For the first time, I truly knew what it felt like to be a monster. A sense of euphoria overtook me. A voice, whispering into my ear “Everything that exists serves as naught but nourishment, its sole purpose for existing is for you to partake on. Eat, hunt, grow, and reach the potential you were born to achieve.” It took all of my concentration to push down that impulse.

Do all monsters feel that way all the time? Do other blue mages? Is that why most of them die alone? Because they run off to feed this craving, and die in some unseen corner? Is that how I’m going to go?

My fear helped clear my head of the euphoria. It’s hard to feel full of yourself when you’re too busy thinking you’re going to die alone.

As usual when gaining a new form, my attention turned towards my body. I only had four limbs, a head, and a vestigial tail to move around, so it wasn't too hard to control. Besides that, I seem to have an entirely new sense. Some of what used to feel vaguely heavy, electric, and wet when touched was now a clear substance that I could detect on its own.

Mana detection. Though anyone can technically feel mana, their perception and understanding of mana is extremely limited. With mana detection, one can intrinsically differentiate certain mana types from the rest, and instinctively understand what it’s doing.

Every Powered, as well as the vast majority of monsters, have this sense in one way or another. It makes sense that I'm gaining it now. If I’m in the body of a monster, it stands to reason that I should be able to detect mana in the same way they do.

The mana is most concentrated in some organ I can feel just below my back. Besides that, there’s a good chunk of it in my four limbs, and a small amount in the air, where my spines spewed it out in mist form. Outside of that, I can’t feel any at all. The Barbearian must only be able to detect its own personal mana, like a mage. Though, I highly doubt it can affect mana of other alignments in the same way mages can.

I have no frame of reference for what rank this mana would be considered, but it's a safe bet that it's only E rank. D rank mana tends to be described as dense and light, and this didn't feel dense. Still, regardless of rank, any mind-aligned mana is dangerous to the undefended.

Realizing that the mist I was spewing was potentially dangerous, I checked around to see if the MacQuoids were still nearby. Thankfully, it seems as though they had already left. It would suck if I went through all that effort to save them, only for some of them to die because I started spewing rage mist when I woke up.

I tried to close off my spines to stop them from spewing, but yet again I found myself incapable of performing the inhuman action. Is this going to happen every time I find a new form? It’s rather inconvenient that nearly every form I have has extraneous organs or appendages that I can't control. One of these days, I’m really going to have to bunker down and try to get used to having extra parts. For now, I’ll just stay in this form and try to get used to the rage-sac. I get the feeling that such extraneous organs will become commonplace when I gain more forms, so I need to get used to it.

With my introspection done, I want to hunt again. I need to make sure my subspace has an ample food supply, since there is no curated ecosystem yet. I don’t want to end up in there again only to see half of it dead of starvation. Thankfully, since this is a low mana zone, I should be the strongest thing in this forest. Besides people. I should avoid people for now. Wait, I’m spewing rage mist right now. I should definitely avoid people right now. I need to find an enclosed space to get used to this body, but food comes first. I want to avoid the village and Wycleaf as well, but I’m not sure where they even are.

I sniffed the air, and there was another huge increase in my range of smell. I might be able to smell the village from here, actually. I got a whiff of the MacQuoids scent, and I could smell them a good distance away from me. They seem to be surrounded by similar, but distinctly different scents. It’s a good bet they’re in the village now. I hope they're okay. If not, there's nothing I can do at this point.

I turned the other direction, and was immediately charged by a fox. I slammed it down with my massive forepaw, shattering it against the forest floor.

It was certainly easier to catch food when it came to me. I really don’t like the idea of everything in the forest trying to kill me as soon as it catches a whiff. That being said, with such a powerful body, there shouldn't be too much to worry about.

I need to build an actual ecosystem within my subspace, and doing that requires soil. Sunlight would be helpful as well, but that's just a little bit difficult to eat at the moment. Does photosynthesis qualify?

I took a bite out of some dirt, then immediately spit it out. Dirt tastes bad, who'd have thought. Doing the smart thing, I transferred some of the dirt into the terrarium directly using my mana. It worked, but was rather costly. Not quite as costly as transforming was, but still a sizable chunk of my mana reserves. I'm already losing mana with my constant mist production, so I don't want to waste more.

