Chapter 14: A Great Feast
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Daniela overheard Riven’s quiet words and slowly made her way toward him. "R-Riven? Um, are you okay? I have a potion here... you can have it."
Riven smiled back at her. "I’m fine. Thank you for your consideration. Are you okay, though? You should be the one to drink it."
"I-I’m fine! You kept your promise... you actually protected me," she said with a cute smile. "Thank you."
"Going into Gates is a dangerous business. If you cannot count on your comrades, then it becomes a death sentence," Riven said while carefully watching his surroundings. "More importantly, aren’t you too young for this?"
"Eh? Ah..." She averted her gaze.
"Shouldn’t you at least go to a Hunter Academy first? Get your license at an older age? I am honestly impressed you even managed to obtain one," Riven continued.
"There’s no law against it, actually..." she sighed. "I-I don’t have the money for... for paying any education. Even the cheapest Hunter Academy costs too much..."
"I see. Are you living alone, or with someone?" he asked.
"I am helping my little brother. Mom... mom passed away last year," she said with a heavy sigh. "From overwork... She wasn’t Awakened, but she worked hard to pay for my equipment... This is why I do this... for her, and for my little brother..."
"You’re only fourteen... Don’t you have any other relatives?" he asked. "Why wouldn’t the government place you somewhere safer?"
"If we tell the government, then they’ll take my brother away from me!" she answered with sudden anger. "I can’t... I don’t want to live without seeing him again... He’s only seven..."
Riven fell silent. He thought deeply about the current state of the world and how everything had changed over the last few decades.
"I see," he sighed, choosing not to say anything else for the moment.
He considered a few ideas, but decided to keep them to himself until he made a firm decision.
"If money is what you need, we’ll make plenty today," he said with a warm smile as he gently patted her head. "Now cheer up and help me out."
"Oh, sure! What do you need?" she asked with an energetic smile.
Riven conjured a sharp knife using his Ice Magic and handed it to her.
"Huh?" She looked at the blade in disbelief. "You want me to use this?"
Then he grabbed the corpse of one of the Cave Panthers and passed it over to her.
"Here. Butcher this open and spread its innards as much as you can."
"..."
Riven started doing the same thing himself. He began spreading the inner organs of all his kills, the blood, the flesh, everything, filling the entire cave with the heavy scent of blood and fresh corpses.
"W-Why?!"
Daniela snapped out of her daze and screamed.
"Why? Bait, of course," Riven answered with a confident smile. "We’re catching something big today. I am not leaving until I get that, at the very least."
"HUH?!"
Daniela was completely confused, especially because Riven refused to explain any further. In the end she obeyed and simply did as he asked, even though the smell of the corpses and their still-warm innards was almost disgusting enough to make her vomit several times.
"Euuuggh... Aaagh..."
"Sorry," Riven apologized. "But it’ll be worth the effort."
"I hope so!" Daniela shed a quiet tear.
Once the work was finished, Riven sat down in the middle of his blood-soaked offering and began eating without delay.
There was a full course laid out right in front of him.
The largest of the insects, the Giant Crystal Mantis he had killed earlier, the Cave Lioness that had proven to be the strongest of the lions, the biggest Poison Bat, the Cave Panther he had slammed into the floor with a wrestling move, and lastly the Assassin Panther.
Because Riven could not level up by any method other than eating new monsters, he had to sit down quickly and begin his feast.
"This meat is way better than the goblins. If I cooked it... it would surely be amazing. But I don’t have the time, unfortunately," he said while chewing on the head of the Assassin Panther. Skull, brains, everything went down without resistance.
"W-Wow..." Daniela had completely lost her appetite. She left her taco unfinished as she stared at the horrifying scene that looked as though it had come straight out of a horror movie. It was as if Riven were some kind of gluttonous zombie that could never be satisfied. "Just what are your teeth made of, Riven...?"
The most shocking part was how easily and neatly he bit through everything. The hardest bones, the claws, everything was crushed with ease. His teeth were so hard that they could munch through the toughest materials as if they were nothing more than potato chips.
"What’s wrong?" he asked while finishing the last leg of the Panther. "Eat your fill, Daniela. You’ll need that energy... plus you already vomited all of your breakfast."
"Eugh..." she muttered. "I... I really am not hungry... hahah..." She averted her gaze and stared into the darkness of the caves.
Riven simply shrugged and continued eating, faster and faster. In only five minutes he finished an entire corpse. It was completely crazy. He seemed to be defying the laws of physics with how quickly he ate and how everything disappeared into a seemingly bottomless stomach.
"His stomach hasn’t bulged even a single time...?" Daniela thought for a moment. After everything he had consumed, he should have had a gigantic belly by now, yet that was not the case at all. "What Class did he say he had? Predator? Just... just under what Authority could such a strange Class exist?"
Meanwhile, Riven’s Aura continued growing stronger and stronger. Red and black energies mixed with azure colors around him before finally coalescing into pure gold as everything he gained was suddenly multiplied.
"There it is."
A feeling of immense power, a high he could never get enough of, began to encompass his entire body. His muscles tensed and bulged with new strength. His bones grew tougher. His blood flowed faster. For a moment he felt almost euphoric as new stats, skills, and even talents appeared one after another.
"There it is!"
FLUOSH!
As his aura surged almost majestically, Daniela felt the intense pressure radiating from him. This was no longer someone at the beginning of D Rank. He was rapidly approaching the Middle Stages of D Rank in terms of raw stats.
"W-Wow..."
That was all she could see from the outside. For Riven, however, an entirely different world had opened up. System windows appeared everywhere, covering his entire vision.
"Thank you for the meal," he said while licking his lips.
Ding!
[Giant Crystal Mantis fully consumed.]
[Cave Panther fully consumed.]
[Assassin Panther fully consumed.]
[Cave Lion fully consumed.]
[Poison Bat fully consumed.]
[Talent Devourer: Chance Succeed]
[...]
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