Chapter 8: Hunger

As I was reading, a low growl interrupted my thoughts. Was I under attack? Getting on my feet as quickly as I could, I took a battle stance. I looked around tensely only to see my zombie rat looking at me in confusion. What did this mean? Usually my zombie rat sensed enemies before me so I didn’t think the growl was coming from something alive. Maybe it was just the wind in the tunnels. Taking a moment to look around I heard the low pitch growl once more. But this time I found the source of the noise…my stomach.

Rubbing my head in embarrassment, I decided to put my journal away. From what I could tell it had been around a day so it made sense that I was hungry. I was also doing quite a lot of physical work including dodging and attacking so I had worked up quite an appetite. The only problem was what kind of food I was going to get in this dungeon. I didn’t really want to eat the giant rats I fought because they probably had some type of disease and I needed the corpses. I let my eyes wander as I thought about my predicament.

As my eyes looked at a bright section of moss, an idea suddenly ran through my head. Why not eat plants? I was pretty sure I couldn’t eat the luminescence moss but maybe there were other types of plants in this dungeon. I could only hope. Grabbing my sword I left my home with my rat in tow. Since I had killed quite a few rats my first time coming through, I shouldn’t see any of them for the next half hour. At first I was disappointed by this, but now I was happy. This meant that I would be able to look for food without being interrupted.

Walking close to the walls, I looked for any plants that were in the cracks. It was a little bit challenging since in the darkest spots, the only color I could see was grey. The only spots that I could see clearly were the spots with patches of luminescent moss. Don’t get me wrong though, I was happy for my enhanced vision skill. I just wished there was an easier way to level it up. Time passed slowly as I peered over every inch of the wall next to me. My investigation was soon interrupted by a squeak from my zombie rat.

Glancing toward my side I watched as my zombie rat tugged the side of my jacket. Huh, I guess he wanted me to follow him. I followed behind my zombie rat for a couple of minutes until we ended up at a wall….Yes you heard me right…. a wall. My zombie rat had led me to a brick wall. Placing my hand on my head I let out a sigh. What did I expect, after all my zombie rat is still a rat. I crouched down on my knees and gazed into my zombie rat’s eyes.

“Look here buddy, I know you tried your best but I asked for a plant. Plants are supposed to be green and …plant-like. This….this is a wall.”

I pointed to the wall at the end of my sentence. I didn’t blame my rat for leading me to a brick wall, after all he probably didn’t know better. Turning around with another sigh I prepared to go back to my investigation. But before I could leave, my jacket was tugged on again. Looking at my rat with exasperation I watched as he head-butted the wall. Did he just want attention?

?!

My eyes widened in shock as some of the bricks came tumbling down. What the hell?! Was there something on the other side of this wall? Moving my rat out of the way I swung my sword at the wall.

Clang!

A loud metallic sound echoed through the dungeon. I wasn’t really worried about the sound since there were no giant rats nearby. I repeated the process a few more times until I realized that my sword swings weren’t working. Hmm, it seems that I needed something more blunt. I sat down for a couple of minutes until an idea sprung up inside my head. Why not just make my sword a blunt weapon?

Shoving my sword into the ground, I began to call forth mana from the ground. Concentrating on the earth, I enticed it to start crawling up my blade. Whenever I used earth magic, there were two ways that I could cast the spell. One was that I could force the earth to do my bidding while the other one was coaxing it to do my bidding. From what I could tell forcing the earth made my spell faster but weaker. While coaxing it made the spell take longer but it was stronger because of it. Since this was the first time I was using this type of earth spell, I decided to coax the earth.

About one minute later my sword was covered in hard, compacted earth. Facing the crumbling wall I swung with all my strength. With a resounding thud several bricks flew from the wall. Yes, this would work. A few minutes later, I had managed to open a big enough hole in the wall so I could fit through. Stepping through the hole, I came face to face with a giant maw of teeth.

Fuck!

Jumping back as quickly as I could, I watched as the area I was in a second ago disappear. All that remained of my previous position was a blob of green. What the hell is that? It was no giant rat, that was for sure. I inspected the blue box above the mysterious thing’s head for further information.

Vinesta - Lv.4

Hp: 20/20

It seems that the creature in front of me was some type of plant. It also seemed pretty weak if its hp was anything to go by. I was still wary of approaching it however seeing as how I was almost eaten by a surprise attack. Gripping my sword tightly in my hand, I got a better look at the plant monster when it lifted its head from the ground.

