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

Caleb scurried across the forest floor as he tried to escape his pursuers. He tripped over a root and rolled across the ground. Leaves flew into the air. When he finally stopped rolling, he laid on the ground, still dizzy from his tumble. He quickly regained his bearings and ducked into a hole. The moment he did so, a wolf burst into view, snarling, and he almost squeaked. It sniffed and scanned its surroundings for its prey.Fortunately, the only good thing about his body was that it was small enough to hide in places where the wolf couldn't reach. As he watched the wolf search frantically for him, he cursed everything and everyone for his predicament. Most of all, he blamed the system that had brought him to this place and turned him into a demon rat, of all things.Hours earlier, Caleb groaned as he regained awareness. The last thing he remembered was playing a video game before falling asleep at the keyboard. Normally, this wouldn't set off alarm bells since it was something he di

[Quest][Defeat the Demon Wolf][You have successfully defeated the demon wolf.][Quest Rewards][You have gained a level and received 1 gold.]Caleb wasn't sure what to feel as he looked at the messages hovering over him. He didn't know how long he had been out, but it must have been a couple hours at least, as night had already fallen in the time he had been unconscious. Honestly, he was lucky that nothing else had shown up while he was out cold. Then it would be really over for him."System. Explain," he said as he stood up to investigate the corpse.[What is your query?]He could feel the veins in his head pulsating as he said, "Everything. You've barely explained anything since I arrived here. Start from the very beginning."[Since the beginning of time, angels and demons have waged war...]"I don't mean that." The last thing he needed was for the system to relegate the entire prologue of the video game to him. "I mean, explain why I'm here and how to use the system."[The user w

[Caleb Gonzales][Level 2][Species: Demon Rat][Strength: 4][Intelligence: 6][Stamina: 4][Endurance: 5][Dexterity: 5][Mana: 7]It looked like he had gotten lucky and only needed to spend two stat points to raise his Strength stat to a decent level where he could actually chew on the meat of the demon wolf. That had left Caleb with four stat points left to use. He knew he should save the rest for emergencies, but after everything, he didn't feel comfortable leaving the rest of his stats as they were.After raising his Stamina and Endurance stats to four, he had been left with one stat point left. He considered saving it for a brief moment, but ultimately added it to his Endurance stat in hopes that it would make him sturdier in future fights. Now all that was left was to actually eat the demon wolf's corpse. With a grimace, he went right to work.[You have eaten a portion of a demon wolf. Your Strength stat has gone up by one.][You have eaten a portion of a demon wolf. Your Stam

Caleb had known it wouldn't be an easy task to start building his army of demon rats, but it really honed in when none of the demon rats were interested in hearing what he had to say. Every time he tried to speak with one, they would either ignore him, examine him, or pick a fight. The latter wasn't really an issue since he had gotten stronger, but still, he couldn't get a single demon rat to join him.Well, that wasn't entirely correct. The demon rat that had greeted him last night and led him back to the nest was sticking to his side for some reason. He didn't know why, but he really hoped it wasn't for the reason he was thinking of. Caleb couldn't even tell if they were a girl or boy demon rat. In any case, he really had no luck getting anyone's attention.[Can the system offer up a suggestion?]"Go ahead," he said with a sigh.[Why not recruit the demon rat currently with you? They appear to be open to listening to you.]The system wasn't wrong, and it wasn't like he had better op

Caleb was hesitant to let go. It could be a trick, and the larger demon rat was just waiting for him to release it. He didn't want to take the chance and continued to sink his teeth. It was only after a message stating he had completed the quest popped up that he dared to relax. Removing his teeth from the corpse, he noticed that they had gathered a crowd.A legion of demon rats were staring at him, and the sight unnerved him. He felt as if they were ready to pounce on him at any given moment. Karen also let go of the corpse and joined his side, making him feel slightly better about it, but they wouldn't be able to do much with just the two of them. Even if they were slightly stronger, the others had the advantage in numbers.For now, it seemed like they weren't going to do anything to them, so he took the opportunity to look over the message he had received for defeating the demon rat. If he was lucky, he would have leveled up, so he was getting more stat points to improve his stats.