Beast Devourer: I Grow Stronger by Eating Monsters

Kharad was still standing when Raven and Valeria returned from the quarry.

After the last few days, that already counted as progress.

They entered the settlement shortly after noon. Raven had wrapped the Prototype Rifle Mk.I inside the long case again and secured it behind the saddle. He didn’t need anyone asking why the foreigner who had gone into Bore Twelve was now carrying a meter-and-a-half-long object that smelled faintly of heated metal and monster tissue.

His right shoulder was still sensitive.

The second shot had been much cleaner than the first, though clean was a relative description when the weapon used a Stormhorn organ to accelerate a piece of steel and a Matriarch Pressure Chamber to keep itself from tearing apart in the process.

The burn along his forearm had almost disappeared.

Predatory Regeneration continued working beneath the skin, repairing the areas where the mana discharge had breached the insulation during the first shot.

FORGE continued offering useful and unpleasant information every time Raven thought about the weapon.

[”PROTOTYPE RIFLE Mk.I”]

[Operational Status: FUNCTIONAL.]

[Core Systems: 6/6.]

[Calibration: 18%.]

[Structural Endurance Data: INSUFFICIENT.]

[Standardized Ammunition: UNAVAILABLE.]

[Thermal-Cycle Model: INCOMPLETE.]

Raven closed the interface.

He had work to do.

Valeria, riding beside him, saw him staring at nothing.

”No.”

Raven turned his head.

”I didn’t say anything.”

”You don’t need to. You’re going to want to go directly back to the workshop.”

”I need to inspect the conduit that failed.”

”You already inspected it.”

”After one shot.”

”After two.”

”The second produced new data.”

”And you’ve spent almost two days building a weapon.”

Raven nodded toward the case behind him.

”Now it works.”

”Exactly. You can celebrate by eating something that hasn’t been inside a monster.”

Raven considered pointing out that any meat they ordered had technically been inside an animal.

He decided the conversation offered no tactical benefit.

”We drop off the equipment first.”

Valeria smiled.

”I’ll accept that.”

”Then we eat.”

Her smile widened.

”I’ll accept that too.”

Raven looked at her.

”Don’t look so pleased.”

”I’ve spent weeks waiting for you to voluntarily admit to doing something normal.”

”Eating isn’t an exceptional activity.”

”With you, it sometimes feels like a side quest.”

Raven didn’t answer.

Mostly because she had a point.

They entered through the western street.

Kharad was repairing itself.

The difference from the previous day was obvious.

Three workers were replacing a cracked warning bell on one corner. Farther down the road, masons rebuilt part of a house damaged during the pressure discharges. Temporary beams supported buildings that still needed inspection, while several streets in the northern district remained closed with ropes, planks, and red warning marks.

The market had partially reopened.

Not completely.

But enough for vendors, animals, carts, and children to move through it again.

Raven noticed a shattered cistern surrounded by half a dozen workers.

Two days earlier, he had watched the ground rise in that same section.

Now someone was selling fruit less than ten meters away.

Valeria noticed it too.

”They recover quickly.”

”They don’t have many alternatives.”

”That sounded pessimistic.”

”Practical.”

Kharad existed above Burrowers.

If everyone abandoned the settlement every time the ground moved, the place would have vanished generations ago.

Raven noticed a man pointing toward him.

Then another.

He couldn’t hear the beginning of the conversation, but he caught the end.

”...Bore Twelve.”

Valeria heard it too.

”You’re famous.”

”No.”

”That man just pointed at you.”

”That doesn’t make me famous.”

”The woman beside him is pointing too.”

Raven kept riding.

”Maybe they don’t like my face.”

”That is also possible.”

Another man recognized them outside a smithy.

”Hey!”

Raven slowed the horse.

”What?”

The man raised a mug.

”The Bore lunatic!”

Raven stared at him.

Valeria covered her mouth with one hand.

The man laughed and disappeared back inside the smithy.

Raven continued down the road.

”See? Not famous.”

”You’re right. This is much better.”

”Don’t start.”

The people of Kharad didn’t seem to view him as a hero.

Raven preferred that.

He was the foreigner who had gone into Bore Twelve while the settlement was collapsing.

The man who had come back out alive.

One of the idiots who had voluntarily gone underneath the town while everyone else was desperately trying to stay above it.

That was reasonably accurate.

He didn’t need statues.

He didn’t need gratitude either.

He had gotten what he wanted.

The Pressure Chamber was now inside his rifle.

Kharad still existed.

For once, both outcomes could coexist without Raven needing to pretend only one of them mattered.

Roland was eating when they reached the inn.

That didn’t surprise Raven either.

The archer occupied a table beside Maelor with two empty plates in front of him and a third apparently in the process of becoming the next one.

Maelor had a mug of beer and a fresh bandage around one wrist.

Both men looked up when Raven and Valeria entered.

Roland swallowed.

”So.”

Raven rested the rifle case against the wall behind his chair.

”So.”

”Did it work?”

”Yes.”

Valeria sat down.

”On the first shot, it almost tore his arm off.”

Roland stopped moving his fork.

”That seems like important information to put before the ’yes.’”

”The second shot worked properly.”

Maelor looked toward the case.

”What does properly mean?”

”It fired. The structure held. The pressure system opened when it was supposed to. Mana leakage was minimal.”

Roland was still staring at Raven’s right arm.

”And the first one?”

”The vent opened late.”

”What happened?”

Valeria answered.

”It sent mana directly into his arm.”

”Stonehide reduced the damage.”

”Then he nearly lost his balance.”

”I didn’t nearly lose it.”

Valeria looked at him.

”You went backward two steps.”

”That isn’t losing my balance.”

”Your definition of ’fine’ is defective.”

Roland pointed his fork at Valeria.

”I agree with her.”

Raven picked up the menu.

”That doesn’t improve your position.”

Maelor leaned slightly toward the rifle case.

”What did it do to the target?”

Raven lowered the menu.

”The first projectile destroyed part of a stone formation.”

The guide slowly nodded.

”A large part?”

”Enough.”

Roland resumed eating.

”That sounds useful.”

”The second went through four centimeters of laminated iron and still struck the stone wall behind it.”

Roland stopped chewing.

He looked at Raven.

Then at the case.

Then back at Raven.

Finally, he resumed eating.

”I withdraw my concern.”

Valeria laughed.

Raven shook his head.

”A few seconds ago, you were worried about my arm.”

”I’m still worried about your arm. I just respect the thing that tried to remove it more now.”

Maelor took a drink.

”Now I want to see it.”

”No.”

”I hadn’t finished asking.”

”I already know the question.”

”I might have asked if I could touch it.”

”Also no.”

Maelor smiled.

”You definitely built something important.”

Raven ordered meat, bread, vegetables, and water.

Valeria ordered something similar and added wine.

Roland looked at Raven’s order as though checking for an anomaly.

”Are you voluntarily eating before working?”

Raven looked at him.

”I don’t understand why everyone acts like I never eat.”

Valeria answered immediately.

”Because despite having a Trait that gives you the appetite of twenty men, you somehow still manage to forget.”

”During operations.”

”Yesterday you were in a workshop.”

”That was a different kind of operation.”

”You were building a weapon.”

”Exactly.”

Roland raised both hands.

”I’m not getting involved. I just want to enjoy the miracle.”