Chương 107: The Stolen Treasure

The spiked mace was almost upon Susanne's forehead. Her eyes widened at the Ratkin's sheer speed. Didn't Natalie tell her that the enemy's strength would be on par with her own? However, this speed clearly indicated the Ratkin's strength was definitely double hers. Caught in the surprise attack, and with the fire ball in her hand only halfway through materialization, she had no other option. She moved her body to the side and used the half-formed fire ball to deflect the landing mace. Boom!

A shockwave went through her whole right hand as she fell to the side, narrowly deflecting the attack that would have killed her. Her right hand started to shiver. The half-formed fire ball only helped to stop half of the force, and the other half directly landed on her palm.

"Please listen to me! Do you think I am one of them? Whatever those people from the forest did to you, I am not aware of it. Please, let's have a conversation," Susanne quickly said, trying to make the Ratkin listen, since he almost seemed like a rational person. However, her words were like strands of wool floating through the air; they did not reach the Ratkin's ears. He didn't stop for even a second as he moved quickly, raising the mace high to split Susanne's head in two.

Seeing that rational conversation was not working, Susanne pushed her legs back, once again narrowly avoiding having her feet crushed by the attack. She scrambled to her feet and quickly put some distance between herself and the Ratkin. Looking at him, she could clearly see the rage still on his face. Any more talk would yield no results. She would have to do battle with him, but the question was whether she could defeat him with her strength. Currently, Susanne had no Core Layer, nor did she inherit any Affinity.

She had to use her Innate Abilities to fight. She had awakened with two Innate Abilities, one of which was [Fire Ball]. This was the main Ability she used for combat. She could manifest at least 10 to 15 fire balls before using all her stamina. Therefore, it was her only Ability that could be used in a long-term battle. Her second Ability was [Ignition Void]. She had used this Ability only once in battle, back when they were ambushed by a [Blind Hunk Boar]. It was her only strong Ability.

It would create a rapid vacuum in space and ignite it, creating a strong shockwave explosion that knocked the enemy away. Although this was her strongest attack, its biggest disadvantage was that the Ability consumed almost all of her stamina, leaving her like an immovable object. If the enemy were not defeated by that attack, she would become a sitting duck waiting to be killed. Looking back, she somewhat regretted refusing the Elemental Affinity Inheritance from her family.

She should have bitten down her pride and accepted it, even though the Affinity Inheritance Core was of a low standard. However, she had thought she deserved better and that she would obtain what she needed through her own hard work. Thus, she could blame no one but herself for this predicament of hers. When she had used this skill for the first time on an enemy, it hardly did any damage to the Hunk Boar. However, the strength of an adult Hunk Boar was double that of the Ratkin she was facing right now.

Therefore, the Ability would definitely help her defeat him. While calculating when to use it, she moved quickly as the mace descended toward her head. Although the speed was manageable, the Ratkin's persistence made it hard for her to deflect his attacks. A [Fire Ball] collided with the spiked mace. Following an explosion, Susanne was sent flying once again. Currently, she was just trying to survive for a few more moments.

Because the [Ignition Void] Ability used all her stamina, its power would definitely cripple the Ratkin, if not kill him. She wanted to subdue him, not kill him. She wanted to know why he had called her a Traitor, or why he called the people of his race traitors. She felt there was more to this issue than met the eye. While Susanne struggled in battle, Natalie sat near a crack in the stone wall, munching on a tuberous root. Susanne's actions greatly disappointed her.

She was supposed to kill that thing with a surprise attack, but instead, she was talking to it. She knew it was a waste of time and energy. If Susanne were killed, she was ready to run away from this place. While Natalie was planning to abandon Susanne if things went south, Susanne held her palms together, created a big, combined Fire Ball, and hurled it toward the Ratkin. While the Ratkin was evading the attack, she put her palms close together and activated her Ability.

As soon as she did, a terrifying weight fell on her, trying to collapse her. However, she held her feet firm and maintained her position. The ambient oxygen within a five-meter radius was violently sucked toward Susanne's palms. Inside Susanne's palms, a swirling white mist gathered to the size of a golf ball. Stolen story; please report. Susanne was unable to control the violent nature of this mist ball. When she was at the absolute limit of her control, she released the white mist ball.

It surged forward, and when the Ratkin was a mere inch away from the ball, it exploded with a terrifying shockwave. The blast sent a terrifying force in every direction. The Ratkin, who was an inch away from the blast, was caught at the center. His body was sent flying, spinning in the air at weird angles multiple times before landing at the stone wall and falling to the ground. Meanwhile, Susanne was already on her knees.

The energy she needed to create this explosive blast was enormous; it had spent all of her stamina. Now, she was almost crippled. If the Ratkin was not knocked out and managed to stand up, then it would be over for Susanne. She breathed heavily as sweat drenched her whole body. After noticing the Ratkin did not stand up, she sat down on the floor, trying to calm herself.

