CHAPTER 63: FINALLY, FOOD

"Hmm, I can see you’re making progress Blank. You can lift it few inches away from the ground now. That’s fast."

K. He– he’s finally here. I’ve been..

–Huff– –Huff–

I can’t move my neck else I’d have turned to see him.

And as my weak body quivers from the force of the weight braces— my jaw unclenches, and I drop my wrist back on the sand, causing a loud thud.

"Did.. did you bring the food?" I voice out. My low voice floating on the air lightly, and somehow, he heard me.

"Yes." He says as he walks slowly from the gate toward me.

The searing pain and immense fatigue eats at me, and amid heavy breaths— I turn my neck, and my gaze fixates on the stern expression on his face.

I spot it immediately.

There’s a large, black creature on his right shoulder. It’s dead.

"Pirantroph." I whisper. A weary smile forming on my lips.

He drops the corpse of the pirantroph next to me.

I can’t move. I want to grab it, but I can’t move my arms. My stomach is growling louder than ever now that food is this close to me.

"Arrgggh! Get this thing off me!!" with the last of my strength, I scream at the top of my lungs.

–Huff– –Huff–

"Get it off!!" I keep screaming.

The food..

It’s right next to me.

Grrrrr!

"Argh!!" I scream out again. The hunger’s eating inside my stomach.

Hot tears roll down from my eyes, "I’m hungry, K." I sniffle, turning my neck to lock eyes with him.

He shuts his eyes, taking in a deep breath. And he opens his eyes again, and motions toward me.

)

As he reaches me, he crouches— taking of the brace on both my ankles first.

Then he takes of the ones on my wrists.

"This is for your own good, ki–"

I jump immediately, pouncing on the pirantroph corpse.

My teeth sink into the rough and hard hide of the beast. The taste of the blood sprinkling into my mouth is salty. But, I don’t even care about how anything tastes right now. I just want to eat.

All of a sudden, a firm grip presses on the back of my neck. Tightening.

K?

He lifts me up slowly, and the pirantroph under my feet gets more and more distant. I swing my arms in the air— fighting to go back down to the corpse of the Pirantroph.

"Let me go!" I scream. "Let me go K!"

I reach my arms toward the back of my neck, where K’s grip is firmly pressing and raising me— and I grab his wrist tight. My long, uncut nails dig into his flesh.

I’m going to burn his hands. Yes, I’m going to burn him!

The flame mana moves from my circle as I will it. And it surges within me— through my mana pathway down to my palm. I’m going to–

"Relax, kid. You can’t eat it like this. You’ll get poisoned by the energy of it’s red core. You have to wait for me to extract that energy, and.."

Before he concludes his speech, he throws me on the ground— far from the corpse of Pirantroph.

The back of my head crashes on the the ground as I collapse.

–Huff– –Huff–

My chest keeps rising and falling.

My back is flat on the ground, and I’m lying— facing up at the sky. The golden glow of the evening sun painting silhouettes of K’s medium sized wooden house on my body.

I’m trying to decide if I should just lie down here forever. I’m asking myself the if the food is even worth it.

What’s the worst thing that could happen if I don’t eat? I die? Pfft, it’s not my first time.

Yeah, let me just take a short na–

Grrrr!

And the insides of my stomach twists again with that same pain.

"Shit." I mutter as I slowly sit up— facing K.

"Be patient. We’re going to roast it, I didn’t mean it when I said you’ll eat it raw. You have to at least–"

I stand up with a low grunt. "You." I whisper as I limp slowly toward him. "Do you know who I am?" I ask.

I think I’m crazy now.

His brows furrow as he’s crossing his arms.

I’m expecting him to smile or something. But that stern expression is still on his face.

"Blank, are you not?" His voice is low and his tone is warm.

I offer no response. I just stare at him. Waiting for him to extract the poison or whatever from the beast.

He doesn’t know that I might go feral anytime soon. Hunger’s really a bad thing. He should hurry up.

"Look, kid. I’m not in the mood for jokes. I had a pretty shitty experience today." His head hangs low as he speaks. And he bends down— feeling the skin of the pirantroph corpse with his palms.

I still offer no response.

As his palms reach the chest area— they stop moving. And he digs his hand into the chest.

Blood spurts out.

He digs his arm inside. It goes in deep— his entire forearm.

"Aha." He exclaims as he drags his hand out of the chest of the pirantroph.

On his blood-soaked arm— his palms tightly clench something that looks like we an orb.

What is that?

I squint my eyes. Trying to get a proper view of the thing he’s holding.

"Don’t ever copy me. This is really dangerous as the red core of low level beasts contain volatile, corrupted pure mana. If anyone other than me did this, they’ll be blown up by now. I should have extracted it normally by draining it’s mana roots, but that’s a hassle. Takes too much time." He speaks with lazy effort.

Oh. He’s holding the core.

I nod, offering no response.

"Is it okay to eat now?" I ask, sitting on the ground next to him.

"No. There’s still some corrupt pure mana left in it’s mana root, so we have to wait for it to drip out before roasting it." he speaks.

Mana root. It feels weird knowing that mana pathways only exist in human bodies. Beast and monsters have mana roots that connect to their man’s core of they form one. Although, the chance of a mere D-rank Pirantroph feeling mana and forming a core is slim. In fact, impossible is what it’s supposed to be, but how come that..

The thing K’s holding is the red mana core of the Pirantroph.

That makes this Pirantroph one that can feel mana. It means it surpasses a mere D-rank Pirantroph. It’s at least A-rank judging from the size of the core alone.

Are these the kind of monsters that exists in the beast terrains? Pirantrophs that have felt man–

Grrr!

"Can we roast it now?"