Day 8

Last night I dragged all the dead rabbits I could find and was surprised by how they were all around by the dozens. It was a literal mountain of dead rabbits that couldn’t enter the cave anymore. I had to admit. Thanks to the rabbit kings, I had enough to keep me going for weeks to come.

The problem I had was the fact that I had no roof. As a shut-in, I loathed the sunlight, which was why I hated this world. Thanks to it, I hate the night time. It would be difficult to survive around that time and I wouldn’t have enough to keep myself going till I died. Now my NEET ass loves the sunlight. Still, that would be an issue for later.

The current issue was how the hell I acquired a level. I shouldn’t have acquired a level. I hadn’t done anything that required that I would get a level in return. At least nothing that I could think off. Strangely, I felt that it had something to do with Shiro.

Maybe that soul bond we shared did something. Speaking of that soul bond, I couldn’t feel it anymore and it was starting to be a body to me. I didn’t know why, but she must have cut it. She probably had her reasons for cutting the soul bond she forced on me and throwing me into this insane forest where I could die at any moment.

‘Wait… why the hell am I thinking about that girl? She is younger than me, practically a first year.’

I scoffed then looked at my meal for the morning. A simple dead rabbit to start of the day.

‘Nothing like a good old poisoned rabbit, huh?’

I began to peck at it, swallowing up the pieces one by one.

‘Hey, now that I think about it, back in Japan I learnt that chickens ate with the help of rocks that ground the meat to make it easier to digest. Do I have stones in my body too? Oi, am I a stone child? Eh? Bring up my [Status]!’

 

STATUS

[Name: Hinotori

[Species: Golden Demonic Chick Level 10/15           

[Status: [Hungry]

[Age: 8 days                         

[Rank: E-

[Race Rank: Tier 0

[Titles: |Newborn in a New World|, |Rare Species|, |Survivor|, |Named Beast|

[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess ****|, |Blessings of|

[Level: 10      Exp: 120/1,030 

[Health: 90/120      Stamina: 200/290        Strength: 45      Speed: 140    Defense: 30      Dexterity: 38    Intelligence: 15        Luck: 40

[Skills: [Evolver], [Analyst], [God's voice] [Lustful Gaze], [Imprint], [Baby Chick Cry], [Peck], [Black Wayne Caw], [Auto Mapping], [Poison Generation], [White Viper Scales], [Sprint], [Acrobatics], [Blood Sucking], [Soul Consumption], [Terror], [Prey Instinct], [Fire Breath], [Poison Resistance], [Pain Resistance]

 

‘Eh? After all my suffering I’m only E rank?! What?! That’s not fair! Ok, when I look at my stats it makes sense. Thinking back to the rabbit kings and their stats, it would make sense. I mean, they were easily in the thousands and were still considered B rank monsters. I wonder what an S rank would look like. Are there even S ranks? Of course there are! This is a fantasy world! Imagining myself as an S rank is amazing! I’d just be going about my business and no one would complain. Oh look, I just destroyed your house? Sorry not sorry you stupid Snakes! Muahahahaha!’

I took a break from my internal thoughts as I remembered the cold glares the vipers had given me so far and that spine chilling hiss of theirs. I cleared my throat and proceeded.

‘I guess boasting is the privilege of the strong. A privilege I want and will get. Hmm, so these new skills which I haven’t had the chance to test out. [Blood Sucking], lame! Ou, [Soul Consumption]! Let’s test it out! Now! Consume this soul!’

I tried it out on the rabbit, by pecking it. I picked up a pale hologram of the bunny I assumed was the soul. It was chewy, but not too hard to swallow. When I did, I received a message and something alarming.

[You have received 9 exp]

Normally I would have screamed in shock at this, but I was too busy being stunned by whatever the hell was imprinted on this rabbit’s soul.

I appeared in a dark space and a screen appeared in front of me. The screen started to play images.

‘Oi! This just like TV! Muaha! Finally, some form of entertainment.’

