“I’m hungry.”

I was walking in the forest for days now. I didn’t feel tired and I had [Night Vision], so I just kept on going, occasionally talking out a core and eat it. Well, when I say eat it, I only touch it and suck out the mana from it. It had a faint taste of chicken which was quite delicious.

Due to this, my stock of mana core has run out quite quickly. I only needed to touch them and poof! The energy is gone and I feel well-fed.

I tied various thing will I travelled. First, I tried to eat plants. Yes, plants have mana, even when they didn’t have cores. If I could eat it, I wouldn’t have any problem with feeding myself in a forest.

I touched the bark of one of the trees. I tried to push my threads into it and absorb any energy I could found. I spotted something like a knot that had a massive pill of delicious looking stuff. I connected too it and started to chiffon it out.

‘Humph… this is mana all right! It’s taste…. Ugh!'

It was horrible! It tasted like rotting leaves! I can’t eat this! It is worse than broccoli!

I decided I will only eat plants when I’m desperate. And when I say desperate, it means when I’m the verge of dying!

Next was hunting small animals. I managed to catch some rabbits. These little bastards where hard to catch, especially the ones that had horns! I mean, come on what the f**k, why those these guys have horns?! How can they even run so fast with those ridiculous things on their heads?

I used the rope that I brought from the village to make an improvised trap.

Anyhow, after catching 4 of them I started experimenting. I killed the first one painlessly.

[You received 5 EXP]

After I heard the message, I started to fill its body with my mana. The result was the same as August. A puppet that didn’t have any thoughts of its own.

I used my appraisal on it to see that something did change.

[Warning!]

[Due to race change [Basic Appraisal] have been affected.]

__________________________________________________________________________________

Race description:

Feaster Familiar (Horned Rabbit): a familiar created by a Mana Feaster. It possesses the mana of its owner, creating an unbreakable link between them. Able to evolve with its owner and shares the experience points gained.

Danger Level: D

Racial skills:

[Mana Link]: creates a link between the creator and the created. Through this link the creator supplies mana to its creation, to function.

[EXP Symbiosis]: 50℅ of EXP gained goes to the creator.

[Slave Link]: creates a bind between the master and the monster.

Reward for killing it: not yet set.

__________________________________________________________________________________

“I see… so August was also a familiar.”

With these thoughts in mind, I turned to the second one, which turned out to be more interesting. I cut out the mana core (which was located at the left side of its chest, right next to the heart), and charged the mind core, after I sew the wound close, obviously. Turns out the cores are in a pouch made out of fine membrane, that is connected to a thin system of veins that spreads through the body. It was a real challenge to take it out without killing it. Poor thing was trembling the whole time, making the procedure longer. When I was done it was still breathing so I considered it a success.

Next was the interesting part.

From what I saw, this core also has a mana storage. If my guess was correct, then this should work. After a while, it started to move on its own and joined the other one which was looking at me.

‘What is this? [Basic Appraisal].’

__________________________________________________________________________________

Race description:

Feaster Golem (Horned Rabbit): a golem made from dead flesh. Since it’s an artificial undead, it cant evolve or gain EXP.

Danger Level: D

Racial skills:

[Mana Link]: creates a link between the creator and the created. Through this link the creator supplies mana to its creation, to function.

[EXP Donation]: all EXP earned goes to the creator.

[Slave Link]: creates a bind between the master and the monster.

[Unchangeable]: this creature can not evolve or level up.

Reward for killing it: not yet set.

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Interesting... Then what about an alive one?”

I turned the third one that was trying to run away, but the improvised didn’t let it go.

I touched it wiggling head and started to pump mana into its body.

“Please don't explode. Please don’t explode...”

It exploded. No, to be more precise it liquefied then exploded covering me and the surroundings in red slime.

‘Not to self: never do this again.’

I looked at the last rabbit. Poor thing was looking at me with its eyes wide in fear.

‘Well, it would be pointless if I stop now. Let’s try like this...’

I made a small cut one its neck and started to absorb the mana from its body while giving it the same amount from my own. I made sure not to overload it and I kept going till I couldn’t take more.

The result was surprising. Its brown fur turned grey and it eyes white. The horn has felt off and its teeth became extremely sharp.

‘[Basic Appraisal]’

__________________________________________________________________________________

Race description:

Feaster Ghoul (Horned Rabbit): a dangerous monster created by a Mana Feaster. This living creature was tainted by the monster’s mana, counting it into a ferocious beast, killing everything in its path. Surprisingly it leaves, the cores of its victims intact.

