CH 11

Soul Eater

If I have to put this feeling into words, I’d say it’s like I’m being swallowed up by the sun.

「AHHHHHHHHHHH!!」

I screamed, screamed, and screamed.

Hot, hot, hot, it’s so hothothothothot…!

My entire body was on fire.

It was as if there was hot oil inside of my body.

My bones were burning, and my flesh was being cooked.

My whole body’s blood was replaced by boiling water and it ran from my head to toes at a high speed.

At this rate, I’m going to explode-

Like a water balloon after getting poked by a needle.

This heat that was surging inside my body

This power that was rampaging inside my body

If I don’t release it soon, my body will break into pieces!

I yelled, yelled, and yelled.

I knew. I knew. I don’t know why I knew but I somehow knew.

I knew what I had to do to release this power. And I knew how to give form to that power.

This phantasmic power that harbored my body, I definitely know about it!

「――We have the same origin and we are so alike」

I directed this chaotic raging power into order.

Then, the torrent power condensed into a shining black glow inside the palm of my hand that I extended out.

It was thin, and long.

Sharp, and strong.

「――Shinsou Reiki (Energize, soul equipment)」

It was a black and fierce-looking sword – a manifestation of an eclipsing sun.

The strongest and the most ancient mythical species that slaughtered the seventeen gods of war during the era of the gods.

Its name was–

「Devour it all…Soul Eater!!」

At that moment, a black light that was dark enough to drown out the light of a star swallowed the entire cave.

◆◆◆

I wonder how much time has passed since the moon was shining on me again from above.

After the black light dispersed, I found myself breathing heavily as I stood alone inside the cave.

Yeah, I was standing.

Both my legs that were eaten by the maggots have completely grown back all the way to my toenails.

It was the same for my arms as well. Even my right arm that was torn off before it got eaten has been restored.

It felt kind of weird to see my arm that I had once lost move properly according to my will again.

And lastly, I was holding onto a sword tightly in my hand.

The sword was completely black starting from the handle to the handguard, as if it was forged with the darkness of the night itself, but I felt surprisingly familiar with it.

The blade was in the same black color as well, but only the edge of the blade was glowing in the color of blood.

I stared at the edge of the blade.

A sense of intimidation that made my skin crawl.

A sense of elation that made my spine tingle.

My memory… was still intact. That’s why…I knew what this sword was.

No, even if I had lost my memory, I would still be able to tell from my instincts.

This sword is my soul equipment.

「…Soul Eater, the soul eating dragon…」

The voice that replied to me before was no longer there. However, the black blade glittered under the moonlight as if it was congratulating me on successfully obtaining my soul equipment.

That glittering in the gaudy color of fresh blood was something that looked very charming.

Suddenly, something moved in my sight.

When I took a look, I saw a maggot about the size of a child’s head desperately trying to get away from me.

Upon a closer look, there were maggots all over the place trying to run away the same way.

The group of maggots that was on me seemed to have vanished from the flash of black light just now, but there were still many other larvae living in this cave.

They should pose a pretty big threat if they all attacked me at once, but they didn’t seem to have that intention.

Maybe their instincts told them that they were no match for me. Or, maybe it was something much simpler, like they did not possess enough offensive power against non-paralyzed enemies in the first place.

「For creatures that can lay many eggs, only their babies are targeted by their enemies, was it?」

I remembered about the special characteristic of these kinds of creatures that I’ve heard from Lunamaria once upon a time.

Those creatures lay a lot of eggs because if they don’t, none of their larvae would survive until they’re adults or something like that.

Thinking of it like that, maybe even a king of flies who lays thousands of eggs has a tough time dealing with nature.

「Maybe that king of flies will grieve in sorrow when it finds out that the children that it went through all that hard work to raise were all eradicated when it comes home!」

Haha, I couldn’t hold my chuckles in.

If I wasn’t caught by that king of flies, I would have never managed to achieve soul equipping. So isn’t it my benefactor in a sense? No, my “benesector”?

