The chief led Mamon into the house, gave him a towel and sat him down on a chair next to the fireplace in the guest room. The house was a well maintained brick house, the only one in the village. It had carved wooden furnishing made of expensive looking wood which was imported from the 1st floor. The covering on it was cloth hand embroidered with flowers and feather filled quilt. The house looked somewhat out of place and design for the place.
Mamon was looking around amazed by the interior when the chief led and sat down the farmer that was waiting on the outside for them, then made a fire in the fireplace only glancing at his expression.
- Do you like it? My wife loves these kind of decorations. She talked my ears off until I let her make them and put them out.
- They are very lovely! I have not seen these kind of embroideries for a few years now. Nowadays no one uses them where I come from. It's a shame really.
The chief sat down across him next to the farmer.
- My name is Jake and I'm the chief of this village. This is Philip over here and he is the one that is asking for help.
The guy nodded and started talking.
- Yeah. We got problem with the rats in the fields. They have been multiplying like rabbits and eating everything. And if that would not be enough, they also started to grow in size and attacking people. Some of them are as big as a dog!
Mamon scratched his head thinking about what kind of monster it could be, but there were a few options.
- Can you tell me more exact information about them? Fur color, tail length or stench?
- They are mostly grey. But not normal grey, a sickly light grey with patches of dark in it. Their tail isn't really bigger than you would expect for their size I guess, but they do smell bad.
'That is not good.'
The chief noticed him looking worried for a moment.
- Is it really that bad? Can you not deal with them?
Mamon shook his head and thought for a moment.
- I can deal with them, but what did you say where were they?
- They are in the wheat fields. We can not harvest the wheat for winter because of them.
He sighed.
- That is not good in any case. I can deal with them, but you are probably not going to like the solution.
- What would it be?
- You have two options. One is that you burn down all the crops and throw out whatever you have harvested.
Both of the listeners looked horrified. The farmer could only ask quietly after hearing it.
- What is the other option.
- You spend a lot of money on it. And by a lot I mean a LOT! Because you will need to hire priests to purify the land and the wheat you have.
They were surprised by his answer because they did not think the problem would be that bad. They sat in silence for a minute when Jake finally broke it.
- Why do you think we need to go that far for this?
Mamon sighed.
- I will have to check. But from what you have described these are either plague rats or undead rats, however undead rats can't really multiply that much. Both are poisonous and ruin anything they live on. Also, both can only be exterminated by fire or holy power, at least effectively. Otherwise they will ruin the land and everything on it. Including your food, which is already infected if they live inside of it.
The chief held his head between his hands and let out a long sigh, while the farmer looked really frustrated then stood up.
- Come with me and check then. I hope you are wrong because we don't have the money for a priest purifying all of it.
Mamon stood up and followed him.
'At this point I don't even want to tell them that they need at least ten priests as one can not do it...'
They have walked to the edge of the fields while everyone was looking at them whispering and chuckling. Philip cleared his throat before talking to him.
- Don't mind them. We don't have many visitors lately. Well. Except for some people from the nearby villages, but everybody knows them.
Mamon wasn't really bothered by what the NPCs on the lower level thought so it didn't matter for him.
- It is alright. I don't mind it.
They walked through some part of the field in a different direction than he came from and then Philip pointed at a large part that was missing the wheat.
- This is the last place we found them at.
The air was disgustingly putrid like it carried sickness itself. When he leaned down closer to the ground and checked the area he noticed that the wheat wasn't fully gone, but the stem was chewed all the way down.
He tried to pull one out, but instead of the hardy and fibrous base it was a disgusting, slimy and rotting mess that felt disgusting to his touch. He resisted the urge to throw up and stood up a moment later.
After walking a few steps he noticed inwards the opening that on the other side there was a rat as big as a cat chewing on the stem of a wheat stalk. It looked just as how the farmer described it, except it's mouth was also gushing out some putrid liquid and it's eyes were moving around crazily.
- I'm sorry to say this, but it's what I feared. These are plague rats. They are not to be trifled with. I hope no one was bitten by them?
He didn't know if he should say it or ask it as a question changing halfway but it didn't matter to the guy who was at the edge of crying.
- No... No one was bitten as far as I know. But I will ask around.
Mamon smiled sadly at him.
- I understand it is hard, but we can not do anything right now.
He lead the farmer outside of the wheat field.
- I only have one idea. I am heading to the city anyway. I will go and negotiate with the temple. They might lower the prices if I help them with the issue they are having presently. That is why I'm here for anyway.
'The issue in the crypts will be a good way to gain favor from them. Also, they literally get the food from these villages so I doubt they would abandon them.'
Philip's eyes lit up with hope.
- Would you do that for us? Really?
- Yes! So calm down for now.
He placed his hand on the farmer's shoulder.
- I will never leave people in need suffer.
The guy hugged him tight.
- Thank you! Thank you very much!
The people around them were watching the touching moment confused as they still did not know what was going on.
- Don't mind it. I'll go talk to Jake now.
He was let go and Philip started to call together the people of the village to warn them of the danger.
As Mamon walked away he heard the people gasping and crying behind him.
'This is a lot worse than in the base game. What is wrong with the tower? These rats shouldn't show up until higher levels. Thankfully there are more priests on this level than any of the higher ones as this place isn't that far corrupted that the priests are hunted by monsters. At least I hope so.'
He met up with the chief who was waiting in front of his house for them to return, Mamon shook his head and explained the situation for him. The chief ran his hand over his face and sighed.
- In that case please go to the town and request the help from the priests. If you need help convincing them and have no other choice, please contact my older brother Finn Merkens. He is a noble who has a lot of weight in the city. We are not on good terms, but I hope he still helps me out in time of need.
Mamon was surprised as he did not expect the guy to be a noble. Though it explained how he had the money for a brick house in this small village.
- I will try everything first, in that case, so we won't need to bother him.
- Thank you.
A blue window popped up for him giving a quest to get help from the city. The reward was maximum favorability with the village people.
'Well... It's kind of useless on the lower levels, but it's better than nothing I guess. The real reward will be the loot in the crypt so I need to go there anyway. Also, the statue I need to use for leveling up is in the city as well.'
He said his goodbyes and left for the city. When his stomach reminded him that he still hasn't eaten anything so he turned back.
- I'm sorry to bother you Jake, but can I ask for a small favor before I leave?
After a few minutes he left munching on a sandwich.