A snack before the main course

Rosha shooed me away from the kitchen and her sister, but then brought me a bowl of fried vegetables. Warm food, even if there was no meat, made wonders for my strength, and when I was finished, my body was humming with a need for action.

I didn't stay much longer in Rosha's house afterwards. I wanted to finish this tonight if I could, so I walked into the dark streets in search of the address she gave me. The warm colours of wooden and brick walls turned into cold greys in the moonlight. Even with the guard patrols walking down the widest streets with their lamps and spears, the shadows were deep enough to hide dangerous things… and people.

Like me.

I spotted the thug hiding in the alleyway long before I reached him, but kept walking. A predator pretending to be prey in order to lure his fish… That was me. In the dark, the cloak I wore hid not only my wings but also the poor quality of my clothes.

I just walked past the alleyway's corner when the thug jumped on me—but I was ready. He had a club in his hand, aimed at my head—I had a stinger out and ready, hidden from him by my cloak. When the thug went in, his entire torso open by his tall swing, I only had to lean down a little to headbutt him into chin, at the same time piercing his heart with my stinger.

He died instantly. His body, still warm, continued to move and fall on me, but I pulled the stinger out and stepped aside. There wasn't much blood out there—just as I intended. When heart stopped first, there was never much blood.

I glanced at the alley, but the thug was alone. Well, here was his natural selection. He should've known that humans were social creatures and did better in packs and groups. The thug didn't even have anyone to watch his back. I snorted.

Now he was my snack before I went for Teren. Vegetables were nice and all, but they weren't much more filling than grass. A predator like me needed more. And of course, EXP. When I went for Teren, I would need my abilities to be more than a dead weight.

I pulled the corpse in the alleyway. It was narrow and blocked from the other side with a wall, so I (and the thug, when he was alive) only had to care for one side. I looted some bronze and silver coins from the dead body and found that he actually wore decent boots of my size.

The rest was junk. I left it be and went to eat.

[Creature devoured. Gained 56 487 EXP.]

'Only fifty-six thousand… Damn, for all they do, humans give little EXP… I hope Teren will be better,' I thought, licking blood from my fingers. Humans had little in terms of basic stats, either. A boar gave more EXP than a human. But thumbs, thumbs… and, of course, pretty girls.

I opened my character sheet and turned my thoughts away from the image of what hid under Rosha's clothes and onto my stats. I had seventy-six thousand EXP now. From what I calculated, this should be enough to whip my abilities into shape, but barely so. I already knew that as they were now, my wings won't let me do more than make long jumps, and my stinger, while still an effective weapon, could've been a little longer for my convenience.

But my 'Steel Web Spinning' was of the lowest level, and intended to fix it first. I dumped about 42000 EXP in there to level it up to 15. Then I put 16000 into both 'Agile Flight' and 'Venomous Stinger', which also brought them to 15, and had two more thousand EXP left.

Now my abilities looked like this:

[Abilities]

Devourer (lv MAX) (Evolution options available!)

Agile Flight (lv 15)

Venomous Stinger (lv 15)

Steel Web Spinning (lv 15)

⠀⠀

I looked at that neat column of level 15 abilities and smiled to myself. Now I felt much better, and my stinger was as long as my knife. What's more… I took a look around, made sure that there was no one in the vicinity and no windows in the alleyway, and unclasped my cloak.

My wings rose, then fell. Once, twice, thrice, and I flew up with a thunderous buzz. Not even a jump was necessary for the liftoff. For a moment, I just enjoyed the indescribable feeling of weightlessness that came with being mid air, before lowering back on the pavement and putting on my cloak before anyone decided to check out the noise.

Next stop was Teren's house. If I was lucky, I would catch another thief or a couple on my way, but I doubted it. The directions Rosha gave me mostly led me by wider, less criminal-populated streets. But that was alright, too. I didn't have too much time to spare on thieves and thugs, when I had an adventurer on my dinner menu.

Well, more like breakfast menu if my plan would play out like I planned it. Attacking Teren in his sleep was a tempting idea, but it was a bad sort of temptation—a kind that led you into a trap. You didn't survive as an adventurer without learning to sleep with one eye open, I was afraid.

No, my plan was a little more elaborate. Like Rosha, I intended to play on Teren's weaknesses, ones he shared with many other people. He believed his house was safe, was his fortress, his haven—well, I was going there to prove him wrong.