Chapter 12

Sometime later Rain climbed down from the tree and wandered into the clearing. Dead mushroom monsters littered the ground. He counted sixteen, the other surviving mushrooms had wandered off into the forest.

“Dammit, I only got two of them, and one of them got turned into ash!” grumbled Opal appearing at his side.

“That was a pretty clever plan but I’m not sure I wanted them dead.”

She glared up at him. “I did it so you can eat them.”

“Woah, woah, I’m not eating levelers!”

“What? Why not?!”

“I’m ... I’m just not okay. Look, help me with these mushroom monsters, go grab the bits that Satyr chopped off ... and get that Half-elf’s body out of my sight.”

The Goblin gave him a suspicious look but started to do as he said as he stepped over to the nearest mushroom. He had yet to eat today so he was especially ravenous, drool was already starting to drip from his mouth and his stomach growled irritably. Without preamble he leapt on the mushroom and ripped a mouthful of mushroom flesh free, it parted easily beneath his teeth and he was able to consume it swiftly. Two bites, four bites, six, he gorged on mushroom, but rapidly began to slow and then come to a stop.

“Bland! Oh gods, why is this so bland! Uggh!”

He tried rolling the mushroom around in his mouth, scenting it, swallowing it quickly, but to no avail, the food remained unbelievably bland and papery, like eating a block of tasteless plant fibre.

“To the bottom of the ranking with you.” He growled as he mentally placed it below anything he had eaten so far.

He looked down at the masses of mushroom bodies with dismay and slumped his shoulders.

“Well the sooner I’m done the sooner I can find something appetising to eat,” he sighed.

He went back at it, this time with significantly less enthusiasm. Ten minutes later he had managed most of the first mushroom monster and was beginning to digest. He curled his toes in anticipation and stretched his claws out along with his arms. His stomach gurgled and then began to shrink down. He closed his eyes waiting for the feeling to hit ... and waited ... and then a feeble sense of growing rolled through him, barely a whisper. He opened his eyes.

“Is that it!? This stuff is terrible.“

“It’s food, It should make you bigger yes? Why isn’t it?” said Opal from where she had been watching.

“Yes, it should, but I am like a wolf, a carnivore, so maybe whatever causes me to grow doesn’t work as well with, uh, not meat. Carnivores don’t fight their way up the food chain to eat vegetables.”

Opal raised her arms up and looked at the huge pile of mushroom flesh she had pushed together and then dropped them and sighed.

“You grew, you definitely still grew right?”

“Yeah, a little bit. It’s enough to make me want to eat the rest ... even though I hate myself for it.”

He went back to eating. And eating. And eating. At some point he had given up speeding through it and had resigned himself to a miserable grind. An hour later he found himself on his back as Opal pushed mushroom bodies and limbs toward him. He genuinely began to wonder if it would ever end, but eventually the last chunk of bland mushroom was choked down. He estimated he’d gained less than an inch of height even after eating so many.

“Urggghhhh. If I ever see a mushroom again it will be too soon.”

“But I can find a live one in the woods and you can kill it. They’ve gone dormant again so I will have to go throw sticks and stones to wake one up and lead it here, It’s food, that’s good right?”

“No, I don’t know If I can kill them and even if I could it would only make me grow a tiny bit, not worth it. It’s better to go find real meat.”

“We do have real meat you know.”

“That meat being the Half-elf...”

“You should eat her.”

“I ... I don’t want to.”

“But why! She’s dead, she won’t care!”

“She’s not a monster.”

“But I’m a monster! We both are!”

“We’re different.”

“How!? I think and feel just like her. You were happy to kill and eat so many Gobbos just like me.”

“...”

“The only difference between us and them is that they have the ability to level by killing monsters.”

“I ... I ... Gods, let me look at the body.”

Opal grinned wickedly and grabbed him by the paw and towed him through the trees to the small plateau. It was covered in roots for hand holds so they had no trouble scrambling up its side. On top the Goblin led him to where she had made camp while Rain had been eating. The body of the half-elf half-felis was laid out and stripped naked nearby as though prepared for Rain. He gave the Goblin an annoyed look, she’d never intended to let him avoid it.