Chapter 3 - Life

Dark, stuffy, stinks, slightly wet. These are the common qualities of a cave, qualities this particular cave also has. A not so common quality however, is a huge Monsterous being standing within it.

The first thing he felt was disorientation, then power, then more power, then even more. It felt like he could carry a mountain on his back, it was euphoric.

"Oh..oh fuck yeah"

The timber of his voice surprised him, though that didn't stop the manic grin from adorning his face

'This is great, way greater than I thought. I need to test this out on something.'

He looked around, and despite it being very dark he could perfectly see. Not that that helped him out here considering the cave was completely barren.

He walked towards the opening, the exit he thought. He poked his head through first.

It seemed he was deep in the woods, convenient.

'Luckily it's night, hmm.' He smirks 'let's take this out for a test drive.'

He started to walk, then jog, then run. Much faster than something his size should, though not supernaturally so, not yet.

He continued to run around for awhile, getting used to his new body.

He slows to a stall

'This is great, though time to test the strength.'

He looks over to a particularly sturdy looking teee, oak maybe. He's not sure.

He walks over to it, changes his stance, and cocks his arm back

'Hopefully this isn't too loud'

*BOOM*

He wasn't too sure what he thought was gonna happen, but regardless he was left mouth agape after the general area he struck burst into pieces.

The tree then preceded to fall on another tree, that one also fell under its weight and landed upon another tree. Almost like dominoes.

"…."

'Maybe I should have thought more about that.'

——

Back at the cave was the monsterous man, or perhaps man like monster; sitting against the walls of the cave.

'Man, this is great. Though I feel like I'm forgetting something…'

"Fuck, the pill!"

He started frantically looking around the cave, but even after minutes it was to no avail. He eventually slammed his hands into his sides in frustration, it was then he remembered he's wearing pants.

He checked his left pocket and low and behold was a golden pill.

"…Ahem.."

He mumbles under his breath

"Glad no one saw that"

He takes on a more serious expression, though with his appearance almost every expression looks serious.

'So is this gonna be instant or am I going into hibernation or something? Probably should have specified that in the wish…'

'Fuck it'

He threw the pill in the air and caught it in his mouth, swallowing it instantly.

'So…is it a gradual process or wha-'

Pain. Pain of which he never knew, at least the original him. With his two set of memories he's known similar pain, well still not as bad as this. But those memories of going through terrible pain is the only thing truly keeping him conscious.

His blood felt like it was boiling, his skin like it was ripping apart, his bones like they were being crushed, and his organs like they were on fire.

He could see the bulging veins on his dark arms and he could swear he saw steam coming from him.

He had long since collapsed and was spasming on the ground, how long all this actually lasted is lost to him. Though it felt like eternity.

Eventually he started to puke, and he did not stop once he started. It was like a stream of lava was ejecting from within him. This went on for what felt like even longer.

Eventually it ended, though he was much too exhausted to see what had changed, he passed out immediately.

____

Death, blasphemy, sin, and everything bad in the world. That's what it smelled like, what 'it' is, he doesn't know. But he knows that's what woke him up out of his almost coma like slumber.

"What… what the fuck is that smell?"

He muttered, though his muttering sounded more like a demonic growl. His voice before he took the pill was like the voice of an angel compared to his now.

He looked around, and things looked different than before, perspective wise. Though what really disturbed him wasn't the sudden change in his perspective, it was..

"What the fuck is that?"

All around him, on him, and plastered all around the cave was puddles and streaks of a black and red liquid that looked much more disgusting than that description did it justice.

It was then that he remembered what he was doing after taking the pill, or rather what he was expelling

'That…came outta me? I…I guess it's like impurities or something, I read a lot of cultivation novels. I think that's a good guess. But damn does it stink.'

It took him a few minutes to get used to the smell, and only then did he feel the drastic power in his very being.

'This…before was nothing. This power is amazing!'

Like last time he went out for a run, like last time it was also dark. Perhaps it was the same night and only a few minutes or hours went by, perhaps days or more.

But unlike last time, the speed he was running at was not just unnatural for his size, it was plain unnatural.

'This has gotta be as fast as a car, maybe more!'

And his size, was similarly unnatural.

'I definitely grew taller, I remember running past some of these trees before and my head was definitely lower. How do I look anyway?'

He went about finding a river or stream, hoping to see his reflection. He did so quite fast, as it was not just his power that improved.

'I feel like I got the fucking Sharingan or something, I don't think I'm at Witcher level senses but I don't think I'm too far off at this point.'

He neared the river with that wide grin he's been wearing throughout his entire run, he looked in the reflection.

What he saw was…