"Angravada, always remember to feed the flowers."
"But, mom, I'm still lost in the forest…"
"Don't forget the flowers, Angravada!!"
"What is the business with that boring batch of flowers anyway."
"Don't forget the flowers! Or I will disown you!"
"Like I said…" The rodent lass awoke from her temporary slumber, trying to grasp the faraway sky with expression filled with annoyance. "WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THE FLOWER!?"
Seeing the rather annoyed jet-black beast with quad crustacean legs staring his faceless gaze onto her made her realize her own place. Angravada shrieked the moment she realized that it was the same beast that she had stumbled upon back then, and in response, Kivas began stood on two legs as he spread his front spectral limbs widely as if to make himself look bigger, trying to shut her trap because of how infuriated he was by the rodent lass' loud voice.
"HIIIIIIIIKH-"
'CAN YOU PLEASE BE QUIET!"
Of course, Kivas couldn't speak his mind, but the sheer presence and emotion that he emitted was enough to be felt instinctively by the rodent lass. Sniffing as she tried to hold her tears, Angravada immediately shut her mouth with fear.
'Sheesh, what with her anyway.' If Kivas had a face, his expression would be a heavily unimpressed frown of that of an old man. 'The demoness lady back then didn't overreact as much as she did. Did I spawn in a place where the sapient dwellers possess the fear and hatred from monsters as their life was being threatened by them?'
After being reminded that there were truck-sized, almost human-like dragons whose barfed high thermal carbonated drinks like a laser in this forest.
'I guess it's given that the fear of beasts and monsters exist for them.'
Out of boredom, Kivas checked the third purple orb.
The first option was [Lizardman's Constitution: Scales Body Type A], and the second panel was [???] with the symbols being a giant mouth with a deadly set of sharp teeth.
'Ah! Finally! Something that may fix my lack of energy problem, and also something that may scare the hell out of every living being in front of me.'
Kivas chose the [???].
-Boon of Constitution-
[Taotie's Constitution: Searing Gluttony]
-The more thee eat, the more thee hunger! The bigger the rage! The bigger the pond! Swallow everything whole! Down the hatch! There's no such thing as enough in this day and age. Even if one would show restraint, somebody else will just take what you won't!-
As the gleaming gold hurled itself at Kivas, it created a visible pulse all over the surface of his body. The front part of his tadpole-shaped torso began to split into a slit, growing sharp triangular teeth akin to that of a shark but bigger in size.
Kivas also felt that the inside of his body had changed due to that transformation. It was the same when he had just acquired the stomach furnace of the ancient dragon. But instead of an overwhelming heat and flames accumulating in his stomach, it was a perpetual empty that knew no bound.
But there was no sense of hunger nor fatigue like when he usually got a boon due to the siphoned physical energy that was used to make the transformation to happen, even if his stomach barely had anything in it. Quite on the contrary, Kivas felt an increase of strength and energy, quadruple the amount of what he had before! It was as if the air the space that slipped through his teeth had been digested into an encrypted form of resources, solely existing to be the fuel for the body of the calamity bringer.
Kivas stood still for quite a while, trying to understand the internal mechanism of his new boon. Not only that it had the best effect so far, there might be some kind of side effect knowing that it was taken from the constitution of Taotie, a creature in Chinese mythology known for their extreme gluttony.
Taotie are also referred to as one of the 'Four Evil Creatures of the World' in Chinese mythology, and the taotie in particular may serve as a reference to the mythological figure Chi You, one of the three legendary founding fathers of China. In China today, Chi You is worshiped as the god of war.
'Yeah, I remembered that fact clearly in my head.' Kivas felt a strange stigma of thought for this run. 'Why do most of the Boons of Constitution that I acquired are related to evil-sounding things…'
It put Kivas into a wary state of deep thought. Meanwhile, the rodent lass, who saw that the jet-black beast had been immobile for a while, was currently constructing a proper little plan in her head.
Similar to Kivas, Angravada was put into deep thought.
'Should I run!??' Cold sweats of adrenaline began to pour down from her forehead. 'I don't know how I'm still alive from that carnivorous tree, but the fact that I was brought here by the beast could only mean one thing…
'They are preserving me as a food!' Angravada bit her lower lip as she showed a desperate expression. 'But I still don't know if that being is carnivorous or herbivore. I need to look at the teeth, but I see not a single facial feature on that beast's front body. Although the beast hasn't really damaged or restrained me in any way, maybe there is a different reason for why I was brought here…'
Not wanting to destroy her brain by thinking, Angravada put her life on the bet by immediately taking a sharp leap from her feet, trying to run away from this place. Right after three steps away from her location, Kivas noticed her and did a sharp turn maneuver like that of a spider.
Angravada immediately recognized the rows of sharp teeth on the beast's face. That revelation terrified her more than anything she had experienced in her rough life. Her instinct told her to stop and submit, but it conflicted with the fact that she had already commenced an action that would make the beast even more suspicious.
So in the last saving throw, she used all of her momentum to anchor her right leg in front of her, stopping her running motion. She then put her left hand on her waist, and the finger of her right pointing diagonally at the sky, striking a rather valiant pose.