CHAPTER 2 THE MAWS OF GLUTTONY

“The meaning of nihil is the movement of certain victory. We see these black lines that look like stitches, it is an inherent instinct showing you where to strike to achieve victory with certainty. This is a skill only the talented possess. Well we never doubted your talent in the first place, so it is no surprise you show this capability. But this is not skill to call upon, it is simply a guiding instinct.”

-Sia Grimm

It took a long time for my excitement to die from using my body, but the monotonous act of traversing the terrain did get boring. I noticed many creatures in the forest and more than once the rat wolves were hunting them. I kept to the shades as I travelled towards my destination. More than once I lamented the fact that I did not know about these creatures of the forest, but I did not want to risk confrontation with unknown ursine, not to mention some were too big to even notice me. I looked at the sun trying to determine the passage of time as I had three cycles before I had to return. It stood exactly where it was when I first saw it.

“Saika, can you estimate how much time has passed since I came out of the portal, in Earth hours?” I directed my thoughts towards my AI assistant that lived in my head rent free.

“Several hours by my estimation, based on your past experience with the passage of time.” She replied immediately in her monotone voice.

“Also, that’s rude. I believe the abilities I provide more than make up for the price of taking residence in your mind. Although I have no concept of the going price for such a residence.” She added.

“I am just bantering Saika. You know I love you and you can live with me even if you don't provide anything in return.” I thought towards her, chuckling to myself.

After some more travelling I came across another fight, this time it was in my way and I would have to move around them to sneak past without issues. It was another pack of rat wolves using hit and run tactics against a big creature that I have never seen before. It was a white woolly creature somewhat bigger than a horse from Earth. It had curved tusks and a trunk, resembling an elephant with smooth silky wool. It tried to push and skewer the rat wolves but they were too agile for it, as well as its feet were matted with blood slowing it down further. It didn’t look hopeful for the cuddly elephant, then I observed the wolves, thinking of an ambush plan to see if I could help the white giant survive another day. Until I noticed a familiar scar running across the eye of one of them. On one hand that reminded me how deadly these creatures were, but then again this time I would be the one springing an ambush, on the other hand this just became personal, I held a mean grudge.

I snuck closer to the fight and in front of the white creature so it could see me strike one of the dogs. Hopefully it would not see me as an enemy. I waited for nihil as I stood behind the wolf creatures growling in front of the woolly creature. Covered in darkness I noticed the stitching around one of them as a tusk attempted to push the canine and it leapt out of the way to not get skewered. I struck without hesitation, a reverse gripped slash upwards from my crouching hidden stance and my blade cleanly beheaded the rat wolf mid air. With a splat two pieces of the wolf landed nearby as the head kept rolling. The woolly elephant's eyes went wide, I noticed. Without the yelp of pain, there had been no other warning for the wolves to notice something was amiss as they were all focused on their target. There were a total of three in the front two on each side and one behind. The wolves tried to get at their target's ankles still as the creature thrashed around attempting to catch a wolf or two beneath his foot to crush them. From my upwards slash I flowed into a downwards slash aimed at one of the wolves to my left, also beheading it. The one next to it noticed its fellow dying but was too surprised at my appearance to dodge the incoming tusks and got launched into a nearby rock. With yelping and whimpering mid air it managed to warn the rest of the pack and only after a quick glance my direction they all scattered into the forest.

I released the shroud of darkness as I stood in front of the woolly elephant. It looked at me with exhausted eyes and tentatively reached out with its giant trunk. With its ragged breath it made a pitiful low noise.

“Relax, big guy. I mean you no harm.” I spoke in the only language I knew from this world, tongue of the Firstborn. I attempted to ease the big guys nerves by speaking gently and in a relaxed manner, with animals it was about the tone more than what you said, but to be fair I had no idea how intelligent this thing was. For all I know it can maybe speak. It slumped down and closed its eyes as its breathing grew steady. I let it sleep as I walked towards the nearest wolf corpse and dissected it with my shard blade. I had played the role of a warlock and necromancer before so an autopsy wasn’t that difficult for me to perform. I was driven by curiosity though and not medicine. Got to give credit to the game devs, the autopsy I learned to do in their game was pretty spot on to the real thing, now that I had actually dissected a creature for real. Everything looked fairly normal and smelled awful. Piss, shit and half digested food from earlier made for an abysmal concoction for the nose. Not to mention blood, flesh and viscera. I realised the game developers had toned it down, a lot. Nevertheless the organs looked mildly familiar, a heart, a set of lungs, liver, kidneys, intestines until I found a hard object above the stomach or is it below? I could not tell at this point stuff got too messy after the fourth incision. Clearly I needed more practice. I plucked it out and tried to wipe some of the blood off to no avail. With no water nearby I tried to wipe it on the grass only to smear it more, but a jagged peak was cleansed and it shone like a gem. I still had no idea what it was and what to do with it, but shiny is usually valuable so I gutted the other two corpses and collected their stones as well. I would have to keep on the lookout for a source of water to wash these. They were each smaller than a grape so I pocketed them. Even though my black baggy pants didn’t have pockets, sensing my intentions it opened a small cut and stuck two folds together to hold the stones. Magical pants were awesome like that. I guess it is the upside of not being able to wear conventional clothes.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

