《The Traveler with a Pen (TBD)》


 Prologue - The reader of the Travlers Journal

    Room 209 of the Belbon Hospital, it was another patient room for the recovery of major injuries. Laying in the best spot that is the bed by the window, a younggirl, seemingly as fragile as a flower, was reading a book to pass the time. She had long black hair and dark brown eyes just like any other shy girl with a face that some might consider cute. Her physic however, more specifically her legs, were limb as a doll due to an unfortunate car accident she receiced earlier this year. Ever since then, she had to stay in the hospital to recover her shattered legs.


    While time passed in that room of her''s, she grew fond of the books one of the nurses brought over from the hospital library, and sometime, her own collection. The books that the nurse brought were all fantasy related, from the typical ''knight saves princess'' bedtime stories to more serious ''warfare between countries'' plots. The nurse also seemed to like ''reincarnation'' novels online on the internet, but sadly, the girl couldn''t use a computer.


    Several months into recovery, the nurse starts to run out of books to bring. Most of the books in the library are already read by the girl, as well as her own collection of novels. She decided to borrow books from a nearby library instead and took out enough for two weeks to read. With a dozen books in the bag, the nurse never realised the lonesome book that was smuggled among the pile.


    Greeting the girl as usual, the nurse showed the all the books to the girl, that is until both saw the odd book. Unllike all the other books in the bag, this book was a very old fashioned leather book where there was no title on the leather cover. The girl asked the nurse about the book, but of course, the nurse doesn''t even remember seeing the book.


    When curiosity took over, the girl opened the book and read the first page.


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


    Forewords of the Spirit''s Journal


    For whoever is reading this:


    My name is... I don''t exactly have a name, but people seems to call me "The Traveling Spirit". Some who became familiar with me gave me a nickname of "Trasper". Terrible nickname, I know. But, it was the first nickname that I got since I ''came to consciousness'', so I became attached to the nickname.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Anyway, if you are reading this, then that mean I either lost this book or I am not in this world anymore. However, I will not be angry if this book is burned in a fire, shredded into pieces or decimated by magic. This book is only a recollection of my travels throughout the lands of the human continent, "Entropire". I have the memories of my travels to myself, so this book is not so important that I would grieve over if lost.


    If you have picked up this book by accident or just plain curiosity, I hope you can enjoy reading my stories as much as I enjoyed experiencing it. Although it might not be as exciting as I experienced it, I tried to write everything as detailed as possible so that you who is going to read this book can see what I see and feel what I feel with the words imprinted in this book.


    Finally, I hope you can understand the reason why I wrote this book in the first place. It''s not just the story of myself in this book. I have also heard many strangers'' stories during my travels and I have written every single one of their stories in this book as well. This also includes the beasts I talked to and the slaves that people considered as mere tools. If you do not believe in equality between humans and beasts or between slaves and nobles, I would only hope that this book will change your mind of the beliefs you currently hold, as I hope for equality between all creatures. But of course, that was just a naive dream I have.


    The stories I wrote are all special to me, so I hope you will read each carefully.


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


    The girl was confused at first, just as much as the nurse who was reading beside her. "A spirit? Is this another fantasy story?" both thought at first. However, even if it didn''t make that much sense, the girl felt something towards this book. She doesn''t know what it is, but that something is telling her to read the book. Giving in to that something and her immense curiosity, she asked if she can keep this book for a bit and turned to the next page to begin reading the spirit''s journal.


    The nurse, so doting of the girl, couldn''t help but let the book go. "It''s only a book, what is the harm in reading it?" she thought and put the other books beside her before going back to the staff room, leting the girl read to her leisure.


    The girl doesn''t know it yet, but the author of the book she is reading is currently watching her quietly from the other side of the window.

 -My Awakening Upon the World-

    As far back as I can remember, I began my journey awakened by the sound of thunder. It was the first sound I heard upon awakening in this mystical world I was about to wander in. When I looked around me, I saw not a single soul nor sign of life, but a ruined old bedroom with myself above the dirt-covered bed. A violent storm was brewing outside as trickles of water drops fell from the small holes that make up what used to be the roof of the abandoned building. The smashed wooden window covers creaked loudly as the heavy wind blew it around.


    ''tis was a raging storm outside.


    The examination of the old room didn''t gave me much answer to my current predicament, so I slowly raised from the bed which I was on, at least, I thought I did. It didn''t take much time before I realised my situation, more specifically, I checked my body. There wasn''t one.


    Funny enough, I wasn''t particularly confused about my current condition, like I knew somehow beforehand that this was what I am and was reassured. It was the first of the many mysteries that I encountered that I never solved throughout my travels.


