Almost as if asking for the next predator to approach me, I laughed maniacally.
Crazy, absolutely insane. I had lost my mind.
I won but lost both of my legs in the process. It was only some time before the other monsters arrived to take both me and the moose as their dinner. There was no happiness or glory in this victory. It was just a call to say that I can live if I tried. It was just a petty attempt to vent my anger.
BUT I FUCKING WON!!!
"BWOOF!" As I fell in the rain, the body of the moose burst right behind me. A wave of heat got emitted from the inside.
"Oh yeah, monsters do tend to do that." I mumbled while being glad that I fell off.
Monsters blew up due to rapid gas build up after death. They did everything they could to rid humans. It was just their law.
These were things I wouldn't have known had I not researched after Luno left for the crusade. It was silly but a part of me did want to adventure with her and that same part wanted to know best for her safety. So I did what I could back in my town- I studied only the theory of adventuring.
Anyways, dying after getting suicide bombed by the moose I killed after so much effort would have been brutal.
I turned around to face the sky and put my hand up to cover the rain falling directly on my eyes. It was an end I came to expect.
"What a wild way to go."
With my arm raised up high, with no prior notice, the rose tattoo on my arm started to burn bright pink like it was a lantern. Pulsating. Not just in the light, there was a carnal temptation pulsating too- within me.
The more the rose brand burnt, the stronger the temptation became.
'What?'
Hunger, gluttony. I was famished. All of a sudden.
Not once throughout the day did I feel this. Not right until I saw the corpse of the moose.
It was like the time the arm warned me about the moose right before the chase started. Surely, that wasn't fear either. It was this exact feeling- Hunger.
My stomach started to rumble uncontrollable. I wanted to get up but I didn't have the legs to do it.
I stared at the piece of blown moose to my right. Raw, covered in mud, and steaming from gas. Yet it looked like the finest meal.
The piece's blood vessels let out the blood-soaked in them. It looked like an appetizing sauce. After a point, I couldn't help myself. I would rather eat before I got eaten.
My left hand grabbed the meat and pushed it down my throat.
And it tasted just like it looked. Absolutely delicious.
I pushed towards more of the meat and started scarfing down all of the moose. I couldn't have asked for a better meal after all my work.
I ate and ate and ate. But the bottomless pit in my stomach was nowhere near full. So the gastronomical perverseness continued for portions of an hour before I stopped. My blood started to cool down.
I was satiated.
"Phew." I let out a deep sigh.
[Conditions met.] Suddenly a sweet yet familiar voice rang in my head.
'What the hell?' It was the same voice that told me to prostrate myself. The sweet hymn of an emotionless child. The deity's envoy? Liu?
SO THAT WAS WHAT IT MEANT WHEN IT SAID THAT I WOULD BE SEEING MORE OF HER!
Just as I tried to wrap my head around this, within the dark night an object appeared in front of me with the sound of fluttering- A book? No, it was thick and well ornamented. A grimoire appeared in front of my eyes.
It floated around mid-air. While slowly aligning itself in front of my eyes. The blank pages slowly started to turn backwards. With each consecutive page, the speed of turning got faster, till it reached the first page.
{Class : Human}
{ Strength - Four/Ten - F }
{ Agility - Three/Ten - F }
{ Endurance - Five/Ten- F }
{ Dexterity - Three/Ten - F }
[Adding Points.] The voice rang again.
I felt my body become denser and my muscles electrifying as the text in the grimoire began to morph.
{ Strength - Seven/Ten - F }
{ Agility - Seven/Ten - F }
{ Endurance - Seven/Ten - F }
{ Dexterity - Four/Ten - F }
[Due to consumption of meat, skills:
{(Hardening - E) (Night Vision - F) (Regeneration - D}
Have been gained.]
This was like the guild card Luno showed me.
The words surrounded me. The night environment around me became as clear as day.
There were clearly not these many moving parts in her guild card. And adventurers never gained the skills of the monsters they killed. But I doubt they ate them raw either. I was an anomaly.
The glowing tattoo on my hand started to glow another colour. A deep scarlet. Slowly, the liquid around me started to rise. No- It wasn't all the liquid… Just the blood.
The blood of the moose started to leave its body. The blood that had found its way into the mud, separated from it. All to form a large ball. The moose's bones started to turn into ash and integrated into the ball of blood.
And then like a slurp, the markings on my hand drank it all.
[Unable to summon (Moose - F) due to lack of ****]
The page turned and (Moose - F) got carved onto the page.
[Blood turned to nutrition. Activating (Regenerate - D)]
The smashed legs dangling off my pelvis got surrounded by blood and inflated. Black bones grew out of thin air and the blood vessels started to surround them. Regeneration?
I was awestruck.
Within seconds, my legs were back.
[Proceedings complete. 6 steps to Daemonism remain.]