Pink and grey flesh moved around him as he pushed against it in his own macabre form of resistance training. He pushed against the duckling’s lady bits and pushed against the stomach, squeezing the dying bird. Sweet blood trickled down his proboscis while he worked his little leech body, straining muscles and working hard.

 

“You’re wasting time the only way you’ll get stronger is if you feed.” Mother said.

 

He had been at it for half an hour, and there wasn’t a system message, but that didn’t mean he was wrong. Silas wouldn’t believe he couldn’t work for more power until he tried it himself.

 

“Why the system seems to help out where it can?”

 

“Only humans can train stat points; monsters have skills that allow them to gain stat points in other ways.”

 

+1Strength

+2Stamina

 

Silas felt his body change as his muscles transformed, practically doubling in power. He felt good better than even when his constitution doubled. Maybe some of it was from the level up, but more than half came from his mother’s silence. The spirit of vengeance tipped her hand, revealing that she could keep up with his stats, which meant there was a lot she wasn’t telling him. Before that, he formed a smile with his body in satisfaction.

 

“What was that you said about only humans being able to gain stats from training? Do you have something to say, mother, maybe about a human lover you had before I hatched? Is that why you were hunted down? Is the love between a hundred-foot multiheaded Eldritch Vampire Dragon Hydra Leech and a human forbidden? Or were you not trying hard enough.” Silas said.

 

Of course, he knew where the stats came from, but he wasn’t telling her that.

 

Silas Flex lvl10

Rank: 1

Species: Leech

Trait

Invertebrate – with no bones to speak of, the user gains a 20% decrease in blunt damage.

Reincarnate – Double the chance to learn new skills.

Mucus – 15% resistance from Normal Acid unless salted or scorched.  

Stats

Health: 10 F

Mana: 10 F

Stamina: 12 F

Constitution: 11 F+

Regeneration: 7 F

Strength: 10 F+

Speed: 5 F

Charisma: 5 F

Skills: 5 F

 

 

Skills

Leech: Beginner 25% - Gain experience by drinking blood.

Initiate Threshold: Feed On vertebrate – Complete

Parasyte: Beginner 20% - Gain resistance skills when feeding on other living things. 

Initiate Threshold: Feed on 10 different species

Predator: Beginner 0% - Hunt other life forms to gain experience.

Initiate Threshold: Consume 10 different species

Human: Beginner 8% - Maintain human intelligence and memories no matter the form.

Initiate Threshold: Build A Shelter

Hentai: Beginner 16% - Damage reduction when feeding into a kink from search history.

Initiate Threshold: Feed 3 tags

Acid Resistance: Beginner 19% - The user receives less damage from Common Acid.  

Threshold – Endure A Bovine’s Digestion Process.

 

“Don’t be stupid; you must have unlocked a feeding skill while sucking the bird dry. As for my love life, it's none of your business.” Mother said.

 

Silas rolled his eye at the angry spirit. Did he accidentally hit gold while flexing his human skill and the loophole he enjoyed, thanks to a technicality?

 

“What else do only humans get over monsters?” Silas asked.

 

“If you develop a class when you reach lvl25 I’ll have to rethink some of my less than savory experiences.”

 

“That sounds juicy,” Silas said as the duckling finally gave up the ghost.

 

He shimmied his way out and traveled to the side of the catfish’s stomach. A class at lvl25 sounded awesome; he couldn’t wait to see what he managed to nab. He hoped it was a mage class or maybe something like a barbarian to help his resistances get even stronger. That would be amazing.

 

The pink walls of the catfish’s stomach undulated as he set his sucker against them. Once he had a seal formed, sweet blood trickled into his system. He could see his acid resistance skill climb as he lazily fed on the fish. He made sure to go slow because he could only hold so much blood.

 

+1 Skill

New Skill from having two consumption skills, two species skills at rank 1, and 1 acid skill.

Epic Rare Sin Skill Acquired!

Gluttony: Beginner 0% - After the user is full extra mass is converted to Health stacking until 10 times health pool.

Initiate Threshold – Consume 100x body weight.

 

With the new skill, all reservations were out the window, and he fed in earnest. Fortunately, he was a leech less than 2 inches long; consuming his own body weight would be easy.

 

After three hours of constant feeding, he hadn’t seen an end in sight until everything started shutting down. Even that catfish must have had a regeneration stat to help with the blood loss, but Silas fed without restraint. He heard the heartbeat a few more times until it stopped.

 

+4HP

Health 14

Level Up

Silas lvl15

Stat Points: 16

 

It was odd the constant swimming he had gotten used to since getting swallowed had stopped, and it was time to abandon the ship. He swam toward the throat entrance as the fish’s muscles relaxed. Even after he gorged himself, Silas didn’t feel full or bloated. It was the opposite; he couldn’t wait to find his next meal until he reached lvl25 and got a class. That would really get the ball rolling.