    However, as I was pondering about my new ''state'', I heard someone below me, no, it''s more correct to say I feltsomeone''s presence. I felt... a girl, pretty young by the looks of it, underneath where I was. From what I could tell, she was feeling cold and exhausted and... I think I also felt a sense of deep sadness within her.


    As the storm continued to rage on, something within me, either it be my instincts or personality, was urging me to go to her side and comfort her. Just as I felt those feelings of mime urging me to go, I moved blindly towards the presence of the girl, completely disregarding the fact that I was moving into the floor. However, my instincts told me to not to worry and as strange as it sounds at first, I was able to pass through the floor harmlessly.


    As I passed through the floor, the scenery changed, but only physically. The same gloomy and abandoned feeling could still be felt from the ruined walls and soiled, leftover furniture. My vision wandered around what seems to be a grand hall for large gatherings, until I spotted movement among the corner of the room, hidden under one of the small tables.


    It was the same presence I felt from the second floor, the girl.


    From the angle I was looking at, she wouldn''t be able to see me, but I could see just her legs shaking from what I assume to be the coldness of the place. I say assume, because I couldn''t feel the temperature at the time. I float closer, slowly so to not scare her with sudden movements, but then I realised the idea was meaningless as I came face to face with her. She didn''t notice me, no, she can''t notice me.


    Easily judging from my current condition and the fact that I could pass through the floor, I thought that I was currently what people would call a ghost or spirit. However, that fact didn''t discourage me from trying to cheer up the little girl as I looked around for something, anything to at least interact with. I don''t know why, but I wanted help her no matter what and I restlessly looked around the building.


    I passed through walls with ease and checked every dusty corner of each room. After going through a couple similar yet different rooms, my instinct began to pull me towards a pile of rubble near the front of what by then I realised is an abandoned noble''s mansion. Twin staircases were around the side of the entrance of the mansion, but a giant hole was stuck in the middle of the second floor. It seems the pile of rubble was once where the hole was, a part of the second floor. However, what my instincts were pulling towards to wasn''t the pile of rubble itself, but something under it.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    It was a corpse.


    Suddenly, an image of a book appeared in my mind and I was presented with a specific page. "The Shade Wolf" was written on top as the title and a illustration of what appears to be a fully ash black wolf was under the title. I looked at the image and at the half covered corpse in front of me and I immediately understood what I am looking at. The corpse compressed under the pile of rubble was exactly that, a wild Shade Wolf.


    By now, my instincts was pulling me even harder towards the wolf''s corpse. Unable to resist the invisible force pulling me, I gave up and followed the flow. A second later, I blacked-out.


    ...


    I quickly woke up afterwards, again. I was at exactly where I blacked-out, if not a bit lower. I didn''t know what happened nor what caused me to black-out, but the moment I woke up, I knew something was different but couldn''t pin it to the source. I tried to move, but something was holding me down. Looking up, I only saw the rubble that was on top of the corpse of the Shade Wolf. At that moment, I realised what happened.


    Somehow, I was ''inside'' the corpse of the Shade Wolf as if it was my natural body. Though the body was under the rubble, it wasn''t as damaged as it sounds as only the heart was pierced apart from the skin, so I was able to retain most of the original body''s strength. I slowly pushed the ground with my new found claws and soon I was out of the pile.


    Curious of my new found body and senses, I did a quick lap around the room. The legs of a wolf was amazing! I could run as fun as... I don''t know, but I could run incredibly fast! The nose as well, I didn''t even know that even the ground has a smell. The feeling of temperature was just as cold if not colder than what I thought it would be, yet for some reason, I didn''t mind it. But as much as I like to do more tests with my new body, I still remember the trembling girl under the table. I strolled back into the deeper part of the mansion and began looking for the room she was in.


    It wasn''t hard as it was just a couple doors down the main corridor from the entrance hall. Maybe it was because the room was meant for large gatherings and parties that it was quite close to the entrance. Though the doors to the room were broken down long before I awoke as parts of the door was hanging with termites on the rusted hinges, my new body was still quite big for such a large doorway. Nevertheless, I entered the room, searching the corner of the room for the girl. By then, it was already too late for me to realise my mistake.


    Before I reached the far corner of the room, I saw the girl trembling, but this time, she wasn''t trembling of coldness. She was trembling on fear because of me, or should I say, the appearance I had.


    I realised my mistake when I saw her and tried to think of an approach that won''t frighten more even more. However, the only thing I could think of was to walk forward towards her. I couldn''t speak nor do anything else with this body and it is quite clear that there is no other way to approach her.


