First Trial - Temple of the fallen Demon Lord (part 10)

|If out there there are more beasts like that one, or even something stronger…!|

That thought gave Butaro chills – it should have filled him with fear, but instead, it gave him this inexplicable rush of excitement that even the boy himself didn't quite understand.

He needed to prepare.

Without any delay, he approached the drifting body of the crocodile beast and grabbed it by the tail.

The monster has already returned to its original size but it didn't change the fact that it was massive!

The girth of its tail could only be compared to the width of really old trees.

"Iii-yup..!"

Butaro made sure to hold it properly to not shred his own skin on the hard stone-like scales and pulled the corpse.

Since most of it was still in the water, it wasn't too hard to do that but as soon as its hind legs brushed the stone floor the difficulty skyrocketed.

"Iii-yup…! Iii-yup…!"

Butaro's eyes gave off the pink light once again as he was giving his all to drag the monster's corpse out.

"You…! Stupid…! Crocodile…!"

Veins keep bulging out on Butaro's neck as the carcass got onto the solid ground inch by inch.

Finally, it was done and Butaro had to sit down for a bit to regain his breath.

After a minute or two, he got back up and approached the monster's head.

More than half of the blade of the demonic-looking weapon was sticking out from the fallen beast's scull, triumphantly like some sort of a flag of victory or something.

*WHAM*

Butaro had to take two tries before he could even touch the monstrous jaws, even though the beast was dead Butaro was very jumpy. The first time he reached out his hand, he could swear that the monster moved, so he punched the side of its head, making it wobble to the sides.

"..."

The mountainous boy's face became slightly pink from embarrassment over his reaction. There was no way that the monster would just come back to live and try to rip him apart limb from limb again.

Finally, Butaro managed to get a proper hold on the upper jaw of the crocodile and lifted him up as high as he could.

It was the place where he almost died.

The dagger-like teeth whose sharpness was still fresh in Butaro's memory flashed in the pale greenish-blue light of the lamps and Butaro got goose-bumps. The lower jaw dropped to the floor and made a hollow sound.

The boy took a deep breath and braced himself.

And he stepped inside the monster's mouth of his own will and reached towards the closer out of the two hilts.

The middle hilt was buried deep into the monster's palate so he went for the lower one.

He prepared himself to use a lot of strength to retrieve the sword embedded in the beast's skull as he expected it to be a problem to retrieve it.

"And… Hu-UUUUPP…!?"

Butaro pulled on the weapon with all his strength and almost fell back right on the monster's teeth and impaled himself when the sword came out of the flesh and bone as if they were hot butter.

"Whoa…! What the..!?"

The massive boy stumbled and left the dangerous jaws as quickly and carefully as he could.

"This thing is even sharper than I thought! What the hell?!"

Butaro exclaimed and gazed at the sword with admiration.

"…"

Butaro then glanced at the corpse…

...his stomach rumbled, and the monster's carcass was the only thing that bore even the slightest chance of becoming his sustenance.

"…I wonder if it's edible…?"

He murmured to himself.

He definitely didn't want to risk getting the monster's blood over his wounds, even combined together with the healing water, but nothing was preventing him from trying to expand his gourmet experience with new ingredients…

People in his previous worlds did eat crocodile meat.

But on the other hand, even though the beast most likely wasn't venomous, it didn't mean that it wasn't poisonous.

|Or maybe it was venomous and the way I look now is because my body interacted with its venom in a weird way...?|

Butaro thought to himself in concern glancing down at his bear-like body.

At least some snakes had venom that was deadly when it entered the bloodstream of the victim but it could actually be ingested without much risk if drunk…

If that was the case the monster's corpse could become the food source for Butaro…

Of course, it was under the assumption it wasn't poisonous.

"...being poisonous is the mechanism of the weaker animals to stop stronger animals from eating them... on the other hand, that thing must have been living in the healing pond for who knows how long, there is a chance that it became altered in some ways because of the water properties...|

The hunger was definitely influencing the boy's way of thinking. Truth be told, Butaro was more hungry than he ever felt in his entire life.

He couldn't just leave a readily available ingredient that the hunted himself to just waste away!

The most obvious part would go for would be the tail, right?

Butaro succumbed to hunger and went ahead aligning the blade a few inches away from the base of the tail and slowly putting his weight on the weapon.

He felt some pressure when the scales and blade came in contact, but only a moment later the demonic weapon proved superior.

After cutting through the tough scale, the edge sunk into the monster's flesh without much resistance, then it stopped, most likely on the bone, so Butaro raised the weapon above its head and slashed down as hard as he could.

The weapon sliced through the bone and the rest of the flesh and even managed to cut into the stone floor!

Butaro stared at the weapon.

"…I could have dealt with that walking purse so much easier if I had the sword with me from the start…!"

He complained in a defeated voice. But he soon shook off the depressing thoughts and sliced just a tiny piece of meat.

"…I don't have anything to cook it at the moment… Should I try it raw…?"

Well, he was at least sure that it was fresh so the food poisoning shouldn't be included in the potential trouble with poison…