Chapter 20: End of a Tribe

Chapter 20: End of a Tribe

As I looked down at the headless corpse of the stronger troll, I could feel myself start to salivate at the prospect of the meal. Humans give more essence depending on their strength. From what I can tell a gold rank adventurer was worth ten normal schmucks you pluck off the street. This one is strong, I wonder what powers he will give me...

I cut its chest open and began eating even though the body smelt horrible, the blood still smelt delicious. In fact, it tasted better than humans and even that giant mantis. From what I can tell the stronger the creature the better it tastes. Interestingly your average run-off-the-mill humans are becoming more tasteless the more I grow. I guess my tastes will change as I grow, I suppose it’s a way for my body to tell me what to eat. Maybe it’s my body’s way of telling me to avoid Junk food...

As I bit down on the heart of the troll after breaking its ribcage with some difficulty I savored the sweet sanguine fruit. I immediately felt my body change as soon as I swallowed it. The heart was big, about twice the size of a human heart, which was great. The human hearts were getting a little too small for my liking...

Troglodytam Minoris Essence Assimilated

Achieved [Troglodytam Minoris Genome] Level: 1 / 10

[Troll Regeneration] acquired

[Troll Bone Strength] acquired

[Troll Muscle Density] acquired

Augmenting...

[Troll Regeneration] has improved [Regeneration] effectiveness

[Greater Regeneration] acquired

[Troll Regeneration] has slightly improved [Armour Regeneration] effectiveness

[Troll Bone Strength] has improved bone material strength

[Troll Bone Strength] has improved [Chitinous Bone Blades] material strength

[Troll Bone Strength] has improved [Bone Spines] material strength

[Greater Bone Spines] acquired

[Troll Bone Strength] has improved [Greater Keratin Plating] material strength

[Calci-Kera Plating] acquired

[Troll Muscle Density] has improved muscle strength

Well, that was useful, I look down and see that my armor plating has taken on a less reflective sheen. When I ate the other two I ended up with more of the same and ended up at level two of the troll genome. I was still wondering what my next core evolution would give me. Each time I get it, I get some major improvement. The last one was [Metabolic Boost] which made me move much faster than before as well as greatly improving my physical strength. I wonder if that whole village will give me enough for my next core evolution after all these trolls seemed to be around the right strength of creatures that would constitute suitable prey.

Previously as I was about to kill the kid I suddenly realized that I could, in theory, keep eating his body and get essence that way indefinitely... well kind of indefinitely. Cecilia warned me that regeneration abilities have limits, if the creature runs out of nutrition the regeneration can become weakened and even disabled.

However, I also know the essence in the rest of the body is very low. The vast majority of it lies in the heart, the body has trace amounts at best. My best guess was that the body holds about less than 20% of the essence while the heart holds the rest. This means that the difference in essence amongst the same species is most pronounced in the heart. Which is quite the difference considering that the heart takes one or two bites while the rest of the body takes a while to eat if the body is of significant size.

Also honestly I didn’t want to sit there munching on the kid’s limbs for two days or something, that would take forever... and the thought was also slightly disturbing. I would be better served hunting the rest of the village, I mean they have to leave to hunt for food at some point. Besides this isn’t the only troll there’s a whole village back there, it’s not like these are the only trolls left alive here in the mountains. Even if I take out the village there must be more of them on this mountain, this place is huge, if I desperately wanted more troll essence I could just go look for another village. I haven’t actually gotten any specific genome to level 10 yet so I have no idea if it’s worth it. The demands for each genome level grow exponentially so it’s not that easy to complete the genome. The closest I have is the human genome which is sitting at level 8 now. I think I need a steady diet of gold rank and above adventurers to make level 9 and 10 happen...

Once I finished up my meal I reengaged my invisibility and headed back to the village. I continue to stalk the village waiting for nightfall, then I notice a female troll arguing with another group of trolls. She keeps pointing in the direction of the hunting party.

Hmmm... it’s risky but if I eavesdrop on them I might be able to come up with a plan to separate them and pick them off. I really don’t want to fight all of the warriors in this camp at once, and I don’t want to spend weeks here waiting for them to become desperate enough to leave the camp for food.

I see at least ten more warriors along with a few more women and children wandering around. I examine their strength and I realized that the remaining warriors all looked weaker than the first one I fought. Hmmm, that’s lucky no wonder I had such a hard time...

I descended the cliff that I used to watch over the camp and flew right over the crudely constructed wooden walls. I could sense where all the trolls were around me from their footsteps and I made sure not to get too close.

