Chapter 101: Soul torture

This looked like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity… And this notification didn't seem like it gave me much of a choice. Still, I'd lose half a million EXP if I agreed immediately. Maybe I could put it into my abilities first…

I chose to delay the upgrade and opened my character sheet, only to find myself unable to level up anything, as well as buy new abilities. It was like my EXP was frozen… So there really was no choice at all.

I spent the next hour spinning more webs to protect myself from the outside world. Something told me that the transformation of my main ability would be a painful and long process. I caught myself a rat to eat, and when this was done, sat in my hammock and waited.

The notification was there again.

[Congratulations! A possibility for upgrade had been detected. 'Devourer' will be upgraded to 'Absolute Devourer'. All your current EXP will be used in the process. The upgrade will begin now.]

It was there for just long enough for me to read it. Then, I felt the terrible pain soaring through me. It was unlike anything I've felt before. Not at all like the burning torture of evolving, this pain was the soul-wrenching.

I found myself crying for the first time since being sent to Hell, but couldn't find in myself to care or even think about that fact. The experience I was going through was just that awful. It was like going through a hundred heartbreaks at once felt like if you ask a bard who writes sad romance poetry… the kind I don't read.

But that all I thought later. At the moment, I just wanted to die if that would stop the torture. I clawed at myself to have physical pain there to distract me until I couldn't move at all because all strength left me. Time passed as slow as a snail, and with nothing to measure it, eternities passed in anguish.

By the third eternity, I swore to myself that if there was a way to kill the System, too, I will do that one day. Just one day… Just it wait.

All things ended sometimes. So did this torture. I found myself lying in my hammock, wet with my blood, tears, and other body liquids that I had uncontrollably expelled during the time I spent there. I was absolutely parched, my muscles ached and the gashes I had clawed on myself burned. A check of my character sheet told me that two days have passed, but my 'Devourer' ability now was, indeed, 'Absolute Devourer'.

My titles stayed the same, though.

I wondered what was the difference between the two, and if it was worth the hell I went through. On weak limbs, I got out of the hammock and drank the lasts of the water in my flask. This was when I got an unexpected notification.

[Substance devoured. Gained 1 EXP.]

I paused. Could it be… my old dream come true? To check it, I picked up a random rock from the ground, and ignoring the taste of dust, crunched it down.

[Substance devoured. Gained 1 EXP.]

I could gain EXP from eating rocks now! From drinking water! From what else? What else could I eat? Will I get EXP from my favourite desserts?

If that amount was as small as here, then it won't matter. But I imagined items like magical equipment would be worth more of it. For now, there was only one way to test it.

The magic stone and the sliver of it laid where I left them in a corner, neither looking even a little duller. I picked the sliver, took a deep breath, and swallowed it. The tingles were there immediately, just borderline painful. Besides them, there was a notification.

[Substance devoured. Gained 153582 EXP.]

I licked my lips and stared at the big glowing rock. Then I looked at myself and sighed. I was a civilised creature now… somewhat. I could at least clean myself a little before dinner.

It wasn't easy to do without water, but with my webs and some trying, I managed to get a tiniest bit cleaner. Then I went back to the magic crystal. I chipped another sliver from it and ate it. This time, I felt no tingles at all.

[Substance devoured. Gained 232626 EXP.]

My eyes widened. I could put two and two together—it seemed that I conversed tingles into EXP when my body started to strain from them. That was a theory, at least. I still got tingles when I put my hands on the crystal.

The way was clear now. The crystal tasted like any other rock, but I didn't hesitate when I bit into it, and didn't pause when I chewed through it, leaving only a fist-sized piece of it behind—the brightest bit.

[Substance devoured. Gained 32298672 EXP.]

I put the remnants of the small rock in my bag and grinned. With that amount of EXP, I will be able to level up all my abilities to level 20 and get the second upgrade… Even for my claws, which cost barrels of EXP.

Yes, the torment I went through was worth it. But… I shuddered from the memory. Was that how soul pain felt like? If so, then after that, no emotional drama would be able to shake me. Not that I was a person who got into it in the first place. My way was clear, and my will was resolute.

I shook my head and threw these thoughts out of my head. I had plenty to distract myself with. There were few things that could make a person like me more happy than becoming stronger, and some physical pain from evolving would be welcome after all this. Plus, physically, I was still a wreck. I needed more food, water, and to evolve my injuries away.

I weaved myself a new, clean hammock and sat in it to calculate. Will I have enough power to go back to the not-rainbow-now stream and hunt on its shores?..