    And so, I slowly walked with careful movements towards her.


    And she fainted...


    I wasn''t so sure what to think about at the time, but I was pretty sure that I was a bit disappointed. What did I expect? I''ve no idea. But the feeling of sadness also lingered within me for some reason.


    However, once I came back to reality, I saw small signs of trembling from her even though she passed out. It must be the coldness, I thought, and I came to her side to keep her warm with the fur on my body. Though I don''t know if the corpse could still produce heat, I wrapped her in my body as nicely as I could.


    Such event was the first thing that happened when I came to consciousness.

 -Cleft, The Lost Village Girl-

    The violent storm was finally over after I endured a full night of the core elements'' harsh attacks. The rain fell heavily onto the building, and some passed through to me. The wind created miniature typhoons surrounding the building and the forest outside, throwing around light rocks which became dangerous projectiles when they reach a certain speed. Flashes of bush fires quickly appeared and instantly disappeared everywhere, but it was the lightning that caused those fire that was the most troublesome. Who knows when and where they could hit.


    As the rain slowed down to a halt and clouds slowly disperse, I checked the girl still covered within my wolf body and was surprised to see a pair of eyes staring at me.


    I guessed she''d been awake for a while.


    The girl didn''t move or even tried to move from the spot, which told me that something was wrong. Of course, I realised that she must be afraid of being coiled around by a giant shade wolf for the night, thinking she''ll be eaten afterwards. I wanted to change that thought and prove that I meant no harm. It took a while for me to think of a way.


    Uncoiling myself from her, I tried to move to the other side of the room, but instead, she ran ahead through what''s left of the doorway and towards the entrance. Though the storm had stopped, the mansion was still a dangerous place to run around in. I immidiately followed after her in case she harm herself.


    We passed through the hallway and around the corner before she saw the rubble blocking the entrance and stopped. I stopped at the corner, trying not to scare her as much. I stared at her as she looked around the place for another exit, but although the building is old, surprisingly there wasn''t once a hole in the wall to escape. I can confirm as such since I searched the two floors.


    As I waited, she looked back me as if knowing I''d been there the whole time and stared back fearfully. She must have realised there were no exit to escape from and given up. No, not given up, more like she accepted her fate. Of course, that is only what she must have thought.


    Betraying her expectations, I moved towards the rubble instead and only gave a quick glance at her as I pass. She had fear then confusion in her expression just as I thought. Using my mouth, I lifted the rubble one by one towards the side to make way to the entrance. With the natural strength of the shade wolf''s body, it was cleared in less than a mintue.


    I looked back at the girl again, she still had confusion on her face. Whether she was going to snap out of that state or not, I didn''t care. I smoothly picked her up and popped her on my back, her screaming and all. Moving the rubble also helped me adjust my jaw strength so I don''t bite her too hard to cause an injury.


    While I moved out of the mansion, I looked at the scenary in front of me. A metal fence about two metres tall with bricks as foundations surrounded the mansion''s front lawn, which also had a crooked brick path to the missing front gates. The gardenscape was half overgrown on some parts and half burnt on the other by the lightning strikes and the once functional fountain are but a large birdbath with chunks of bricks within. To sum it up, it was a ruin, just like the mansion.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    I checked the girl on my back once again, she didn''t look as fearful as before now, but still eyed me cautiously and patiently waited for me to move.


    I decided that it was time to move on, but didn''t know which way to go. Thinking that the girl may have a place to go to, I looked at her earnestly for a direction. She must have figured it out but heisitated before finally giving me a direction - Northwest.


    The moment she pointed, I jumped towards the forest beyond the mansion and dashed through the flora. Various animals were scared away by my presence as they escaped deeper into the forest and not one creature faced me. I didn''t realise how fearful just simply presence could be at the time as a shade wolf was and almost disturbed the forest''s entire ecosystem. That was a lesson to be learned later.


    The girl held onto the fur of the shade wolf tighter with her eyes closed in the beginning, slowing opening them as time past. It got to a point where she was curiously looking around the forest, disregarding the fact that she''s still being led by a shade wolf. She even began talking to me after a while, thanking me and telling me about her worries. Thinking that she''s only a child, innocent and undoubtfully trusting of a wild beast that saved her, I let her be; though, I would liked to have a word with her parent about this.


    She told me her name, Cleft, and that she actually has a twin brother call Wright; interesting naming choices honestly in my opinion.


