Chapter 51: Meat
I couldn’t get the Guardian’s soul, but thinking about it, if I had only gotten his body, it would have been worth it.
"Rank-B monster meat... That should yield an absurd amount of Soul Fragments, but is there any way to eat this?"
With the back of my right hand, I lightly tapped the Guardian’s foot and felt as if I were hitting a wall.
In theory, the Guardian wasn’t a golem like the ones I faced on the first floor. If I had to bet on something, I would bet that he was a wizard who had almost ascended to godhood and that was why he had so many powers.
There were hundreds of examples in "The Journey to the Beyond" of wizards who gave up their own identities to become even more powerful than they already were, so it wouldn’t be unusual. Well, at least that’s what I wanted to believe, because if it were true, it would mean that there was flesh beneath that tough skin.
Thinking about it made an idea pop into my head. If I needed to know if there was flesh underneath, all I had to do was go where the swords cut deepest!
With that idea in mind, I walked to the top of the lying monster to check one of its "necks." That’s how I discovered two things:
1 - Yes, the Guardian was a living being and had flesh.
2 - The flesh was blue like the sea. It had definitely never been human, not with flesh of such a strange color.
Discovering the second thing at least served to take away the guilt I would feel when I put one of the Guardian’s parts in my mouth.
"Come," I ordered, pointing to the ground.
Five red flashes tore through the air, and the Skeleton Soldiers remaining from the battle knelt before me. With them, I still had Laufus, and since I didn’t want to waste any more mana, that would have to be enough to finish off this body.
"You can eat every last bone!" I commanded.
Like hungry beasts, the Skeleton Soldiers advanced first, sinking their teeth and claws into the Guardian’s tough, fibrous flesh. The sound of cracking bones and muscles resonated, causing me to feel slightly nauseous.
Laufus, in contrast, was cutting off pieces with his swords before consuming them politely.
[13 Soul Fragments were granted and consumed by a summon.]
[8 Soul Fragments were granted and consumed by a summon.]
[22 Soul Fragments were granted and consumed by a summon.]
[17 Soul Fragments were granted and consumed by a summon.]
[10 Soul Fragments were granted and consumed by a summon.]
The amount of Soul Fragments granted depended on the size and amount of meat consumed per bite, but the difference in the amount of fragments compared to Rank-E or D monsters was frighteningly large.
From lower-ranked monsters, I only gained fractions of a single Soul Fragment point. But a Rank-B monster gave dozens of times more.
Understanding this made me not want to be left out of this fragment sharing. However, I wouldn’t eat the blue meat of a monster raw like they were doing. So, I used [Flame Mastery lvMAX] to roast the pieces of meat I picked up.
Roasting the meat made it much darker, less blue, and also softer to eat.
"I think it would be much easier to eat monster meat if I didn’t know it was monster meat."
Hesitantly, I grabbed the piece of meat skewered on the stick and took the first bite. As soon as the juices from the meat touched my tongue, I felt a sense of revitalization.
[You have consumed Rank-B monster meat!]
[You have received +30 Soul Fragments!]
I widened my eyes in surprise. "This... this is better than I expected!"
It wasn’t easy to chew due to the muscle density that a creature the size of the Guardian would have, but it didn’t taste as bad as I had imagined it would.
Was that knowledge because it was a Rank-B monster? Well, I would never eat the meat of a weak monster like a Dark Spider to find out if it was or not, as it wouldn’t be worth the effort.
With more appetite now, I continued to feed while my summons devoured the corpse voraciously. Each bite strengthened all of them at the same time because they were all part of the same skill.
However, even after we ate the Cerberus’ corpse completely, the <Summoning> skill did not rise from Silver Level to Gold Level. Apparently, the amount required for that was 20,000 EXP, while only 8,000 had been accumulated.
When it reached Gold Level, all of my Summons would receive an increase in their attributes. That meant that even Laufus, who was currently Rank-C, could become Rank-B or A in the future.
"It’s so exciting that I can hardly contain myself..." I muttered to myself.
With that excitement, I even lost track of time inside the Tower of Giants.
- 7th floor of the Tower of Giants, Time and Date Unknown. -
Most of the first floors of the Tower of Giants were not challenging for me.
Approximately every thirty minutes, I had already moved on to a new one.
Advancing was easy when there was no boss waiting, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t enjoying myself. At one point, I found myself surrounded by Gargoyles. Fortunately, the Gargoyles in this dungeon were not like the Gargoyles in some games, as the Gargoyles here looked more like Imps made of stone.
They were small creatures with gray skin and membranous wings, laughing shrillly as they flew in circles around me. They were small, but they were smart.
One of them squealed something in its grotesque language, and the others responded with high-pitched laughter.
If it weren’t for the situation, I would have said they looked like a bunch of mischievous children planning a prank.
A gust of wind cut through the air as one of the Gargoyles charged at me.
My reflexes allowed me to dodge, and when it quickly returned to the sky, I reached out a hand toward it. That was when a fireball exploded from my right palm, hitting the creature in mid-flight. Its body exploded into dozens of flaming pieces.
[You have eliminated ’Gargoyle (Rank D)’!]
[You have received +30 Soul Fragments!]
The other Gargoyles immediately stopped laughing.
"Ah, so you have a survival instinct. Great. That means you know you should run away now!"