Chapter 2: The Dog Who Eats Wolves (Part 1)
Location: The Old Kennel, West Wing of Arken Estate.
Time: Midnight.
Weather: Heavy Rain.
The iron gate slammed shut with a clang that vibrated through Ren's teeth. The sound was final, heavy, and echoed with the distinct finality of a prison sentence.
"Sleep tight, bastard," the knight muttered, turning the heavy iron key in the lock. He spat on the ground near Ren's feet, then turned and walked away, his armored boots sloshing through the mud, fading into the darkness of the storm.
Ren stood alone in the dark.
He didn't move immediately. He waited until the footsteps were completely gone, until the only sound left was the relentless drumming of the rain against the stone roof of the kennel and the distant rumble of thunder.
Only then did he exhale, a long, shuddering breath of white mist.
"Cold," he whispered.
He turned to inspect his new home.
The "Old Kennel" was a stone structure built against the outer wall of the servant's quarters. It had three walls of rough-hewn granite and a front face of rusted iron bars. It was designed to house the Duke's hunting hounds—massive, magical beasts bred to tear bears apart. Because of that, the kennel was large, roughly the size of the entire shack he had lived in with his mother.
But it was filthy.
The floor was stone, covered in a layer of rotting straw that smelled of ammonia, wet fur, and decay. In the corner, a wooden trough was filled with stagnant, green water. The roof leaked, sending icy drips of water down the back wall.
Ren stepped further inside, his boots squelching in the muck. The wind blew rain through the bars, soaking his back.
"Shelter first," Ren analyzed. "If I sleep on this wet straw, I will catch hypothermia. If I get sick, I cannot train. If I cannot train, I die."
He activated his skill.
Analytical Eye.
His vision shifted. The darkness seemed to brighten slightly, outlines becoming sharper. Text boxes floated over objects in the gloom.
[ Object: Rotting Straw ]
[ Quality: Poor ]
[ Note: High chance of disease. Contains fleas. ]
[ Object: Stone Wall ]
[ Durability: 500/500 ]
[ Note: Cold. ]
[ Object: Broken Wooden Pallet ]
[ Quality: Broken ]
[ Note: Dry wood found underneath. ]
Ren moved to the back corner where a pile of broken wooden pallets—likely old bedding for the hounds—lay stacked. He shoved the top layer aside. Underneath, protected from the leaks, was a layer of dry wood and older, drier hay.
He worked quickly, his small hands numb from the cold. He cleared a space in the driest corner, far from the drafty bars. He piled the dry wood to create a barrier against the cold stone floor, then layered the dry hay on top. It wasn't a feather bed, but it was insulation.
He sat down on his makeshift nest, shivering violently. He hugged his knees to his chest to conserve body heat.
"Status," he commanded mentally.
A semi-transparent blue screen materialized in the air before him, glowing softly in the dark kennel.
[ STATUS WINDOW ]
Name: Ren Arken
Age: 12
Race: Human (???)
Class: None
Title: The Librarian (Inactive/Sealed)
[ ATTRIBUTES ]
Strength: 4 (Average Adult Male: 10)
Agility: 6
Vitality: 4
Intelligence: 15
Mana: 0 / 10 (Locked)
Luck: ??? (Fluctuating)
[ SKILLS ]
Analytical Eye (Rank F): Inspect objects and entities.
Archive Access (Unique): Access the Bibliotheca of Infinity.
[ INVENTORY ]
Vitality Potion (Low Grade) x1
Ren stared at the numbers. They were pathetic.
A strength of 4 meant he was weaker than even an average child of his age, likely due to years of malnutrition in the slums. His Vitality was dangerously low; one solid hit from a knight, or even that butler, would kill him instantly.
"Intelligence is 15," Ren noted. "That is high. Likely because of my... previous education."
His mother hadn't just been a washerwoman. Before she left the Duke, she had been a scholar. She had taught Ren to read, write, and calculate before he could walk. She had taught him history, basic strategy, and the anatomy of the human body. That knowledge was his only weapon right now.
"Mana is locked," he observed. "I need to unlock my Mana Core. Usually, children of nobility undergo the 'Awakening Ceremony' at age 10. I missed mine."
Without mana, he couldn't use magic. Without magic, he couldn't open the higher-tier books in the Archive.
He was stuck at the bottom of the food chain.
Squeak.
Ren froze.
The sound came from the shadows near the water trough. It wasn't the cute squeak of a field mouse. It was a guttural, wet noise, like something chewing on gristle.
Ren slowly turned his head. He didn't blink. He activated Analytical Eye.
In the gloom, two red eyes glowed.
A rat stepped into the faint light of the moon filtering through the bars. But it wasn't a normal rat. It was the size of a cat, its fur patchy and mangy, revealing scabbed skin underneath. Its incisors were yellow and long, curving out of its mouth like daggers.
[ Monster: Corpse Rat ]
[ Rank: F (Low) ]
[ Level: 2 ]
[ State: Hungry / Aggressive ]
[ Weakness: Spinal Column / Neck. ]
Ren's heart hammered against his ribs. Level 2. Even a trash mob was a higher level than him.
The rat sniffed the air. It smelled the blood from the fresh scrape on Ren's arm where the knight had grabbed him. It let out a low hiss, its tail whipping behind it.
It crouched, muscles bunching.
"It sees me as food," Ren realized. The fear was there, cold and sharp, but he pushed it down into the Archive in his mind. Panic is death. Think.
He looked around. No sword. No dagger.
He looked at the broken pallet he was sitting on. There was a loose slat of wood, splintered at the end into a jagged point. Roughly six inches long. A crude shank.
Ren's hand moved slowly, gripping the piece of wood.
The rat shrieked and lunged.
