Beast Devourer: I Grow Stronger by Eating Monsters

Mirevale wasn’t cured when they returned.

That would have been too easy.

The Broodmother was dead.

Everything it had already produced was not.

The first thing Raven saw after passing the quarantine barricade was a patient being carried between medical pavilions with both arms tied to the stretcher. Something moved beneath the skin of his neck.

The second was a barrel of drinking water being overturned into a trench because Maelor’s reagents had detected juvenile Hollow Threads inside.

The third was smoke.

Not from the funeral pyres this time.

Contaminated bedding.

Clothing.

Anything physicians no longer trusted enough to clean.

There were still infected patients, eggs embedded inside bodies, Hollow Threads attached to secondary mana channels, and contaminated water in several districts. Some hosts carried only a few parasites.

Others carried enough that nobody was certain whether removing them would save the patient or kill them faster.

And now everyone knew what could happen when integration became advanced.

Nobody mistook a patient standing up for recovery anymore.

Two guards remained outside every isolation pavilion.

Water was boiled, filtered, tested, and tested again.

Anyone with irregular mana loss was confined until physicians cleared them.

Every death meant an autopsy before cremation.

Every autopsy meant another possibility of finding eggs.

The Broodmother’s death had stopped the worst part.

Not the dangerous part.

For the first time since the outbreak began, however, Hollow Thread concentrations in the areas surrounding Deep Mire were falling instead of rising. Without the Broodmother continuously feeding new organisms into the network, the surviving Reservoir Toads were beginning to consume juvenile forms faster than the colony could replace them.

Maelor’s salts were clearing contaminated water sources.

The physicians knew what they were looking for.

And the remaining parasites were no longer being replenished by thousands.

Mirevale had gone from losing ground every day to fighting over what remained.

That was not the same thing as winning.

But it meant winning had become possible.

Raven spent most of the afternoon with Garran, Maelor, and Serah in the same office where they had argued two days earlier.

This time, Raven placed four containers on the table.

The normal reservoirs glowed faintly inside them.

”These don’t work for what I’m building.”

Maelor breathed slowly through his nose.

”They’re still excellent-quality organs.”

”Then we agree you can use them.”

”Yes.”

Raven sat down.

”Then we have a deal.”

Garran looked at him.

”What do you want?”

”Normal payment for all four.”

”The region is under emergency conditions.”

”Which is exactly why the price is high.”

The captain briefly closed his eyes.

Valeria sat on the other side of the room, enjoying this far too much.

Raven continued.

”Free passage through Mirevale once the travel restrictions are lifted. Enough medical and alchemical supplies for the next leg of the journey. Updated maps toward Dunvar. Information on Black Mithril and northeastern trade routes.”

Maelor crossed his arms.

”That’s a lot.”

”You’re also getting four reservoirs.”

”That you found inside a colony we attacked together.”

”Then deduct the cost of my Broodmother extermination services.”

Valeria had to cover her mouth.

Garran looked at her.

”Don’t help.”

”I’m trying not to.”

Serah examined one of the containers.

”All four together buy us time.”

Raven nodded.

”That’s what I’m selling.”

She looked at him.

”Can you never just say ’helping’?”

”I can.”

”And?”

”It doesn’t describe the transaction.”

Garran finally sat.

”Two hundred forty crowns for all four. Basic medical supplies. Two alchemical preservation kits. Updated maps. Publicly available trade information and my orders ensuring no one blocks you once transit reopens.”

Raven considered it.

”Nonpublic information on Black Mithril.”

”No.”

”Then three preservation kits.”

”Two.”

”Two, plus additional reagents for detecting biological contamination.”

Maelor interrupted.

”I can provide those.”

Garran looked at him.

”Thank you for negotiating away my supplies.”

”I need them less than we need the reservoirs.”

The captain turned back to Raven.

”Done.”

Raven extended his hand.

Garran shook it.

No one mentioned the Deepwell reservoir.

Its reinforced container remained beside Raven’s leg.

His property.

That was enough.

---

The problem started when he left the building.

People were waiting outside.

Not a huge crowd.

Fifteen or twenty.

Some had relatives in the medical pavilions. Others worked nearby. Word had spread quickly that the group entering Deep Mire had found the source of the outbreak.

Behind them, Mirevale still looked like a quarantined town.

Yellow cloth marked infected buildings.

Physicians crossed the street carrying sealed glass containers.

Two soldiers escorted a corpse toward the examination ward instead of directly to the pyres.

Nobody was celebrating.

