He was exhausted beyond belief. He had finally defeated the mole after many hours of toiling over the dangerous creature.
He looked at his body and saw that he had multiple cuts and bruises all over his body. He was still limping, and he had trouble standing with only one foot as support.
All the fighting knowledge he had gained from killing the squirrel barehanded seemed to have carried on to his fighting skills.
He could only defeat the mole because of the fighting sense he sharpened from all the life or death scenarios he faced when he fought the squirrel.
A C-rank creature was nothing to scoff at, and he could defeat it by only using his armor. Using his armor for thirty seconds helped a lot in staying alive long enough to figure out the mole's attack patterns.
He looked at the carcass of the mole as a prize for his hard work. He had a smile on his face as he started to strip the mole of its meat and use it as fuel for his body.
Its meat was earthy, as expected of a creature who lived in the underground. As he was eating the flesh, he felt that it was missing a little bit of juice.
He had been used to juicy meats like the eagle meat and the squirrel meat, but the mole meat was too one-dimensional. It felt like he needed a sauce that would complement the meat.
He looked around the dove and saw the bright red ores plastered across the walls. He had used these ores as his foothold to avoid the mole's attacks and even sometimes used it as fuel.
He remembered it to have a hard outside and a gooey inside. The taste of that sauce seemed to be a perfect match with the mole meat.
Wanting to satisfy himself, Hugh started to pick off the red ores from the walls and ate them along with the mole meat. He took one bite out of the mole meat and one bite from the ore.
The mix would be a savory and earthy meal that Hugh enjoyed. He would bring this meal back to his house if he had enough room to store it.
He finished the meal and did not leave even a tiny piece aside. All of it was used to satiate his hunger, and coincidentally, complete his daily missions.
'DAILY MISSION COMPLETE!'
Hugh smiled as he heard this notification in his mind. He would usually get a good reward after finishing his daily missions, so he expected an awesome power-up.
His armor did not seem like it had improved at all, which meant that it indeed was his limit. He wondered how he would be able to improve it next time.
He stood up from his seat and started to walk away from the dome when he felt an earthquake. Then, everything around him shook. It was not until a second later that he realized that the ground was not shaking; it was him.
He seemed to have lost his sense of balance as his knees buckled and he fell to the floor. His mind was jumbled, and he saw the world tumbling upside down.
His face became pale, and cold sweat dripped from his face. He did not understand what was happening to him, and his vision became blurry.
After a few seconds of disorientation, Hugh finally felt his vision return back to him. He could now see his surroundings clearly, but he was still feeling off in his body.
Then, he felt a chill on his neck. His instincts told him to turn and run away. Hugh turned his neck back and saw the threat behind him.
What he saw made his heart stop, and his anxiety pushed to the max. He saw three gigantic creatures staring at him with a cold glint. He could feel their dangerous aura by just looking at them.
These three creatures were familiar to him as he had encountered them multiple times. The brown and feathery body of the Caterpillar-Eating Bald Eagle stood tall with its sharp eyes looking at Hugh.
The creepy and itchy exterior of the White Winged Caterpillar floated in the air and looked directly at Hugh.
The sharp claws of the Burrowing Giant Squirrel were directly pointed at Hugh's face, giving him a bad feeling.
He still felt nauseous, so he could not gather up the strength to run away, much less defeat them. He was still disoriented from nausea, so he did not immediately notice that the creatures were unmoving.
All he could see were the dangerous glint in their eyes, threatening his life. All he could do was crawl away from the three giant creatures in front of him.
He retreated until his back was against the wall. His face was pale as he truly feared for his life. All he could do was stare at the blank faces of the three creatures.
It was not until a few seconds that he realized that the creatures were stationary. They were not moving, nor were they attacking him; they just stood there as if they were statues.
Taking a big gulp, Hugh observed the creatures and squinted his eyes. He waited for a few more seconds before he got the courage to come near them.
One step at a time, Hugh advanced towards the stationary creatures. He was still wary of them, so Hugh took his time to make sure they were not moving.
Once he got close, he saw every small detail of the creatures. It was like they were statues, but there was a sense of realness to them that made Hugh unsettled.
It felt like the creatures would wake up and attack him out of the blue. These creatures were so realistic that Hugh could not distinguish them from the real thing.
He had encountered these creatures, fought them, and ate them multiple times, so he was familiar with all of them. He took up the courage to raise his hand and try to touch the creatures in front of him.
He touched the giant eagle in front of him and felt its feathers in his hands. It was like the real thing, except this was cold to the touch.
He touched the squirrel and the caterpillar next, making sure that they were real and corporeal. He did not know why these creatures suddenly appeared next to him, and he was not sure of its purpose.
As he observed every nook and cranny of the creatures, he suddenly felt a hunger overcome him.
*GRRRGGG*
His stomach grumbled in protest, and it started to burn and sting his belly. He was hungry, and all he wanted to do was eat.
He looked around and found a piece of leftover red ore. He had always liked the taste of this ore, and it would surely satisfy his hunger.
As he looked at the ore in his hands, he did not feel the same attraction he had with it like before. It did not seem appetizing at all. It was like he was only looking at an inedible rock, even though he could not eat it before.
He thought that it was just a strange feeling, so he tried to eat the ore in his hands. He took a bite, and the juices flowed into his mouth.
Immediately, he felt a nasty taste in his mouth like spoiled food. He immediately vomited it out and tried to scoop the remains away from his mouth with his fingers.
His eyebrows scrunched up as he looked at the ore in his hands. He had never tasted something like this before. It was as if his body was having an allergic reaction to the ore.
It was as if his body was rejecting the food source that Hugh tried to eat.
Hugh did not know if that was a one-time thing or not, so he picked up another ore from the wall and took a bite out of it. The same thing happened, and he spat it out as soon as it reached his mouth.
This had never happened before, so Hugh was perplexed. He did not know what happened, but all he wanted to do right now was to satiate his hunger.
He took out one wing from his storage and tried to eat it. The same thing happened as the taste was unlike anything he had ever tasted.
He immediately spat it out and his frustrations only increased. The things that he had used to love eating had become disgusting to the point that it was inedible.
He concluded that anything he ate would taste disgusting, so he was conflicted. The hunger in his stomach continued to grow and give him pain.
Then, he looked towards the three giant creatures in front of him. They looked more appetizing than ever before.