Still unsure about the situation, Viktor decided to come a little closer to the hut to find out what happened inside, but when he got a little closer, he heard Eva's scream.
"Kyaaa!!!"
Before he knew it, he unconsciously dashed toward the door, surprising everyone inside.
Viktor quickly turned his gaze toward Eva mentally prepared to fight, but the sight that greeted him was out of his expectations. Eva was sitting comfortably near the fire, and perching on her shoulder was a chubby golden rat-like creature.
"Viktor, you're back!" the princess happily exclaimed when she saw that it was Viktor who barged in.
Everyone was happy for his return, but Viktor's attention was fully on the creature.
In contrast to how tense Viktor was, the creature was very relaxed as if it had no worry in the world.
Despite sensing Viktor's wary stare, the small golden rat-like creature simply moved around Eva's body for a bit before sitting on her lap comfortably as she stroked it gently.
"Look what I found here, isn't he cute?" Eva asked with a bright smile, her right hand still stroking the creature's fur.
It seems that she really likes this creature.
The golden lemming indeed appeared to be a peaceful and harmless creature, but the data given by the Djinn could not be wrong.
It was probably not the best idea to suddenly attack the golden creature especially since he was still on the drawback because of the divine skill, hence to buy some time, Viktor made small talk about the weather, the condition outside, and the creatures he saw in the forest.
Eva, however, abruptly stood up. She hastily put the golden creature down, almost throwing it, and approached Viktor.
He was initially confused as to why she suddenly panicked, but when he looked in the direction of her gaze, he realized why.
She noticed the bleeding on his waist and shoulder.
The princess quickly asked Barry for the healing kit and took care of Viktor's wound with the help of Torri.
"What happened out there, dear?"
Viktor certainly enjoyed the caring attention from such a beautiful girl. However, when he was looking at Eva, he noticed that the golden creature behind her had an annoyed look on its face.
How such an animal could make that kind of face baffled him.
He was feeling so uncomfortable that he did not take his eyes off the golden rat.
With his attention mostly on the creature seemingly glaring at him, he waited for his drawback duration to end while Eva took care of his wounds.
After a while, a notification appeared in his mind.
[Skill drawback is over, your stats have returned.]
Finally.
As soon as his stats returned, Viktor quickly jumped in. With his 48 agility points, he easily caught the little creature and grabbed the creature on his arm as it shrieked angrily.
"Viktor, why did you do that!?" Eva surprisedly asked when she realized what just happened. Viktor's movement was very swift, so it took her a moment to process what happened.
"This creature is dangerous!"
"That cute thing? Really?" Eva asked, her face clearly showing her doubt.
Viktor walked out of the hut with the creature in his hand, and Eva and the others followed.
"He's not dangerous, Viktor, he just came in to warm up," Eva tried to convince him.
There was no way Viktor was going to believe that.
This creature was a tier 3. Not only could it be extremely dangerous, but Viktor also hoped he would get something special for killing the thing.
His gaze toward the golden creature sharpened.
As if the creature knew what he was thinking, it shuddered and loudly shrieked. The sound felt like a knife stabbing into his brain, which gave him a slight headache.
When he looked back to check on the others, he saw that Eva and the others had fallen unconscious.
"What did you do!?" Viktor questioningly glared at the rat.
Hearing the Djinn's explanation, Viktor became furious and took out his dagger, ready to cut this creature like a chicken.
Viktor did not know if it was just his eyes playing tricks on him, but he saw the creature laugh at him before folding its head and hiding under its fur.
Without wasting another moment, Viktor swung the sharp alien dagger to pierce the rat.
Clank!
To his surprise, the dagger failed to pierce even its skin. Viktor could feel the creature shaking. However, he realized that it was not because of fear, but because it was laughing at him.
"What the hell!!"
"I can see that!"
He almost swore at the Djinn.
There was indeed a reason why this creature was still a tier 3 creature despite its low battle power.
While Viktor was still in the middle of his thoughts, the Djinn suddenly warned him.
"Now? What is it?"
F*ck.
This rat was actually calling for help!
With that realization, Viktor turned to glare at the golden lemming in his hand. At that moment, he saw the golden creature taking a peek before once again hiding with its body trembling.
It was laughing at him again.
From the distance, Viktor could already see hundreds of gray little creatures coming down from a hill and across the forest. Their color allowed them to almost blend with the snow. It would be hard to tell if it wasn't because of the multiple shrieking noises.
Upon looking closer, Viktor could see that they were all lemmings.
[Mutated lemmings - level 15]
[Battle Power - 20]
It wasn't as strong as the one in his hand, but there were hundreds of them and they moved together in speed. At the same time, Viktor realized that Eva and the others were beginning to wake up.
With such a condition, Viktor told them to quickly prepare for a fight.
There was no way he could defeat them all. At the moment, his mind was open to any solution. He was even fine with negotiating with a rat.
He gritted his teeth.
"Rat! I won't hurt you if you tell your fans to back off!"
Once again, the golden lemming's body trembled, laughing.
Seeing the waves of grey lemmings filling out the hill coming down toward him, Viktor decided to take a chance by running away with the golden lemming in his hand.
Run!!
It seems that he guessed right. With the golden lemming in his hand, all of the lemming troops chased after him and left the hut where his companions were alone.
Now he just needed to find a way to get out of this mess.