Chomp.
[You gain 1 biomass!]
Chomp Chomp.
Chomp Chomp Chomp.
[You gain 1 biomass!]
Chomp Chomp Chomp Chomp.
[You gain 1 biomass!]
….
….I'm gonna barf…
I close my mouth and hold it with my hand. My belly is swollen already and yet there's still one leg, an arm, and a half portion of the Hecas's upper body left in front of me.
Nausea hit me again when I saw the leg and the rest. I desperately hold down my mouth and lay down. Not far from me, Fist is laying on the ground face down. His belly also swollen like me, his silence is starting to worry me.
"Fist… you okay?"
Fist doesn't speak or nod, he raises his hand while trembling and it falls down just as fast. In front of him are two arms and a half portion of the Hecas's upper body. I look at the Hecas carcass, even after losing the three arms, legs, and the upper body, just the lower body alone makes it a big carcass.
Back a couple of hours ago, since we can't possibly carry such a large carcass with just the two of us, Fist and I decided to cut it apart, eat some of it, and carry the rest to the nest.
The first thing we cut is the legs, I use my blade and cut the three legs off. We tried carrying the carcass but it was still too heavy. So, we cut the arms next and try to carry it again, but it's still too heavy.
Then after considering it, we cut the upper body and just bring the bigger lower body to the nest. It is still heavy but not too heavy to carry.
When seeing the other parts of the Hecas, me and Fist were drooling. We ate with relish, not knowing it was the start of our suffering.
As you know, the part is either big or long, just eating one leg already makes my stomach feel like bursting. And I still had three more huge parts left. We thought about abandoning it but it just feels like a waste. Never have I thought I would feel reluctant to eat biomass.
So we arrive at the current situation, where we try to eat it as quickly as we can. But clearly, it isn't going so well for us.
I lay on the ground and spread my limbs, just gazing at the sky while waiting for my stomach to digest the food.
An hour or more, my stomach returns to normal and so does Fist. We once again gorge ourselves. I hold down my nausea and force myself to eat Hecas's leg, Fist eats an entire arm.
[You gain 1 Biomass!]
[You gai….
….
I take the last bite and just swallow it down. I lay down slowly while holding the food so it doesn't come out from my mouth. I look at my and Fist's swollen stomach. Yep, I definitely get a stomach strain when I evolve later.
We repeat this resting and gorging food two more times until we finally eat all the parts. Almost a whole day has gone. I got a whole 15 biomass from eating the parts from the Hecas which bring me a total of 19 biomass, enough to mutate one strain with plenty to save for mutating other strain.
But we don't move right after that, we rest first. Despite not fighting or moving, the repeated action of eating until our stomach burst is making me and Fist lethargy. We don't have any motivation to move, our stomach feels uncomfortable even though it's no longer bloated.
But then we hear the sound of a fight. I and Fist stand up and go into battle station, fortunately, we have large stones that cover our area. I tell Fist to stay hidden while I go for a peek. I climb the rock and let part of my face out.
Quite a distance from us, I see a group of creatures standing on two feet with red skins fighting the big hairy creature with no limbs. The red-skinned creature is draping their body with leaves and holding some kind of bone, they surround the hairy creature and stab the creature with their bones.
They all have different sizes and types of bodies. Some big and some small, the body of the small one is similar to Mother. The big one carries a long bone and stabs the monster while the smaller one uses some kind bend bone and uses it to shoot bone sticks at the monster.
Why are they using the bones of other creatures to hunt instead of using their claws and body?
What a weird creature. But they sure look tasty, especially the smaller ones. They don't have a lot of meat but they look very soft and tender. I'll hunt one when I have the chance.
Doesn't seem like they will be a threat. I drop down and tell Fist what I saw, he then just nods. I don't know if he understands or just nods. Resting enough and with our stomach return to normal, we carry the heavy carcass of the Hecas. We slowly make our way back to the nest.
