Beast Devourer: I Grow Stronger by Eating Monsters

By midmorning, they stopped briefly beside a stream.

The guards fed the horses while Valeria accepted a cup of something hot that Roland had prepared from dried leaves.

Raven ate bread, cheese, and Gloom Stalker meat.

Valeria saw him pull out the last one.

”Is that what I think it is?”

”Depends what you think it is.”

”Gloom Stalker.”

”Then yes.”

”You’re eating the monster that nearly killed you.”

Raven chewed.

”Would be a waste to let it rot.”

”You could sell it.”

”This gives me Experience.”

Valeria froze with the cup halfway to her lips.

Raven stopped chewing for a moment too.

Ah.

That might have been unnecessary information.

Valeria slowly lowered the cup.

”Eating monsters gives you Experience?”

”Not always.”

”That’s not normal.”

”I’m starting to notice.”

”Raven.”

”What?”

”This time, I want a real answer.”

”Wanting things seems important to you.”

Valeria ignored the comment.

”Does your Skill let you absorb mana from what you consume?”

Raven took another piece.

”You’re close.”

”What does that mean?”

”Your approximation isn’t completely stupid.”

Valeria stared at him.

”What a moving compliment.”

”It wasn’t meant to be.”

”I assumed.”

Raven kept eating.

She looked at the meat.

Then at his hands.

”Stonehide.”

Raven raised an eyebrow slightly.

”What about it?”

”You killed a Stonehide Ravager before reaching Greyhaven. Then you appeared using Stonehide.”

Raven didn’t answer.

Valeria continued.

”Then you killed the Gloom Stalker.”

Her eyes dropped toward his legs.

”And yesterday you used a movement Skill that one of the reports specifically attributes to that species.”

”Burst Step.”

Now Raven looked at her.

”You’re very well informed.”

”You also used fire. What did you kill to get that?”

Raven smiled faintly.

”That was fast.”

Valeria’s red eyes brightened with satisfaction.

”So I’m right.”

Raven didn’t confirm it.

Didn’t deny it either.

Valeria stood and began slowly pacing in front of him.

”At first, I thought you had a Bloodline capable of storing Skills. Minor variations exist. Temporary copying. Mimicry. Resonance. Nothing especially extraordinary.”

Raven ate another strip of meat.

”Sounds disappointing.”

”Shut up.”

Raven looked at her.

Valeria stopped.

”Please.”

”Much better.”

She ignored that.

”But you don’t copy anything you see. You obtain them from creatures you kill.”

Raven drank some water.

”Keep going.”

”And you don’t hunt randomly. You ignored a Gravelmaw even though its parts are valuable. You investigated a Marshscale specifically because of its venom resistance, then decided it wasn’t worth the detour.”

Raven watched her over the bottle.

She continued.

”Yesterday, you didn’t want the Crimson Blood Core either. You wanted the gland associated with Coagulation Control.”

”You already knew that.”

”Because you don’t want the material.”

Valeria took another step.

”You want the ability.”

Raven finished his water.

”I told you that too.”

”You told me you wanted to eat it.”

”And you decided that was a dietary preference.”

”Because I thought you were being unpleasant.”

”That was also part of it.”

”Raven.”

He put the bottle away.

Valeria stood directly in front of him.

”You’re not hunting monsters primarily for rewards.”

”The rewards help.”

”But they aren’t the reason.”

Raven didn’t answer.

”It isn’t the materials either.”

”Depends on the material.”

She smiled.

”You select them.”

Raven remained silent.

Valeria pointed toward the forest.

”First, you decide what you need. Then you find out which creature possesses a compatible ability.”

Now.

Exactly.

Valeria seemed to know she’d gotten it right from his silence.

”And then you hunt it.”

Raven lifted the Gloom Stalker meat.

”Then I try to cook it.”

She looked at the piece.

”You eat them to obtain the Skill?”

”When it works that way.”

Valeria’s eyes changed.

It wasn’t simple curiosity anymore.

It was the look of someone who had just discovered a new piece in a problem she thought she understood.

”That’s impossible.”

Raven took another bite.

”You should inform my body.”

”There is no recognized Skill capable of doing that permanently.”

”Then the records are incomplete.”

”Human Skills have compatibility restrictions too. Affinity, race, mana structure, Bloodline...”

Raven remembered the Hollow Father leader.

Kinetic Acceleration.

The raw heart.

”In my case, compatibility seems fairly flexible.”

Valeria went still.

Too still.

Raven immediately realized he’d said too much again.

She looked at him.

”Have you tried it on a human?”

Silence.

Roland had stopped preparing things.

The other two guards were pretending not to listen with admirable effort.

Raven looked at Valeria.

He could lie.

Probably should.

”Once.”

The answer was calm enough to make it worse.

Valeria took several seconds to speak.

”You killed someone to steal their Skill?”

”It wasn’t because of the Skill.”

”But you just said—”

”He and five friends wanted to rob me, sacrifice me to their god, and then eat me. I would’ve killed him even if he had nothing useful.”

Valeria blinked.

”Ah.”