It moved surprisingly fast, a blur of dirty fur and teeth.
Ren didn't try to dodge the whole body; he didn't have the Agility. Instead, he threw his left arm up, wrapping it in the thick wool of his cloak.
Chomp.
The rat's teeth sank into his left forearm. The pain was sharp and hot, piercing through the fabric and biting into his flesh.
"Ngh!" Ren gritted his teeth, suppressing a scream.
The rat thrashed, its claws scratching at his chest, trying to tear him open.
Ren didn't pull away. If he pulled, the rat would rip a chunk of meat out. Instead, he shoved his left arm forward, jamming the rat back against the stone floor, pinning it with his own weight.
The rat squealed, trapped.
Ren raised his right hand, gripping the sharp wooden splinter.
Weakness: Neck.
He brought the wood down with every ounce of his Strength (4).
Thud.
The wood pierced the rat's tough hide but hit the shoulder blade. The rat shrieked, biting harder. Ren felt warm blood—his blood—soaking his sleeve.
"Die," Ren hissed.
He pulled the wood out and stabbed again.
Thud.
Missed the spine.
Thud.
This time, he felt a crunch. The wood slid between the vertebrae at the base of the skull.
The rat convulsed violently, its legs kicking the air, then went limp. Its jaws relaxed, releasing Ren's arm.
Ren rolled off, gasping for breath. He scrambled backward, his back hitting the cold wall. He held the bloody piece of wood out, waiting for a second attacker.
Silence returned to the kennel.
[ System Alert ]
[ You have defeated a Level 2 Corpse Rat. ]
[ Experience Gained: 15 XP. ]
[ Level Up! ]
[ You are now Level 1. ]
[ Rewards: +1 Free Attribute Point. ]
Ren dropped the wood. He clutched his left arm. The wound was bleeding freely, four puncture marks oozing dark blood.
[ Status Condition: Mild Poisoning. ]
[ Health is decreasing slowly. ]
"Damn it," Ren cursed softly. Corpse Rats carried disease. If he didn't treat this, the fever would kill him before morning.
He remembered his inventory.
"Inventory."
The small glass vial of red liquid appeared in his hand. Vitality Potion (Low Grade).
He hesitated. This was his only lifeline. Using it on a rat bite felt like a waste. But if he died tonight, saving it meant nothing.
He uncorked the vial with his teeth and drank half of it.
It tasted like strawberries and iron. A warm heat exploded in his stomach, rushing through his veins.
He watched in fascination as the steam rose from his arm. The skin knit itself together. The purple discoloration around the bite marks faded, turning pink, then vanishing.
[ Health Restored. ]
[ Poison Neutralized. ]
Ren corked the remaining half-potion and put it back in his Inventory. Never use everything, he reminded himself. Always keep a reserve.
He looked at the dead rat.
"Level up," he muttered. "I have 1 Attribute Point."
He opened his status screen again.
[ Name: Ren Arken ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[ Free Attribute Points: 1 ]
Where to put it?
Strength would make him hit harder. Agility would make him faster.
But he was a child. No matter how much Strength he added, he wouldn't overpower a knight. He needed to survive. He needed to be able to take a hit and keep thinking.
Or...
"Mana is locked," he looked at the Intelligence stat (15). "Intelligence governs Mana capacity and learning speed. But I can't use Mana yet."
He looked at his miserable surroundings. The cold. The damp. The lack of food.
"Vitality," Ren decided. "I need to survive the environment before I can fight the people."
He mentally assigned the point to Vitality.
[ Vitality: 4 -> 5 ]
He felt a subtle shift. The shivering subsided slightly. His breath came a little easier. He didn't feel warmer, but the cold felt less... intrusive. It was like his skin had thickened slightly.
Ren crawled back to his nest of wood and hay. He dragged the dead rat to the far corner, away from where he slept.
He lay down, listening to the rain.
He had killed a monster. He had leveled up. He had survived the first hour.
"One step," Ren whispered to the darkness. "One step at a time."
He closed his eyes, not to sleep, but to return to the Archive. He had 24 hours until his next free draw, but he needed to study the Manual of Basic Survival cover to cover. He needed to know every rule, every cost, every probability.
As his consciousness drifted back into the library, a shadow moved on the second-floor balcony of the mansion, overlooking the kennel.
Caelum Arken lowered his spyglass. He frowned.
"He killed the rat," Caelum muttered to his butler, Alfred, who stood silently behind him holding an umbrella. "I thought the rat would chew off a finger or two."
"The boy has... unexpected instincts," Alfred noted, his voice smooth and cold. "He did not panic. He sacrificed his arm to pin the beast."
Caelum scowled. "I don't like his eyes, Alfred. They look at me like I'm... meat."
"Shall I arrange a more... direct lesson for tomorrow, Young Master?"
Caelum smiled, a cruel, childish thing. "Yes. Tomorrow is the Awakening Ceremony for the branch families. Let's drag him there. Let everyone see that the Bastard has no mana. Let's humiliate him properly."
"As you wish."
Ren, in his meditation, did not hear them. But he felt the intent. The air in Oakhaven was thick with malice, and he was the lightning rod.
End of Chapter 2 - Part 1
Summary of Events:
Settling In: Ren secures the kennel, creating a dry sleeping spot using Analytical Eye.
First Encounter: Attacked by a Level 2 Corpse Rat.
Combat: Ren uses tactics (sacrificing an arm to pin the enemy) rather than brute force to kill the rat with a makeshift shiv.
First Level Up: Ren reaches Level 1. Uses a potion to cure poison/wounds.
Progression: Assigns his first Stat Point to Vitality for survival.
The Antagonist: Caelum observes Ren's survival and plans to humiliate him at the "Awakening Ceremony" the next day.