A/N: "Merry Christmas, you filthy animal, and a Happy New Year." (Guess which movie this line is from)
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It was a massive bin, probably 10 meters in diameter, and inside it were numerous and plump but relatively tiny opaque centipedes crawling around, like those white beetle grubs but a bit longer.
"Euughh" Now, I wasn't a hater for Creepy Crawlies, in fact, I loved them, specifically the more exotic things like spiders, ants, stick/leaf insect, etc. Why'd you think I had a reptile as a pet? Reptile Owners and Tarantula owners or Exotic pet owners in general had a massive overlap, so if you had reptiles as your pet, chances are you'd also have spiders and other arachnids as one of your pests, so yes, I'd say I like them to some extent. That said, this was a whole new level of creepy.
I noticed that there was some slop on the side of the bin that they were in to which they aggregated to, probably devouring the mountain of kaiju or monster meat slop.
"Yeah, sorry, but y'all need to go" I prepped my [Plasma Stream Variant] and let hell break loose.
[10xp] [2xp]
[1xp] [1xp]
[2xp] [1xp]
[6xp] [9xp]
[9xp] [4xp]
[6xp] [1xp]
[6xp] [7xp]
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
—-----------
[Total xp: 1,196]
[You have levelled up! ×10!]
[Total gains:
+10 to all Attributes
+20 AP
+2 Shot Limit]
[Name: Alan Jones
Race: Dragon / Night Fury (Male Hatchling) (0/3»)]
⟩Stats
Level: 26 (41/121)
HP: 2240/2240 (+100↑)
Defence: 112 (+5↑)
Energy: 572/572 (+20↑)
Shot Limit: 6/14 (+2↑)
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After a few seconds of torching them all, and having levelled up multiple times, I stopped when I thought that all of them were dead. I looked around and saw that the once opaquely transparent centipedes turned golden brown, and the smell was irresistible.
I quickly grabbed one of them and put it in my mouth.
*KKRRRRRUUUUUNNNCCHH*
Divine…the crispiness was out of this world, and the flavour reminded me of crispy chicken skin, delectable...…
[Oh my, you've been dazed for about a minute, host, focus please] I snapped from my trance
"Ah, sorry about that. I wish I could give you some, it tastes really good, you know"
[I can see that, thank you for the invite, but no need, at least not yet.]
"Well, okay then, I am glad that the skill increases their shelf life, though, I wouldn't want it to get spoiled. I put another in my mouth
*KKRRRRRUUUUUNNNCCHH*
I walked back to my part of the cave after a few minutes and went outside the cave.
I looked upon my broken wings that were grafted with the Queen's Carapace from earlier.
"This should help me fly a little, right, Lucoa?" I asked her.
[Yes, the grafting seems to be solid, so a little flight wouldn't hurt, but why would you do that?]
"Well, you see, I figured I should at least try to get the electric skill that those Electro-Leafwings have" Since I am still a child Kaiju, or Child Monster, I am more likely to get the skill.
[Quite ambitious of you, but you have seen that there was a swarm of Leafwings outside with the Electro-variants, right? How are you going to battle that?]
"Oh, I don't HAVE to battle them, I just gotta look for some of the corpses that the old Warbat killed" I'm not stupid enough to fight them all, I'd get torn to shreds mid-air.
I looked at the patches on the ground to see the corpses
"Some of them probably got turned into mincemeat, though"
I quickly looked at the downed corpse of the Warbat, which finally croaked as I couldn't use [Analysis Skill] on it anymore, but it was a good thing that it crawled away from my place before passing away. I wouldn't want the Leafwings to see me flying so close to them.
When the Leafwings alongside their Electro-variants were feasting on the carcass, I used [Eagle Eye] to find some Leafwing corpses with a slightly bluish colour.
I looked left and right with my eyes. Wherever there was a little patch of red, there were busted-up Leafwings strewn on the ground, some still alive and crawling; meanwhile, the others were dead.
I marked some corpses that looked a bit blue with [Mind Map,] and after marking 20 or so Leafwings, I activated [Silent Glide] just to be safe.
I looked directly down below from where I stood, "Fooo-", I blew air out of my mouth.
'It's pretty high, not gonna lie, I'm probably overreacting that I'm gonna die, but we won't know until we try'
"Welp, here goes nothing"
I jumped off the cliff and started falling, approaching the forest floor at a moderate falling speed, and my wings were opened to help slow down my descent.
The wind travelled through my body seamlessly, and the air felt like it was caressing my scales.
I had always been afraid of heights in my previous life; it was mostly because the urge to jump was always whispering in the back of my mind, what was that phenomenon called again?, doesn't matter, cuz right now I'm feeling amazing.
After a few seconds of falling, I reached the soil, my limbs landing with almost no sound.
'Heh, it seems that even falling is under the influence of [Silent Glide]'
The [Mind Map] was a circular mini-map in the top right corner of my vision with a little opacity, similar to some sandbox games.
I took my first step on the forest floor, slowly but surely, going to the closest mark.
The forest floor was littered with rotting leaves and dead bush heads as well as some dried-up twigs and branches, with the occasional living grass, shrubs and ferns here and there appearing from time to time.
I then made my way towards the 1st mark, no luck, not even a little blue, the light must've warped it to look bluish.
So I removed the mark from the map and went on to the next.
The majority of the marked corpses were a bust, obviously, I was slowly losing hope, so when I reached my 12th.
'Finally!'
*Huuuuurrrrr* *zzzt*
Well, it wasn't a total corpse, it was still alive, but was lying on its back to the ground, its body facing the sun. I could see that its chest was caved in, as well as some parts of its head and eye were badly damaged.
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Usual copypaste:
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