Lin Wu waited with bated breath, listening to the rustling bushes. He had already been warned by the stupid system, thus he was scared. He was wondering what kind of beast it was going to be. He had seen the boar and bird, thus knew that even a weak beast can kill him rather easily.
"Chickie Nuggies! This damned stupid system, couldn't it warn me earlier? How am I, a Worm supposed to even kill a beast?" Lin Wu cursed.
The rustling of bushes kept on intensifying until when finally it stopped. Lin Wu hid between the now desiccated corpses of the Boar and the man. He was waiting for whatever that was coming.
'The system didn't say anything about a failure penalty, so it should be fine if I just hide out here.' Lin Wu thought.
Lin Wu then suddenly realized something.
"Chickie Nuggies, that damned beast is here because of these corpses, isn't it? Crap, even my intelligence is affected because of this worm body." Lin Wu cursed again.
There was no place Lin Wu could escape to right now, thus he just kept on hiding. He was hoping that he would be lucky enough that the beast would not notice him. He hoped that the beast wouldn't have interest in a small worm like him when there were two whole corpses in front of it.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no." Lin Wu chattered with fear.
Soon a figure appeared in front of him. The figure seemed to have completely ignored the two large corpses and had instead chosen to target Lin Wu. He opened his eyes with dread to take a look at the beast. But when he finally saw the beast, he stumbled in a comical manner.
Lin Wu felt speechless at the beast that was currently standing in front of him. The beast was a tiny mouse that was smaller than Lin Wu's body. It was small enough to fit in a baby's palm and seemed to be looking around.
"Tha-That's it. This is the beast? It's a tiny mouse, the definition does not even come close to a beast." Lin Wu spoke to himself.
While Lin Wu was thinking this, the mouse was approaching him steadily. Because Lin Wu was stunned, the mouse did not detect any danger and came close to stand directly in front of him. The mouse then extended his nose and smelled Lin Wu for a bit.
After checking that Lin Wu seemed to be fine, the mouse withdrew a little bit before opening its mouth, revealing its sharp pair of incisors.
It was just about to bite Lin Wu when,
"Chickie nuggies, fudge that!" Lin Wu shouted as he dodged to the left.
"This… tiny mouse wants to challenge the prestige of a former human. NEVER!" Lin Wu exclaimed before moving forward quickly.
Upon seeing that his prey had moved, the tiny mouse reoriented itself and prepared to bite again. But Lin Wu was ready this time. He swerved to the right and turned his body at the very end. He then went low, touching the ground as he kept crawling, and then came under the head of the mouse.
"Hahaha, right where I want you. Take this!" Lin Wu said.
He then quickly pushed upwards with his body and flipped the tiny mouse onto its side.
~Squeek~
The tiny mouse squeaked in shock as it tried to get up, but it couldn't.
"Not so fast. I won't let you go now." Lin Wu spoke with an evil tone.
He then crawled up on the body of the mouse and started making turns around it. Due to Lin Wu's weight, the tiny mouse was not able to move and get up. Even though Lin Wu was currently very light, relatively speaking, he still weighed more than a tiny mouse.
He kept on curling and then started constricting. Lin Wu had coiled up the body of the tiny mouse and had wrapped it up.
"See how you like this!" Lin Wu exclaimed before he started tightening his grip.
~Screech~
The constricting force kept on getting stronger as the tiny mouse kept on screaming in pain and distress. Eventually, as Lin Wu maintained his grip, the cries of the tiny mouse got fainter and fainter.
~Crack~
A cracking sound was heard as Lin Wu finally crushed the ribs and some other bones of the tiny mouse, killing it in the process.
~Ding~
QUEST COMPLETE: Beast killed (Common grass mouse)
REWARD OBTAINED: Beast corpse
As soon as the tiny mouse was killed, the confirmatory ding of a notification sounded as the window appeared in front of Lin Wu's eyes.
"Finally." He said with relief.
