Pikawon Billbrook hated most things. He hated the city lord for putting him in a gilded cage. He hated his family for being more interested in the benefits they could receive from his imprisonment than his well being. He hated that every guardsman and animal in the city was looking for him. And he hated his current job as an inspector.

But most of all, he hated the smell.

It was the smell of sewage and decomposition that made this job perfect for evading the acute senses of The Squirrel Lord’s army of animals that were hunting for him, but Pikawon’s moon-cursed talent-warped senses made every moment a living misery.

* Name: Pikawon Billbrook

* Level: 2.2

* Experience: 9%

* Attributes:

* Mana Capacity: 0

* Mana Regeneration: 0

* Magic Power: 0

* Strength: 1

* Speed: 1

* Endurance: 0

* Vitality: 0

* Mind: 1

* Toughness: 0

* Perception: 0

* Talents:

1. Any skills you absorb are altered to make you the perfect predator. Your body is altered based on absorbed skills.

2. You can absorb experience by consuming the flesh of defeated creatures. Experience gained is dramatically reduced if you did not participate in the creature’s defeat. You cannot absorb experience from any other source.

* Talent Skills:

* None

* Skill Slots:

* Bestial Instincts (Unique)

* (Transformed from Enhancing Hearing)

* Type: Passive, Perception

* Affinity: Beast, Mental

* Range: Self

* Cost: None

* Effect: Provides a small, passive boost to all senses. Increases the strength and clarity of predatory instincts. The effects of this skill scale with Perception.

* Sundering Claw (Unique)

* (Transformed from Slash)

* Type: Attack, Melee

* Affinity: Beast, Blade

* Range: Self

* Cost: Low Mana

* Effect: Concentrates cutting energy around any part of the user’s body that is naturally sharp.

His level one skill had originally been Enhanced Hearing, a channeled skill that one could activate as needed for a negligible cost in stamina. His level one talent’s insistence on warping every skill he absorbed had changed a useful skill he could use as needed to Bestial Instincts, which kindly provided a constant increase to all his senses, unfortunately including his sense of smell.

Pikawon kicked a loose rock down the corridor, while muttering curses under his breath.

“First Saint blind me and seal my nose.” It wasn’t exactly an accepted, traditional prayer, but he couldn’t think of one that quite applied to this situation.

Pikawon half heartedly ran his eyes over the floor, walls, and ceiling for serious structural damage and the channels for blockages, but spared most of his attention for his main responsibility.

Monsters. Most citizens of Root Perch weren’t even aware that monsters spawned inside the city, comfortable in their ignorance. He certainly hadn’t been, until he’d found this job during the panicked scramble to escape the city lord’s keep and hide from detection.

Sewer inspectors had originally been tasked with simply recording and reporting damage, but as Root Perch’s population and average level increased, monsters had begun forming from the chaotic mana that broke down from their…waste.

Apparently, this was fascinating to magical scholars, as it was one of the few ways that monsters formed independent of mana nodes or breeding.

He was less than impressed. He wasn’t defenseless, but he didn’t consider his meager combat training and single offensive skill sufficient to face more than the occasional Fungal Rat.

Not that there was much to motivate Pikawon to hunt the monsters. His job provided him with a loot pendant to gather excess experience from defeated monsters, and paid a small bonus for every kill it recorded, but the job’s main benefit was considered to be the opportunity to hunt weaker monsters for experience without leaving the city.

That was fine for all the other inspectors, but wasn’t viable for him since reaching level 2. Now, the only way he could absorb experience was by eating the monsters he defeated, and he’d be dead and buried before he ate anything that was born from and subsisted on sewage.

Pikawon found two Acidic Jellypods and one Turret Shroom, and channeled mana into his inspector token to record their locations while giving a short, verbal description of the monsters. The tokens had the ability to connect with his interface to record information more easily, but he hadn’t done so. Interfaces were rare at the lower levels if you weren’t rich or connected, and the whole point of this job was to avoid detection.

