Ludan

Hello everyone,

I guess my understanding of the word 'tomorrow' might be slightly different compared to yours. I apologize for not updating for this long as there isn't even a good excuse apart from me just being lazy and unmotivated.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this very belated chapter!

Chapter 7 - Power Up

With a mere thought, the familiar blue window popped up in his view. 

Cantorn had to admit, his stats really were laughably low. Luckily he was about to change that right now. As he began thinking about his status point distribution he noticed that he really had no idea where to go with this. This whole 'adventuring out in the wild alone'-incident had not been planned by him in the first place so not knowing where to go with this now wasn't all too surprising. 

Using his last fight as a reference point, Cantorn tried to decide on what stats to prioritize in the beginning. He was just a tad too slow to reliably out-maneuver these smaller beasts, so one or two points into agility would hopefully be enough. Vitality was another extremely valuable stat as he would probably get hurt quite a lot in the beginning as he had no prior fighting and hunting experience. Boosting his regeneration as well as his overall ability to take a punch would surely go a long way. Thinking back to the way he got ambushed he decided to put some points into perception and dump the remainder into stamina to round things up.

Wholly satisfied with his decisions he assigned his free points. As he did so, a warm and soothing feeling made its way outwards from the middle of his chest, spreading through his limbs into the tips of his fingers and toes. He was immediately able to feel the changes. Although only minor, his vision and other sensory organs had improved so that his surroundings now felt all the more alive. Apart from that, he felt livelier and healthier than ever before, practically brimming with life. Every movement and breath felt different. Better. There was no way for him to pinpoint just how impactful his improvements were but just from the feeling alone he was able to notice that he had gotten stronger. The injuries on his body were still there and healing, clear indicators of how weak he probably still was but just for this one moment, it did not matter. 

Taking a look at his status again he was delighted. Feeling the changes was great but having a numerical value representing his growth of just one day was a whole nother feeling. 

Now quite content with his choices and accomplishments, Cantorn decided to move on. His first and foremost goal should probably be to find more Healroot, as this was a real lifesaver. It had changed the outcome of two desperate situations already so he could only imagine how often it would be of use in the future. On this note, finding a proper resting place that wasn't out in the open would come in handy as well, paired with a more in-depth investigation of the plant life. If something like Healroot was growing so freely here, there had to be some other useful herbs as well.

His last problem concerning food seemed to be solved for now as he did not doubt that the Avankh's would make a great meal. Even if he had to eat them without grilling them before he was looking forward to it. Taking these thoughts to heart he moved towards the two small carcasses. In all honesty, they did look rather nasty with one being partially reduced to an unidentifiable mush but as commonly known, hunger is the best sauce. 

Grabbing the bigger of the two, the one that had suicidally launched itself into his knife, he began dissecting its corpse. Having no prior experience in doing so the result looked rather crude. There was still a lot of meat on the skin and a few patches of fur weren't completely removed from the meat either. Apart from that, he had tried his best to remove the internal organs, especially the ones like the bladder and stomach. He had little to no interest in eating whatever those things had guzzled before. Semi-proud of his work, Cantorn continued with the other one. This one turned out even worse as the squashed body didn't exactly help with setting clean cuts. 

Regardless, at last, he ended up with two more or less tasty-looking hunks of meat that he cut into bite-sized slices. Slightly anxious he lifted the first piece, still a bit repelled by the look and smell of uncooked meat. Blood drops were beginning to coagulate on the surface and made the meat look just a tad bit less appetizing if that was the right word to describe it. In an attempt to steel himself he took a deep breath, closed his eyes and swallowed the slice whole. The irony taste of blood made him gag and he nearly spat out the meat again but with a conscious effort, he managed not to do so. However repelling the taste may be, the slice filled the pit in his stomach a little and he also felt another weird sensation, almost a craving for the bloody meat that did not seem to stem from his usual hunger.

Realizing just how hungry he really had been, he began devouring the meat piece by piece. The feeling of disgust turned into one of satisfaction and accomplishment. He was eating meat, something he had killed with his own hands, almost like a hunting trophy. Biting down on the meat more and more the taste of blood spread throughout his mouth, filling it with a savory and full flavour. This lifestyle might actually get a lot more comfortable and enjoyable than he had originally thought.

This, however, was not the only thing that surprised him this night. Fully focused on eating he almost missed the small blue box that appeared halfway through the meat before his eyes. Slightly confused about what kind of notification he might have gotten, Cantorn looked up from his gory meal.

[You have consumed most of the meat of a Horned Avankh. Due to your parasitic nature you managed to absorb a part of of their strength.]

[You have gained 0.2 AGI. You have gained 0.1 STR.]

[The information about the skill 'Parasitic growth (growth type/passive)' has been updated.]