Promotion

"Morning, young one"

A familiar voice tainted my ears. 

My eyes painfully cracked open as I stared upwards at the cloth roof. 

Aches plagued my body and yet still I pulled myself to sit up a bit. 

Itch sat to my left most likely watching over me as I slept. 

"Where are we"

"Back at camps after the battles, we wons in the end, drove those goblins backs to their city". 

"What happened"

"Well I was hoping yous could explain that yourself, Our little rat here sees himself as somes sorts of demon"

A giggle erupted from behind Itch. 

I craned my neck to see Thassius and Sniffer sitting sharpening their weapons behind him. 

"But you're not explaining to us, The king wants to see yous, privately" 

"Great" 

Not even a second of rest and I'm already being questioned. 

The truth of the matter is I don't even know what happened. How do I explain something like that? 

Psychedelic mushrooms were doubtfully a worthy excuse. 

It took a while but eventually, With Itch's help, I managed to rise to my feet. 

Most of the pain had faded now down to a gentle ache in places where I had been stabbed or cut. 

Using thassius as support we paraded through the camp drawing lots of attention as we went. It seems my antics brought me some points with the other rats. 

"Thank you, thassius"

It felt horrible flowing off my tongue but not saying it was equally as wrong. 

He had saved my life in that battle. No other rat would go so out of their way to save another life.

"You save my life back there" 

He let out a chuckle.

"I woulds be a rotting corpse in that goblin village without yous"

 From the walk, I discovered that my impromptu nickname among the goblins had become the white devil. 

I wouldn't say I liked the name. I feel like Headtaker has more aura to it. 

It took several minutes of stumbling before we reached a relatively large tent being just a little bit smaller than the main tent in the centre. 

Thassius left me to walk in on my own. 

By now most of the aches had numbed to almost non-existence. 

I trudged into the tent. 

It had a similar vibe to most of the other tens it had been in, Wooden floorboards and small mushrooms which gleamed a soft blue colour. 

In the centre was a chair made of dark-coloured wood which was intricately carved into several designs. 

Utop it sat an unexpected creature. A black rat no larger than myself started at me with a thoughtful expression. 

He wore no armour but instead was adorned in intricate silks of all different shades. 

To his left stood Lorath dressed in a long brown cloak. 

"You seem well my friend"

Lorath was the first to speak. 

"I have recovered well"

"I'm glad"

The room fell silent for a second before finally he spoke up.

"Explain yourself"

"I'm sorry my king, I can't. 

I do not know what happened myself."

"It seems you are more important than Iron let on.

Lorath explain to the boy"

"Well my friend it seems we underestimated the concentration of your characteristic"

"What do you mean"

Lorath slowly stepped closer to me.

"Well, your friend explained to me that before your little berserk episode, you were on the brink of death.

My current theory is that on your deathbed, your innate characteristic awoke even if just for a short time in order to try to prevent your death."

Yet again more information I didn't even know about myself. 

"It seems that due to you having no training and no preparation the concentration of it drove you near crazy. Any longer and you would have dissipated into a product of your characteristic. Thankfully for you, your body eventually gave out and prevented this. You survived just long enough to be saved".

I recalled my last few moments standing among the waves of goblins. That horrendous abomination which sent them running. 

"What was that thing that saved me"

"Oh that, that's just my little pet, don't worry about her"

Lorath quickly brushed off my question. 

"Lorath we are not here to explain the whole world to this boy. Measure him"

"Sorry my king" 

Lorath grabbed at a small instrument arrayed on a table next to him. 

I flinched back upon seeing the massive needle he now held in his hand. In the other he held some sort of pump which shone with various small orbs encrusted into the side. The same sigil was carved into each. A small sigil of an open eye. 

"It's not gonna hurt, don't worry" 

I almost began shouting at him that it didn't give a fuck if it would hurt, that needle looked like it might kill me.

But the last thing I could do was look like a mouse in front of the king himself

I stood firmly as Lorath slinked towards me. 

A maniacal grin seemed plastered on his face. 

This bastard enjoying this. 

Once close enough he pounced sticking the needle deep into my arm. It easily punctured both fur, hide and flesh.

A sharp pain rocketed through my arm. It only became worse when the small item he held in his other hand began to fill my warm red liquid. 

It took 20 seconds before finally Lorath drew back and took the needle out. 

"Well let's see here. Just give it a few seconds".

I stood there for around 5 minutes in complete silence. 

To be honest it would be nice for them to at least explain what they were doing with my blood but after seeing Loraths performance on the field and the idea that the king would share similar power to that 'trick' performance by the goblin king. I felt it was better not to argue too much with these two lest they just destroy me on the spot. 

2 more minutes passed before finally 

"2 percent, not too bad my friend"

I gawked at the number. With all the build up I was expecting a larger number than just 2 percent. 

"It may sound low my friend but 2 percent is a sizeable sum when you consider that there is only 100 percent to go around. Iron only has a percentage of around 1 percent."

"Why do we rats only have this one characterstic" 

"Well, yeah devours a characteristic that can only innately be inherited by rats"

"Whys that"

I felt like a child asking all these questions but id rather know ahead of time.

"Most characteristics are innate to just one race. In this case, the devour characteristic was forged by the great burrower and so therefore would be innate to you rat men. On the other hand, the trick characteristic we encountered in the battle is a more common characteristic that can be inherited by all creatures."

"What characteristic do you have Lorath" 

"None, I have no intention of ever inheriting a characteristic. If I did it would limit my usage of other characteristics to the point where most would be unreactive to me."

Amidst our chatter, I had almost forgotten about the king's presence before finally he cleared his throat.

"You are both to tell no one this fact, Boy from this day onwards you belong to me. You will answer my call and be my tool, If not I will devour your characteristic for myself. From now on amidst your usual teachings, Lorath will teach you to harness your characteristic." 

"Thank you my king"

It seems I'm being promoted.