Chapter Eighty-Seven: A Giant Rat

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Colin instinctively glanced at the surrounding buildings’ walls…
He didn’t see any mouse holes…
Thinking back on the route he’d taken, he hadn’t noticed anything of the sort.
Besides, with such a vast number of rats scurrying about, what kind of mouse hole could possibly hold them all?
But at that moment, a new prompt appeared.
[You still cannot comprehend where these rodents come from, but you realize that when you have gathered enough information, you may be able to trigger a quest.]
[Through the quest description, you might discover more information.]
“Just like in the Withered Olive Wasteland, meeting certain conditions allows the system to directly assign a quest…”
“But is this system of assigning quests upon fulfilling conditions a unique feature of ‘dungeons’?”
Colin remembered that outside, there was no such thing; apart from the last two quests, the only thing the system provided was the daily black bread mission.
If you wanted to take on a new quest, there was only ‘Twisted Soul Remnants’, then if you were lucky, you’d get a quest, and then perhaps encounter a lord-class abomination—
And that was the end.
People had learned—not without a heavy cost in lives—not to attempt to trigger missions.
Fortunately, this hard-won wisdom had become common knowledge, and everyone had given up on trying to do quests.
Now, thanks to Colin’s two acts of “selfless sharing,” the atmosphere in the chat channel had changed drastically for the better.
There was much less negativity, and more messages of encouragement and solidarity in the face of despair…
Without dwelling on it, Colin left the collapsed house, lantern in hand, leading the group as they continued to excavate historical clues from these farewell letters, hoping to trigger a system quest.
Although he wasn’t particularly interested in doing quests, he was deeply curious about what had happened here.
After all, it concerned whether they could avoid these deadly dangers.
“The system’s quest descriptions are incomplete, but if there are hints, I can piece the objectives together…”
Colin walked on, lost in thought, his pace unhurried, as they were likely to find a place nearby to rest for the night.
It would take several hours to reach the foothills from here, but soon the night within the gray fog would fall.
They still didn’t know what might happen in the underground region after dark, so they’d have to set up camp and observe for a while.
He entered another house, and after scanning the room, spotted a “farewell letter” written in charcoal.
“…My poor little lambs have turned to bones. What a pity. I wish I could see them one last time before I die. Though, if I could, I’d prefer a goat—goats are firmer, their flavor much superior to lambs. I wish I could have just one more…” Hm??
Colin backed out of the one-story house with a strange look on his face.

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He’d thought that Boss Cao, always dreaming of the neighbor’s wife, was already quite odd, but this was even stranger…
Just then, Li Chou, unable to bear the awkwardness, tried to change the subject. “People from this era look backward, but their literacy rate is surprisingly high. Nearly every household has someone who can write. Is that a miracle, too?”
His expression was also a bit ambiguous. He had a system as well, which just barely let him understand the gist of the writing.
Without the same hints as Colin to assist, the reading experience was poor, but he could mostly make sense of it.
And it wasn’t just them—even the servants possessed a rudimentary translation function, so they could vaguely grasp the meaning of texts from different civilizations.
However, their “translation optimization” was far worse than Colin’s.
If the words Colin and the others read had undergone a touch of refinement…
The servants’ versions were blunt and crude, evidently to save computational resources: My sheep are gone, but compared to sheep, I want that goat.
Standing next to Colin, Shana had stopped reading these final letters altogether. She couldn’t glean any useful information from them…
Besides, many of the dying messages were simply too filthy.
…
After exploring a dozen houses, Colin felt he’d gathered enough information.
But he was still missing something—a key piece that would trigger the quest.
He felt as if he’d reached ninety-nine percent, but couldn’t push past that last hurdle…
Just one more bit, but it wouldn’t come, leaving him frustrated.
However, as they pressed on, Colin saw the town’s largest building.
A church.
A Gothic edifice adorned with thorny motifs, its walls ashen gray, and only a single story tall.
Compared to the Church of Suffering outside, this church was a little smaller, and its wall patterns were simpler.
But for some reason, a third of this church had collapsed.
[Upon observation, you find that although this church cannot compare to the Church of Suffering outside, it appears to be even older.]
[Perhaps, it dates back to a time before the ‘Era of Suffering’.]
“Older than the ‘Era of Suffering’?”
Colin was startled. He noticed that the walls here lacked the reliefs of the outside church—no figures bowing, heads hung with iron spheres, no kneeling step by step…
None of that was present.
Here, there were only pure thorn patterns, without any signs of ‘suffering’…

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Did this have any significance?
Compared to the church bearing the name of “Suffering,” if a stranger who knew nothing of the faith arrived, they might call this one the “Church of Thorns.”
But just as Colin was about to observe more closely, Number One reminded him:
“My lord, look over there…”
Colin followed where Number One pointed, his gaze sharpening.
Amid the collapsed section of the Gothic church, he saw the mummified corpse of a gigantic beast.
Its withered brown fur clung to the bones, half-hidden in the shadows, and it would have been easy to miss without a careful look.
Even lying there, it stood at least one and a half meters tall.
Fortunately, after observing for a while, Colin confirmed this monster was also dead, fallen among the ruins on the church’s right side, utterly motionless.
[You realize that while this skeleton seems somewhat twisted, when compared to the skeletal structures in your memory, its basic framework is that of a rat.]
“What kind of rat could possibly grow this big? Even an elephant isn’t this huge…”
Colin’s eyelid twitched. As unbelievable as it seemed, it really did look like a rat.
A rat, but monstrously enlarged.
Yet, as he stared, a sense of familiarity struck him—he’d seen this creature somewhere before…
The puzzle didn’t trouble him long. With the help of a prompt, realization struck him—
This rat had been killed by the priest!
And at that moment, the cold voice of the system rang in Colin’s mind.
The long-stalled quest finally appeared!
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ps: Thanks to “White Ink” and “Handsome Guy” for their generous tips…
And thanks to everyone for your recommendation and monthly votes…