I had to be honest with myself.
If we were speaking about raw and plain skill and power, there was no way I was winning a direct confrontation with anyone E-rank and above.
This was partly because of my weak F-rank status, but also due to my pathetic array of monsters.
My only hope here was to go for cunning and strategy.
In other terms, I was speaking about ambush tactics.
That is where training came into play.
The word itself sounded preposterous when I thought about it, majorly because of the monsters I was supposed to be training.
In fact, I felt almost a mine version of shame just calling them monsters at all.
The only thing I had that was alive and could attack adventurers directly were the leeches.
There were the rats, of course, but I had, out of a matter of strategy, refused to evolve them further. Now it was up to me to see that that strategy indeed gave me results.
I did not have to wait for long, because night came soon enough, at least soon in terms of my perspective, because as a cave, I could be quite patient. What seemed few to me would probably be a matter of several hours to human perception.
The pack of wolves that inhabited my caves came streaking in with two kills. To be precise, they were a family of six wolves. And just looking at them, I felt a pang of regret that the system had not actually allowed me to assimilate them into my system, rather than meager rats.
Then again, maybe at F-rank and with the theme of an abandoned mine, I wasn't well suited to fully control a pack of wolves.
However, nothing was stopping me from using them to prepare for the forthcoming attacks that surely would be coming soon enough.
I waited until they had dragged their kills to their usual spot where they rested for the night. And just so no one claimed that I was impatient and lacked etiquette, I also allowed them to feast on their meal. After all, it was their hard work.
After that, it was time to pay rent.
Earlier, before they had arrived, I had taken my time setting up my monsters across the mine. Already above my pool there was a double layer of thick slime. This way, even if they beat everything else, they had to deal with it as a last resort in order to reach me.
It wasn't much, but since I had failed to reinforce my security, this was the least I could do, just in case everything else failed. Which, as a matter of self preservation, I hoped it didn't.
Other than the pond, another layer of slime had been carefully placed on strategic places from the entrance of the cave. I took great care that their positioning would be in darker places where light did not cast too much visibility.
But even if they came with their own light, slimes reflected light unevenly, mainly because they were largely translucent. Therefore, in a way, they often tended to reflect the surface they were on, unless they were moving, which I did not intend them to do.
Not during raids.
Just looking at the thing for the first time, you would think that you would need something to move them. But actually, movement to them was way easier. They just dragged themselves across the surface, leaving not even a layer of slime behind.
At least, not without my permission.
I had now established that I could control them, which was a big worry when it came to freshly spawned monsters.
Sometimes they failed you right in the middle of a raid, just when you thought you had a monster, only to find out they did not respond to your directions at all.
What I was testing now was the main concept behind mutating slime. The system had said that when pressure was exerted on them, or they felt contact, they mutated, allowing a source of pressure to spread them into different spots, which allowed them in turn to cover a large surface area.
Without my utter permission, they would not be perceivable. That is to say that even if you stepped on them, they would attach themselves to the surface, but they would not offer resistance, which would alert the victim that there was something beneath them. They only did that when I had expressly stated so.
I wanted to witness this mutating function and to test the strength of their grip, so as to gauge the effectiveness against actual human raiders.
I reached again to my good friends, namely the family of six remaining rats. This one would be a dangerous task, but that's how you pay rent, lads. Well, and little ladies.
Their mother had been stomped with Mr. Frost's large boots, and the family was still mourning and adapting to the fact that their family was now without a mother.
Well, their mourning could be put into constructive use, which was calling on the pack of wolves.
Just out of caution and a bit of kindness, I had the children stay behind, and instead, I had the dad crawl towards the wolves' lair.
The pack heard him while he was still almost three corridors away, which was quite a distance, judging by the size of the mine.
The pack alpha straightened his head, and his ears became alert, but the rat did not stop, and as soon as he appeared at the lair's entrance, the alpha sprang up.
I saw his tensed muscles relax as he noticed it was only a rat.
He snarled, sending a clear message that the rodent was not invited, and turned back to putting finishing touches on the meal they had been having.
But he seemed to realize that the rat was actually not moving.
He gave another growl, this time gnashing his teeth together, in a show of hostility, but still the rodent did not move.
Now the wolf, which I always knew to have a great sense of danger perception, noticed immediately there was something weird.
'Do something, guys, do something.'
I wanted them to walk out of that lair, because just as soon as they had entered, and while they were feasting on their meal, I had spread another thick layer of slime just at the entrance. Now, unless they leapt, two or three of them would have to step on it, and I would use them to test whether the slime would mutate.
If they did, they would also help me spread the slime, which was a win win, since I didn't have to wait for adventurers.
The system had not given any restriction for those who could or could not help the slime mutate, so in a way, anyone could.
Slowly, with the alpha taking the front, three of the bigger wolves came snarling. They took slow steps towards the right, which was weird, seeing this was the pack's battle formation.
But then again, in line with the psychology of such moments, often, when huge beasts found themselves uncertain about anything, they often took caution in preparing their attacks, mainly because of the curiosity aspect of it.
It was not like it was the first time this pack of wolves were seeing the rats, but it was the first time they were seeing them behave like this, and just like the humans earlier, they wanted to see what was weird or wrong with them. I could feel that the rat's little heart was palpitating with complete terror, but it was glued to the spot simply by my orders. It wanted to flee, but it could not, until the alpha became too impatient and pounced.