Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 203: The Bone-Claw Ability Users

Good grief.

Did these people have working brains?

George was assessing them quickly and talking at the same time. "Friends, there's been a misunderstanding — what I meant by trade is that we become friends. We supply you with dried rat meat. You let us live on your hunting grounds. This arrangement, yes? You follow?"

He gestured as expansively as he could, concerned they might not understand words alone.

Fortunately, this time both the Bone-Claws and the Bull-type managed to follow the idea.

The Bull-type actually started laughing — a raspy, grating sound coming from deep in its chest.

"Tom the Cat! He's saying he wants to be our slave!"

Slave. Of all the—

George swallowed it. He kept the smile in place and waited for whatever came next.

The one apparently called Cat Tom frowned. "You're strong. Why would you be a slave?""Because we need somewhere to live. That building — very good, we like it very much. When it rains, we don't have to lick ourselves dry." George did his best to explain, absurd as it sounded.

Cat Tom accepted this completely. "Mrrr. We hate rain too. We live in a cave. We like sunbathing. Still — if you want to live in our hunting ground, every Moon Fall, you provide two clawfuls of rats. If the count is wrong, that means war."

He extended both hands by way of demonstration. George counted carefully. One, two, three... ten fingers. That was quite a lot of claws.

"Agreed — I promise. But can I ask you something first? I'd like to know: are there other gods like the Rat God anywhere nearby? Further out? My group also hopes to find gods who might offer us their protection..."

This time, all three — both Bone-Claw types and the Bull-type — went quiet. More than quiet: there was something wounded in the silence.

George didn't understand, but he waited.

After a long pause, Cat Tom spoke. "Mrrr. There used to be many gods. When I was small, there were many. Even many many Moon Falls ago, so many — we had to hide in the cave, didn't dare look, didn't dare show our heads. But over time the gods got fewer and fewer. They seem to have gone somewhere very far away. Even our Cat God left. Before she left, she told us this was our hunting ground. She said she had arranged things with the Rat God — we were allowed to come, but we must not make noise. Stay on the edges. Every Moon Fall, only take two clawfuls of rats. Any more, and the Rat God would be angered."

"What about your parents?" George couldn't help asking.

"Mrrr... what is that? Can it be eaten?"

George went quiet.

The picture had come clear. This world's collapse hadn't been two or three years ago. It had been ten, maybe more. The magical radiation had given the survivors powerful abilities — but it had also steadily eroded their capacity for higher reasoning. Though the weaker the Ability User, perhaps the greater the cognitive damage; the stronger ones might function more normally.

And the 'gods' Cat Tom described — they would be Four-Star or higher mutated creatures or Ability Users, all of whom had apparently departed for regions of denser magical radiation. Exactly what he'd speculated.

Which also meant: when the magical radiation surged again, those powerful entities would likely return — like a tide pulling back in.

'That's the Monster Siege plotline. Six months from now, the curtain might start rising on that.'

Having understood this much, George said calmly: "Wait here. I can bring you some rats right now."

Today, Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue had both been hunting mutant rats through the fringes of the area all day — carefully, not overextending, but each probably accounting for around fifteen kills. That was fifteen Contribution each. Better returns than most other activities.

He returned to the building, checked in with Liang Yuzhi on her night watch, and went up to the fourth floor, where he retrieved a skewer of his share of dried rat. This was his by right — family property included each member's food share, whether or not he'd eaten it.

He went back the way he'd come — and found no sign of the three Ability Users.

He walked a bit further out. Still nothing. He thought about it, then laid the bundle of dried rat on the road surface and walked away quickly.

When he'd gone a hundred-odd meters and looked back, he caught exactly one flash of Cat Tom's shadowy figure darting away.

'Fine. You eat well now. Next time I have to fight you, I won't feel bad about it.'

George let out a quiet breath and headed back.

Today his Family Contribution was 0, bringing his cumulative total to 200. Liang Yuzhi had 92. Li Yue had 106. The gap was narrowing.

He didn't particularly care. This wasn't a game dungeon where the mob respawned overnight. Those two clever women thought they were being strategic — carefully farming the outer edges, acting like careful operators. But at the rate they were going, the mutant rat population was going to decline. And the Four-Star Rat King was watching in the dark, memorizing their faces.

'I'm not wishing them harm. I just hope they understand that gambling is wrong, and back-alley shortcuts are also wrong.'

