Ch 12 – Beastmen

Fire. In a way, that was the very essence of life itself. Fire was the driving force that drove humanity to explore the thing called science. The very first fire caused humanity of Earth to be able to explore the vast cosmos and understand the mysteries of the universe.

Kaleido paused his movements upon seeing the warm orange glow that bathed a small part of the dark forest in the far distance. That light flickered from time to time, continuously moving as shadows can be seen all around the area of the orange light. 'Moving fire, now that's definitely a fucking torch.'

Rapid thoughts appeared inside his mind while he swiftly moved through the forest with fast but calculated steps. He avoided all shrubs and bushes, moving in the shadows stealthily until he was close enough to the source of the flame.

He divided a part of his attention towards his aperture, and green copper primeval essence entered one of his Gu Worms. Zwoom. His vision seemed to rapidly expand as an invisible force expanded with him as its epicenter. In a circle more than a hundred meters large, he was able to sense everything within it like an omniscient god!

'Hmm?' Kaleido couldn't help but be shaken by what he 'saw' with his domain. In the far distance, the source of the warm orange light was actually a group of human-like beings! But what made them different from humans was their beast-like appearance. Some of them had a wolf head, some had fox ears and claws, while others had wolf tails and fur.

But leading them all was a rat-like human. Their head was a ginormous rat head, with dark gray fur and long whiskers. Their bodies were small and mostly naked, with the only piece of clothing covering their nether regions. Swishing from their backs was a long pink rat tail. His eyes gleamed with intelligence unlike the others who seemed to be savage brutes, and his role as the leader seemed solidified by the fact that he was the one who held the torch.

'Demihumans?! Are demihumans real in this world?! No, they're more beastly compared to a normal anime demihuman with cute animal ears and tails. Welp, there goes my dreams of having a catboy boyfriend.' Kaleido lightly chuckled as his thoughts wandered without aim. 'Damn, still down bad as ever in another world, huh? Fuck, the bisexual struggle is too real even in this godforsaken world.'

He dismissed his thoughts and instead, he thought of a brand new thing that made his eyes glow with excitement. 'The strongest of them all is also the rat human hybrid with a Rank 3 aura. If that's how strong he is, then I can confidently take them on without much problem, so maybe…'

Rustle.

"Who's there?!" the rat-human shouted and pointed the torch at the far distance.

"Wait… it's a human, and a young one at that," the fox-human beside him said with gleaming eyes. After hearing so, the other beast-human hybrids in the group felt their hearts beating excitedly.

"Are you sure?" a wolf-human whispered with a growl. From his mouth, one can even see saliva drip down onto the ground.

"Yes, I'm sure," the fox-human reaffirmed what he said, and a malicious grin also appeared on his face.

"Hehehe, now that's another one added to the party," the rat-human grinned and his eyes indicated the others to quiet down.

"H-Hello?" a cloaked figure walked out of the darkness. Even if he was cloaked, the others can see the apprehension and naivety in the boy's eyes. If he knew what they were, then he would have run away already.

'A human ignorant of us beastmen, how lucky! Is he perhaps a sheltered boy who got lost in here? No, that doesn't matter. Look at his muscular physique and vigorous body, he would be a nice meal that even the tribe leader would love! And Rank 1 peak stage? Now that's truly a quality meal!'

The rat beastmen took the lead, calling out: "Hmm? Are you perhaps lost, boy?"

"M-Me? Well… um… I, my mother said I shouldn't talk to random strangers," the boy said while taking a step back.

'That's bad, he's scared. It would only ruin his taste if he's scared. The ones that taste the best are those that aren't scared.' The rat beastmen paused.

"But don't you want our help, boy? While we may look like this, we're nice people!" the rat beastmen said and used his immense experience to give off a warm and amicable aura.

That seemed to have calmed down the boy as his body relaxed, and he asked with a hopeful voice: "R-Really? Will you really help me go back to mommy and daddy?"

"Boss, what are you doing right now?" the fox beastmen beside him whispered, confused about the current situation.

"Fool, can't you see that I'm trying to capture this boy for the tribe leader? If we can successfully lure him back to our tribe without fear or force, his taste is gonna be beyond great! It would surely land us some nice rewards," the rat beastmen answered loud enough that the whole group can hear.

"Oh!" their eyes seemed to have been enlightened as they praised.

"Boss, you really are smart, smarter than even humans!"

"Yeah, yeah! With you on our side, then the beastmen race would become number 1!"

"Quiet down, you fools. He might hear us," the rat beastmen hushed and stared back at the boy with a smile: "Yes! We would love to help you go back to your family, isn't that right guys?"

"Yeah!"

"Thank you so much, sirs!" the boy bowed deeply and joyfully approach them without a trace of fear.

But while that was happening, a whole different perspective happened from Kaleido's point of view.

'While I may have some western blood in me, hence my taller-than-normal physique, I am still quite short compared to the rest of the world back on Earth. Now, these beast-human hybrids are really fucking tall, so it was easy to deceive them into thinking I really was a child. Though I really don't know what the fuck I am doing because why did I do this storyline. Now, are they really going to help me find my nonexistent parents or something like that? Maybe I can even say I'm from Lo Clan City and they'll help me go there? Oh, this might actually work.'

With a new group to follow, Kaleido can't help but be intrigued and ask questions.

"Um…"

"Yes, boy?" The rat beastmen asked with a gentle smile.

"I'm curious, but what are you guys? You guys have such cool bodies, so how did you guys become like that?" Kaleido inquired, perfectly replicating a child's naivety and ignorance.

