Leaving the village was easy. Walking back to that battlefield was even easier. After all, the System was telling me exactly where it was. With a giant arrow pointing in its direction.
But the problem started once I had to figure out where the Rodenti were. They were proving to be even better at hiding than I was expecting. I had to walk following their footprints for a while, but they quickly became erratic. Trying to replicate what Rex liked doing using the cheese seemed to be the best way to go about it. I forgot to ask Rex about this particular skill, or if it was a spell.
Actually, I could have asked Riley to help me come up with a way to track my companion before coming here. Maybe they had something in Wistra's notebook that could assist me with that. But those were all possibilities that I should have thought about before coming here. Now, the only option was to continue following the tracks, hoping to locate the Rodenti.
About half an hour since I passed the battlefield, I started to notice that I was almost completely lost. I still could tell where the battlefield was supposed to be and where the tracks started. But I couldn't really tell where the Rodenti were. Their home seemed to be very well hidden. Maybe they had someone else with an architect subclass or class to make their village hidden. Or maybe it was just me being really bad at noticing things.
Another 15 minutes went by, and I was positive I was running around in circles. Every time I tried to follow the tracks, I would end up in an area of the forest surrounded by the same trees, but if I continued to follow those tracks, they would drop me closer to the battlefield. There had to be something messing with me here. But I couldn't really tell what.
'Sys am I affected by some sort of skill or something?'
[User is not currently afflicted by any skills. Any issues with user navigation ability does not stem from a System-based effect.]
'Hey!' I protested.
It was already bad to hear that being lost was not a result of any skill. It was another thing to have my System being snippy about it. But before I could focus too much on that, I heard something approaching from behind me.
Spinning around, I already had my staff at a size that was good enough for me to wield it and prepared for anything. A group of three Rodenti carrying stone spears appeared. Those weapons clearly made by Rex. I knew they were made by my companion because he placed a small piece of cheese on the handle of the weapon. He had done a few other small projects before, mostly trying to help Michael with arrows. The archer convinced him that the true mark of a crafter was the ability to put their signature on whatever they created. And that cheese was Rex's.
"Who you are?" one of the Rodenti asked.
"I'm a friend of Rex, and I came here to talk to you about what's going to happen tonight," I replied.
"The Witch going kill us all. We won't allow," the Rodenti replied.
I nodded. "I couldn't agree more. But here's the thing, the Witch is not just targeting you. She's also targeting the humans. And we were talking about it and figured that we have better chances of surviving if we work together."
"Why would we? Humans hurt us," he replied.
"Yes, but you also try to hurt the humans," that line seemed to give them pause, and I wasn't about to let them think for too long, "The thing is, you're not at fault, and neither are they. The only person who actually tried to make you hurt each other was the Witch. If we can beat her, you don't have any more reason to be angry at each other."
The Rodenti stared at each other for a moment. They were whispering something, but their voices were too low for me to understand. As long as I focused, I could probably figure out what they were saying. But that wasn't a good way to gain their trust.
After a moment, they looked back at me. "What about who we lost?"
"Are you saying the humans would need to pay something back because of them?" I asked, already imagining where this was going.
"Yes," they said.
"Okay, that's fair. But then what about the humans you killed? They also lost some people." My question seemed to make the Rodenti think.
"Did humans lose more?" one of the Rodenti asked before their conversation could finish.
I said, "Does it really matter? Can you really put a number, a value, on a person's life? If they lost more than you, would that make them more valuable? Or can we just say that we're both even and this is all the Witch's fault?"
The Rodenti paused for a moment, and the one who spoke with me first, who seemed to be the leader of this particular group, put down his spear.
"Witch fault. We agree."
I smiled, "Great. Now, if you don't mind, what level are you?"
The Rodenti turned towards me with a surprised expression. "You know levels?"
"I know that I do have the System, but me and my friends, the ones that came with Rex, are different."
I felt a prick on the back of my head and snapped and turned around quickly, ready for whatever was going on. That's when I noticed one of the other Rodenti staring at me, surprised by my reaction.
[User has been affected by particles. A weaker System user has checked user's tier.]
I paused. 'Are you telling me that every time I check someone's level, that's going to happen?'
[That is incorrect. However, it's possible that creatures and other System users have the ability to recognize when another user is trying to gather information about them. User does not possess a specific skill for such a function. However, System has noted that user has an increased sensitivity to particles, making them more apparent when affecting user.]