In the way, we need to cut down some trees to make way for the carcass. Because of the lack of monsters in the forest, we manage to reach near the nest without encountering anything. When we reach just near enough for the mind link to connect again, I quickly call Mother.
"Mother, are you and the nest okay? And are there any wounded siblings who recover already? If there are, can you direct them to us? We need help carrying the prey."
"Both me and the nest are fine, child. And yes, there are. The children who were injured before are already fine now. They are on their way to you. Did you hunt many things?"
Hearing Mother's warm voice makes my body full of energy.
"No, but we hunt something special. You can look forward to it!"
"Then, I'll eagerly wait."
"Yes!"
We put down the carcass and wait for our siblings to arrive. Not long after, four of my siblings arrive and they are surprised by the huge carcass. I laugh and tell them to help carry the carcass back to the nest.
With additional help, we easily carry the carcass. On the way, we encounter some Pringos but we ignore them. We don't need additional weight on top of the huge carcass. The Pringos also doesn't initiate an attack and only stare at us for a little before going on their way.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
When we reach the nest, I'm really thankful that the nest's opening is big enough for the carcass to go in. The mother is also surprised when she sees the size of the carcass.
"Child, is this one of the monsters that live in the land beyond the forest?"
"Yes, Mother! If we didn't eat its limbs and upper body, it would be even bigger."
"I see. Tell me about the land, child."
I tell Mother everything, also sharing what I saw using the mind link, the red land with big stones, the huge monsters living there, and the weird red-skinned creatures. Mother listens as she studies the Hecas carcass. Mother jolted a little when I told her about the red-skinned creature.
“Child, show me how the red-skinned creature looks.”
Mother looked serious, so I quickly showed her the creature.
"Did they see you?"
"I don't think they see us."
Mother doesn't say anything and seems to be deep in thought.
"Did you see where they are going?"
"No, I just observe them a little before we leave the place."
"I see."
Mother becomes silent again. Did I do something wrong? Should I have hunted them? When I ask my mother, she says I didn't do anything wrong.
"It's okay, you did the right thing. Next time, when you hunt there again, remember to stay hidden from those creatures and observe them from afar. If you can, find out the direction they're coming from and back to."
"Yes, Mother! I'll follow your word."
With that done, she turns to me and Fist. Her hands extend and rub our heads.
"Thank you for capturing this big monster, children. This will be a great resource for the Brood."
I and Fist enjoy every second of the head pats and praise Mother gives us.
"It may be hard, but I need to ask you to hunt more of this creature for the Brood. Take your siblings with you, they can help you."
"Got it, Mother!"
"I will!"
But before we go, we need to mutate first. Mother nods and starts eating the carcass while we go to our eggs.
Inside the egg, I am a little torn what to mutate next. Should I mutate my tail or arms for more offense, mutate my leg for mobility, or go for support with either eyes or tendril?
Hmmm, decision... Decision….
Let's go for offense. I can mutate other strains more easily if I am strong. And since I will be going hunting bigger prey, more offense will be a good addition.
Now, which one should I pick? Between my arm or tail, I think I'll go for the arm. I rarely use my tail as I always forgot about it. I know it's bad to forget about it but I can't help it. I'll try to use it more often. With that said, let's start.
[Use 14 biomass to upgrade Arms to LV5?]
Yes.
[You have reached the maximum level for this strain, do you wish to mutate it?]
Yes.
[Please pick the mutation for the Arm.]
A window opened in front of me, as usual, what an amazing list of options. I scroll down the options.
Hmm, what do I want for the mutation?
Steel Arms, Hook Arms, Poison Arms.
There's a lot of different kinds of Arms, maybe because it's the first mutation, the options are pretty much the same with the other strain. Oh, I found Fist's Power Arm.
[Power Arms]
[Strengthening the arms and improving it to be more physically powerful.]
[Strength +4]
Not bad but not what I want.
