Monster Rat

NPCMonster

Monster Rat
Title	King of Rats
Hometown	Cheong-woon Valley
Current Residence	Cheong-woon Valley
Gender	Male
Race	Rat
Minions	Rats
Enemies	Handsome Monk Hoyoung Taotie
Status	Alive
Name (Other Servers)
KoreaMS	쥐 괴물 (쥐 괴물)
TaiwanMS	怪物鼠 (Monster Rat)
MapleSEA	Rat Monster

The Monster Rat is a fiend who has the ability to shapeshift into others by eating their nail clippings. After stealing the face of the Handsome Monk, the Monster Rat attempted to take over Grandis until he was stopped by Hoyoung.

Story

Becoming the Handsome Monk

The Monster Rat, known also as the king of rats, was a fiend who, despite his title, was little more than an ordinary sewer rat. Nevertheless, according to legend, the Monster Rat lurked in the shadows waiting to eat nail clippings. Once it had done so, the one who had thrown them out would lose their face, and the Monster Rat would walk amongst the people, wearing the stolen face as his own. Several days before Hoyoung accidentally freed Taotie, the Monster Rat consumed the nail clippings of the Handsome Monk, the disciple of the head monk at the local temple in Cheong-woon Valley. After stealing the Handsome Monk's face and powers, the Rat Monster seized control of the temple and sequestered himself inside, with his rat minions slowly stealing the face and powers of the temple trainees. Some time after Hoyoung unleashed the fiends inside Taotie, one of the fiends - the Flea Monster - latched itself onto the Monster Rat and strengthened him with its ability to multiply and capture energy for its host. Hoping to get his face and powers back, the Handsome Monk confronted the Monster Rat and attempted to force him to regurgitate the nail clippings. However, the Monster Rat - strengthened by the Flea Monster - proved to be too strong for the Handsome Monk, forcing him to retreat and wander around Cheong-woon as the Faceless Monster.

Facing Hoyoung

In order to make himself even stronger, the Rat Monster had his rat minions distribute cursed mojo dolls to the townspeople, claiming that they would ward off misfortune. In reality, however, these mojo dolls slowly began draining the life force of the townspeople, augmenting the Rat Monster and his army. While Hoyoung investigated the strange occurrences at the temple, he infiltrated one of the temple's services, which he found was nothing more than a disco club. Hoyoung then saw the Handsome Monk, whom Taotie explained was a Monster Rat who had stolen the face of the real Handsome Monk. However, unlike the regular rats, the Monster Rat had the ability to use magic. Taotie suspected that the Monster Rat had been siphoning chi from those who had hung his dolls on their houses. Just then, the Monster Rat addressed his subjects and congratulated them on completing the first stage in their plan, which was to spread the life-siphoning dolls throughout the town. With their first objective achieved, he told them that it was time to move to the main phase of their mission. In three days, when the full moon would rise, the cursed power woven into the dolls would ensorcel the residents and turn them into his puppets. However, he explained that his ambitions surpassed Cheong-woon Valley, vowing that they would surge forth and cross over to the continents beyond the sea, allowing them to take over the world.

As the rats cheered for their master, the Monster Rat told them that he had brought a special guest and presented a captured Farasi - Hoyoung's mentor whom the rats had captured. Hoyoung then revealed himself to the rats and ordered the Monster Rat to transform back into a spirit for Taotie to consume. The Monster Rat was confused, but he decided to eliminate Hoyoung anyway, as he had seen too much. As Hoyoung rushed to attack, the Monster Rat trapped Hoyoung inside a purple ball of magic and bounced him around the room. Realizing that he was no match for the Monster Rat, Hoyoung used the Ultimate Sage Skill: Thirty-Sixth Stratagem, which was to simply run away. Soon after, Hoyoung met the true Handsome Monk and learned about how the Monster Rat had taken over his body, as well as the fact that the Flea Monster was strengthening it. As the Monster Rat prepared to unleash his army upon Grandis, Hoyoung confronted the Monster Rat, who explained that once the full moon had fully risen, Hoyoung and everyone else in the town would fall under the thrall of the rats. Hoyoung and the Monster Rat then engaged in battle. As the Monster Rat gained the upper hand, Hoyoung begged for mercy. The Monster Rat laughed and told him that it was too late for mercy, but as he launched his attack, Hoyoung revealed himself to be a clone, with his real self attacking from behind. He swiftly hit the Monster Rat's back, forcing him to regurgitate the Handsome Monk's nail clippings, which caused the Monster Rat to transform back into his true form. The Monster Rat immediately lamented that his handsome form had been taken away. Without his stolen powers, Hoyoung easily managed to defeat the Monster Rat. The Monster Rat claimed that he would one day succeed in conquering the world, but Hoyoung replied that even if the Monster Rat were to conquer the town, or even the whole planet, none of it would bring him peace. As the Monster Rat rushed to attack, Hoyoung's counterattack successfully pried the Flea Monster off the Monster Rat, transforming him back into a regular sewer rat. The Flea Monster then turned into a spirit, which Taotie immediately consumed.

NPC

Cheong-woon Valley

Monster Rat
Location	Sanctum

Gallery

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  NPC Portrait of Monster Rat

Trivia

• Several characters in Hoyoung's storyline are based on Korean folktales. The story of the Rat Monster comes from a Korean folktale called the Rat Transformed Into a Man. While there are many variations of the story, the central tenet is that a rat eats nail clippings of a man and transforms into him. It tricks everyone in his house into thinking that it is the true master of the house - to the point that even the town's magistrate rules that the real master is fake and expels him from his own house. Eventually, the man receives some advice and returns home with a cat, which transforms the rat into its real form before eating it.