'Oh, okay.' I nodded and turned back to the first Rodenti. "Who tried to see my level, did you figure out what you wanted?" I was trying not to be aggressive but making it clear that I was a bit annoyed by their actions.
"Yes, yes. I apologize. But since you already did, can you share with us your level? Or at least your tier?"
I glanced at the leader of this group of Rodenti and waited for the other one to say, "Tier 2."
The moment the words came out of my mouth, the Rodenti around me all gasped. The leader spoke up.
"Tier 2?"
With a nod, I added, "All of us are roughly the same levels. The people who travel with me I mean. So how is your fighting force looking?"
The leader shook his head. "All weak. All tier zero."
"What about you? You don't even have a tier one?"
The leader shook his head. "No. Always tier zero."
"Did you ever have anyone who's tier one?"
This time, the leader nodded. "Tier 2. But we lost them. Long time."
"How long? How long ago did that happen?"
"Close to year."
I paused. Already catching a funny quirk of the way the Rodenti spoke, "Do you mean more than a year or less than a year?"
"More. Couple months more."
I nodded with a smile. This likely meant that the Witch was weaker than it was back then. When they fought against the tier ones was when the Witch was at her most powerful period, meaning that now, a year later, somehow she must have used their powers for the next generation. After all, living for one year was already a very big accomplishment for a Lumerin. And this was all considering that we truly were dealing with a Lumerin and not something else entirely. Maybe this was a version of an Eater or the last species that had the System.
I had no idea what to expect, but the only thing that made sense was Lumerin people. So far, they were the only ones willing to work with others to achieve their goals. But I held myself back from sharing that information. Knowing that the Witch was weaker could cause some problems, but I had no idea how people were going to react to that information.
We continued walking and talking about what the Rodenti had available to them. There were about 20 people or so, most of them who already had the System and were at tier zero. But there were a good number of children in their village, meaning that they wouldn't be participating in the fight. On the other hand, the humans were mostly adults with just one or two children and the pregnant lady. But overall, they should have roughly the same amount of people there.
I noticed when we reached the area where the footprints became very erratic, the Rodenti whistled a couple of times, and some vines dropped from above. There was even a full set of rope stairs that came down. Looking up, I finally saw their village.
The Rodenti didn't live in a burrow like I was expecting. Instead, they lived in the middle of the forest, building tree houses high in the canopy of this forest. Since each tree was roughly 10 meters [32.8 ft] tall, the structures they were making were high enough to stop anyone from seeing them. Even more impressive was the fact that they were able to blend the floors with the vegetation in a way that felt natural. Honestly, without a skill or the actual knowledge of this place, I doubted anyone would be able to notice this group of Rodenti here.
I climbed up with them, and soon we all arrived at where the rest of the village was located. Rex was there, talking with a few of them around a large globe of dirt. My companion was using that dirt to create some barricades and other types of protection that could be placed around the village to stop any attackers from getting close. But this was a very exposed place. Yes, it would be perfect if they were able to catch their foes unprepared for an ambush. For that, this entire area was absolutely perfect. But to defend against one, I really wasn't that confident.
The Witch didn't even have to actually climb to deal some damage. Instead, she could just destroy the trees and watch as their village fell from above. At the same time, I couldn't really argue with the decision to make this their last stand. If your options were defending here and looking for a new place, staying here would be better than running away in hopes of finding another spot.
But the human village had houses. Actual wooden and maybe even brick houses that could be used for defense. It had a path between rocks so that no one could get to it from behind, and more importantly, it had ground. Not to mention that the structure might now be stable enough to hold a group of humans along with all the Rodenti.
Even for the Rodenti, I wasn't entirely sure if this was really the best position. They were not grounded. They didn't have actual places to place fortifications. After all, every single direction was open to attack. In the human village, it would be easier to retreat. Here, they would need to either follow the rope bridges or jump from one tree to the next.
I quickly approached Rex and asked, "Hey, how are we faring here?"
"Not sure. Location tricky. Rodenti family used fighting here, but even they say it difficult."
"What if we go to the human village?" I asked.
"Is better?" Rex turned towards me.
"Much, we have houses, places that we can hunker down, and we could cut some wood to make barricades. If we move fast enough, maybe even make a wall," I said.
Rex stopped to think for a moment before nodding, "Let talk with chief. Need to convince him!"
'Great' I thought. I had just convinced one side to try to work together, not I had to do the same with the other.
#### Author's Note ####
What's the best place to fight? The treehouse or the open village?