"I put quite a lot of work into putting all the rats under my control, I didn't expect a monster to come flying down an make a mess of all my plans. If they were still here I could revive them all, but what happened to their souls... ah, I see. So this Dragon eats souls, but why can't I see its stats? All I can see are its race, and titles... and only one at that, interesting. As compensation and to sate intellectual curiosity, I'll be putting you under my control as well."
What the hell is the dude sayi--
"You are currently being subjugated to attempts of domination via the skill 'Monster Tamer', fight back or lose your free will."
I had wanted to look at his status, but hearing what the System had to say it's clear that it will have to wait. As soon as I realise what's going on, I breathe out more fire and use my Elemental Manipulation to focus it into a beam aimed directly at the robed man.
"To be able to put up a fight like this, then you must be a monster of a rather high tier. All the more reasons to turn you into my next research subject."
"You're fucking crazy!"
"Hmm... capable of speech as well. Perhaps I should have expected as much from a Dragon. I've never had a chance to dissect a Dragon before, why don't you let me look at your body."
This guy is even crazier than I thought! And the way he worded that is disgusting, no wonder he gets along with those rats. But more importantly, why is my attack not doing anything! Switching up my strategy, I swap to using my Ice Breath, but it still doesn't seem like it does anything.
"Try as much as you'd like, I'm far too tanky for you to deal with, my Mind stat is clearly leagues above yours since you do so little damage."
"Fine then try this!"
Seeing how my breath attacks hardly put a dent in him, I swap to using my Acid Breath. Unfortunately just like before... wait, no, nevermind, this is working.
"Ahh! what is this!? I have Greater Poison Resist, why does this still hurt so much!"
"You have successfully repelled the effects of 'Monster Taming'. Due to the unstable mental state of the caster, all dominated monsters have been released from the caster's control."
Then that means the rats are no longer under his control. Just like I thought, the rats that had previously been attacking me this whole time suddenly stopped. Light has returned to their eyes, displaying a sense of emotion. The corrosion from my Acid Beam had also eroded his robe, revealing his features. Short blonde hair and pointed ears, if stereotypes are anything to go by, then this is an elf. He seems quite young, probably in his twenties, but if it's an elf then it's hard to say what his real age is. Underneath his robes is a set of glowing leather armour and imprinted on it is a large tree.
As for the rats, they all scattered, no longer being forced to fight with me they ran off to their burrows. Good riddance too, even when counting their horrid appearance, they still annoying to have around. I had killed around 1,700 of them and only got 700 experience, truly worthless creatures that are only useful for the souls.
"No, I can't let people see this! Count yourself lucky, Dragon! If it wasn't for the restrictions on my mission, I'd have killed and dissected you. But worry not, I'll be back for your body later."
Not even a second later, the elf disappears into the ground using some kind of earth magic. Well, he is certainly good at running away as soon as the situation favours me. But I think it would do well for my mental health if I never have to meet this crazed elf ever again his intentions towards me are actually kind of scary. But I especially don't want to see him again if the company he keeps are grotesque monsters like those rats. Speaking of those rats...
Even if they were being controlled, they aren't getting away that easily. Moving over towards the burrows I begin filling them up with fire, burn baby burn! Slowly, very slowly, my EXP is rising and once I see that is hasn't moved for a while I proceed to the next burrow. Eventually, after two hours of scorching the underground tunnels, I finally kill all those hideous rats that are in the area and I even levelled up. A shame I can't collect their souls since the underground is out of my reach though. But really the experience from killing these things has got to the worst I've ever seen, it takes so many just to get one point of experience. Most of my stats only went up by around a hundred or so, just a few more levels until that exponential growth shows what its capable of.
Just as I'm preparing to leave I find another group appearing in the distance. But thankfully there isn't an army of nightmare-inducing rats following them. A group of four and as the distance closes between us I come up with an idea. I still have time left on my Humanoid Shapeshift so this is a good opportunity to get some information. In a flash of light, my body condenses again as it takes the smaller frame that resembles a Dragonoid. For some reason, the clothes I had been wearing before are still on me, just how does that work?
Perhaps startled by the sudden flash of light and the disappearance of the giant monster that was previously in view, the approaching group picks up their pace, quickly coming face to face with me as I'm still pondering why I kept the clothes after my turning back into my Dragon form for the first time.
"Excuse me, Miss, we are a party of adventurers from the nearby town of Hoplanick. We came here for an extermination quest as there had been a recent spike in aggression from the Naked Ground Rats. And there was also that giant monster we saw from the distance, you wouldn't happen to anything about these, do you?"
The man I presume to be the leader speaks in a polite tone. He is small in stature, yet despite the polite tone, I can still feel a sense of experience and confidence from his voice. I would think he is a dwarf, but he doesn't quite match up to the image in my head, where is all the facial hair?
"Naked Ground Rats? If you mean those disgusting monsters then you no longer have to worry about them. As you can probably tell from the scorched ground, they've been dealt with by me. As for this giant monster you claim to have seen, there was no such thing here. I've been here for the past few hours killing rats and I had not seen any monster larger than the rats."
I lied as naturally as I breathed.