As I was walking back to the corpse of the leader, I was thinking about what Alexis had told me. She was correct; I handled that poorly. I struggled to kill just one wolf whilst Alexis was able to dispatch with 3 wolves without even breaking a sweat. I scrunched my fist into a ball. Dammit, I won’t let it play out like that again.

‘I’m sorry.’

“Hmm?”

‘I’m sorry’

I stopped walking.

“What do you have to be sorry for?”

‘About how I spoke to you earlier.’

“Oh, that. Don’t be. You were right about everything. What I did almost got us both killed. In fact, I’m glad you told me like it is. I prefer it that way, and don’t you ever feel like you can’t be straight with me, okay.”

‘but, I was mean to you. And I took over your body without asking.’

“No buts, okay. Me and you are stuck together now, and if we want to survive in this world, we have to be completely honest with each other if I’m doing something wrong, do tell me, okay.”

‘Alright’

“Good, now where is this wolf.”

‘It’s to your left.’

“Thank you’

After walking for some time, I arrived at the corpse of the leader of the wolves. I knelt to the ground and put my hand on the corpse.

“Nice, still warm.”

‘Enjoy the meal.’

“Oh, I will.”

I opened my mouth and dove straight into the wolf. My mouth was immediately filled with fur and blood. I lifted my head up and spat out the fur, and dove back into the opening I made to finally take my first bite of wolf meat. My razor-sharp teeth went through the meat with ease; I ripped a chunk out of the wolf and started chewing it.

“It’s really tough and has pretty much no flavour to it. It’s very boring especially compared to human meat.”

‘There isn’t much that compares to human, but if I had to name one, it would have to be Dragon meat. The juiciness and the richness. Is out of this world. We have to go dragon hunting sometime.’

“Hunting dragons? Your joking”

‘I do not joke about dragon meat. That stuff is worth all the effort.’

“if you say so,” I said as I started tearing my way through the wolf. The more of the wolf I ate, the more of the animal I understood. I was getting flashes of information going through my head of how it’s fur kept it warm, and what made its nose and hearing so good.

“Alexis, what is this I’m seeing.”

‘Oh, it’s started. This is another ability of yours; if I had to explain it simply, I would call it an ability steal. As you have noticed in your head, you have a gallery of sorts filled with all the people you ate.’

“Yes”

‘Well, that gallery also expands to animals as well. Any animal you eat not only do you get their physical form, but you also get knowledge of any unique abilities they had that you currently don’t have stored in your head. For example, The wolf has given you fur to keep you warm and better hearing and smell.’

“And using the shapeshifting ability, I can incorporate those features into my body.”

‘Precisely’

I started focusing on the wolf I had eaten and what abilities I had picked up from it. Like Alexis had said, I could cover myself in fur and improve my hearing and smell. I decided to start small with the improved hearing. I focused on it. I suddenly went deaf, and I could feel a warm tingling sensation on both sides of my head. After around 30 seconds, the sensation stopped, and my hearing suddenly snapped back, but it was different. Every sound had more depth and detail to it. I could hear owl’s hooting in the distance, which I couldn’t before.

“THIS IS AMAZING!!! Is there a limit to how many I can have?”

‘Not that I know of. What are you planning?’

“heh heh heh.”

“What I’m planning is simple. I’m gonna eat my way to the top of the food chain.”

‘Not an easy task, but it does sound fun.’

“Yes, it does, and I won’t be doing it alone too.”

I felt something warm rush through my body

‘yeah, you won't'

“what was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

‘I said stop talking and eat your food.’

I shrugged my shoulders and went back to eating the wolf.

After around 15 minutes, I was done with the wolf. The only thing left was the skeleton with bits of pink flesh stuck to it in places. I looked down at myself. My blue tunic was stained red, and there was a huge hole in it where my tongue had burst through it.

“Gosh, I’m a mess. Thankfully I brought spares with me. Do you remember where the clearing with the lake is?”

‘It’s not far from here ill guide you.’

“Thanks”

I picked up my bag and started running back towards the clearing. It didn’t take that long for me to arrive. A good 5 minutes or so of non-stop running have insane stamina is an amazing bonus. I walked up to the water and started undressing. Once I was naked, I walked into the river and started bathing. The water was freezing, but I was used to it from taking showers in the mine.  Once I was clean, I stepped out of the river and looked at my reflection. I heard a grumbling sound and looked down at my stomach where my belly maw was.

‘You still haven’t named it yet.’

“I honestly forgot, sorry’ I said as I rubbed around the maw. There was a slight rumble that felt like it accepted my apology.

“Now, what’s a good name for you… Hmm, how about Mawi.”

A tongue came out of the maw and licked me on the cheek

“HAHA. I guess he likes it. Mawi it is”

I went into my bag of holding and got another blue tunic and then put my dirty one inside it.

“That’s good. Now, people won’t think I’m a mass murderer.”

‘So what is the plan now.’

“I’m gonna walk through the night. Hopefully, by sunrise, we would have found some settlement. I wanna put as much distance between me and the mine as soon as possible. It won’t be long until someone discovers what happened there. I want to be long gone by then.”

‘Sounds like a plan. Let’s go.’

I put on what remained of my gear and started walking down the path once again.