It didn't take long before the massacre ended. The ash devil looked at the mangled corpses, a bit apprehensive about their appearance, yet still a bit excited about his upcoming harvest.
He might even find a few cores!
He looked back at the 'peaceful' trees, their leaves back to the old red color, and thought, 'It's only been an hour since I came here and damn, it's already like this. Not gonna lie, I really got lucky that I am a fire-type creature.'
This incident reaffirmed his will to get stronger.
Kai dragged himself towards the corpse that looked the most intact, and fortunately, it was also small in size, so he could devour it in his current form.
'This looks so messed up, man,' sighing inside, he covered the flesh with his ash form.
[You have devoured mangled remains.]
[+1 HP.]
Not satisfied at all, Kai was about to go to his next target but stopped himself and started thinking about something.
He approached a nearby tree and looked at the spot from where a creature had dug itself out. Insides were a mess; the trees didn't even spare the eggs.
But that's not what Kai wanted to look at. There was no other opening or way further inside. This meant…
'Do they come out of the ground at a certain time to gather food or resources?'
[Yes, the trees go to 'sleep' at night; that's when the forest is the most active.]
'Hmm… but why did they suddenly pop out before the time? The trees have some ability to lure the prey?'
[No. The trees have limited consciousness.]
This only meant one thing. Kai looked in the eastward direction.
'Someone, something lured these creatures out… but why?'
He contemplated a little, his gaze shifting to a nearby corpse. 'Whoever they are, they also want the corpses.'
This left him with a few choices.
The safest option was to leave this place and not take the meal of the unknown adversary. But nah, Kai didn't like that cowardly option.
And, he wasn't even sure what his opponent was. There were chances that the other entity or entities would not let go of him and pursue him as a delicious meal.
'Then the better option is devouring some of these to get as much benefit as possible and run away from here. Even if they might pursue me, I will be a little stronger at that time or maybe even have a few more good skills.'
He had to do it the best way possible without leaving behind any hint. But how?
'Hmm…'
Kai wiggled back to the spot where he had devoured the corpse just now and was glad to find that there were no unusual appearances there. He then recalled the skeleton back on the ship and asked the system, 'I cannot devour bones?'
[You can only devour bones that are infused with mana.]
'Mmh, and I am guessing that's not a common occurrence.'
[Yes.]
'Great then,' the ash form had a subtle shine. He immediately made his next plan of action. He'd just devour the creatures with no bones; as many as he could before bolting away.
Kai canceled his current form and reverted back to his main body—this way, he'd be able to move faster. Just when he reverted back, a fragrance hit his nose. It was amazing, almost addicting, and Kai immediately knew that this fragrance was used to lure out the prey to the meat board.
'Now I feel curious… but oh, well, anyways, let's devour some stuff and go away from this place.'
He used a skill.
[Devouring Mark Movement]
[-2 Mana]
At first, the miro wanted to shift the tattoo below his feet but then stopped himself and made it move towards his right palm. He wanted to see how it looked.
'Eh? This is just a line? How does it devour?'
Curiosity got the better of him. He went to a nearby small corpse, and with an 'eww' face, he picked it up with his thumb and forefinger of his left hand.
He brought it near the 'line', his blue eyes shining with eagerness.
'Ohhh.'
When he brought the flesh near the line, it moved, and 'opened' or, to be more exact, a picture of a mouth with sharp teeth appeared. It felt like an black and white animated picture, and as it moved, the flesh started disappearing. Kai felt the familiar feeling of eating an exquisite dish.
A chuckle escaped his lips looking at the state of the flesh and how it actually tasted to him. The miro's taste buds were surely weird, changing even a gooey mess to a good dish.
But this made him worry that he might not be able to enjoy different types of dishes as everything he devoured till now tasted good but tasted the same.
'Oh, well, let's worry about it later on.'
[Devouring Mark Movement]
[-2 Mana]
He saw the line moving towards his leg, and it stopped at the sole of his foot. He had already calculated based on his past experiences as to what time each remain would take.
Apparently, the bigger the body, the longer it would take to devour—the adult man he devoured first had taken about a minute, while insects took mere seconds.
The miro then started running towards the fleshy matters that clearly looked like they didn't have bones. Coincidentally, the gain was extremely similar to before when he was devouring the insects.
[You have devoured mangled remains.]
[+1 HP.]
[You have devoured mangled remains.]
[+1 HP.]
[+1 Mana]
[You have devoured mangled remains.]
[+1 HP.]
[+1 Mana]
[+1 Skill Point]
[…]
While devouring, he kept his eye in the east direction, ready to react if something happened; fortunately, nothing did.
Time passed, and besides points, he didn't gain any new cores, which made him groan.
He recalled the first worm that got attacked and hoped that it had a core, so he started moving back to his original place.
At first, he thought it would be hard to find it, but as he moved to the east, he saw clearly different fleshy remains. It was the worm.
Now the grotesque appearance didn't make him feel disgusted as he heard a familiar ding.
[A core has been detected nearby.]
A smile appeared on his face.