I already have Bone Blade for attacking in melee, should I go for another melee mutation for Arms? Some options sound good. Like Conductive Arms, I know it would be effective. Just look at my Bone Blade. There's also the Impact Arms, according to the description, it condenses energy in the arm and releases all at once when in contact with the enemy.
I'll keep that one in mind, for now. I keep scrolling down the option, checking every option. After scrolling down, I don't see anything better than the last two options. Just as I was about to give up and pick the Impact Arms, I see an interesting option.
[Stinger Arms]
[Allow the Arms to create bone needles internally and shoot it at the enemy. The needles can be replenished by eating or using energy.]
[Strength +2]
Yosh, let's pick this. Since I already have Bone Blade for melee, I think having a range attacking method would benefit me better than another melee mutation. Besides, I think this mutation would have a good synergy with Impact Arms.
If it works like what I imagine, picking the Impact Arms for the second mutation would add a strong attacking method in my repertoire.
[You choose the Stinger Arms mutation, confirm?]
Yes.
After confirming, the usual process starts. The black sludge engulfed my arms as foreign energy changed my arms.
When I come out of my egg, my arm grows bigger, especially my forearms which double in size. I can see a hole on my forearm, the hole facing forward. I can feel that I have six bone needles in each arm.
I want to test it but I can't shoot it inside the nest, now can I?
I look around, I don't see Fist anywhere. It seems that Fist is still mutating. Mother is sitting on her throne, beside her is the Hecas carcass. It has less than half of its original volume and it's missing its core.
I move closer to Mother and see her bulging stomach. I almost laughed. Mother notices me.
"You have mutated again, child?"
"Yes, Mother! This time, I mutated my arm."
I show Mother my new arm and I take a look at my status.
Species: Brood Worker
Core LV: 1
Strength: 18
Vitality: 17
Intelligence: 36
Agility: 12
HP: 25/25
EN: 40/40
Strain: Eyes LV1, Tendril LV1, Stinger Arm LV5, Conductive Bone Blade LV5, Legs LV1, Hardened Body LV5, Tails LV1, Black Sludge Gland LV1
BioMass: 0
My stats are slowly growing strong. And the extra HP comes when I mutate my body, so that means vitality doesn’t only raise my defense, it also increases my HP. From my understanding, 1 point of Vitality = 10 points of HP. Mother rubs my head.
"Good, child. Grow even stronger for the Brood."
"Yes, Mother!"
I look at the room being dug, it is less than halfway done. As expected, it is slow with only three siblings digging it.
"Mother, why not add more siblings to dig the room?"
After all, the room is needed to house a lot of eggs, it can't be small. I, myself, want at least 50 new siblings. I think that only if the Brood has that many workers can it be safe, for both the Brood and worker.
With that amount of workers, some can tend the Brood while the rest can go hunt for Biomass. And if the worker hunts in huge numbers, the previous unfortunate event can be prevented.
So, that's why the room needs to be finished as soon as possible. As for the biomass that Mother needs, I and Fist can hunt for it. We just need two siblings to help us carry the prey back.
I tell Mother what I think and she stays silent for a moment before answering me.
"Yes, your idea is good. We will do that."
She points at two of my siblings that help carry the carcass back.
"You two will stay and help your siblings dig the room, the rest will hunt for biomass following him."
Mother points at me. The two siblings that were first pointed out by Mother joined my other siblings digging the room. While the other two wait for me.
I lay down near Mother, waiting for Fist to emerge from his egg. I can't go hunting without him. None can help me hunt better than him, as he is the strongest Brood member other than me.
Despite having only one mutate strain, the Fist Bone, he can take one a Broon alone. Other than me, only Fist could do that.
Fist is good at fighting. He is a bit reckless but he knows when to attack and defend.
Strictly speaking, while the other two can help me hunt, they just are not strong enough. They will just endanger their life. They need to at least be strong enough to take on a Broon alone or have two mutated strains to be useful in the hunt. As our prey is no longer Pringos or Broon.
Let's help them earn biomass for mutation during the hunt. A few pieces of a Hecas should get them decent biomass.