Chapter 5 - 5

Well, it wasn't so much a theory on my race. More that I had a theory about my body in general, specifically that I needed and craved delicious blood. And it made sort of sense. I mean the boys back then smelled completely awful to me, their blood at least.

But the shriveled corpse in front of me. Ah~ her blood tasted like the sweetest thing imaginable. It was just the greatest. Was it just 'cause they were boys. It could be. But was I that sexist as to not even considering their blood even if I would starve without their blood.

Mm~ Was I?

I chuckled. The answer was obvious.

Yeah. I was.

I rolled over and back into the bed. It was quite funny that I was willing to starve to death just to not give the... ahem- suck suck to any guy. I laughed again, a full bellied laugh. Yeah... I sighed. Hah-

And just as sudden as those thoughts had come, so too did another. I tilted my head and looked to the sky. Or the cave's roof I guess.

"Yo?" I called. "System?"

Mmm... was the system watching me, or at the very least listening. I turned and stroked my chin for a second. Yeah. Yeah it was, there was this... tingling sensation that gave me confirmation.

And so I asked my question.

"Can I leave the dungeon?"

[Yes, although it is recommended to not leave the dungeon core unprotected.]

'Yay!' I cheered to myself. It was a load off of my back. There was always this wriggling thought at the back of my mind, saying that I would be stuck here for the rest of my days. Luckily that wasn't true.

But before I could leave. And that was what I wanted to do. I probably could just stay here and let people come to me. That was boring. I scoffed. Way~ way~ too boring. And what was life without a little risk.

Though there were a few things I needed to do before I left. A few essentials. My core was already hidden so that was one thing off of my back. But there was always something else to think of.

First and foremost. Well, I looked around the room. "Nope~" I smiled. Can't have anyone thinking they can rest here. If they make it to the end then they should wallow in the despair that there's nothing at all for them.

I laughed. Quite uproariously. Yeah, that would be hilarious. Imagine that, going all this way, fighting through all of these monsters and at the end of the dungeon there isn't even a place to rest let alone a reward.

The despair and frustration would be 'oh so delicious. I had to stop myself from drooling just thinking of it.

/./

I nodded to myself. Even if I was huffing a bit from all the exertion. Turns out that being at the core of the dungeon meant that you were at the core of the dungeon. Meaning that I had to trek all the way to the exit.

And just because I was the dungeon - literally - didn't mean that I knew the exit. Weird, right? So I had to trek all the way through, going through twists and turns. So many twists and turns.

I pat the slime on my shoulder. He was a small thing, by design too, the first I had made. And the first to be able to manipulate his size like this. And with that I was ready to set off on a whole new adventure.

This dungeon. I smiled. This dungeon wouldn't be confined to his dungeon. He would spread his wings to the sky. 

And so I made my first step outside the dungeon. And god did I regret it. There was this painful headache almost telling me that I was making a huge mistake. That a dungeon shouldn't be outside of his dungeon.

I grimaced and moved to go back into the dungeon, hoping that maybe with some exposure therapy the headache would go away in time. But the choice was made for me.

There was a womanly squeal near me and I was forced to the ground. 

"Oh my god~ My god~ You're just too cute... so precious. Wait." She stopped her rambling. Placed me in her lap then looked at me queerly. "Whatcha doing here?"

It was then that I learned of my surroundings. A forest. A grand and beautiful forest with green everywhere. And in front of me was a woman. She held me so tenderly, like a mother would their child.

But no one ever said that I wasn't one to roll with the punches. And so my eyes watered on command. I looked up to her with a pitiful cry. "Mommy?"

/./

Unknown Pov -

It was called the cataclysm. A sudden wave of what we now knew as mana, though to call it sudden was to undermine the whole process. It was a gathering of mana over thousands of years, that finally, and suddenly, burst as a wave that reached the entire world.

There were many effects. Though if I were to ask some random person - and if they didn't call me an idiot - then the greatest effect would've been the powers we gained from it. Supernatural powers that allowed us to evolve to a new and greater height.

These people gained powers from what was called an awakening. When these bubbles of mana, accumulated in different places, for lack of a better word, burst. People in the path of this mana would gain powers though the exact strength and form was quite random.

Why this happened... well no one quite knew. There were millions of answers and questions that spawned from this simple explanation. And one of those was the reason why I was here. 

A forest in the middle of bum fuck nowhere had shown signs of gathering immense amount of mana. But the weird thing was that there wasn't any awakened people around here. No one exerting strength that was larger than what they could show. No strange abilities that couldn't be explained.

Just some con men that wanted to earn a bit of money from the local people. It wasn't like they were savages either, they had electricity and a means to access the internet. It was just... hah- I sighed.

Either way I was sent to investigate. But before I was able to I had to install some equipment and standard operating procedure was to get the approval of the locales. But no~ They couldn't just let me. 

No. They had to make a request for me to investigate the death of some of their children. Which led me to where I was. In the middle of the forest, trying to find the likely remains of the children.

It wasn't that I didn't care, it was the callous nature to extort someone doing live saving research into doing what their guards could do a hundred times better.

And then... like a gift from god I saw it. If I hadn't known better, that there were children in this forest I would've thought it an incubus. A child one that displayed more adorableness than sexiness. But an incubus no less.

He was beautiful, he was cute, he was pretty. He was the sight of dreams. So despite my self-control I tackled him and placed the boy in my lap. No doubt spouting a bunch of nonsense about how cute he was and how precious he was...

I scratched my side. Ah- that... we can probably forget that couldn't we. But apparently I wasn't allowed to. For he uttered something with pure innocence and tears. Something that wrenched my heart so badly.

"Mommy?"