    Apparently, she sneaked out of her village to explore the forest with her brother but was chased by a wild shade wolf, the same one I''m possessing. Her brother ran the other way, trying to distract the wold, but it chased her instead into the mansion instead. By pure chance, the entrance of the mansion collapsed onto the shade wolf, trapping its movement as it bleed out, yet also her inside the mansion. Furthermore, last night''s storm stopped her escape attempts as she could only try to stay cozy inside by herself.


    The more she explained to me, I realised two things: she was extremely lucky to have survived out here in the woods and she is very talkative, way too talkative in fact. She just continued to ramble more about her life and childish worries as we (well, I) tread through the woods.


    Still, I have to say, she really was lucky to have survived so far.


    Soon after we left the mansion ruins, I could see an open field with a direct path leading towards a settlement of wood and straw houses. The village had around 10 people, mostly farmers, their wife and children working around the tilted fields of bright orange plants unknown to me. Everyone seemed focused on their individual roles and only occasionally looked around for any wild beasts aiming for their own fields.


    I notice there were more houses than people working in the fields. The rest must be in the forest hunting, forging or something. Perhaps they were looking for Cleft since her brother didn''t come back for her and must have informed the adults, I thought.


    I stood within the edge of the forest, cautious of the villagers, as I brought the girl down from my back. She looked at the distant village in what I thought was shyness, but later realised was guilt from sneaking away without notice.


    I nudged her forward and she turned to me in surprise, then gratitude. She thanked me and ran off. Seeing that the shocked adults in the fields saw her running towards them, they approached her and led her into the village happily.


    Believing that I did the right thing, I went back into the forest without anyone noticing.


    I only hoped that I wouldn''t run into any of the villagers still looking for her in the forest as I wondered where ''do I go now''.

 -The Bandits Cave-

    As it was almost sunset, I realised I had travelled so much furthertowards west than the distance between the mansion and the village. Despite how far I''ve travelled, I thought about how the body of the shade wolf I aquired didn''t feel like it required rest as I could keep running forward.


    Itwasn''t too long after my thoughts thatI saw something else than the usual scenary. A cliff faced my direction slowly appraoched my view before I had to stop and go around. It was too steep and dangerous while suspecious vines grew down the edges. Each strand were patterned with razor sharp blades of green, seemingly capable of inflicting deep wounds to any creature holding onto it. I didn''t want to take any risks and I wasn''t able to climb the cliff with the shade wolf''s body anyway, so around the mountain I went.


    Yet, before I was able to travel around a good distance, I saw a group of humans dragging a cart of items and females in chains and cages through an opening into the mountain.


    The group was obviously malicious; bandits, I presumed them to be. Their handling of other humans were cruel and barbaric while the items they transported were gold and other luxurious products that member each eyed with greed. I was too disgusted to look at them properly, only what they had on themselves: swords, axes, a couple even had bows. Their clothing were in natural colours that camoufluges them among the greeneries. If not for their smell and their showy cart of items and prisoners, I wouldn''t notice their presence at all when I was moving towards what seems to be their base of operations.


    I stopped to hide and spy on their moments the second I discovered their arrival.


    The group of bandits were cheering and laughing all the way, horribly teasing their female captives as they pulled them along with chains attached to metal collors around their necks. The leader of the bandits seemed to be the strongest looking man leading in front - tall, muscles exposed, and a gigantic axe behind his back. The captives were dirtied with mud on their tattered clothes and bodies. One of the girls was wearing soft fabric clothing than light armour.


    The other knight-like womanbehind the girl saw my gaze and widen her eyes in fear. I sensed a pattern in this.


    They all went inside the cave with the exception of the last two man who had to stand outside to keep a watch out. The two couldn''t refuse the leader''s order as they unhappily stood their grounds.


    I decided to invite myself inside.


    The sun was about to set, and so I enacted my plan at night.


    When darkness fell, the two guarding bandits were mostly relaxed as they believed no one would discover them in the night, and if someone is trying to find them, they will see torchlight. Unfortunitely for them, my shade wolf body was about to see in the night very well; a slight natural nightvision property granted to most canine and many other species. They never saw me coming.


    I lept at the first bandit, biting his throat by surprise. He was immediately subdued by me without even a single sound. The other only realised his friend was dead when he turned around as I jump on him. He too was instantly killed off.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    I didn''t feel anything when I killed them; nothing like the feelings I had when I met Cleft or the discomfort I had when I saw the bandits bullying the girls. I felt strangly empty.


    While I didn''t know, or remember much about what I should do to corpses, I still dragged their bodies deep within the forest just in case some other beasts block the entrance to the cave when I come out. It took longer than expected, but in the end, I strolledinto the cave.


