Waking up with your carriage gone is one hell of a moment to remember how serious your situation is.

I for example, spend the first moment shocked, suddenly jumping to my legs made me aware of my companions already waiting for me to do so, Hannibal strolling around my immediate area with his tusks raised high, while Nemo was busy in a shouting match with someone.

The golden lighting and deep shadows of the forest before me confirmed that it was still dawn, a quite common time for me to wake up.

Not knowing what exactly wolfsbane and moonleaf were, though the hag did mention I would know when I saw them.

Given that I held nothing except my mission to guide me, I decided to step inside the forest, the shadows made it hard for me to see anything.

After giving the two their morning hugs, a practice I implemented more recently that Hannibal loved and Nemo tolerated, we continued deeper, my slow pace dragging us down enough for the cat to complain. After a short exchange of glances, I was once again acting as a hog rider, my legs and body pressed against him as we dashed away from the rising sun.

Our path was filled with obstacles, from bushes Hannibal did not particularly like to sets of trees that had no way for him to fit through, we lost many minutes on it before we finally found the first change in the environment.

Before us was a clearing with a herd of deer grazing upon it, the stag quite alarmed at the noise we made, though we stopped far enough that some trees obscured his vision.

The beast was massive, with antlers that sprouted leaves.

It was my first impression of the actual impact the system had on this worlds biology, and I decided to study it from a distance.

Their fur seemed brown from the distance, though concentrating allowed me to see the many plant patterns in their fur, the way they seemed connected to the forest probably the most wholesome I had seen outside of my two allies and their antics, even the ever growing hunger for life turned to a silent hum at the back of my mind.

Then, I felt a pressure upon myself, freezing me as the sun disappeared once more.

Air pushed against me, and suddenly I was happy to be small.

In one second, the very image of peace was quite literally torn apart, the air smelling sickeningly sweet as the figure came close enough to make out it’s shape.

The creature resembled a furred lizard, its bat like wings probably spanning twenty meters each, with a tail that was nine meters in itself and a round torso that ended in a neck of two meters and a head I would have expected on an iguana.

It was impossibly beautiful for this collection of traits, and as the sweet scent settled in, my body stopped responding, only the stags quick dash between the trees saved it, with seven of the ten doe following close, the three others falling to the poison cloud, the monster, for there was no other thing I could call it, tore into the beautiful animals in a way that seemed almost perverse.

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

I knew there was nothing for me to do, and yet I wanted to avenge them.

That was when I decided I would slay it, no matter the cost,it was probably the kind of creature the hag might use for her rituals.

Thoughts rushed through me and passed as I was forced to observe the carnage, and while it might not have been the smartest Idea, or most effective use of my powers, I drew upon my soul to cast a spell that was destined to change absolutely nothing.

A puff of necromantic energy whisped towards it, infusing its body and concentrating on the one thing that mattered.

Thus, it was hit by the most powerful case of diarrhea I could summon forth, the creature flapped its wings just as control over my body returned to me, winds almost toppling me as we proceeded towards what was left of the corpses, which made me cast gather, followed by hyperconsumption, the matter turning to nutrients as even a small slice of one of these beasts filled everything I needed.

Hannibal and Nemo made a much bigger feast out of them, each busy to eat as much as possible from the feast before them.

Once they had torn out pieces of doe until they could barely walk straight, we proceeded on that level of the forest, scared of what the deeper reaches might hold.

I hoped that this beast was this areas apex predator, though I didn’t think it would be the only one.

With both my companions bathed in blood, my hope to reach a river rose beyond measure, to the point I asked Hannibal if he could lead us there.

Now, he was no wolf, but pigs smell around two thousand times better than a human would, and as one would expect from the kind of creature that was employed to search for truffles, he had no problem with finding a small river a bit further in, the water was teeming with life.

As I touched the surface, a small blob of something left, a crystal of impressive power sat within as I decided to use hyperconsumption on said core.

The feeling was completely different to anything before, like fresh water washing through my very essence, and disappearing to the world beyond, nothing gained from dissolving the core, except for the whole ball to splash open.

“What was wrong with that thing? It didn’t even have a soul, and jet it thought of attacking me? I hope there aren’t too many like it, otherwise I’m exhausting myself without gaining anything.”

A quick bath did wonders in calming me down after the frustrating encounter, more like it approaching me from time to time, their gel somehow eating away at my leg before I consume them, their essence passing through and dissipating every time.

Pigs were very clean animals, and like me, Hannibal enjoyed his time in the water, especially as he got to watch me attempt to swim, my body not quite suited for that kind of activity yet, but better than not learning it at all, which I suspected most people in this world to suffer from.

The author was no bad swimmer, though none of the other lives cared much fr water, with one not even knowing what it was.

I learned until I felt cold, leaving the water and deciding to clean up Nemo next, my wet fingers brushing through his fur and pushing the grime out of it.

“Don’t worry, getting bloody happens to the best of us.”

I tried to comfort him, though it doesn’t help against a cats seemingly instinctive hatred for water.

He took a while to finally relax, his claws putting quite the gashes in my legs, though they were quickly healed and instead reduced some of my flesh to close these wounds, a quick decay rune pushed towards the river killing a few insects and fish in my immediate surroundings, which I purify before eating them.

When it comes to making fire, not even the author has any methods I knew I couldn’t use, and thus, I instead cast purify on everything I could and even myself, hoping to survive this experiment, and not die of my second meal just because I wanted to test out my new teeth.

The sun was approaching its zenith as we stood up again, our efforts leading us upstream, as we didn’t think traveling downstream would help as much.

Every once in a while, we saw the monster pass above us, rarely flapping its wings.

Our path took us deeper into the forest and slightly uphill, but it took us somewhere.

During these travels, I fell into a bit of a meditation, a tinge of blue sitting upon my soul where before only green, white and purple resided. Slowly, it dissipated, almost none of it turning into the soul liquid mine was made of, but like a crack in my existence, it prevailed, and I was not yet comfortable enough in my knowledge of meditation to interfere with the process, especially as the skill didn’t object to what was happening.

The closer we got to the source, the more of the blue slimes appeared, and after we were deep enough that even the midday sun could no longer reach us easily, that point where the ancient trees became thicker than my father and entwined to one another so that their emerald leaves summon up illusions of faces, a green slime crossed out path.

Life ended were it went, and started anew right behind it.

From everything I had gathered so far, it would paint my soul a slight green, and when I approached and cast hyperconsumption on it, my suspicion as confirmed.

It was at this point that I noticed claw marks on the trees, and gripped by new curiosity, our speed increased, and the travel along the river continued.