Chapter 4: Evolving a Conscience

I snuck back down the tree and shrunk my body. I’ll take out the two patrolling on the perimeter first. I don’t want them to run the moment I start wreaking havoc. My plan is to pick off as many of them as possible without the rest finding out. I’m not that worried that they will overwhelm me, I just don’t want to deal with ten people scattering in different directions…

Once I reached the two men I waited until the pair were in a spot on their patrol where no one could see them. In one slash I decapitated the pair of them. I’m still about two meters tall at my smallest. It looks like my growth is slowing down, probably because the prey wasn’t that big relative to my full size.

After taking care of these two I grew a little larger so I can scarf their bodies down faster. I don’t want anyone finding the bodies early, this way there would only be blood stains. Still a red flag but not as bad as corpses. It would at least lead to some confusion before the panic sets in.

With that settled I turned around. I climbed up a nearby tree and looked for a good spot to land when I jumped over. I saw one man walking off the side to take a piss on the wall. I leapt over the wall and drove one of my blades through his head and held his body in place to stop it from falling. I then dragged the body behind a house in a shadowy spot and left it there. Eating does make a little sound after all.

I’ll be back for it later…

I renengaged my invisibility and snuck out into the middle of the camp. I saw one of the bandits approaching the pen and I had a suspicion he was about to grab one of the women to have some fun. Well usually when a man decides to have some fun with the fairer sex they would want some privacy…

Sure enough he grabbed a young woman with curly matted brown hair and she sobbed in protest as he dragged the woman to her feet. He dragged her over to a nearby hut, I could tell he was looking to enter this one. So I slipped ahead of the pair and crept through the window. It was just large enough for me to slip through. Luckily my body was long and not wide, so I still could fit.

With that I waited in the corner of the room and sure enough the door opened. The man dragged the sobbing woman in and yanked her towards a nearby bed made of wood and straw. The woman tried to struggle but the man backhanded her across the face and tossed her onto the bed. The woman now bleeding from a split lip quietly sobbed on the bed as the man began taking his pants off.

I got behind him and increased in size so I could tower over the bed. I had a plan on how to kill them both at once but I needed to be big enough. I felt bad about killing her too but I can’t have her scream. The simple fact is at this moment I can’t let anyone know I exist, because as far as I know my very existence is some global threat.

The man growled as he climbed onto the bed and pulled her legs apart. He then tried to position his member at her entrance and as he did so he leaned forward slightly. There’s the moment I’m looking for…

I raised my blade which was almost half a meter long and I stabbed in through the man’s back. I kept pushing forward the blade skewered the woman underneath him. The woman let out a scream of pain as she felt the blade stab into her chest.

“OI QUIET IT DOWN IN THERE!” I heard another man shout from outside.

With that I brought down another blade and stabbed it into her face. Her body twitched for a moment before stilling. I’ll just leave these two here for the moment…

With that I crawled back out the window, I don’t have much time now. The bandits will eventually notice that those are now silent. Which means I need to start my rampage soon. I saw a group of five of them sitting together at the fire. I guess I’ll start with them…

I slithered up behind them and grew to my full size and saw that I was now towering five meters tall. I’ll take them out and then fire some spines at the guy on the watchtower. Don’t want him to escape. The rest will still have to get the gate open. That should buy me time to kill them.

So I raised my blade and slashed at the five of them, my blades now two meters long cut through them like a hot knife through butter. The bandits around me immediately shouted in alarm as my massive form materialized in thin air. I turned and fired a wave of spines at the man at the watchtower. He was thrown back and was pinned to the side of the watchtower, at this size my spines were the size of a man’s forearm.

The bandits which I hoped will at least try to fight all turned and ran…

Well so much for that…

I hurtled through the camp blades flashing and spines firing. Bodies dropped to the ground in pieces or flew back and were pinned to nearby walls by my spines. Their screams and raw terror was intoxicating.

As I expected I saw about half of them run for the gate. The ones who got there first tried to get the gate open but the ones behind yanked them back and tried to get the door open themselves in panic. In their blind panic they ended up getting in each other’s way, well all the more easier for me…

I sped towards the gate, blades drawn and the men turned and saw my charging form. Their eyes widened in terror, faces now pale as parchment. I could see their pupils dilate as they realised they were about to die… and they screamed…

I slashed at the group of men with all four hands. I ended up cutting them to pieces, demolished the gate and part of the wall behind them. I also accidentally collapsed the watchtower to my right as I caught the supports of the watchtower with my backswing. As I took in the wrecked wall and watchtower I realised my body is harder to control at this size. I guess it makes sense, the smaller something is relative to your size the easier it is to mess something up when you try to handle it.

As the smell of that red scarlet nectar washed over me, I felt a kind of weird feral happiness. I laughed and turned around to see the last remaining few bandits trying to climb over a section of wall. Again these idiots tried to get up first and ended up slowing each other down. I charged them with my vision now turning red and their hearts pulsing brighter than ever in my vision. I could have used my spines to kill them but it was so much more fun to use my blades…

When I was upon the four of them I opened my jaws and snapped up the one at the top of the wall. I closed my teeth around his body and it was snapped clean in half, his lower body tumbling back down into the dirt. The others shouted as they tried to run, three quick slashes later and there were now six pieces staining the dirt red.

