Chapter 9: Gotta Absorb ‘Em All
Wild boar sighted, and boy, was it huge. Well, I say huge, but it was nothing crazy extraordinary. Rather than its size, I was more focused on the thing on its face between its eyes, sticking out for all to see: a horn. It swirled around in a helical fashion, with electricity sparking up and down the entire horn.
Oh, good. A lightning type.
I tried out “Identify”.
“Thunder Boar (M), 5yrs, Lv 25/38; a lightning-type boar.”
Yep, I knew it had to have been lightning based. If I absorbed it, I might have been able to get some resistance against lightning next.
Thing was, I felt like its level was on the higher side. Was there even a chance I could take it down? Then again, if I did, my stats would probably jump way up, too.
By the way, I was nowhere near that thing when I was figuring out whether to attack it or not. I was firmly watching it from a distance. But, I guessed I could try “Meteorite” on it, too, but I doubted the skill would even reach it from where I was. I couldn’t really explain why I thought that, but I somehow intuitively knew that “Meteorite” wouldn’t cover enough distance to hit the monster. I’d have to get closer to it.
I inched for as slowly as I could, one step after another. Of course, the second I got anywhere near, it whipped its head around.
B-but, how did it notice me? Did it smell me or something?
Once it saw me, it took off like a torpedo towards me.
What the…? This thing was fast! Not just fast, but its speed was way, way, way higher than mine! Not to mention that it was using its horn to attack, and there was no way for me to evade lightning of all things.
The bolt of electricity struck me, sending pain racing through my body.
Maybe the voltage hadn’t been that high, or maybe it didn’t produce much damage, but it stopped me in my tracks, leaving my body numb. It was at that very moment the boar raced into action again, its head down and its horn pointed straight at my back.
Wait, no! I’m going to die!
…Uh.
Well, I’d thought I was going to die, but guess not.
The horn definitely did strike my back, but instead of piercing through me, it was the boar’s horn that smashed into pieces after running into me.
It must’ve had the speed, but not much of a high attack. Or, maybe my defense just outranked it?
For a bit of time, I wandered around the now hornless boar as it tried to process what it was going to do next. For whatever reason, I felt a bit bad for the beast. Unfortunately, I had to absorb it if I wanted to get stronger, so there really wasn’t much room for pitying it. The real question was: how should I kill it? I was too close to use “Meteorite”, but I could try “Acid Shot” and see if that worked.
I couldn’t let the entire body dissolve away, so I aimed solely for the head and launched the skill.
Bullseye.
The boar’s head made a hissing sound as it dissolved.
Geez, it’s been one gruesome sight after another ever since I’d come to this world, I thought to myself as I absorbed the monster.
HP +10, MP +5, Attack +2, Defense +5, Speed +15, Skill points gained: +2. Gained skill: Level 2 Thundershock. Gained Level 1 Electricity Resistance.
Sweet! Both a skill and resistance? Rock on!
Plus, my speed went way up. Man, that thing was fast.
I’ve got some skill points now. Maybe I should level something up?
Nah, let’s keep saving them up. Some really nice skill might come my way and I might need the points for that instead.
Let’s check out my stats.
Name: Tetsuya Takahashi
Age: 25
Level: 1/1
HP: 158/158
MP: 39/64
Attack: 61
Defense: 113
Speed: 53
Skill Points: 7
Skill: Corpse Absorption, Lv2 Identify, Lv3 Meteorite, Lv2 Acid Shot, Lv2 Thundershock
Resistance: Lv1 Poison, Lv1 Electricity
There we go – so this was I matched up now?
Better move on now.
I’d been walking for some time when my stomach chose to speak up. Absorbing beasts didn’t seem to be doing much to sate my hunger. Ah, but I really wanted to absorb them for their stats, not eat them. It’d be nice if there were some plants or something for me to eat instead, but there was nothing around that I could see. Nothing but mushrooms, anyway.
Oh, but now that I had poison resistance, maybe I could eat them and be okay? Let me try identifying them first.
There was a little brown mushroom just chilling in the ground near me. It didn’t look anything short of ordinary, but I’d go ahead and “Identify” it anyway.
“Deathshroom: a deadly poisonous mushroom. Nearly all who eat it die instantly.”
Uh, nope. Nope, nope, nope.
Just the name alone was a huge no! “Deathshroom”, really?
Man, looks could certainly be deceiving, even with an ordinary-looking mushroom like this. While we were on the topic, there were a bunch of these “normal” mushrooms here and there aplenty. Was this why it was called the Gorge of Death? The only other mushrooms were the huge ones like the one that saved me from my imminent doom. I used my skill on it next.
“Bounceshroom: a large and elastic mushroom. Has a non-deadly poison.”
As I thought, it was poisonous too, but didn’t seem like it would kill me.
Man, I was hungry, and if it wasn’t going to kill me, then why not take a bite, right? Possibly going insane was far preferable over dying, in my humble opinion.
I mulled over it for some time more, but ended up deciding to at least stick a piece into my mouth. Doing only that shouldn’t hasten my death any, and if I felt like my life was in danger, I could just spit it out.
I pulled off a small, white bit at its base and put it in my mouth.
God, it tasted like shit, and bitter as hell.
Even if it tasted that bad, though, it didn’t seem like I was having any kind of reaction to it. Yeah, I didn’t think I was in any trouble.
I swallowed it down.
Nope, no issues whatsoever. I’d just eat enough to sate my appetite before I called it quits.
I really, really, really wish I’d had a fire to roast this stuff on, though. I was unlucky enough that I didn’t have a fire skill.
Oh well, I’d just eat it as was. I ate at the mushroom until I was full, but then I heard a mechanical voice in my head:
“Level 1 Poison Resistance rose to Level 2.”
Oh. Eat poison and the level rises up. Gotcha. I wasn’t about to eat much of it though, since it tasted like crap.
I stood back up and dusted myself off. Now that I was full, it was time to move on.