I, and the other six young reptile-men, were led through tunnels which branched every few minutes. After the third branching, we arrived at a room that seemed to be an armoury. In the room, there were a dozen or so barrels, each with handles of various weapons pointing out of the top. I even noticed a pile of daggers in one corner, but there was no armour. Most of the items seemed to be made from bone, barely any wood or metal. Even the barrels were made from clay.

The leading reptile-man pulled one of the young reptile-men in with him. As I was about to follow, the two older reptile-men who were already there, blocked the path. It was just like the naming ceremony earlier, all I could do was wait around for my turn. When the first one left the room, or should I say pushed out of the room, they were holding two daggers. They were about to attack one of the other reptile-men, when one of the guard's tail swept under their feet, knocking them over. The guard then wrapped a belt around the fallen over reptile-man and tucked the two daggers into the belt. This happened three more times, with slight differences between the way each reptile-man acted, before I was taken into the weapon room.

Upon entering the room, I was pulled over to the pile of daggers. I guess they won't allow us to have better weapons, but are they seriously expecting us to fight the moment we are born. It's barbaric, though with the sheer number of eggs that hatched, I guess they have to thin the numbers somehow. Though I guess animals on Earth left their young to fend for themselves, I could consider myself lucky I was reborn as a species with enough intelligence to give names.

Lost in thought, I picked up different daggers from the pile. They were all mainly sharpened bones or fangs attached to stone or with the handle carved out of the bone itself. I selected two daggers that were curved, their handles were also carved from the bone as I can imagine the stone handles not being that strong, especially since they are made from two parts instead of one. Having selected my weapon, the older reptile-man held a dagger and swung it, then they held my arm and slowly moved it in the same way they did.

I mimicked their actions, slowly to not seem too strange. They kept moving the dagger in different ways, changing every time I seemed to copy their movements.

Congratulations! You have gained the skill [Dagger Technique]

Dagger technique is now level 1

Information flowed into my mind, how to use a dagger, deflecting, slashing, stabbing, all sorts of methods. I stood there trying to process the information that suddenly appeared in my head. So there are skills too. The more this blue screen shows up the questions I end up having, the fact that it seemed to literally pour information into my head didn't help either. But I won't get any answers until I can actually talk with someone. I believe my sudden stop indicated to the older reptile-man that I gained the skill, which seemed to be the goal of this exercise, as they pushed me outside, like what happened to those before me, but unlike the other reptile-men, I didn't try to attack the others, I simply allowed the older reptile-man to wrap a belt around my waist and placed the daggers in the belt for me. A dozen or so minutes later the final reptile-man had gained their daggers, after which we all were led down the tunnel again.

This time we entered a large cavern. The cavern, much like everywhere else so far, is made of nothing but rock and dirt. I saw several groups of younger reptile-men in this cave, one group leaving just as I got here. Now I guess it's time to wait even more, huh? This new life has been mostly waiting for things to happen, then I heard a stomach rumble. I looked at the source of the noise, only to find out it was the adult-reptile-man guiding us. They made us wait while they headed towards the tunnel a few adult reptile-men were entering and exiting, most likely to get us some food as the adult reptile-men exiting the cave were holding earthen containers and taking them to the groups that entered before them.

A short while later, they came back with two other reptile-men, each one holding an earthen container. Inside the container were some strange balls. The three adult reptile-men each ate one, and then gave some to the rest of the group, though I noticed their facial muscles twitch when they ate them. I took a bite into my 'food' only to immediately spit it out, like the rest of the young reptile-men did. This food was foul, dry and tasted what I thought rotten food would taste like, some of the young reptile-men were even coughing, trying to get the taste out of their mouth.

Why would they give us such wretched food? I questioned, as the adult reptile-men ate another one each. The balls were only about the size of my hand, and the containers were large enough to hold ten each. If this is the only food we are getting today, then I should eat it. It's better than starving, and I might have to eat it again in the future.

*GULP*

I tried to swallow it as fast as I could, ignoring the urge to throw up. I managed to hold it down, to the shock of the older reptile-men. They didn't give me another, though, but the other young reptile-men, probably as a sense of rivalry, tried to eat theirs as well, only two managed to eat it with the rest spitting it back out.

After the 'meal', we left the cave through yet another tunnel. The tunnels slowly got wider and wider the further we walked through the branching complex. Once we reached the point where the tunnel was wide enough for all 10 of us to stand side by side, the three adult reptile-men had us stop. The older reptile-men drew their weapons, one had a spear and two had a sword and shield. Moments later, the sounds of scratching and hissing could be heard from further up the tunnel. The six and I drew our daggers from our belt as the older reptile-men stood in front guarding the rest of the group. Two giant grey rats as tall as the adult reptile-men charged down the tunnel.

The two shield holding reptile-men each slammed their shield into the charging rats, a red ten and thirteen appearing where they were hit. One of the rats lashed back, clawing at their attacker, the other assaulted by a spear, which caused a red thirty to appear. The rats retaliated, breaking the spear and causing one of the adult reptile-men to fall over.

The more injured rat, after breaking the spear, charged past the fallen reptile-man and charged at one of the young reptile-men. Two of them jumped at the rat, with daggers in hand, and slashed down at the rat, only to cause ones and zeroes to appear. The rat bites down on one of the reptile-men a red seven shows up as their body went limp. Killed in a single bite, terror filled me as the rat's gaze fell upon me and mine fell upon the bloody neck of the dead reptile-man.

The distance between us shrank in mere seconds, the claw flashed before my eyes. My arms were in front, trying in futile to stop the charging monster. I feel an impact as I loosen my grip on the dagger, a howl echoed in my ears as I felt pain coarse through my chest.