Building a complete ecosystem was beyond me, but luckily I could cheat. If I eat enough fruits and vegetables, it won't matter if I can sustain the plant life. I can just bring more in as-needed.

Besides plants, I’m also going to need some carnivores and herbivores in my subspace. I couldn’t risk the possibility of going all the way back to being a bug should I lose my barbearian form for any reason.

I scented out the location of an owl sleeping in the treetops. I stood below it, waiting for the mist to overtake them. Once I was confident that they would attack the first thing they saw when they awoke, I backed up, then rammed the tree it was sleeping in. The tree shook violently, and the owl’s eyes opened wide as it stirred from its slumber. It dived down, aiming to claw out my eyes. I leapt out of the way at the last moment, turned my body, then chomped the owl out of the air with a satisfying crunch.

With the owl digesting, it should be inside my subspace at some point. I can't check when exactly it happens, but I know from experience it depends on what form I'm taking at the moment. It took much longer for me to digest the bugs as the Ostean Giant Flytrap than it did to digest the plant itself. Regardless, I'd have to prepare a perch for the owl before it arrives. Assuming I have enough mana for it. If clumps of dirt and books take a small chunk of mana to transfer to the subspace, then a whole tree would be out of the question. Maybe a smaller stump?

I eventually found a decent-sized tree stump I was capable of transferring, but as soon as I finished the transfer, I felt exhausted. My vents started sputtering out as I exhausted my mana reserves. I would have to hunt my next prey without its assistance.

Without the assistance of mana, my speed was halved. It’s amazing just how much stronger mana can make a creature, even without an assisting alignment. I knew well the depths of my weakness from my time as a powerless, but knowledge was a completely different thing from feeling the loss first-hand.

I sniffed the air once more, and tracked a few more animals. I skipped over a rhinoceros, thinking it too much of a risk to fight without mana, even if I would likely win. Better safe than sorry.

Eventually, I found another herd of deer, and ran directly towards their center. Unlike when I was a wolf, the bucks did not attempt to stand in my way. Even wild animals knew a monster was bad news, and thought it better to try their best to outrun each other, and hope they wouldn’t be among those caught.

Without the bucks stopping me, it was rather easy to catch one of the prey. I didn’t even have to settle for a fawn, instead seizing two fully grown doe.

With the doe secured in my stomach, I once again started exuding the rage-mist, and regained my full speed. I targeted a drove of hogs next.

I ran straight through the group, snatching one from off its hooves and leaving a trail of mist as I passed through their center, and snacked on it a short distance away as they slaughtered their own kin while the rage consumed them.

When the last of the hogs were dead or fleeing, I tasted the fruits of their labor. I finished eating them an hour or so later, and continued on to the next prey, a pack of wolves, then another Owl, then a troop of monkeys, etc. I mostly kept up the barbearian’s preferred tactics of letting the rage-mist do the lion’s share of the work. Mother would have a few words if she saw this blatant overhunting. But In my defense, I need to eat my mana back right now, and she wasn’t here to yell at me.

Satisfied with the work I did that day, I slept peacefully through the night. Again, the dream did not come.

I was rather annoyed at that fact. I didn’t want to keep hunting this often, but it would be hard to monitor and adjust the ecosystem if I couldn’t actually observe it regularly. For now, I’ll stick to plants until I can find a way to get enough soil for them to grow on their own and a way to actually monitor the ecosystem. I sniffed the air once more, and located a plant that smelled absolutely delectable. And it was only about a minute’s run away!

I hounded after the scent, eventually finding it behind an elderberry bush. I laid eyes upon the plant, and immediately knew I would forever regret whatever life choices brought me to this point.

This was not just a plant I had found, but a Dryad. Nor was it just any Dryad, but my own uncle, Rhannu. Rhannu turned to me, startled and slightly afraid. He shouted out a curse and backed up a few steps. I turned and galloped in the other direction, but his fearful shouts turned hateful, and he chased after me.

New chapter every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Also posted on RoyalRoad

Join the discord