A few hours had passed. The wound on Kei’s arm finally stopped gushing blood. Having been at home most of the time in his previous life, he never had first-hand experience with animals. As a result, the snake was much stronger and more perceptive than he expected. Kei was still highly motivated, however, he was also wary of the monsters in the forest. If he had to struggle this much against one of the weaker monsters, how tough would the other ones be? He was also excited knowing that he could become much stronger by defeating all of them.

(In times like these, you just take it on the chin and hope for the best.)

He took a bite of the snake’s carcass and stood up. The food had a slightly bitter taste but the texture wasn’t a problem since “devour” had a mechanism that enabled him to eat just about anything.

(I should probably get going.)

He continued on for a few more hours. Along the way, he found multiple snake corpses. They seemed to be covered in slash marks. He wondered what caused this bizarre phenomena to happen but he really couldn’t be mad. Every time he saw one, he would open his mouth wide and devour it whole. This allowed him to strengthen poison resistance and venom with virtually no effort.

(I think I’ll stop for a bit. My feet are getting numb.)

Kei decided to take another small break. Knowing that he’d be sitting down for a while, he decided to test out two new aspects of “Greed”. First, he wanted to see if he could activate it without speaking out loud. Next, he wanted to once again confirm that his skill didn’t only work when applied to monsters. Although he may have stolen “Hard” from a rock, this didn’t necessarily mean that it would work with just anything. Hoping that things would work according to plan, he set his gaze on a tall tree and recited in his head.

(Activate “Greed”!)

{Greed has been activated.}

{Your target is within range. “Greed” has successfully stolen the following skill: “Unwavering Tall Tree”.}

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{“Unwavering Tall Tree” is a dual skill. It consists of the following two skills: “Growth” and “Unwavering”.}

{Growth (beginner): Upon activation, this skill allows the user to grow the target of their choice. The more this skill is strengthened and used, the larger one can grow their target. Upon deactivation, the target will return back to their original size. However, this skill has no time limit.}

{Unwavering (beginner): Upon activation, the user no longer requires sleep. Upon deactivation, fatigue from the missed sleep does not accumulate. This skill has no time limit.}

The tree instantly withered away. However, Kei was not that surprised. By stealing the tree’s ability to grow, he basically took away its vitality. In terms of his new skills, he put “Growth” in his back pocket. He would test it later on.  Also, “Unwavering” would save him tons of time. Not needing to sleep would allow him more time to both hunt and learn more about this world.  Kei was also very pleased by the results of his little experiment. He no longer needed to activate “Greed” out loud. On top of that, he could also use it on plants that didn’t move. This would allow him to greatly increase his ability count.

(This is awesome! If I didn’t have this skill and saw someone with the same ability as me, I would kill them without a second thought. Within a few years, I could end up invincible! I definitely need to keep this a secret.)

After noting this, he tried testing “Greed” out on a few more trees. Unfortunately, this time, he gained no new abilities. It seems like the last few times when he stole from stationary objects, he happened to get lucky. He concluded that not all living things or objects had skills for him to steal.

(I guess it wasn’t going to be that easy. But then again, who cares? I’ll just keep trying to steal abilities from as many things as possible. Hopefully, it’ll all work out.)

He got up and started walking forward. After a few minutes he stumbled upon a furry grey monster. It had big round blue eyes and was quite small. Two large front teeth extended from its mouth. It hopped towards Kei.

[“Hey there little rabbit! You seem pretty weak and you probably have nothing for me to take. Run along now before I eat you! Then again, maybe I should make you my pet….]

It stood in place. Suddenly, a weird transformation began to occur in front of him.

(Oh shit!)

Three large claws extended from both of its hands. It grew three times in size and its eyes turned red. You could tell it wasn’t happy. Kei then realized why he found dead snakes all throughout the course of his path. He was in big trouble.