Chapter 161: Chapter 161 - Devouring(Part 4)

D-damn it...! It...it feels like my fingertips are about to burst! What the hell is happening to me!?

"What...the actual...fuck...?" I muttered to myself, using a healing Spell on my fingers but to no effect.

I don’t understand what this is...whatever’s going on, it’s hard to explain. I’d just gotten done eating a Mega Taratect, and the discomfort I’d been feeling in my fingertips suddenly grew a lot worse.

It’s strange, it doesn’t exactly hurt, but it’s still immensely uncomfortable. It’s like having a tiny bit of meat stuck between your teeth, and you can’t dislodge it with your tongue, your finger or even a toothpick.

It’s like that, but a hundred times worse. Don’t tell me...is this really a side effect of eating Monsters? Argent did say that he never experienced any noticeable negative side effects, but then, I’ve eaten a whole lot of Monster species that he never did.

Particularly those that are poisonous or have venomous attacks, the only ones I’ve avoided are Monsters like Acid Slimes and Lava Slimes, basically any Monsters that would be impossible to eat without melting my insides and killing myself in the process.

Something’s strange about this sudden increase in discomfort around my fingertips though...the discomfort elsewhere in my body, my teeth and my throat in particular, haven’t intensified, it’s only the unpleasant sensation in my fingertips that have gotten worse.

"Huh? What the...?" I blurted out in shock, as I looked at my fingertips to see if they were visibly bloated or anything.

They look the same as always, except for one thing...am I seeing this right? This, uh...this can’t be normal. What the hell am I looking at!?

It...it looks like there are, uh...small holes at the tips of each of my fingers, a few millimeters below the nails. I haven’t exactly paid close attention to my fingertips before, I doubt most people have, but...yeah, I’m pretty sure these weren’t there before!

What the fuck!? I can’t close them up with healing Magic, it’s having no effect...and the tight feeling around each fingertip feels like it’s growing worse and worse!

M-maybe I can squeeze out whatever’s causing that feeling through the holes, like a pimple...I then grabbed my left index finger and squeezed the tip hard-...heh, that’s what she said.

Okay, focus! Come on, please let this work, for the love of-...woah! I stared in disbelief, unable to quite process what I was looking at. I’d been squeezing my finger really hard, but it wasn’t making any difference.

And then, in my desperation to get rid of the discomfort, I just sort of willed my finger to shoot out whatever’s causing the discomfort and...it did. I then focused on my other fingers, and after a few seconds, the same thing happened.

A white, sticky thread-like substance burst out from each of my fingertips, sticking onto the ground and walls as they shot out of me...and yes, the innuendo is not lost on me.

Are these...spider webs? And on another note, the discomfort is gone...well, not completely, but it’s reduced to a level where I’m barely noticing it. My eyes widened in realization, as I continued firing out a stream of the webs from my fingertips.

It...it worked. I’ve gained a Monster’s physical ability...alright, let’s fucking go! And that means, the discomfort I’ve been feeling elsewhere, those must be other abilities that are starting to manifest.

Oh, looks like I’ve reached the end of the rope with these webs...I can’t produce anymore at the moment. Hm, but if I eat more Mega Taratects, that should likely change. Alright, I’ve gotta figure out which Monster abilities are manifesting in me right now.

My teeth...maybe they’re growing into proper fangs or something? Hm, now that I really focus on it, it’s mainly my front teeth that are feeling it...no, actually, just my upper front teeth.

I opened my mouth and touched my teeth in fascination...hm, it doesn’t feel like they’ve changed in shape or length, at least not yet. Guess I’ve gotta eat more Monsters...too bad I can’t figure out which specific Monster species I’m benefiting from, I’m gonna have to guess.

Alright, what about my throat? Hm...maybe the Mega Sonic Bats? They’re a Disastrous Grade Monsters that attack with powerful sonic screeches that are strong enough to knock a person out. Or maybe the deafening roar ability possessed by the Chimeras?

