Chapter 6: Rats on the verge

Lake knew now that these people loved him for saving their village. If he was to just try and leave they would all beg him to stay, so he needed to give them time to repay him and readjust to him being gone. "Now that I've brought you my idea I must get back to my home." Lake grabbed his cornbread they had brought him and started to leave when Sam ran out and grabbed onto his ankle. "You can't leave now, what if the rats are still out there?"

Lake had hoped more people had come to stop him. But he knew Sam and him had become very close, and Sam probably saw him as a cool older brother. "You're right I should wait for a while, Why don't you show me around town." This would let Lake possibly use his new ability while seeing the rest of the town, maybe they'll have something he needed.

Walking back onto the street Sam led Lake over a few buildings and said, " This is the guild outreach building. They build them in towns too small for proper guild halls." Then Sam turned around and said, " That's the storage house, it's where we keep all our food and extra tools." After saying this Sam stopped talking. " Is that everything?"

Sam shook his head yes. " Alright, why don't you show me the inside of the guild outreach building." The name was a little confusing so Lake wanted to see what was happening inside. But this was all part of the long con. Lake really wanted to go to the storage house.

Now that he knew it existed he was hoping to get a shovel, or maybe a hoe to use as a weapon. Stepping inside Lake saw a lady standing behind a counter surrounded by 5 or 6 different boards walking up to the counter Lake saw a new screen appear, [New quest: Join a guild] Lake had no problem with doing this mission since he was about to join a guild if the process wasn't to complicated anyway. " What are the requirements to join a guild?"

The lady smiled and said " A level 10 job associated with the guild." Lake was happy that the requirements were so low, but still he barely missed the mark, " What guilds could I join with the exterminator job?" The lady kept smiling but Lake could tell she started to look down on him as she said, " That is not a sought after job but the growers guild might take you if your level is high enough. Is that your only level 10 job? Because the growers guild is mainly meant for farmers." Being treated this way, Lake directly left for he feared if he stayed he would lose his temper. Also, He was afraid that she might get some sort of bonus if he signed up now, and he hated her.

Back outside he said, " That was a bust, why don't we go to the store house now." This was it, everything up to now had to come together perfectly for him to gain access to the store house. "Ok we can, but I have to ask my dad first." Sam ran off to ask and was back within a minute of leaving. "He said we can. Also he said you can take something with you if you need it."

Hearing that Lake knew this was a bribe, Wallace was saying with this they were even, and he could take credit for Lake's ideas. Lake would take what he could get. Wallace had caught him at a vulnerable time, Lake desperately needed any form of weapon.

Going inside Lake was flabbergasted by the amount of corn, bags of dried corn as far as the eye could see. " Why is there so much?" While looking proud, Sam said. "Ever since my dad came up with Scarerats, to scare the rats away our harvests have become too big for the cart to bring to town, so it's been piling up." Lake was startled by this, Scarerats was such a dumb name. " Is that why your dads the mayor?"

Leading Lake to a smaller room on the left Sam said " Yeah when we moved here my dad was just an inventor, but after he built the prototype that's out in the field, everyone was so surprised at how well it worked that they all voted for him during the election even though he didn't run. But he said once he's sure the Scarerat works right he's going to build a factory in this town and start selling them to other farmers."

One of Lake's fears was becoming more likely with every second that passed, wiping the sweat from his brow he asked, " Are the Scarerats for any other pest or do they only work on rats?" The two of them had just arrived at a tool room. Sam turned and motioned to the tools and said. " These are what they used to kill rats before the Scarerat. You can take one if you want it. But what do you mean by other pests?" Lake was quaking in his shoes as he said "You know, like ones that can fly." Sam had a blank look on his face as he said, " Do you mean dragons?"historical