The next morning, Si Sheng woke up and found it was raining outside, which kinda spoiled his mood. He had been looking forward to leveling up only for him to get rained in.
Si Sheng decided to start his day as normal. Wash his face, drink some water, and eat breakfast, which was just whatever dead creature he happened to grab the day before, along with some edible plants from the forest. Si Sheng ate his meal and was full.
Since it was raining outside, he decided to take off his clothes as to not get them wet and dirty, even though he could easily clean and dry them. No one was around, so what did he care. He was going to hunt even in the rain. He didn't really care about catching a cold since he had fire magic to warm and dry himself at any time, and healing magic to cure himself, even if he did get sick. He was determined to level up and couldn't wait anymore.
Exiting the cave, Si Sheng looked around through the rain, but couldn't see much. Most of the animals were hiding away from the rain since they would be in a similar situation to Si Sheng—had he not had fire and healing magic. He wandered the mountainside for around half an hour before he spotted something up ahead.
"Weird, it looks like a... pig? Well if it gets me to Level 2, then I don't care. Plus, bacon and pork sound pretty good," Si Sheng muttered to himself naked looking at the 'pig' up ahead. It was odd to see such a large animal up on the mountainside. It was by far the largest he had seen, but that wasn't going to deter him if it meant he couldn't level up without killing it.
He was cautious in his approach. Si Sheng made sure not to startle it and used his Sneak skill to get close to the 'pig'. The 'pig' didn't even react as he got close, it seemed to be staring off into space and not paying attention to its surroundings, even though it was out in the open.
When he got right next to the 'pig', wielding the knapped knife, Si Sheng drove it into the 'pig's neck right behind the base of its skull. It was a good solid strike that would kill most mammals with necks the size of this 'pig' or smaller. It would for sure be enough to instantly kill a human, or at least paralyze them before they died.
When Si Sheng stabbed the 'pig', he felt a satisfying pop and cut through the flesh and bone. The feeling was great, it was like a euphoric release as he thought this would be his Level 2 kill. He still held the theory that the bigger something was the more experience it gave, so, Si Sheng believed the 'pig' would give him at least 7 experience—enough to level up.
As he was reveling in the satisfaction of stabbing the 'pig', it slowly turned its head robotically, obviously struggling with the knife in its neck. It turned to face Si Sheng who was crouched next to the 'pig'. It looked straight into Si Sheng's content face. It just stared at him, not making a sound, not expressing anything with its neck cocked at a greater than 90° angle to the spine of its body.
The horrifying thing was what Si Sheng saw. Staring up at him was a pinkish human face that was completely void of emotion. It's eyes we're soulless as if you were looking into the void of space. Its face was handsome despite it being part of a pig. It was a man's face with a strong jawline, nicely proportioned nose, and evenly maintained eyebrows. One would say that this face was beautiful, but to Si Sheng, it was like the devil starring at him and condemning him for his misdeeds. The soulless eyes continued to pierce right through Si Sheng. He felt the same feeling from this 'pig' as he did from the roar a week ago: weak and exposed.
Just when Si Sheng thought things couldn't get any weirder, the 'pig' spoke.
"Sinner, you will face death and misfortune wherever you travel. You will be the bringer of plagues and harbinger of decay. You will turn this world to rot and spread death. Be warned, for Vin- *cough*" the 'pig' coughed up blood and died before it could finish.
This whole speech sent chills down Si Sheng's body and he broke out in a cold sweat. It felt like he had just jumped into a frozen river and had just gotten out. The scariest part was the 'pig's voice. It was as if it was close but far at the same time. It was solemn and domineering, commanding authority. The things the pig spoke of were truly terrifying and mystical to Si Sheng. He had no idea what the 'pig' was talking about, but he knew it was nothing good.
Yes, the 'pig' was weird, but Si Sheng had no reason to believe some random 'pig' on the side of some random mountain in the middle of Timbuktu. Why should he believe the prediction that basically painted him as Pestilence incarnate? He was spooked for sure, mainly because of the incredibly weird appearance and hollowing voice, but he wouldn't believe some 'pig' that he had killed so easily and was in the middle of nowhere to boot. He just thought it was some crackpot spiel that this 'pig'-creature concocted in order to scare him for some reason.
