What Laz used to know as the little rodent struck the floor before it with precise, and accurate speed, sending distorting wood creaks that rumbled forward toward Laz.
Laz on his own has already made a move, but his move was relatively slow since he tried to escape the situation using a crawl. Unfortunately, he got hit by the distorting creaks that traveled toward him, colliding with his imbalanced bent body, and sending him flying over to another corner of the room.
The luck caused by this engaging hit was of three definitions: first was that as soon as Laz landed on the floor, he wobbled to release the sharp wood sticks that had pierced his body as a result of the traveling creaks formed after the strike from the rodent monster.
Most of it had connected with his right leg which caused him temporarily paralyzed on the spot. He would only be able to walk with those legs but after he gets as enough rest to do so. Blood rarely seeped through the wide wound pores caused by the effect as Laz covered the areas consecutively with his hands to cause them to dry up.
Good thing he didn't turn to the young man in a pool of blood.
The second definition of his luck from the attack was that he came to a sudden realization.
The rodent monster was blind.
For some reason, this was pathetic reasoning to him, but he could tell since he felt the emptiness in its vision whenever it turned toward his direction. Maybe, this was a price it had to pay due to its rapid evolution. Plus, the fact that its body movements were slow.
The truth was that whenever the rodent monster moved to face a direction, each step it took cost five seconds at the least, but once it was ready to launch an attack, its strike landed with speed and precision.
This sudden realization gave Laz an idea of what he was going to do. Since it was as sluggish as a snail could ever be, he thought confronting it from behind could do him more good. He was going to use its advantage of being blind to lay out his attack on it. But before that, he needed to distract it with a sound since that was what its base action depended on.
He turned his eyes around to seek for any object he was going to use as a distraction and found his third luck — the plastic table. The smile that spread quickly on his chin was cut short by the unorganized noise now caused by the rodent monster.
It hit the walls of the building around him at intervals, causing cracks to form on them. Whenever it brought its trollish hand to a halt, Laz saw that the hugeness of the hand was not its only weapon, but it had claws that were as tall as a dagger.
'Just, what the fuck?'
He looked at it growl once again with the mouth wide open, revealing its sharp maws and began to measure his survival rate if he executed his plan.
From the actions of the creature, he felt a familiar, boiling anger rise. But as he watched closer through that red mist of rage — not belonging to his emotions — something didn't quite add up. He noticed that the rodent's actions were kind of restricted.
Remembering how everything had happened, he concluded that it wouldn't have evolved in the first place if it hadn't been triggered. For it to drag a plate of food towards him at the time of his waking up meant it was owned, by him maybe.
Sorry, by the person that looked like him whom he transmigrated into the body. And that could only be the reason the rat dared to climb the bed when he was asleep to bite his toes to wake up.
Laz kept his reasoning based on different assumptions: first was the fact that the rodent, the rat, was angry and so acted in the way it did.
Second was that it was not trying to instigate a direct attack. The first strike it had unleashed missed his hair by a strand. The truth was that he couldn't have dodged the attack if it used its claws. Then, the last attack so far was the distortion it had used as a weapon.
Maybe he was right. The body he was occupying belonged to the owner of the rodent, and that was why even though the rodent attacked, it was not a direct-based attack. It was a way of letting off anger. That led Laz to make the next assumption.
The rodent monster was angry as a result of an intentional trouble he had caused. When he kicked the rat, it didn't connect it with a pampered act, he was aggressive at least to an extent. Plus, the food the rodent will claim to have provided, was all wasted by him. This could be another reason for its boiling anger.
Also, the rodent could have noticed that its owner was possessed. He was no longer the rodent pet master, but Laz Mann. The earlier it reclines to that fact, the better for it cause he was not ready to take in some kind of rodent as a pet.
'Who would ever consider the idea of doing such?'
Conclusively, from his assumptions, he identified that the monster before him was a Tamed creature.
Different ranks of creatures existed in both the land of call and in the real world of Ellipse. Laz had yet to find out what Ellipse's real-world name was called, but he supposed he would soon find out. There was the Awakened creature, the Tamed creature, the Tyrant and even the Titan — four ranks apparently.
The creatures were ranked based on the number of cores they possessed, and their cores according to their increasing ranks were based on increasing powers of one. For example, if an Awakened creature had two cores, it is assumed that its core was raised to the power of one. While the next in the line which is Tamed will have its cores raised to the power of two, and subsequently.
No creature, existing in this vast Game-Like world had less than two cores.
These cores served as an important aspect in the ranking of the bearers as well. It was a major determinant of their ability to graduate into their next ranks. Just like the creatures, the bearers were ranked based on the number of cores they were able to acquire which proved the number of creatures they were able to defeat.
There was the Initiate ranked, the Awakened, the Defended, Evolved, Ascended, Sovereign and the Monarch. The first four ranks were based on the number of cores a bearer can acquire, while the latter three had different bases.
Laz thought of his status window as a way of summoning it once again.
'Status Window.'
------------------------------------------------------------------------
«↓ Rank: Initiate ↑»
«↓ Rank Core: [0/50] ↑»
------------------------------------------------------------------------
After summoning his window, he paid attention to only his Rank and Rank Core data. Looking at his rank core, he understood that for him to be able to graduate from being an Initiate, he needed at least 50 cores of creatures from this world.
He doubted the possibility since he already knew the rodent monster before him was going to be the only trial he should face, he hoped so.
So, defeating this rodent meant he was going to have four rank cores. And if he can meet other creatures to defeat, his cores will keep increasing based on their ranks.
***
All the while he made this observation, the rodent was busy searching for where its prey had disappeared. Laz had been quiet for a while, and as he assumed, the rodent was blind.
But, wasting time to either kill this monster before him or get killed by the monster was going to get hunger to slowly kill him as well. So, he needed to act fast and then scramble the forest for the possibility of anything, even if it was a fruit.
Now he had rested enough, with the blood from his wound pores coated, he grasped the leg of the plastic table beside him. Once he lifted the table, the pen on it slid, landing on the floor with an attractive sound. The rodent monster now knew where its prey was.
Sluggishly, it began to make a move towards Laz.
"Damn you," Laz muttered and after swinging the table, flung it upwards towards the rodent.
The irony of the matter was that due to the creature's current height, Laz now looked like the rat while the creature became the master.
The instant after flinging the table, he ran sideways, calculative at the same time, making his move to the flank of the creature. The table he flung was going to act as his distracting tool before he unleashed his plan on the creature.
He planned to target the creature at the cores, although he wasn't exactly sure where they were all located, but he knew one of its cores could be found in its chest region. Getting rid of that one was going to weaken the rodent and buy him some time to locate other cores.
Almost assuming the position, he increased his running speed towards the open windows and leaped high enough to step on its supporting wall, using it as a boosting force to get on the monster which was way high above if he leaped directly from the floor.
In mid-air, his eyes widened.
The rodent was able to detect the attack he launched with the table and struck it off, sending it in his direction.