Beast Devourer: I Grow Stronger by Eating Monsters

Sapient.

Not human.

Sapient.

That answered even more questions.

The interface continued.

«"Predation restriction by species: NONE"

"Sapience does not affect biological compatibility."»

Raven remained silent.

There it was.

No special category existed.

Not to Predation.

Humans and monsters weren’t standing on opposite sides of some invisible boundary.

They were simply organisms with things that could be assimilated.

Raven closed the interface.

"So monsters were never special."

He stood.

---

He didn’t immediately test the Skill on his own body.

He already had one movement ability that had seriously punished his legs during the previous fight.

So he started with a rock.

He picked one up from the ground.

Small.

About an ounce.

He focused his mana.

Kinetic Acceleration responded differently from Ember Spark.

He didn’t have to create anything.

He only had to tell something already moving to move faster.

Raven threw the rock at a tree.

Activated the Skill the instant it left his fingers.

CRACK.

The rock vanished from sight.

A chunk of bark exploded forty feet away.

Raven stood still.

"Oh."

He walked over to the tree.

The rock had shattered against the wood, but it had left a crater deep enough for Raven to fit the first joint of a finger inside.

Mana: 11 / 18

He’d spent more than expected.

That probably meant mass and acceleration both affected the cost.

He picked up another stone.

This time, he didn’t try to maximize it.

Throw.

Skill.

Tak.

The rock struck the wood far faster than any normal human throw could manage, but without destroying itself.

Mana: 10 / 18

Much better.

Control.

Like everything else.

Raven looked at his hand.

The leader had used the same ability to accelerate his own body.

It would probably be less explosive than Burst Step, but allow him to correct his movement while using it.

Burst Step was a discharge.

Kinetic Acceleration felt more like a tool.

That potentially made it more dangerous.

He thought about a knife.

An arrow.

A rock.

A projectile.

His thoughts stopped there.

He didn’t have a firearm.

Yet.

But he could imagine exactly what that Skill would do once he eventually had one.

Raven smiled.

"Worth it."

The words came out more naturally than they probably should have.

He looked back at the corpse.

Nothing.

He didn’t suddenly feel hungry for a second person.

He didn’t develop an urge to bite every passerby.

He didn’t hear voices.

He hadn’t turned into a beast.

He simply had a new Skill.

"Good."

He had been starting to suspect the universe had a sense of humor.

Raven searched the bodies before leaving.

Not because he wanted souvenirs.

Money.

Three pouches of crowns.

Two usable knives.

A decent bow.

Arrows.

Several alchemical vials he didn’t recognize.

A small book filled with symbols of the Hollow Father.

And various belongings that had probably once belonged to people the cannibals had killed.

Raven took what he could sell.

He saw no reason to pretend dead murderers still had property rights he needed to respect.

He also found mercenary badges.

Two.

Neither belonged to any of the six.

Raven studied them.

Copper.

Iron.

Victims.

He stored them.

The House might pay for recovered identification.

Or at the very least, they could serve as proof that something else had been operating near its routes.

Before leaving, Raven picked up one of the small metal pieces the leader had used as a projectile.

He held it between two fingers.

Kinetic Acceleration.

Low power.

The piece shot forward and punched through a rotten plank.

Raven nodded.

Then he looked at the six bodies.

One cut open.

Five killed by other means.

The feeling was still strange.

Just not for the reason he’d expected.

His problem wasn’t that he’d eaten part of the man.

His problem was how quickly he’d turned the possibility into another tactical tool.

He could lie to himself.

Tell himself it meant he was losing his humanity.

Raven had no patience for cheap melodrama.

He’d been killing people long before Predation appeared.

What mattered wouldn’t be what he ate.

It would be why he killed.

If he ever started murdering innocent people solely because they had interesting Skills, then he’d have something worth examining.

Until then...

"Meat is meat."

He looked at the corpse again.

Frowned.

"No. That sounded too much like the idiot."

He put on his backpack.

"Resource allocation."

Pause.

"Worse."

He gave up trying to name it.

---

Greyhaven appeared as the sun was already beginning to descend.

Raven had taken longer than expected.

The injuries hadn’t helped.

Neither had the backpack.

Fortunately, Kinetic Acceleration had already proven useful in another way.

He could apply small amounts during movement to momentarily lengthen a step or boost a jump without the violent directional commitment of Burst Step.

It wasn’t free.

After several tests, Raven decided not to spend any more mana.

The city looked the same.

Walls.

Lines.

Guards.

Merchants.

Slaves.

People hurrying back before certain internal gates closed.

Greyhaven’s normality felt almost strange after the barn.

