Chapter 4 - Raw

Within the dark and cold cave on what seemed to be a small marble platform, a young man covered in blood knelt above the body of a horrendous creature, his hand, which held a small pocket knife, moving up and down with raw power.

Squelch!

'Die!'

Squelch!

'Die!'

Squelch!

'DIE!'

"Hey, calm down... That will be more than enough. You have killed it, it will hurt you no more."

'...Huh?'

Freezing motionless when hearing Zen's voice, Neo stopped swinging his hand and raised his head scarcely, focusing his attention on both his hands and ears.

Indeed, Zen was right. The horror was no longer moving nor breathing, it was dead as much as it ever could be.

Clang!

Realizing that he had actually survived, every muscle in Neo's body loosened and as a mixture of sharp pain and fatigue washed over his body, he collapsed.

[Congratulations! You have completed your assigned Legacy Quest!]

[You can collect your Rewards within the Quest Hall!]

'Wha...t..?'

Groaning with distress, Neo was surprised to see the flickering panel despite both his eyes being wounded, taking away his sight completely!

'So this system can even materialize itself in my... Head? Just what the hell is this thing, but really?'

Neo remained silent, thinking he would get an answer, however, he didn't. Instead, he got something entirely different.

[Warning! You have been assigned to complete a Special Legacy Quest!]

'Again?'

A soft groan mixed with annoyance escaped Neo's mouth. He really didn't wish to complete another quest, but it seemed he had no other choice.

Whoosh!

_________________

[Legacy Quest]

• Type: Special

• Quest Description: Eat from the carcass of the infant Infected Beast!

• Time Limit: 10 minutes

• Rewards: 100 System Points & 1 Unique Item

_________________

'S-Say what again!?'

Neo opened his eyelids wide out of habit, only to regret it the very next second.

"Argh... Crap. This hurts as hell!"

Neo grunted quietly and once the pain subsided he grabbed his shirt, cut a small part out of it with the help of his knife, and used it as a bandage, tightly wrapping it around his head in a way where it covered and firmly pressed on his wounded eyes!

'This will do it... for now.' Neo sighed bitterly, lowered his head, and touched the carcass of the beast.

"This is just... Nuts."

He really killed this thing, a dreadful creature that looked as if it had just popped out of a horror movie! Not only that, but according to the description of the system, this thing was still just an infant, a newborn!

Hell, if it was this strong despite being a baby just how strong its parents would truly be?

Wait... Parents...

Now that Neo thought about it and turned out that this beast was indeed just an infant, wouldn't that mean its parents were close?

Thinking about such a possibility Neo tensed and paled before calming down.

'That's right. If it had any around I would have been killed quite a long time ago.'

Letting out a soft sigh of relief, Neo clenched his teeth and after he forced his exhausted body to sit up properly he placed both his hands on the beast's carcass.

'Do I really have to do it?'

Eating the flesh of this curse... Does he really have to do it?

A grimace filled with disgust and hesitation appeared on Neo's face, his stomach already spinning just from the mere thought of him eating the flesh of the horror... The raw flesh of it, at that.

Yet, for some reason, he knew if he didn't do it and the time limit reached zero, he will die. He didn't know how, he just did, akin to a sense of foreboding!

"Damn this! At least if you make me do something give me enough time! What if I die from food poisoning!?"

Neo hissed through his clenched teeth with distress.

[You will not die.]

"Huh?"

Surprised, Neo flinched and froze again. However, once he realized where the voice was coming from, he relaxed a bit.

"So you can speak, it seems. That's good to know."

Neo sighed and after remaining silent for a while he asked;

"...So? Can you give me more time? I really don't wish to eat this... Thing raw, you know. Perhaps I can find things around here to make fire."

[...]

[Warning! Your Quest's time limit had been changed!]

[Time: 5 minutes and 30 seconds left!]

"This motherfu-"

[Warning! Your Quest's time limit had been changed!]

[Time: 1 minute and 30 seconds left!]

'...'

Neo wished to curse again, however as he was no fool to not realize he no longer was the one in control of what he could and could not do, he could only clench his teeth in frustration and grab his knife.

Then, after lingering for a few moments in silence with his other hand on the beast's carcass, he groaned and with awkward movements cut out a rather large chunk of flesh from what felt to be its abdomen.

...Luckily, he was blind and couldn't see how the organs that stayed within the horror spilled out, or else he would have definitely emptied his stomach right then and there.

'Well, not like I won't do just that in a few moments...'

Neo complained silently with disgust and after taking a deep breath he stuffed the raw meat, still covered in that dry skin, into his mouth, chewing on it with a pale face while trying to avert his attention.

For heaven's sake! The thing tasted horrendous! No... It was worse than that! Words couldn't even describe just how bad it was!

'I think... I think I will puke...'

Neo placed a hand over his mouth as he felt like throwing up, however, just as he was on a verge of giving up and actually sending everything he had hardly swallowed back out, a bizarre sensation swept through his body before his diseasedness magically vanished!

Weirdly, he no longer felt the urge to vomit nor did his stomach hurt as it did just a second ago. In fact, he felt rather satisfied, if that was the right thing to say it!

'That sensation just now... What was that?'

As to answer his question, suddenly the familiar system panel appeared in his mind, containing information he had never seen before.

[You have inherited 2% of the Augur Beast's Legacy!]

Neo felt confused which quickly turned to surprise when the system notified him about something else.

[Congratulations! You have completed your assigned Legacy Quest!]

[You can collect your Rewards within the Quest Hall!]

[Warning! You have been assigned to complete a Special Legacy Quest!]

Whoosh!

_________________

[Legacy Quest]

• Type: Special

• Quest Description: Inherit the Augur Beast's Legacy wholly!

• Time Limit: 1 hour

• Rewards: 100 System Points & 1 freely chosen Artifact

_________________