Chapter 5 - Eating and Attaining
The conclusion arrived before even a minute had pa.s.sed. There was never a chance of things turning around, and you could say the result was only proper.
With the group of humans having long since moved on, what I now saw before me were the remains of the slimes that had supposedly been alive a moment prior, and that was all.
After checking that there weren’t signs of anything else around, I decided to take a closer look at those corpses for the moment. I’d been thinking that maybe some of them had survived, but that naive delusion was quickly crushed. Everyone here, no, every slime here was dying away.
Slime A had been slashed with a sword too, and his body lay still with a huge cut running across half of it. The partner that I’d had practically no connection to but had been in his home with just earlier being nothing but a speechless corpse now, was proving to be more emotional than expected.
But, this was probably just a fact of life in this world. If there were people here getting eaten by monsters, then there’d also be people hunting those monsters. This was a world ruled by the so called law of the jungle. And no confusion about it: I’d gotten caught in that circle too.
Then if what I’d have to do from this point onward wasn’t being mournful, it wouldn’t be cowering in fear either. I had to work towards becoming strong; towards surviving. I’d die if I didn’t. Just as cruelly, and just as pointlessly as Slime A did.
Sorry, anything but that. One unreasonable death was enough for me.
Think, given my current situation, what should I be doing right now?
I could just leave at this point, but would that really be alright? I wondered if there was really nothing for me to gain here.
Speaking of that, eating that poison earlier did get me a new skill. If that was how it worked, then eating other stuff could possibly get me powers too.
Take for example: these now completely dead slimes. There was no doubt stuff that had been living till just now would still be fresh. And since I’d acquired a resistance, it surely wouldn’t be a problem even if there happened to be some poison. Yes, there were no problems whatsoever. Besides these emotions welling up.
But, there was no guarantee someone else wouldn’t come here if I didn"t hurry up and eat them, and the slimes" bodies would gradually melt and turn to mush too.
Melting right as I was thinking that; though the slimes had been jelly-like when they were alive, they were looking to be creatures whose dead forms weren’t preservable in the least and would end up liquefying before long. The ones that’d died first had already turned to cloudy white water entirely. There was no time.
I resolutely took a bite out of Slime A’s body. It’s not like I wasn’t disgusted; it repulsed me so much I could’ve thrown up. But, I held that back and kept chewing.
Suppressing the nausea dead (though slimes weren’t really that familiar with throwing up) I kept gulping down the flavorless jelly of a body, and then...
『For clearing the requirements, side skills [Cannibalism] [Same Race Eater] have now been acquired.』
Once again that announcement flowed through my mind. I opened my status and as expected, my skill list now had those two skills added to it.
Just as I’d thought; like it had been with that first announcement, it was looking like there were requirements of some sort and that clearing them would lead to me getting skills and evolving.
First it was eating poison and hence absorbing it, and now it was apparently from my slimy self having fed upon his own slimy brethren. Presently, I didn’t really get what made these two skills different aside from having gotten them separately. I wondered if there was any meaning in that.
But at any rate, I’d gotten myself two skills with one bite. What’d happen if I ate more, I wondered. I took the slime corpse I’d been eating so intently and began shoveling the rest into my stomach.
However, there were neither strange feelings nor uncomfortable ones this time. It was too early to get used to this; was this the effect of those skills I just got? Sure was a help, anyhow.
A while later, finishing off the entire slime led to...
『Level has been increased to 5.
For reaching the specified level, [Poison Creation - Small] [Poison Talent - Small] have now been acquired.
In turn, you have completed acquiring level-based skills for this species.
For having met this criteria, [Slime Murderer (Provisional)] [Same Race Murderer (Provisional)] have now been acquired.』
That happened. Getting four skills like that was really satisfying, and I’d leveled up too. It seemed like defeating enemies wouldn"t be the only way to level up then.
That aside though, the h.e.l.l was “(Provisional)”? I was sure starting to feel lost here with there being no explanation what its effect was.
“…...Thanks for the meal.”
Since I had no idea what to say here, I just said that for now. After getting new powers thanks to their flesh and blood, being grateful was probably the very least I could do.
Alright, what do I do now? Staying here like this was clearly dangerous, and it was getting dark. I just wanted to go hide somewhere.
In this situation, going back to that cave from before came to mind first. If I went around searching for another hiding place now, there was no telling what"d happen if I ended up going somewhere I shouldn"t. If those were my only options, then not taking unnecessary risks was best.
And so I went back to the den all alone.