    The cave was straightforward enough with a single room from the entrance, spliting into four differentroutes. Half of the amount of bandits from the arriving group I sawgathered in the room, sitting in chairs, eating food that were most probably looted. It took seconds before someone saw me wanderinginto the room. After all, I was pitch black and blatantly obvious when in a room lit with torches.


    The closest bandit jumped back as the ones behind him took out weapons. All of them had expressions of fear and none of them wanted to attack first. I continued to stare at them until one of them cracked under pressure and aimed at me. I dodged the swing of his axe and picked him up by his waist, biting into his flesh. He was throw into the crowd and several of them was knocked down with my strength. A couple of them threw down their weapons and ran deeper inside and the rest tried to cooperate with each other to take me out. It was an easy victory as I lept out of their encirclement and ripped them to pieces one-by-one.


    Leaving the room in a bloody mess, I chased after the ones who ran away. The first route led to their treasury and storage. Piles of gold and expensive-looking items where littered everywhere throughout the room. I hunted the bandits who was hiding and went back after checking every corner.


    The second route was where the captives were held. There were some new bandits who were ''disciplining'' some of the captives who froze in fear with the rest of the people in the room as I entered their little prison. I immediately eliminated the bandits. Worst comes to worst, the captives would be traumatised by my appearance, but honestly, some of them are already too late to be saved when I confirmed their lifeless eyes. I left the prison after I bit the chains and collors from their neck. What will they do then was up to themselves, if they could still move and hope.


    When I moved back to the entrance room, the leader of the group also entered from the third route at the same moment. His large axe which was on his back was firmly in his grip as he stood in an attacking stance. He took the initiative to charge and roar at me. His moves were much faster than the other simple bandits, but I could still dodge it to a certain margin and counterattack. Soon he was like the other bandits, dead.


    The third and fourth route was relatively simple was it was just the leader''s room and barracks for the rest of the bandits respectively.


    During my search, the more strong-minded girls had already walked out into the entrance room. They were still slightly fearful of me as expected, but only slightly. When I glanced their way, all of them stiffened up, but the knight girl that saw me previously relaxed when she assessed that I emitted no hostility towards them and told the rest.


    I walked outside into the darkness of the night. I could only hold onto mybelief that I did the right thing. It wasn''t certain that I could bring all of the girls with me, much less if they reject me. Unlike the situation with Cleft, every person being a captive of the late bandits should''ve a different place to go, and I wasn''t sure if I could bring them home. Being a group, I believed that they could survive together now that the bandits are dead.


    Before I had gone away, I decided to leave a sign or something similar directing them towards east where Cleft''s village was. It was the least I could do.


    Ithen headed towards westagain.

 -Limits to Living-

    It wasn''t until I started slowing down that I realised something was wrong with the body.


    With the one-sided massacre towards the bandit group, my shade wolf body became worn and riddled with cuts that I couldn''t dodge completely. I never thought about the body I possessed, up until this point in time when my movement began to feel hindered and sluggish.


    I saw the raise of the morning sun as a new day began since the previous night''s event and decided to inspect my new found body more in detail before any negative consequences happens.


    The shade wolf body had cuts as stated, though mostly in the rear area in my blindspot. I dodged most of the slashes by smell and the body''s own natural instincts which came to me so naturally that I never realised I had since the beginning; that is so until last night. The body was also splattered with blood, yet none of them were this body''s own blood. I tried to look deeper into the wounds and discovered there were not a single drop of blood circulating even when large veins were fatally exposed.


    This prompt a hypothesis that the body I''m possessing was in an undead state: a state of living via mana, spirit or otherwise not of the core body''s functionality. This thought also surprised me, not due to the contents, but the fact that I suddenly knew what ''undead'', ''mana'' and ''spirit'' mean as well as many basic knowledge about humanoid and beast biology.


    Did I gain memories of knowledge from my past? I wasn''t too sure. The only thing I could confirm was that the knowledge I gained was true enough, correct, and helpful to understanding what I am and can do.


    I inspected the body with my new found (perhaps better to say return?) knowledge, and just as I predicted, this body had no heartbeat, no life despite its raw strength and instincts. It could potentially be my own power as a spirit entity which is providingthis body an artificial lifeforce, sustaining the functionality of muscles and brain. I had no way to confirm.


    Yet, whether unfortunitely or not, as I inspected the shade wolf''s body, I sensed a group of creature trying to surround me intentionally inthat moment.


