章 2: Learning, Scavenging and Hunting

As I walked to search for something to eat I was testing out mana because the soft magic system of Frieren didn't explain it whole only some parts of it. I don't know if the manga explained the magic system further because I just finished watching the anime before coming here.

Shifting back and forth to my surroundings and my mana. I was observing the mana emitting from me. I don't have anything to concrete to scale off my mana reserves but I think I have mana less or comparable to Frieren's suppressed mana meeting Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen for the first time, One-fifth of Heiter's mana at the start of their journey or maybe less than Fern's suppressed mana.

I could feel the mana circulating through me, coursing throughout and around my body. Shrouding and covering me, It's like a lukewarm, viscous fluid. It was a fascinating and incredible sensation. I can feel my mana naturally generating within me. It felt natural.

Raising my palm as I trudged through the forest and shaped my mana into different shapes by my control of it I felt my mana being used up quite a bit and maintaining its form was draining as well. Taking up one-fifth of my mana supply.

I can create weapons from my mana. I open my palm, spread my fingers, and create claws overlapping my hand, I straighten my palm, and out comes a blade extending sharply, I then close my hand forming a fist and creating a blunt dense hammerhead. I felt a bit of pride at the progress of control of my mana. I can also make smaller things like threads and needles. But I can't maintain it for too long, I estimate I can only hold its shape for around half an hour or more before my mana reserves deplete.

I can sharpen and solidify them by concentrating mana on them. I feel my mana being slightly used up noticing it took less than when I first used it and maintaining its structure was still taxing but easier than I started. I learned that as I get better at controlling and manipulating mana it takes less and less to use up my mana. I used up around a quarter or more of my mana during my testing feeling moderately tired. Mana slowly regenerating from my body.

My control over mana has been steadily improving quickly. I returned to the natural state of my mana before imagining and forcing it to expel outside my hand. I felt my mana reduced slightly and saw the small white sphere of mana floating against my palm I stopped and stood observing it.

I can still feel I can control and manipulate it. I can shape it still, make it larger or smaller by adding or subtracting more mana to it, and move it around pretty quickly as well but as I try to move it further away from me the harder and harder for me to control and slower as it moves further away from me.

Once it reaches around fifteen-ish meters away from me it dissipates into the air. I started walking again while playing around with my mana shaping it into. I tread forward through the woods at night idly as I got tunnel visioned from testing my mana walking forward thoughtlessly.

*Thud*

I accidentally bumped into a tree branch because of my horns.

"Oof." I dully say as I fall to the ground on my back flatly on the grass feeling nothing to my little fall.

I lay there before grasping at my horn and looking up at it. A reminder of me not being human. Me not being 'me'. Not being with the people I loved whose faces I can't even recall. I just sat there my face blankly looking at the night sky eyes narrowing while touching my horn.

*Growl*

My stomach grumbled again. Well, enough lamenting about it. I sighed feeling slightly more hungry than before I sat up and stood back up getting back to my original goal of finding something to eat.

After some time I traversed around the forest searching for food finding different types and kinds of flora. Encountering flowers that I hadn't seen before, as well as ones I was familiar with or were quite similar to ones I saw in my past life it reminded me of my garden in my apartment (I wonder who'll take care of them...) I looked at them while I walked.

Shortly after I stumbled upon some berries in some bushes. I knelt took one and examined it. It was a yellowish-rounded berry with little bumps all around it and a green stem on top the size of my pinky finger.

I didn't recognize this type of berry or fruit in my past life before but then again I am inside a fantasy world of course the ecology would be much more different than Earth's.

I didn't know If it was right for me to eat but I had an idea I wanted to try first. I punched a hole in the berry with my finger feeling the glistening juice moisten the tip of my finger I raised it closer to my face and sniffed it. Smelling a sweet tangy citrusy scent I instinctively determined It was alright for me to eat. As I thought my senses seemed to be enhanced.

I ate the whole berry tasting it. My stoic face raised an eyebrow at the taste. It was sour. very sour but had a citrus sweetness to it. If were still human (Another reminder of me not being human anymore.) I would probably spit this out immediately.

