“I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!”

“Dummy why are you screaming?!”

Sitting up Urist body was covered in sweat. Eye unfocused, he began to touch his chest, then his face trying to assure himself everything was alright. After spending a short while on checking his surroundings he exhaled and inhaled slowly trying to regain composure.

By now all the males in the room were awake rubbing their eyes and scratching their bellies bewildered what all the fuss was about. The most worried was Uria who grabbed Urist’s shoulders with concern, it took Urist sometime to be aware that everyone was staring at him.

He waved them off, “It’s nothing, guess it was just a dream, just a terrible dream is all don’t worry. Anyways it’s time to get to work, let’s get going alright?”

Forger Hot raised an eyebrow at the ghastly expression Urist had as he tried to get up and decided to speak his mind.

“Boss are you really alright? If you wanna talk about it we’re here for you.”

Forcing a smile Urist left Uria laying in the leaf blanket, “I’ve already forgotten the dream just something stupid to be scared of is all. Come on! Let’s get this day on the road. Uria can I leave it to you again to introduce the new blood?”

“Yeah, I can, but are you really alright?”

Now that he had some time to gather himself Urist put on a smile making a fist and pounding his chest lightly, “Fit as a fiddle! Rat, Emu, Elrish, and Fatty let’s get ready for the expedition! Let’s head out in about twenty minutes does that sound ok?”

“Ok…?”

“Good! Then I’ll leave it to you guys to get the others up. I’ll head out to the gate first.”

Leaving the confused and worried dwarfs behind Urist ran away with a somber expression trying to etch all his saw in his dream. It was vivid and brutal to the extreme tens of thousands of shadows rushing at the wall full of killing intent.

The walls falling.

His hands covered in blood.

Everyone dying around him.

Then being feasted upon by the shadows.

Clenching his fists he knew this wasn’t a dream he made up in the spur of his worries.

It was too real for it not to be.

The blood, sweat, and cries of agony he heard were something he couldn’t ignore. His gut feeling hadn’t let him down so far since coming to this strange place. Getting his gear in place his thoughts started turning in what the dream meant.

If I assume it as a vision then it’ll mean that everything we’re doing isn’t enough to win. With that thought what was the best way to survive this predicament? We could burn down the forest to stop the bamboo from growing and drive the rats away. But thinking of the long term loss of not having nearby wood to use, a loss of animals living in the area, and having no good means to control the fire wasn’t the best idea.

Maybe I could spike the traps with poison in hopes of killing off rats in droves since they have been eating each other. No that won’t work, we might kill a few rats, but the poison might spread to other animals.

Also, remembering Vlad’s story it’s a given that kings grew smarter with growth so once he pulled his hand using the poison it would react by throwing such bodies away. If that was the case then such passive poison shouldn’t be used to fight against such rats. Instead, we’ll need a poison that activates on skin contact and only used as a final trump card.

But even if I buy a lot of poison on the market I still don’t think it’ll be enough to avoid such a disaster.

Making up his mind he spent fifty points on the market on a book about all things rats and began to read. Information is power and knowing your enemy is one of the keys to winning any battle.

He read his new book while waiting for the group to get ready and head out. In the book, it is said that compared to all mammals on earth they are the second most successful mammal in the world. The only one who they are behind is humans which made Urist pretty amazed at such a bold statement inside the book.

The more he read the more amazing he found out amazing rats on earth were. Their teeth are said to be stronger than steel and their reproduction isn’t something you can’t look away. He already knew that they had high birth rates, but now knowing how many they can give birth to is ridiculous.

Reading through the pages of information he found that it was mostly about ordinary facts, nothing about killing rats or their weak points. It wouldn’t be that hard to kill a rat from earth any blunt object could get the job done.

‘Only these aren’t ordinary rats, they are being led by a king so this info is useless, to say the least. Maybe learning about kings is better than learning about the creature?’

Using that line of thought he decided to buy on the subject of what in-depth was a king bloodline. Looking at the books cost he rolled his eyes and thought someone was really fucking with him.

‘Three thousand points? And that's only for basic coverage of what king bloodlines are? I might as well learn from Vlad then spend points uselessly on this information.’

With a sigh, Urist threw the book near the wall and decided to recheck his gear. By then everyone was ready to head out for the expedition, opening the gate Urist frowned at what he saw. The sizes of the rats were of varying sizes with the larger ones being around the size of his kneecaps. If it was just that he wouldn’t have been unnerved, what threw him off was the number in front of him easily surpassing one hundred rats.

“Maybe I’ll really need to burn the forest down…”