The two rats, having finished with their former leader, evolved to the next tier. They grew half as big and their fur changed to deep red with streaks of black.
Also, their intelligence raised too and they realized that they are now on the same level as the second-in-command.
They ran back to their nest around thirty meters from the anthill. They crawled through the hole in the wall, raced through a little maze and entered a small cavern. It was full of rats mating, eating or resting. Younglings were squeaking for their parents to feed them. Stone definitely would not like it there as it was noisy.
The two rats passed through the swarm and went directly to the biggest and most badass rat in the back. He had completely crimson fur and big eyes that exuded blue light. It was the King of Marble Rats, Ratam.
"So, the pack leader is dead and you ate him. Tell me, why should I not kill you?"
The two rats peeked at their King in fear, "my King, he was killed by the ants! We did not want to waste his meat!"
"Ants? Did they break our truce? Do they have a new Queen?" King Ratam Was curious for a moment, however, not for long. "No matter! RATS! WE ARE AT WAR! TALC ANTHILL WILL BE DESTROYED!" The King roared over his swarm.
Four packs, each with six rats, rose from their assigned, small territories. They were all black and with vacant eyes, but their four leaders had fur in different shades of red and similar eyes as their King.
"You two will take over your leader's former pack. Now go, in an hour, you will leave for the Talc Anthill!" He commanded but his eyes fell back on his females, "ants won't go anywhere. I have better things to do than annihilating some trash," he derisively thought to himself and resumed his fun.
☁☁☁☁☁☁
Meanwhile, the Partner gave another one of his high-speed lectures. Stone was no longer a little idiot and could comprehend what the Partner was saying without constantly repeating and questioning over the same thing again and again and again and again…
Partner taught him about many new things he did not know before; mostly about sapient races and Monsters. There was a slight distinction between them.
Monsters could evolve their bodies through eating powerful opponents and refine them, but it had several side effects, like being hunted down and slaughtered in thousands of ways. He also explained that everyone could turn into a Monster, but it was a path of no return.
Stone asked about gender and procreation as he was curious about this. Of course, the Partner ended the lecture there.
[Your intelligence had risen by 1.2]
[Your technique Ambient Mana Refinement gained a level]
Stone's intelligence with so many new pieces of information rose to new heights. He felt like something changed inside of his mind. New mana flowed into him, and his technique [Ambient Mana Refinement] slowly, but continuously refined it. This made him feel even more powerful than ever before, which was an exhilarating feeling.
"Partner, I have much more mana."
"Yeah. You little, insane…"
"Insane what?"
"… I don't know, a word for you probably doesn't even exist."
"Oh… Partner?"
"Can't we stay here? It's nice and quiet."
"NO!"
"Why not?"
"…"
"Queen! Rats! Many rats!" Their blossoming argument was interrupted by patrolling ant-guard. Even Stone could already see them through his sphere of sight.
Eights rats towered before the crevice, including two leaders on the front. They would fight over leadership later but now they had orders.
"Ant Queen! Our King wants your anthill gone!" One of the leading rats shouted in a squeaky voice.
"Brother, why shout? We should attack at once!"
The loud rat blinked a few times, slightly embarrassed for acting foolishly.
Two Mana bubbles filled with flames amassed near the crevice, but before they exploded, Queen Ant standing on her 'throne' on the edge of the crevice, exclaimed, "stop! I am the new Queen! The attacks were issued by the old one!"
"Hmpf! Doesn't matter. Attack!"
'Bang! Bang!' The two bubbles were countered by Stone per Partner's instructions. They disappeared into motes of translucent mana, and the heat was absorbed by Stone's body.
[Heat at 23% of maximum capacity]
"Partner, I got a little bit of heat."
"You are bigger so you can absorb more, but be careful. Your resistances are not invincible," Partner said while the magic rats prepared their next attack.
"Stop! Or you will die!" Queen of Talc Anthill warned the rats.
Again, two bubbles were conjured near the Queen. They were countered by Stone's magic and again, a little bit of heat permeated from it, Stone absorbed it with ease.
[You have absorbed heat to 39% of your maximum capacity]
"All ants! Attack!" Queen Ant commanded. The swarm of thousands of ants poured out of the crevice. Six enormous rats were covered in small, black bodies.
The rats jumped and stomped around, crushing ants with their bodies in dozens.
The two red rats made an attempt to conjure the bubbles against the Queen again, but they were countered again and again.
[Heat at 48% of maximum capacity]
The evolved rats glanced at each other as they did not expect the Queen to be so strong and proficient.
One of the normal rats was eaten from inside as ants crawled through its orifices.
The leaders attacked again and again, but this time the Queen was finally done with conjuring her new spell. [Electric Baton] was the same spell she used against the lizard, but more powerful.
Suddenly, the spell materialized before the eye of the magic rat.
He tried to evade but was not wholly successful as it pierced through its ear. Electricity flowed through his cranial nerve directly to the brain, paralyzing him.
Stone didn't stand by either. He compressed another bubble on the back of the second red rat, with 2 refined mana and filled it with half of his stockpiled heat.
It exploded and the rat's fur gained a bleeding wound with a few ribs broken as it plunged him to the ground. Still, the rat was durable enough that it did not get pulverized on a place as he was able to conjure a mana shield with all of the mana he could muster right before the explosion.
"Why didn't it die?" Stone pouted.
"Yeah, sooner or later this would happen," Partner sighed and explained, "your spell is still 2nd-tier and cannot use mana efficiently or in larger bulks. Even though it's strong for normal beings, those who can use mana efficiently can easily counter you. Well, at least you hurt it and have some mana in reserve. Continue the attack!"