Lin Wu then uncoiled himself from the tiny mouse's body and saw the aftermath. The area around its ribs was sunk in and blood could be seen dripping from the mouse's mouth.
Lin Wu had certainly not expected that he would be able to kill a beast so fast, although the said beast was nothing but a tiny mouse. He rested for a bit and restored his stamina, which had depleted when he coiled and cruised the mouse.
'Huh, now that I did this quest, what am I supposed to do with the corpse? Am I supposed to eat it?' Lin Wu thought.
"What do I do now, stupid system?" Lin Wu questioned.
~Ding~
DETECTED ENERGY RESOURCE: Recommended course of action- consumption
"Well, that was… rather obvious. But it's gross eating a mouse, even though I'm a worm now." Lin Wu said to himself.
But then Lin Wu remembered the previous quest that he had. He still needed to reach the qi refining realm within two months or he would die. Gritting his imaginary teeth, he decided to give it a go.
"Let's just get this over with." Lin Wu spoke.
He placed his mouth over the skin of the mouse and tried biting it. While Lin Wu still did not have any teeth in his mouth, the 'lips' that he had were instead hardened and could be used to bite and consume food. Lin Wu's circular mouth thus opened and gnawed on the skin of the tiny mouse.
At first, he had expected the taste to be gross, but in a surprise, to him, it was rather bland. When he finally gnawed out a small piece of flesh he could sense the taste for the first time. He did not chew it much and instead just swallowed it directly, not letting the taste linger in his mouth any longer.
The taste of the mouse's flesh was bland at first, but then a metallic sensation eventually replaced that. A familiar taste of blood reappeared in his mind as he suddenly felt grossed out.
"NO! You have to do this, Lin Wu. For your own life." Lin Wu motivated himself.
Lin Wu steeled his will and kept on eating. It took him over four hours to finish the entire body of the mouse, except for the bones. Another thing that happened was that he got used to the taste of the flesh, the same way he got used to the taste of the dirt and grass. Also, because of his worm physiology, his digestion was fast, thus he could keep on eating.
All the useful nutrients that were absorbed from his digestive tract were stored in the body, while the waste was continually expelled in the form of pellets from his tail end.
~Ding~
NOTIFICATION: Host Data updated, please check the relevant window
A notification sounded, surprising Lin Wu.
"Oh, another update? Let's see." Lin Wu muttered.
"Host Data" Lin Wu commanded.
~Ding~
���—————————————————————————————————
HOST NAME: Lin Wu
AGE: 25 days
LIFESPAN: 2 months
HOST SPECIES: Common Mud Worm (enhanced) [juvenile]
HOST CULTIVATION: Third stage of the Body tempering Realm
-Vital energy required to upgrade = [000/400] units
QI STORAGE: Unavailable [Insufficient cultivation]
BLOODLINE: None
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUES: None
QI SKILLS: None
INVENTORY: Empty
BEAST CORE: Not formed
VITAL ENERGY STORAGE: 5 units
SYSTEM ENERGY STORAGE: 25 units
RAW BLOODLINE DATA COLLECTED: 1. Common Grass Mouse
—————————————————————————————————
FUNCTIONS AVAILABLE:-
1. Map
2. Scanner
—————————————————————————————————
Lin Wu glanced at the new data that was added to the window. There were four new lines that seemed to have been added to the old data, and an entirely new section was now available. This new section showed the functions that the system had activated.
Lin Wu already knew about the 'Map' function and had used it extensively before, but the second one that was added 'Scanner' was new to him. He then remembered seeing the notification along with the quest one before. But because of the fear and dismay, he had completely forgotten about it.
'There seem to be three types of energies apparently, huh? I wonder what's the difference between them? Also, what's this new 'scanner' function.' Lin Wu wondered.
He then decided to test out the new function that he had activated.
"Scanner." He commanded.
~Ding~
SELECT TARGET:
1. Bones
2. Boar corpse
3. Human corpse
4. Sword
Upon saying the command, four options popped up in front of him, making him curious.