Always Need a Snack for Later!

After recovering from that soul destroyingly cringe dad pun by leaning on a tree for twenty minutes, I began my trek for real. I was making decent time towards the road, so I didn't feel too particularly rushed. I finally began to take in the scenery of this new world.

It was dark. It wasn't even past noon and the tree canopy was so thick I could barely see anything between the rays of light in the breaks.

"Oh come the hell on," I muttered to myself, "I thought I had it's physiology. Although if the chompers were a kind of transformation, maybe…"

Standing in place to take a deep, steadying breath, I focused on my eyes. As I recalled the senses of the beast I once considered fictional, everything became much more vivid. The scent of wet underbrush and pine filled my nostrils with their sharp, earthy scent.

Old wood, damp moss, flowers, mushrooms even. There were sickly sweet fragrances I couldn't even begin to guess the origin of. Old, wet dog hit me next, but somehow much worse. Wolf perhaps, I'd heard they smelled like dogs, but crank the jank to eleven.

Somehow, even with my eyes closed, I could see perfectly. Not color, but shape and depth. I had no idea what organ or mechanism gave me this, but it was probably the blind sight ability. I'd argue with other GMs over it's exact visual representation for hours. I can now say it's like seeing everything, but shimmering with waves and ripples. Sharp changes in an object's topography stuck out as tiny motes of light. It expanded to roughly the length of my heightened sense of smell. The detail was so surreal, I became fascinated with the tiny, sparkly ants beneath my feet.

The soft growl of a huff brought me back to my senses. I forgot about them. Opening my eyes I could suddenly see in the dark. The strange effect of blind sight was overlaid in my vision, but only out to a hundred feet or so. Below and beyond, a world of grayscale. It was pretty awesome, though after a few hundred additional feet the grays blended together into an indiscernible mess. It did let me pick out the wolf that was stalking me.

"Definitely a fantasy wolf." I muttered. It seemed that ever since I came to this world, my habit of talking to myself got much worse.

Said wolf, making me seriously regret having this buffed up olfactory sense, was not hard to find even though it was skulking through the underbrush some yards out. It was large, and seemed to have a single lightning shaped blade for a horn.

As soon as I spotted it, it made a dash at me. I was expecting a bite, or perhaps an attempted goring. Nope, this thing has claws. Found that out the hard way as blood sprayed from my thigh. Next time jump farther away, got it.

Turns out, I was not fast enough to deal with this wolf, and took another slash across my other thigh as it rebounded. Somehow, in all of my dodging and jumping, I was able to get a closer look at its claws. Yup, also blades, along the top. I'm gonna call this a Blade Wolf from now on.

"You're kind of annoying to deal with, ya know that?" I don't know why I was shouting at the beast as I managed to punch it in the ribs while dodging.

A small popup appeared in the corner of my vision. 'Still acting like a human?'

That pulled me up short, taking a slash across the side. Grunting in pain I placed a hand on the wound instinctively to stop the bleeding. After a second, I felt it stop bleeding. Running my finger over it, there was no opening, I couldn't even feel a scar.

"Oh, yeah… Thanks for the reminder!"

Turning to face the Blade Wolf head on, I planted myself firmly. Crouching slightly in a low stance, I held my arms out to the side, exposing my belly. If this thing was like a typical mob from the stories…

It took the bait and charged. Taking a deep breath, I relaxed my gut. The blade of its horn pierced my abdomen, ripping through my guts. The moment I felt it, I thrust my torso forward, folding in half and brought my arms in while sliding my back leg out more, lowering my bulk.

"HNGH!" I grunted loudly as its skull connected with my solar plexus. Tightening every muscle in my core, I wasn't sure if I had the strength to be badass and hold its horn on muscle strength alone, but a small part of me wanted to be that awesome some day.

In any case, before it could attempt to pull away, I wrapped its body in a massive bearhug around its waist. I squeezed tight, locking my grip by grabbing my wrists. Roaring in defiance of the pain and rush of adrenaline, I stood up straight, picking the wolf off the ground. Blood sprayed everywhere as the bladed horn was ripped from my abdomen, but I held the monster off the ground over my shoulder, squeezing tight I could tell it couldn't catch its breath. Perfect.

"Ready you fucker!?" I shouted at it as I tossed it up slightly before pulling it hard down on its spine on my shoulder. "Time for my patented Trio Bomber!"

With another roar, I asserted dominance by dropping myself forward, slamming the wolf down into the ground with a power bomb. Not letting go, I picked myself back up and did it again. This time its horn stuck into the ground, and with a sickening crack was left there when I picked the wolf back up. For the final powerbomb, I leapt as high as I could into the air, throwing my entire weight down into the beast's head and neck.

