Chapter 158: Chapter 158 - Devouring(Part 1)

"Man, this is disgusting...but it is a Mega Slime, so I can’t let it go to waste," I muttered to myself, as I chugged down a gelatinous mugful of the Slime.

It’s the 15th of Martius, 2016, and I was down in the Labyrinth. I was here almost daily, the others would tag along often, but I come down alone if they’re not up for it.

Well, except for Prysm, that is. I need her to teleport me back out, after all. She’s currently in my Pocket Dimension, I check in on her every hour or so to keep for from feeling too cooped up or restless.

Every now and then, she’ll opt to come out and do some fighting, just to alleviate her boredom. I’m being nicer to her as well, since I need her cooperation in order to max out the effectiveness of my efforts to grow stronger by devouring Monsters.

Without her Teleportation, I’d either have to resign myself to only coming down here when she’s up for it, or I’d have to do what Argent did and straight up live down here till I’m satisfied.

It was tough convincing her to agree to come down to the Labyrinth with me almost every single day, in the end she agreed on the condition that I take her shopping and buy her stuff once a week.

For some reason, she was adamant that I tag along for that, so I couldn’t just give her money and let her go buy stuff herself. It’s annoying, but I suppose it’s worth it if it means that I can use her Teleportation Skill every time I want to come down here. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Anyway, I’m down to the thirty-fifth floor now, the last few floors have been teeming with Disastrous Grade Monsters, so it hasn’t been easy. I’ve got Black Hole as a trump card that works great against pretty much any Monster, but the problem with using it is that there won’t be much of the Monster left to eat afterwards.

On that note, I’m definitely starting to notice a difference in my physical strength as well as the potency of my Spells. I’ve come across a few Catastrophic Grades every now and then, but I’ve had to retreat against most of them.

I’ve tried attacking them from the shadows, but more often than not, my attacks are either too slow or not powerful enough to finish them off. So I’ve only been able to kill a precious few Catastrophic Grades, like four of them. Well, five including this one.

It seems that, regardless of Threat Level, all Slimes are pretty easy opponents for me to take on. With my whip, I can pierce right through their gelatinous bodies and hit their cores, they’re no threat to me at all.

Even Mega Slimes, the Catastrophic Grade species, are just as easy to kill. They may be bigger and their attacks are more powerful, but they’re just as slow-moving as the lower Threat Level Slimes, so they’re easy targets.

The one I just killed is a Mega Electric Slime, so consuming it should boost the potency of my lightning Spells. The other Catastrophic Grades I’ve killed include a Mega Poison Slime, a Mega Taratect and two Chimeras.

The Mega Taratect was a seriously tough battle, I very nearly almost died. As for the Chimeras...I got super lucky, I came across the pair sleeping and quickly killed them before they could wake up.

Coming across sleeping Monsters is pretty rare, especially down in the Labyrinth. They likely try to find a good hiding place first before going to sleep...and the two Chimeras were well hidden, I sensed them through my Thought Communication and could tell that they were asleep, but it took a while to find them.

Good thing they didn’t wake up, I don’t think I’m capable of taking down Monsters of that caliber by myself, at least not yet. Chimeras are fairly big Monsters, standing at about eight feet tall while on four legs.

They had three distinctive heads, the middle head resembling that of a lion, the right head has a more reptilian appearance with horns and scaly skin, and the left head looks like a goat with large, twisted horns.

Their upper body and front legs are like that of a lion, while their hind legs are hooved like a goats’, and the lower half of their torsos and tail are leathery and scaly like a reptile. They also have wings like a Dragon, and each of their heads have different attacks.

The reptilian head breathes fire, the lion head has a deafening roar that can rupture your eardrums and knock you out, and the goat head can fire out blasts of wind.

They’re also one of the few Monster species that you can find both in Labyrinths and on the outside, though they’re pretty rare outside of Labyrinths.

Alright, I think I’ve had my fill of this Slime...it’s way too large to eat even a quarter of it, and I don’t think I could handle slurping down anymore of it anyway. It’s so gross...

I then scooped up a large amount of what was left and put it into my Pocket Dimension...the others finally came around and have started eating Monsters too, so instead of letting any leftover meat go to waste, I store it for later once I’m back out, and I share it with them since I can’t eat all of it before it rots.

I’m on my own when it comes to poisonous Monsters though, since I’m the only one with a resistance Skill to rely on. I did offer to heal them if they eat such Monsters too, but so far, they seem pretty apprehensive.

Well, anyway, time to continue onwards. I’ve been down here for five hours so far, I think I’m still good to keep going for at least a couple more or so.

Hm? Oh, nice, there’s a Monster just up ahead...I’ve sensed this species before, it’s a Minataur, a Disastrous Grade Monster. They’re pretty strong, but I’ve fought quite a few at this point, so I know exactly how to defeat it.

Also, their meat is among the easiest to eat when it comes to Monsters...it’s a little gamey and has a strong aftertaste, but otherwise not terrible. I’m a bit stuffed since I just ate that Slime, so I’ll save this one for later.

It soon came into sight, turning this way and growling as I provoked it using my Thought Communication. Minataurs are one of the only Monster species that use weapons...they often wield large stalagmites, using them like clubs to smash their prey. This one’s got one of those too...alright then, let’s see if it can put up a better fight against me than the previous Minataurs I’ve come across.

As I provoked it again, it let out an enraged roar and shot towards me, the ground shaking slightly as loud thuds echoed out with each footstep. It leapt forward as it closed in on me and swung down the club with immense force.

I swiftly cracked my whip up and across, slicing off its arm from around the elbow before springing back as it let out a roar of pain and anger, swinging its foot out towards me.

Blood gushed out of the stump that was left of its arm as it landed, before it raised its foot and slammed it onto the ground in an effort to upset my balance.

Nice try, but all Minataurs do that, it’s predictable...I activated Jet Soles to fly up before the shockwave upon impact could reach me, before rapidly stiffening and extending my whip out towards its head.

It narrowly evaded my whip, a shallow cut appearing across the side of its face as it tore up a chunk of the ground, crushing it into small pieces in its fist before flinging it at me with immense force.

I quickly opened up a portal into my Pocket Dimension to block it, the incoming projectiles harmlessly flying into the portal. My eyes widened slightly as I shut the portal, to see the Monster having sprang up this way the instant after I’d opened the portal, which partially blocked my view.

Hm, I’ve wanted to try this for a while, let’s see what happens, I’ll do it just for an instant...suddenly, as the glow of a Magic Circle appeared inside the Monster’s chest as it began to reach out towards me with its remaining arm, a gaping hole abruptly burst open around its chest, killing it instantly.

Oh, damn, that worked really well...just for a second, I used the Black Hole Spell, manifesting it inside of the Minataur’s chest. Looks like the flesh and bones in that spot imploded instantly into the black hole...hm, this could work well against Catastrophic Grade Monsters as well, I just sink into the shadows and wait for them to get within the range of my Distance Casting.

It won’t work against Monsters that can fly and are on the cautious side, but it’s still bound to be highly effective when I do get the opportunity to use it. Still, that destroyed a sizeable chunk of this thing’s meat...I’ll have to make sure to only keep the Spell active for an instant to avoid wasting too much...

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