My physical reaction towards eating food had also numbed but I still can taste it. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I ate a few of them before taking a few with me as I wandered the forest further. Eating berries or fruits wouldn't satiate me.

I wanted to eat something that would satisfy my hunger.

I wanted to eat meat. To get that I had to hunt and kill some animals. I had an idea I wanted to try.

Mana sensing or detection. I assume that all living beings in this world have mana in them. Humans and probably animals too have them either dormantly coursing through their body (Like I was before I activated my mana for the first time.) or actively surrounding them. So I could probably find them by sensing and detecting their mana.

I ate the last berry I had at hand and I looked at the mana shrouding me, flowing through and around me that I had been unconsciously emitting. Constantly projecting my output outwards. I then shifted my focus to my surroundings focusing on sensing the mana in the area.

My range widens sensing the mana in the atmosphere and environment and noticing the small traces of mana in the trees, plants, and flora. Huh. So non-living things have bits of mana over them? Interesting.

I thought before sensing a few distinct mana in different directions of me as well as several faint ones that are similar but different to the mana of the flora around me. The closest and most prominent one was quite a bit away from me, the distance was around forty or so meters. I sensed a mana 'signature' moving idly. It was more noticeable than anything else I was sensing. It had more mana than anything else I'm sensing.

I can 'perceive' its shape it was large and shaped similar to a quadrupedal animal. I can guess it was a wolf or a fox and a very big one at that. the other mana signatures were quite far from me and I can't get a proper reading of them but I can roughly estimate that they are a hundred meters away from me. They were probably other wildlife. (Seems like my maximum mana detection range is around seventy to eighty meters but steadily slowly increasing as I learn to control my mana.) I noticed a few of the other faint mana signatures are in the direction of the presumed canine.

Never eaten a canine in my life before. Also never killed something before. First time for everything.

*Whoosh*

I started swiftly running and I was a bit surprised by how fast I was. I was running much, much more quickly than any normal child should ever be. I may be as fast or faster than my school's athletes in terms of speed. I was also reacting far quicker than when I was human.

Swiftly maneuvering around the trees to the direction where the assumed canine was. I stopped as my enhanced sense of smell picked up a distinctive metallic scent forward and I as went closer I saw something blocking my way.

It was skeletons of a few different wildlife animals, The carcass of a deer and a few rabbits. The blood on the ground is still somewhat fresh. These were the faint mana I had sensed before. I shifted my head forward. The large wolf was probably the cause of this I should proceed with caution.

I was already close to it, Sensing its mana signature and several faint mana that were probably corpses surrounding it. I quietly sprint over before stopping and silently moving toward my target at a distance. Jumping on a tree branch the leaves covering me as I crouched down and looked below me.

I saw a 15-foot-tall large green wolf with a 'grassy' texture in its fur and sharp yellow teeth and eyes with blood covering its fur and mouth. Crouch down and wolfing down (Pun intended.) the flesh and intestines of a dead deer below. The wolf's sharp yellow teeth tore into the deer's flesh.

It did not notice me staring down at it a few meters away. It was a terrifying sight if I was human but I couldn't feel anything towards the view only observing apathetically as it tore through the deer.

That's very much no ordinary wolf. That is very much of the magical fantasy kind. Is it a monster? I hope that it isn't then how would I eat it? Monsters in the series would dissipate and dissolve into mana after they die just like demons.

If it is I guess I have to eat the leftovers of that wolf's meal. There were a few several different dead animals that had not eaten yet near the giant wolf. Even if It's a monster I still would get food to eat. I don't have anything to lose if I kill that giant wolf. I would still get something to eat. My hunger grows more as I wait.

I focus on sensing the flow of mana coursing through the wolf. It wasn't emitting outwards but just dormant inside it just circulating from the body. I don't know anything to scale off It but it had a decent amount of mana, less than me but still a decent amount laying dormant.

