Chapter 233 - The Rat King (Part One) (1/2)
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[Base Cla.s.s and Archon Abilities have been disabled]
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Nix sat up slowly, his head throbbing in agony. He was sitting on a metal-framed bed with springs that squeaked in protest when he moved. He had blacked out the moment they activated the Octagon.
[Dragon Eyes]
Nix's eyes turned dark orange in the darkness causing him to smile despite his circ.u.mstances. Dragon Eyes was a gift from Vooni and didn't fall into the category of Base or Archon Cla.s.s. The smile quickly faded when he discovered that there were a half-dozen other occupants in the cell with him, all of them were rats.
Nix quickly spotted Ducky and the three members of the Qi family. Ducky was still laying down on what Nix a.s.sumed was a bed. The small stature of the Qi family made them easy to identify, they were already up and pacing.
The cell itself was a 10-foot square with bars on all sides, there were no torches or light of any kind. two buckets hung from a bracket attached to the bars. ”Ain't this f*cking great? I'm back in jail.”
”Nix?” The voice of Uta carried into his cell.
”You guys okay?” Nix moved closer to the bars and gripped them in his hand.
”Yes, Ducky is still out.” The worry in Uta's voice made Nix's opinion of him raise quite a bit.
”I can see that.” Nix walked around the cell, checking every bar for looseness. He was substantially stronger than most humans if he could find a loose one...
”Do you have Night vision Nix?” Sasi was talking while she chased a rat around her cell, she caught it almost immediately and bit the head off.
”Thermal vision.” Nix felt a wave of nausea come over him, was that his dinner also?
One of the buckets on the wall held what Nix guessed to be clean water, the other smelled like something he had no interest in picking up. He used the small tin cup that was in the bucket to take a drink. It was lukewarm and tasted like it had been in the bucket too long.
Sasi watched him curiously, the rat still in her hand. He walked to the door of his cell and started banging his cup against the bars. ”What are you doing Nix?”
Nix ran the cup across the bars a few more times and then stopped. ”Sorry... always wanted to try that.” He shrugged and started examining the floor in his cell. The tiles were made of stone; they were tightly fitted and cemented in place. ”Hey, Sasi... Can I have that rat?”
Sasi stared at the rat in her hands. ”I was about to eat it.” She sighed heavily and tossed it to him when he extended his arms through the bars.
He caught the rat and gave her a thumbs up. He started back toward his bed but stopped. ”Where's the head?”
Sasi frowned in disgust, ”the head isn't good to eat Nix.”
”Please?”
Sasi looked around her cell for a moment before finding the head. ”It's a little chewed up.” She tossed it into his cell. ”What are you doing Nix?”
Nix looked up, he was pulling the straw stuffing out of his mattress. ”Got any metal? Hair clip or belt buckle?”
”I do!” Rabi removed a small belt and threw it at Nix, he watched the human remove the buckle from the belt. The sound of metal grinding against stone carried in the darkness.
”You're sharpening it?” Uta finally took an interest in Nix's activities.
”Yes. Don't kill any more rats please.” Nix slowly began to file down the edge of the buckle.
After a few minutes of work, he felt the edge was pa.s.sable. He took the ill-smelling bucket down from the bars and sat it on the floor next to him. Slowly he started to skin the rat.
Sasi licked her lips from her cell, the smell of fresh rat meat made her regret giving it to him. ”Can I have a piece?”
Nix nodded his head and continued working; the skin broke in several places and other times came away with large chunks of meat attached. He was more than half finished when he received the message.
[Skin the Nether Rat?]
”Yes.”
A neatly skinned pelt appeared on the floor next to the bare rat carca.s.s.
Your Taxidermy Skill has improved to 2.
Nix walked to the door of his cell and tossed the Rat carca.s.s across the hallway to Sasi. ”Gonna need some more rats, please. As many as you can catch.”
He walked back to the bed and used the buckle blade to slice open his mattress. He pulled out large bunches of straw and placed them on the floor. Then he cut a few strips of the fabric off and starting unraveling the thread. In the background, he could hear the miserable squealing of rats as they were caught and killed by the Qi family.
Nix folded the mattress in half and examined the springs with his fingers. He could feel the rust on them and after a minute of bending back and forth felt it heat up in his hand; a sure sign that it was about to break. When it finally snapped he sat on the floor and used the rough stone to sharpen the end to a point.”
Nix placed the rat pelt, the straw, the broken spring, and the cotton string carefully on the floor. In his head, he pictured what the Taxidermist Queue should look like.
[Outer Layer: Rat Pelt] [Inner fill: Straw] [Tools Required: Needle [Modified Steel Spring], Knife [Sharpened Belt Buckle] Thread [Cotton Thread]
As soon as he placed them all together, Nix received the message he'd been looking for.
Create a Rat Mannequin?
”Yes.”
Your Taxidermy Skill has improved to 3