The Jellypods were much too slow to threaten him, and he was familiar enough with the Turret Shrooms to know they were completely blind, so he threw a stone down a side passage to lure it away from his assigned route.

Following his map, he finally found something more interesting to take note of. He found the largest cave-in he’d ever encountered. Most cave-ins just disrupted or blocked the flow of sewage, but this one filled the whole corridor. There was enough of a gap at the top that he could scramble over, but it would mean getting dirtier than he already was. He made a quick note on his map, so he wouldn’t try to pass here in future.

As Pikawon pulled out his inspector token to record the obstruction, he heard the faintest shiver of something sliding against stone. He tensed, reaching for his only weapon, a wooden baton with an iron core.

His instincts, born from his talent, and his Bestial Instincts skill, protested his decision, insisting that that his claws and teeth were the superior weapons. He pushed them aside, wobbling on his feet as bloodlust and confidence warred with reason and doubt.

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His internal struggle cost him, as the increased senses from his skill flickered and warped, leaving him blind and deaf to the striking teeth of a multi-headed snake.

***

After another hour during which she found nothing more than an old pouch with a couple of chips, Dyani decided to call it a day. She’d wandered enough that she’d gotten her bearings, though she’d avoided getting too close to the cave-in where she’d faced the combining snakes.

If she knew any other way back to her familiar stomping grounds, she would’ve taken it, but she’d rather risk needing to run again for getting even more lost than before.

“It’ll be fine. I’m sure they’ve found some other monster to terrorize. Maybe they got eaten by something.” The thought cheered her for half a minute before she followed the idea to its natural conclusion. She might not want to fight the cannibal snakes, but she really didn’t want to face anything that could kill them.

A small part of her pointed out that running from a monster, then growing enough to defeat the monster that killed the first would make for a good story. But those kinds of stories generally had a period of intense training in between running and fighting, and she didn’t think a couple hours during which she’d killed only two walking mushrooms would be enough.

“If I see the snakes or anything I don’t recognize, I’ll just run,” she promised herself.

She didn’t see a single monster on her way back, and hope filled her heart, up until she approached the intersection that would lead her back to the cave-in. As she drew closer, her ears picked up a spine chilling chorus of hisses.

Dyani was already retreating when she heard something even more terrible.

“Get off me you shattered thing.” It was the voice of a young man. She stopped in her tracks, astounded to find another person down here. Then, she processed the situation and realized that this man, a young explorer like her, was probably fighting off the snakes she’d aggravated. That wasn’t something she could accept.

Brandishing her spear, Dyani crept forward. As she turned the corner, she saw her fellow explorer. The light was low, but she could see he was tall and skinny, with skin paler than hers.

As the light from her glowstone fell on him, his eyes flashed yellow, like a cat’s. He didn’t spare her a glance. He was too busy clawing at the snake coiled round his legs. Her stomach roiled at the monster. Its body was thicker than any of the snakes she’d seen, and it had more than a dozen heads, all moving independently.

Everytime the young man struck out, she felt wild mana gather around his fingers in points of sharp light. Dyani didn’t recognize the skill, but she could feel it was potent, but each strike failed to do more than deliver light scratches.

Dyani approached, but wasn’t confident enough in her spear skills to hit the monster without injuring the boy.

His movements became sluggish, and Dyani finally noticed several snake heads with teeth sunk through his pants, into his leg, pumping him full of poison.

“What…you…waiting…” The boy forced out the words, but he was clearly losing the fight with his own body. As he slumped to the floor, Dyani spun her spear around. She didn’t want to cut him, especially with her blade’s blood draining enchantment, but he could survive a bit of blunt force.

Her jug swung on her hip as she struck down with the end of her spear, hoping to knock the monster off of him, but all she managed was to dislodge one of the heads delivering poison. Most of the heads switched their attention to her, since their current prey was in no position to put up a fight.

The snake uncoiled from the boy’s leg and approached her instead. Dyani backed towards the cave in so the boy could escape down the open corridor. She just hoped he had enough strength to crawl away.