Danger Level: C

Racial skills:

[EXP Symbiosis]: 50℅ of EXP gained goes to the creator.

[Slave Link]: creates a bind between the master and the monster.

[Ingestion]: there is 10℅ chance of acquiring a skill from the eaten target.

Reward for killing it: not yet set.

__________________________________________________________________________________

I was speechless.

This monster was a jackpot! It was strong, didn’t need mana like the other one and when it hunts it leaves the cores alone! I literally made my best hunting dog! I should make more of these!

After my discovery, I decided to mass-produce this fellow.

During the day I travelled and at night I hunted. Which wasn’t really effective since I was a horrible hunter. During that time the only monsters that came out where predators and the like, so I needed to step up my game. I dig a hole, I put some wooden spikes that I made with my sword and covered the whole thing with leaves. For bait, I placed on it a piece of rabbit meat.

I hid in a nearby bush with my sword in my hand.

‘Now all I have to do is wait!’

*****

(3days later.)

‘Still nothing….’

I was sitting here for a couple of days. I didn’t feel tired physically but it didn’t mean that I didn’t get depressed.

‘What have I done wrong? I changed the meat every day, so it can’t be its freshness! Maybe it’s too obvious? I should look for…’

[Level 11 reached]

When I stud up, I understood the problem. Where I was hiding, it greatly limiting my vision, making be blind about the problem in front of me. Turns out my familiar was very active.

There was a pile of dead bodies piling up in one of the corners. There where foxes, wolves and other animals that I couldn’t even recognize.

‘Did I accidentally create an animal terminator?’

I approached the carcasses. The rabbit ghoul was eating leisurely a foot of… a lizard? I wasn’t sure anymore, it was too damaged to identify.

“Come here.”

At my command, the hell-rabbit left his pray, jumped in front of me and made a move with his front leg that reminded me of a salutation from a soldier.

“Find me a carnivore and bring it back alive.”

It remade the movement and disappeared in the bushes.

While it was hunting, I tried to make something useful about this slaughter. First, I dig a hole and throw in it the parts that were too damaged.

I sew together the intact pieces together forming little by little something that came out a nightmare.

“Thing about it as LEGO. Think about it as LEGO…”

It wasn’t. it was a pile of blood, guts and other disgusting things. I believed that I built up some tolerance against gore, but… this was too much! I was lucky that I lived on mana and my stomach was empty!

It had the head and body of a grey wolf, the front leg of a lizard. Its hind legs were those of a bird. I found half of a snake in the mess, so I decided to go creative. Its insides were made out of the different components that I found. The hardest thing was installing the core. Thanks to [Ultra Surgery] I was able to create the mana conducts, but I wasn’t sure if the input will be correct. Too little and it will not move. Too much, I explode.

‘I should really do something like this in a sterilized environment!’

In the end, I didn’t became so bad, it even looked decent considering how it looked when I started.

“Ok, let’s do this!”

I did the same operation as on my first monster.

The patched-up monster slowly studs up and looked around. The snake that I put onto it shakes it's head around wildly trying to comprehend what’s happening.

[New title received: [Monster Maker]]

“Eh, well, making something like this is kinda…”

The monster that I made finally looked at me. Its eyes were empty, almost dead.

“Sight, it a corps so it's not a surprise. [Basic Appraisal]”

__________________________________________________________________________________

Race description:

Feaster Patched Beast: a monster made from body parts of different animals. It has the skills related to the body parts. Since this creature is an artificial undead it can’t evolve or gain EXP.

Danger Level: C

Racial skills:

[EXP Donation]: all EXP earned goes to the creator.

[Slave Link]: creates a bind between the master and the monster.

[Unchangeable]: this creature cannot evolve or level up.

[Puzzle Anatomy]: Damaged arts can be replaced by new ones.

Reward for killing it: not yet set.

__________________________________________________________________________________

“…I’m too tired to react to this. I need a snack!”

In the body, there are currently three cores. Two mind cores in each head and a mana core in the chest. I made it so to see if I could put more than two cores into a body.

‘Next time I should make one with 4 cores...’

It made me excited while I eat.

I don’t know why but doing this is so much fun! I want to see different things, different creatures! I want to experience the trills of adventures. Maybe after I reach the dungeon, I will leave this country and go travelling. I will surely make more of my race since it would suck to bee alone. In the other hand, getting to know more about my surroundings can be beneficial.

Yes, I will do this!

I can’t wait!

