System naturally didn't know that the ratman wizard was afraid of him, and he also didn't know that the cunning ratman had tried to kill him by sending pgue-bearing rats to the nest every day.

  In fact, the pgue they'd carried had almost no effect on cold-blooded insects, snakes, or lizards.

  Ever since the level of [Mental Transmission] had risen and System had gained the ability to sense fungi and slimes, he could feel a rge number of microscopic fungi on himself every day. He'd simply assumed that the deadly pgues carried by the rats had just been different types of ordinary germs.

  Only when an open wound was directly exposed to the pgue bacteria would it have some effect, but even then, it only made it more difficult for the wound to heal. The pgue wouldn't have a fatal effect on insects in a short period of time.

  The same was true when System had been shot with an arrow carrying pgue toxin. The toxic arrow had made his wound stop healing, and even [Super-Speed Regeneration] hadn't been of any help.

  Fortunately, his [Mental Transmission] ability could sense the emotions of germs. Although he couldn't control germs like he could control slimes, he could at least clearly sense their location.

  After cutting away the parts of his flesh that had contained the pgue germs, his [Super-Speed Regeneration] had worked again. Otherwise, it may have taken several days for his wounds to heal completely.

  ...

  This ratman warren was much rger than the other ratman warrens that System had seen. It was nearly thirty meters long, with more than a dozen levels of passages heading up and down, plus hundreds of passages branching out in all directions.

  However, unlike ordinary warrens, there was no air circuting here. There seemed to be only one entrance.

  The massive array of underground passages was like a maze. System searched for more than ten minutes, but he didn't find any traces of rats or ratmen.

  Even after System checked the video data recorded in the [Data Bank] in his [Tools Menu], he still ended up getting lost. He'd already circled around in some pces several times.

  As for Shava, who was following behind System, she didn't even notice that they were lost at all. She was still in high spirits, as if she didn't have to worry about anything as long as System was by her side.

  However, it wasn't long before System finally found the key to breaking through the maze.

  As it turned out, the big stone outside the ratman warren hadn't been the only illusion. In the warren's maze of passages, some of the walls were also illusionary.

  The false walls that appeared on both sides of the retively spacious and straight passages were almost indistinguishable from normal walls. If System didn't have his ability to recognize the outline of things in his [Tools Menu], he might not have noticed these false walls at all.

  Perhaps the ratman in this warren had taken this into consideration when deciding not to create multiple exits.

  If there were too many exits, there would undoubtedly be some air flowing through the warren. If a gust of wind suddenly blew through a wall, that would undoubtedly be a huge fw, and it would alert any enemies who had invaded the warren that something was wrong.

  Now that System had these illusionary walls guiding his way, he easily found the correct path.

  This ratman didn't seem to understand the importance of mixing truth with falsehood and combining reality with illusion. All of the warren's illusionary walls pointed System straight toward the only correct path.

  After crossing two more fake walls, System finally saw several of the trembling little rats he was looking for.

  The eyes of one of the little rats were obviously different from those of the others. Although its face also showed a fearful expression, its eyes seemed to possess wisdom.

  This little rat took advantage of System's inattention and suddenly accelerated, running in the opposite direction from System. It seemed like it was being controlled by the ratman and wanted to lead System and Shava away.

  However, before it could get far, it was cut in half by Shava's bde. The other little rats were soon killed one after another at System's signal.

  ...

  After killing more than a dozen rats, System finally came to a room at the end of the warren. As he stood outside the room, he saw a round wooden door with a metal handle. There was a faint light visible though the gap below the door.

  This ratman wizard didn't seem to have the ability to create traps. Apart from the illusionary walls, System hadn't faced any challenges since entering the warren, and there was nothing unusual about the wooden door.

  Shava easily pushed open the door, revealing a square room more than ten square meters in size. System saw two round crystals embedded in the walls that were emitting light.

  The room was very clean. Ever since he'd first arrived in this world, this was System's first time seeing a bed with a cotton mattress. He also saw a simple bookshelf with more than a dozen books and an unusual stone statue on it.

  The statue depicted a strange, smoky figure. System had seen simir statues made of wood while exploring ratman nests before, but they hadn't been as finely crafted as this one.

  After taking a quick gnce at the items inside the room, System turned to the ratman wizard in a gray robe sitting on a chair.

  System could see fear in the ratman's eyes. However, it was obvious that the ratman wasn't afraid of System, but of Shava, who had just finished casually sughtering the wizard's rat minions.

  The ratman wizard didn't take action, instead speaking some ratman words to Shava. Of course, neither she nor System understood what the ratman said.

  Zap!

  With a faint electrical sound, the two bright balls lighting up the room suddenly went out.

  In a fsh, a ratman with scarlet eyes suddenly jumped out from its hiding pce somewhere in the room and sshed two silver daggers at Shava's head.

  The room was filled with the sound of bdes cshing as Shava easily blocked the ratman's daggers, but she couldn't kill it immediately. Her strength was greater than the ratman's, but her attack speed was slower. The red-eyed ratman seemed to be in a frenzy, attacking wildly.

  This ratman was stronger than an ordinary gnoll warrior and seemed to be evenly matched with Shava. Because its target wasn't System, Shava, who didn't feel any sense of crisis, could only exert a very limited amount of strength.

  However, the battle's situation changed quickly when the ratman wizard sitting on the chair stood up.

  As he stretched out his sharp fingers and spoke more unknown words, a green ball of light appeared at his fingertips.

  The wizard aimed the light ball at his fingertips not at Shava, who was fighting with the red-eyed ratman, but at System, who was still watching.

  It was over...

  If the wizard hadn't gotten involved, the red-eyed ratman might have fought evenly with Shava for a long time. As soon as the the wizard targeted System with his spell, however, Shava instantly cut her opponent in half.

  She was like a god descending from the heavens, and a glowing white aura began gushing out of her body.

  Shava quickly dashed in front of System and blocked the ten-centimeter-wide ball of green light.

  The ratman wizard didn't continue his attack. Instead, he began screaming as if he'd fallen into madness. At the same time, a look of fear appeared on his face. This time, he looked not at Shava, but at System.

  From Shava's actions to protect System, the ratman wizard seemed to have figured out the hierarchy between him and Shava.

  The wizard didn't know the rules of Shava's ability at all. He probably thought that System and Shava had extraordinary powers and were deliberately pying tricks on him.

  However, just when System thought that he'd won and that the ratman wizard who had lost his will to fight would be captured, his [Intuition] suddenly sent out a sense of uneasiness.

  Without giving System time to think, the ratman wizard's body suddenly expanded like a rapidly infting balloon.

  Boom!

  The wizard exploded at the same moment that Shava sshed out with her twin bdes!

  She stood in front of System and blocked all of the exploding ratman's bck flesh and blood.

  However, although Shava was able to stop the flesh and blood from reaching System, she couldn't do anything about the strange bck light that fshed out.

  The bck light instantly bypassed Shava and entered System's body.

  He had a feeling that something very bad had just happened...