    The total presences numberedaroundeight. They hid amongthe spreading flora, barely out of my sight. I caught glimpses of dirtied dark grey hair or fur and edges of solid weapons, prompting intelligent beings capable of basic reasoning. Although through my sense of smell, I could identify their positions vaguely, they moved with great cooperation to circling meevenly, cleverlyspreading their scent to hide their actual positions, meaning they are experienced hunters that had done this before and knowledgeable on how to approach beasts. I coudn''t make out what kind of creature they were, but it didn''t matter.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Since they were actively tryingto attack me, I was going to be the first to strike.


    Surprising the ambushers, I lept to my left and caught one of them off guard. I singled it out as I open my mouth over its head and bit down with full force, crunching the creature''s skull as I flung the rest of the body into the other creature nearby to my right. At the same time, I spit the remains of what was once a head towards the opposing creature to my left. In an instant, the circlement became an arc.


    The ambushing creatures, ratman hunters, were stunned. By my guesses, theythought I was injured, making me an easy target despite being a shade wolf. They would''ve had a tremendous gain if it wasn''t for the fact that this body was not living and were only controlled by me.


    Taking this opportunity and turning to my right, I lept past the fallen ratman under the headless corpseI threw and struck the next onein line. The other ratmen that saw this reorganised themselves to face me as oneand charged. Their movements were harder to dodge than the bandits, possibly due to their experience with wild beasts instead of humans as more seemingly fatal wounds appeared on the shade wolf''s body as time went on.


    I employed the same strategy I used in the bandit''s cave: backing, striking, repeat; simple but effecient enough to finish off most of the ratman hunters.


    Nearing the end of the fight, the shade wolf''s body was too damaged to move properly. The last two ratmen alive saw their chance and dealt the final blow through the neck of the shade wolf. The body fell to the ground, its condition now worse than the first ratman that died.


    I blanked out.


    Then, I immediately became conscious.


    My prediction was right. I don''t die when the body is defeated.


    Meanwhile, the two ratmen fell to their legs, exhausted from their life-threatening battle. They had won against the monstrosity that is the shade wolf, but at the cost of six ratmen hunters. They must''ve felt so joyous from their gain, yet so sorrowful from their loss.


    When they recovered however, they saw one of their comraderaising up from under the only corpsethat isheadless. They thought he was dead from the heavy collision breaking his neck or something similar. They were happy that at least another one of them were alive.


    They didn''t realised it was aiming for themuntil it swung the sword it picked up nearby across their necks.


    The last two actual ratmen died under the hands of another ratman.


    I was possessing the dead ratman.


    As the head of the two headless ratman corpses fell to the ground, I ran westward once again immediately to avoid any nearby creatures that would swarm the bloodfilled battleground. Until I was absolutely sure no creature could bother me again, I kept moving.


    When I felt it was safe, I finally inspected the new ratman body.


    As it was a ratman body, my strength and sense of smell was not as well as the shade wolf''s and the level of vision was clearly lower. The honed instincts on the other hand was more complex and stronger in a sense due to its level of intelligence.


    I checked around the body for any external injures and discovered something shocking instead.


    What surprised me this time was thatthe heart of this body was still beating!

 -Society of Ratmen-

    The discovery of a living possessed body was the beginning of my interactions with societies and communities throughout my journey. Finding out that I had the ability to control a living being enabled me to blend in with intelligent beings, at the risk that the body I possessed was not recognised by another. I gained the possibility to peacefully communicate, trade and even perhaps befriend beings of different species and nature.


    I tried to find any other differences between possessing a corpse and a living body, and after a couple exercises to test my physical and mental capacities, I began to recall memories not of my own; they were the ratman''s memories.


    Though I was not able to completely access the surfaced memories, I was able to piece together the seemingly random events from the ratman''s past as well as extracted several important information from his knowledge. I figured out the location to the ratman''s colony as well as basic grammar syntax and vocabulary; I understood their culture and hierarchy with the colony as well as this ratman''s personal possessions, relations and habits.


    The ratmen, labelled by many as intelligent pests, had identical social traits to tribal and sub-ground dwelling beings. As their name suggested, they have the appearances of rats enlarged to the size of a human child, and they move in a humanoid manner. Their biology are closer to goblins than actual rats, but they have one of the fastest reproduction period out of all intelligent beings, countered only by their high rate of death at birth (if not for such, they would''ve been no different than actual pests, like the goblins.)


    The fact that they are underground dwellers are also quite interesting. They are not blessed with great eyesight, which explains their inability to realise I was possessing the body despite its unnatural movements due to my inexperience in controlling it. Their instincts, as explained previously was more suited to ground-related guerrilla tactics and beast handling. Their ability to hide and burrow were naturally proficient and made more dangerous during the night.