*****

The ghoul returned after some days. It was dragging something that looked like a fusion of a fox and a snake. The front of it was normal looking, red fur fox looking head and legs. Past those things started to get complicated. It had an elongated body covered in red scales and had no hind legs. Its tail ended by three-finger looking appendages, with sharp claves.

“Oh, good boy! Have a snack.”

I threw a piece of meat, that he chough in mid-air. To be able to bring something as big as this thing, just how strong is this thing?

The fox tried to run away but it was pressed down on the ground by my wolf.

While the rabbit was hunting (sounds weird) my creation (I name it September) have adapted to its body. It's fully capable to use every part of its strange anatomy except the snake that has a mind of its own.

[Don’t kill me!]

I hear a screaming voice in my head.

“Huh, you can talk?”

[Of course, I can! Please don’t eat me, I taste disgusting!]

“…Calm down, I won’t eat you.”

[Then what you will make your despicable beasts kill me? You are heatless!]

‘This thing is annoying!'

__________________________________________________________________________________

Race description:

Nguruvilu: a feared monster by travellers. They use their powers to make their river homes shallow, so that people are encouraged to try to cross on foot. They then make the water deeper, and create whirlpools, to suck down their prey.

Danger Level: D

Racial skills:

[Water Magic]: the ability to use water.

[Digging]: the efficiency of digging is highered.

[Telepathy]: The user can exchange information by their mind.

Reward for killing it: 3 gold

__________________________________________________________________________________

“A ngurluiu?”

[Its pronounced nguruvilu!]

“Oh, sorry- “

[Why can’t anyone pronounce it properly?! Its ng-ur-uv-il-u! How can it be so difficult?]

His personality took a complete turn. It was quite shocking in so many different ways.

“Fine, fine I get it!”

I grabbed the fox’s head and commenced the operation.

[W-What are you doing?!]

“Making you dossal.”

There was a bite mark on its abdomen where the rabbit dragged him here. I pressed my free hand on it and started to absorb the mana from it.

[You lied! You are killing me! You abomination!]

Not listening of its whining when I emptied half of its reserves I pumped my own mana into its body. The two energy mixed together perfectly then they became one.

[Nguruvilu was added to your [Slave Link]

After the message the fox-snake stop struggling. I let it go, waiting for seeing what will happen.

[I humbly apologies for my behaviour. I swear loyalty to you, my master.]

…Its personality turned again!

Not only that, the voice became feminine.

'Did I accidentally triggered something?'

“…I accept your apology. Now come with me.”

The fox nodded, then climbed on my arm and filtered around my neck like a scarf.

*****

We continued our journey. We didn’t stop at night, so the rabbit ghoul was resting on the back of the wolf and the fox snake was around my neck the entire time. Contrary to the personality he showed before us he was surprisingly lazy, only getting off me when he was hungry or doing little monster business.

For food, we no problem. The rabbit and wolf have developed something on the line of personalities, making them capable of hunting. Thanks to our link he could find us easily and the surrounding monsters are D rank at best. When they returned they brought back the cores and some meat for the fox. If what the fox said was true, then the strongest being’s live deeper in the forest.

[WE need to stay vigilant thought! There was a white wolf near my home not so long ago. That beast will tear us into bits if we are not careful!]

‘Eh, isn’t that wolf is the one who’s pelt is on my back?’

“By the way do you know anything about a so-called “Cursed Dungeon”?”

[Nope. I didn’t really leave my swamp.]

We walked in silence for a couple of hours.

We reached something that looked like a main road. Thanks to my implanted GPS, I could tell which direction I should go.

“Halt, they're ugly!”

I turned around and saw a bunch of man dressed in turned up cloths and crude armour. The one who was talking was probably the leader, he was holding a halberd that has seen better days.

“What have we here boys! An ugly half-human and some best. They will fetch us some nice coins!”

‘Sight, this is so cliché.’

“Everyone attack.”

After my short order, all hell got loose. Each one of them jumped on one opponent while I took care of the boss and the rest.

As expected the Golem and Familiar didn’t take to long to be defeated. It only took one swoon from the opponent and they were dead. September and the ghoul on the hand… they destroyed everything in there way. The grey wolf bitted through their armour like they were made out of paper.

Meanwhile, the rabbit jumped around fighting in the neck of its adversaries killing them instantly.

Meanwhile I and Foxy fought together.