Whatever the case was, Si Sheng was happy since he'd most likely reach Level 2 based on the size of the 'pig'.
['Pig of Pestilence' killed: 1500 experience gained.]
"Eh...?"
Si Sheng was dumbfounded and his mind went blank. The sheer amount of experience gained was off the charts. Even the Giant River Stalker didn't give that much experience, but this Pig of Pestilence had given him an incredible amount for killing it so easily. Si Sheng's previous theory, on whether or not size influenced experience gained, was immediately thrown out. The fish from earlier had been four meters long, while this pig was only around a meter long and a lot lighter than the fish as well.
Si Sheng felt dizzy after coming to terms with what had happened. He felt like he had just won the lottery after buying hundreds of tickets. This was a crazy amount of experience for the Level 1 Si Sheng!
In the next second:
[You Leveled Up!]
[You Leveled Up!]
An angelic voice rang in his head telling him he'd leveled up. He had leveled up twice from this 'pig'-thing!
"AHAHAHAHAHAHA *cough, cough* AHAHAHA..." Si Sheng couldn't contain the feeling of joy, he'd long forgotten, any longer and burst out laughing like a madman. He had leveled up twice after being here for a week and all of it was because of this 'pig'-man! He had basically committed genocide on countless animals and hadn't gotten anywhere far, but then, suddenly, jumped two steps forward in an instant. He was so happy he even thought of throwing himself a party but decided against it since it would just be him and some dead animals in a cave. No fun in that, for him.
After he calmed down, Si Sheng went to take a look at his Status.
"Status."
Wung!
[Name: Si Sheng | Age:18 | Race: Human]
[Status: Healthy (Ecstatic)]
[Level 3/10 | Experience 493/1000]
[Titles: The Sin of Gluttony, Supreme Healer]
[Stats]
[HP: 100/100 | MP: 110/150]
[Strength: 10 | Intelligence: 15 | Defense: 5 | Agility: 10 | Vitality: 10 | Luck: 15]
[Attribute Points: 100]
[Skills]
[Awareness (F), Evil Eye (Eye of Understanding), Evolutionary Body, Fire Magic (D), Gluttony, Healing Magic (SSS), Presence Concealment (C), Repair (A), Sneak (F), Sprint (E), Swordsmanship (D), Water Magic (D)]
"100 attribute points, not bad. So, I can assume that every level I get 50 attribute points to spend however I want. For now, though, I think increasing Strength and Agility would be best. I don't have a need for Intelligence right now since my main attack method is stabbing. And Defense is also not needed since I won't be in a head-to-head fight. Vitality might be good though since it raises my health limit. Luck is pretty useless though, I don't think there's any use in something that can't help me in combat or improve my personal strength."
With these thoughts, Si Sheng put half of the points into Strength and the other half into Agility. From these two level-ups, he had gained a great amount of strength and would be able to level up faster in the future, maxing out his level.
***
Now that that was over, Si Sheng grabbed the 'pig' and slung it over his shoulder, bringing it back to the cave. He dried himself off with fire magic, putting his clothes back on, and prepared the 'pig' for a feast, gutting and cleaning it. One of the best parts about his "Clean" chant was, he didn't have to bleed the animals he killed since the chant removed the blood for him, making the meat taste better and preserve it for longer.
Thinking back to his week of struggling to level up, Si Sheng now could see a clearer path to the goal of maxing his level out. Si Sheng was motivated for the first time in a long while. It was starting to get fun for him, a kind of spark that was entirely lost to him for a long while, except when learning new information back on Earth. It was an entirely different way of attaining excitement and this greatly pleased Si Sheng since he wouldn't be able to get ahold of new information for the foreseeable future.