A man was selling meat pies beside the entrance.

Raven stared at them longer than necessary.

The vendor raised an eyebrow.

"You want one?"

Raven looked at the pie.

"What meat?"

"Pork."

Raven kept staring at him.

"You sure?"

The man looked offended.

"Of course I’m sure!"

Raven bought one.

He needed to eat.

And that question was probably going to follow him around for the next few days.

---

The gray-haired clerk was still behind the same counter in the Mercenary House.

Raven was beginning to suspect she lived there.

She saw him enter.

Then looked at the bandages.

Then the backpack.

Finally, her eyes dropped to his Copper badge.

"You came back."

Raven reached the counter.

"That was the idea."

"I thought you’d take longer."

"The target cooperated."

The woman looked at his side.

"Doesn’t look like it."

Raven placed a wrapped bundle on the counter.

"Proof of death."

"I sincerely hope that isn’t what it looks like."

"Depends what it looks like."

The woman opened it.

Inside was one of the Gloom Stalker’s cervical plates, a recognizable section of hide, and one claw.

Her expression shifted slightly.

"Wait."

She called someone over.

A small man wearing glasses and a leather apron emerged from a back room.

He examined the pieces.

Used a magnifying lens.

Then a tool embedded with a crystal.

The claw emitted a faint pale-blue glow.

"Awakened," he said.

The clerk looked at Raven.

"The Gloom Stalker."

"Yes."

"Level fourteen."

"That’s what the report said."

The man with the glasses continued examining the pieces.

"Recently evolved. Residual Burst Step. And this..."

He touched the cervical plate.

"Mana Surge."

He looked at Raven.

"It’s dead?"

Raven pointed at the claw.

"I don’t usually cut pieces off animals while they’re still trying to eat me."

The man studied him.

"Some people do."

"Interesting people."

The clerk pulled out a form.

"Contract confirmed."

Her pen began moving.

Several people nearby had started listening.

Not many.

Enough.

"Raven Ashford. Copper. Level..."

She picked up the crystal.

"Hand."

Raven placed his palm against it.

Light appeared.

«Human

Level 5

Common

Blessing: None»

The woman frowned.

"Five."

"Leveled up."

"I can see that."

The man with the glasses looked at the crystal.

Then at the claw.

Then at Raven.

"You killed a Level Fourteen Awakened while you were a Level Five Common."

"I was four when the fight started."

Silence.

Raven realized that clarification probably hadn’t helped.

The clerk stopped writing.

"You want to tell me how?"

"Not particularly."

"It’s for the report."

"Traps."

She wrote.

"Party?"

"Solo."

The pen stopped again.

"Support?"

"No."

"Artifact?"

"No."

"Unregistered Blessing?"

Raven pointed at the crystal.

"It just answered that."

The woman slowly inhaled.

"Ashford."

"Yes."

"Sometimes you make it extremely difficult to determine whether you’re competent or simply too stupid to die."

Raven considered it.

"Both can be true."

The man with the glasses laughed.

The clerk didn’t.

But one corner of her mouth moved slightly.

"Wait here."

She took the report.

"Where’s Garrick?"

"Supervisor Venn is in his office."

"Perfect."

Judging by her tone, Raven suspected it probably wasn’t going to be perfect for Garrick.

---

Garrick Venn came downstairs in less than five minutes.

The expression on his face when he saw Raven made the injuries slightly more worthwhile.

It wasn’t complete surprise.

First came disbelief.

Then irritation.

Then rapid calculation.

Finally, an administrative smile.

"Ashford."

"Venn."

The supervisor looked at the monster parts on the counter.

"I suppose congratulations are in order."

"You can pay me."

The smile lost some warmth.

"First, we need to complete—"

Raven pulled out the sealed contract.

Placed it on the wood.

"Sixty-five crowns."

Garrick looked at the document.

"There are fees."

"Not on that."

"The House retains—"

"Ten crowns as a deposit. You already have them."

"Processing."

Raven leaned forward slightly.

"Garrick."

The man looked up.

"Two hundred."

Silence.

The gray-haired clerk looked between them.

Garrick’s expression changed.

"I don’t know what—"

"Sixty-five."

Raven didn’t raise his voice.

"Now."

The supervisor studied him.

Then smiled.

"Of course."

The clerk raised an eyebrow.

Garrick gestured toward the cashier.

"Pay him."

A pouch arrived shortly afterward.

Raven counted.

Sixty-five.

"Good."

Garrick lowered his voice.

"We had an arrangement."

"And you honored it."

"Then this ends here."

Raven put the coins away.

"As long as you stay useful."

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