I’ve eaten a lot more Mega Sonic Bats than Chimeras, so it’s more likely to be the former...on other note, I’ve also eaten a lot of Spectres, but it doesn’t feel like I can turn intangible, at least not yet.

Maybe it’s a matter of compatibility, then. Maybe the abilities of certain Monsters aren’t compatible with a human body...Spells are fueled by Mana, while Monster powers are fueled by Negative Energy instead.

But just like animals, a lot of Monsters have powers that are physical abilities. Take these webs, for instance...normal spiders don’t have any type of energy, they can simply create webs naturally. It’s probably the same with the Taratect Monsters.

But Monsters with Elemental attacks probably fuel those attacks with Negative Energy...but since the attacks themselves are similar to what humans can do with Mana, they’re still compatible, that’s why eating such Monsters increases the potency of our own Elemental Magic.

So, if my theory is correct...there’s not much to gain from Monsters with Negative Energy-powered abilities that aren’t compatible with humans. Well, I’m still gonna try to prove that theory wrong. After all, the more abilities I can gain, the better.

And besides, I still need more information before I can figure out the factors that apply to compatibility in this regard. I mean, even if I had considered it before, I doubt I would’ve guessed that creating spider webs would be compatible with me.

Still, this is pretty exciting...alright, I’m gonna go about killing and eating as wide a variety of Monsters as I possibly can, and a whole lot of each one!

The others have been sticking to only eating Monsters that’ll boost their Elemental Spells or their physical strength, but I’m gonna be a lot less picky about it. To be fair, there’s a lot of Monsters they can’t eat since it’d poison them.

Maybe I should figure out a way to eat the Monsters that I’ve assumed are impossible to eat...there aren’t many acidic Monsters besides Acid Slimes, and their bodies are literally made of acid, so I definitely can’t eat them, they’d melt my insides.

Same with Lava Slimes, for that matter. Once Lava Slimes are killed, they turn to piles of rock after the heat they emanate fades away. Yeah, I’m not eating rocks. Acid Slimes turn into a puddle and melt through the ground until they use up their acidity...any shallow craters that have a gooey substance coating them, those are created by dead Acid Slimes.

I suppose there’s no real point in thinking about Monsters that I can’t eat...instead, I’m probably better off focusing on those that I’m most likely to benefit from eating and which to target the most.

Hm, maybe I should look to max out how much I can benefit from eating Mega Taratects, bring this web creating ability to its fullest. I should also try to figure out what other abilities I’m currently in the process of manifesting.

I’ve close to eaten my fill today, so maybe I should wrap things up a bit early today and go to the library. I’ll research all the Monsters found in the Labyrinth, study their abilities and make a list of which ones would make the best targets.

Yeah, that sounds like fun, and having a clear goal will be a nice motivator. I’ve been at this for a while now, it’s currently the 5th of September, 2017, so it’s been a bit over a year and a half since I began.

I have to admit, it’s been getting kinda tedious lately, despite the clear improvement and progress I’ve made over the last few months, I’ve even made it all the way down to the forty-fifth floor.

Though, well, it’s been far from easy, I’ve very nearly died several times, even with my powers that let me hide and escape. And it’s been frustrating, even after eating so many Monsters, in a straight fight, I’m no match for most Catastrophic Grade Monsters.

The Mega Slimes and Mega Taratects are just about the only such Monsters that I can consistently defeat, so yeah. But now that I’ve finally seen some progress in my efforts to gain new abilities, I’m starting to feel all hyped up again.

This has given me a second wind of sorts, and you can bet your ass that I’m gonna ride it for all it’s worth! Okay, then, I’ve made up my mind. I then opened up my Pocket Dimension, Prysm peering out with a look of surprise.

"Teleport us back to the apartment. I’m done here for today," I remarked, feeling a bit impatient to go check out the library.

"Woah, already? That’s unusually fast, you usually spend at least a good three or four more hours down here," She responded in bemusement.

"Oh, don’t worry...pretty soon, I bet I’ll be spending even more time down in the Labyrinth than I did before!"

"...yeah, I don’t know, sounds like I definitely need to worry about that."

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