Apparently, he did not, as the only movement she could see from him was the shaky rise and fall of his chest. The monster struck out at her, and she hopped left and right to avoid its attacks. Now that she could attack without fear, she stabbed with her spear. She landed a few hits, and she saw blood collecting on the edge of the blade before being absorbed into the metal, but it clearly wasn’t enough to worry her opponent.

She hopped away from a few more attacks, before she was forced to scramble up the wall of fallen rocks and earth. The snake had little trouble following her, but it did climb slower than it moved over solid ground, giving her time to think. The ceramic jug on her hip bounced against a rock, threatening to shatter.

That gave her an idea. She scoured her mind for the item’s description.

* Sourbirth Jug (Very Common)

* Level: 1

* Condition: Exceptional

* Description: A clay jug enchanted to gradually convert any water inside into white vinegar. At its normal rate, this jug can convert its entire contents in 12 hours. Exposure to high ambient mana will increase its rate of conversion, up to a maximum increase of 100%. The enchantments on this item are not compatible with personal mana. Attempts to charge with personal mana may destabilize the enchantments.

Dyani wasn’t an enchanter, but everybody knew unstable enchantments could be dangerous. She’d heard stories of extreme damage turning protective amulets into bombs or dimensional bags ripping holes in space. She had no idea how dangerous a weak item like her jug would be if she damaged it, but hoped it would be dangerous enough to kill this thing without killing her and the boy.

Time was limited, so she set aside caution and care, simply pouring her mana into the jug. It resisted her mana, giving her the clear feedback that she was not supposed to do this, but Dyani just kept pushing. She had very little mana, but at least it was always full, since she didn’t have any skills to use it on. The jug trembled in her hands and thin cracks ran over its surface.

As soon as her mana was expended and the jug was giving off the strong impression of a pressure cooker, she lobbed it down at the snake. All its heads pulled back, forming a cowl of snake faces. When it landed, the jug exploded with white foam and ceramic shards. Dyani covered her face with her arms, but the vinegar foam found its way to her eyes as she was lacerated by bits of jug. Soaked, bleeding, and stinging, Dyani looked down at the monster, praying it was dead.

The blast had pushed it back, and covered it in foam, but she was able to locate the unmoving body. She felt a breath of relief before she realized there was no burst of experience. The body twitched, and Dyani readied her spear, but was utterly shocked when the boy she’d been rescuing, who she was sure was unconscious or paralyzed, managed to pushed himself onto his knees and fall face first onto the monster.

She scrambled forward to save him from his insane act, but she’d only slid down from her muddy perch and taken a couple steps before she sense the same attack skill he’d used before, this time focused on his mouth instead of his hands. He shook his head like a dog with a toy, blood and vinegar foam flying in all directions. The monster gripped in his mouth, let out a set of off-key gurgles, and finally died, heads falling limp all at once.

She finally felt the explosion of experience, more plentiful and concentrated than any she’d felt before, and pulled it in greedily.

The boy dropped to the ground with the monster’s corpse still in his mouth, and this time Dyani knew he was unconscious, since she didn’t feel the slightest tug on the experience. She felt guilty for absorbing all she could, but she had no way to keep any for him, and it was only a matter of moments before the Mountain Oak stole the rest.

As if summoned by her thoughts, the ground trembled around her as the roots of the tree shifted, drinking deeply from all the remaining experience.

Dyani would be annoyed at the glutton, but she was full to bursting, and couldn’t absorb any more, even if she wanted to.

As the thrill and terror of the fight faded, her aches and pains and the itching sting in her eyes and cuts returned, along with a pounding, queasy headache. She’d never experienced the effects of low mana before, but she’d heard enough about them to recognize this headache as one of them. She slid down next to the unconscious boy, pulling out the weak cleansing potion she’d bought from Hoss weeks ago. Dyani didn’t want to drown him, so she opted to instead pour the potion on all the bites she could find.

The blue liquid glowed and bubbled. Hopefully that meant it was working.

Having expended every bit of her energy, Dyani leaned back against the wall, taking a moment to rest her eyes and gather her strength.