I clearly remember gaining a lot more grains from the consumption of the two humans. My strength had increased by a ton probably due to the mass of the bones and flesh in the bodies which is far superior to a wolf's bone and flesh. But I feel as if my body is weakening, as if I'm losing some of the strength I've just acquired.
The only thing I did after regaining awareness and stability was cast shadows in various locations for experimental purposes. I didn't battle anything to get hurt, thus the only explanation is that casting these shadows is the source of my weakness.
I also looked around to see whether any of my body's grains had come into contact with water, but no such thing can be seen right now. I need to put myself to the test to discover if it is genuinely my ability that is weakening me.
I lift and extend my hand again, this time imagining another shadow in front of me inside the range of my abilities. A shadow grows gradually, dimming the area it covers. At this point, I'm feeling weak again, and I can see some of my grains vanish into thin air. They are no longer present within me or on the ground; they have simply vanished.
This conforms the sad unfortunate truth, my grains are no just for show or an approximate way of knowing how strong or weak I am, how much I can endure, how fast I am or how lively I am.
They are also for using my shadow ability, which I have only recently acquired. So I guess it works like MP in fantasy stories, but when I cast a shadow, I feel as if my life is being drained. It is not energy, the pain and feeling is the same as when the wolf successfully clawed at my body in the earlier battle against the five wolves.
This is unpleasant; even if I get used to it, having to feel pain in order to use something that is a part of your body is terrible. It makes me feel strange, maybe even inferior even if it does not consume a lot of the grains available within me.
To keep track of this, I'll need to make some broad assumptions about how much grain I lose and how much I gain from eating. It is hard to determine the precise amount, but I believe I can make some reasonable estimates based on my senses and instincts. This is the most secure approach for me to learn more about my body while putting my new skill to the test.
I continue to test my newly found ability. First, I wanted to experiment with changing the darkness of the shadow because the darkness seemed to differ in the two visions I experienced.
I try to recast the square shadow, but this time I try to make it considerably darker. It does not really require much effort to change the darkness but rather it just requires the darkness of the shadow in one's imagination to change a bit. I than try to decrease the darkness and compare the two.
The first evident difference is definitely the darkness; the lighter shadow appears more genuine when compared to a real shadow cast by an actual existing object, whilst the deeper shadow appears strange, but it does the job by concealing a good portion of the spot I threw the shadow on. It entirely ignores all light, transforming it into a black hole on the ground that would never be visible if not for the light surrounding it.
From my observation, I would have to state that this ability would be more useful in darker areas and during nights since the darkness of the environment itself will make such shadows more invisible. On the other hand, it might prove to be a lot more useless in daylight since it would be strange for any creature to look at such a dark shadow.
I try to cast the same ability on myself. It seems as if the same rules apply. A darker shadow seems to hide my physic very well from observant eyes in the surrounding while a lighter shadow does not hide my body as well but instead looks much more natural.
All in all, it seems as if darker shadows would be much more useful since the lighter ones do not do much to my body meaning they are practically useless for hiding in plain sight, at least for now.
However, I believe that the lighter shadows will be advantageous in extremely dark areas. This is because it appears that the darker the shadow, the higher the grain intake, and the lighter the shadow, the lower the grain consumption of my body.
As for the grain intake in general, it appears that depending on the darkness of the shadow, the amount of grains equals that of grains gained from the consumption of half a rabbit to a full rabbit. To put this in perspective, the humans I just consumed seemed to have each given me enough grains to equal around 20 average rabbits.
This is just an approximation but that would mean each human equals around 20 uses of my new ability if I were to produce extremely dark shadows that would hide everything within but be visible from outside due to the obvious difference in the darkness that exists compared to the surrounding environment.
I've learned the fundamentals of my ability, and while I have many more questions about how to use it, now is not the time to wonder about them. First, I need to consume the human and wolf I left in another part of the forest, and then I need to get out of this forest to avoid confrontation with any more humans, as too many missing humans will cause an uproar.
Concerning the camp of the three humans I just killed, I believe it would be best not to waste time finding and disposing of it because it would not only be difficult to get rid of their belongings, but it would also be futile because there are huge blood stains all over the forest from when I drained the blood of the animals and the humans.
With my decision solidified, I return to the prior spot and discover the bodies of my two previous victims. I devour the human first, then the wolf. The procedure is the same as it has been in the past: drain the blood, bring it close to a part of my body, and... done.
With my power at an all-time high, I headed out in the direction of the elevated grounds on the cliff, hoping to discover a route out of this forest on the other side.