69: Lending A Helping Hand

Lending A Helping Hand

Slowly opening the door, I began to walk down the set of stairs with cautious steps. Making sure to stay quiet and listen closely, my eyes were able to adapt to the darkness much better than a regular human was capable of.0

Using my heightened senses, the sound of a creature scurrying across the wooden floorboards to my right caused me to glance over, which revealed a small rat indulging itself within a puddle of alcohol that had been spilled out of a barrel that was now splintered into fragments on the ground.

My presence seemed to catch it's attention, putting the rat on high alert as it let out a loud squeak. I didn't really think much of it before I started hearing more than one in the cellar, which continued to increase in volume until it was almost deafening.

That's when it happened.

Piling out in massive droves from random holes in the floor, as well as certain parts of the walls, the rats proceeded to surround me at every angle. All of their beady eyes were glowing red, tainted with a feral nature that was accompanied by intoxication. They displayed their sharp incisors with pride, aggressively hissing at the boy who had essentially walked into a breeding ground.

"Oh, for fucks sake..." I mumbled in perturbance, resigned to the unfortunate situation that I put myself into. "I should've known that something like this was going to happen."

After my voice traveled through the cellar, the rats seemed to get even more agitated, which put me in an even trickier position. Continuing to stand as still as possible, due to the fact that all of them would probably jump me if I even flinched a muscle, I eventually came up with an idea.

The next few moves were done in about two seconds.

'I wouldn't normally use the ring like this, but whatever...'

The Omnitrix materialized onto my left arm within an instant, automatically releasing a flash of green light, which sent all of the rats into a panicked state.

With a quick mental command, the ring was equipped onto my right middle finger before I pushed a surge of power through it, causing the hidden eye held inside of the center to open up with a white glow.

The rats began to rush forward in a synchronized fashion, acting as if they were all being controlled like a hive mind, but it was most likely due to the fact that their confidence was running high since there were just so many of them in one location.

However, before any of them were able to get within range, a large rift appeared under their feet all of a sudden. Inside of the rift was a cage that was big enough to fit hundreds of rats at the same time, which was placed on top of a concrete platform that was about three times larger than the cage itself.

All it took was a second for it to be created. The rift didn't even need to be open for it to actually happen either.

Just as a precaution, the rift had covered the entire cellar floor, which included all of the things that weren't rats as well. However, due to the fact that pretty much all of it was destroyed, I didn't really see the point in trying to save any of it.

The rats fell into the enormous cage, their descent slowed on the way down so that they wouldn't die, and all of the other miscellaneous items were immediately vaporized out of existence.

Breathing out a sigh once the rift closed back up, I was relieved that my plan successfully worked to get rid of all the rats within such a short amount of time.

Taking a glance around, I noticed that the entire cellar was empty. Besides a few things that were hanging off of the walls or ceiling, even the spilled alcohol was completely gone.

"Goddamn, this fucking ring is such a cheat. Heh." Peering down at the glowing eye that was staring back at me from it's position on my right middle finger, the center closed back up after I cut off the power coursing through it.

Unequipping the ring, I took one last glance at the Omnitrix before it disappeared from my left arm as well.

After that, I went back up the stairs before closing the door behind me. The tavern was still just as empty as it was a few minutes ago, not a single person in sight.

'I guess I'll just come back tomorrow to let him know about it.'

--------------------------------------------------

The next day, I had gotten up early in the morning to meet the owner of the tavern, and caught him just as one of his arms was reaching out for the door. Turning my casual walking speed into a jog, the man must've heard my footsteps as he turned around to greet me in surprise.

"Oh? Well, hello again, sir..." The dark-skinned man waved, a respectful tone in his voice just like yesterday. "Do you need more time in order to deal with all of the rats? I would understand it if that was the case."

I quickly shook my head in the negative, immediately debunking his previous assumption, which caught him off guard. "Actually, I'm already done with that. Once I had gone down into the cellar yesterday, I noticed that everything was pretty much destroyed, and so I decided to clean all of that up for you too."

A feeling of shock overwhelmed the older man's other emotions at the end, his mind trying to process all of that information with a tinge of difficulty. He wasn't exactly certain with the amount of rats that were living in the cellar beforehand, but there had been a couple of numbers running through his head, and none of them ever reached below thirty.

In all honesty, the older man had actually somewhat doubted that it would've been possible for me to do it all on my own, especially in such a short amount of time. Even I could sort of notice that from certain gestures that he made during our first interaction with each other.

If I had to guess, he probably thought that I used some kind of magic to get the job done, which was understandable given the fact that it was the most used tool in this world. Magic was utilized in so many departments already that it was actually a very logical notion to have.

"T-Truly?" He stuttered, not even giving me enough time to get a word out as I followed the older man into the tavern. Walking behind the bar area, he pushed open the cellar door and made his way downstairs into a now empty room, devoid of anything including the previous rat infestation.

Grunting in bewilderment, he spent a couple seconds just looking around the vacant area with a smile on his face. Keeping quiet in one corner of the room, I simply observed the older man as he processed everything at his own pace, which I wasn't bothered by in the slightest.

I could tell that smiling wasn't really a daily occurrence with this guy.

That thought honestly just sort of made me want to help him a little bit more.

pqdm.com