During our travels, we trained together making ourselves stronger. What we decided is that she will hold my sword with her hand while I used my black holes. With this technique, we killed the first two quite easily. First I used my magic to make a hole in the head of the bandit in front of me, taking him out before he could react. Then Foxy cut down the other one which sneaked behind me.

It was strange, even when I killed someone I felt nothing. It was similar when I killed the rabbits or the spiders. Did my mind also change with my body? How much is left of my original personality?

The boss was shocked for a second giving me a chance to attack him. Unfortunately for me or fortunately for him, one of its men stepped forward and booked my attack. The black hole coloured with the blade making an awful screeching noise.

‘Oh, so it can’t absorb anything. I should look into it later.’

“Damn you are strong! Too bad for you I was a member of the royal army!”

While shouting this the boss pushed away his subordinate and made a horizontal attack.

Foxy was able to deflect it sadly giving me a window to attack again. Still, I was blocked again by that annoying subordinate.

‘Ugh, this is getting annoying.’

We continued our dance for a long time. Even when I didn’t feel tired my body became slower and my magic started to fade away.

“On your last leg huh? Die here you stupid but!’

I was stabbed in the gut by the halberd.

‘Ugh, this brings back memories…’

[Alert!]

[Mana capacity reached 10%]

[Activating [Starvation Berserker]]

“Oh, shit now you have done it.”

*****

My name is Klaus. Klaus Herphman.

My family was from the slums, we lived poorly. Every day was a fight for our survival. I learned fighting an early age, to face the many people who tried to rob or kill us.

When I turned 16 I left my home and joined my army. My experience quickly rose me in the ranks until I was accepted to the royal army, composed of the best fighters. However, I always felt something missing.

Later when the 6th Holy War ended I finally understood what.

I was bored.

Every opponent I faced was weak, insignificant. I wanted to fight strong people. I wanted to have some excitement.

Before I knew I left the army and became a bandit killing everybody who was in my way.

I was finally having fun! I was living.

I knew I will die sooner or later if I don’t change, but… what was in front of me…

At first look he looked a complete amateur in close combat, only relying on its magic and its pet snake. We used a talisman to make his mana usage higher so that he can work himself out, giving us the opportunity to kill him. Yet, things turned bad.

The demi that I opened a new hole in his stomach started to laugh. It was the laughter of madness, the only one who could make a noise like this is someone who lost its sanity.

The snake looking thing on him untangled and disappeared in a bush.

“Damn it…Hey, guys come here!”

I cried for help but no one was coming. Everyone was dead or passed out. The two creatures were sitting on the side of the corner, licking up the blood of there bodies.

‘Shit, shit, shit!’

Finally, the demi stopped laughing and dashed forward. My man stepped forward to block the incoming attack. He was a specialist in it, even I couldn’t make a scratch on him. And jet the demi…no, the monster grabbed its head and toured right of its body. Blood sprayed everywhere, painting our surroundings in crimson red.

“Aaaaaaa!”

I dropped my weapon and run.

‘Screw this, I’m out!’

Chop!

There was no pain.

My vision became surprisingly clear. I saw the blue sky then a body. Why those it has no head? Why those it looks so familiar?

'I feel tired…'

*****

[250 EXP received]

[Level 16 reached

I came back to my senses after eating my fifth mana stone. These guys only had little mana, making them not very very fulfilling.

In my berserker state, my mind was foggy and filled with violence.

[Master, are you back to sanity?]

Foxy slithered out of its hiding hole and claimed back on my shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Still, this was thought, we seriously need some training.”

[Yeah, I was sure we will die!]

I looked at the carnage I made. It was horrible a picture taken Out of hell.

‘I need to learn to fight without using this skill. Who knows what would happen if I lost control again.’

“Let’s go. We still have a long way to go.”

________________________________________________________________________________

Name: Thomas Svelvon

Race: Mana Feaster (Unique monster) (∆€¥¢^£π)

Class: B

Job: Butcher

Level: 16

HP:130/130

Mp:160/160

Str: 25

Def:30

Skills: [Languages comprehension] [Basic Appraisal; Lv:3] [ Mapping; Lv:5] [Overload; Lv:2] [Human Anatomy; Lv:3] [Intimidation] [Slave Link; slaves:3] [Void Magic] [Body Reconstruction]

Passive Skills: [Night Vision] [Corrupted Knowledge] [Mana Consumptions] [Starvation Berserk]

Unique-Skills: [Ultra-Surgery]

Titles: [Reincarnated] [The one who saw the truth] [Race creator][Monster Maker]

_________________________________________________________________________________