Just as the Big Eater died, I rushed towards it, already removing the cork from my waterskin. I was already worried about the lack of Eater's blood that we had, and a creature this big would surely have enough to at least refill some of our reserves. By the creature's size, it was fair to expect that we were able to fill much more than a single waterskin. However, I kept remembering the Giant Eater that I saw. The shell that showed me its memories. That specific creature didn't have enough blood to keep up with its giant form. Mostly because everything was happening due to a skill. Its gigantic visage was only there because it was using some version of {Compression} to make itself grow that tall.
If that was the same thing that was happening with this one, then the creature wouldn't have more blood than a regular Eater. But in the end, that wasn't the case. While I was worried that it wouldn't have enough blood to go around, the moment I saw one of the wounds, it quickly became clear that wasn't the case.
Blood was pouring out, that milky white liquid dripping from the cracks in its shell. Dripping in an amount that would be impossible unless the entire creature was truly filled with blood. And that happened naturally and not that strange version of it that only had some blood that wouldn't be enough to keep its form. This big Eater really looked like a natural one. Something that existed in this size and not something that was forcibly grown thanks to the System.
Then again, the other version of it, the one that I saw in its memories, was much bigger. While this was able to be about the size of a large house, the other was competing with some buildings. Once I noticed that we were able to get enough blood to fill more than one waterskin, I called over everybody else so they could also top up on this liquid. They all joined in and started filling whatever they had available with the blood.
Astrid and Michael had spare waterskins, and Riley kept placing small vials made to store liquids underneath it. But even by the end of it, it felt like we had barely taken any of the blood from the creature. Then again, the monster was massive. It made sense that it had much more blood than we knew what to do with.
It just sucked that, at tier 2, turning that into progression to the next level was useless. We would be getting barely 0.1% of progression from the equivalent of 1 point of Energy from that blood. Meaning that it was likely that even if we drained the entire creature, it wouldn't amount to a single level for us.
Rex, however, was the only one who didn't join our small frenzy. As he was trying to talk with those Rodenti that were fighting the beast before we arrived. Then again, I couldn't remember if we ever had talked about the effects of Eater blood. But I was assuming this was something the Rodenti should know by now. I was worried that they would argue that since we killed their prey, they should have everything from the Eater. That's why I was making a point of being really quiet while we filled up our various containers with Eater's blood.
Even then, I was doing my best to listen to what he was saying. And at first, he was just trying to calm down the people who were fighting against the Big Eater. They were clearly frazzled by the event and unsure what to do next. The one thing one of the younger brothers said seemed to frazzle my companion.
"We needed to kill it or Rixnala kill us," an elderly Rodenti with white fur and a cane spoke up.
The mention of that name, Rixnala, caused Rex to freeze. I took a chance to look up, only to see his head spinning around as if he was looking for something. With the blood secured, I just put the cork on the waterskin and walked up to the Rodenti.
"Is everything okay?"
He nodded, but then shook his head.
"No. Friends. We have problem."
I paused, waiting for him to continue to speak. After all, just saying that we had a problem wasn't much of an answer. But when the answer didn't come, I was forced to ask.
"What does that mean? Is that Rixnala the problem?"
Rex nodded, "Rixnala my sister, not nice. Always cause problems."
"How so?" I asked.
"Rixnala only care about strong. Think weak don't deserve anything."
"And is she strong?"
"More than me."
"More than us?" I asked, trying to figure out if his sister was at Tier Two.
Rex turned towards me and then shook his head.
"Don't know. Was before. Now, maybe."
"Do you mean she's also at Tier Two?"
Rex nodded yes.
"How about you? How close are you?"
"Reached 20. Need quest now. Energy. A lot." He replied.
"If that's the case, we have a quick solution for you. Here."
I passed him my waterskin.
"Not thirsty."
"I know that. That's not why I'm giving you this. Just drink."
The Rodenti frowned, but he still did what I was asking. After a couple of sips, his eyes went wide, and he started drinking more greedily. I had to tell him to calm down.
"Take it easy. We have a lot of it."
"What is this?"
"Promise you're not going to throw up. It's blood. Eater's blood."
He looked back at the creature and noticed Astrid, Michael, and Riley finishing up with their waterskins and other vessels for the blood.
"You said you needed Energy. Is this enough?"
Rex drank about half of my waterskin before nodding.
"Now it is."
"Perfect," I smiled.
"We need to take whatever we find to Rixnala." The Rodenti that Rex was talking to spoke up. Strangely enough, this older man was at Tier Zero. Not even Tier One.
"What do you need to take to her?"
"Everything we find. Anything we can."
"Why is that? And if you don't mind me asking, why are you, Tier Zero? You look to be older, and I thought the Rodenti got the System once they were born."