"You should have done this in the first place," Natalie said, sitting near Susanne's battered body.

"Did that thing die?" she asked nonchalantly. Susanne genuinely doubted that Natalie had the comprehension capacity to realize that they were both of the same race. She was a rat, and that person was a Ratkin, yet she was hell-bent on killing him. Maybe the Trial is doing this to her nature? she thought as she slowly recovered her stamina. After taking a few moments of rest, she slowly stood up. She felt that if she delayed, the Ratkin would wake up and start attacking.

He needed to be subdued while he was still unconscious. She quickly rummaged through the bark bag the Ratkin elder had given her to carry the provisions. She quickly found a bark rope. She quickly walked to the spot where the Ratkin had crash-landed. There, she saw his body lying on the ground without moving. She neared him and knelt down by his face. She wanted to check the iron collar that was bound around his neck. Is this the collar the deity put on them to make them slaves? Susanne speculated.

It looked almost plain, until she saw a symbol etched at the back of the neck. Looking closely, it looked like a crown. Susanne was not surprised by this, since it was obviously the deity's doing. Ignoring the collar, she quickly used the sturdy bark rope to bind the Ratkin's legs and hands. Once she had done that, she sat a few meters away and relaxed for a while. Since the danger was now subdued, she could relax without agitation.

"What are you waiting for? Let's move out before he wakes up and signals the others," Natalie urged, wanting Susanne to run away from the tunnel before more enemies noticed them.

"Give me a second. I want to gather some information from him." Susanne did not act as Natalie wanted. She simply took her time and acted on her own.

"I am telling you, this attitude will definitely put us in danger sooner or later," Natalie strictly warned her. Susanne simply nodded without rebutting her. After a minute of relaxing, the Ratkin still did not wake up. As time was ticking, Susanne stood up and woke him up. The Ratkin woke up from his unconsciousness. At first, he was calm, but when he realized his situation, he went into a frenzy. He tried to break free from the restrictions, but the bark rope was sturdy; he could not easily break free.

Once he realized he could not break free, he calmed down and looked at Susanne.

"I will ask a few questions; please answer me truly. Your answers may free you all, or you will have to live your lives like this," Susanne demanded the truth.

"When you said 'Traitor,' what did that mean? Did you call the people who live in the forest traitors? If so, what did they do?" Susanne asked her questions directly, without going in circles.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" The Ratkin did not answer her questions; instead, he asked a question back to her.

"My name is Susanne Gielgud. I am here to free you all from the deity that cursed you all." Susanne again did not beat around the bush as she directly stated her intentions.

"You cannot do that. You are not strong enough. If you want to free us, you have to go back and bring back a treasure that was stolen from the deity. Then, we will be freed. Until then, you can do nothing but die," the Ratkin declared. This made Susanne confused. A treasure was stolen from the deity?

"What kind of treasure are you talking about?" Susanne asked.

"I do not know. I only know that, a long time ago, some people stole something from the deity. If you really want to save us from this, we need that treasure." He continued to insist she bring back the treasure.

"Does this treasure contain some drawing?" Susanne asked, as she started to put the pieces together.

"You know about the drawing?" Suddenly, shock appeared on the Ratkin's face.

"Yes, I know about the drawing. Is the drawing the treasure?" she asked.

"Yes. The deity sent some people to retrieve this treasure, promising that if they brought the treasure back, they would free everyone of our people. But those people eventually betrayed us. They ran away, taking the treasure with them and leaving us to suffer in this place." The Ratkin's face raged with anger as he talked about the people who betrayed them. Instead of helping them using the drawing, they fled, saving only a few people and leaving everyone else behind.

Hearing about the drawing, Susanne once again pieced things together and formed a scenario of what could have happened. When the deity turned the rats into humanoid figures for some purpose, she must have given certain Ratkin a command or quest to retrieve a particular treasure, promising to free them all in return. However, upon discovering the drawing, perhaps those Ratkin interpreted it as a prophecy.

Witnessing the cruelty of the deity, they must have realized that even if they handed over the treasure, she would not free them. If she knew about the prophecy, she would have destroyed it, making the Ratkin people forever slaves. Realizing this, they must have fled with this drawing, waiting for the prophecy to come true. Therefore, when she arrived at the gazebo, they thought the prophecy had come true, showing the drawing to her as proof and sending her to free the people.

Thinking about this Trial, she did not know if it was real or just a made-up story for this specific Trial. She was uncertain about that. However, the true objective of the Trial was to free them, whether they were real beings suffering for centuries or just made-up things acting as a hallucination for the Trial. She did not care. She would do what was necessary and complete this Trial.