Time passed as the creature continued to work on its [Mana Manipulation] while it ate. And by the end of the week, the creature had devoured the entirety of the eggshell and had netted a total of 8 Levels from it.

No doubt a combination of the eggshell being The Gift and the effect of its Title, [Hungry].

Despite how much mass the creature consumed, it remained as small as it was and its size changed not even a bit. It was a mystery that the creature did not care to solve, for it didn’t even know about it.

During this week, it had done only three things. It had devoured. It had pooped. And it had practised [Mana Manipulation].

It had been initially waited to be escorted to the mortal child, but for some reason, despite the woman’s order, the creature was not called upon even once by the [Monster Tamer] and the Levels of [Projection] granted by her fizzled out without much usage.

However, that did not mean that the creature had nothing to show for. With the evolution, that caused the creature to lose all its limbs and senses and had instead given it a tail to work with, the creature seemed to have understood the mortal concept of working with the mana.

The Larva equated the mortal concept to its tail. Much like how the [Hive Monarch] could move its tail in any way it wanted, despite never having possessed any tail, the mortal concept of mana treated mana much akin to an organ that they could simply move.

When the creature moved its tail, it didn’t think of what nerves to activate, what orders to give or what muscles to move. It simply did. It had done the same when it had been a caterpillar and had had numerous stubs instead of legs. The creature had never thought about how to move the stubs. It simply had.

And much the same had been the case for the creature had become a moth. It had not thought about how to fly or how to twitch its antenna. It simply had. Taking a lesson from its instincts, the creature moved the mana. The creature did not will the mana to move. The creature did not imagine the mana to move. The creature did not force the mana to move. The creature did not become the mana to move.

The creature moved the mana because it could. And with this simple action, it broke down the mental barrier that had been holding it back and Levelling up the Skill [Mana Manipulation] to Level 12 in the process.

0.0

Time continued to pass as the chambermaid waited for the monster to fulfil its promise. A day turned to weak and a weak turned to months. Yet, the monster failed to fulfil its side of the bargain.

Thus, it was no surprise that the restlessness of the woman continued to grow with each passing day. However, no matter how restless he got, the woman never even considered revealing the monster’s secret.

For no matter how the madness had affected the [Transgender], the woman knew that the monster was his only hope. And as long the chambermaid kept that secret, the opportunity to make use of the monster could arise.

However, the woman knew that if he released the monster’s secret, then all avenues of collaboration would die an early death.

Besides, the [Transgender] did not want to tell its enemies the potential the monster held. Telling them the monster’s secret would be the same as handling them an unimaginably powerful weapon. The woman would rather prefer death.

Thus, not knowing the intentions of the monster, the chambermaid continued to pester the monster in the only way that he could. He continued to talk at the monster every waking moment they shared. And although this act of his annoyed the monster -the monster made sure tell him through its Skill [Projection]- the [Transgender] made sure of the fact that the monster never forgot his existence.

It was during this time that the monster had once again begun leaving the cell as it was escorted to the [Monster Tamer]. This made the chambermaid sigh in relief. At least this way, the monster could communicate once again.

Slowly, as time passed, and the [Transgender] continued to talk at it, the monster began to pick up on his words. Though the chamber knew that this was less the result of his efforts and more the effect of the [Monster Tamer]’s personal touch.

Through the servants that came to feed him daily, the woman came to know that the [Monster Tamer] was training the monster by talking at it and the [Projecting] to it at the same time.

Such knowledge had been easy to find because of the servants that loved to gossip. This was also the method through which the [Transgender] had always kept tabs on the monster’s activities. Though being a prisoner that he was, nothing ever came free for him and the woman had to pay for all the gossip that the servants told him. However, being the chambermaid that he was, the transgender had only one thing to pay the servants with. His flesh.

After all the information that the woman had bought from the servants, the [Transgender] had lost the count of the number of times his flesh had been used through the bars, as he had stood stuck to the stone bars with his legs spread apart.

The woman had lost count but he had not forgotten. He remembered. He remembered every single face that had participated in its sentence. He remembered every face that had ever made use of his flesh.

However, the chambermaid knew that his remembrance would be of use later, not now. Thus, it waited as it continued to talk at the monster and continued to be amazed by the speed with which the monster continued to pick up words.

Within a few months, the monster had gone from deaf to be able to understand sentences. Perhaps it was because of this progress that the [Monster Tamer] changed the meat fed to the monster from animal meat to Tier 3 monster meat, thus allowing it to continue Levelling.

As the time continued to march and the months continued to pass by, the monster’s grasp at its new method of communication only increased and from what information the chambermaid bought from the servants, so did the monster’s Level.

Thus, the [Transgender] was not at all surprised, when the creature reached out to him, for the first time, since it had woken up almost 6 months ago. Instead, the woman’s bloodshot eyes widened and his chapped lips parted to reveal a predatory smile.

-X-

Within a desolate desert, inside a dilapidated shop, on a simple chair, a youth seemingly slept.

-X-