I took a second look at this old book. It had a green cover, but there were random specks of yellow that stood out. The spine was just as green and it too had specks of yellow randomly placed along it. Aside from the color of the book, it was also disturbingly large for a book about taking care of a rat army.
I looked at the title again, it promised good things, but I wasn't ready to read more pages than a normal book.
Since when was such a rare book made, I wondered, The last known production of books finished dozens of years ago.
Putting aside the thoughts about its history, I turned past the title page of the book, and was greeted by a lengthy table of contents.
A tremendous amount of chapter titles were plastered onto the page with a degree of disarray.
Some sounded cool while others sounded like they would come from a philosophy class.
Luckily it didn't seem like I had to read all of them.
'Beginner SwarmKeeper Tips&Tricks'? my face grimaced, 50 pages just for beginner tips and tricks?
I groaned, walked up to get some water, and started turning to the 'Tips&Tricks' the system left me.
When I reached page 127, I was greeted by large, bold letters, so I turned the page and started to read the system knowledge.
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Despite there being 50 pages for the beginner stuff, it only took me 15-minutes to understand the content.
That was because every idea was a bullet point that had a page to itself.
If it didn't, it was because the simpleminded system gave a word its own page.
It took 7-pages just to write out 'You just need to touch the rat'.
The book read like it was made for kids straight from the womb, not for me.
Thankfully, the system had left some cryptic meanings within its elementary book.
In fact, they were summarized at the end of the chapter:
To tame a creature, touch it
To command a creature, think it
To hide a creature, let it into you
The last one was the most obscure, but it meant that if I wanted to travel around with my swarm without it being noticed, I could place the animal inside of a 'mental doll-house' and they would reside there until called for.
It was an intriguing system for a rat storage system, but who was I to complain.
Next on the list of things to do was read the how to tame a creature.
When you read thought the 'Tips&Tricks' it literally redirected you to the taming chapter, but I didn't read it because that wasn't the goal.
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After reading the taming chapter, I was certain the system was making fun of me.
This time the writing was harder to read.
That was because it was written in spirals, but that was besides the point.
It spoke in obscure texts, and sometimes it even used a completely different alphabet that was made of different shapes.
Some of the characters even wriggled along the page like worms.
I still understood everything that wasn't written in shapes, but some of my thoughts still didn't make most sense to me.
The chapter would be like 'to tame a creature, you'll need to connect yourself with its cor', but whenever a foreign term was used, shapes would flood the writing after that.
I still managed to piece together the general idea about taming.
You had to touch them where they were most vulnerable.
It didn't specify, but after I touched them there, I was supposed to flow my Od through them.
Doing that would create a brand that would connect us, but that was only formed perfectly if the animal was completely weaker than me.
So a rat would be easy because they weren't used to Od, but if it was an Ihron, I would have a harder time.
The chapter also said there was another way to form a perfect brand, and it then proceed to tell me how to manipulate an animal into giving consent.
The chapter had placed importance on the consent part of branding the animal, but that didn't hold up because it then said 'Getting the animal's consent is a hassle sometimes, so whenever you know you're stronger, you can do it forcefully'
The idea of the brand was thrown through multiple views throughout the chapter, but it could've been described as a devil and angel on someone's shoulder.
It would bounce back and forth, but it left the decision in my hands, so I could only assume this was the system's version of a morality test.
After the brand was formed, the animal would have to listen to the SwarmKeeper's commands because the brand would explode otherwise.
It wouldn't kill any animal, but it would be just enough to shock them.
Somehow even after the explosion, the brand would still be there, and the animal was still attached to me.
It could be activated from any order; additionally, it could be activated from the brand's rules.
The best part of the brand was that it would injure the animal whenever they did something that didn't follow the rules set up by the SwarmKeeper.
The worst part was that I would have to set up those rules myself.
Rules were different from orders because they were permanent, and I couldn't change them after the brand was formed.
An intriquing part of the rules was that they dictated what orders could be given.
It wouldn't only limit their actions, but 'it would also allow commands to be given that could defy common sense'.
The book was weird at times, but it said that the rules were fuel for the orders.
Orders had a limit to the complexity, danger, or how unwilling the animal was.
It felt like the animal simply had to hate the SwarmKeeper, and they wouldn't have to do anything that their keeper commanded.
Rules made it so that situation was impossible.
They were to be created for the specific animal, and they ranged from 'you must be vegetarian' to 'On blood moons within the third month of the year, you must go buy bananas that are three-days old'
Broad rules wouldn't give you a lot of power of the orders you could give, but the rule would change their life forever.
Ultra-specific rules were the exact opposite; the Rule wouldn't take much out of their life, so you could give them abstract or complex orders, but when it came time for it, they must do whatever the rule was.
Rules were going to be the important part of the taming process, and these two chapters were what I needed to be motivated to tame the nearby rat.
It was still in its cage under the tarp because I had been doing other things while it sat there.
I hadn't heard any sounds from it while I was reading, so I was a little intrigued about what kept it so silent.
The tarp didn't rustle at all, and there was no bulge at any moment since it had arrived.
I set down the old book, and slowly took off the tarp.
What can the rat even look like? I wondered, All they are is a big mouse.
The tarp smoothly came off the cage, and it revealed to me a cardboard box.
It was completely closed, but the weird part was that it was warped with the slight subtleties of a wire cage that would normally be used for pets.
I disregarded the idea of taking care of a rat inside a little cage like the legends of children who had taken care of hamsters back in the past.
The package had overlapping flaps that sealed it, so I carefully opened the cardboard package.
Inside I found a rat laying there, completely asleep.
It was surprisingly cute.
I didn't touch it because I didn't want to wake it, but the thing looked pretty cute.
It was the shape of a gourd; its front part was slim, and looked like a torpedo head, but its backside was fat.
It wasn't a fat rat, but it was just wider there than it was in the front.
I didn't have a name for it, but it would have to be something about being stupid.
Oh, results should be out soon, I recalled, I need to hurry this up.
Academies were supposed to release their results soon, so if I wanted to see my results when they came out, I would need to hurry.
Why do they just delete the results if they aren't viewed within 5-minutes of them being posted, I pondered with a frown, After you load the page, they don't delete them, but when you don't load it, they just send them to the trash.
Deplorable, I concluded my thoughts, and started to tame the rat.
It was lying on its back, which was weird, but it revealed the most vulnerable spot to me.
I carefully pressed my hand on its heart, and started to flow my Od through the rat.
It somehow stayed asleep as I fumbled through the body.
The book had described it as 'filling the body', or 'cycling through' it to make it easier, but it was easier said than done.
It took six minutes of fumbling around to 'fill' the body of the rat.
The brand would be created after the body was filled, and because it was asleep, and because the only resistance was my own inability, it formed perfectly.
The brand wasn't tangible, but I knew from the book that I would have to think of a rule, and it would be applied to the brand.
I didn't have any idea of what would be a bad route to take for the rat, so I just decided to focus on giving orders, than having it do something for me permanently.
I didn't want a rule that could backfire, so I just gave it a simple order: when I kill all the Acno, you will be free to do whatever it is that you want.
A bright light flashed, and suddenly I felt a sense of dominance when I looked at the small rat.
When I finished, I rushed to my room to prepare for my results