Memories of the time when it was born. No, a few days after it had been born. The black jack was going about its normal business.

I could only see scratches and pictures of it, but I was horrified. The rabbits, weren’t under any form of control or anything. It was simple fear that kept all the horned rabbits in line. The black jack was a murderer. A horrible parent that wouldn’t mind eating its own spawn.

I was suddenly kicked out of the space where I was.

‘Huh?! That was all? But I only saw flashes of the rabbit’s past.’

<<Notice: That would most likely be due to most of the soul being eroded>>

‘Eroded?’

<<Affirmative>>

‘How?’                       

<<Notice: Answer not found>>

‘Ah… I keep on forgetting how useless you can be at times.’

I then came back to the meal in front of me. I looked at it then looked at the other pile. My thirst for knowledge far exceeded that of my thirst for knowledge. What that meant, I had absolutely no idea. Besides, it would be great having a TV in front of me once again. I got to work, devouring another bunny’s soul.

[You have received 9 exp]

Once again, I was in the black space. This time, I consumed a fanged rabbit. The screen lit up and just like before, I only got to see scratches and images of its past.

The fanged rabbit was even worse than the horned, sleeping in the blood of her children and stuff. She had a sweet tooth so she rarely killed her own kids and liked shiny stuff, which was explained by her race in a way. I was amazed by how much wealth she kept in her cave and the fact that she pooped jewels like they were nothing.

‘Ah… that’s something I want. So many jewels equal a crap ton of money which equal a comfortable life and a mansion with all the sweet fantasy girls I want! Let’s go!’

The scene quickly switched however and this time I was actually in the scene. I looked around and began to hop about.

That was weird because it wasn’t of my own decision. So I realized that I was playing the role of the rabbit. My rabbit ears picked up and a cold dreaded sensation spread through my body. Almost like the feeling from the lake that kept on telling me to run.

‘W-What the hell?’

The rabbit then began to hop away quickly, but it paused as something blurred in front of it. Unfortunately, the memory stopped playing at exactly the image at the corner of the screen. All I saw was a grey figure and a yellow streak.

I was confused and figured it was probably one of the wolves, but then I had a thought.

‘Do the wolves even come out during the day? Even this time that I saw them, it was getting to night time. If it isn’t them, then that means there is something more dangerous out there. No, no! I saw a grey wolf and it can’t be the only one there. There should be others right? Don’t go giving yourself stupid ideas Kira… Tori now.’

I returned back to the normal world and decided to continue on with the soul consumption feast. I was grateful for this new ability as it allowed me to eat and eat without getting satisfied. It were almost as if I had an infinite soul sac.

In the end I consumed 50 of them and gained 450 experience points. It wasn’t enough for a level up, but it was something. I also got the title |Vulture|. Apparently, I acquired it because I was eating dead meat that I didn’t get for myself.

I felt like everybody from back on Earth should have gotten that title.

I looked at my stats once again.

STATUS

[Name: Hinotori

[Species: Golden Demonic Chick Level 10/15           

[Status: [Hungry]

[Age: 8 days                         

[Rank: E-

[Race Rank: Tier 0

[Titles: |Newborn in a New World|, |Rare Species|, |Survivor|, |Named Beast|, |Vulture|

[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess ****|, |Blessings of|

[Level: 10      Exp: 570/1,030 

[Health: 90/120      Stamina: 200/290        Strength: 45      Speed: 140    Defense: 30      Dexterity: 38    Intelligence: 15        Luck: 40

[Skills: [Evolver], [Analyst], [God's voice] [Lustful Gaze], [Imprint], [Baby Chick Cry], [Peck], [Black Wayne Caw], [Auto Mapping], [Poison Generation], [White Viper Scales], [Sprint], [Acrobatics], [Blood Sucking], [Soul Consumption], [Terror], [Prey Instinct], [Fire Breath], [Poison Resistance], [Pain Resistance]

 

‘I guess I’m close to reaching level 15. Oi, agent. What happens when I reach level 15?’

