----------------------------------------

I licked my fingers and claws with relish and my long tongue licked the last of the delicious red juice, which threatened to drip onto the floor and be wasted.

Of the former 5 bandits, or human scum as I called them in my mind, only dried rust-colored spots remained on the floor.

My hunger again satisfied after such a short time, I stood upright, and noticed to my delight that I had actually grown again a few centimeters more and now measured almost a meter while I was standing. I looked down at my body and saw that my black steel-hard fur had become a little softer, almost like those fluffy cacti that seemed soft, but were still sharp and painful. One breath later, with a heavy poisonous mist rolling down to the ground and dissolving there, I turned around and took a closer look at the camp this time.

The wild boars would do my hunger extremely well, and maybe I should take over and also capture different monsters and breed for different purposes? Actually not a bad idea, especially if I can not go hunting for some reason or would like.

I strolled slowly as if on a sightseeing tour in the direction of the wooden enclosure with the wild boars over. The double doors of the outer palisade were still firmly closed and locked from the inside with a beam, while the single gate to the cave entrance was still open and seemed to stare invitingly at me.

A quick echolocation later on the way to the enclosure also showed me once again that I had indeed eliminated and eaten all the last survivors, at least all those who had been here, while my face contorted into disgust when I saw the abused woman inside the wooden hut on my radar.

"At moments like this, I'm glad to have human emotions again, at least in part.... Sons of bitches all of them!" I cursed aloud as I got the victim's condition mapped. Now a little more discontented I trudged on and was already standing in front of the wild boars and looked at the young animals, which were eating leftovers and all kinds of berries and vegetables of different freshness.

Satisfied that everything here seemed to be in order without my further action, I turned around and marched to the currently probably most important target in the camp; the woman.

Through the inner palisade and with my head slightly bent back, I couldn't help but admire the entrance to the cave, which really looked like the open mouth of a beast, with the two stalagtites as fangs protruding menacingly from above.

The entrance to the mound was just under 5 meters in diameter and behind it stretched a slightly damp and mossy cavern with various open or mostly closed storage boxes and chests. To my right, starting directly at the entrance of the cave, was the front house facade of the wooden hut and a door with a heavy but rusty padlock to prevent entry or escape of the possible occupants.

A short scraping and hissing later, and the padlock fell in two halves with a dull but loud sound on the floor, while I retracted my claws slightly again and the door swung open inward. I was greeted by a rather cozy interior with an excessive amount of furs and some valuable objects like jewelry carelessly scattered on various surfaces, almost as if this room was meant for relaxing and showing off.

In the center back, a five meter long corridor led to the end of the cabin and two smaller rooms on the left and right led to the two bedrooms, as I had already seen on my radar. The right bed was empty and luxuriously furnished, with expensive silk sheets, feather-filled pillows and a mattress with an unknown material inside, while the left bed reeked of urine, sweat, and sexual activity, and a completely naked woman lay on it with lifeless eyes, staring at the ceiling while she was chained by her feet and arms to iron chains.

I stood in the doorway and stopped when I saw the woman in front of me, and a renewed disgust came over me. Disgust not for this woman who had suffered all this and much more, but for this human scum who tortured and abused others for their pleasure. If I hunted myself, then to devour, to eat, and for my further development. But for some reason, my insides twisted around when I thought of causing unnecessary suffering when it was not appropriate or necessary.

And seeing this woman lying there with bruises and various injuries awakened an animalistic rage in me that I had only experienced when I had given in to my rage at the bandit leader. Not that I cared about this woman in particular, and I would eat her like all other beings, but this unnecessary brutality simply sickened me.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

I walked forward on quiet feet and a second later stared down from above at the woman lying on a poorly stuffed straw mattress, legs and arms wide in an x-shape and various fluids mixed with blood running down between her legs.

Shaking my head and looking into the empty eyes, I saw exactly that this being in front of me was already more than broken and would never recover mentally, so my next act was more than just a benefit for the poor disgraced creature.

With two very clean and very smooth blows I almost tore her head off her shoulders, while my other hand pierced the heart of the woman, and she immediately breathed her last as well as I could.

"Sons of bitches..." I whispered in a now clear masculine voice, bristling with power and bouncing off the wooden walls. I knew that my appearance was becoming more and more like that of a human man, except for my bony skull, the claws, the antlers, and the bloody runes on my head. So actually only my body itself... Okay, not even that, there is still the steel hard but soft looking midnight black fur. Hmmm... Oh anyway.

A short time later, and my human emotions for the act itself completely switched off, was of the woman herself also nothing more existent except the smells and bloody stains on the dilapidated straw mattress.

With a sigh and my emotions at just under 50% activated again, I looked around the house a bit and then looked into the various boxes to see what I now owned so everything. The bag with all the valuable belongings of the bandits and the robbed merchant joined the other jewelry in the front room.

I would take this bandit camp, and with my acquired building skills, make this place my own.

Since for now, hopefully, I didn't need to be afraid of being discovered, if I could believe the bandits, then this place would quickly become even more dangerous when I was done with it. The bandit raid was easily two hours away from where I was now on human feet, and this place was just perfect for a base of my own.

The former room for the prisoners I cleared completely empty and with some tests a fog swept through the whole house, which extinguished odors, removed blood and impurities and simply acted like a highly effective neutral smelling soap. The bedroom itself I left as it was for now, of course also after a cleaning, and the front room also remained as a trophy collection for valuables as it was.

The storage boxes inside the cave, which thank god did not branch off deeper with further corridors or side rooms, were filled with materials, skins, dry food, various more or less valuable materials and various metals.

Why and how the bandits had wanted to sell all this was a mystery to me, but I certainly wasn't complaining about it, should I ever have the opportunity to trade in a civilized city and start whatever with a considerable start-up capital.

I planned to apply my self-produced poison, first of all mainly aimed at humans, everywhere on the sharpened wooden stakes at the palisades, the traps around the hill and also the sharpened stones on the way down to the camp itself.

This should put everyone out of commission should anyone dare to attack or sneak into my home. My poison was not strong, but the paralyzing factor in it was incredibly potent, and would put intruders out of action for several hours or even a day, depending on their resistance, if I had calculated it correctly.

Satisfied with this, I began to take down the tents and stow them in some empty wooden crates inside the cave, while I stacked everything too dirty and rancid in a large pile in the outer palisade ring and then gradually burned it in the campfire.

Satisfied with my work and nothing to indicate the previous inhabitants, I sat down on a chair at the entrance of the cave and watched the sunset that was just happening over the treetops on the horizon.

Hrhrhr, the first time since my awakening in this world that I sit down relatively civilized...

The unnaturally wide grin and my long fingernails, which just scratched my chest, but immediately made all human-like immediately nullified and I first chuckled softly and then suddenly laughed from the bottom of my heart.

This life here was better than I had previously thought, although even the entry as a mole had been more fun than I had ever had before in my old life! Not to mention the enormous freedom, the power and the potential to grow even more, to do and be whatever I want...

Tomorrow, after a comfortable portion of sleep in my new bed, I would think about what I wanted to do with this camp, my new home, what I would be able to tame and catch, and what measures I wanted to install for defense or for any hobbies.

But until then? Enjoy the sunset...

----------------------------------------