Chapter 917 - Black Hair and Black Eyes
Chapter 917: Black Hair and Black Eyes
The rat people were not the same as ratfolk.
Different from purebloods such as the ratfolk, the Turan, and wild boar people, the rat people were full fledged hybrids.
In the beginning, during a glorious battle thousands of years ago, the ratfolk’s cowardice and escape had led to the defeat of the entire war.
This made the ratfolk hated by all the Turan people. They believed that there was unclean blood flowing in their bodies and that they were not worthy of the ancestral spirit’s blessing or qualified to use the power of totems.
The five great clans joined hands and exiled all the ratfolk, driving them to the barren mountains and rivers at the edge of Picturesque Orchid Lake. They left them to fend for themselves.
Gradually, the Turan people branded the cowards, surrenders, and escapees of their respective clans ass “cowardly rats” and banished them to the place where the ratfolk had been exiled.
In order to survive, these disreputable cowards and escapees had no choice but to stay together with the ratfolk for warmth. They even intermarried with each other and prospered.
There was nothing else they could do. Other than those who shared the same fate, they could not find any noble warriors of Turan to carry on their lowly bloodline.
Just like that, the characteristics of different races were passed down from generation to generation.
By now, the ratfolk looked very different from each other.
There was not even one pure-blooded ratfolk left.
Most of the ratfolk had more or less been like the Turan, boar people, elephant people, golden lion people, lizard people, and gnolls.
In fact, because there were too many groups of characteristics that conflicted with each other, most of the characteristics had been canceled out.
Their hair kept falling off, and their skin was smooth and delicate. They looked like the blond barbarians north of Picturesque Orchid Lake, who were said to be on the fertile land that was eternally illuminated by the holy light.
Leaf and his brother were like that.
Other than their gray-brown curly hair, their tails that had shrunk into small balls, and their pointy ears, they really looked like barbarians who had blended into the Turan people.
Such appearances were also one of the important reasons why the rat people were discriminated against.
Therefore, Leaf had seen all kinds of strange-looking rat people.
From the “pure-blooded ratfolk” who were barely taller than an arm and looked like a giant rat standing up straight…
To the man with the bloodline of the elephant man, who was more than three arms tall and could swallow more than ten mandrake fruits in one meal.
From the man with the tusks to the man with the horns, to the man with the long hair, scales, and carapace.
From the man with the wings to the man with the scorpion tail.
From the man with the strange fragrance and the natural hallucinogenic ability, to the rat man who could change the color of his skin at will like a chameleon and make all kinds of mimicry, he had seen all of them.
However, he had never seen a guy whose hair and eyes were as black as a starless night.
Besides his hair and beard, his skin was smoother and paler than Leaf’s and his brother’s. It was so swollen that it was translucent. He was like a floating corpse that had been soaked in a swamp.
“Poor guy!”
Leaf could not help but think to himself, “How much suffering has he gone through with such an ugly appearance!”
There was also discrimination between the rat people.
The rule was that whoever had the most obvious bestial characteristics, and was not like a bald human, had less cowardly, despicable, lowly, and unclean blood, and was more noble.
On the other hand, whoever’s skin was smoother, had less hair and bestial characteristics, which meant that whoever was more cowardly, despicable, lowly, and unclean, was less worthy to regain the blessing of the ancestral spirit, the highest glory, and the protection of the totem.
Of course, the more one should be discriminated against.
Since they were young, Leaf and his brother had suffered a lot because of how they looked like humans.
Even their mother, who loved them from the bottom of her heart, could not help but sigh when she saw the two brothers naked.
She was worried that they might not be able to find a good furry girl in the future.
However, compared to the guy in front of her, even Leaf, whose hair had not fully grown yet, could be said to be beastly.
“Which clan’s blood is flowing in his body?”
Leaf pondered and said, “There are warriors with jet-black fur in both the leopard people and the bear people. However, after mixing their blood, there are very few people like this guy who don’t have any color at all.
“Besides, other than his black hair and eyes, he doesn’t have any characteristics of a leopard person or a bear person.
“At first glance, he looks like a bald worm. He is an ugly human being. He is too weak.
“But, such a weak guy, where did he get these serious injuries?”
This ugly rat man with black hair and black eyes, crisscrossed, densely packed, and covered in injuries, was something Leaf had never seen before.
It was as if he had been gnawed by a hundred hungry totem beasts.
Then, in the deepest part of the dungeon, he soaked in the rotten sewage for ten days and ten nights.
Not a single piece of good flesh could be found on his body.
It was either swollen and swollen, or a wound that opened up like a baby’s lips.
For some reason, the wound did not rot.
It was probably because the fresh blood inside had long been drained, leaving only an empty shell.
Even the little bug that could swallow courage and souls was disdainful of him.
No one, not even the warriors of the clan with totem power on their back, could survive such heavy injuries.
“He… is already dead, right?”
Leaf realized that the black eyes that had been staring at him for a long time did not blink and did not move at all. The light in them had already solidified.
