A Subtle Mystery Solved.

In the rather cramped area in front of the stairs, there was a whole line of rat faces—faces, faces, faces.

To be perfectly honest, it was not a very pleasant sight.

“Seven the first time, then nine, and today it’s eleven. So they’re increasing by two every single day…”

“What a horrifying dynamic, My Lord,” Paula noted.

“Yeah. We can still manage for now, but if this trends any further along this vector, it’s guaranteed to turn into a massive catastrophe before long.”

Some of the Wererats were pacing around restlessly, while others remained completely still. Deeper within the cluster, I could even spot a few couples huddled exceptionally close to one another, looking rather intimate.

While our stamina and damage metrics left us with a comfortable safety margin for now, if their population density kept climbing like this, the staircase plaza would eventually be completely carpeted by Wererats. Even if we managed to successfully execute a total sweep, merely hauling away that volume of carcasses would require an exceptionally tedious expenditure of runtime.

“Hmm… I calculate there has to be a specific operational method to freeze their reproduction loop or reset their count entirely.”

“Is that so?”

“Subterranean labyrinths are fundamentally engineered to allow a party to systematically progress downward. While you’ll occasionally blunder into exceptionally grueling traps on a first-time blind run, dungeon layouts rarely enforce completely impossible, irrational bottlenecks.”

To state the obvious: if the system truly wanted to block all exploration parameters, it would simply seal the entryway entirely. If the objective was to lure a raiding party inside to systematically liquidate them, the blueprint wouldn’t meticulously leave a functioning exit staircase intact.

Granted, because my core knowledge database was heavily anchored to game logic, my mind instinctively defaulted to the theory that every scenario possesses a flawless clearing condition—but evaluating the architectural patterns of this dungeon so far, that calculation didn’t feel far-fetched at all. Well, I suppose that conclusion was heavily laced with my own personal biases and the desperate hope that the universe was fair.

After all, back on the surface exchanges, Draclo 2 was celebrated as an absolute masterpiece precisely because it boasted a miraculously balanced gameplay matrix.

“Ah~! I figured it out!”

Right beside my coordinates as Paula and I were deeply locked into our thinking loops, Mia suddenly let out a high-volume shout. She emphasized her sudden realization with a textbook anime gesture, striking her fist right against her open palm.

“Oh? Did your systems intercept a meaningful clue?”

“Look, they’re all literal rats, right? That’s exactly why their spawn metrics are multiplying like crazy, Sensei!”

An incredibly massive, exhausted sigh escaped my lips involuntarily.

However, Paula’s diagnostic output was entirely different. Nodding with an immense volume of admiration, she reached out to gently smooth the young girl’s golden hair.

“What a brilliant deduction, Mia. That is an exceptionally magnificent angle of analysis.”

“Spectacular~!”

“Kyuu~!”

“Wait… is that seriously a point worthy of administrative praise?…”

The exact fraction of a second the skeptical murmur left my lips, Paula flashed me a bright smile. However, her usual seductive, playful aura had entirely vanished, replaced instead by a deeply flushed, overly maidenly expression.

“Well… if My Lord would kindly calculate the precise biological reason underlying why rats multiply so efficiently…”

“Ah! I see! So that’s the mechanical trigger!”

Ethan-san—who had been processing the field data in absolute silence—suddenly let out a high-pitched cry of comprehension, accompanying his breakthrough with an incredibly cute gesture, pressing both of his open palms flat against each other.

Wait, don’t tell me I’m the only unit in this platoon completely missing the calculation loop here?…

Faced with the massive question mark flashing across my expression, the young Treant’s face flushed a deep crimson as well, and he subtly extended his index finger to map out a specific pair of Wererats huddled tightly together at the rear of the chamber.

“Please audit the metrics of those two specimens over there—”

Back in the original database of Draclo 2, the real-world biological inspiration utilized to code the Wererat monster demographic was the naked mole-rat—a species that enjoyed a massive cult following among certain circles. These rodents, famous for being entirely devoid of body fur, possessed a highly unique evolutionary trait: despite being classified as mammals, their systems operated as cold-blooded ectotherms. Because they lacked baseline thermal regulation, they suffered from a terrible resistance threshold against cold environments, driving them to compulsively stack their bodies tightly on top of one another to share body heat.