It wasn’t that hard to describe the Vinesta that was in front of me. It was essentially a plant that was changed into a monster. If a plant was over six feet tall that is. The Vinesta was covered in all green. The only thing that wasn’t colored green was the variety of fruit at the tip of its arms/leaves. It probably used the fruit to entice innocent victims and then struck while they were distracted. It could’ve easily blended in a jungle or something. But since we were in the sewers, its green skin made it obvious to see.

Where the head of the flower should be stood a giant mouth. It was that mouth that almost ate me. I couldn’t see any eyes so it probably used some type of hearing to attack. On the bottom of the creature laid roots that were a variety of sizes. Could it move? The question I had was answered when it slithered through the hole that I made.

Motioning my rat to stay back, I ran toward it with my earth covered sword. The reason I didn’t want my zombie rat in the fight was because the Vinesta’s mouth was big enough to devour it in one gulp. I needed my zombie rat for future battles so I couldn’t let that happen. I swung my sword at a nearby vine only to see it do a miniscule amount of damage. Tch, I needed to get the earth off my sword and pronto. There was probably an enemy that my earthen sword would be good against but this wasn’t one of them.

As the Vinesta’s head lunged toward me, I had an epiphany. Aimed my sword at the open mouth, I pushed my mana into my sword. Because of how forceful I pushed my mana, all of the compacted earth shot off towards the Vinesta. Right into its open mouth. The Vinesta recoiled in shock and tried coughing out the earth. Huh, that attack was pretty effective. I needed to remember to use it in future battles.

Before I could use this to my advantage, the plant threw one of its fruits at me. Ducking down quickly, I watched as it exploded against the wall behind me. Normally juice or something should have spilled out of it, but that was not the case. It seemed that the fruit contained some type of spores and I did not want to find out what they did. Covering my sword in wind, I sliced through several vines that came toward me.

-4

-3

-4

Thanks to my continuous attacks, the plant monster only had seven hp left. The multitude of vines it had proved to be its downfall since it gave me an easy target to hit. All I had to do was swing and I would wind up hitting something. After ducking under another thrown fruit, I sliced through the Vinesta’s torso, ending its life. I turned around in satisfaction only to see my rat looking above me. What the hell was it looking at? I turned around just in time to be hit by the Vinesta’s dead body.

A forest.

That was what I was currently smelling. I let out a sigh and looked around. I couldn’t see anything thanks to the Vinesta’s dead body. Sticking my arms out, I pushed the dead corpse to the side. A frown appeared on my face when I noticed that my hand was covered in green fluid. Was this supposed to be blood? Wiping it on one of the corpse’s leaves I glanced at my rat.  Who was currently smiling. Tch, why the hell did it think this was funny? Aren’t my reanimated corpses supposed to protect their master? Shaking my head in annoyance I glanced at the dead body.

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The Vinesta was quite easy to kill. However if I was hit by one of those fruits, it would be another story. What did they do anyway? I moved aside vines and leaves before I found one that had a yellow tinge. Tearing it off a vine carefully I inspected it for information.

Paralytic Tupa

Description: One of the many fruits made by a Vinesta. This specific fruit causes paralysis to anyone that comes into contact with the spores.

 Effect: Target is paralyzed for a short period of time

Damn, I was glad I dodged those fruits. The paralytic tupa that was in my hand was around the size of a grapefruit. After staring at it for a few seconds, I wondered if I would be able to use it in a fight. Technically I should since all the Vinesta did was throw it. I could throw it too, but who knew?  I would have to try it on the next enemy I saw to find out. Sticking it in my pocket, I looked for other fruits.

Turning toward my zombie rat, I gave him specific instructions for when he found a fruit. He wasn’t allowed to touch it and when he found one he needed to notify me. I didn’t trust my rat not to make it explode and paralyze the both of us. That was the last thing I needed.

The reason why I was looking for more fruit was quite simple. I was hoping that one of the fruits on the Vinesta was edible. That way I would have something to eat for the time being. If there wasn’t any I might have to try the Paralytic Tupa. That was something I wasn’t looking forward to. Who in their right minds would eat something so harmful? However, if I got hungry enough, I would do anything for food.

A few minutes later I had gathered a variety of fruits from the corpse. I was quite surprised how many fruits this Vinesta thing had on it. Placing all of the fruits I gathered on the ground neatly, I examined the ones I didn’t know about.

