Demonic Devourer's Development

The creature was unlike anything I've seen before, except for, perhaps, myself.

It was twice the size of a griffin and crawled down the cave passage on its fat, worm-like body. Dozens of short appendages similar to three-jointed hands covered the entire length of it, and each ended with dangerously looking claws that the beast used to grasp the walls and floors of the cave and haul itself forward. On the front of the monster was a long, needle-like beak.

From time to time, the monster stopped and opened it, as if tasting air, then changed direction in accordance with what it scented. For now, that direction was towards me, and I was sure that eventually the creature would spot me.

It was blind, and the cave passage through which the river ran where I hid was wide and straight enough for me to see the beast long before it could catch my scent in wet air. With how slow the beast was, I knew I could escape ten times—or kill at ten times, and why wouldn't I? It looked like a crawling mountain of EXP. Slow opponents were the easiest ones to deal with.

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I waited patiently for the beast to approach while examining it for weak spots. It looked like getting to the vitally important parts of the monster would be a chore, with all that fat surrounding it. There was no visible head—just the end with a beak, and the end without one. It was possible that even cutting a creature like that in half won't kill it, not at first, at least. And these hands, short compared to the size of the main body, were strong despite their deceptive thinness.

Plus, this creature looked so big that I felt like making a web big and thick enough for it to notice it would take an entire day. Instead of wasting time and effort, I brandished my claws and prepared something else. Just in case.

'Pest, cast magic armour on me.'

'Yes, Master.' Now he had to confirm his understanding of every my order, not just the ones where I explicitly asked him. I liked it that way. And that I had him call me 'Master' each time he did.

It took a couple minutes, but then I felt it—the suit of invisible armour over my skin. Pest told me that adventurers had a similar spell called "Mage's Armour", but his version was, of course, better by all parameters.

What I cared for is that it was strong enough to stop a blade or a claw—or a beak, in this case—while weighting nothing and bending together with my body no matter what tricks I did. Plus, it covered my entire skin except for the face, without a single weak spot.

Yvenna, as practice showed, could still break through this armour if she tried hard enough, but he had to try.

When after another sniff, the monster paused with its hands straightened like fur that stood on ends, and then moved towards me with twice the speed it had before. It had surprisingly much of it—now an average human would have to work to outrun the creature.

I didn't wait for it to reach me anymore. Instead, I flew towards it, pausing well above. I noticed that while most of the monsters I saw around were blind as bats, as soon as I got closer, they had a great awareness of their surroundings, and no blind spots. Yet they all had different abilities or traits for orienting in the darkness.

The monster raised its beak towards me, showing that he knew I was up there. Its range of 'vision' was at least five meters, which was pretty good for an average cave beast. I flapped my wings, preparing to go for its rear, and then had to swiftly dodge as the monster opened its beak to spit a glob of something disgusting even in heatvision at me.

It filled the air with a sharp tang of acid and brimstone, and even more of it when it fell on the stone, eating through them with a hiss. Then, the beast opened its beak again, as if preparing for another go at me.

Before it could, I dived at it, slashing with my claws at the appendages that rose to meet me. I cut them down like trees in a forest until I got to the meat beneath. With ferocious slashes, I dug into the thick skin and the layers of fat the monster had. Anticipation already filled me, and saliva pooled in my mouth from the thought of eating the beast and getting the acidic spit it had. More abilities, more EXP. More of everything.

The beast writhed in pain under my assault, screeching all the while. It trembled, it shook, it convulsed, it poured its stinky blood all around. One thing it wasn't doing, was dying. I thought I almost cut—more like sawed—it in half, and there was almost enough blood around to make a second river in this cave system, enough that I couldn't scent anything but blood and acid, but it just wouldn't die.

Frustrated, I bit into it, only to spit the meat right out. This thing tasted disgusting! And I've tasted a lot of disgusting things in my time. It was like eating the foulest and the most acidic turd, except worse somehow.

In fact, it was so bad that I wondered if the EXP from the monster was even worth it. Right now, more than anything, I wanted to wash the taste out of my mouth, and then kill the creature that put it in there.

I flew away from it for a few meters, far enough that I had time to dodge any more acidic blasts, and got out my water flask—I was too dirty to drink from the river. The creature didn't shoot anything, though, just kept trashing and bleeding as I gulped down water.

Then it stopped, and I thought for a moment that it died—until suddenly, it began to thin like a balloon that was losing air.