Unable to resist, I snapped up one torso as a quick snack and I turned around to see a few stragglers running for the now destroyed gate. One of them even managed to get a horse and was riding towards the opening. Well horse or no, I was much faster and soon I was upon him. I opened my maw and snapped up the man right off the horse. At the same time I slashed at the horse and the horse’s body rolled away in two halves. I raised my head and swallowed his whole body. Enjoying the feeling of his body sliding down my throat. The few remaining behind me were now running towards the large house, as far as I could sense there were only these few left and I could smell something in the big house.

I charged those remaining and easily cut them down. All this fighting was making me quite hungry so I snapped up one of the bodies in my jaws savouring the delectable taste. With that I looked around and saw no more bandits. I turned and saw the women all cowering in their pen, the scent of ammonia thick around them like a miasma. Well they weren’t going anywhere… that just leaves the house…

I switched my blades back to my claws and I tore the wall open, not bothering to shrink down to go through the door. When I entered the room, the whole place reeked of someone’s scent. I saw on the bed there was a girl's legs spread and splayed on the bed. I noted she looked the youngest amongst all the women. She had a smaller frame and a childlike face, her breasts were also small, with an overall petite appearance. Although she looked young I could tell she was an adult but she had the tell tale signs of malnutrition. Her muscle density was low and her bones seemed weak. I guess the bandit leader couldn’t actually get his hands on any kids so he settled for a woman that just looks young.

I realised the smell was emanating from between her legs, and as I got close I realised the bandit leader had just probably finished up when I started to attack. The girl was still panting and her eyes were rolled up into her head. I could see she had some bruising around her neck, the bruises aren’t showing yet but they’ll appear soon enough. Now that left the real question, where the hell was he?

Then I saw a trail leading out the window… ah... so he ran…

I turned and smashed my way through the wall and saw the trail went over the nearby wall. Well he had only two choices honestly...

He could die in that room…

OR HE COULD DIE RUNNING...

With that thought I smashed through the wood wall, the logs that made up the wall splintering like a bunch of toothpicks. I looked to the trail and I could see a figure sprinting away from the camp.

I instinctively let out a roar and started chasing him. In just a few seconds I have obliterated whatever pathetic lead he could muster on his puny legs. He turned and screamed just as I opened my maw and closed it around him. The last thing he saw was my teeth as I snatched him up and tore him in half…

Leader or no, he dies all the same…

I could feel a slight seething anger in the back of my mind. I hated rapists, I was so worried about them in my past life. I tried everything to keep my little sister out of their line of sight and I stressed endlessly on what I was going to do when she got older. But as to whether my current feelings were more moral indignation or just annoyance at what I had to do, I wasn’t so sure. I realised that my body changes the way that I think. So I’m still figuring out the psychological discrepancies between my past life and my current one.

With the hunt over and as I devoured the bandit leader’s other half. I felt the elation of the hunt start to fade and my vision started to lose its red tinge. Gradually I felt my mind clear and I realised I lost control a little there. Is this what they call a feeding frenzy? Like when sharks smell a drop of blood in the water or something? This is a little scary…

I guess I’ll figure this out later, I still had a feast and few loose ends to tie up back at the camp. When I got back to the camp I spotted the women in the pen had escaped and they were standing in the middle of the camp. They froze when they saw me, their eyes filling with fear. Well I had no intention of allowing them to walk away, if they left and told someone about me. Then I think I will have to deal with more than just bandits…

One of the women ran forward and picked up one of the fallen swords of the bandits. She scrambled to raise the sword and I smiled. This was quite the sight, this woman was stark naked, covered in filth and her sword was shaking like a leaf in the wind. I transformed my hands into blades and her face crumpled. The sword fell down to the earth listlessly and I saw whatever faint desperate hope in her eyes shatter into a thousand pieces. The woman looked down at the sword then raised it again. At first I thought she was going to try to fight but then she grabbed the sword by the blade and to my surprise she rammed the tip of the blade into her throat.

She choked and gagged for a moment before crumpling to the ground, choking and gasping as her life drained away. So better to die by the blade than to my teeth? Well it would be less painful if I was going to tear them apart… but I planned to make it painless. I don’t take much pleasure in torture.

The other women looked at the soon to be corpse in mute horror then their gaze shifted to me. At that moment I felt a little bad, these women just had the worst luck in the world. I didn’t want to kill them but I couldn’t let them leave. It was me or them, an arrangement I am quite familiar with even in my past life. Life in the slums was never easy, you did what you had to or you died. A rather straightforward arrangement…

Once again as quickly it came the feeling faded and I took aim with my spikes. I fired a wave of spines impaling the remaining women. They were instantly thrown against the dirt as my spines knocked them off their feet. I made sure to hit their heads to make it as painless as possible. Again I was struck with that slightly bad feeling, I guess this is just the vestiges of my old self.

