With black blood dripping from his hands, seeing the poor boar young-ling in visible pain, he had to be honest to himself. He could never harm such a poor creature. So he neared it and slowly cooped it up in his arms. He remembered well that eating other beasts and devouring EP could heal oneself. It would surely work for the little boar.
He thought a moment about the demon rabbit, but decided to rather not eat its corpse. no matter the EP gained it was tainted with disgusting black blood. For whatever reason he didn't feel apprehended by normal blood, but this one was different in more ways than one. He would eat a lot of normal rabbit beasts, while feeding some of them to the boar. It was certainly just in Tier I evolution and would not need that much EP. It would also gain far more than him.
As said so done.
As Ker fed some of the remains from the hunted rabbits to the boar, he could see how the rabbits stopped eating and flew. They obviously rather weren't in the presence of a predator. Even if they were beasts and wouldn't mind the roles reversed. The boar young healed slowly, far slower than Ker would. It would have to be enough for now. Ker fed two more rabbit beasts to the boar young until it seemed fine again. Sure it was exhausted and by all signs just wanted to sleep again, but it was out of danger of dying. It even slowly neared Ker, sniffed at him and tried to make itself comfortable at him.
Ker could hardly resist such cute antics. But he had to, he had a quest to fulfill and he would. So he prepared a little earth bed with earthen walls surrounding it, all for the tired boar. With that set up, it was out of view and direct harms way of the rabbits. Then Ker returned to the culling.
With new fervor he ran in a circle around the large part of the rabbits. He couldn't include all, they were far too spread out. Every time he came close enough to one, he used Fishing by and thrown it at the center where his sword rested. His goal was simple, gather the rabbits at one place first. Then find some magical skill and kill a bunch of them. Or just use his sword in wide arcs, that would work too.
Fishing by lvl 1 -> 2 Fishing by lvl 2 -> 3
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Fishing by lvl 5 -> 6
His skill level did rise nicely. Then again he did throw one- to two-hundred rabbits at the center. There they hobbled around, visibly shaken to be thrown around to just be all at one place again. His next part of the plan would take care of that. He ran to the middle, charged right through the rabbits, picked up his blade and swung it in wide arcs. At first he just hit empty air, but in the return swing he caught a few rabbits and cut them. He used this technique again and again.
Title rabbit slayer earned
After some while, Ker started to get tired. He had thrown hundreds of rabbits at the center of his ran and hit circle. And equally killed hundreds of rabbit beasts with his wide swing arcs. At one of the swings he put all his effort into completely forgetting about his task for a moment, only concentrating to hit whatever jumped there with his swing.
Skill wide arc learned
He couldn't believe it. Finally he had a worthy skill he could use with a weapon. That thought made him pause. It just stated wide arc, not that any weapons would be included. he had to try it out. So he stood on the slaughter field surrounded by hundreds of rabbit corpses punching in the empty air with his sword. It did not work, at least not at first try.
He changed his strategy and used the pummel to strike with his punch skill. Suddenly he got the same feeling when he used the skill with his fists. That discovery could change everything. He just had to use his skills when using weapons. The same was true for wide arc. He could deliver that skill with his fists in a swing. It worked more than fine.
Then he heard a grunting in the background and saw the boar chase after a left rabbit beast. The rabbit was much more agile and skillfully avoided any confrontation. He let that go on for a while. Then he chased after the rabbit and cut it in half in one swing. The boar seemed sad for a moment, but then indulged itself in the rabbit meat without any hesitation.
Ker also picked up some rabbits and ate them. When he started he felt his bottomless hunger take hold again. But he prevailed and forced his desire in the background of his feelings. He rather shared some of the rabbit beasts with the boar. In the following feast, he ate nine out of ten rabbits in comparison to the boar. Satisfied they both slumped to the ground waited out their meat induced exhaustion.
+ 1 EP + 1 EP .
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+ 1 EP
Title mass devourer earned
In total he gained 125 EP. Not every rabbit gave EP and none gave him more than 2 EP at maximum. Still with this he had gathered an amount of 150 EP. That should suffice for any major evolutions. He could also look forward for his first sole finished quest. Plus additional reward because the estimated amount of beasts was far beyond the real number.
Another reason for not gaining EP for every rabbit beast he killed was that he simply could never in his life eat hundreds of rabbits. He already tried to limit himself to the juicy parts that mostly awarded him with EP. Still there's only so much someone can eat. He was also pretty certain that he had enough for everything coming.
He also felt that he was on the border of level 20 and short before his next evolution. But that was another matter altogether, first he had to check on the farmers nearby and then report his success to the guild in Wellsheid. He looked down at him and assessed that he was definitely covered with too much blood to have a friendly chad with the farmers. So Ker de-armored himself and cleaned as much as he could from his armor, his clothed and most of all his boots. He also tried to clean the boar in the grass, since it was surely a bad idea to let the little one wander around bloodied. That was just asking for another predator.
In more presentable clothes he marched trough the devastated field towards the settlement. Behind close on followed a young boar ever curious about his changing environment. Ker sighed and tried to shooed it away, what was followed by confusion from the boar. Or he tried to bring it back to the wood and explain that it could go on live free there. It seemed not to care for that, it seemed actually not to care for the contents of his words rather than how he said them. That still made no difference in the end. So Ker trudged through the fields with his new companion in tow.
He was well enough greeted by the farmers, even if most of them were cautious around him. They rather didn't mind the little sniffing and grunting one beside him. It was that some of them saw how he handled the matter and opted for not upsetting the one who slaughtered a locust of beasts they could do nothing about. An understandable but still annoying reaction. Ker asked himself how many adventurers got those reactions, it couldn't be that seldom.