<<Please repeat the question>>

‘Huh? What happens if I reach level 15?’

<<Answer unknown>>

‘Seriously? You can’t even tell me what happens when I max out on my species level?’

<<Answer. Most creatures undergo evolution after reaching their racial climax>>

‘What? Evolution? Oi! Agent, you said evolution, right?’

<<Affirmative>>

‘Woohoo! Ok then let’s go! What can I evolve into?’

<<Answer Unknown>>

‘Eh? You don’t know? You know, for something that is supposed to know everything about this world, you know practically nothing.’

<<…>>

If the agent was a person, he would probably be this weird kuudere guy. I could just imagine talking to a guy a guy like that. It gave me the creeps.

‘Tch, whatever! I guess it’s time to go searching for a good old level up! I’m out Nest! I shall return once I am ready to evolve.’

I jumped out of my nest and ran off in search of monsters to kill.

***                                                                                                                

Honestly, the one time I wanted snakes and rabbits to come my way, I couldn’t find them. It was so bad I was tempted to use [Golden Chick Cry], but that was a move I had reserved myself to never ever use, out of fear of calling something extremely dangerous to my side.

It had been some minutes since I told myself that I’d forcefully raise my level up by 5 times today. This was going to be hard.

Eventually, I managed to get some food for my evolution, but it wasn’t one I wanted. I was running around when I got trapped in some kind of sticky mess. I thought it was something like the boar from the last time, but it wasn’t. There were no eyes or mouth and it wasn’t fur.

I heard some clacking sounds from above, so I looked up. A vile of purple of substance dropped on the ground next to me, melting the ground.

‘Acid?’

There were some huge black fangs slowly approaching me, with eight eyes and a very hairy black body as well as eight limbs with the tips being pure white - a stark contrast to the rest of its body.

I could feel a click in my head and I instinctively knew that [Analyst] was working again.

STATUS

[Name: -

[Species: Black Weaver Level 16/20           

[Status: -

[Age: 20 days                         

[Rank: E+

[Race Rank: Tier 1

[Titles: |Survivor|, |Deserter|, |Evicted|, |Wanted|

[Blessings: -

[Level: 16     

[Health: 560/560      Stamina: 100/640      Mana: 10/30        Strength: 100      Speed: 340    Defense: 70      Dexterity: 200      Intelligence: 40        Luck: 60         Magic: 5

[Skills: [Wall Climb], [Web Creation], [Web Control], [Claw Attack], [Acrobatics], [Dark Vision], [Poison Generation], [Poison Fang], [Stealth], [Acid Spit], [Predator Instinct], [Poison Resistance]

‘Ah… your titles are all weird, but that matters not. You are close to evolving as well. How unfortunate for you. Oh well! Please die for me! You shall make it as one of my stepping stones to greatness!’

It let out an acid filled screech, spraying my face with extremely painful acid.

‘My eye!’

I began wriggling in pain. Not letting me writhe in pain, the spider then began to release spider webs around me. Not wanting to get trapped, I tested something out.

‘Oi agent! [Poison Generation] allows me to create poison from any part of my body, right?’

<<Negative>>

The webs wrapped themselves around me and grabbed me tightly, squeezing the life out of me.

‘Keuk-! But I can secrete it from anywhere, right?’

<<Affirmative>>

I clicked my tongue and activated [Poison Generation]. I allowed the poison to be released from every part of my body other than my head, melting through the acid. I had only one thing to say about that. It hurt like hell.

I jumped out of the trap and rolled around on the ground, but I didn’t want to scream.

‘Sa sa! This hurts! This really, really hurts! Friggin [Pain Resistance]! Do your thing! Uwa! I hate this!’

The spider landed with a thud next to me, immediately alarming me to its presence. For that moment I forgot about the pain and jumped up and activated [White Viper Scales] to hide my now featherless body.

‘Tch, if only I could have used this skill before.’

The spider shot another web at me, but I flipped back to avoid it, using [Acrobatics] and then immediately ran towards it with [Sprint]. Going for my [Spear head] attack, but the spider easily dodged it.

