It took me almost a week of stealing cattle from humans who, as it appeared, were awfully slow on coming to save it, and picking off any humans whom I noticed straying away from the villages on his own.

Goats were easiest to steal, since they were light enough that I could snatch one and drag it away to a safe place to eat, but they gave the least EXP. Cows and humans were much better, but I cows were too heavy to haul, and humans were occasionally decent in defending themselves. Not from an aerial attack, though.

But now it was all done, though I didn’t bother with getting enough EXP to level up my abilities, too. I had more important things on my mind.

[Voren]

[General Info]

Species: Human

Sex: Male

Age: 43d

Height: 179cm

Weight: 65kg

Emotional state: Joy

Titles: Devourer, Alpha Predator, The Lord of Nine Hells

[Stats]

HP: 9/9

EXP: 21214

STR: 12.11 (1)

DEX: 12.9 (2)

CON: 12 (2)

INT: 11.4 (1)

[Abilities]

Devourer (lv MAX) (Evolution options available!)

Agile Flight (lv 14) (Can be levelled up!)

Venomous Stinger (lv 14) (Can be levelled up!)

Steel Web Spinning (lv 11)

⠀⠀

My stats changed again with the change of my species and their base values, but I didn’t spare more than a thought to that. Instead, I laughed, marvelling at my hands. Ten fingers, thin pink skin, small hairs growing out of the back of it, no claws—just blunt, flat nails. Oh, how long had it been since I’ve last seen something like this… attached to my own body. And this wasn’t all of it.

I looked down and stared at my reflection in a surface of the small pond at the edge of which I rested. From there back at me stared an average-looking youth with a mop of black hair and brown eyes. The face felt vaguely familiar, like someone I’ve known a long, long time ago. I touched my soft cheek gingerly. Could it be my own face, the one I had before I appeared in this world?

“Ah, the nostalgia,” I muttered, smiling so hard that my cheeks hurt. The ability to smile in itself—really smile, not do these weird lip motions kobolds did—was another blessing. And of course, I couldn’t forget about a dick I could jerk off without a course on lizard anatomy.

The clothes I stole from the houses whose inhabitants I killed and ate didn’t fit as well as I’d like. I was shorter and narrower in shoulders than the men who lived in these houses, but bigger than the kid. Too bad I didn’t have time to rummage through every house until the search party and their dogs and men with pitchforks returned.

As it was, I had three sets of simple clothes that were wearable, even if a little too big for me (and I had to make holes for wings in them either way), a good metal kitchen knife instead of my stone one, some brown metal coins, and many other useful utility items as well as less useful utility items that I just threw into my bag without looking. I also stole some random foodstuffs to eat at my leisure—not for nourishment or EXP, but for their taste.

Like dried apples. I pulled a piece out of my bag and into my mouth. Its sweet taste, sweeter than any wild berries, spread through my mouth as I chewed, and I closed my eyes in appreciation. Absolutely worth the bother of making humans play the wild chase to get into their homes without danger.

Then I put away the rest and stood up. My tunic sat strangely on my shoulders with the hole I cut in its back, but after I put travelling cloak on top of it and wrapped my right wrist in a piece of cloth, hiding the stinger.

Like that, I could pass for a normal human, which was the most important part of this evolution. It compensated for the humans’ lack of innate abilities. Now I could interact with humans in the city… and that included whoever was the exorcist out there.

Pest had been more silent lately, only rarely throwing in one comment or another. Maybe he realised what this all was coming to, too. I hoped he did. The bastard deserved some fear of death.

The city was in a walking distance away. I’d prefer flying, but right now my wings would be only useful for fanning, but it wasn’t yet too hot for that. Spring, I’d say, considering that I’ve seen humans all over the place busy with sowing seeds.

I walked through the hills into the general direction of the city until I walked onto a road. After that, it didn’t take long until I saw a man on a cart driving past me. I grinned at him, gleeful from the prospect of interacting with another person who wasn’t a tortured soul or an annoying parasite.

“Hey! Isn’t it an amazing day today?” I asked the man, lengthening my stride to walk side by side with his cart.

“Well, it’s not that bad, I’d say. At least it doesn’t rain,” the man said, looking at me in surprise. He scratched his white-and-dark hair. “Are you going to Glesk too?”

“Glesk?”

“Yes, Glesk. There’s not many other places to go from here,” the man pointed in the direction we were walking. A realisation dawned on me. The city. I nodded enthusiastically.

“Me too. Gonna sell all this beer and buy some pottery instead,” the man nodded at his cart, filled with rows of barrels. Too bad they all were closed. “Huh, since we are going to the same place, why won’t you jump into the cart and spare yourself some walking?”

What a great idea. I did as he said, careful with my cloak to not show any wings. The barrels I had to sit on were hard, the cart jumped and hit my soft bottom on each small stone and hole in the road, and I soon began to doubt the greatness of that decision.

But, hey. At least I had some decent company now.