They were simply dying more slowly.

An older woman approached first.

Raven assumed she wanted to ask about a patient.

Instead, she took his hand.

”Thank you.”

Raven looked at her.

”For what?”

The woman seemed confused.

”For what you did.”

Raven glanced toward Valeria.

She was smiling.

Never a good sign.

The woman continued.

”My grandson is in Pavilion Two. They said they have more time to treat him now.”

Raven looked toward the building.

The reservoirs.

Naturally.

”I sold them.”

The woman blinked.

”What?”

”The organs. Mirevale paid for them.”

Valeria stepped in with a considerably more diplomatic smile.

”He’s tired.”

Raven looked at her.

”I’m not—”

She grabbed his arm and kept walking.

The woman thanked him again anyway.

Once they were far enough away, Raven pulled his arm free.

”You didn’t need to do that.”

”Yes, I did.”

”I sold them organs.”

”They’re going to say you saved them.”

”That would be inaccurate.”

”You helped destroy the colony producing Hollow Threads, found the creatures capable of reducing their population, and sold enough reservoirs to keep the medical systems running while they control the outbreak.”

”Exactly. A series of transactions and aligned objectives.”

Valeria studied him.

”The story will lose that part.”

Raven looked toward the pyres on the far side of Mirevale.

There was less smoke than when they had arrived.

Not none.

Less.

That distinction mattered.

Strangely, it reminded him of his old world—finishing an operation and withdrawing from a conflict without anyone ever knowing they had been there.

”Stories seem to do that fairly often.”

A scream came faintly from one of the medical buildings.

Neither of them commented.

The outbreak was weakening.

It wasn’t over.

Roland joined them carrying two new packs.

One was almost entirely food.

He handed it to Raven.

”For four people.”

Raven weighed it in one hand.

”Maybe five.”

Roland didn’t argue.

Progress.

---

That night, Raven checked FORGE before sleeping.

The difference compared to only a few days earlier was considerable.

[PROJECT: PROTOTYPE RIFLE]

[Project Type: Artificial Projectile Weapon]

[Design Origin: Foreign / Terrestrial]

[Mechanical Understanding: Partial]

[Native Material Adaptation: Developing]

[Core Systems Required: 5]

[Functional Components Acquired: 2 / 5]

[Activation System: Arc Needle Queen — High-Density Impulse Spark]

[Status: AVAILABLE]

[Stable Mana Storage: Deepwell Toad — Deepwell Crystalline Reservoir]

[Status: AVAILABLE]

[Completion: 31.4%]

[Next Unresolved Core Requirement: Structural Barrel Material]

[Recommended Candidate: BLACK MITHRIL]

[Primary Known Source Region: Dunvar.]

Thirty-one point four percent.

Raven closed FORGE.

Then he opened his status.

The result of killing the Broodmother and the Deepwell was still waiting for him.

[Level: 10]

[Existence Rank: COMMON]

[Accumulated Experience: MAXIMUM FOR CURRENT EXISTENCE RANK]

[Additional Experience Retained.]

[Qualitative Evolution Approaching.]

[Next Existence Rank: AWAKENED]

[Evolution Requirements: ???]

Raven stared at the three question marks.

From the other bed, Valeria looked up from the book she was reading.

”More bad news?”

”I don’t know.”

”Is that worse?”

”I reached Level Ten.”

She lowered the book.

”Then you’re at the Common limit.”

”Yes.”

”And?”

Raven gave her a faint smile.

”The system decided to become mysterious.”

”What do you need to reach Awakened?”

”Three question marks.”

Valeria remained serious for one second.

Then she laughed.

”You finally found something your ability doesn’t know either.”

”Or doesn’t want to tell me.”

”That sounds much more irritating.”

”Yes.”

Raven closed the interface and looked toward the reinforced container holding the rifle’s second component.

Two out of five.

Level Ten.

An Existence Rank on the verge of changing.

And Dunvar waiting to the northeast with Black Mithril, noble monopolies, and probably some new reason the next component wouldn’t be as simple as it looked on the map.

Raven had already learned not to trust the word simple.

Mirevale was supposed to have been a stop to hunt a toad.

Instead, he had killed a parasitic colony, learned to control his own regeneration, gained enough experience to reach the limit of Common, and accidentally become something resembling a local hero because he had sold four organs at emergency prices.

Of all those things, the last remained the most irritating.

Tomorrow, they would leave Mirevale.

Raven had the second component.

The town had time.

Not safety.

Time.

And for now, that was enough.