Silence. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Around him, there was a scene of carnage.

Underneath his feet, a pool of blood sloshed. So much blood that the grass squished underneath his boots. Fifty feet away, a pile of rat corpses was stacked on top of each other as if at the end, the rats had known that Logan had been killing them and had gathered together to either strategize or for comfort. As each rat died, the others had clambered over top of the dead bodies; yet more died as Logan had sucked the life from them, and on and on.

There must have been fifty in one pile.

On top of that, within that pile of corpses, worms writhed—a true parasite. They were still alive even after the hosts had died since Logan had been concentrating on those dark, rotten auras, not on the microscopic life that represented the parasites.

Logan gave them a grim smile. Then with a clench of his fist, he used [Mimicry Armour] to force the flames under the lit barbeques to hover out of the grill and into the air, and then with [Life Fabricator], transformed that small flame into a fireball of heat, like a mini, concentrated sun. With a flick of his wrist, he sent it flying towards that pile of corpses. The fire bloomed into a fireball, exploding into the pile of corpses, frying the hell out of those worms and maggots.

Logan gagged. It smelled like rotting garbage.

The worms weren't a threat to Logan, and he doubted they were a threat to the civilians, but at the same time, his anger wasn't exercised and watching those rats fry felt deeply satisfying.

The soldiers and civilians looked shell-shocked. Emily and the soldiers' faces were covered in dirt and splashes of blood, their eyes wide and stunned. Their rifles trembled, the tips dipping to the floor. Logan didn't know how quickly he'd managed to use [Liche Devourer] to suck the Karma from the remaining rats, but he knew it must have been minutes at most. Barely five minutes ago, they'd been convinced they were up against an impossible task, facing down death, and Logan had taken that away from them. It would be like facing an opposing army, looking at overwhelming odds, convinced that you were fighting to the death, only for that opposing army to topple one by one in front of you.

Emily's lips were thin and bloodless. Shocked. "What did you do?"

Up above, the Cursed Rope continued jumping through the air, endlessly looking for prey, but coming up with nothing. It sent a feeling of chagrin Logan's way.

With a crackle of electricity, it hovered in front of him, swaying its tail. No more food, no more food, it wailed, its mental voice full of despair. It tilted its head and looked down at a man who was stumbling through the remains of the rat corpses. Perhaps there is other food? it crooned. The rope can obey, but when the rule is a stupid rule—

"Rope," snapped Logan. The last thing he needed was the Cursed Rope to start going after civilians. He had to believe that he'd bought himself a smidgen of goodwill after fighting off the rats, but that goodwill would collapse if the rope went on a killing spree.

He held out his arm and urged it forward. "It's because you did such a good job. Now it's time to rest."

The rope lowered itself to the ground, blue electricity crackling over Logan's arm, but it was a caress rather than an attack. With a last grumble, it contracted and transformed into its regular rope fibre version. Ever since Logan had threatened it with a bonfire, it had been remarkedly behaved. It had gotten to the point where he no longer had to worry about it doing anything other than occasionally making him angry.

With a blink, Logan willed it into his spatial storage.

Gradually, whimpers and screams of despair overtook the silence in the area as other civilians, who had been hiding in tents and underneath tables, came out and saw the remains of their friends and family amongst the piles of rat corpses.

"Medic!" one of the soldiers screamed as he tried to a help a woman in her 30s who had a deep gash in her stomach.

The hundreds of civilians who had been huddling behind the soldiers started to walk out into the courtyard, their faces dazed. Others were craning their heads at the top of the wall, staring at the Wisteria Spike Vine and edging away, their mouths gaping, shoulders hunched in fear.

Logan watched with a feeling of alarm. This wasn't over. Not by a long shot. Ever since he'd entered through the wall, he'd known that the real threat was underneath their feet. The rats inside the complex had already been there, using their camouflage to hide, getting ready to attack. Logan's presence must have forced them to attack, but he was convinced that they'd been waiting before he'd arrived.

Waiting for the main attraction.

Logan used [Threshold Shift] to jump in front of Emily. The soldiers around her raised their weapons, aiming at him.

"Hold," Emily snapped.

"Don't let these people wander outside of your protection. This isn't over."

Emily's lips tightened and she looked behind Logan, searching, her eyes narrowed. "More rats? You slaughtered them all." She gestured to the wall and the vine behind them. "Based on whatever messed up thing you grew there, I don't think they'll be climbing over the walls, either. There's nothing left but for us to try to save the injured and regroup. We can—"

Logan grabbed her wrist, squeezing gently. "This isn't over," he repeated. "I told Hawthorne to move everyone here for a reason."

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The civilians had huddled against the side of the wall that had a stone walkway, which would have protected anything burrowing through the ground. The problem was that there were so many people that they'd spread way beyond the walkway. Hundreds were standing on bare grass. "Whatever is underneath our feet is massive."

Logan deployed [Life Fabricator], using it to scan underground and promptly winced. "It's five feet underneath us." Come to think of it, whatever was underneath their feet had been five feet away for what had to be minutes. What was it waiting for?

Emily pulled her arm away from Logan's grip with a scowl, but at the same time, she also glanced down at the ground and shuffled her feet as if she were standing on hot coals.

"What's down there?"

"I don't know." Until he managed to get enough practice, [Life Fabricator] let him sense the auras of those around him, but nothing beyond it. He believed he was practised enough at identifying the auras of people, but other monsters? Their auras were too varied to count.