 

There was so much to do. Silas still had 7 species to go until he could upgrade parasite when it finally reached beginner 100%. Human could be upgraded as well by building a shelter. Did the system define a shelter as a pile of rocks? He was a leech that could be considered shelter enough. Or did he have to build a shelter sized for a human? Not to mention he needed to find a cow to get eaten by.

 

After barely beginning, Silas was already preparing for the next step in his skill evolution. Classes would bring even more skills, and he would have to form a queue to get to them all. Silas froze as a thought hit him. In most Issekai, skills and stats determined the rarity of classes. With his low stats and skills, he couldn’t afford to get a class and lock himself in.

 

It was time to power grind and forget about leveling for a while. The little leech nodded his head as he made his way out of the dead catfish’s mouth into the dirty bog. He had finally crossed the two-inch mark and looked like everyone’s favorite worm to eat. As a little leech, he wasn’t big enough to be considered a threat but not small enough to ignore.

 

He swam up to the surface to wheel his eye around to get the lay of the land. “Do you know any good classes and what their requisites were? Father was a human right.” Silas said to the quiet spirit of vengeance.

 

“All I know is the system only grants classes to humans or humanoid beings. When you reach my size, the crunchy little things all look the same no matter what shape of ear they claim to have. Don’t eat the scaley ones they hurt on the way out.” Mother said.

 

Silas felt a little disappointed that he couldn’t get another rise out of her. It was practically the highlight of their relationship.

 

While he was on the bog's surface, he spotted some bullfrogs in the distance and headed over to them to snatch up another species. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to grind more strength, stamina, and acid resistance from them.  

 

“You should go ahead and dump your points in charisma and skill. There are skills you can get early that will be unavailable later on.” 

 

“How do humans raise their charisma?” Silas asked.

 

Gaining and increasing skills seemed to increase his skills stat, and if he could net some charisma points and grind that instead of spending precious stat points, he would.

 

“Sex and no, that isn’t an option for you.”

 

“You underestimate my power,” Silas said.

 

“Why did I have to end up in the insane one?” Mother asked.

 

Silas swam over to the frogs, only for a swan of all things to fly down on feathery white wings and snap him up. It didn’t waste a second, swallowing him down to its gizzard before flying off. The entire time he was trapped within the avian, he pushed against it and sipped sparingly at the bird’s blood. Even if it was a setback, it wasn’t a large one. Then, a few moments later, he felt himself get ejected into a nest.

 

He froze as 4 little white fuzz balls eyed him carefully. One of the cygnets moved close and pecked at him. Silas ducked under the beak flexing his muscles with surprising speed, only for one to catch him from behind. Fortunately, he had a lot of health thanks to gluttony. The cygnet who had him shoot its beak to tear a piece off of him in a frenzy. Another stole him away before dropping him. He launched himself beneath the fluffy feathers of one, searching for an entry point.

 

While he hasn’t suffered any permanent damage thanks to his wealth of health, he couldn’t take many chances. If he had to hide in one of the cygnets until the coast was clear, he would. Unfortunately, the cygnets’ parent had other ideas. A powerful beak grabbed Silas and hoisted him over the cygnets again. This time one greedy one lunged beak opened wide before the parent dropped him.

 

This time he didn’t slide into a gizzard; instead, he was forced into the cygnet’s stomach. Silas waited there using the cygnet like a Bowflex until he was sure it was nighttime. Then he attached himself to the cygnet’s stomach and fed on its blood.

 

He crawled out of the dead cygnet’s beak under a new moon and peaked over the side of the nest. Fortunately, he was over an old beaver damn instead of in a tree. His eye spotted a fence, and within it were cows. Silas hopped out of the nest and neared the fence. The second he crossed a line, he felt some force strike at him.

 

He screamed and raged as the cow walked away. Whatever force protected the field wouldn’t let him go any further.

 

His health had fallen quickly, and Silas read two prompts.

 

+2 Mana

+1 Regeneration

 

Things were starting to come together. If he could find a way to grind charisma and speed, he could really get strong. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the will to form a smile with his body. The pain had broken his morale for the day, and he needed to make a shelter. Having his own shelter would help him survive better than going from monster stomach to monster stomach. Unfortunately, they were almost all rank 1 like himself, so they were more like dumb animals than anything.

 

“Did you just call yourself a dumb animal?” Mother asked.

 

“Shut up,” Silas said, too tired to do much more than shiver from the pain. Everything was starting to catch up to him. The party, finding out his ex-wife had some celestial pull, being eaten, and finally disintegrated by a fence, finally broken him. He wanted to find a nice heavy rock and hide under it until he felt better.