Leo fixed a mana crystal in the backside of the oven and stuffed it full with meat. The crystal lit up and started heating the meat with mouth-watering sizzling sounds.

He forgot to wipe the leaking drool from his mouth and stared at the meat cooking in the oven.

Ding~

He stabbed the sword in the piece of meat and pulled it out.

(Take out some Ambrosia before eating it and remember it will hurt like hell, even with your pain tolerance and there is a chance of dying.)

He gulped his dry saliva and nodded. He expected there to be some bad consequences in eating monster's meat. As it is filled with mana, allowing them to use magic and skills without any magic circle.

'What will I get from this?'

(Power.)

'Good, that's all you need to say. If it's about pain, I think no one can endure it better than me.'

He sunk his teeth in the meat and took out a huge chunk. Slowly the meat that could feed three adults disappeared. It tasted like shit but thinking about power, he ate up every bit of it and relieved the hunger.

A sudden discomfort coursed through his stomach, he bent on his knees and coughed a handful of blood. He hurriedly took out the bottle of Ambrosia and drank it.

The pain came again, eating him from inside out. His whole body pulsated like it would burst open any moment. Heart threatened to jump out of his mouth with every violent heartbeat.

His bones started breaking but Ambrosia healed them in a few seconds. The pain increased with every moment, he released the scream he held back all this while.

'It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!'

He kept drinking ambrosia. Black aura appeared around him increasing his healing further, making the experience all the more gruesome. He writhed on the ground in misery.

(Don't give up!)

"I… I won't… It's… nothing... compared to... before..."

He clenched his teeth and persisted. His body broke down over and over, twisting his organs. Drinking Ambrosia stopped him from dying. So the hellish cycle of gruesome pain continued.

Someone stood behind him watching the entire process. It tried to touch Leo's head, but it passed through him.

'Stay safe…'

After an unknown time, Leo regained his senses, a dense smell of blood assaulted him.

He groaned and stood, his clothes suffocated him a little. His senses felt sharper than ever. He inspected his body and noticed faint red veins on his arms, just like the monsters here.

'What happened to me...'

(Check your status.)

[Status]

Name: Leo Evans

Title: [Behemoth Killer]

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Race: Human-Monster Hybrid

Age: 17

Level: 14

Job: Berserker

Strength: 400

Vitality: 450

Defense: 350

Agility: 400

Magic: 1400 (Sealed)

Magic Defense: 1400

[Skills]

...

[Iron Stomach](Passive skill)]

Allows the user to gain power and skills by eating equal or stronger monsters

[Lightning Field] (Active skill)]

Generates a lightning field around the body, can't be expelled without proper conduction

[Innate Abilities]

[Mana Manipulation] (S)

Allows the user to directly manipulate mana without any chant or circle

…

Leo stared in amazement. "What kind of monster did I become?"

(Don't get arrogant, there are still monsters out there that can kill you. Even with all this power.)

He clicked his tongue in annoyance, even after all this pain he couldn't become stronger than some labyrinth monster.

(Do you even know that just a single one of these monsters can wipe out human countries alone.)

He ignored her chiding and concentrated on the dark red veins on his body, something was there than other blood. He tried to control it with his thoughts and direct it toward the sword in his hand. Gray aura started flowing from the sword.

['Mana Discharge' has been acquired]

[Mana Discharge] (Passive skill)

Allows the user to focus and emit mana from body

'So this is mana. How much SP do I have?'

(7453SP)

'How do I use this skill?'

(...Focus on the mental image of skill.)

'Okay, I promise I won't ask next time, I have relied on you long enough besides I can't depend on you forever.'

(.....)

He remembered that the twin-tailed wolf used this skill to shoot lightning. He forced the pulsing mana inside his right arm and tried to simulate the same lightning ball wolf attacked him with.

Crackle~

Blood-red lightning flashed around his arm and shifted to his fingers. He found it unable to shoot it like the wolf.

He increased the amount of mana in the skill. The lightning expanded from his hands to cover his entire body.

['Lightning Resistance' skill acquired]

[+Lightning Resistance] (Passive skill)

Increase resistance to lighting spells and lighting based attacks

It might be useful in numbing the body of my opponents, he thought.

'Time to hunt that fucking wolf.'

He smiled with a twisted face, his instincts craving revenge.

(Get your ass together.)

He was shocked to see Jen cursing him. She never did it before. He calmed down and put all his stuff in the inventory and went to the river for a quick bath.

Leo stared at his face in the river. White hair, and eyes of different colors. His left was still deep blue but his right had turned blood-red, the same color as his mana. Dark red veins of mana were vaguely visible on his sharp handsome face.

'Is this Marie Antoinette Syndrome? Or I evolved or something? My body looks taller than before, I was already 177cm. Now, I would be 181cm or something.'

(The correct word is 'Mutation'. Your body mutated by consuming Monster Flesh, which never happened before and your body grew from overcompensation. The thing with your hair is indeed Marie Antoinette Syndrome.)

'So, I'm first. How do you know about that?'

(.....)

'Forget it.'

He sighed and went back to his usual peeking spot to hunt down that wolf, then devour the rabbit for its skills and finally the ferocious bear monster.

But with his shit luck, not a single soul appeared even after waiting for an hour.

"Screw it, I'll go in myself," he cursed and strode deeper into the caves…

***

Heiligh Kingdom…

After Kouki and Ryutaro left the room, the girls sneaked from the room and followed Kaori, intending to watch the drama unfold between her and Hajime.

They followed Kaori as she dragged Hajime and stopped in an open ground with several wooden dolls standing there. It was the training area for Students.

The girls watched as Kaori poured her heart out and conveyed all her feelings. Hajime was close to passing out from embarrassment but stopped when he saw Kaori nearly tearing up and nodded his head to agree.

Kaori exclaimed in happiness and jumped at him, making them fall on the ground.

Scribble Scribble

Eri heard a strange sound, she turned her head to see Irene furiously moving her fingers holding a pencil to write something on a diary she took out of who knows where.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Irene looked embarrassed for a second then assumed a poker face.

"It's nothing."

She said and hid the diary behind her back.

Eri shook her head sideways then looked at Shizuku's face carrying a motherly smile and Suzu looking at the couple in daze while whispering, "So romantic…"

'Some people are really weird.' she thought.