Chapter 13 - 12

'What the heck is this?!' I was shocked. I know I should've expected this, but once again, this world went beyond my expectations. Maybe you're curious as to why I was so shocked. Well, you see, I was currently looking into the lake. And I am not looking at it from afar, I've actually moved closer towards it and then gazed into the water. My initial plan was simple; to grab and eat some innocent and helpless tadpoles on the lake. But then, I saw what was actually happening on the lake. If I have to describe it in simple terms, it was a bloodbath. And when I said bloodbath, I meant that literally.

The lake's water was tinged in blood. And on the blood-red water, there were lots of black things moving about. Every time those black things squirmed; a cloud of blood would mix into the water. Then it would happen again, and again and again. To be perfectly honest, if those black things were just simply swimming on the lake peacefully, I wouldn't be this disgusted and shocked. But apparently, that wasn't enough. Why? Because the tadpoles were eating each other up. Simply put, it was cannibalism.

There were a lot of tadpoles on the lake. If I have to estimate how many, I would say probably around a thousand give or take. And not only that, those tadpoles were all pretty big too. The smallest one I saw was about the size of a 1-year old human, while the largest one so far was about the size of a six-year-old. To top it all off, it looked like every single one was carnivorous too. I didn't know if it was actually part of their nature or maybe because there were no other things to eat on the lake, but for now, those monster tadpoles were trying to devour each other up.

'Man… I came here for an easy meal, but it looks like it wouldn't be that easy after all.' Since the tadpoles were carnivorous, I wouldn't dare test what would happen if I dive into the lake. I mean, just by looking at some left-over bones of dead monsters around the lake told me the whole story. Of course, that doesn't mean that I would give up on my meal. Because as it stands, these guys were my best bet if I wanted to eat. That said, I couldn't use my usual method of simply charging and biting the prey to death. If I did that, I would be the one who would be turned into a meal instead. And so, after taking all of that into consideration, I started to strategize.

Simply by looking at the tadpoles, I concluded that they were like those piranhas in my old world. That meant that these guys were pretty helpless if they were out of the water. 'So, my priority is to pick up one out of the water, kill it and then repeat. The problem is… How do I go about doing that?' Aside from being huge, these tadpoles were also incredibly fast swimmers. That was why I could tell, trying to catch them using my paws was a really bad idea. If I attempted that, a broken leg would be the least of my problems, because I would most certainly also lose a leg on that process. So, in conclusion. 'Using any parts of my body to capture a tadpole is a no, no.'

For quite some time, I stood there on the side of the lake trying to come up with a plan. Normally, standing in an open space like this for a long time was a bad idea considering the strength of the monsters wandering around here. Fortunately, it looked like most monsters were avoiding this nest. I couldn't blame them, though. These things might look like an easy meal from afar, but trying to actually capture one using the usual monster's way was just suicide. Seriously, I doubt even that snake would dare to try. If that was the case, I could guess these bones around the area of the lake all belonged to dumb monsters that dove in this nest thinking it was an easy meal. 'Good thing I checked first.'

While I was thinking such things, my eyes once again happened upon the bones scattered around the lake. Because of that, a brilliant idea came to my mind. 'That's right. If using my paws is impossible, then I just need to use some other things that aren't part of my body.' Using that brilliant idea as my basis, I began putting it into action.

The first thing I did was to search for any suitable bone to use. What I needed was something that has a pointed end, at least straight, has just about enough reach, and thin but sturdy enough not to break. All of these characteristics were necessary to pull off my plan. After all, my body right now was that of a wolf and not of a human. That meant that I had to find a bone that was suitable for my body as a wolf to use. Huh? What was my plan? Well, it should be obvious. I planned to use a bone to stab and capture a tadpole out of the water. Not something a monster would normally do I'm sure. In fact, I'm quite certain that no monster in this area has thought about using this kind of method. But that was just normal since I was only able to think of such a way because I'm carrying the memories of my past life as a human. Actually, it would be quite scary if a normal monster was able to think of such an option. 'I wouldn't want to fight a monster like that.'

It took me quite some time but finally found a suitable bone to use. The bone I found has a rounded tip and a pointed tip on the other side. It was not quite straight but among the other bones that I found; this one was the most suitable for me. With this, I could finally start fishing for tadpoles.

To start with, I bit the bone on its rounded tip. Using my fangs, I grabbed a hold of the bone and then lifted it with its pointed tip pointing in away of me. With a pointed bone jutting out from my mouth, I'm sure that I looked like some kind of a mixture between a wolf and a mosquito. 'Well let's get to work.' I thought.

With a pointed bone on my mouth, I moved towards the edge of the lake. Once I judged that my position was safe enough, I pointed the tip of my quasi bone spear on the lake. While making sure not to topple over, I thrust the quasi-bone spear into the lake, and it made some blobbing sounds. Without wasting any second, I hurriedly lift the quasi bone spear from the lake and throw the captured tadpole into the land.

It was a success. I managed to capture a monster tadpole out of the water and throw it into the ground. I turned my gaze into the newly captured prey and from the looks of it, it was still alive despite being pierced by my quasi-bone spear. Like a fish out of the water, the tadpole was wildly flapping about on the ground confused. Normally, using a spear to capture a fish was hard even while using a human hand. But because of the sheer size and number of the tadpoles, all I needed to do was randomly stab the spear into the water and I would surely capture a tadpole. Seriously, there were so many of them that the lake looked like a mass of squirming black and red substance.

After I had successfully captured a tadpole, I dropped my quasi-bone spear near the edge of the lake and walked towards the tadpole still flailing about. Looking at it closely, the tadpole looked like a black of mass just with a mouth. Honestly, it wasn't appetizing at all. Well, you can also argue that every monster that I ate in this place was all unappetizing. But trust me, this one, in particular, looked a lot more disgusting than the rest. If given a choice, I definitely wouldn't eat this thing.

'Since I have no other choice, let's just get this over with.' With tears in my eyes, I bit the squirming thing to death, tore its flesh, and forced myself to swallow its meat. 'BLEGH!! THIS THING IS DISGUSTING AS HECK!!' And just like I thought, it was disgusting. Seriously, its meat doesn't taste like meat at all. It was wet and rubbery, then when I swallowed it, it felt like a goo slithering through my throat. But despite all of that, I still forced myself to finish the thing since I knew that it was necessary for my survival.

After finishing the disgusting meal, I regained some of my strength. Of course, it wasn't to the point that I could finally move normally, but with this, I could probably survive until my fractured and broken bones healed on their own. It was actually one of the effects of Devour. Apparently, unlike my skill Recover, Devour could also heal broken bones with its effect. That meant that as long as there was something to eat, I could recover and be able to hunt normally again. The only problem was the on-hand meal I found was so disgusting that I almost puke after eating it. And to make matters worse, based on my estimation, I needed to stay here for a couple of days before I fully recovered.

'AARRRGGG!! I HATE THIS PLAACE!!'