I had fully calculated that the entities before us were simply executing that exact, faithful behavioral simulation…

Wait, why on earth is the unit on top aggressively flexing its hips with that level of intense velocity?!

“ …They are currently engaged in a mating cycle.“

“Wait, so the specimen on the bottom is verified female?! And hold on—don’t tell me the absolute core reason behind their population spike is strictly—!”

Because my visual comfort limits dictated a strict block against watching random monster appendages swinging around, I had flatly omitted running a granular inspection on their lower halves during our harvesting loops. To think an absolute death trap of a mechanic was anchored right in a blind spot like that…

Re-evaluating the data within our field of vision, it appeared that specific specimen was the absolute solitary female of the entire pack.

My jaw dropped to its absolute failure threshold as pure, unadulterated shock paralyzed my system. I slowly pivoted my neck to cast a questioning gaze straight toward Paula.

She fidgeted nervously, cutting her eyes away to stare blankly at the stone wall.

Shifting my focus toward Mia, the girl was standing with an immensely smug grin plastered across her face, tilting her chin up and puffing her chest out to maximize her pride parameters. Stationed squarely by her boots, Yoru and Kuu mirrored her exact stance, pointing their noses toward the ceiling and expanding their soft tummies with absolute confidence. No, there is absolutely zero probability that you two little freaks actually comprehend the underlying data here, I thought.

Finally, I locked eyes with Ethan-san, who offered a deeply embarrassed, sheepish nod.

Based on all available biological metrics, those two specimens were actively locked in the middle of a high-intensity copulation cycle, a behavior that was explicitly driving the daily population escalation of the Wererats. Looking closer at the rest of the pack, the remaining males appeared to be systematically forming an orderly queue, patiently waiting for their turn to access the cycle.

“Ehhhh~?! The underlying dungeon mechanic relies on that paradigm?!”

This boundary was a textbook example of a completely low-brow, raunchy joke! What on earth happens to my professional reputation as a serious alchemist after throwing all that high-level philosophical analysis at the problem?!

“ ……Kindly eliminate them immediately.“

“Eh?”

“That female specimen is highly anticipated to be the designated area boss. Execute a clean, rapid subjugation loop on her coordinates, please.”

“U-Understood!”

Ethan-san drew his bowstring back to its absolute maximum tension, locking his targeting vectors straight onto the two entities sprawled out flat against the stone floor.

“The exact split second the boss unit is neutralized, we shall execute a rapid cleanup sequence on the remaining mobs. Paula, Mia, deploy immediate tactical deterrence to freeze their movement parameters. Kuu, I’m assigning the definitive lethal blow to your profile.”

“Your commands are fully registered, My Lord.”

“Leave everything to me~! I’m cleared to incinerate the entire quadrant to absolute ash this time, right?”

“Kyuuu-uuu!”

Executing a flawless <Sniper Strike>, Ethan-san’s arrow pierced clean through the skull of the female Wererat, cutting her life signs to absolute zero before her frame could even register the transition.

The male positioned on top let out a deeply tragic, agonizing shriek.

Driven by feral rage, the remaining ten male Wererats locked their eyes onto our position and launched a synchronized charge, but a barrage of flying fireballs intersected with the vicious snaps of Paula’s whip to shatter their momentum. Immediately following the disruption, a ruthless, blinding blizzard of electrified feathers blanketed the quadrant.

Once every single entity had collapsed into absolute motionlessness, I approached the initial target to run a harvesting cycle. A heavy cluster of magic stones materialized smoothly within my inventory interface.

Yep, that confirmed it: the female specimen had been the certified area boss without a shadow of a doubt.

“Good grief… to think a grand tactical mystery would resolve into a punchline of this caliber…” I sighed, rubbing my temples.

The following morning, standing right before the Wererat pack—which had flawlessly reset back to its baseline count of seven—I let out a massive, thoroughly exhausted sigh of relief.