Hold on. Logan no longer had just [Life Fabricator] at his disposal. He also had [Threshold Shift], which let him scan an area before he teleported. He wouldn't think it would work to scan solid ground, but hadn't he done the same back in Pied's Kingdom?

Logan backed away from Emily and the other soldiers, spreading his legs apart as he studied the ground. Deploying [Threshold Shift] to glance through dirt and grass was a hell of a trip, and he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rising, but it was working. It was like looking through the ground with a portable camera or a plumbing scope. The skill scanned over dirt and rocks, moist soil, through roots and small worms, through…

Logan blinked, feeling dizzy, his stomach sloshing. Even though he was standing on even ground, it felt like he was inside the dirt.

And what he saw made no sense.

He felt his stomach dropping, feeling a deep pit of unease. Before, when he'd first sensed something underneath their feet, he'd assumed it was more rats tunneling through the earth. After all, before he'd realized that they could climb over the wall, it had made sense. But if it had been regular old rats, the same ones already inside of the complex, why hadn't they attacked when the rest had? It didn't take that long to dig through the dirt.

It was because it hadn't been rats.

"You need to leave," whispered Logan, his voice rasping.

"What?" asked Emily.

Logan looked from Emily to the soldiers, to the hundreds, no thousands of civilians who had huddled together in one area. Inside his exoskeleton, he felt sweat beading down his neck, soaking the collar of his shirt.

Could he use [Threshold Shift] to transport that many people all at once? Logan had no idea. At best, he'd managed to transport fifty people back in Pied's Kingdom, but fifty was nowhere close to thousands. Oh well, it's not like he could—

They don't deserve your help.

It's not like he couldn't try it out; he could—

They don't want you here. You killed their precious General. Why expend the effort for weaklings like this? Weaklings that haven't even leveled up?

Logan blinked, his head feeling full of cotton. It was true though; he'd already expended a ton of effort saving these people, and for what? They edged around him, giving him wary, fearful looks. The soldiers had kept their weapons up, pointed at Logan, waiting for Emily's signal to attack. After everything he'd done, they were nothing but—

Ungrateful. They were ungrateful weaklings that don't even warrant your attention. You did what you could; you leveled up, didn't you? It's now time to leave. Back to your loved ones, back to Hope's End.

Yes, no sense staying here when he was unwanted. Why bother lingering when they wanted him gone? Besides, why was he here in the first place when his priority should be the Save Humanity Quest? He needed to get back to what was important.

Quests are important. You can't help people who don't see the bigger picture. Why toil away here for people who won't help you save the world? All they'd do is inhibit you. They won't help you with your quest.

Quests. Why was he here, fighting for these people if not for his quest? He needed to save them so they'd buy items so he could satisfy his Build an Empire Quest.

Something was wrong.

With a growl, Logan willed out the shard of metal he'd used in the encounter against Mia. Gripping the sharp metal, he collapsed the sandstone material around his arm and then jabbed the sharp end of the shrapnel against his bicep, stabbing deep. Oh fuck! Unlike with everything else, the metal was System sourced. It felt like a hundred needles were stabbing into his flesh at once!

Ding!

[Idiot's Paradox is level 31!]

By now, Logan could recognize when someone was fucking with him. Mia had gotten her mental fingers into his mind like a persistent little fucker, and it was only pain that had allowed him to fight off her influence. Since when did he think of innocents as ungrateful weaklings? That wasn't Logan, that would never be Logan.

His heart racing, his breathing shallow, Logan squeezed his eyes shut and twisted the metal, digging deep.

"What the hell are you doing?!" exclaimed Emily.

Logan ignored her and pulled up his stat sheet. He'd managed to level up 10 times, which meant that he had 50 free attributes. Logan made the only decision that made sense, and slammed all fifty attributes into his constitution stat at once:

[Constitution: 82]

[Constitution: 83+]

[Constitution: 131]

With his five percent boost from his Forerunner title, he'd increased it to 138. Logan swayed as the upgrade surged and the flesh around the metal shard in his arm went crazy trying to knit together. He felt as if he'd just gulped down thirty cups of coffee, his senses on fire and his body full of energy.

His foggy head cleared, his senses becoming sharper.

As if his decision had been a trigger point, underneath his feet, the ground shook as if they'd just been hit by an earthquake. Picnic tables were thrown in the air, slamming against tents and trees. Dirt rose in a dust storm, caving in a hole the size of a large building. The people standing on top of the ground desperately clawed at the earth and tried to hold on, but it was like holding onto the side of a sink hole.

And inside the hole, Logan saw the first hints of what he'd glimpsed with [Threshold Shift]. For rather than hundreds of rats burrowing their way through the ground, it had been one monster all along. One massive, huge monster out of a nightmare.

At first glance, it looked like a worm the size of a whale, but that was only on first glance. This thing was mobile, agile, and covered in black fur. The top of it was rounded like an earthworm, but underneath its body, were hundreds of legs like a millipede.

That's where the comparison ended.

These legs… aw, hell. They reminded Logan of rat legs. With paws and claws and all.

The monster rose out of the pit, lifting itself up like an attacking rattlesnake, displaying its underside. An underside full of mouths.

Logan scanned it with [Idiot's Inspect]:

[Attacking Rattuspede. Level 223. Highly intelligent, the Attacking Rattuspede commands beings to do its bidding through its overwhelming mental mind control powers, forcing them to stay frozen in place while it chows down on its meal.]

[Highest stat: Wisdom. Characteristics: A fondness for human flesh. Hidden name: Samantha.]

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