(So here- 恩人(on-jin) = benefactor. He made pun replacing 人, which = human, with 虫, which mean= insect, into 恩虫. Not gonna stress 2 hard to make that pun less lame~)

Well, who cares.

With all of my gratitude and anger that sprung out from the bottom of my heart, I’m going to cut down all of its children now.

I should really be looking for a way out instead, but I’ll think about that later.

The despair that I’ve felt until a while ago has not yet faded. I can still remember the fear I felt when my entire body was being eaten while I was still alive.

Just that thought alone will make revenge feel exceptionally good. It’s a shame that I won’t be able to understand any of the sounds that the maggots will make as they try to escape. Let’s first start with this one that’s close to me!

「Here I go… *Híííííí!*」(squeal)

The moment I cut that big worm down, a bizarre voice came out from my mouth.

If there were other people in here, they would have laughed at me for sure when I’ve made such a stupid sound.

W-what the hell was that just now?! The moment I cut into that maggot, an unbelievable feeling ran through my entire body. If I were to make a comparison…yeah…it’s like how it feels after I rubbed one out…

「…Wha-what the hell?」

I was surprised, but that does not change what I was going to do. I aimed at the next maggot and swung the black sword down at it.

「Nnnnn!」

Even though I was expecting it, I made an even weirder sound than before.

Did the maggots do something to me when they were killed? But even if that was the case, it doesn’t seem to be anything harmful to me.

Slash.

「HNn!」

Chop.

「Ugh」

Stab.

「Nnn, alright」

Stab again.

「I’ve-」

Slash some more.

「I’ve gotten used to it now」

I started to get used to the pleasure after repeatedly feeling it several times.

Then, I suddenly had an idea to step on the small maggots with my feet…but then I stopped myself. As I thought, it was hard to kill them by just stepping on them like that.

I said that I was going to kill them with all I’ve got when I was biting them to death.

「Alright, then how about this」

I grabbed a rock from nearby and crushed the maggots with it.

However, I did not experience that feeling of pleasure from it. Just to make sure, I crushed another four or five maggots of different sizes, but the result was the same.

Next, I killed some with the black sword, and the pleasure came back.

「So the worms aren’t doing anything when they die. It’s caused by my soul equipment, huh?」

If that’s the case, then it shouldn’t be anything bad.

Unfortunately, there are no guides with instructions on how to use this thing, so I just have to learn as I go.

For the time being, I will bring retribution on the maggots that have been devouring people first.

I hummed a tune as I cut down the maggots before me one after another.

Thirty minutes, one hour, one and a half hours, two hours.

No matter how long I’ve been cutting them down for, I did not get tired.

I’ve probably killed about 300 of them now.

Then, my body was hit with a strong impact. It was different than the feeling that I’ve been feeling up until now.

It was as if my body was being cleanse from the inside. It felt like my body was being rebuilt from scratch. It was a very strange feeling.

It was a feeling that I had never experienced before in my life.

Driven by a hunch, I opened my mouth,

「…『Level Open』」

I checked my level with a trembling voice.

Then, what I saw there was a number that I had never seen before.

『２』

It’s definitely “2”. My level that has never ever gone up has really gone up!

「YESSSSSSSSSS!!」

I instinctively cheered out loud.

I was convinced. My soul equipment increased my acquisition rate of experience points… Wait, no, that alone wouldn’t level me.

My soul equipment must have been getting me “something” that wasn’t just experience. That’s it, it was robbing my opponents of their root of life that is referred to as the soul. Hence the name soul eater.

That would explain why I managed to move my level which has never gone up before. One soul reaped by my soul equipment had surely provided me with the equivalent of what would be hundreds of experience points for other adventurers.

No, maybe not just hundreds, but even thousands. Regardless, there’s definitely no mistake that I can get much more experience points from this manner.

That pleasure that I’ve been feeling before I leveled up was surely a mental and physical overreaction to the amount of experience I was gaining. My body was surprised by the sudden intake of such high purity experience points.

「If that’s how it works…!」

My eyes glowed as I looked at my surroundings. There were still lots of maggots squirming around.

Which means that there is plenty for me to cut down still.

Now, let the experiencing farming begin!