That night, George roasted more rat jerky. His Resource Card's clean water supply ran completely dry.

The night passed without incident. Outside the ruined town, everything was quiet — except for the far southern edge, furthest from the camp, where two dark silhouettes occasionally flashed across the ruins, bone claws clutching squeaking mutant rats, and the sound of faint meowing echoed somewhere in the dark.

When dawn came, George was first to the rooftop. Today's dew harvest was even better than yesterday's — warmer temperatures the previous day had increased evaporation and thus moisture content in the air.

A third went down his own throat; the rest went to Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue.

"Auntie, you mentioned you were thinking about assembling a handcart. Any progress on that?"

The question was also a gentle hint: step away from the rat-hunting and do something more constructive. A blast furnace for smelting steel would do.

"Xiao Wei, don't rush me, your auntie is still thinking through the approach."

Liang Yuzhi parried him smoothly. Two old foxes, there was no point pulling out the ghost stories. You think I'm doing something wrong?

We decided to use this ruined town as our camp. The rubble needs to be cleared. The perimeter wall needs to go up. You can't farm on roof tiles — that rooftop plot of yours is laughably small — and as long as the ground is uncleared, the Rat King has places to ambush from. We're only working the hardened road surface on the outer edges. Let it try its underground tricks there. Twenty Contribution a day won't walk away that easily.

And we were always going to deal with the Rat King eventually. When you kill mutant rats it's righteous and necessary; when we do it, it's dangerous and irresponsible?

Not a chance.

"Then I won't bother you, Auntie." George said nothing more and packed up to head northeast. The well water should have settled by now — he desperately needed a water source.

He activated his Blood Crow scout at Level 2 and made a systematic survey of both sides of the highway as he walked. Nothing. Quiet. No sign of the three Ability Users.

He called the Blood Crow back and made directly for the well. He didn't rush to draw water — first he cleared the mud around the shaft with a shovel and piled soil barriers on the exposed sides to prevent runoff and contamination. Then he hauled stones over from the area — big chunks of old asphalt, road edging slabs that had been upended — and built up a circular stone collar around the well shaft.

At each ring of height, he packed earth all around outside.

He worked until midday. By the time he was done, the mouth of the well sat level with the surrounding ground.

He looked it over, released the Blood Crow to watch, and made his way down the rough stone interior wall hand-by-hand to the water surface. He began filling containers.

A Resource Card couldn't hold water directly — it required vessels. He'd brought twenty liters' worth of containers, which gave him four bottles of surplus.

He climbed up and down several times, filling twenty liters of still-murky-but-genuinely-serviceable well water.

He chose not to use the Resource Card for the water bottles. The One-Star Resource Card had a limit of one hundred withdrawals total, one unit at a time. Five liters of water: one unit. Five kilograms of grain: also one unit. The Noble Crest Armor: two units. Inefficient to burn the count on water runs if it could be avoided.

He then cut several large branches from nearby trees and laid them over the well mouth as a cover. Not to protect against sabotage — to stop any animals from falling in and contaminating the source.

And almost precisely as he finished, a silent message appeared:

【You have constructed a crude and murky well using somewhat primitive methods. You have gained 100 Construction Experience. Donate to the family?】

【You have chosen to donate this crude murky well to the family. Although it is a full two kilometers from the camp, it addresses an urgent shortage of water at a critical moment. You receive a 50% donation bonus: 20 + 50% × 20 = 30 Contribution. Cumulative total: 225 Contribution.】

【Family Fixed Assets have increased. Maximum total earnable Contribution has risen to 850 points.】

—

Not bad at all.

George allowed himself a quiet smile. Then he shouldered his tools, picked up the four water containers, and set off back. Right now, he missed the backpack from the Rookie Mission more than he could say. Unfortunately, there was no way to bring it through.

Over those four months, prioritizing Destiny Grid advancement had meant no opportunity to buy a One-Star pack.

By the time he returned to the Scavenger Camp, it was around two in the afternoon. Liang Yuzhi and Li Yue were still methodically working the outer edges of the town — clearing rubble and hunting rats. Their combined kill count for the day so far: twelve. Yesterday each had managed fifteen individually.

The mutant rats were no fools either. Half-evolved creatures with a sense of pattern recognition had apparently decided the game was changing.