"Oh, that. That's because we're beastmen!" The rat beastmen answered while patting his chest, and continued to explain: "Us beastmen worship fierce beasts, and we gain their blessings in return. This is what allows us to have our strong bodies!"

"Ohhhh! I don't understand."

The rat beastmen couldn't help but almost slap the child after hearing that, but he remained calm and explained further: "We beastmen have the natural ability to attract wild Gu Worms, and those Gu Worms give us our beast-like traits. Like my head and tail for example."

"Ohhh, so if I use Gu Worms like you guys, would I also become a beastmen?"

"Well…" the rat beastmen paused, before answering with a smile: "No."

"Aww, that's sad."

'Hmm, so if their beast-like appearance is given to them by Gu, what would they look like without those Gu? And if so, what differentiates them from humans other than their ability to attract Wild Gu Worms? What makes them attract those Gu Worms in the first place?'

There were so many mysteries that Kaleido found puzzling after meeting this mysterious race called beastmen. Their innate abilities, though vastly different from his own innate traits, he felt like they can be potentially useful to explain his abnormal body. 'Beastmen and my body, do they perhaps share some sort of similarities? The ability to attract Wild Gu Worms, that really is a supernatural ability just like my spatial awareness and rapid thinking speed!'

"Mister rat, where are we going exactly?" Kaleido decided to finally ask this question after asking multiple questions. In a way, his previous questions were to put the rat beastmen's mind at ease and were a trap to cause him to answer more and more of his questions.

"We're heading back to our tribe to ask the help of one of our members to assist you in finding your family. And on that note, where do you even live anyway?" The rat beastmen answered fluidly without pause.

"I live in Jie Clan Village," Kaleido answered just as quickly without hesitation. In terms of actual experience, the rat beastmen was way beyond Kaleido, but Kaleido was a genius even without the monstrous abilities he randomly gained out of nowhere. He was a Seoul High student, it's only natural that he can lie without giving away any flaws.

Of course, that doesn't imply that all Seoul High students can naturally lie. It was just that it showed how great of a genius Kaleido is.

"Oh, Jie Clan Village! That's great! That village is just near our tribe. You must be starving as of now, right? Once we get back to our tribe, we'll give you some food to eat and we can embark tomorrow towards Jie Clan Village," the rat beastmen said with a smile.

"Mmm! I'm really hungry, mister Rat," Kaleido said while patting his stomach.

'Good, good! He also has an empty stomach, meaning his taste would be pure without all those impurities clogging his innards. Hehehe, boy, your value really is skyrocketing at the moment! Once I present you to the lord tribe leader, I'll be able to gain a lot of benefits!' The rat beastmen's eyes had a malicious glow to them for a split second before promptly disappearing.

On the other hand, Kaleido's eyes turned cold and distant for a second before returning to normal, and he thought to himself: 'Ha, when it comes to lying, one must be partially true! You fool, you fell to my trap card! With my spatial awareness card, I tricked you into revealing that you are lying, because with my innate ability to remember spatial coordinates and understanding of space and directions, I deduce that we're heading in a drastically different direction away from Jie Clan Village!'

'Now, what does this mean for me? I don't know, I'll probably have to murder them or something if it comes down to it.' Kaleido didn't feel troubled at all. He was confident in anything that they would throw at him. This confidence was born from his rigorous training and immense testing. By his estimates, he even feels confident facing a Rank 4 Gu Master and was more than sure to be able to escape any possible danger by entering space cave.

So the group walked and traversed for a long while. Along the way, Kaleido asked more and more questions that shone light on his lack of knowledge about the world of Gu. In a way, the rat beastmen's value was also immense to Kaleido, just like how he was immensely valuable for the rat beastmen.

'Hahaha! We're finally here!' The rat beastmen slowed down his walking speed subtly and went behind Kaleido.

Now gone from his prey's field of view, he whispered, "You guys better prepare to capture him. While he may be a Rank 1 Gu Master, we don't know if he has some sort of mystical Gu that would allow him to escape."

The others nodded, and slowly encircled the boy.

Finally, as they approached the tribe of the beastmen group, a certain smell invaded Kaleido's nose that he was way too familiar with. It was a stench that haunted him back then, a smell that caused an illusory scarlet haze to appear and cover the tribe in front of him.

"HELP ME!"

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"

"MAMA! PAPA!"

All around a ginormous circle, a group of savage beastmen devoured and ate human corpses raw. They ate regardless of age or appearance. They ate both young and old, strong and weak. Some of the humans they ate were even Gu Masters.

Some ate eyeballs like they were eating fruit. Some slurped intestines like a bloody form of ramen. Some ate brains like pudding. And so many more gruesome sights entered Kaleido's gaze.

Bloody pooled over the grassy floor as an intense stench pervaded his nose. But in spite of all that, his eyes remained cold and distant, while he thought: 'Fuck, I really was right that they were gonna eat me. Sometimes, my genius even terrifies me.'

He wasn't traumatized, he wasn't fearful, he wasn't disgusted; no, Kaleido only felt a bit joyful about his deduction being correct, and a void black knife slowly appeared in his hand.

'Welp, a massacre it is!'

AN: This chapter has 2182 words.

Have I mentioned that Kaleido is supposedly the most normal character amongst all my protagonists? Yeah... that's still true.

But you know what's also true? My lust for power stones, so give them to me!

(December 23, 2022 – 393rd day of writing)