CH22: Sneaking

It was early when he arrived to see the fence to Gulliver Farm; it was a collection of thick posts and barbed wire fencing to keep their cows inside. In the distance, a farmhouse sat on a hill overlooking the flat lands where the cows grazed. Tufts of fur covered the barbs, and a donkey walked by the side of the fence, ears alert. At the edges of the fence, the grass had been chewed down to the dirt by the greedy cows stretching their necks out as far as possible. On the other hand, massive patches of grass in the field proved they didn't eat the grass around their fence to dirt out of hunger alone among the cow paddies that littered the pasture. Silas didn't ponder whether it was competition or the grass was better. His nerves were on edge.

This was his chance to cross the threshold for another skill and gain some effectiveness for constitution. It would also give everyone under his command instances of acid resistance if he was hit by acid, unlike the beginner rank acid resistance's initiate rank stacked instances. Anything that stacked him with buffs was a good thing, and if he was lucky, he could rank up parasite as well. This farm could be a gold mine of grinding for him, especially if he was careful with his feeding.

Even without a stealth skill, he should be detected as a rank 1 leech, something that no one who owned a farm near Tar city would take seriously. They were more worried about wolves, goblin raids, and the occasional ogre. So he would hopefully fall under the radar while he found the cow he needed and slipped in to pass his threshold. If anything, he wished he didn't have to stay in for the full tour.

He slipped under the barbed wire fence and felt like he was in no man's land. A feeling of impending danger swept over him, and he threw himself to the tall grass.

The second he was out of sight, he sensed a rank 2 presence much stronger than the monster bugs he fought. From the tall grass, he saw a teen with a mob of orange hair, wolf ears, and a bored expression. She sniffed the air and stepped towards him.

Anxiety crept up his nonexistent spine as each of her footfalls felt like the smash of a hammer. He could tell by the feel of her mana that she was a hand-to-hand type like Catherin. If they fought, he was going to be on the losing end. His highest stat was charisma, and if anything, that made him easier to spot. At most, it would keep him from utterly obeying anything she said. His stats were high even if they were rank 1 instead of rank 2. Her F rank was equal to his D rank, so if she had a lot of charisma, he was screwed if she said a word. Then again, if she found him, he was probably screwed anyway.

She approached his position, and a rabbit with a horn on its head shot out of the grass at the wolf girl. The teen snatched the rabbit out of the air with one hand and snapped its neck in one motion. Even if he didn't have bones anymore, he felt a shiver run down his spine out of compassion for the rabbit. Silas pressed himself as flat against the ground as he could in the tall grass and hoped she wouldn't notice him.

He didn't know if escape was an option, but he waited for her to turn away. Instead, she approached the donkey walking along the fence and fed it an apple. Escape wasn't an option; if he moved too much, she would catch him; he was sure of it. After the donkey ate the apple, she took the rabbit and walked toward the large house on the hill overlooking the lands around it.

Being a reverse uno trap guy instead of an upfront fighter never felt scarier. She could have stepped on him, and he would have died. So he had to be careful.

Silas kept in the tall grass when he could and tried to get the farm's layout. He saw chickens in the distance up to the 3rd rank and decided to stay away from them. Horses roamed the pasture galloping in a herd of 40 by his count, separate from the donkeys that roamed alone. It wasn't until he descended the bank of a large pond on the property that he saw the cows.

From healthy red heifers to massive bulky bulls, the cows looked healthy enough, trudging through the water, occasionally taking a drink. When Silas saw that, he decided he had found his point of entry and descended to a backdrop of dark mud stirred up by the cows' hooves.

Silas didn't have trouble making his way to the bank and diving into the water. The fish in the pond swam erratically, stressed out of their minds from the invasion of the cows. Dirt spiraled all over the underwater world of the pond obscuring his view, but he had other senses.

As a leech, he could feel body heat, detect carbon breath, and follow his senses accurately underwater. Those natural abilities allowed him to swim toward the drinking mouth of one of the heifers. Silas made sure his body was extra slimy when he moved.

By this point, he had been devoured enough times that he didn't hesitate when he found an opportunity. The cow froze when he made contact before he shot into the back of her mouth, and she swallowed. Instead of coming up for air, the cow continued drinking and swallowed him without a second thought.

He fell into the cow's rumen, a sac that could hold over 40 gallons, and felt plant-digesting bacteria crawl around him the second he hit the stomach. Once he situated himself, he took stock of his situation. He needed to go from the rumen to the cow's anus to clear the threshold. He would have to squeeze himself through the cow along with its grass and probably suffer from getting chewed by the cow with its cud. It was a horrible situation, but at the end of it, his skill reached the initiate stage. His hentai skill had already filled him with instances of iron defense and stallion, which left him horny with nothing to take his energy out on. So, Silas lay down in the rumen full of pond water and napped. Catherin told him to take it easy.