The shriveled chest of the ugly rat people had also stopped heaving.
The nostrils near the surface of the sewage could not spurt out even half a faint stream of air, causing even the slightest ripple.
Leaf could not even feel the slightest bit of life and temperature.
Other than the fact that it had not rotted, this was a dead body.
However…
He did not know if his eyes were playing tricks on him…
Leaf suddenly saw that near the heart of the black-haired rat person, there seemed to be a cluster of scarlet mycelium flashing in a wound that was so deep that one could see the bones.
Leaf was shocked. He rubbed his eyes and looked carefully, but he did not see anything.
Leaf was scared.
He knew what was going on.
The black-haired rat person had been infected with the plague.
That was why the other rat people were scared and did not dare to approach.
The plague was probably the only thing that the warriors of Turan were afraid of.
It was not that they were afraid of death.
It was just that the plague was invisible. It was difficult to find a specific way to fight the plague.
Besides, if one was infected by the plague, they would lie on the sickbed and wail, struggle, and die.
This was the most humiliating way to die.
The black-haired rat person looked so ugly, and there was a high chance that they were infected by the strange plague. Naturally, no one dared to come forward and touch his corpse.
As for why the elders of the clan did not throw this corpse out to prevent it from infecting all the ratfolk in the cage?
Hehe, the noble elders would not care about the lives of a mere cage of rat people.
If the entire cage of rat people were to be infected, at worst, they could just leave them to fend for themselves and burn up the depths of the dungeon, completely burying them.
This was the simplest and most effective method.
Leaf subconsciously retreated.
But behind him was the red-eyed rat people who were famished.
And he had been by the black-haired rat’s side for too long.
His legs were covered with small wounds from the past few days.
They were soaked in dirty water like the black-haired rat’s wounds.
If the black-haired rat had really been infected with the plague, his body would have been crawling with worms that could swallow courage and soul.
These worms could have entered his body through the dirty water just now.
Besides, where could they have retreated to?
The entire dungeon was knee-deep in sewage, and there was no dry place.
Even if they squeezed past the red-eyed rat population and ran to another corner, could they escape from the invisible little bugs?
Realizing this, Leaf was completely in despair.
He sat beside the black-haired rat population’s corpse in despair.
“Mom, could this be my fate — in the Dark Dungeon, just like this black-haired, black-eyed ugly uncle, I’ll die silently. My corpse will soak in the sewage, slowly decompose, and be devoured by the little bugs bit by bit?
“This… is good.
“Although this way of dying will definitely not allow you to enter the glorious temple.
“But didn’t mom also not go to the glorious temple?
“Mom, no matter where you are, no matter how dark, terrifying, and cruel the place you go to, I only want to be with you.”
Leaf slowly exhaled a mouthful of turbid air.
The muscles that had been tense for several days slowly relaxed.
He wanted to lie down next to the corpse of the black-haired rat, allowing the dirty water and darkness to pass through his mouth and nose.
“Clang Clang Clang!”
Suddenly, the sound of a metal rod hitting an iron fence came from the top of his head.
Then, a rich and stinky aroma came.
It was the smell of fried mandrake fruits.
It was time to eat!
Although he did not care about the lives of the rat people.
He had finally managed to get them here. Even if they were to die, he wanted to squeeze out their value and not starve to death in vain.
A big basket of hot fried mandrake fruits fell from the hole in the cage.
The red-eyed rat residents who had smelled the food were like hyenas who had found a dead body. They did not care about Leaf and the black-haired rat residents anymore. Their eyes were shining as they lunged at the food falling from the sky.
Gulp…
It was hard to tell whether the smell was fragrant or foul. It was like a python that crawled into Leaf’s stomach through his nose, throat, and chest.
Leaf held his stomach, which was burning with hunger, and curled up into a ball in the dirty water, struggling violently.
In a trance, an illusion appeared in his eyes.
It did not seem to be the crudest fried mandrake fruit that was randomly fried in the arena.
Instead, his mother finely sliced it, soaked it in the mountain spring, and picked more than ten kinds of wild flowers and fruits, ground them into powder and sauce, and carefully cooked them into the best fried mandrake fruit strips in the world.
He really wanted to eat the fried mandrake fruit strips that his mother had personally made.
He really wanted to…
He really wanted to…
Leaf’s eyes were also faintly red.
It was as if he had stayed in the deepest part of the dungeon for dozens of days, or even dozens of years.
He used all his strength and punched his stomach hard. He forced himself to sit up from the dirty water with intense pain.
“No!
“I can’t die quietly in the dark like this ugly uncle!
“Try again!
“As long as I can eat a fried datura fruit, I’ll be able to recover a little bit of my strength and have a chance to live.
“I can do it. Huff, Huff, I must do it!
“I want to live, I want to become stronger, I want to kill the ox-headed warriors with broken horns and all the blood hoofed warriors, I want to find Anjia and save her.
“I want to eat the fried mandrake fruit that mom made herself!”