Now the question was do I eat these and how should I do it? I stood still briefly considering my next actions. I had never tried my maw before, I just knew I had it. I did not know if I would be incapacitated somehow or would it take long to consume these wolves or were they even beneficial to eat. I just had to try though, I need to learn what my capabilities are, just like in the games I first have to learn my boundaries. Lacking data was frustrating, especially annoying if later I learned that having that information would have saved me from trouble. I looked at the corpses considering where to even start. Enough thinking, just do! I grabbed the neared wolf and cut a shoulder flank. I held it in front of my stomach, as a vertical seam appeared on my otherwise flawless skin. The skin moved like it was peeling to reveal what appeared to be my insides, full of sharp monstrous teeth capable of independent movement. Feeling mouth-like movement around the stomach was ticklish to say the least and very unnerving. It is just a part of my body, just like my hands. I kept repeating to myself as I placed the cut flank inside and I attempted to close my maw around it expecting some kind of feedback for taste, texture or firmness but there was no tongue in there it was just teeth. All I felt was the pressure from my muscles contracting around the mouth and pushing everything against each other. I opened it back up to check if I had indeed consumed the meat or it was just paste between my teeth now. The teeth replaced all my organs there so I had no idea if I could swallow anything or how it would feel to do so. Nothing. Not even a tinge of red from the meat like it was never even there. I moved on to something harder. I was told it should never be an issue but my common sense dictated that biting into bones and especially a skull should either be impossible or painful as I picked up a decapitated head and tried to bite into it with my maw. I felt something so insignificant that I lost the feeling before I recognised it as I heard the crunch of bone coming from within, I thought how disgusting this might look from another’s perspective. This being part of my own body made it better for me, but it still felt like going through puberty again. Hair growing in some places where there had been none before, feeling uncomfortable and even disgusted with ones own body. Oh yeah it was exactly the same feeling. Not wanting to go through that again I pushed those feelings aside as I grabbed the last remaining corpse and pushed it inside my stomach whole as I grinded it. The feeling I missed before came back and I only didn’t miss it this time because it made a splash, like a droplet of water falling into an empty bucket. I would have to eat a lot of these rat wolves to fill the bucket I thought. I looked at my now bloody hands and spoke out loud.

“I probably shouldn’t do that in front of others, huh?” I was just thinking out loud.

“Yes, that might make them uncomfortable.” Said a feminine voice from behind me. I yelped in surprise as I rolled forward and turned to face her as I grabbed my sword. She had just appeared within my dark sense.

“Peace, young one. I bear no ill will.” She said, in her sweet voice. It was strangely monotonous, almost like a machine, but it had enough human characteristics in it to make it seem not completely fake. It was coming from what looked like a semi nude woman, with bright auburn hair, with soft features on an oval face, with a bit stronger jawline and eyes golden without any irises or pupils, just golden orbs. Her olive green skin was unblemished neither in her face or her voluptuous soft looking body were there any flaws. Her proportions were also perfect, combined with her cold attitude coming from her neutral tone and sharp eyes, many men would not hesitate to declare their undying love after a single glance. Only after a glance I noticed her hair was long enough to reach behind her knees and there were grey branch-like protrusions coming out from her arms around the elbow and going down all the way to her fingertips and extending beyond into sharp and wicked points. Noticing my glance she ‘sheathed’ them back into her body.

“Umm. I… you.” I eloquently managed to say, absolutely nailing the first impressions. She smiled at me, like a caring and patient mother would. I took a breath as I lowered my shard sword. It was the second most charming smile I had seen come from a woman. It made my heart skip a beat.

“I was told that it is unlikely someone would speak demonic, here on the overworld.” I managed to say, as my social anxiety was trying to trip up my speech.