Dungeon Prowler : One Man Army

Chapter 207: Taming the silver mouse

It did not take our party on a picnic very long to find the first mouse, a combination of luck and a radar system can work much better than ordinary tracking teams.

Yunan made sure to hide his presence and tried to kill the small critter fast and noiselessly so he activated his hidden skill and disappeared from where he was, the skill was very overwhelming to those with weaker detection. For example, Ophelia and Sarah could never find him, Kitty on the other hand had her feral senses going wild indicating that he was a danger and located his approximate his direction.

Yunan teleported himself behind the small fist-sized mouse and made sure to kill it immediately, the mouse didn't even realize it was dead, therefore Yunan made sure not cause any shock to the body as he picked it up softly, he could tell immediately why the mouse was that popular, it was all fur and its real body was not bigger than thumb sized at best.

Upon further examination, the body of the mouse was compact and full of nutrition, it had a type of flexible and tough tissue to replace bones and support its body structure, and after boiling the little thing in a pot of water, the resulting aroma and taste were beyond delicious, presumably the mouse had an organ that retained high energy reserves and an organ that made sure it did not accumulate any waste in its flesh, as for the flesh itself, it literally melted like butter in the water leaving behind only the great taste and aroma.

Next order of business was to lure one out and see how it reacts to the presence of adventurers and how it would react to them either being oblivious or noticing it, for this Yunan found a location that was rather well populated with mice and set up camp, he left a small bit of bait beside himself and made sure the girls were occupied enough so as to not notice the mouse that came to take the bait. The first mouse took a piece and ran with it until it was discovered by Kitty's feral sensor, it played dead for a moment before actually dying from the stress of being watched.

The next one died the same way, it seems that they did not hate adventurers or disliked them, the mice just were allergic to attention, one mouse however dauntlessly took both of the dead mice and their bait even though it was found out every time it made an appearance, so Yunan decided to experiment with this one, he left more bait for it and it came again to take it, Yunan found that it was giving it to other scared mice that did not dare even approach.

After staying for the whole day and night a total of 7 mice that were more tolerant to attention showed up and worked hard as food shuttles and took every piece of bait Yunan prepared for them. By morning Yunan kept his eyes on the most peculiar one, it stayed visible and waited for Yunan to place the next piece of bait then called another to take it away while it just looked around the camp for where Yunan was hiding all this food.

The most peculiar one was the target of Yunan's taming, the first step was already done with, the beast no longer shying away from Yunan and it has established a basic rapport, the rapport being that Yunan was a walking food provider that intended no harm to it or its species. With that Yunan took the next step, talking to the little critter to establish vocal familiarity. The group started moving around the forest in search of anything that would be a good addition to the garden. Yunan made sure to warn the little one from possible danger as it followed behind openly, it even made some squeals demanding some food, Yunan did not oblige it every time it squealed but he still made sure to offer it food now and then, meanwhile he was purposefully walking into dangerous territory where if the mouse followed, it needed to be very close to Yunan and his fellows to escape the predators residing in the forest, 3 days later the mouse was sitting on Yunan's shoulder enjoying treats and getting fatter. It has realised very quickly that safety was in being the closest to Yunan because no matter how much killing intent was directed at the man he didn't even flinch, let alone drop and die, making the little mouse braver in seeking shelter with Yunan even though he was the centre of attention.

Yunan spent the next week teaching the silver mouse how to recognize vocals signals like hide, or come or eat and wait and other basic signals, and the mouse was very good at learning, by the end of the week Yunan could tell it to sit on the head of a predator the mouse would have died at the mere mention of before this point in time.

with that Yunan found out that these mice were not cowardly by nature it was only they have evolved into beings that rejected the adrenaline rush, whether it was fear, excitement or anything, these little mice were born to be pacifist and they have been for so long that they would overdose on adrenaline from simple daily encounters, but those who survived a near-death encounter became more tolerant and hence this mouse that could be very well trained, and the obvious results for such brave mice was hunting and capture resulting in the silver mice becoming more and more cowardly with each generation because the brave ones are usually hunted by adventurers before they could pass on their brave genes.

The mouse was currently getting used to Sapphira and Drogon, neither would present any harm and therefore Yunan made the mouse play with them making both of them show off their powers to it by scaring Predators and hunting and gathering food for the cute mouse. As the mouse grew more and more relaxed in the group and was integrated well, it was time for Yunan to complete the quest and get his reward, although only two weeks were spent, Yunan being himself wanted to get paid for his hard work even if he was getting a very cute and brave little mouse it was not good for his future as a mercenary if he refused payment for a finished quest.