This effect was really the best cha—
[Congratulations! Your dungeon has been promoted to Rank E by the Adventurer's Guild!]
[Due to your newfound notoriety, you earn 5,000 dungeon points!]
Oh? OH! I like this! This will bring me tons of new explorers!
And it did, buuuut…
Why? Why! Why did the Adventurer's Guild stop the adventurers at the dungeon entrance, just to…
Actually, I'm not exactly sure what they're doing.
A woman with black hair and golden eyes — the same one who opened the low-rank weapon chest and got the Ice Katana — enters my dungeon in a group, but every time, she changes her party or partner!
Curious, I got closer, following them without attacking, just to observe.
I saw them attack a group of rats using only a team of mages, among whom was the woman whose name I learned: Alicia.
The mages started casting area-of-effect spells: fire, ice, lightning… one of them even used darkness!
The big rat group literally exploded, corpses flung all over the dungeon walls, their blood painting the walls.
As I followed them quietly, transforming into water using my Puddle skill, hidden among the puddles left by the water slimes, the woman who used the darkness magic turned toward my direction, closely examining the puddles!
Oh shit! Oh shit! She must not find me!
"What is it, Kaelyra?"
Seeing her looking in my direction, Alicia couldn't help but ask.
"I feel like there's a monster here, but I don't know where."
"Alicia, do you want me to use my detection skill?"
"No, let me handle it. Either the monster is invisible, or…"
"Remember those slimes we encountered that could turn into liquid?"
The group looked at Alicia… and quickly understood what she meant. They immediately got into attack and defense positions!
Alicia then used a skill that covered her Ice Katana in a finely sculpted layer of ice.
Oh shit! Oh shit! I recognize that attack!
Before I could do anything, Alicia threw her Ice Katana, and spikes shot out toward the puddles of water.
The puddles began to freeze. When the one heading toward me came, I immediately activated Attack Reinforcement on my whole body to passively boost my defense!
As the spikes hit me, a white light, like an aura, lit up my whole body.
The first spikes were simply destroyed upon contact with my liquid form. But as more came, I reverted to my normal form and created tentacles that violently shattered all the spikes!
But just as I finished that, they launched fireballs, earth spikes, and even a damn lightning spear!
Luckily, I kept my Attack Reinforcement skill active on myself, powering it continuously, which not only removed the cooldown between attacks but also strengthened my defense.
I dodged to the right, heading straight toward the fireballs and some of the earth spikes, which I destroyed with my tentacles.
But that's not all I did! I also did something truly heroic: I RAN AWAY!
I ran like crazy, dodging all their attacks!
"Don't let her escape!"
But I made it! I used the small holes I had dug all over the dungeon, where only beings half my size could slip through!
Okay! Now this calls for a proper revenge! I don't necessarily want to kill them, but I definitely want to scare them so bad they pee themselves!
I transformed into the Rat Queen and headed toward the main colony.
"Skeaaa! (Mother, you must help me!)"
"Skeaque? (What is it, my daughter?)"
"Skea! Skea! (People killed so many rats! They painted the walls with their blood!)"
Not only did the Queen get super angry upon hearing this — going from a cute little rat to an expression like "I'm going to kill those bastards!"
She looked like something straight out of hell!
But the King was angry too!
I seriously think I just made a mistake! I didn't think they'd be this mad!
"Skeaa! (Mother, Father, let me launch a group of rats after them!)"
"Skaouaque. (My daughter, let us handle it.)"
"Skeaque. (Yes, as your father said.)"
"Skeaaa. (No, you're too important to me.)"
I told them that with a tear rolling down my cheek.
The two rats started crying, and the King even pretended he had a speck of dust in his eye! But his tail twisted to touch the Queen's shoulder, to calm the emotion I had stirred in her.
"Skaouaque. (Very well, my daughter.)"
"Skeaque. (We grant you the right to lead an army!)"
"Skea. (Thank you, Mother, Father.)"
I turned around with the most serious face I could muster. The two rats raised their hands in a military-style salute, the Queen still crying.
With my army, we went straight after the group!
The walls trembled with the number of rats I had with me!
When we arrived in front of Alicia's group, they were stunned. Some of the mages were even scared. But the moment they saw us, Alicia used a skill that made the ground explode, creating a thick cloud of smoke.
"Kaelyra!"
"I'm on it already!"
Then the darkness seemed to descend like a tsunami toward us.
"Skeeeeee! (Fall back!)"
Not all my army managed to retreat — the front line got swallowed up by the tsunami of darkness.
But the attack only lasted a minute, not spreading further.
Once it ended, my army and I chased after the group, but they always found a way to escape by combining their attacks.
When they were nearly at the dungeon exit, we stopped the pursuit.
We didn't do any damage to them, but I saw two mages pee themselves! We won!
We celebrated with the whole group!
In the following days, the rats were particularly active toward groups other than Alicia's.
When I went for revenge, I didn't expect the rats to get so insistent about it!
Oops! Well, oops — if they die, they give me dungeon points to improve all this, so hey!