She needed to be stronger. All her life Celia had been… lax. Too slow to comfort her father. Too reluctant to take her grandmothers advice. Too lazy to make it to work on time. She wasn’t a failure back then, or even now but it had been a close thing.
The scorpion had made that painfully clear now. Really, the whole trapped in another dimension thing had. And this place wasn’t like her home where she could get by with suboptimal and healthy heaping of grace. This was a place that killed, that preyed on, and devoured the weak. That destroyed what couldn’t or wouldn’t adapt. It was a realm wholly devoted to might.
And Celia, as she was now, was weak.
And for the first time in her life she actually planned on changing that. A process that, uncomfortably enough, began with her stomach. Or to be more precise, what it could do when fed the right amount of the right ingredients.
Designation: Newspawn hybrid (Beyondling)
Classification: (lesser) Feastling
Slots open: 3
1: locked, 2: Null tongue, 3: These teeth unending, 4: Tremor sense
Modifications available: none
[(Hidden) Tumor of the Benign Giant]
What she ate, she stole. Quite literally taking a part of what made her meal strong for herself. Which meant that if she wanted to become stronger, all she had to do was develop a healthy and well balanced diet. One filled with just about anything she could get her hands on so long as it proved useful. And the only way to find out what was useful and what wasn’t, was to experiment.
To that end, Celia made a full effort in collecting and eating whatever she could get her hands on. Which, at the moment, was just more bugs. They were very prevalent in quite a few of the tunnels and other little caves she found, and most importantly they didn’t require her going all too far from her cave to get them. Which was great as she could still, very occasionally when she strayed too far from her den of safety, feel the scorpion. Could sense his movements out beyond, far enough that she definitely wasn’t in any immediate danger, but close enough that she didn’t really wanna risk it.
So bugs it was. Lots, and lots, and lots of bugs. A quite frankly sickening amount. As, in the span of what she was pretty was two days, Celia managed to eat hundreds of their number. So many that they went from all over the place, to so few that she could barely find any.
And the reward for her efforts?
Slot gained!
A single mod slot, and a couple additional inches packed onto everything below her equator. Which was definitely nice - the mod slot that is, not the extra padding below her waist. But it was also, ultimately, useless. And that meant it was time for another trip out to the caves.
But unlike the last time she headed out, Celia made sure she was prepared for another chance encounter with death.
Hot rocks were collected, gathered, and ultimately placed in a sack made out of severed tongue. Which was gross, and made her quiver just from looking at it. But it was necessary. Next, she fashioned herself a pair of knives out of her 'teeth', made sure they were long enough to serve as weapons, and pocketed them on her person in a belt also made from regenerated tongue. Which was grossed than the bag by virtue of it being something she wore.
And lastly, she went and found a lava bug to bring along. Just in case things went even worse than she expected them too. Or exactly as bad as she expected.
By the time she was done, Celia had a very, very, small arsenal on her person. Which armed her just enough to feel the tiniest bit safer as she ventured out into the tunnels and once again navigated her way to the cavern. Where she found mostly unchanged from how she last left it. A nauseating mess of gnashing stone teeth and cramped darkness.
What her nose was telling her, however, was that beneath the unpleasant outer layer awaited what she could only describe as the worlds most dangerous buffet. And for the first time since she got here, Celia was ready for it. A quiet confidence taking her as she made her way down and further into the caverns depths. Eyes no longer searching for just easy prey, but for somewhere she could hide. Somewhere she could plan an ambush.
And in a place like this, it didn’t take her long to find a spot like that at all.
Once again, she hid between some particularly large rocks. Flowers out in the open releasing their stinky corpse smell. And unlike the last time she did this, Celia got ready for a fight. Tension staining her as she stood at the ready. Teeth knife in one hand, and another clutching a combustible rock. Her tremor sense strained, checking her surroundings for any approaching prey every few seconds.
And after twenty minutes or so of waiting, her first victim of the night came strolling by. Some sort of crisscrossed mess of a monster that had a body split up into three segments. A bulging lower half colored a stony brown, leading up to a slightly less bulbous mass that connected it to the front most part of its body. Six legs sticking out the back, with four arms in the front. Head like a sack covered in eyes, and it had no mouth she could see.
And last, but certainly not least, it was like the size of a horse. Which was definitely going to be a problem. Enough so that she briefly considered letting it go. After all, even she couldn’t fit that whole thing inside of her. At least, she thought so. Wasn’t really sure on what the new limits of her biology were.
But, stomach capacity aside, she forewent the thought. Right here was something strong enough to be big, and she wanted whatever gave it that strength for herself.
So, as soon as it got close enough to touch one of her flowers, Celia launched her attack. Knife going for an eye, claws slashing out for flesh, teeth growing along the length of an arm.
The element of surprise was on her side. The monster flinching a moment when she attacked. Taking a step back where it should’ve retaliated. And that gave Celia all the ground she needed. Knife dragging dangerously close to its mark, drawing a sliver of blood still, claws raking across a layer exposed, coating their tips in a spray of green. And her foe, her prey shrieked in pain. Bearings lost for a moment before it finally gained some sense and retaliated.
A fist built like a chunk of stone slammed into her. Knocked the air out of her, and had her tumbling back. Back to one of the massive rocks behind her, but she didn’t stay there. She moved like a serpent, dashing out of the way, flinging a rock of her own.
Flames combusted, and the fire danced along the abominations skin. In seconds it was being cooked alive, whatever composure it had seconds ago vanishing as it tried to put the flames covering it out. Flailing its arms in a vain attempt to do so.
But, despite its torment, it still wasn’t dead. More importantly, it was making a lot more noise than Celia was comfortable with. She could already sense several somethings coming this way.
So, for lack of a better solution, she grew a particularly large tooth at the end of her tongue, and then thrust it through where she thought the burning things neck might be. And though she was unsure if she hit her mark, it died all the same.
And then her greed got the best of her.
As, instead of heading back with her already cooked meal and eating it in safety, Celia did the dumb thing and tried to scarf it down right then and there. Which she knew was dumb. It was cooked like a fine steak, everything in the cavern could probably smell it and was probably already on their way. But it smelt really good and her stomach - as she was slowly learning - could make some pretty compelling arguments.
Like, "I wonder how it tastes?" And, "It’d probably fill me up real good." And lastly, "Imagine how it could help us Grow right now."
That was when things started to get a little… hazy.
Thanks for the chapter!
Really crazy that she is using her own body parts to make weapons. Really smart too.
Thanks for the comment!