Chapter 135: The Sluggish Shrew

Kiana had left an hour ago with the empty trays of food. Lucius had eaten all of his food while observing the Bore Shrew. 

Kiana was rather stunned by this, as he had not lifted his gaze from the beast for more than a few seconds while eating. And yet, he had properly eaten all of the food that she had brought him, which was actually more than his usual amount.

Lucius did not realize, but he had eaten twice as much food as he normally did. But even if he did know that, he would just attribute it to his usage of Nexus and Hell energy. Both of them were something that depended on his body itself in the end. If his body was weak and did not have sufficient nutrition, either of them would suffer.

This stimulated his body's appetite, making him eat much more than usual. Kiana did not mind this though and was rather happy with it. To her, the more Lucius ate, the better he would get as his condition had deteriorated quite a bit when he had been paralyzed.

"It hasn't changed much since then, huh." Lucius muttered as he got closer to the cage.

The transformation of the Bore shrew had nearly stepped now and his size was now twenty percent more than it was originally. It still let out cries but they were less often. It seemed like the beast had become exhausted now.

"This kind of rapid growth must consume a lot of the body's stored nutriments. Even if the hell energy can cause cell generation, it will need a certain amount of nutrients to support it, especially in a world like this where there is no mana that could replace the nutrients for the growth." Lucius spoke.

After thinking for a bit, Lucius thought about the next step. He left the lab and called out for a servant.

"You called for me, young Lord?" the servant questioned.

This was the same servant that had the commonly ranked gift sticky touch. 

"I need some raw meat, potatoes, and water." Lucius replied.

"Uh… okay. I'll get them right away," The servant found the order to be a bit strange, but he did not question it and just went away.

'Why did the young Lord want this stuff? Didn't he have dinner just a while ago?' The servant thought while going away.

Lucius waited for the servant to come back to the lab and heard a knock on the door after ten minutes. This time was neither too long nor short since the Kitchen was definitely far from the lab.

~Knock~

"It's me, Young Lord Asher! I bought the items you asked for." The servant spoke.

"Come in," Lucius permitted.

~CREAK~

The servant walked in with the items in his hands. In his left hand was a slab of pork that was wrapped in cloth, and in his right hand was a small sack that probably contained potatoes. And finally, on his back a water skin hung.

He came forward and placed all the items on the table before quickly leaving. All servants had been strictly warned by Kiana that they are not to spend even a second more in the lab, and not to disturb Asher unless he asked for them.

Thus, the servant lefts quickly without saying or even seeing anything. The entire time his head was lowered and he did not look at anything that he was not supposed to. He had learned well in the servant school and knew that there were many things that a servant must not see or should pretend not to see, lest they be quartered or beheaded the next day.

Thus with the fear of death in their hearts, no servant dared to defy that order and stuck to it wholeheartedly. Lucius also appreciated this and was pleased that these people were far easier to deal with than a lot others.

Of course, he had also taken precautions and had covered the cage where the bore shrew was kept with a thick cloth. This prevented the servant from seeing the strange beast and also muffled any sounds that may come from the beast.

Thankfully, the beast had stayed silent most of the time on account of being exhausted. But that was exactly why Lucius had brought all of these times from the servant.

"Now let's see if you can eat or not," Lucius said with a smile and opened the potato sack first. He took out a small potato from it and placed it in front of the beast using a spiked rod. He did not want to let the beast bite his fingers off, which Lucius was quite sure it could do now, if Keith was any example.

~thud~

Lucius immediately closed the cage back after placing the potato and observed the beast again. This time the beast's nose moved slightly, and it opened its bloodshot eyes, that looked to be filled with rage and tired at the same time.

~Skree~

The beast let out cry upon seeing the food in front of it and moved its mouth. But it was still a little farther from the beast and it could not eat it. Lucius used the rod to push it a bit closer to the beast's mouth and saw it take a bite.

~munch~

The Bore Shrew easily bit off a quarter of the potato in a single bite, which showed that it still had a bit of energy left and that it was just biding its time.

"It would have definitely bitten my hand." Lucius stated.

He then saw the beast eating the entire potato in about thirty seconds before getting a bit more energetic.

~SKREEE~

The Bore Shrew let out a loud screech like before and was now a bit more reactive. Its muscles also twitched, which prompted Lucius to think that perhaps the beast was simply lacking nutrition to be able to move.

He took out another potato and put it in the cage. The bore shrew ate this one quickly as well and became even more energetic.

"Huh… interesting…"