I calmly assessed how I approach this. It was distracted so it was the best time to strike it lethally. My mana reserves are nearly full. The question now is how should I kill it? I don't want to get close because I don't know what it is capable of and I prefer to keep a range from it. I then got an idea and was inspired by something I just remembered. This will also be my first time using magic.

I opened my palm and expelled mana creating a small white ball of mana the size of a tennis ball above my hand. Then clasping it between my palms compressing it physically while forcing it to compress and condense through my mana control. Visualizing it compresses it further and further to the point I can't anymore. I felt my mana drop considerably to half of my reserves and sweat dripping from my forehead but that didn't deter my focus.

'[Convergence]' Is a technique from Choso and Kamo Clan from Jujutsu Kaisen an anime and manga series I finished before binge-watching Frieren, watching both seasons and reading the entirety of the current manga up to chapter 262. (Sigh, another thing I will miss, I even got the physical volumes. I didn't finish the whole series.)

It involves compressing and condensing blood into a sphere between the user's palms, which can be used as an extension technique. But instead of blood, I substitute it with mana to make it more lethal.

My hands started shaking as I clasped over the highly compressed sphere of mana vibrating. It was unstable, It was creating quiet hisses and snaps I didn't have full control over it yet. I moved and aimed my clasped hands to point toward the wolf's head, still distracted eating its meal. The crackling noise gets steadily louder and louder.

*Sizzle...*

I felt it sizzle on my palms. It was burning and damaging my hands. But that did not stop my concentration. I need to visualize it firing right now. Create a strong image of it. Visualize it converging and channel it.

Visualize it traveling at one singular point and angle.

Visualize it concentrated into a line.

Visualize it piercing through its defenses.

Visualize it piercing through anything.

...and Release it.

...!

*...CRACKLE!*

The verdant wolf's ears perked up at the loud crackle, reacting by turning its head towards me but it was already too late.

'[Piercing Mana]'

*WHOOSH!*

A shockwave tore through the air around my ears, making me stagger slightly, leaves around me blew outwards and some burned due to the sheer heat as I unleashed my attack. I felt the last of my mana was drained.

A thin beam of white light shot out from my closed fingertips shooting out faster than the human eye could see, firing at nearly the speed of sound. It left a burning trail between my hands.

Even with my enhanced vision, I could only glimpse a blur as it punctured through the wolf's head, It's body started to disintegrate, dissolving into mana. Like a laser, the afterimage of light stretched back to my once clasped hands.

The concentrated stream of mana didn't stop as it disintegrated everything in its path in a twenty-meter in its way, carving a line of destruction into the forest floor and puncturing through several trees. Even after the attack dissipated, the air still sizzled with the afterglow of my spell.

I stared down the fallen body of the deteriorating great wolf, Lying on the ground with a portion of its head missing and disintegrating into the air... Maybe a bit overkill on my part, but then again I was cautious of it and didn't know it would be that destructive.

[Piercing Mana] (Yeah, a very unoriginal name I know but it fits.) was my version and variation of [Zoltraak] the first form of piercing magic created by Qual, and in the future would become ordinary offensive magic, I model it after the [Zoltraak] Frieren and Fern use to kill demons and monsters. and a mishmash of techniques and ideas.

I used a modified version of Choso techniques from Jujutsu Kaisen. [Convergence] for creating a compressed and condensed mana sphere for the follow-up attack and [Piercing Blood] as the base.

And some inspiration from Misaka's [Railgun] from A Certain Magical Index series that helped me visualize it stronger. (I can't do the actual [Railgun] move as of now, I think I can imitate it like what I did but I don't remember how the attack was created but it had something to do with Lorentz Force with Fleming's left-hand rule.)

I was breathing heavily still on the tree branch sitting on it and using the bark to support me before wincing slightly and instinctively raising both my hands to see them, both were involuntary shaking. There was a burn scar resembling a line from the tip of my middle finger down to my palms in both of my hands. Yikes. It was painful but tolerable.

