Rise of the Demon King: Caleb Gonzales's Rat Race

Chapter 6: Home Base

"You're back," the thing on him said.

Caleb stopped squirming as he tried to process what was going on now that it looked like he wasn't going to die, at least not right away. "System, what's going on?"

[The user is currently being buried under other demon rats.]

That was what it was. He had been worried there. His relief was soon replaced with anger at the system, which could have at least notified him before he freaked out. He wouldn't have run off if he had known that there was nothing for him to be worried about. Then he realized that he had understood what the other demon rat was saying.

"Wait. Can you understand me?" he asked in the darkness.

The demon rat on top of him said, "What do you mean?"

Okay, that had been a dumb question. Since they were currently of the same species, it made sense for them to be able to understand each other. He had just been overwhelmed by the idea that he could finally speak with someone. The only beings he had encountered since he arrived were the demon wolf and the system, and neither of them counted as good conversationalists.

"Can you get off of me?" he asked.

He felt rather than saw them move away. Now that he wasn't being crushed, he became aware that they weren't alone. Well, the noises he heard couldn't have come from just one demon rat, and the system did say demon rats and not demon rat. The other demon rats were invading his space, sniffing at him like dogs, before they decided to leave him be.

"What was that about?" he muttered to himself.

"You smell funny," the other demon rat said before they started walking away.

With no better option, he followed after. "Where are you going?"

"Back to the nest," they said, and they didn't add anything else.

Seeing that he wasn't getting anywhere, he said, "System, can you explain?"

[What does the user want to know?]

"Can you tell me anything about the home base, like what's with all the demon rats? I thought they were solitary creatures," he said.

[Demon rats, like their regular counterparts, are social creatures and normally form packs together. However, that only applies to a certain point. Once demon rats reach a certain threshold, they typically go solo.]

It certainly explained why, in the game, he had only ever encountered demon rats one at a time instead of in swarms. He assumed that the criteria the system was referring to was the size of the demon rat, as the other demon rats seemed to be currently the same size as him. The question was how did demon rats grow to the size of a car. He got his answer, as the system seemed to pick up on his question.

[As a demon rat's stats increase, their size grows too. Most demon rats never grow big enough, which is why they never become a sizeable threat.]

Caleb considered what the system said. If he could strengthen the other demon rats, then they would become a formidable army. He remembered struggling to kill a single demon rat when his party was still weak. It had taken a party of five to take down one demon rat. Of course, he wasn't sure of the current status of the heroes, but he was guessing they had just been summoned like he had.

[That is correct. The heroes were summoned at the same time as the user.]

Perfect. That would give him plenty of time for him and his army to grow stronger, especially since the home base was currently several hundred miles away. He should have had at least a year before the heroes branched out from the castle in the capital. Feeling confident and reassured, he finally took note of the nest the other demon rat was referring to.

He grimaced at the pile of straw, grass, and other material. "I have to sleep here?"

The other rat simply said, "Nest."

"System, what's wrong with them?" he asked as he stopped and stared at the other rat.

[The user has forgotten that most demon rats have low intelligence.]

Caleb immediately recalled how almost all of his stats had been set to one before they were fixed. "You've got to be kidding me. How am I supposed to lead them if they're all idiots? Don't answer that."

The system remained blissfully silent as he entered the nest and laid down. Well, if their intelligence were low, they were probably less likely to fight back against him. The problem was that they probably wouldn't understand his orders either. He would either have to somehow improve their intelligence or somehow make his orders easy to understand.

"This is going to be difficult. Things would be much easier if there was an army building feature," he said to himself.

[The user can assess a version of the demon king's system.]

After staring at the screen blankly, he said, "What?"

[The demon king has a specialized version of the standard system that demons use. The user has their own version they can use for keeping track of their army.]

It took him several moments to process what he just heard, and it completely flipped everything he knew. When did demons have a system, and why was he learning about this just now? What about him? Since he already has a system, did that mean he could no longer access the regular system demons use? What did that mean for him?

[The user doesn't need to concern themselves with the demon's system. The user's current system is far superior and better suited for the user.]

Caleb was skeptical, but it sounded like he couldn't change his system even if he wanted to. He was stuck with the system, whether he liked it or not. With a sigh, he pulled up the feature the system was referring to and was greeted with a blank screen with four sections. They were slaves, servants, harem members, and an army.

He hadn't realized slaves were a thing. They had never come up in the game. The same went with servants. He couldn't think of a time when he would use either feature and chose to ignore them for the time being. His attention fell onto the last two categories, and he wondered why he had a section specifically for harem members.

[The user expressed a desire for a harem, so the system deemed it necessary. Also, it's a feature in the demon king's system.]

Of course it was. "I'm going to take a nap. Tomorrow we'll start working on building that army."