22 One Punch

After cleaning himself, again, Mark thought about what could had went wrong, 'the apples are fruits that come from a tree, and the tree itself needs years to bear fruits like this,' he was not sure about his line of thinking, if the fruit counted as a thing born after the first invasion, or if he truly had to eat things that had a mutation.

'I will need to do more tests, but for now, I can assume that eating the snake is safe, and I can't eat normal food anymore without vomiting this black stuff.'

Thinking about the snake, Mark asked himself if he would need to eat raw meat from now on, and decided to test it with half the snake.

'But before that, I need to check the traps, because now more than ever I need them to catch something, otherwise I will starve to death.'

...

Almost by night time, Mark came back from the forest with empty hands. The traps didn't catch anything, and he found nothing in the woods while following the animal tracks. Hunting was like that. One day you come home happy and others you don't.

Mark threw his things on the ground and went about making a fire. He had less than two hours of light and he was not sure yet about making a fire in the dark because the wyverns could easily spot it from far away.

...

One hour later, and with half the snake cooked, Mark took a bite from it, 'Much better,' and just as he started to eat the snake, the same warm feeling spread over his body, just like before when he ate the snake raw meat.

"So it works with cooked meat too," said Mark aloud, already taking another bite on the snake.

Now, Mark was much less stressed about his new ability, he could eat cooked meat from mutated animals without vomiting, and also, the ability worked jus like before, spreading that warm feeling in his body, that Mark guessed to be the reason of his suddenly increase in strength.

Once he finished the snake, Mark grabbed a few things from his backpack and started looking at it with concerning eyes. They were two edible flowers, and a sorrel plant, a type of green salad that had, as the name implies, a very sour taste for some people.

"Stop delaying Mark, you NEED to test," said Mark aloud to motivate himself. After all, he was not a big fan of throwing up after eating something.

Mark grabbed the first flower and put a bit of salt, to mask the taste of the flower a bit, and threw inside his mouth.

"I didn't vomit. Good, that's a start," said Mark after gulping the flower down his throat, and just like the other times, the warm feeling also came, but it was a bit different now, Mark noticed it was not as before for some reason, it was not the intensity that changed, but there was something more to it, something that Mark could not fully 'categorize'.

"Well, the warm feeling came, not exactly like before, but it came, " said Mark to aloud to reassure his restless mind, that was already thinking several hypotheses as why the feeling was different, but also fearing that was just a coincidence and that he would throw up eating the other flower.

Mark shook his head to stop thinking useless things, and grabbed the other flower, put a bit of salt, and threw inside his mouth.

The warm feeling came again, but it was more fiery than before. Mark could not exactly put in words the difference, but he could tell it was different somehow.

"Now the desert, or salad, whatever," said Mark, already grabbing the sorrel and throwing in his mouth. He liked the sour taste of it, it was refreshing and always made him salivate. His mother, just like him, loved it, but his father hated anything sour. It was always comic to watch him eat something sour. His face would contort and he would even put his tongue out as if would change anything.

"I miss that old man," said aloud Mark, as the memories came to him, then the warm feeling of his ability came and interrupted his nostalgic moment.

'A bit different, but just like the others, it worked,' thought Mark.

He now had to understand better what those small differences made to him, if it was a good thing or bad, and why they were different, he was not the smartest person he knew but he was not dumb enough to ignore that, the only question was, 'How the heck I can learn more about this if even the army know almost nothing?'

The answer was as simple as it could be, "I will need to test, learn, take notes, compare, geez... just thinking about all of it already makes me regret eating that snake stomach, it could be a simpler ability like.... teleport... or... heck... anything... even the chicken guy was already good"

Mark's new ability was indeed strange, but he noticed that all abilities that he heard were a bit strange, the chicken guy, his eyes that could see in slow motion for a few seconds, the crow metallic paws, and now his new stomach.

"Now less thinking and more doing," said Mark, while getting up.

Mark was about to test the difference in his strength after eating all those things, he was not sure what effect the plants had, but he was sure that after eating half snake he would see a big difference, since the first time he ate the snake he only took a few bites of it.

Mark walked for a bit and went inside the supply truck, where the crate he hit the last time was, and he was going to do the same exact thing to measure the difference. It was the best he could do now.

"I am not bald yet, but I really want to be strong," said Mark, remembering an anime he liked to watch just before the world went insane.

Standing in front of the crate made of wood, Mark made an ugly position, and threw a punch at the box.

~pow~