As soon as we saw Camila and the other humans coming, the Rodenti moved their children to the side, making sure that they were protected from the humans. Especially after what Rex and I did to the last people who tried. But the Rodenti were still on edge, and I couldn't really blame them. We all spent a long moment just staring at each other with angry expressions until Camila took a step forward, raising both hands to show that she didn't have any weapons on her.
"I would just like to talk. I know what some of our people did was unforgivable. But that doesn't mean that we all agreed with what they did."
One of the Rodenti coughed and said, "Didn't stop. Just as bad."
Camila nodded slowly. "You're right. Seeing something awful like that happening and not doing anything about it is just as bad as doing it yourself. Especially when the people doing the awful things are people that we know. People whom we trusted. But everything happened too fast. We didn't have enough time to let the shock go and react. I'm not saying this is an excuse. I'm just explaining what happened to us."
Camila turned towards my group. Riley, Astrid, Rex, me, and Michael, who was still walking alongside us despite being upset with me, all stared back at her.
"Still, I would like to ask for your help."
I didn't say anything, as being one of the people responsible for the death of so many of them felt like I wasn't really in a place to be making demands. Michael still seemed to be struggling with something, and Astrid wasn't one to talk. In the end, the job of speaking was left to Riley, who clearly did not enjoy the position.
"What do you want?" they said with an exasperated tone.
"We know you have strange powers and are capable of doing things that the Rodenti can also do. Something close to it, at least. I was hoping that you would be kind enough to teach us how to do the same."
She looked deep into our eyes as if trying to convince us to help them. "We know that there are many more predators out there and other creatures that could try to hurt us. The last thing we want is to fight anyone. We just want to survive. And our odds would be better if we had the type of power that you have."
"I'm not helping you," I quickly replied. There was no chance that I was going to give the System to people who lived in a village where their leader was willing to sacrifice children for any reason whatsoever.
Michael pulled me closer, and did the same with the rest of our group, making sure everyone was touching each other. Before sending a message through the System.
Michael: C'mon, are we really not going to help them?
Astrid: They tried to hurt Rex.
Cassandra: I'm not helping. I think I was pretty clear about that.
Riley: I also have no intention of helping them. I don't like what we did, but we had to. Not just because they were trying to attack children, but they also betrayed us. We were all working together. It was so nice, and they tried to do that for what? The Rodenti were already going to leave?
The witch glanced at Camila, watching the expressions on the people behind them. I could tell that some were feeling bad, but there were others who were not. Two people in the back had a face almost as if they were about to demand that we help.
Riley: Also, I don't like them.
I turned to face Michael.
Cassandra: So, Michael. If you want to help, you give them the System.
He paused and stared into my eyes.
Michael: What?
Cassandra: Don't you remember one of the first things I said when I gave you the System? You have it. You are the only person who gets to decide what to do with it. If you want to give it to them, do it. I'm not going to stop you. But I'm not going to help them either. Also, I would advise against giving {Quick Tier 1 Evolution}. Not only is that too much power for them, but it's also going to take a while for the skill to transfer.
Michael: I don't have that skill in my {Memory Bank}. I think you're the only one who has it, so unless you want to give it to them, no one can. I agree that's too much power, but I don't want to leave them with nothing.
I shrugged.
Cassandra: Okay, then go give it to them. Speaking of which, Sys, how much does it cost to give the System to someone else now? We tiered up, Wouldn't that make it cheaper?
System: User Cassandra is correct. Now that users are at tier 2, users only lose 0.1% of the progression to the next level and can share the System with another human once every 20 minutes.
Riley: Damn. Does that mean that at tier 3, it's only going to take 0.01% and 20 seconds?
System: That is correct. At tier 4, it would only require 0.001% and 2 seconds. Tier 5 would reduce this cost even more, allowing people to share the System every 200 milliseconds. Those values all consider the standard cost. It is possible to acquire skills that would speed up this process.
Cassandra: Good to know. Eventually, we'd be able to give this to anyone we came across without having to worry about it. But for now, yeah, Michael, you do what you want.
Michael: You're really not going to try to stop me? After our fight last night, I thought I had lost some privileges.
Cassandra: Dude, no. I told you, you can do what you want with your System. Yeah, we argued, but that's that. I am not going to complain with anyone about what they want to do. If you want to give it to a murderer, be my guest. If you want to give it to a serial killer, I don't care. It's your System. You do whatever you want with it. But I'm going to add, if you do give it to a serial killer, I'm going to kill them before they become a problem.
Everybody just looked at me for a moment before nodding in agreement.
Michael: Thanks. I'm going to give it to Camila. From there, she can figure out the rest.