‘Tch. I forgot that it’s got [Acrobatics] as well. I’ll need to stun it. [Lustful Gaze]… EH?!’

I activated the skill, forgetting that it had simply shifted from [Adorable Wink] into [Lustful Gaze]. The good thing was that the spider had eight eyes, so there was no avoiding my gaze. The bad thing was that it couldn’t avoid my gaze.

As soon as that happened, the spider looked at me as if it were hungrier, with its poison dropping from its fangs, then it charged at me.

‘Shit- [Acrobatics]’           

I jumped over the spider and its eyes had this weird light in them, like a pervert’s. I should know what those eyes looked like. I’ve seen a few of them whenever someone looked at Akane. I hated those eyes.

I decided to test out [Terror] on the spider in a rage.

Light disappeared from my eyes for a split second, but when it returned, I saw the monster’s eyes again. They were shaking and the monster was screaming about and flailing its limbs all around. When I dropped, I didn’t waste time to confirm if it worked.

I used [Spearhead] again, this time with the use of [Poison Generation] at the tip to form my new skill.

‘Tori original [Poison Maelstrom]!’

I twisted about, with poison at my beak to enable drilling through the spider from the back to the front. I didn’t expect the amount of blood that came exploding out though.

[You have received 600 exp]

[You have gone up 1 level]

The spider dropped to the ground lifelessly behind me and my body went poof, helping me out with my burning face.

‘Oh! Thank you God! That really hurt like hell.’

I walked towards the spider and began to peck at the spider to get its skills. The result was as expected.

[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired the ability [Black Thread creation]]

[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired the ability [Thread control]]

[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired the ability [Stealth]]

After getting just these skills, I was starting to reach a sort of conclusion on how [Evolver]’s skill absorption worked. So far, from what I had seen, it depended on where on the monster’s body I ate. Normally, that would make me want to eat the entire body of my opponents, but it wasn’t possible with my build.

‘If I get another spider, I’ll eat somewhere other than its back.’

‘[Black Thread creation] and [Thread Control]? Hehe, time to go swinging in New York!’

I raised my wing and willed for the activation of [Black Thread Creation]. Something weird escaped my wing tip and fell to the ground in a pathetic way. It was a dull dark grey and seemed fluffy. I attempted using [Thread Control], but I could only shift it slightly.

‘Ah… I guess I’ll have to learn how to use it better later. Now let’s try [Stealth]! I’ve always wanted to be a ninja!’

I activated the skill, but nothing happened. I looked around to see if I had become invisible, but I could see myself. I shrugged and decided to just leave it on while running around in search of food. I could just perform sneak attacks, making battles way easier for me.

‘Eh, I did it Akane. I stopped another one of those perverted gazes you didn’t like.’

I sat down.

‘I miss you. I hope you forgive me for being a complete moron.’

I could feel tears about to escape my eyes, but I wouldn’t allow them. I got up to search for my next prey for the day.

I was about to jump off, but then something wrapped around me tightly. I looked and saw a cream colored vine that was wrapping itself around me more and more.

‘Eh? What is this!?’

I followed the vine till I found a giant mushroom fixed to a tree. It had huge green orbs for what I presumed to be eyes. A large opening under its umbrella filled with wooden fangs and red spots all over it.

STATUS

[Name: -

[Species: Adolescent Larm Mushroo Level 13/20           

[Status: -

[Age: 15 days                         

[Rank: E+

[Race Rank: Tier 2

[Titles: |Of World|

[Blessings:

[Level: 13     

[Health: 560/560      Stamina: 1500/1500      Mana: 300/300        Strength: 120      Speed: 40    Defense: 120      Dexterity: 80        Intelligence: 15        Luck: 40         Magic: 30

[Skills: [Rooting], [Whip Lash], [Spore Generation], [Sap spores], [Poison Gas Creation], [Spawn spores], [Co-ordination], [Mana Absorption]

‘Uwaa!’