Mature Content Warning: Graphic Violence and swearing. Honestly, a certain scene in this part might disgust you a bit if you're squeamish. However, it shows a little more of what the MC dealt with earlier in life, and the lengths he'll go to just to become stronger.

Author’s Note: This may be the last update of this story until Monday. I think I might update at least once this weekend, depending on how my pollen related issues are going.

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Chapter 3.1: I've Eaten Worse

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He awoke to darkness, but he was not faced with the calm and serene night-time landscape that he had expected. The first thing that he saw was a bulbous creature flying down at him out of the sky.

Blackthorne threw his hands up to block his face, but the impact sent pain dancing along his arms. He cried out in panic when he felt a strange tearing sensation. He kicked out with all his might and knocked away another onion that had started to gnaw at his foot.

The dark mage rolled to the right and managed to stagger to his feet. His left foot felt rough and raw. The onion had nearly chewed through his boot and he had pressure bruises to deal with now.

Screams of hunger and rage rose up all around him. Blackthorne looked around quickly and realized that he was surrounded by at least twenty of the hungry little bastards. How had this happened? Where did they all come from?

He drew his sword then tried to see a clear avenue of escape. He was happy to chop up onions all night long, but their special nature caused a minor form of blindness. With this many of them attacking him at once, he would be at a serious disadvantage.

Three onions leapt toward him and he jumped back to avoid the incoming attacks. They could not leap far, but they hit hard if they managed to land their attack.

Several onions screamed out, “Cry for me!”

Immediately, he was assaulted by the force of their attack. He lost no vitality but his vision began to grow blurry.

Blackthorne jumped to the left then ran straight toward the smallest concentration of onions. Two of them stood between him and freedom. The closest onion leapt toward him and he narrowly avoided the attack by swinging his sword hard to the left. He missed the little beast, but his sudden movement caused it to do no more than clip him on the shoulder.

He staggered slightly, but maintained his balance and continued forward. The last onion between him and freedom screamed out, “Cry for me!”

The mage began to cry even more, but he kept running. Soon, he passed the onion encirclement and ran into the grassland at high speed. He never did learn why all those onions had appeared so suddenly, but he did make good time toward his next destination.

Several minutes passed before the teary-eyed effect wore off. He was more than a little agitated by having been forced to flee from a bunch of onions, but he was not ready to face that many at once. He would have felt comfortable fighting two or three of them, but twenty at one time was far too many.

After he ran far enough to feel reasonably safe, he checked his status. “Shit, half vitality...”

Those onions must have been chewing on him since before he had woken up! How was that possible, though? He would look into it, later.

Blackthorne frowned. There was still a lot to learn about this world. The first thing he needed to do was to locate the town that he had heard about.

The forest that the traveler had mentioned was in the far distance. He looked to the left, but saw no farms, yet.

“Guess I need to keep walking.” he said.

The mage set out at a quick pace. However, traveling at night in the dream world was dangerous compared to traveling during the day. A few minutes after he began his trip in earnest, the background music shifted from a peaceful travel tune to a more dangerous guitar laden track.

The grass began to sway and tremble. Blackthorne readied his sword. He wanted to make his mark on this world. He would not run again.

The grass parted and a bulky shape leapt upward into the air. Bright red eyes flashed in the moonlight. A rodent the size of a small dog streaked toward the man.

Blackthorne dodged to the side while cutting at the air. It was a shallow strike that would have done precious little damage. However, his enchanted blade delivered an additional jolt spell that knocked some of the oversized rat’s health down a bit.

The man readied his blade again. The creature landed hard and rolled forward once before hopping back to its feet. It hissed at him dangerously and then motes of light began to form along the edge of its tiny horns.

Answering to sudden instinct, Blackthorne threw himself down toward the ground just before the rat unleashed a jet of flame that would have hit him like a flame thrower. The mage’s eyes widened in surprise at the monster’s attack, but he could not let it get its bearings. There was no way he would be able to dodge those sorts of attacks repeatedly.