I wonder if this is because I’m eating humans and getting improved [Advanced Cognition]? I doubt I will fully sympathise with humans, my mind just seemed too attracted to the idea of killing and eating for me to realistically abstain from killing humans. I may end up preferring other prey but I somehow in the back of my mind I just knew I would never be above killing them.

I then turned away from the sight of the dead women and I looked around and saw there were still some horses struggling against the ropes that tied them to nearby posts. I fired another wave of spines and the horses all collapsed, their bodies covered in my spines. That leaves this weird bear thing, it was quite large and it was horned. Odd looking creature, it was terrified, I could see in its eyes. It was backed against the back of its iron cage and it was shaking. Its fur was brown like a normal bear, if you ignore the horns and its size it would pass for a normal bear…

Well let’s see what it gives me…

I slashed at the cage and the crude iron was cut through like paper. I swapped two of my blades back into taloned hands and pulled the cage apart. I then brought my blade down, skewering the bear against the floor. I grabbed it, bringing it up to my mouth and began to eat it, fur, horns and all. I just tore into it like it was a baked potato or something.

After I finished I heard the voice again…

Ursus Cornutum Essence acquired

Insufficient essence for assimilation

Well I guess I need a few more of those. I then went on to the horses after I ate one of them. I heard the voice in my head again.

Achieved [Equus Genome] Level: 1 / 10

[Muscle Strength] improved

[Bone Density] improved

Well those were pretty boring upgrades…

Then again I guess horses were boring…

After I finished up the horses I moved on to the human corpses. This time there were more than thirty bodies for me to eat. So I was sure I would get another genome upgrade. I got halfway through the bodies when I heard the voice sound off in my head.

Achieved [Human Genome] Level: 3 / 10

[Advance Cognition] improved

[Colour Perception] improved

[Fine Motor Skills] improved

[Auditory Communication] improved

Ok so more of the same, pretty boring. When I finished the rest of the bodies nothing else happened. It looks like the requirements for upgrades increase as the stages go up. I guess for stage 10 I’ll have to eat a whole city or something… that’ll take awhile…

Would that be even worth the effort? I mean that would probably take days… or maybe stronger humans are worth more? Like those Gold Ranked adventures? Well I’ll find out if that's true at some point, I mean the plan doesn’t change. I just have to keep eating them if I end up killing them for whatever reason…

That leaves one last thing, the unconcious girl in the house. I didn’t sense any movement in the house the entire time I was eating, I guess she’s out cold. Well I might as well finish her off and move on. Judging by the sky it’s going to be night soon, I guess soon I’ll be a day old. Feels like more has happened today than my entire past life…

I wonder what my life will be like in this world? Will I just live alone? Maybe I’ll make some friends. I have a feeling this life will be quite lonely…

Wait wait wait… did I just think about being lonely and having friends? Is this the [Advance Cognition] talking? Well I do have a way to test this… it’s lying unconscious in that house…

When I reentered the house I saw the girl was still unconscious on the bed. I could see bruises have formed around her throat, making a blue and black ring around her neck. Her nethers were also red and swollen probably from what that bandit did to her.

Well I should probably kill her and get this over with. I transformed one of my hands into blades and raised it preparing to stab her in the head. Then I saw her shift slightly and she turned to the side. Her eyes scrunched together and she curled up into a foetal position. I could tell her eyes were darting around under her closed eyelids. It looks like she’s having a nightmare, then I saw tears flow out from under her eyelids. Again I felt bad for her, this time the feeling was stronger…

My little sister would also do that when she was having a nightmare. She would curl up and cry in her sleep. I remember cradling her to try and soothe her through the nightmare. That was a very visceral memory… the other times were more vague… this one was very clear…

Crap looks like my suspicions were right, eating humans makes me grow a conscience. This is quite ironic… I get the ability to feel guilty about killing humans by eating humans…

To be fair she was unconscious the moment I found her. I think that bandit lord probably choked her out while he was defiling her. She won’t know what I am, she’ll just wake up to this destroyed camp…

I don’t really have a reason to kill her… if she saw me then I know I can easily kill her because she’ll put me in danger. But now… she’s no threat to me, and I don’t really want to keep eating humans. The last thing I want now is a full blown conscience.

I mean even now what I feel isn’t exactly pity it’s more like I feel it would be a pointless kill. Like why kill her? There’s not much reason for it, she’s so small she probably won’t make a dent in my growth. If I keep eating humans this feeling bad thing is going to get worse so I don’t think I want to eat her because of that. So what? I just kill her and leave her corpse here? What’s the point in that? Or am I just making excuses… it's probably safer just to kill her…

…

…

FUCK!

If only she didn’t remind me of little sis… if it was some hairy guy I would have no trouble eating him. Goddamn it, half of me is glad that I still remember her so clearly but the other half also realised that this could be a dangerous tendency. Well, she doesn't know I’m here anyway. She can’t rat out what she has never seen…

With a sigh, I turned my blade into my taloned hands and turned away. At the opening I turned back to take one last look at her and pondered how this is the first living thing I let live so far. For better or worse I’m smarter now and not some dumb ferocious monster. Being smart is good, right? When I really need it I will be able to better strategise…

I took a final look at the quietly crying girl on the bed and muttered one last thing.

Good luck...