It is true that if you want something, then you must give something.
It seemed that whatever I had given to gain this evolution was not enough. So the sense of taste was taken away from me as well.
Well, not all of it anyway.
The Creepy Bugger premium smoked meat was still edible.
The rest… did not taste so well.
Chocolate tasted like ash.
Biscuits felt like sand.
Chips gave the feeling of chewing on glass.
While noddles made me feel like I was eating a bunch of earthworms. And not the tasty ones either.
I sighed deeply as I finished the last Creepy Bugger in my possession.
I was hungry.
—————
I came across this problem when I took a bath and sat down to eat something.
Since last night, I had been worried about Neha and thus had no appetite to eat anything.
And now that I did, I realized that something fundamental had changed within me.
I remembered that the evolution to a 'Fiend' was reduced from 5 stars to 4 stars because it brought a lot of changes to the body.
'Is this what it meant.' I thought as I looked at the food thrown in front of me.
After tasting a large variety of food, I have realized that I could not eat normal human food.
The mutant fish meat was still edible, even though it felt… burnt.
But I knew that I had cooked and smoked it perfectly, so that should not have been the case.
All of this, along with my new appearance made me realize something.
The sharp teeth. The strong jaw muscles. The enlargement of the mouth. The change of normal fingernails to claws during hunting.
All of this indicated to something obvious.
And I did not like it.
I went outside the house and took a deep breath.
My sense of small, just like all of my other senses had increased exponentially after the evolution.
With the deep breath came a myriad of smells that I had not noticed before.
The scent of the dew in the grass. The odor of sweat and perspiration from Raka who was resting under a tree and the food he was eating. The smell of medicines used on Neha. The fragrance of the flowers in the garden of one of the houses a block away from here. The stench of blood that still lingered in the town and… I got it.
I moved in that direction at such a speed that an ordinary human would have seen nothing but a blur.
And before two seconds, I was already on top of my target.
I stab with the claws and it was dead before it could notice the danger to it's life.
I raised the mutant rabbit in the air and took a deep breath.
Ummmhh….
Appetizing.
'I wonder if I should cook it.' I thought and took another deep breath.
Nah!
In four large bites, the whole rabbit was inside me.
I wiped my mouth with a handkerchief and smiled at the taste.
It was good.
Then my stomach made a sound and I realized that I was still hungry.
'What the hell. That mutant rabbit was twice the size of a normal rabbit. And despite eating that, I was still hungry.'
'Are you still a stomach or have you turned into a deep well without me knowing.'
I grimaced at the hunger I was feeling and took a deep breath once again.
The smell of moss near water. The smell of the trees. The field of grass. The smell of dead carcass. Nah… The smell of… there.
Another stealth attack.
Another victim.
Another source of food.
Another pang of hunger.
'Where is all the food going?' I mused to myself as I wondered if my stomach was connected to some other dimension and all of my food was going in there.
Truthfully, that would not even surprise me at this point.
—————
There were no horde in the near vicinity of the village/town we were staying in.
But that does not mean that the area was devoid of any life whatsoever.
I grimaced as I ate the 3rd tier mutant squirrel and felt the hunger disperse by a little bit.
It was the thirteenth mutant beast I had eaten through the entire day and it's meat alone was the only thing that satiated my hunger.
'Does that mean that I would only feel satisfied if I eat high tiered beasts?' I thought and sighed as the full implications of my hunger hit me.
And it was not a good feeling.
This 'hunger' had the potential to handicap me and confine me to areas that has large number of mutant beasts.
That means that I cannot go to large cities which are filled with abnormals and devoid of any mutant beasts.
Another thought sprang in my mind.
'Can I eat abnormals as well?'
I don't know. And the last vestiges of humanity left in me made me realize that I did not want to know either.
Eating mutant beast was not something I abhorred.
Because they were just another larger form of everyday animals. In a sense.
Before the apocalypse, I had not reservation in eating their meat.
Chicken, Pork, Steak, Sushi, Venison, etc, etc…
So I did not particularly minded the fact that I ate them… even if I did not cook them like I used to.
But abnormals were another thing.
They were humans… once.
Would it count as cannibalism if I ate them.
I did not know.
And I was in no hurry to know either.
For now, I was satisfied with eating mutant beasts and mutant fish.
If I had to go to large cities some time in the future, then I can just upgrade my spatial ring and carry a large amount of mutant beast meat in it.
Still… I wonder what an abnormal taste like.
Creakk!!
I turned in that direction and found Raka around the corner, who had stepped on a branch while backing away.
I dabbed my mouth with the handkerchief and removed the last vestiges of the food I had just eaten as I smiled at him.
I did not think a person could turn so pale.
My smile turned wider.