I turned around and began eating the corpse with my back to the child. I didn’t want to leave with the corpse but at least the kid didn’t need to watch. Eventually, I finished my meal and I started to hear the troll’s shouts nearby. I engaged my invisibility to a surprised gasp from the child and I went over to the edge of the cliff. I saw the trolls were almost here and I noted they brought all the warriors, even the chief was here. I looked back down at the camp below and sure enough, I saw only women and children looking up at the cliff.

I waited until the trolls reached my location, once the trolls ran onto the ledge I’m on I immediately began descending the cliff. I pounced on the first female I saw and removed her head from her shoulders. The other females and children all screamed in terror. There weren’t that many of them, only about four females and three children. I charged from troll to troll removing their heads. They tried to resist but the females were physically weaker than the males, they probably didn’t spend much time training to fight which meant they were much easier for me to kill.

When I finally killed those remaining in the camp I saw the trolls on the ledge shouting as they gazed down at their home in horror. The whole attack lasted less than 5 minutes and as I looked at the trolls. Some were sprinting back down the path, some were trying to climb down the steep cliff in an effort to get down faster.

Then I saw one of the trolls attempting to climb down slipped and it fell down the twenty-meter drop. Curious on whether it survived I headed over to see it lying in a crumpled heap, limbs all twisted at unnatural angles. It was dead... huh... I thought it would survive...

I cut open its chest and found out why... The shock from the fall had damaged its heart... the organ was still intact but it was lying in a pool of blood inside its chest cavity. I ripped the organ out and saw the back of the heart was crushed from the fall. I guess if the heart is too heavily damaged it can’t regenerate. I need to keep this in mind for myself...

Protect my heart and protect my brain...

The trolls still climbing down looked down in shock at the death of their comrade. Well if the fall could kill this one... I raised my head and took aim at the three others who were stupid enough to attempt the descent. I shot a barrage of bone spines at them and it caused them to lose their grip and fall.

Crunch, crunch, crunch...

I looked down and saw three more were dead. Well, that was four warriors dead with next to no effort...

I ate the one heart in my hand and I opened up their chests to eat their hearts, gaining level 4 of their genome at the third heart. Still no pathogen I guess I need another level of the genome...

I’m pressed for time so I just went from body to body carving out hearts and eating them. I’ll be back for the bodies later, for now, I need that upgrade to make the coming fight easier. Finally, on the last female, I heard the voice in my head...

Troglodytam Minoris Essence Assimilated

Achieved [Troglodytam Minoris Genome] Level: 5 / 10

[Troglodytam Pathogen] acquired

I looked back at the trolls and I saw them rushing down the path they came from. Hang on, I don’t see the chief...

I looked back up the cliff and I saw the chief cradling the child I left there in his arms. He looked down at me, roiling hatred in his eyes. Then I saw him turn away and began heading in the opposite direction of the path down. Trying to run? I don’t think so...

I sped towards the cliff and clambered up the side of the cliff as fast I could. With [Gravitic Hovor] and my four limbs I ascended the cliff rapidly. When I reached the ledge I saw the chief freeze as it turned and looked at me. He put the child down and the child looked up at the chief fearfully.

“Run.” the chief said as he took out a makeshift axe made of wood and that black stone carved into a crude blade.

The child turned and ran, but I shot a poisoned spine at the child. The chief couldn’t react in time and the spine struck the child in the back. The child yelped but kept running with the spine in its back. The chief growled as it raised its axe and charged me. Going to buy time with your sacrifice? Pointless, but I don’t think the chief knows the child is already as good as dead...

I fired off a barrage of spines at the chief, he raised an arm to block the spines and he raised his axe to cut me down. I turned invisible and left a decoy behind as I retreated back a few meters. The chief's axe slammed into my unresisting decoy and it shattered into motes of light. I rematerialized and the chief looked up at me in confusion.

Then he coughed and black blood dribbled from his lips...

He fell to his knees and used his axe as support. He looked at the arm that was covered in my spines and saw the flesh that was turning black. Black veins were radiating from the wounds as his flesh started to necrose.

“Poison...” the chief said as more black blood dribbled down his chin.

“Not exactly, but close enough,” I replied sarcastically.

The chief looked behind him and saw the child already convulsing on the ground, the cocktail of diseases in my bone spine already ravaging its body. The trolls were finished, with the troll pathogen at my disposal, they are no threat to me. Their entire combat strategy relies on them taking damage and dealing damage in return. Trade hits because they can recover from the damage. But they can’t recover from my attacks anymore...

One scratch from my bone spines now means death by a very lethal disease and they don’t even have shields. I can deal with the rest easily now, I looked down at the dying Troll Chieftain and I saw the raw hatred in its eyes as it slowly succumbed. The chief spat at my direction in a final show of defiance but the black blood only splattered on the ground without reaching me.

Good effort...

But not good enough...