Climbing up the impressively long esophagus of the rabbit beast, Licht hummed ‘The Circle of Life’ in his head. For Licht who was no bigger than the size of a fist, climbing the length of the rabbit’s throat felt like scaling a mountain. When he finally reached the top of the tunnel and sat on the tongue he raised up two tendrils of wood in triumph.
The mouth of the beast was left agape, and Licht let the sunlight wash over him for a while before stepping out.
As he looked back at the decaying rabbit beast’s body, he realized that he must have been inside for longer than he thought.
“That rot looks quite advanced. How long did it take for me to evolve?”
Clocks were a profound thing indeed.
Licht inwardly felt more wary of his surroundings. Did he owe it again to his good fortune that no predator of the forest happened to find the rabbit’s remains?
“Actually this rabbit may be the top of the food chain in this forest. It’s a little weird to think about a rabbit dominating an ecosystem, but I have to abandon my sensibilities from Earth. This is a new world, after all.”
As evidenced by the nearly car-sized rabbit, Licht’s assumptions about the natural order probably wouldn’t get him very far anymore.
“Well, let’s get to work.”
The rabbit had died on the sandy bar of an inland lake of the forest. Out here, the trees were more sparse compared to where Licht had previously been rooted as a flower. His options were more plentiful.
Licht rolled over to the edge of the lake. Dipping in a branch, he tested the limits of [Nutrient Absorption]. The small tendril of wood hollowed out and transported water to the surface of Licht’s body, which absorbed the water quickly.
“Interesting. My body can convert other resources into water to survive, but nothing is as efficient as water itself.”
Licht kept absorbing idly before he got a ping from the system.
[+1 END]
“Oh? I can get stat points from water too? Is it because it’s a different kind of resource from animal flesh?”
Licht supposed the stomach acid and the decomposed flesh that he had absorbed inside the rabbit’s stomach counted for the same category of nutrients.
“Kind of unfair to the decompos- actually nevermind, both were pretty gross.”
Licht opened the description for the [Nutrient Absorption] skill, looking over its contents.
[Absorbed Water: 1/10 L]
Accumulated Benefits: 1 END
[Absorbed Organic Matter: 13/100 Lb]
Accumulated Benefits: 3 END
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“So it's based on liters for water and pounds for organic matter. So the meat and stomach acid I consumed both count toward organic matter but water has its own category. They both give me health, so why should I not gorge myself while I’m here?”
Licht tipped his body toward the lake with a withe tendril. His circular frame rolled from the sandbar and submerged itself into the water.
Licht opened up part of the outer layer surrounding him and let water rush inside to be absorbed by his core.
[+1 END]
[+1 END]
[+1 END]
***
[+1 END]
The system’s pings started to become less frequent. Each time he would reach a threshold to gain another point of endurance, the required water would increase.
“I’ll stay like this for some time.”
There was no point in moving now. With his needs for nutrition being met by the water itself, and his rising total health, there were nothing but benefits to staying where he was. It was a perfect system. Licht felt like he had discovered a prime farming location in his favorite RPG.
“What’s luxury? This is!”
After losing track of time for a while, Licht once again looked at his gains.
[Absorbed Water: 1232/5000 L]
Accumulated Benefits: 5 END
[Health 50/50]
User’s Current Stats:
[1 STR, 3 DEX, 15 WIS, 10 END, 0 CHA]
[Max END reached! Evolve or ascend in rank to increase END further.]
“What a speedy process. I feel like I’ve done some serious discount shopping with this little strategy. Time to go check on my little friend.”
Licht extended his tentacles of wood upward and plunged them in the sand, uplifting himself out from the lake floor and toward the shore. When his vision broke the surface of the water the first thing he noticed was the empty clearing in front of him. A damp spot marked where the giant corpse of the rabbit beast had laid.
“What’s this? Someone brave enough to steal my prey came along to try and take away the rabbit? Must have been a big bastard to carry away that rabbit.”
Licht could not say he was a complete expert on the habits of wild animals, but the situation struck him as odd. The fact that the body had been dragged away was clear from the bloody trail left behind on the forest floor. This meant that an animal was both strong enough to carry the behemoth body, perhaps even stronger than the rabbit itself, and didn’t feel secure enough to eat the body where it was.
“Could it be for it’s young, perhaps? Huh, well a mammal would probably hunt with it’s young while a bird that does bring back food to its babies would never be able to carry that thing.”
Unless there was such a bird…
Licht shivered at the thought. Maybe it was better to hide by the lake for now…
Licht turned around, catching the shimmering waves dancing off the surface of the water. Was there something in the lake? Licht’s vision panned around him in a 360 degree field of view, even allowing him to see a little under the water’s surface.
“It doesn’t seem likely. Nothing bothered me for the few hours I was in the lake.”
Perhaps the rabbit beast was the king of the forest like he thought, but perhaps not. A group of beasts wouldn’t bother to drag a rabbit away, but what about a colony of insects? Licht could imagine a super-sized colony of monster ants. It seemed to fit in with the theme of the new world he found himself in. Yet something about that notion made him believe it was wrong.
“This intuition again, telling me my thoughts are wrong. Just like when I was looking at the Warngreen Plant evolution. Is this intuition a result of the wisdom stat, or my natural instincts as an ego-uh, thing?”
He had started with a wisdom stat of 15 and chalked it up to his former intelligence and experience as a human, but maybe there was more to it.
“Whatever, let’s go find these punks that dared to steal my kill.”
Licht put the thought to the back of his mind and started to roll through the forest floor. Following the trail of half-dried blood through a cover of foliage.