Pushing his thoughts aside, Si Sheng cut off the head of the 'pig' because he thought it would be unnerving to eat a human-like head, at least, for now. He set up the fire and prepared the pig to be spit-roasted over a fire. As the pig was cooking, a marvelous smell wafted from the cooking body. Si Sheng's mouth began to water, it was an unimaginable smell that he had forgotten, the smell of bacon, ham, and pork. The smell came off the pig and filled the cave like a thick fog, drenching Si Sheng in a blissful aroma. This heavenly smell almost made him tear up since he had been eating food that was what could be called the food equivalent to cardboard. No real flavor and even when it had flavor, it wasn't a good kind of flavor.
After a number of hours spent cooking, the pig was a nice golden brown on the outside—it was ready to eat. Si Sheng was at his wits' end long ago, his stomach was growling like a cornered beast and was ready to pounce at a moment's notice. Additionally, he couldn't wait to see what skill or skills he would get from this pig. If he went by the name of it, it would be a skill having something to do with Pestilence, what exactly, he had no idea.
Seeing the pig was done, he couldn't wait any longer and dug in. He cut away at the stomach area first, this was one of the fattiest areas and was where bacon came from. When he took a bite Si Sheng felt as if his soul was going to leave his body—it was almost orgasmic. The savory and salty flavor of unsmoked bacon flowed out of the meat and onto his tongue. The memories of barbecue flooded his mind, bringing back one of the few gentle memories of his childhood. At this moment his body shed a tear because it was so good.
With that emotional first bite, Si Sheng devoured all he could eat from the fleshy pig's body, enjoying every last morsel that entered his mouth. As he was eating, he received a notification:
[Pig of Pestilence Consumed: "Skill: Pestilence" Acquired]
"...What?"
Si Sheng was in awe. In retrospect, he should've guessed that a creature called Pig of Pestilence would give him the skill Pestilence; but, he never would've thought that would happen, given the skill was a Cursed Skill. Those kinds of skills were incredibly rare and, some, extremely powerful. For that reason, Si Sheng never thought this pig would give it to him so easily, despite the name. He believed it would give him a skill similar to it, something like Curse Magic or Disease Magic, something less extreme than the full-blown Cursed Skill itself.
"Identify."
[Pestilence: Able to cause and call plagues and biological disasters. Depending on one's Intelligence. WARNING: Plagues and disasters can harm the user as well, however, indirectly. An example would be causing a disease, which, latter, causes a situation in which the user is harmed as a result of the disease. Be careful how you use it.]
"...This is pretty shit, isn't it? Like, I can die from my own ability as well. Isn't this a suicidal ability unless I'm not in the area of influence? Eh, whatever, it's cool anyway. I wonder what I can do with it once I have a higher Intelligence?"
Si Sheng reviewed what the skill did. To his disappointment, it wasn't as amazing as he had hoped. In all fairness, the skill could become Si Sheng's trump card one day, saving him from a tight situation. Or, it might be his downfall one day, causing him to be put into a worse situation since it could inadvertently harm him.
Whatever the case may be, Si Sheng was still happy to get a new skill and a Cursed one at that. One of Si Sheng's long term goals, aside from leveling up, was to collect as many Cursed Skills as possible. There may be the warning about cursed skills, but he didn't care. The taboos and "no-no's" from this world didn't really matter to him. Why should he care about something he didn't have to reveal. The only situation where he would be forced to use a Cursed Skill would be when he couldn't handle the situation and was backed into a corner. If he prepared enough in advance, in theory, there would be no situation he wouldn't be prepared for. Otherwise, he wouldn't reveal them and would make sure to avoid skills that would severely alter his appearance. Like a skill to turn him into a Lich or a race change skill, like he saw while picking his skills.
Now that he'd eaten his fill, Si Sheng decided to rest. It was still raining out, so he didn't want to hunt that day. He didn't really have to, with the surplus of food from the pig and other animals he'd already killed being enough to last him a few days if he wasn't conservative, and a few weeks if he was.
After waking up and seeing the rain was gone, Si Sheng decided to make new tools with some materials he'd gathered over the week with the hope that they'd be better than his current gear. After crafting new knives and a basic tunic out of the rabbit leather, he took this gear and focused on leveling up to max. He was finally getting excited about what was to come.