I lost my grip and balance as it crumpled beneath me, sending me into a tumbling roll. Lying on my back, I caught my breath until the hole in my guts healed up.

"Haaaah. I didn't think that'd work outside of a video game… Fuck. Now I'm starving." I looked over at the wolf, stomach rumbling, all three of them.

I had to pull the wolf's horn from the ground and use it as a knife. Sure, I cut myself a bit, but it wasn't that big a deal. Hacking and pulling off limbs to make it a bit easier to swallow, though I tossed out the offal. Probably more than necessary, but I wasn't quite ready to eat a digestive tract.

Potential Gained! Agility+1!

Ignoring whatever the hell potential is, I continued towards the road. It would have been nice to read the Compendium, but shelter and safety were my top priority. of course, as I thought that, the rest of the Blade Wolf's pack made their appearance.

A few hours later, I emerged from the forest on the edge of a cliff, covered in blood, dragging a blade Wolf carcass by its horn. If nothing else shocked me today, the scenery before me did.

The cliff overlooked the rest of the forest, a veritable sea of deep green stretching for miles, broken by immense rivers. Further into the distance, flatlands, mostly plains and farms from the looks of it.

I could just make out the blue hint of mountains in the distance. Following them, I realized it was surrounded by a massive system of mountains, encircling it on three sides before swooping in on the fourth like a massive crescent. A massive valley, easily large enough to fit a few small countries within it. Behind me, a massive peak rose high into obscurity above. Judging from how high up I was already, I could only imagine that even modern planes would have trouble getting over it.

It was from these mountains that water fed into the water systems I was able to pick out. Reaching out a hand, I used my thumb to try and judge the width of the river that seemed to be flowing out of the valley.

"No fucking way… Wouldn't that be more like an inland sea? Like the Great Lakes or something?"

Considering my high vantage point, and the large distance involved, the fact that it actually took two or three fingers to cover it up, must mean it was huge. I wasn't a pathfinder, I didn't have those kinds of survival skills, but I'd consumed enough media and been around enough to have a rough idea of relative scale. I couldn't be sure, but it even looked like there was an island town jutting up from the center of the exit, roughly where the crescent arms of the mountains ended on either side of the water. Was this entire valley actually elevated compared to the outside, or is it an optical illusion that it seems the massive body of water is flowing down hill?

It took a moment, but I finally pulled my attention back to my predicament. It was a long, long way down, and yet the road was just on the other side of the forest. I considered the height, then my status screen and the map.

A few moments of contemplation later, a scream echoed up towards me, along with a howl from somewhere below. Looking over the edge, I took a strong whiff of the updraft. Blood, perfume, freshly churned dirt, burning flesh, and the stench of wolves.

"Wolves again? The meat's kinda tasty but I'd like a little variety. Guess there's no time to think," I muttered to myself as I flipped the blade horn to an underhand grip, and tightened my grip on the carcass' skull. I was bringing it with me, because I'd need another snack some time.

Taking a deep breath, I crouched down, feeling my legs and feet morph slightly, though I didn't want to get distracted with paying it any mind."Let's rock." I pushed off the ground so hard, some of the cliff edge crumbled as I leapt into the fray… Beneath the canopy a few hundred feet below,

*~*~*~*~*

—Status—
Name: Terrance Glutzou
Age: 20
Health: 351/351
Mana: 30/30
Level: 1
Mind: 40
Processing - 10
Potential Grade: F
Memory - 10
Potential Grade: F
Concentration - 10
Potential Grade: F
Control - 10
Potential Grade: F
Body: 60
Strength - 15
Potential Grade: F
Agility - 10
Potential Grade: F
Dexterity - 10
Potential Grade: F
Constitution - 25
Potential Grade: F
Spirit: 55
Ki - 10
Potential Grade: F
Mana - 10
Potential Grade: F
Power - 15
Potential Grade: F
Will - 20
Skills: Cooking (3)☆, Eating (EXG)★★★★★, Dying (1);
Traits: Engine of Calamity; World Eater; Form Shifter; Outsider; Tutorial
Titles: Gluttonous Knave; Otherworlder; Blank Slate; Tutorial Participant; Simpleton.

*~*~*~*~*
*~*World Eater*~*
A trait possessed by those known to devour entire worlds.
Effect: Able to eat and gain nutrition & energy from anything consumed, nothing within or without of existence is safe.