”The Skill was a bonus.”

Roland exhaled through his nose.

Valeria turned.

”Roland.”

”Dust, my lady.”

”We’re beside a stream.”

”Pollen.”

”There are no flowers.”

”It’s a complicated medical condition.”

Raven continued eating.

Valeria turned back to him.

”And then you ate part of him?”

”The necessary part.”

”Which part?”

Raven looked at the food in his hand.

Then at her.

”We’re having lunch.”

Valeria thought for a moment.

”The heart.”

Raven didn’t need to answer.

His expression was enough.

”Of course,” she muttered.

Raven pointed at her cup.

”You asked.”

”I’m starting to regret that.”

”That shows growth.”

She gave him a look.

Raven finished the meat.

They continued in silence for almost an hour.

Raven was perfectly comfortable with that.

Valeria wasn’t.

He could tell.

The noblewoman rode several yards ahead, apparently watching the road while her mind continued reorganizing everything she knew about him.

Eventually, she spoke.

”Can you obtain any Skill?”

”There are limits.”

”How do you know what’s compatible?”

”That part I’m not telling you.”

”One per creature? Several? Do you need to kill them yourself? Does it work on Bloodlines?”

Raven looked at her.

”You’re spending yesterday’s five minutes rather freely.”

”I paid you with records.”

”For a conversation.”

”I consider us to have remaining credit.”

”Your accounting is creative.”

Valeria sighed.

”Do you have any idea how valuable an ability like that would be?”

”Enough not to try selling it.”

”The Houses would pay fortunes to study you.”

”That sentence does not improve my opinion of the Houses.”

”I didn’t say the study had to be unpleasant.”

Raven looked at her.

”The word ’study’ did.”

Valeria smiled.

”I could protect you.”

”There it is again.”

”What?”

”The offer.”

”Now you know accepting it would be intelligent.”

”Now I know accepting it would be even stupider.”

Her smile disappeared.

”Explain.”

”Yesterday, you thought I was a strange mercenary with several Skills. Today, you know I can gain abilities by eating creatures.”

”And people.”

”Under fairly specific circumstances.”

”That makes you more valuable.”

”Exactly.”

Valeria understood.

Raven continued.

”Yesterday, you would’ve wanted to hire me. Today, you might want to control me. Tomorrow, someone might decide cutting me open to see how I work is a reasonable investment.”

”I wouldn’t do that.”

”I met you yesterday.”

”And I could say exactly the same thing about you.”

”Then we agree.”

Valeria thought about that.

”You don’t trust me.”

”I trust you to act according to your interests.”

”That doesn’t answer the question.”

”It’s the answer that matters.”

Valeria smiled slowly.

”Then I suppose I can trust you that way too.”

”That would be reasonable.”

”And what are your interests?”

Raven looked toward Blackthorn.

”Getting stronger.”

”For what?”

The question was simple.

The answer wasn’t.

Returning to Earth.

Voss.

Oracle Zero.

Finding out what had happened to Cole.

Learning why Predation had appeared.

Surviving long enough that no one could ever lock him inside a room again and decide his death was administratively convenient.

Raven gave her only one answer.

”To make myself difficult to kill.”

”You already are.”

”Not difficult enough.”

Valeria looked at the bandages.

”Clearly.”

Raven looked at her.

She smiled.

”Dark humor works when I do it too.”

”Needs practice.”

”How critical.”

”Free again.”

They reached Blackthorn Forest in the afternoon.

The name was appropriate.

The trees had nearly black bark and long branches covered in small thorns. The canopy blocked enough light that even in the middle of the afternoon, the interior had a bluish-gray cast.

Reddish ferns grew between thick roots, and low mist collected wherever the ground dipped toward swampier areas.

Raven stopped before entering and spent several seconds watching and listening.

Moisture.

Earth.

Vegetation.

Something animal.

Nothing immediate.

Predator’s Instinct remained calm.

Valeria dismounted.

”We continue on foot from here.”

Raven looked at her horse.

”Why?”

”Mirehorns detect vibrations easily. Five horses would announce our position from hundreds of yards away.”

Raven nodded.

Useful information.

The guards began securing the animals at a small abandoned waystation near the road.

Valeria picked up a backpack.

Roland immediately tried to take it.

”My lady.”

”I can carry it.”

”That’s my job.”

”Your job is to stop me from getting killed.”

”Also to carry your things.”

”Then you need better aspirations.”

Roland remained there with his hand extended.

Valeria stared at him.

Eventually, she gave him the backpack.

Raven watched.

”He won.”

Valeria turned.

”Who?”

”Roland.”

”It wasn’t a competition.”

”That’s usually what the person who loses says.”

”Would you like me to offer you a job again?”

”I’d prefer you didn’t.”

”Then stop helping my employees.”

Roland walked past Raven.

”I appreciate the attempt.”

Valeria heard him.

”Roland.”

”I didn’t say anything, my lady.”

Raven was beginning to suspect the man had survived years in her service precisely because he knew exactly how far he could provoke her without losing his job.

Respectable.

They entered the forest.