Chapter 3

Many wobbly steps along the rocky shore later and something came into view.

It was the bloody corpse of a giant toad monster.

Rain approached it warily.

“I guess Brax and his group continued to power level after mutila- after what they did to me and dumping me in the lake...”

Rain had strong feelings toward the people who had betrayed him but addressing those feelings was difficult when his stomach was in constant gnawing pain from lack of food.

The toad corpse didn’t look like something a human would like, but he was used to eating horrible food to survive. Raw toad wasn’t about to break him. In fact as he drew closer the enticing scent of its blood began to excite him and he started to drool with the thought of getting his teeth into it.

Unfortunately something had gotten there first, or rather somethings. Several crabs looked up and glared at him from where they were chewing at the toad’s flesh or trying to pull flesh free with their pincers.

He made shooing motions with his paws trying to scare them away but the crabs weren’t having it, they snapped at the air and waggled their bodies around on spiny legs.

“Big monster crabs. Suppose that’s about right for a dungeon.”

The crabs were large, the largest having a shell about a foot across, but that didn’t deter Rain. He could smell meat was close and the hunger drove him onward. He jogged up to the nearest crab and with an awkward kick he booted it as hard as he could. To his surprise it was catapulted into the air and landed in the lake with a Ka-Plonk!! Splash.

“Holy shit I’m strong! This is incredible!”

Drunk on power he snatched at the nearest crab and holding its leg he flung it out over the lake. It went far.

“F-fuck this feels amazing.” he said as he stared down at his muscular arms. They couldn’t be further from the skeletal sticks devoid of muscle from his past life. He could actually lift and throw things!

He gleefully freed the toad from the crab buffet, launching crabs one by one into the lake.

Then he turned on the toad for his own reasons. Food.

He couldn’t stop himself, he went at it face first and bit into its side. His razor sharp teeth cut into its hide with ease and he ripped free a great chunk of muscle and flesh, blood pouring down his chest he snapped at it, cutting and dicing it before swallowing as quickly as he could manage.

“Oh gods why does this taste so fucking good!” he whined.

He leapt onto the Toad and began using his jaws to incise into it, moving along its surface and cutting furrows. He groaned as he ripped and tore trying to stuff as much of the meat down his maw as possible. He could only describe it as a perfectly cooked rare steak crafted by a professional chef, jaw achingly delicious. A little voice worried at the back of his mind that being turned into a monster might have adjusted his sense of taste, but his hunger swiftly squashed it.

Ten minutes later he lay slumped against the toad, his stomach was rounded having been so stuffed. Still, the mountain of toad was perhaps only a quarter diminished.

He rested a paw on his overtaxed and taut stomach. He could feel it working. In fact he could feel it more than working. He watched with shock as his stomach started to gradually shrink with a growling churning sound. What was more he could feel his body responding, he felt strange, a feeling like stretching when waking up in the morning, in fact he aped the feeling and stretched out his limbs. It felt good, in fact it felt amazing! His stomach slowly diminished over the next minute or so until it returned to his originally flat stomach. He patted it tentatively.

“Tasted good enough that I don’t think I can say no to more ... I’m still so goddamn hungry.”

He turned and laid into the toad once more.

A while later, and after his fourth round of toad, he collapsed in a puddle of toad blood and watched with fascination as his distended stomach slowly vanished. He stretched out his limbs and curved his spine as the feeling washed over him. This time he tested his theory. He placed a claw so that its tip lined up with a crack in the stone. It didn’t take long, slowly the claw pushed past the crack until it stopped a little beyond it. He was right. He was growing with each meal.

“Fuck, this changes everything. I’ll take being a monster if I can become bigger and stronger.”

He eyed the toad but with disappointment realised there wasn’t much left apart from bones and he had already cracked said bones to suck out the marrow. He needed more. More food.

He looked around the lake shore. At some point some of the crabs had returned, ever the scavengers they waited nearby, ready to eat the remains once he left. Unfortunately for them Rain had other plans.

He casually sat up and glanced around. A rock, perfect. With one motion he leapt to his feet, grabbed the rock and then ran at the crabs. The crabs panicked and scuttled into each other. Too late. He landed amongst them like some kind of wrathful anti-crab god and began laying about himself with his divine weapon. Crash, crack, splinter. He cut down a dozen crabs in his hunt. The rest fled into the water, but it was enough for Rain. He dragged his victims into a pile and sat cross legged in front of them. Strength powered by a hunger both for food and for growth let him rip apart their shells and tear free pawfulls of flesh. He eagerly cracked their claws and poured the contents straight into his open maw.

One feast later and he looked down at his stomach with disappointment. He wasn’t even two thirds full. He scowled.

“Not enough mass. Tasty, but I need something more substantial to satisfy my hunger.”

He grumbled and got to his feet.

“I hope the crabs haven’t gotten to more of Brax and Co’s kills first...”

He continued along the shore.

It wasn’t long before he came upon more, a pair of dead toads, and something else that was a surprise, a Goblin body.

After smashing a dozen crabs with rocks he had the spot to himself and he crept up to it.

This was the first time he had seen a Goblin in the wild. The reality was far less dangerous looking than he had imagined but a lot more filthy. The Goblin wore nothing but a loin cloth and some beads around its neck. A deep spear wound in its chest was obviously the work of Adlen.

Rain decided to ignore it for now and focused on the two toads. He salivated at the sight of them and his stomach growled in anticipation.