Taking the knife with him, he decided to cut off the creature's ear. He decided not to try and cook it since he thought of just getting the ear closer to the roof of the mouth in order to see if this is what the black slime wanted to consume. He was not planning on digesting it just to see if that is what it wanted.

Once he grabbed the head, a cold feeling started coming from his hand and radiating from the head. This was a bit strange to him, but his hunger was too much to let him think any more than he thought he needed.

As soon as he cut off the ear, he shoved the ear into his mouth, hoping it was something that would satiate the hunger.

However, the moment he did, an extreme chill spread in his mouth followed by extreme pain, he immediately spits out the ear and started to scream in pain.

"AHHH!"

he fell on the ground and rolled on the floor.

Combined with the hunger, he felt like he was going to pass out, but he knew if he passed out, that “thing” in his mouth would just consume him.

He tried his best to keep his mind awake but felt he could not hold on much longer.

In an act of desperation, he rushed to the head steward’s body, as it was the only corpse that was relatively intact.

Reaching the body, he was not exactly sure what he was going to do in his moment of stupor, all he knew was to somehow get out of the situation he was in or he would perish.

Looking at the upper abdomen area, there is already some damage from the final blow. He guessed from the injuries that the floating head has made, there seems to be something special in this part of the body.

However, once he was less than a meter away from the body, he was surprised to find the hunger was slowly decreasing, not by much though.

It was like seeing a light in a dark tunnel, there was hope. Seeing that he can feed the creature without resorting to such barbaric actions, Saiph tried to get close to the body and opened his mouth in order to help the creature feed.

This action sped up the feeding but made him realize something. At this point in time, the pain in his mouth has somewhat faded, it seems what ever radiation that contaminated his mouth when he placed the ear in his mouth has run out. But opening his mouth has cracked the flesh around it. It wasn't that he opened his mouth too wide but the flesh around his mouth has become dry and brittle. The ear has left lasting damage.

Now that he noticed it, he could not feel the outside or inside of his mouth, when he tried to feel it with his hands, it felt cold. Touching the teeth, they seem to break easily if they have not already fallen off. Even though he spat out the ear as fast as he could, it still did a lot of damage to his mouth and face.

Saiph felt like his entire being was going to crumble, he could not believe what had become of him and his body.

But after a while, he felt that the creature's hunger was staved off for a bit, yet he could feel that it was nowhere near the end.

To him, the only silver lining was that he no longer needed to turn into a cannibal.

Saiph collapsed on the ground while leaning on the cave walls. Today’s events all happened too quickly for him to process. He went through many different shocking, painful, and stressful experiences, that the moment he felt it was over, he could not help but collapse.

He sat there, blankly staring at the dimly lit cave walls feeling too exhausted to even think. Subconsciously or consciously, he tried to avoid looking at the scattered bodies around him in hopes of forgetting the reality he was in, at least for this moment of respite.

----

Not long after, he started to hear a few footsteps echoing in the cave, Saiph wanted to get up and be on alert. But he felt lethargy, both physically and mentally. It seemed too difficult to bring himself back into that state of strained tension.

He thought it was probably people coming to check on the stewards of the Azfar family, this was a convincing conclusion for him, so he relaxed. Even if there was a part of him that had doubts and thought it could be another danger, he felt maybe it’s fine if he lost his life here.

Saiph just sat there waiting for his inevitable fate, whatever it may be.

He saw light coming behind a corner, which seemed to be moving in his direction. The person or thing seems to be coming from the direction of the entrance. It was another confirmation that it was a person coming to check the situation.

He was right, it was two individuals wearing the Azfar family’s steward uniform, this nightmare really seems like it is over.

The two stewards were baffled at the situation they were seeing. How could the head steward and his team be dead, the monster they were following from the wild was not that strong, in fact, it was escaping with its life not too long ago. How did it turn the situation when it entered the cave?

They were on guard, they have not yet spotted the floating head yet, it could still be alive somewhere hiding. They became vigilant and scrutinized this corridor closely, there were around three bodies belonging to the stewards and one mine worker’s corpse leaning on the wall…

“Hey, lizard! Look over there, that guy is not dead!”

One of the two pointed towards Saiph, the one he was referring to was nicknamed lizard. but they were surprised because the first time they glanced towards Saiph's body, they thought that there was no way he’s alive. His face was extremely pale, mouth area was dark and there were cracks on it extending all the way to the cheekbones. But what should have been a corpse was staring at them with an exhausted expression.

“Hey, miner! Have you seen where the floating head has gone too?”

The one talking to Saiph was nicknamed bear. Also, when hearing the question, Saiph pointed at something that, to the two stewards, seemed like another rock and debris that's scattered all around here.

Looking closely, its shape does remind them of the creature they were hunting with the head steward and the main hunting team not too long ago.

They got closer to it and verified that it was not moving anymore.

They both sighed a sigh of relief.

“What happened here?”

One of the Stewards turned to ask Saiph to better understand why both the flying head and the stewards were dead.

“The head steward and that monster killed each other...”

To Saiph's surprise, he was still able to speak, even though he lost a lot of sensations in his mouth. He explained the entire events he experienced, but once reached the part where that black slime crawled into his mouth…

“When I went to the floating head, a black thing came out of it went into my mouth-”

He stopped, he realized he may have made an error, whether it be because of the long exhaustion or the desire to finally share what happened to him with someone else. This creature that’s right now inside him, at least when he first got it, seemed to be something special. But if the stewards knew about it, would they take it from him?

But this thought made him think that it would not be so bad if they take it, this thing has been nothing but trouble from the moment he got it, and perhaps it can only be fed by acquiring dead bodies of people. The reason he was thinking so, was because he doesn't feel like these two living stewards were not enticing the creature's hunger.

Though he has not completely understood the creature and its feeding habits, he still felt that it may bring him more trouble than he could handle, his deformed face is a testament to that. And who knows, he may be able to get benefits from the Azfar family for giving them this thing.