Eodum stoos at the end of its burrow. It stood there, ready for a fight. Then it heard something on the other end. One was the human language Eodum was completely foreign to, but it could hear the squeaks of Henry as well. Eodum listened closely as to what the ex-human was saying.
".ome ..t .odum…"
".ome o.t .odum…"
"Come out odum.."
"Come out, Eodum…"
Eodum heard this, but the rat couldn't hear the parts after. It strained its ears.
"Come out, Eodum! We don't want to fight, we just want to talk!"
Eodum heard this, but knew it couldn't trust those two. Though if they did really want to end things peacefully, Eodum would need to go out there. What to do? The rat decided to go closer to the entrance of its tunnel, though just enough to communicate.
"We can talk like this." Eodum yelled at Henry.
"Okay, that's alright. Now, we aren't gonna try to murder you." Henry yelled back.
Eodum responded, "Why should I believe you?"
"If we wanted to kill you, we could do it. Easily." Henry said coldly.
Eodum angrily shouted back, "Like hell you could! You couldn't even dig this far!"
"I can control fire! I could just have flames go down your little tunnel." Henry countered.
Eodum thought about this. Could Henry control flames? He never showed this ability in combat, but his new form was mostly fire. The two humans were human no longer, Eodum didn't really know what to expect from them. Eodum decided to believe Henry. Eodum said, "I'm coming out, do not attack." With that, Eodum made its way towards the entrance of the tunnel. It crawled out and saw the two.
Henry was wearing a suit, he had long since put his apron away into [Storage]. His skin, muscle, fat, everything had been turned into a blue flame, everything but the upper half of his jaw. He kept his human shape, and in the place of his hair and eyes was green fire. Eodum looked up and down Henry's body and noticed something.
"You're floating." Eodum pointed out.
"What the fuck!?" Henry said as he looked down. He was indeed hovering a few inches off the ground.
Eodum then paid closer attention to Sheila. While she looked mostly the same, that was because she was wearing full-plate armor. The one place Eodum could see was her face. It was a full skull; not a half of a skull like Henry. There really wasn't really anything to point out besides her kinda looking like a death knight though.
Henry then began lecturing Eodum with the help of Sheila. This went on for about an hour, "… do you understand!?"
"… y-yes." Eodum said quietly as it had never been verbally beaten like that before. Eodum was on the verge of tears, but held it in.
"Good, at least you understand now," Henry concluded and then said to Sheila, "Now then, I assume we should get back to exploring these sewers."
Sheila responded, "Yep, I can see the path of energy, so we just gotta fall back into formation!" The trio went back into their formation; it was truly an odd set seeing a flame wisp humanoid, being followed by a skeleton in armor, being followed by a rat. The team began to move again, having Henry freeze the area below his feet. Although a flame wisp is fire based, they only produce some heat. Henry also learned he didn't need to be in direct contact with the substance below him for it to freeze; Henry's feet just needed to be close enough. This was good for him as he now felt more natural hovering and floating now.
Sheila had found her evolution to only be a little annoying. While the new skills were great, her armor didn't really fit now. The loose armor was hanging loosely off her bones; this made her movement quite loud and annoying. The skills made up for it though; while she didn't understand what some did, she had a feeling they weren't detrimental in any way.
The odd party made their way for about a half-hour after they left, when they encountered a monster. This monster was just an ordinary zombie, nothing special at all. The team quickly jumped to action, Henry began by throwing a mixture at the zombie. This mixture was meant to be incendiary, and it worked quite well. The flask quickly exploded into a fireball, but then Henry used his [Flame Control] to fully engulf the zombie.
Eodum followed up and used [Gravity Up] to collapse the zombie to the ground. It followed with a [Distant Scratch], this time part of the plan. Eodum then buffed Sheila with [Strength Enhance], [Speed Enhance], and [Weight Reduction].
Sheila followed up by charging at the zombie while unsheathing her blade, enhanced by [Body Strengthening]. She went up at high speeds, and she swept up with her blade. She cut the weakened and scorched zombie into two. Then the trio heard a pleasant message.
[Congratulations, you have met the XP requirement and leveled up!]
[All stats have been restored!]
For some reason the trio's thoughts could only go to one word: … Neat! Each individual got different skill level ups, Sp and Ap gains, and level up announcements. Though Henry and Eodum heard something in common:
[You have gained skill: Team Work!]
Sheila already gained this skill through battles with her team, however, Eodum and Henry had been solo before this. Eodum looked at its level up screen.
[Status:]
Name: Eodum
Race: Dark Rat
Gender: Male
Age: 5 days
Level: 8
Hp: 153/153
St: 204/204
Mp: 64/64
Str: 16
Dex: 14
Agi: 21
Wis: 40
Int: 40
Cha: 12
Con: 31
Mnt: 20
Lck: 52
Skills: Excavate 3, Distant Scratch 6, Crush 4, Intimidate, Body Scan 2, Presence Erase 5, Focused Muscle Strengthening 5, Shadow Enhancement 9, Pinpoint Precision 4, Acid Resistance 3, Blunt Damage Resistance 6, Support Magic 8, Mana Detection 7, Petrification Resistance, Shade Absorb 9, Rat Command, Regen Enhance 2, Tail Whip 5 (MAX), Gravity Magic 3, Team Work
Accomplishments: Genocide, Stone Breaker, Lord Slayer, Torturer
SP: 3
AP: 12
… Neat!