In all my life and for the love of all that is holy or hellish in this universe what the FUCK DID I JUST EAT!

It is meat but it tastes like slime.

I don’t know if I didn’t cook it long enough or not but that either way it shouldn’t taste that bad right? Even if its still a bit raw it shouldn’t taste like a lump of sewage, right?

The meat tasted so bad that I immediately lost my appetite despite the fact that I haven’t eaten in over a day now. However, that doesn’t mean I was willing to starve myself just because it tasted bad. I hesitantly put the meat back in the pot and boiled it some more before trying it again but alas, it still tasted like slime.

I forced myself to swallow every last bite before returning to the library books, this time to find a cookbook that might help my situation.

After a few hours, night came again. But I didn’t have the stomach to try and eat dinner. In fact, I felt rather shit after eating that meat. It felt like an upset stomach but worse. I’m not too surprised though given it’s taste.

‘I will search for something better tomorrow’ I thought as I curled myself into a ball on the floor, holding my stomach.

A few hours later I was in the bathrooms throwing up constantly. It got so bad that I swear there was blood mixed in as well.

I could barely move my body from the toilet bowl as all my strength left me. My head was throbbing, I was covered in sweat, blood and vomit was dripping from my pale face.

This was the worst I have ever felt in my life. Even the time when I ate rat poison as a child pales in comparison to this.

That meat, it was definitely just straight poison.

What kind of fucking creature is that Raptillian. Why is it’s meat so poisonous!

I spent all night in that bathroom. By the end of the night the only thing I would vomit was blood. Eventually I stopped vomiting around when morning came but I still couldn’t move. My body was too weak.

I stayed in that bathroom all day and the next night whilst covered in sweat, blood and vomit, unable to move in the slightest. If someone could see me now, they would probably assume I am dead.

Come the following morning I could finally muster up a bit of strength to get myself out of the bathroom. That being said, the most I could manage was forceful dragging myself across the ground. My eyesight is blurry and the world is rotating around me. All I can smell is my own excrement and discharge on my body. All I can feel is a numb sweatiness. All I can taste is blood and vomit.

It would be fair to say that my current condition is the worst it has ever been in my life. Not to mention I am starving as well.

I make my way to the fountain and fetch water with the bucket. Without even treating the water first I pour it over myself. Getting another bucket, I head back inside and boil it whilst I wash myself with soap.

After cleaning myself I move to where I stored the Raptillian meat. It is obvious that this meat is poisoned, however, I am also in no state to go hunting.

If this meat is poisonous but I survived having eaten such a larger amount of it at once then if I eat small amounts I should be able to build some resistance to it.

That being said, doing so would be a horrible experience in itself and given the weakened state I am in it could very much be the death of me.

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So the decision is between these two things. Risk dying whilst hunting for new meat which may also be poisoned, or build a tolerance to this poison which may kill me in the process…

I could also try find an old grocery store and hope it was emptied out already but… too much risk, not a high chance of gain.

Therefore, I’ve made a decision. I will eat the poisoned meat again! I know you must think I’m crazy but it’s not like I am in a good mindset right now either and I don’t have much of a choice. I have been here for three days now and only had one meal which almost killed me. IM STARVING!

With the decision made I prepared a much smaller portion this time and cooked it. After reading that cookbook I have a better idea of how to cook meat now so the whole thing went a lot better.

After about 10 minutes of roasting it over the fire I prepared to eat it. It already smells a bit better, but it still doesn’t look good. Whilst scrunching my face up I went to take a bite.

Once again it tasted like slime. Either the better cooking or my starved state made it somewhat easier to beat but it was still awful. After finishing the crappy meal I laid down next to the fire and went to sleep.

After a few hours I woke up, once again feeling like shit. And although the pain in my stomach was almost unbearable, I didn’t vomit this time. Which I was incredibly thankful for because I wasn’t sure how much more blood I could lose before I died.

I spent the rest of the night and a good portion of the next day in a ball on the ground holding my stomach. And when I started to feel alright again I would repeat the whole process.

A few days later I needed new meat as the Raptillian meat was starting to rot pretty bad. Heading out, I found another small creature that was easy to kill and brought it home. This one was called a Picklow and it resembled a ground hog with oversized claws and teeth.

After butchering the Picklow and burning the rotting Raptillian meat I resumed the process of building poison tolerance. As I suspected the Picklow meat was poisonous as well and was actually worse than the Raptillian.

I spent the next few days in a cycle of pain. In between my recovery and self-poisoning, I would read the books in the library. And just like that an entire month passed.

*****

The self-poisoning repeated itself for an entire month and the entire time I only ate meat from small creatures. I have a theory that the larger creatures have more potent poison based on the difficulty behind eating a few of my prey.

Eventually I started having no problems eating Raptillians and Picklows but I still struggle with a few of the small creatures. Now that I can handle the poison easier, I have started hunting each day as well. I don’t bring home the kill unless I need to though. I’m mostly doing this for practice.

I have also managed a few quality-of-life changes in this time too.

I now have clothes which I made from the materials I gained from my kills.

I made boots with leather straps which I tied together with string I made from weaving weeds. My pants I sewed with hide, string and a needle I made from a horn.

I made my shirt from hide and feathers to keep me warm as it seems to be winter.

I also made a large shawl for myself. I used a carved-out horn and hide cap for a water bottle.

My favourite knife now has a sheathe and I strapped a few smaller knives to my pants and boots.

More than clothes though, I have collected a bunch of useful items like a mirror, kitchen items like plates and cups, a bed with blankets and pillows, an old bag and more medicinal stuff. I have also made things like my own toothpaste and soap.

I’ve also read just about every useful book in this library and now I am just reading whatever for entertainments sake.

The only thing I didn’t manage in this time is finding a way to fix my ears, but I have a feeling that’s going to be impossible in this apocalyptic world.

My [Soul Manifest] has also changed a fair bit in this time.

[Soul Manifest]

[Name: Rey Stein]

[Race: Human (Awakened)]

[Constitution: Sloth]

[Soul Level: 46]>

[Physical Level: 15]>

[@###%$^()!@#!@$#$%^#!@]

[Karma]>

[Luck: ?]

[Martial Affinity: Reaper’s Harvest]

[Spells: Incarnat, Rubius, Accel, Incras]>

[Abilities: Spark, Soul Manifest]>

[Soul Level: 46]^

[Mana: 10300]

[Intelligence: 189]

[Physical Level: 15]^

[Strength: 121]

[Agility: 134]

[Stamina: 148]

[Ki: ?]

[Karma}^

[Protectors Presence]^

[Level 1]

[Exp: 934 / 10000]

[Corrupt Resistance]^

[Level 1]

[Exp: 31/10000]

Yep so my stats exploded a bit in this time but I also have [Corrupt Resistance] now. I can only guess that is referring to my eating poison every day.

I am not sure how it works exactly but it is a welcomed appearance.