Chapter 388 Experience Of The World

Though he felt disgusted by it, the motivation both to live not just for himself, but the driving force of finding his way through the foreign continent and back to his family brought him to act.

"Cook it for me, please," he quietly requested.

Manifesting beside him was the spherical, lesser spirit of fire that glowed in response to his asking, unleashing a small spray of fire that thoroughly cooked the wriggling millipede until it finally stopped moving.

Even after it had stopped moving around and had been thoroughly cooked, he still found himself hesitant.

'Don't think. Just do it,' he told himself.

Clenching his eyes shut, he opened his mouth and slowly lowered part of the cooked insect past his lips before—CRUNCH.

He bit down, beginning to chew as there was still, unfortunately, juices that squirted into his mouth when chewing the thousand-legged insect. Every chewing motion he made with his mouth made his expression sour out of fear of the disgusting meal.

"—"

To his surprise, once he calmed down, he found the taste of the cooked insect not to be something as abhorrent as predicted. Maybe it was his current malnourished state that led any semblance of sustenance to seem like a gourmet meal, but it tasted like chicken on his tongue.

'This...isn't bad! If it tastes like this, then I can eat!' He thought.

Almost excitedly now, he chewed as his empty stomach guided him to gobble up the rest of the roasted insect, consuming it before he wiped his mouth. It seemed having some caloric intake really made the hunger set in as he found himself setting out to find more to eat.

He had become quite adjusted to the jungle, navigating through it and finding more insects to cook.

"—"

Sitting on a fallen tree trunk as he ate, he looked up to find horned monkeys watching him, though obviously they didn't dare to mess with him. They were quite the curious creatures–perhaps even nosy, though as long as they didn't interfere with him, he didn't mind them.

After hunting down and cooking enough insects, he found himself satisfied, filled with energy again as he could almost feel the life pumping through his body again as if suppressed by his recent caloric deprivation.

While he didn't particularly mind it, as the nature of his system-enhanced body didn't make it an issue, it was surprising that the rain had continued falling so heavily without a break for days on end.

'I guess the books didn't lie. Ennage really is more "wild" in every way from the other continents–even the weather seems different,' he thought.

'...Of course. It's like you can't go ten feet without something trying to kill you in this jungle,' he thought.

Though what had risen from the mud was a surprising sight: a massive, beige-furred grizzly bear that had a build similar to a gorilla with its massive shoulders and paws. Of course, with what seemed to be a trend of particularly troublesome beasts that dwelled in the Continent of Demons were the horns that stuck up from the bear's head.

'A bear that travels...underground? A mole-devil-bear?' He thought, perplexed by the very idea of such an odd creature.

Either way, there was no doubt it was a fearsome beast in its own right, standing well over three meters tall and seeming to command some authority over the mud around it as it gathered at its feet, rippling and spiking up with vibrations resonating through the ground.

The moment he drew his sword, the muddy, apex predator suddenly dived into the mud, disappearing beneath the surface of the rainfallen-ground as if it were a deep lake.

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow.

Through his own affinity with nature magic, he had a good sense for the ground he stood upon, able to detect the vibrations through the mud and soil below.

'It seems to have some sort of inherent magical ability. I bet it can travel through the ground by manipulating mud, making it quick to move–that's how something so large can be efficient below,' he guessed.

As he stood there, more in awe at the prospect of magical beasts than actually feeling threatened, he found the mud suddenly latched onto his feet before spinning him around; the ground spun like a whirlpool around him, tossing him across the clearing as he was pushed against a tree.

'That confirms it: it's manipulating the mud. Neat trick, I can do that too, though!' He thought.

With a stomp of his boot, he caused the ground in front of him to split open, creating a miniature crater as he revealed where the giant, ground-swimming bear was.

"Found you," he said.

Though he planned to finish the beast with a simple, small shot of condensed water through its head, he found himself intercepted by a magical attack from the creature itself as it roared out, seeming to conjure magecraft through its reverberating cry.

'An invocation?' He guessed.

Around him, the mud suddenly rose up, shaping into loose, sludge doppelgangers of the burly bear that each attempted to tackle the rain-slick man.

In response, feeling the need to challenge the magical beast on even footing, he used nature magic as well, causing a golem to erupt from the ground in front of him, formed of solid stone. The rocky golem was shaped like the bear as well, swiping through the mud-formed doppelgangers for its summoner.

After handling the magical clones made by the horned bear, Emilio stomped again, causing a geyser of mud to shoot up the ground-swimming creature from its hidden spot beneath the surface.

"Hate to break it to you, but that's some novice-level magic you've got there," Emilio said before swiping his sword forth.

In a single slash, he cut through the beige-furred beast's body, causing a spray of blood to meddle with the mud before he moved on. There was a part of him that was tempted to try cooking bear meat, though he didn't exactly feel like dismantling such a huge body and lugging it around.