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Overall the farmers very happy that the issue was resolved. They had tried to harvest as much food as possible, but it would not suffice if they also had to pay taxes. Those taxes were normally paid in coins, more accurate in shilling and pennies or alternative in grains as food-stock. Not paying taxes or even stall the payment was out of question. The momentary directives didn't even allow for an ounce of relieve.
That left the farmers in a very bad spot. One where Ker couldn't help them. He declared he would report that to the major in Wellsheid, but even than that would mostly come to nothing and therefore just resulted in hollow thanks and empty smiles from the farmers.
However, Ker was on his way back to the guild. It would surely just need a day or two to confirm his quest. Without any worry he arrived at early night at home. His not-worry was instantly gone as soon as he saw an angry Hellena and a slightly annoyed butler stand at the entrance of the estate. Before she could could start to berate him a curious grunt was heard from somewhere at the level of their feet.
The boar young was interested in the new people and what lay behind them in the house. His mother raised an eyebrow and Ker could only shrug his shoulders. To be honest he had no real explanation. He would simply go with the basic truth, which hi did. He told how he rescued the little one and that it had followed him. His mother sighed.
"That may be the case. It still is no reason to return that late home. There are several other options, like sleeping at an inn, going home much earlier and returning to the quest the next day, like a normal person would. For now come in and take a seat at the table, the dinner is cold, since hours." He did exactly that and discovered what the boar actually wanted, the food. Of course it was the food.
So he gave the boar some of the soup with sausage. A few bites in the boar curled up and slept in. Ker himself could eat nearly nothing of it, even the sweet bread found no place left in his overfilled stomach. The sweet bread had probably been hot short after baking, just a few hours ago. Ker winced at the thought. He might think of returning early, the next time.
For now he was way too over-saturated with food to get another bite in. His mother looked judgmental at him. "That is the problem when you get home so late, you don't have enough hunger anymore. You need to eat good to become a great adventurer." With that he was let go to return to his room. For the boar a basket was prepared where it slept in a side-room.
⚝──⚜─⚜─⚜──𖤍
As Ker slept he revisited the pond in his dreamscape. Enveloped by the waters he again was given choices for evolution.
This time the choices for his outer layer were more defined.
Wood-skin The skin will be protected by an additional layer like the bark to a tree. The defense heightens in woods. Iron-skin Skin as tough as iron. Nothing short of iron can penetrate the skin. Adapting Plates Plates surround the body and adapt to the damage taken. Outer Mana-hide A hide of mana protects the body at will. Pelt-hide Growth Pelt growth is stimulated. The pelt will protect the body from environmental changes.
Only the first two were competing options. Ker didn't how often he would be in woods, it seemed very dependent on the surrounding and was with that not his preferred choice. All others were weird or in the case of the pelt-hide just gross. He choose Iron-skin without any regret.
Next was the strengthening of his body.
Speed Foundation The muscles grow longer and move faster. Advanced Strength The muscles build on their foundation and grow stronger. It may come with a deficit in speed. Endurance Foundation Muscles become more enduring, using blood more efficient. Mana Strengthening Mana is used to bolster the strength momentarily. Explosove Strength The muscles will be capable of a sudden massive increase in strength.
The choices were all really good again. Speed- as well as Endurance Foundation were again an option. And a good one as he discovered in his last quest. More speed would help to catch beasts better and more endurance would let him sustain longer battles and quests. Just Mana strengthening seemed less useful for him. Also Explosive strength, surely useful for quick bursts, were not his choice. But a foundation was only useful if one built on it. So in the end Ker chose Advanced Strength. More strength to the strength built.
After that his skeletal body appeared in his mental vision.
Bone Shaper The bones will obey the unconscious will. They will reshape themselves after what is needed/wanted most. Giant Frame The bones grow and rearrange themselves to a stronger, bigger frame. Red-Yellow Core The processes of the bone-marrow will be enhanced. The bone-marrow will always provide enough oxygen, fight against infections and close wounds faster. Mana enhanced Bones Bones Mana can be used to fortify bones. Also Mana flows easier through bones.
He could imminently exclude two options. He neither wanted to become a giant nor needed any mana. He was no mage afterall. Since his fight against the bone squirrel, he knew how useful active shaping of bones could be. But first this evolution sounded rather passive, less controllable and he rather kept his bones to himself. That left one option which was overall considered pretty good. So he took it.
Different shapes formed before his mental image.
Devourer Stomach The stomach wall will be reinforced and made more expansive. With this the stomach can eat far more and varied food. It also will need more food to prevent starvation. Energy Mixer (Advancement: Powerheart) Different energies can be used and drawn upon. They create a mix of energies, like a vortex, to power the body and mind. Mana conducive Network A network of mana-veins under the skin guides the usage of mana. Charger tendons Shortened tendons additionally grow at the hands and feet/paws. They enable quick charges and changes in direction.
His last four choices were rather easy. He already ate a lot, which could present a problem if he needed to keep that up on a longer quest. He also rather not experienced the pain of starvation. The Mana conductive Network was surely a nice thing for mages and the like. The Charger tendons would have helped in his last quest or in general. But with higher stats and more training he could reach that point anyway. With that concluded he decided for the Energy Mixer. What energies would mix and what the result would be was something to find out in the future.
His body adapted and his body evolved in parts to the chosen evolutions.
His skin tightened and reinforced itself.
His muscles broke down and regrown even stronger. Advancing on his foundation.
The muscles felt like they would be drained and too much pressure from the inside at the same time.
The heart in his chest grew new adaptions and changed from the inside.
It hurt like crazy. Luckily he did feel the pain only in a numbed version. Maybe that was because of him being asleep. No matter what it was, he soon slipped into the unconscious part of sleep.
Noteworthy was that this was not a full evolution and just helped individual parts of him. It still seemed like that were just the first steps on a long and arduous journey.