Poisonous Tupa

Description: One of the many fruits made by a Vinesta. This specific fruit causes poison to anyone that comes into contact with the spores. 

Effect: Target takes poison damage for a short period of time

Drowsy Tupa

Description: One of the many fruits made by a Vinesta. This specific fruit causes extreme drowsiness to anyone that comes into contact with the spores. 

Effect: Target is extremely drowsy for a short period of time

Red Tupa

Description: One of the few edible fruits made by a Vinesta. This fruit contains no spores and is quite delicious.  

Effect: Restore 20 health points

It seemed that a Vinesta could create a variety of fruits ranging from poisonous, paralytic, and even sleep-inducing. I was so glad I didn’t get hit by any of these. There was even an edible one! Taking a bite out of a red tupa, I reveled in its taste. It tasted like a cross between an apple and a pear. It was delicious. A few seconds later and it was gone, never to be seen again. Before I ate anymore, I decided to count how many of each type of fruit I had.

I had two paralytic tupas, one poisonous tupa, one drowsy tupa, and three red tupas. I actually had four red tupas but I had just ate one. Hearing my stomach growl again I decided to eat the rest of the red tupas. I didn’t like how I was wasting the twenty health point restoration but there was nothing I could do about it. There was food in front of me and I was hungry. After a few moments of crunching and swallowing I was done eating.

Wiping my hands on my jacket, I shoved the remaining tupas in my pockets. This left me with bulges in my pants and jacket, but what could I do. They would have to work for now. Before I examined the hole in the wall, I glanced at the Vinesta corpse. Could I even reanimate it? I had no clue since it was a plant. Maybe, since technically it used to be alive thanks to the mutations it had undergone. I wouldn’t know for sure until I tried.

Stepping over the corpse of the plant monster, I motioned for my zombie rat to follow me. I had him keep his distance  since I had no idea if there were any other plant monsters. Stepping through the hole in the wall, I glanced around cautiously. The area that was around me wasn’t big, at all. I could reach the end of the room in just a couple of steps. So basically it was a dead end. However, that was probably a good thing. I didn’t really want to deal with another pathway so close to my home anyway. I took the next couple of minutes to look around.

The little room that my zombie rat had found was a godsend. In the middle of the cave stood a small lake of clear water. It wasn’t that deep since only half my arm got wet until I touched the bottom. Around the small lake was a variety of plants and moss. I inspected the moss, but sadly none of it was edible. Some of the plants however were. For some reason I had never seen any of the plants that were in this cave. Some of them looked like a mixture of normal vegetables such as a cross between a carrot and a cucumber. While others looked like nothing I knew. I didn’t care how they looked as long as they were edible.

Before I ate the plants, I made sure they were edible from their status. It wouldn’t do if I got poisoned, no matter how hungry I was. Unlike the fruit from the Vinesta, these didn’t restore any health points. The only thing their effect said was cooking ingredient. Since I didn’t have a stove or a pan, I would be eating all of these plants raw.

The next twenty minutes went by with me gathering the plants, making earthen dishes, and petting my zombie rat. Drinking some of the water from my earthen cup, I took a brief moment to relax. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I actually started eating. The vegetables were delicious but I longed for some meat. But the only meat that was in this dungeon were rats so I would have to pass. I knew from school that most rats carried diseases. Rat even caused the black plague! Hwaah, I guess I would be going on a plant only diet for the time being.

Judging from the amount of plants in this little room, I could assume that they would last me for a few days. The lake would last me a little longer so I didn’t have to worry about water. The problem was what to do after all of the edible plants ran out. Eat rats? I only wanted to do that as a last resort but event then I would need to cook them. But in order to cook them I needed fire. If only I wasn’t trapped in a sewer I could go to my house and grab a lighter. I could even try to learn fire magic. But I was stuck in a sewer so fire was out of the question.

Or was it? Fire magic was out of the question but fire wasn’t. The reason I wanted fire was for several reasons. Warmth, cooking, and keeping predators away were only a few. But how would I create fire without a lighter or a match? The only other way I knew how was by striking some type of stones together to make a spark…..A spark….That was it! All I needed was a spark and I could light some of these plants on fire. Some of the plants in here had stems resembling wood so I was sure they would catch on fire easily. And I knew just the place to get some sparks.

The dim lightbulb that was beside the ladder from where I first entered the dungeon. That was where I was going next.