What can one recall about the One-Eyed Magic Rat based strictly on canon?
It is the weakest class of monster – a servant-level creature capable of firing a beam of energy from its singular eye. Visually, it resembles an overgrown rodent with claws sharp enough to shred steel. Mo Fan used to slaughter them by the dozens during the Bo City disaster, so on the surface, there would seem to be nothing to fear. In reality, however, two crucial points must be kept in mind: first, Mo Fan is a combat prodigy; second, during that very same first mission of his as an urban hunter in canon, a single rat nearly decimated a squad of Novice-level mages – one of whom was a tier-three Fire Mage, while the rest were at tier two. These were not green recruits, mind you, but seasoned urban hunters possessing battle-tested synergy and hard-won experience.
Speaking from my own experience, a monster of an equivalent level will ALWAYS overpower a human in terms of raw physical strength under normal circumstances. Take the Ancient Undead Emperor for instance: he strode into the Holy City as if he owned the place, tanked nearly every spell thrown at him without even bothering to dodge, slaughtered a Cursing Mage alongside scores of Super-level mages without lifting a finger, kicked Archangel Michael's ass, and ultimately chose to surrender and die only because the soul of Zhang Kong was still clinging to control over the body. Had it not been for that soul, the Holy City would have suffered catastrophic devastation if not fallen outright – and all from a single low-to-mid-tier Emperor who did not even bring his army along.
My point is simple. A One-Eyed Magic Rat is certainly no Emperor, but I am currently far from my peak power as well. At most, my present strength is enough to scuffle with a weak pack leader. Given that the sewers could be crawling with whole swarms of these rats, I prepared meticulously – leveraging every shred of my experience and thoroughly combing through textbooks for any operational intel on One-Eyed Magic Rats. I have seen far too many High-level mages perish at the hands of servant-level beasts simply because they dropped their guard or ran out of mana reserves.
Dressed in athletic wear and carrying a backpack packed with rations and a change of clothes, I set out. I said nothing to my family; leaving on a weekend morning just as I usually did for a jog ensured they would simply draw their own conclusions.
Reaching the residential district near the home of my classmate Zhou Min, I slipped into an abandoned factory and descended into the subterranean sewer system. In roughly three years, thousands of One-Eyed Magic Rats and One-Eyed Wolves – sprinkled with the occasional pack leader – would pour out from these very conduits to lay siege to Bo City. Right now, three years prior to the catastrophe, the underground tunnels dug by the rats should be far less extensive, and without the influence of the Underground Holy Spring, I would encounter nothing down here except the rats themselves.
Tuning into my sensory perception of magic – which, thanks to my second spiritual boundary, was on par with the peak of the High Level – I picked up several faint flickers of tier-one Novice-level mana within half an hour. Unlike the tranquil mana of a human outside of battle, the mana of a monster is perpetually in motion unless the beast is actively stalking in stealth, as their physical bodies are continuously sustained by magic.
Detecting four One-Eyed Magic Rats in total, I began focusing a Spiritual Strike in advance before casting a tier-one Novice-level Time element spell on myself – Double Acceleration. Sprinting around the bend, I slammed the rats with the Spiritual Strike. Mid-stride, while they were still dazed, I condensed a Blade of Light in my palm. Its lethal potency at tier one of the Novice level was minimal, making an offensive artifact far preferable, but it would suffice for unarmored servant-level beasts.
Closing the distance in a flash, I dispatched three of them. Before the last rat slightly further off could fully recover, I morphed the blade into a blinding flash of light. As the rat hissed violently and shielded its eye, I condensed another light blade, darted forward, and finished it off. Total time: five seconds, four corpses.
Using Spatial Claws would have been faster, but I needed to build up fine motor control in this body. Since no soul essence dropped, I had to continue my run through the city sewers.
It was four hours later when I finally emerged from the underground network. The pendant had finally consumed a soul and begun collecting fragments, meaning I could now transition to intensive cultivation. Given that I could meditate for an additional two hours for each element, my six elements granted me twelve hours of daily meditation compared to the standard two hours for others. Meditating every day without supplementary resources usually takes one to two years (depending on natural talent) at two hours a day to break through to tier two of the Novice level in a single element. A year of two-hour daily sessions equals 730 hours of meditation for a breakthrough.
With the twenty-percent cultivation speed bonus from the pendant, that dropped to 584 hours to raise a single element to tier two. With my twelve hours a day, I would need a mere 1.6 months to break through in one element, and 9.6 months across all elements. That was without factoring in resource consumption or the gradual upgrades to the pendant from harvesting souls. By the time the annual assessment rolled around, I would definitely have broken through to tier two in every element. Exactly how far I could push them through additional resources and pendant upgrades, however, remained to be tested.
— Speaking of resources… — A predatory grin spread across my face.
Parallel reality. Bo City, the Mu Family Estate, near the residence of Mu Yuan.
Mu Yuan was thrilled. Earlier today, his father had presented him with a triple portion of cultivation resources in honor of his eighteenth birthday. Having just transitioned into his third year at Tian Lan Magic High, he planned to break through to tier three of the Novice level half a year after graduation, and by twenty-one, accomplish a major breakthrough with the aid of the Underground Holy Spring. Even in the capital, he would be regarded as a prodigy.
While indulging in fantasies of his brilliant future, he turned a corner only to be met with a swift kick directly between his legs. Before he could even process the sheer agony of the pain-induced shock, the assailant snatched the bag of resources and vanished into the shadows.
Mu Bai would never learn that his adoptive father would end up nursing Mu Yuan back to health following the traumatic injury, racked with guilt for allowing such a tragedy to occur. Touched by this unexpected warmth, Mu Yuan would ultimately forge a genuine bond with him and never join the Black Vatican.