Blackthorne hopped up and launched himself forward and unleashed a powerful overhand swing. The motes of light began to form between the rat’s horns once more, but it did not manage to fire off its attack before the blade crashed down atop its head.

The rat fiend’s skull split open with great force and the creature dropped to the ground immediately. It spasmed once when the jolt spell arced through its body, but that was merely overkill. There was no death cry, no feeble kicking of its rodent feet. It had been crushed completely with that strike.

The mage was not sure what to do now. Did he just leave the corpse there? He doubted that it would fit in his bag. He picked up the rodent’s corpse then tried to stuff it in his bag. As he suspected, it refused to fit.

There was not much space left in there so he had to make a choice. He stared the corpse for a moment, much like he had done with the first onion that he had defeated. It took a moment, but tidbits of information started to appear all around it.

<<< Rat Fiend Corpse >>>

Skin: Yes

Forage: Yes

Value: 3

>>

“Skin and forage?” Scott asked the empty air. No helpful screens popped up to allow him to do such a thing automatically. The only thing he could come up with was that he had to do it manually. He glanced at the sword in his hand and then to the corpse on the ground.

He wrinkled his nose in disgust then went to work. He had not hunted or fished much since his real father had died. Harry had not been much for activities that involved getting off the couch.

Blackthorne tried to recall what he had learned from his father. First, he hacked off the head. His blade worked well for hacking, but it did not work well for finer cutting work. He worked at the corpse as best he could. In the end, he had several bloody chunks of meat, a somewhat decent piece of fur, two horns, and several rat fiend fangs. He also cut off the tail and the paws just in case.

He spent a moment looking through each item then sighed. He already knew what he would have to do. Blackthorne read through the description for the rat meat once more.

<<< Item >>>

Food Ingredient: Rodent Ribs

Class: 1

Grade: low-quality

Nutrition Value: 3

Value: 3 Jerin

>>

He was half dead, but did not want to risk dying before reaching town. There was nothing to indicate that the meat was poisonous or toxic in any way.

The dark mage stared at the chunk of rat-rib in his hand. He had no way to start a fire, and he could not carry everything anyway. Slowly, he opened his mouth and closed his eyes tight.

Disgusted beyond words, he bit into the raw piece of rat. Immediately, he felt like spitting it out. It was possibly the most disturbing thing that he had ever tasted in his life. However, he persevered. Blackthorne chewed and then swallowed the first chunk and then forced himself to go back for another.

He finished off his unsettling meal then growled. This was nothing, nothing! He had eaten worse before... The times that he had escaped from that hellhole that he had been forced to call home, he and his sister had eaten far worse. It wasn’t even the first time he had eaten a rat...

“At least this guy isn’t rotten like the stuff in that dumpster...” He tossed aside the rib bones then steeled his courage. Blackthorne reached for the other set of rodent ribs.

He stared at the bloody hunk of rat then started to close his eyes again. However, he stopped himself halfway. “No, if I can’t even do this much I can’t truly be stronger than before... It’s just meat.”

Becoming stronger was important to him on many levels. Had he been stronger as a child, his sister might still be alive. That was what he told himself every day. It was also what he told himself while he forced down another helping of raw rodent.

“If I can do this much.... I can do more... Maybe even when I’m awake...” said Blackthorne, before stuffing the leftover items into his bag.

The dark mage stood up from his crouched position then nodded. No matter what, he would not allow himself to die because of something as stupid as not wanting to eat something foul. Let the monsters come. He would eat them all, if it meant he would stay alive long enough to see how strong he could truly become.

However, as he walked away, he reminded himself that he should make decent meals in the real world. There was no reason to eat crap like this all night, and eat garbage during the day as well.

He checked his status then smiled darkly. “Full vitality.... Good... Good.”

Blackthorne continued on his way. He was momentarily nauseous not long after that, but he managed to hold in his dinner. He could not afford to lose that bit of nutrition after all.