    The only reason the group I encountered attacked me during the morning was because they were actually returning to their colony and found me by chance; unfortunate for them in this case. Both greed and the fact that I was close to their colony''s entrance caused them to try ambush me, leading to its conclusion.


    The entrance to the ratmen''s colony was also coincidentally westward, only half the distance back to where I fought.


    Deciding that I had investigated enough of this body, I scurried forth towards the hidden burrow going deep underground - entrance to the ratman colony.


    The colony, like an ant''s nest but with a single large cavern in the centre full of ratman housing, should have multiple entrances and exits, all hidden from plain sight, leading to small checkpoints guarded by several ratman guards. Only creatures as small as a ratman could enter the tunnels, and even when an intruder does enter, at worst case scenario that the intruder is too strong, all they needed to do was to bury them alive as they retreat, later digging out new checkpoints and tunnels to the surface.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    I crawled through the tunnel, made to be turning and twisting to confuse the sense of direction of unwanted visitors. Soon, I arrived at the primary checkpoint.


    The checkpoints were also built to be confusing, tunnels leading to all directions and only one tunnel goes towards the main cavern with secondary, and sometimes tertiary checkpoint in-between.


    The ratman guards are also dressed very differently than human guards. For ease of retreat, they don''t wear armor and any heavy clothing or accessories and only held a single cheap and disposable weapon.


    I briefly greeted the guard and seemingly tried to hurriedly communicate a fabricated event about how my group was wiped out by a shade wolf nearby. This got the guard anxious and let me through immediately as he dug out a piece of the tunnel that I came from and collapsed it. I watched everything until the tunnel was completely collapsed and moved on.


    With the secondary checkpoint, I told the guard the same thing but added what happened in the primary checkpoint. The guard nodded at my words and allowed my passing after I explained how I lost everything trying to survive; they were all lies of course.


    Finally, I arrived at the colony. I walked out from the tunnel that began to funnel outward into a mid-level cliff-edge, allowing me to view a city built through the walls and pillars of the cavern.


    The small dwellings on the walls of the cavern were mostly the general population of hunters, guards, gatherers and the likes. The dwellings dug into the pillars supporting the cavern roof were considered royal and high class housing, with the leading ratman living in the biggest pillar at the centre. The rest of the poorly built houses on the ground were equivalent to the slums of human cities, poor state of living and filled with hungry ratmen, but not actually dangerous to traverse for those high in class.


    Yes, they have class and hierarchy among themselves, yet so much different from many other beings'' classes and hierarchy.


    As they are a species low power and high breeding, they value strength among the masses over blood and family. Almost all ratmen living in the bottom are defective from birth or heavily scarred without gains, with only the minority of minorities living there for not contributing to the colony due to intentionally not working. The higher class ratmen are either those heavily scarred with tremendous contributions to the colony or generally strong in strength, with the leading ratman possessing both strength and wisdom to guide the entire colony.


    This system, despite the fact that it came from a species called pest by many, was one of the least corruptible compared to others. When I later told others about this system, the majority said it was ironic. I sided with the minority and found it quite natural.


    I moved away from the tunnel before others eyed me for blocking the way. The ratmen walked in set directions as the paths by the cliff-edge were tight. Small solid rock bridges connected the edges of the caverns to platforms around the pillars for faster travels. All ratmen including me moving in single files back and forth naturally until we pass each other. The destination I was aiming for was the dwelling of the ratman I possessed.


    As an average dwelling, it housed two rooms: the sleeping areaand the storage area. A natural bed was made by digging into the wall and placing leaves or fur of beasts each individual ratman hunted themselves. The storage was an open room around the back wall of the main area, safe only by the ratmen''s dignity, which correlated to one''s class, another reason the slum was at the bottom so they don''t steal the properties of higher class ratmen.


    Settling into the bed that is now my own, I thought about what to do in the future. With my curious mind, I decided to experience living as a ratman for the time being.

 -Philosophy of Rodents-

    Since the first day I arrived in the colony, I ate, hunted, and slept as the rest, with minimal interactions between me and the other ratmen except for familiarising myself with the cavern during my free times. A pair of ratmen guards invited me to a hall in the morning of the every next day, at least from the body''s biological clock, which I was introduced to a new group of ratmen hunters. Supposedly, they are my seven new teammates for venturing outside. I was also not allowed to refuse.


    We greeted each other briefly and the new leader Jwanko, who''s name translates to ''Light Fang'', led us forward. The way outside was similar but the end of the route was different due to the collapsed tunnel I caused. The checkpoints'' guards approved of us and led us out, and soon I was under the warm twilight. We were in the direction of north from the previous entrance I''d being through according to my directional senses and it''s only the beginning of sundown. There were small rows of clouds at the time and rain-clouds were rolling forth from the south. It was going to be short hunt for the night before we had to return.


