15 Shocks and Spoils

"Fuuuck," the first words to leave Z's mouth since the start of this hunt. Looking at the collar guilt filled our skeleton. He knew the little girl that this dog belonged to and her family was nice to him. Hell the lab herself was just a lovable goofball.

Sighing he resumes his collecting of his prizes because it is still a harsh new world and he has almost no weapons now. Also there was nothing that could have been done and Z had to hope that the family was safe and not eaten when she changed. If he ever meets that family again he will return the collar, which had somehow shrunk down to the size of a normal collar, and explain to them what happen.

So Z proceeded to gather up all that he could and look for a wheelbarrow or a wagon of some sort. He also gathered up all the stashes of pelts, bones, and horns he gathered. He was going home as soon as he could. Though the thing is while he said he was gonna gather supplies there was one corpse he felt to guilty to touch. In the end though Z decided to remember her by using everything he can and that is what he did. Though when he was going to get her core he felt something odd.

Next to the core where there was normally muscle in most things he felt something hard and yet comfortable when grabbed. So Z did the one thing he could to find out what it was, he pulled it out. It came out extremely easily as well like it was wanting to leave the corpse.

When he managed to expose and examine it Z's heart would have stopped. Still he was amazed that a bladed weapon was inside of this creature. The weirdest part is it came out dry and clean, no indication to where it was literally just at. Z could only explain it as another item drop. Though this did help his weapon problem the thing was he wasn't sure what it was. If he had to describe it he would call it a slightly skinnier World of Warcraft dagger with a single handed hilt.

Still Z was gonna learn to use it since it was beautiful, with its purple and black blade. Wait a minute metal is not purple and black. Oh well what can you do when magic is involved. Maybe one day Z will know what this is made of.

Afterwards he finished gathering everything together and using a wagon he made his way home. Thankfully the wagon seemed newer and didn't make much noise and the only thing Z ran into were some rabbits. When some time passes with Z moving as carefully as he can with the wagon he finally arrives to his house.

Not much has changed or you could say nothing has changed since Z left. Not even the grass had grown bigger which was weird but hey who has time to worry about grass. Z sure didn't he had to unload his stuff and start getting ready to tan the hides. Z was also gonna take some time and figure out what was next.

Once he unloaded the hides into his house, he stored the wagon in his shed for safety. He then sat down on his couch and let out an audible sigh. It was the first time he relaxed since he left and he felt it. For some reason he always felt safe in his home like nothing would be able to get him. Anyways while he was just sitting on his couch relaxing he realized he never had any sleep the entire time he was hunting and even now though tired felt no need for sleep. It was weird but whatever must be a skeleton thing.

So after resting for a while Z started make his plans for the future. First once the hides were tanned he would make a cloak and some armor. Mainly because he needed something to wear and help him hide. He really didn't think armor would be useful since unless is was something like rubber blunt damage would end him easily. Well there was only one thing that actually used that to fight and he was going to end that with his next big hunt. Though what he needs to do next his figure out how to use this dagger and figure out what made it special. Since those seeds were definitely a good thing this dagger will be too.

The other thing was he had a feast to divulge himself into. All the cores from the wolves he hunted of course, though he had to figure out what to do with that flower's core. There was no way he was gonna eat another one unless he has too. Or well that was what he said initially but Z was curious to see if he had just rested a while after eating it would he have been ok. Well no time like the present so with that thought Z got the bag he made with a rabbit hide to hold cores. Thus he pulled the bag out and set on his coffee table. Reaching in to grab the first one Z though was confused. Why was it so big and why was there only one of them. Where did all the cores go?

Z immediately pulled out the core and was shocked. It was like the flower's black and blood red core ate the other cores. Though as Z looked at it in frustration he noticed that there were more colors hidden in its depths. Almost like stars of various colors with the most prominent being purple.

Now the question Z had to ask himself was whether is was worth eating this now. Z had no idea of what this would do to him. If it was even stronger than the normal one then it might cause problems or it might even straight up kill him. But it could also make him stronger, much stronger and that was exactly what he was needing.

"Ugh fuck it I had to be careful for so long just to get this shit and now I won't even use the thing I spent all that time on. To hell with that I am already a skeleton death will just be a permanent break." Z said not use to hearing his voice spoken for a while. With those words though he picked up the core and started eating it. Sadly it was to big for him to eat in one bite like the others so he had to take several. After all this thing is as big as a cantaloupe.

After eating at first nothing happened he felt no difference what so ever. Though right as he let out a sigh of relief the pain hit. It was even worse than last time but this time Z was ready for something. Though that did not stop him from hating every second of it. He also was unable to black out this time.

Then just as it set in the pain stopped after some time passed. Z didn't know if it had been hours or minutes the light was just the same as when he had ate the core. What he did know was now he was ready to sleep and thus made his way to his bed and promptly lost himself to sleep.