We broke our formation, and Michael stepped towards the woman, who was looking at him with eyes full of hope. When he got closer, he just put out a hand for her to shake. The moment he did so, you could see how Camila's mood dropped. Almost as if she were expecting him to say he was going to stay behind or do something else. Not just offer a handshake.
"I guess we really messed up, didn't we?" she said with a sad smile.
"You messed up a lot," Michael replied. She sighed and shook his hand, at least appreciating the gesture. But clearly, her eyes went wide. Michael didn't say anything, didn't even give an explanation. Instead, he just said, "Make sure not to mess up again."
"What is this?" Camila asked as Michael continued to stare at her. The Rodenti weren't really sure what was happening, but they were starting to move, and so did we. Making sure to give the humans a wide berth.
After a couple of moments of silence, Camila asked, "You're not going to say anything?"
"You lost the right to get any more help when your village did that. Now you have this, and you figure out from there," the archer said.
Camila nodded, "Thank you."
I suddenly became aware that Camila didn't have the System. And had just gotten it. But it wasn't as if there was a skill or something. It happened just by looking at her.
It was as if in a moment the colors of her body became less dull, the clothes a tiny bit more vibrant. The moment that happened, it felt so natural that a second later I couldn't really remember how she looked before. It wasn't as if I could tell that someone had a System just by looking at them, but I could tell with our eyes when someone was just accepting it.
And once that second passed, she was no different from any of the people behind her. Even the colors that were supposed to be more beautiful now looked the same.
We continued moving together with the Rodenti, but Astrid and I stayed behind the pack just in case something were to happen and the humans tried to attack us. Thankfully, that didn't happen.
Once we started moving, Camila just grabbed the people who were with her and took them back to their village. She seemed to be a good person, and if there was someone in this village I would give my System to, it was her. But at the same time, I still couldn't trust what she was going to do with this power. However, this wasn't my problem anymore. We were leaving, and I had no intention of coming back this way. And if I ever did come around, and saw that they were abusing the System, I could just kill them all and gain some extra particles as a bounty.
As the thought crossed my mind, I froze for a moment. It was a very dangerous train of thought and something that powerful beings were likely to think with a certain frequency. After all, the best way to level up would be to kill and consume other living creatures that were of a high tier. And if you could somehow go from village to village, killing everybody who was powerful, it wouldn't take you that long to gain a considerable amount of power.
Another option was, for instance, create a bunch of giant spiders. Then teach them how to level up quickly only to kill them and level up yourself. Almost like a twisted farm. It would make a lot of sense. It would be easy to reach tier 3 even if you started at tier zero a couple weeks ago.
That's probably how the Lumerin regained their power. By creating this pattern of killing and harvesting the creatures, they made themselves. That was a very awful way to get stronger, but if that was really what they were doing, I couldn't really argue with the results.
Still, I refused to take that path. Although the truly awful people that I was going to kill anyway could be the exception to the rule. I had no qualms about hunting down serial killers and people who were that awful to get some levels. But if I were being honest, it was likely that the Lumerin were at the top of that list.
With the exception of Wistra. Actually, maybe even her, I didn't know any Lumerin aside from these two. And even Riley's former master was a bit twisted in ways that I couldn't really wrap my head around. And again, I hadn't met too many of those beings. Two wasn't a large enough sample size to give any definite answers.
We continued our journey heading southeast, which was somewhat in the same direction where Rex's home was located. Although from some conversations that we had, it was clear that this wasn't exactly the same direction as his home. If we wanted to go there, we would need to go west, then east, not so much south.
Traveling with the Rodenti was a unique experience. They were much kinder and very merry. Everything sounded exciting when they were the ones talking about it. Even if someone came back to say that they couldn't find any food or any water, they were all cheerful and thankful that this scout had returned with news that the region he explored had nothing. Which was a good thing. After all, they wouldn't need to send more people the same way.
There were culture shocks that we experienced. For one, the first time one of us had to take a step outside to go to the bathroom, all the Rodenti just stared at us with confused and worried expressions. Eventually one of them even asked, "Friend go alone?"
I blinked and looked around. Astrid was the only one missing, and aside from a bear, I really couldn't think of anything more intimidating around us than the Huskcarver. "Yes. Why wouldn't she?"
"No no. Always take friends. Never alone," the Rodenti explained before walking away with a look of disappointment.
Later, Rex explained to us that Rodenti usually always take someone along when they go to the bathroom. It's part of their culture. A way to bond, to show you trust the other person, and to protect the one who is in a vulnerable state. It was an interesting concept, but not something I felt comfortable doing.
When evening came, I once again started preparing our food. The smell caught the attention of the other Rodenti, and soon I was preparing meals for everyone. It wasn't exactly annoying, but I would have appreciated some help.
That is, until the System spoke up.
[User has reached the conditions for a subclass.]
#### Author's Note ####
I think everyone already expects the subclass, but what do you think it will be?