The attack was lethal and powerful, But it had flaws and weaknesses. Firstly, It had the same weaknesses as using Choso's [Convergence] I had to create a compressed and condensed mana sphere that took a few seconds to materialize and took my full focus and concentration. Second, It was dangerous, and highly volatile as I couldn't fully control it, It started to burn my palms and If I hadn't released it sooner It would have exploded both my hands and me with it. Third, it cost me all my mana to create and fire it. And lastly, it was far too destructive and-

*Grumble*

Before I finished my thoughts about magic my stomach grumbled in hunger again except it was far more noticeable than before. I was feeling much more hungrier than before. I was starving for something to eat.

I was hungry. Very hungry.

I want to eat.

I slowly sat up and jumped down the tree ignoring the searing pain of my hands and walked to where the giant green wolf was, Its body already disappearing, I ignored it and walked to the few uneaten animals it killed examining them, A few deer, wolves, and rabbits with either large bite marks, gashes or missing heads. It was a horrid scene; I would have felt pity and bad for them, but all I felt was indifference.

Now... How do I cook these? This is the first time I cooked a whole animal, I think I should bleed them out before cooking if Dungeon Meshi and the YouTube shorts are right.

I know I could probably eat them raw but I'd rather not. I drooled at the thought and wiped my mouth frowning slightly at my reaction. I turned my head to the side, I should start hanging them to bleed out the blood and start a fire.

...

The hunger becomes more and more unbearable. I can wait. I can tolerate it as I cook it.

...

I can't wait. Drool dripped from my mouth. I'll... just take a small bite to satiate my hunger for a bit before I cook the rest.

I was starving, exhausted, and a bit curious about how it tasted. I grabbed one of the headless corpses of a rabbit, its blood oozing out its head, carefully avoiding the injury on my hands and holding it close to my face. Apologizing and thanking for the meal I took a small bite on its thigh. teeth ripping off its flesh.

It tasted... surprisingly good...? the meat tasted mildly gamey and sweet, with a firm yet tender texture that seemed to melt in my mouth.

The blood was something else entirely, It did not have a metallic, salty taste but a sweet syrup that I couldn't get enough of. It slid down my throat, warm and thick.

I took another bite, sinking my teeth deeper into the flesh, feeling the sinews snap and the warm and sweet juices spill over my lips. I didn't care for the pain in my hands as I ate.

And another. The rich, sweet taste of blood mingled with the gamey and sweetness of the meat.

And another. I tore into the rabbit with ravenous hunger, my hands and mouth smeared with blood, licking the red syrup from my fingers each time.

And another. The crunch of bones between my teeth, the soft organs bursting with flavor, each bite more satisfying than the last.

I licked the blood each time, not wasting a drop and before I knew it I already ate the white rabbit whole but that didn't stop it.

More.

I want more.

I looked at the remaining dead animals. Staring at them before moving towards them. Not caring as my instincts took hold of me. I grabbed the corpse of the deer and ate.

And ate.

Until there was nothing left but their skeletons. Their flesh, intestines, and organs. All consumed.

I finally came to my senses and looked at the skeletal remains of the hare on the ground. My hunger calmed down.

Oh.

I couldn't stop it. I couldn't stop my hunger or instincts from taking hold of me. I stared at my bloodied hands.

And I didn't feel anything about what I'd done. I just ate the corpses of dead animals.

I didn't feel anything. not guilt, remorse, horrified, or even disgust for myself and what I just did.

But euphoria as I ate them, Dopamine rushing as I took each bite.

Would...

Would I feel the same if I ate a human?

...

I stared at my bloodied hands, blood covering the burn injury from my palms. Feeling... something in my conscience.

I'm not human anymore. Right.

I'm a demon. I'm far closer to a monster than a person.

I wiped the blood off my mouth with my hands, standing up and walking away to find somewhere to sleep.

I wanted to rest. I feel tired.

I walked to a nearby tree before climbing on the branch laying my back on the rough bark of the branches, and closing my eyes.

Ignoring the cold of the night, The blood on my hands and clothes, The pain of my hands from burns, and the uncomfortable rough bark I was lying on, and drifted to sleep.