"Our chief refused to let us grow. And so did his father before him. Says it's to keep the clan safe. To avoid having those who would try to hinder the clan away from the ability to do so."
I didn't know what surprised me the most about his statement. If it was the fact that he was revealing some pretty nasty inner politics of the Rodenti. As they were being forced to stay on low levels due to the whims of a single family. Or if it was the fact that he was speaking so well to me. As bad as it sounded, I was half expecting him to speak in broken English since that seemed to be what every single one of the Rodenti would do. Yet this man in particular had near perfect diction.
"But why does no one ever try to level up?"
"Those who do are killed," the Rodenti explained. "We also don't receive more than the bare minimum for survival. They made sure to keep us like that to avoid anyone growing without permission."
"I see. And is that still happening now?"
"It is. But now Rixnala is the one controlling everything. She says that only those with power will be allowed to follow her. Those who are weak will be left behind. Or killed"
"Then you're finally going to have a chance to level up?"
The Rodenti shook his head.
"No. We will die. Without strong fighters to protect us. We are all doomed."
"What are you talking about? You can just level up and hunt."
"Not fast enough. It will take too long to gain enough power."
I glanced back at the Giant Eater. There was a massive amount of blood pooling underneath it. Way too much blood for us to take in our waterskins. But we might have a way of using it instead of just leaving it behind.
"What if I were to tell you we have a way for you all to level up really quickly?"
"Rixnala would still be problem. She won't let them stay." Rex added.
"When are they going to leave?"
"Tomorrow," the elderly Rodenti replied.
"Then do you have a place to hide a bunch of liquids for a day?"
The rat-like creature frowned, but after a pause, nodded.
"Perfect then. Have the other Rodenti gather as much of that blood, milky white liquid coming out of the Eater, as they can. And then keep it all hidden and protected."
Rex turned to me with a frown.
"If others find blood, Rixnala kill them all."
"Yeah, I kind of imagined she would do something like that, at least considering how you were talking about her. That's why I was thinking that maybe we could see if we can push her to leave sooner."
"How?"
"I was hoping you had an idea. After all, she is your sister."
My companion frowned and started to think. But he didn't come up with any solutions until Astrid, Michael, and Riley approached us. They asked what was going on, and I gave them a quick rundown of the situation before we all started brainstorming ideas about how to make Rixnala leave as quickly as possible. The discussion lasted a few minutes while the elderly Rodenti called the other rats that were attacking the big Eater and asked them to start storing the blood.
Eventually, Michael gave a suggestion.
"What if we tried to fight her for it?"
We all turned towards him.
"From what Rex is telling us, she sounds very focused on power. If we prove to be stronger than her, then there wouldn't be any reason for her to stay. Or her pride would be too wounded for her to stick around."
"Won't work," Rex replied. "Rixnala is too proud. She won't fight."
"Okay, but we might be able to spin that our way then," Riley started speaking. "Instead of having it be a battle against her, we might try to fight the people she's gathering. That way we will also wound her pride since Rex was able to gather more powerful warriors than her. Wouldn't that work?"
"Yeah. That works. She wants be best general. If my army better, she gets upset. Leaves!" Rex said with a big smile.
"Unless she would say that we need to fight all of the army. Then things might be a bit more complicated." I added.
Rex shook his head. "Don't think she would. Rixnala very honor focused. Would think fighting with many be something bad."
"Then we try that," Riley agreed. "Rex, you keep pushing her into accepting the challenge, and then we have a one-on-one fight with the other Rodenti."
"Sure, but are you sure we're not biting more than we can chew? What if the ones that she's going to fight are stronger than us?" I asked.
Luckily, the elderly Rodenti had finished setting everything up with the others and was now back in the conversation.
"Do you know what the level of the warriors are?" I asked him.
"Don't know the levels. But there are four who got to Tier Two not too long ago. And our chief who has been Tier Two for about a week. His father was killed by the last Eater attack, and now he's the one in charge."
Astrid smiled and cracked her neck.
"We can take them."
"I think so too. But we should still be a bit careful with that. We never know how powerful someone is. But for this to even start working, we're going to need someone else," I said.
Turning to Rex, who was looking at me expectantly, and I continued, "You, little man. We need someone who knows how to push your sister's buttons. Think you can handle that?"
He opened a big smile and said, "Sure! Annoying Rixnala easy. Really easy."
Without a plan in mind, we helped the rest of the Rodenti finish up their gathering of Eater's blood and quickly started moving towards their nest. Which was their home. It only then I realized that we were willingly walking into a nest of Rodenti. Even if there were a couple who seemed to be friendly towards us, there was no guarantee that would be the case for all of them. Hopefully, our higher level would be enough to stop them from having any ideas to attack us. And if not, well, we would probably have to fight a lot more than I was expecting.