The Eater that landed in front of us was much different from the one I faced before. Its legs didn’t tower over me, its tentacles were thinner, and looked almost brittle. Instead of a constant undulation, they were solid, coiled like curly hair around the body. While the smaller tendrils moved franticly, as if they were trying to make up for the lack of motion of the larger appendages. The mouth was also considerably smaller, not a perfect circle, but an oval shape with a single row of large teeth protruding from its center. But inside, there was no light, no fog, nothing.

Another big difference was the color. It had that sickly gray shade, but there were no black burn marks around the tentacles near its mouth. The legs were also much thinner. More similar to that of a daddy longlegs, instead of the odd formation of the others, where the limbs became thicker and thicker as they got closer to the central part of its body.

My eyes shifted to Pops for a moment as we hid in the bushes. He had seen these monsters destroy the world. He had seen the carnage and the destruction that those creatures brought. If anyone had the right to be afraid of the Eaters was him. Yet, his face was serious, and not with the panicked look that I expected. His eyes analyzing the creature in front of us as his body tensed, ready to burst into action. Likely to run, but there was a chance there was another intention behind that preparation. He slowly touched my arm. And a message appeared in my view.

Pops: That’s a baby one.

Cassandra: A baby one?

I asked, turning back to the Eater as I asked the System to show me what it could about it.

[Eater - Tier 0]

I killed two who were at tier 1, so this is what they looked like before tiering up? The creature was still recovering from the landing, but if we were going to fight it, our chance for a sneak attack would be gone soon.

Pops: Those are the ones we could kill. Even back in the old world. We had to use guns or run them over with a truck, but still.

Cassandra: So? Are we fighting it?

Pops turned to me. I could see the hesitation in his eyes, all the fear still there. But instead of turning away ran running. He nodded, putting a large rock on his sling. My staff was already on the right size for a battle, and I stepped to the side, flanking the monster. But before I could get to my position, the creature shifted. It’s smaller tendrils reaching out, licking the air in search of something.

I wanted to see Pops facing his fears. After all, we would have to deal with this kind of thing during our journey. But I wasn’t about to let this Eater put him in danger. I had lost my parents to those monsters, and I refused to lose the rest of my family like that.

Rushing out of the bushes, I dashed closer to one of its legs, using my staff for a wide swing. {Formless Nodus Swipe} was triggered, the particles left my body and covered my weapon. The end of a constellation forming with the second star being on top of my tailbone. System created an overlay for me, showing a hologram of a dragon tail on top of my metal pole. I knew that this wasn’t real, but still, seeing that was incredible. Maybe one day this skill would actuals show that to others as well.

The first leg of the Eater broke like it was a weak glass. A bit of the white luminous blood started leaking from the stump. My staff continued, hitting a second leg that was also ripped to shreds, but this time, I felt the strain on my muscles as I forced the limb to shatter. The skill was still active, and continued, allowing me to slam the staff against a third leg. It cracked and buckled, but this one endured.

Part of me was ready to trigger {Body Regeneration} as my previous encounters with an Eater proved that they didn’t care about pain. They were able to push through, no matter what I was doing. But this one was different. The moment its first leg shattered under the force of my strike, the Eater let out a silent shrill. It clearly tried to scream, but it was unable to make a sound. The only thing it could do was move whatever was inside its mouth to create the noise of grinding metal once more. It stepped back, not because it was preparing a new attack, or ready to continue the battle, but it acted with fear.

An Eater was afraid of me.

That thought made me pause. How was that even possible? Could those things truly feel fear?

A rock flew at a staggering speed, shattering against one of the Eater’s legs on the opposite side. The knee, or what I assumed to be the knee of the monster, cracked. Staggering back, the monster took a moment to start moving again, and that was all it took for another rock to hit the exact same spot. More cracks appeared over the leg, and once pressure was applied to it in an attempt to walk away, the knee couldn’t take it anymore and broke off. Leaving the creature with only five of its eight legs still working.

I moved to help, breaking the one leg that was already cracked as more rocks came flying from the bushes. The Eater finally tried using its larger tentacles, exposing a soft, almost white skin previously hidden near its mouth as the appendages attempted to strike me. But the movements were very predictable. Wide swings in arcs showed that the monster couldn’t control the tentacle very well. And seeing the creature made a point to protect certain areas, I figured out there was a reason for that. Which meant those lighter parts of its body became my next target. Pops also came up with the same conclusion and started firing off more rocks at the monster.

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The first rock that hit that exposed area caused the Eater to shiver. The second made it pull back. And my staff, being the third hit as I triggered {Compression} angling it so the pole would dig into the dirt and become a spike, finished the monster off. My staff took the Eater out of the ground, and make it dangle in the air for a few moments until its skin couldn’t take it anymore and ripped apart, making it fall back down half of its body completely torn open and bleeding out. There wasn’t even a spasm, but the confirmation of the kill came as I felt a trickle of SP enter my body.

“Did you feel that?” I turned to Pops.

“I did. But apparently I needed to be closer to get more. Still enough to give me a level,” he came out of the bushes.

“Really? Why is that?” I asked.

