As it turned out, dragging around monster corpses wasn’t any more fun the second time around. A lesson Celia learned the hard, sharp, and long way. The trip from her little battle with oversized and spider like grasshopper and back, took her over an hour to make. With most of that time spent griping about how sharp the dead and inert armor of her slain foe was.
Sharp enough to cut through her scales like they were made of butter. Which, eventually, gave her an idea that took far too long to come up with.
Armor. She could make armor out of the razor sharp carapace. At least, in theory she could. But there was one tiny little problem with that. Namely her lack of experience with the craft, compounded by the fact that she had no tools or any way of bending the hardened green plates into shape or form that was even halfway usable.
Which was really two issues, now that she thought about it. Either way, it didn’t change anything. The armor was still pretty much useless to her.
At least, as far as wearing it went. She was still - and she was embarrassed to even think this really - going to cook and eat it. A decision born out of her stomach’s rampant hunger, and a sense of genuinely morbid curiosity. So, as soon as she made it back to her cave, she set about making herself a meal.
Fire rocks were grabbed and piled up, meat and carapace were slowly, and agonizingly, pulled apart, both slowly set aflame so that they could cook. A process that was nowhere near as quick as it had been last time.
The meat was hardy and surprisingly heat resistant. Seeming almost unaffected by the intense azure flames for over fifteen minutes. Before, at long last, it began to sizzle and pop. The flesh loosing its light green color, and it’s verdant blood burning away in a cloud of smoke. It wasn’t long after till she was left with several large chunks of flame cooked grasshopper meat, that oddly enough smelled exactly like pork.
As for the chunks of iron hard armor, it cooked far faster. Losing its green color nigh instantly and darkening to a muddy brown. It also grew far more thin and stretched out, the hardness it once possessed vanishing almost entirely.
By the time both were done, Celia realized how much she was going to miss some of the most basic cooking commodities. Like salt. Especially salt.
But beggars couldn’t be choosers, so after a moments delay, she tore in. Viciously tearing apart her dinner and scarfing it down like a starving animal. Quite literally, in some cases, wharfing down chunks of meat whole - teeth breaking off and replacing themselves as she did so. All of it blending together the longer she ate. To the point that she couldn’t even really tell what the food even tasted like. There was only the growing sense of contentment from filling her stomach. Of shoving so much food inside of herself that her middle began to visible protrude from her body to a comical degree.
She wasn’t even sure when she switched over to eating, and quickly finishing off, the chunks of slightly burned armor. Or even when she ran out of food. It was all a haze, where in one moment she was eating like a woman possessed, and in the next she was laying against the wall rubbing her distended middle.
And in the time it took her to process that and realize she should be embarrassed - the extremely sped up process of digestion had begun.
In seconds, her middle began to shrink. Going almost flat in the span of a little less than a minute. With all of that weight creeping up on her in the seconds that followed. Musculature growing just a bit denser, while her hips grew more than a little wider. Flanks filling up the space on either side of her, as her behind packed on a bit of meat itself, and the slightest layer of pudge remained over her middle.
Her breasts, stubbornly she might add, remained utterly unaffected.
Modification(s) gained: Tremor sense
Modify being?
Slots open: 3
1: locked, 2: Null tongue, 3: These teeth unending, 4: empty
Modifications available: Tremor sense
For a moment, Celia stared at the screen, trying to figure out when and where she got an extra Modification slot. She didn’t even know she could do that. Granted, she hardly knew anything about these screens or where they came from or even how they worked really. So instead of questioning it any further she accepted the - potential - boon for what it was and willed Trevor sense into the open, and extra, slot.
And unlike the previous two times she had modified herself. There was no sudden onset of pain. Or any discomfort at all. She could just feel the world in a whole new way. Like she had gained a sixth sense, which considering the name of the Modification, was likely very literally what happened.
Modifications complete!
Slots open: 3
1: locked, 2: Null tongue, 3: These teeth unending, 4: Tremor sense
Modifications available: none
And through this new sense of hers, Celia could feel, no, see the cave in an entirely new way. She could vibrations from a million different directions flow through it and paint the shape of it in her mind in excruciating detail. From the ceiling to the floor. What was more, she could somewhat "see" some of the surrounding tunnels, though in a far more limited scope.
Lastly, she could see herself. Which was more than a little jarring. It also allowed her to get a much better idea of how much her body had changed, from general shape to height. And, yes, to her surprise she was indeed a bit taller.
Where before all of this, she had comfortably stood at five feet and a little over six inches tall. But now she was closer to six. Not to mention wider to boot. Wide enough that she could just barely sense the very minor tremors rippling across her backside as she stood up. Which would definitely take some getting used to, to say the least.
But all in all, while the change was relatively minor, she felt a lot more secure now. Something she chalked up to being far more aware of her surroundings than ever before.
Which is why she felt the entire cave system shake before she saw it.
New senses are always cool. Tremor sense is especially useful in these cave systems, it will really help her survival and navigation.
Thanks for the comment!