    I took notice of my hunting group''s members as we travelled. The group as a whole, surprising enough, was quite energetic, carefree, yet cooperative when serious. Three of them were brothers, which was incredible as having any single siblings were already a rare thing due to ratmen''s rate of death during birth.The other four including Jwanko had exceptional cooperation and trust, which I later found out they had survived together for a whole year, yet another incredible fact when taking consideration on how long a hunting group usually survives - six months tops.


    We bagged three preys overall and I dealt the final blow for the second prey, a common forest deer. In the end, they even invited me to drink after our first hunt together because of how great of a hunter I was, according to them. This was my first proper interaction with the ratmen as a ratmen and I didn''t miss out on the chance.


    Arriving from the enlarging entrance, although there were side-stalls and shops for trading with those who ventured outside, I never knew there were also bars nearby. After I accepted their invitation, I followed them and walked into a mess of a bar.


    The ratman bartender was dingy like any other poor ratmen, but he handled the glasses with care. The alcohol was a brew the ratman brewed himself apparently, and based off the others opinions and my body''s taste buds, it was pretty nice actually. My new teammates drank into the night much to the bartender''s displease. I only sat by the end of the stone counter, hoping he would not include me into my teammate''s misdeeds, if they had done so. Thankfully they didn''t.


    In the end, I was one of the three out of the group that was still conscious. The ratmen who held their liquor walked their separate way with a partner on each of their back. The rest of the group stayed in the bar; the bartender allowed it since we weren''t able to carry them home by ourselves.


    It was slightly uncanny at first, drinking with the ratmen. However, the discomfort disappeared along with cups of alcohol into the night. I found myself fond of the times I spent with them.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    This event repeated itself for the rest of the week; sometimes less people come to the bar, sometimes even more hunters from another group joined. Once, they even began to sing and dance; I was not one who joined them. The memories I inherited from the original body did not include any of the songs they were singing unfortunately, so I was not able to follow them.


    Nevertheless, I genuinely felt the feeling of family from just this week''s event alone. Despite their ''strength trumps all'' mindset, the ratmen still have an unspeakable bond among comrades who fought together.


    The second week began with a rest day; all hunters had one per week. I brought the fur processed from my hunts and looked around the market area of the cavern. Sounds of customers and merchants arguing for a fair trade echoed throughout the place, as haggling was still an effective method to trade according to the ratmen''s common sense. It may seem primitive, yet there are still other intelligent beings who haggle in this day and age who are publicly the most civilized beings on the continent. The main cause was the lack of abundant yet purposeful resource that could be used as a mean of currency.


    I glanced around at the contents of the stalls and shops. Many presented numerous goods but with most of their items having questionable backgrounds and method of acquirement. A set of human sized armor, a series of throwing daggers with uncleaned blood, clothing with a couple cuts to the back, all goods had to be somewhat suspicious in a certain aspect. I was however, not going to care about such matter. I was not interested in any of these things.


    As I walked around the market for a while, I arrived at a small stall as I saw something that first set me to write. A ratman laid out a mat of accessories and other miscellaneous items; two of which, was ink and paper. Of course, the ink was hardly pure and the paper was only parchment, but I was inclined to purchase the two in bulk.


    Looking at the two items I purchased, I had stronger feelings to record my actions. As I gave the ratman half of the fur that I had brought, I returned to my hollow of a home with satisfaction.


    The moment I took up the makeshift pen I created using one of my prey''s feather, I''d already decided what to write. Every night, I wrote a small journal of what I had done that day and hid it under the bedding.


    I later formed my first book with each entry of the journal, but that''s a story for later.


    It was then about two weeks later living as a ratman that I noticed something interesting. The actions and conversations, the mentality and philosophy of these ratmen, there was a feeling to it all that just felt so familiar to me. As I thought about it, the answer soon hit me by the end of the day. Everything I''ve experienced as a ratman, they were practically identical to the activities and thoughts of humans! From this spark of insight, I began to realise how similar to humans these ratmen were.


    Yet, this brought me to another dilemma: ''why are ratmen so looked down upon by the other races?'' Was it their differences in appearance? Their culture? This can''t be right, since there should be various races of different appearances and culture, and as I''ve just discovered, the ratmen''s culture is almost identical to human culture, especially the human culture in the past. So what separates ratmen from others?


    I thought about this question for a long time and almost gave up on answering it. It wasn''t until another week that I found my answer from the surface.


    The law of the jungle applies to all.