[Once a being with SP on its body is killed. The remaining SP attempt to find a new host. Without direct contact with the SP of an existing host, the SP, who is now without a host, will go towards the closest and largest clump of SP in its proximity. However, if during the process of killing the original host, there was contact between a user and the now dead host. The particles that clashed will recognize the user as their new host and travel towards them.]

“So as long as we hit the creatures, some SP comes to us. Otherwise, whoever is closest to the monster when they die, get most of the SP?”

[Correct.]

“Is there a maximum distance for the SP that we get from hitting it to come to us? Like if I’m using a bow and arrow, would the particles still come after me?”

[There will come a point where, even with the contact, the SP will not be able to reach the user. The actual distance is something System is unable to calculate as there are too many variables related to that process to give an estimate.]

“Ok, so try to be close to what you kill. Got it,” I turned to Pops who was asking the same questions to his System. Maybe I should start speaking out loud what the System told me to speed up this kind of thing.

While he continued that conversation, I reached down to the body of the Eater and checked its blood. After getting a confirmation from the System that it was the same as the blood from the other Eater, I took the empty waterskin I brought and started filling it up.

“Cass? What are you doing?” Pops asked a few moments later.

“Filling up my mana potion. Do you want some?”

Pops blinked slowly, “What?”

“An Eater’s blood is basically liquid Energy. Or something close to it. When I drank some, I filled up my {Energy Storage} and {Mind of Possibility} in a few gulps. That was like… 40 Energy or something. Do you want some? There is not much here. Nowhere near as much as what the other Eater had, but I’m pretty sure you can get at least a level or two.”

“You… drank that?”

“Yeah,” I turned to him, “Don’t give me that look. We eat blood soup. This is not all that different. Besides, it tastes like water, with a bit of metal.”

“I think I’ll pass… I don’t like the idea of.. Eating, or drinking them,” Pops gestured to the Eater, “Unless there is a skill that I should really get.”

“Actually, no. I didn’t get any skill from this. Sys, why is that?”

[The blood of an Eater has a high Energy value, however, there are very few particles on it. Because of that, no skill is attached to the blood itself. If user desires any skill, user will require to consume body parts of the Eater.]

“Yeah.. No, I’m not eating that thing,” I shook my head.

A few minutes later, we walked away. Even this weaker Eater had that effect of rapid decomposition, and I didn’t want to be around to smell that again. When night came, we found a hollow tree to sleep in. With the two of us, we could take turns sleeping. It was a bit boring to just sit there doing nothing, when it came my turn on watch, but I had the System with me, so at least I wasn’t completely alone.

Morning came, and we continued walking. It was just a bit before noon once we approached our old home, after stopping by the hunter’s cave to see if there was anything there that could still be used. This time, we took the two blankets. With {Compression} and both of us, it wouldn’t weight us down. After that, we continued toward the Hidden Horn Village, or whatever was left of it. Pops and I were scared about what we were about to find. Maybe it would be just what was left of our friends and family. Or the blood splatters would be all that remained from our previous life.

Neither of us could imagine what we would actually find.

From the distance, we saw a large structure. Taller than the watchtower. It was dark, charred, and at first we thought it to be the missile that, for some reason, got that distorted. But no.

Once we got a bit closer, we saw that… thing pulsating. Pops and I rushed to a nearby tree, climbing it before we got any closer to whatever we were looking at. It had an appearance similar to an egg, with various fungal growths on top of it, some large enough to become a tunnel. A tunnel that was currently being used.

Used by Eaters.

The same small ones as the one we fought yesterday. They climbed on top and inside that pustule like spiders moving on their parent’s back. Looking down, still close to the top, there were more openings, these letting out an eerie pale glow, and from it. A couple of Eaters, larger ones like the one that I killed, and the one that almost killed me, moved inside. Slowly, swatting at the smaller ones like annoyed teenagers shoeing away their younger siblings.

As if all that wasn’t bad enough, there was one more. At the very base of the putrid egg of metal and flesh. One large opening about the size of a house. Going inside it were two tentacles, if they could be called that. Those appendages were larger than the smaller Eaters, larger than the bigger ones. Larger than even the surrounding trees themselves. Tentacles filled with sharp thorns and suction cups that looked capable of eviscerating a mountain itself.

Pops was completely silent, and so was I. We always wandered where the Eaters came from, and how they were created. Now, there wasn’t a shroud of doubt in our mind, we were looking at one of their nests.

An Eater hive.

Both of us slowly climbed down the tree, making sure not to make a single sound. A skill we perfected throughout the years. Once we hit the ground, we started walking, still unable to utter a word. And only when we passed the hunter’s cave, far away from any place that could let our footsteps echo, we started running.

All the happiness from killing an Eater, all the excitement, was gone. Killing one of them was nothing when there were hundreds nearby. Hundreds that would spread, hunt, eat, and grow.

Any semblance of hope I had before was gone. Even with the System, how were we supposed to fight against those things?

Against them, we were nothing.

No

For them, we were prey.

#### Author's note ####

I'm really proud of that ending. I think I can make some pretty decent 'body' horror.

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