*****
The rat then squeaked, "Y-You can speak rat!?"
"I guess!?" Henry squeaked in response, shocked.
Henry mulled over this sudden development. He thought and thought about what might be the cause, and then he remembered. He remembered a skill he had since the beginning, [Translate]. During his 16 years of life in Nrober he had only found it useful a few times. Of course it was useful learning this world's languages, but it only leveled up 3 times. It must've been enough so he could talk to monsters and animals, but why this rat!? He spoke to stray cats, but never got a response. Maybe the creature had to be intelligent?
Henry decided that must've been the case, although the thoughts lingered in the back of his mind. He remembered one of the reasons he wanted to catch this rat, so he asked, "Were you the one who tripped me and stole the steak?"
"Yes," The rat replied confused, "Why?"
"That's what I want to know!" Henry questioned furiously.
The rat responded calmly, "The meat smelled tasty. You humans were lucky that it satisfied me, and I didn't destroy the place."
!!!
Henry looked at the rat, alarmed. This small thing said it would've burned down the inn! Henry could only say one thing, "WHY!?"
"Because you bastards poisoned me!" The rat yelled back.
Henry thought over what this rat meant. Poisoned it!? We didn't do squat! Then the boy remembered one of the chores the workers had to do. Setup poison cheese for the rats outside. His friend Mary did just that, just before the rat tripped him. Honestly if he was the rat, he might've done the same; the act did endanger the creature's life. Henry then quickly apologized, "Sorry."
The rat accepted simply, "It's okay, I got a tasty meal in the end anyway!"
Henry sighed a sigh of relief, but then he heard the woman in front of them say, "What the hell are you two talking about, and how can you understand and speak rat!?"
*****
*****
Sheila listened to the back and forth between the rat and boy closely. Nope! Nothing! She couldn't understand a damn thing they were squeaking about. To cure her confusion, she asked, "What the hell are you two talking about, and how can you understand and speak rat!?"
The boy looked at her and replied, "I have the [Translation] skill."
"Strange, I haven't heard of it before. Mind if I check your status?" Sheila said as she pulled out an appraisal ticket. The appraisal ticket was infused with the [Appraisal] skill. Using it would allow the user to see another's status, but it'd destroy the ticket.
At this the boy flinched, and quickly responded with fear, "NO! No, i-it's fine!"
The strange response clearly showed fear at the idea of her seeing his status. There were a few reasons one didn't want another to see their status, but the most common one was the one she questioned him about, "Are you a criminal?"
The boy's eyes opened wide and he defended, "No, lord no. I'm just… status shy?"
Sheila wanted to pry further, but it was illegal to look at another's status without permission, unless they were a known criminal. She decided she wouldn't look any further into it for now. She then said to the boy, "Ask that shadow rat what its aim is."
Sheila then heard some back and forth between the rat and boy in squeaks. The boy looked over and said to Sheila, "It says it wants to escape the city and grow in power."
This was a common objective amongst monsters, so it didn't really give her any insight as to what the rat was like. She then commanded the boy again, "Ask it what is its opinion on humans."
More squeaks were heard from the duo, and the boy translated, "It doesn't really care about us. It says that we're kinda neat."
Sheila was unsure how to respond to this.
*****
*****
The rat had been answering the steak human's questions. They were somewhat odd, but the rat didn't really care about that.
The boy looked over and said, "So, what's a monster like you doing in the city?"
"I dug here by accident." The rat responded.
"Cool, cool. So do you have a name?" The boy inquired.
The rat remembered the name section of its status, and it answered accordingly, "N/A."
…
The boy just sat there, and after a while said, "N/A doesn't count as a name. It means not available, so that means you don't have a name."
"Oh, ok. Then I don't have a name." The rat echoed.
The boy closed his eyes and sat there with a thoughtful expression. His eyes snapped open and said, "Alright, then I'll just call you Eodum; it means shadows."
At that moment a dark, shadowy vortex swirled around the rat. Instead of going into its shadow cloak or fur, the darkness went straight into the rat's soul.
[Congratulations, you have been named: Eodum!]
[You are now a named monster, a being of greater importance and significance than the monsters around you!]
[You have been named by Henry. Being in a 10 meter diameter of each other will buff both parties!]
[You have bonded with Henry: you can no longer get a name and Henry can no longer name monsters.]
When the rat heard this message, the boy also heard something similar. The rat then squeaked confused, "Henry? What's a Henry?"
"That's me! My name's Henry." Henry said.
The rat replied simply, "Oh, ok."
*****
Henry had just named the rat and got a sudden buff in stats. Apparently naming monsters granted you a buff as well. He was thinking about this and then the woman called out to him, "Stand up boy, we gotta get out of these sewers."
Henry looked over and said, "I have a name you know, it's Henry."
"Oh right, I forgot to introduce myself! My name's Sheila; I'm the captain of the 13th division of paladins under the name of Gnos. It is a pleasure to meet you." Sheila stated.
Henry replied, "The pleasure is all mine, the rat's name is Eodum."
"The monster is named!?" Sheila said, surprised.
"Yep, I was surprised too!" Henry responded slyly. In this world, a named monster was quite important; these creatures were more powerful than others, and held some intelligence.
Sheila then asked, "Well then, shall we set off now?"
Henry replied, "Yes, let me just tell Eodum we're gonna get out." Henry looked down at the rat and squeaked, "We're gonna go find a way out of these sewers now, wanna come?"
"Sure." The rat replied.
At this moment Sheila, Henry, and Eodum began to wander and explore these sewers.
*****
Eodum had been thinking to itself that these sewers felt like home.