate silver patterns. Different symbols were also etched across the coat. It glittered as his eyes moved across it, catching the light of the Luxstone. Every Higher Status Skeleton gave off a specific feeling relating to its profession. Similarly, this skeleton gave off the feeling of an elderly scholar. This brought a small joy to his heart.

Since he lacked knowledge about almost everything, he could certainly learn a lot of things from it. As usual, the Great Grand Skeleton possessed its own distinction of finger gem rings. Several chains hung around its neck, featuring pendants that looked like an hourglass, an open eye, and a miniature sword, with a few more hanging against its bony chest. It also wore a headpiece. It was not like an armored helmet, but rather, more like a crown.

Out of all the things this skeleton came with, he was very eager to know what the book hovering over its shoulder did. When he first summoned the skeleton, he was shocked to see the hovering notebook. It certainly made him think about the Notebook he usually saw in the white canvas. However, this one looked like a proper tome. Overall, the skeleton, Cecil, gave off the proper vibe of a mentor. Surprisingly, it did not come with any Ability list. The details did not display any [More Details...] option.

However, that did not matter. He no longer had to remain clueless like before, when his Skeletons were unable to communicate with him. That had all changed now. Cecil was capable of speaking; the enormous amount of Faunite Crystals spent had made this possible. Currently, Arthur had yet to ask the skeleton anything, and the skeleton itself had yet to say a word. Arthur readied himself to ask his first question.

"Cecil, tell me about yourself," Arthur asked, with great joy in his heart and a smile on his face.