A Cold-Blooded POV

*Click*

*Crackle*

*Bizz*

The cacophony of noises echoed unceasingly. These infested caverns seemed to never die down, it always appeared to be alive and rowdy. Insects, insects, and more insects. It was a mystery how Ethoss had ran into that black lizard some days ago. Had he not encountered it, he would have assumed that these caverns were inhabited by nothing but insect monsters.

The uncomfortable noises they made, Ethoss had gotten used to now. He didn't get that itchy feeling anymore that haunted him before. Currently, Ethoss was staring at a wormy creature that had suddenly poked its head out of the ground near him.

Compared to when he was in the forest expanse, Ethoss didn't hunt obsessively here for biomass. It was no use anyway, after all. Each time he ate the corpses of the monsters here, the chances of obtaining biomass from them was like the chances of finding a monster core within the forest expanse. Extremely low.

In an environment like this, he only hunted when he was hungry and when he encountered a new monster species. He made sure to claim the one biomass from each and every new monster that he met to maximize his gains. Even in a poor environment like this, he had to make sure he was gaining at least a little biomass.

Thinking about monster cores, Ethoss reminisced internally. He felt it had been ages since he got to look at such a beautiful existence. That pure red color he had grown so accustomed to, its perfect circular shape, those glints and glows it would create within the dark. Oh how he wished to have one in his embrace once more. Presently, he could perceive mana now, so how much more beautiful would one of those orbs be with his current eyesight? He could only imagine, there was no chance of him gaining one within these caves.

The whiteish-pink worm that protruded from the ground had come up apparently to eat the rest of the left over corpses that Ethoss never bothered to finish.

'Looks like it sensed the bait I laid. Good.' Ethoss thought.

This had become a normal routine for Ethoss. Almost like a system. He would kill insects and skip eating their corpses since they were no use to him. Instead, he used these corpses to his advantage, hoping to lure out new monster species he hadn't encountered before.

After all, these insects here were creatures that took pride on eating left over carrion. They basically lived off eating rotting carcasses since their hunting was inefficient. Since it was extremely dark inside these caves, and In order to avoid starving to death, the insects had developed a sense of awareness to their surroundings. An awareness that allowed them to sense when decomposing corpses were nearby.

Ethoss continued to sit still as the worm swirled closer to the carrion. The worm moved by using two different sets of muscles. Circular muscles looped around each segment, and longitudinal muscles ran along the length of the body. When the circular muscles contracted, the worm stretched, becoming longer and thinner. This made the worm look as it had thick goop wiggling through its body like water.

Once it reached the carrion, a red-blackish opening widened on one of its ends. Small shard like teeth ran all around the insides of its mouth. Ethoss watched closely, intrigued.

As soon as the worm opened its mouth, the worm began chewing away. Its shape changed dramatically, as if being eaten right from the inside out. Many of the segments had turned transparent and Ethoss could visually see as it gobbled up the corpse remains.

To be quite honest, this looked disgusting, yet, Ethoss was entertained with watching this unfold. At first, it had looked like the worm was going to slowly chew the carrion piece in half, but instead, it devoured the whole thing in one gulp. As the worm continued to swallow the remains, it grew thicker. The corpse had fattened it considerably.

[Discoloration Camouflage(II) has reached level 3]

The mechanical voice snapped Ethoss out of his day dreaming, his camouflage had leveled up. Honestly, he hadn't even realized he had it activated it, his body had now started doing these thing by itself due to habit. Similar to how one subconsciously blinked their eyes or breathed in and exhaled air.

Ethoss had to admit, he was pretty impressed with this worm, it knew how to properly eat, it reminded him of himself when he ate his prey. He'd try his best to gobble down food in one bite as well. He didn't even have a problem with eating a monster while it was still alive, he had done it many times before, and would most likely continue to do it in the future.

'Now that it had fattened itself for me…'

Ethoss flicked his tongue, licking his scaly lips. 'Now it's time for me to eat!' He thought as he rushed from his hiding spot, his camouflage deactivating in the process.

The worm almost immediately sensed the vibrations from the ground and attempted to dive into the ground. With no arms or legs to dig with, it literally bit its way into the dirt. And although this sounded like a weird way to dig, this worm was eating its way deeper into the ground very quickly.

Unfortunately, it was not quick enough.

Right when half of its body was submerged in the dirt, Ethoss bit and chomped into the half that wiggled outside of the dirt. As Ethoss's teeth chomped into it, thick viscosity of the blood stuck and wilt from his maw. It was like a thick syrup.

Not only that, the carrion that the worm had just eaten exposed itself directly onto Ethoss's tongue. The corpse still hadn't been digested, so it also spurted out of the fatty worms body.

[You have defeated level 1 Novacula Oris Vermiculus]

[You have gained XP]

[You have consumed a new source of biomass: Novacula Oris Vermiculus, you are rewarded one Biomass]

[Basic profile of the Novacula Oris Vermiculus unlocked]

Literally, Ethoss slurped up the rest of the worm like a noodle. It felt oddly satisfying to eat such a delicate and gooey monster, Ethoss also liked how it tasted. Perhaps he would try to lure out more of these chunky worms.

…

Days passed and Ethoss continued to hunt in these caverns. At this point he had eaten and tasted at least one of every monster species that could be found within the caverns. Still, he was sure there was many more monsters down the pit-falling trench's that were around the caves. The black lizard was evidence of that.

[You have defeated level 1 Novacula Oris Vermiculus]

[You have gained XP]

[You have achieved level 7, One skill point awarded]

'Finally!!!'

Smoke arose from Ethoss's mouth as he dramatically celebrated his advancement internally. It had been such a long time since he leveled up. Over the days, he continued to do what he had been doing so far, the same cycle he created. Kill a monster to lure another monster, or more specifically, the maggot that he loved the taste of so dearly. Now, he was only three levels away from evolving once more.

Ethoss hadn't even realized that his outlook on hunting had changed drastically since his time in the forest. Before, he would have never used monsters as bait, why would he? That was proper prey, his food that should have been claimed by himself. However, after living in these dark tunnels caverns, he had learned new ways to hunt which were relatively unconventional to his species.

He moved forward and voraciously slurped up the dead worm.

[Monster digestion proficiency reached]

[Advanced profile of Novacula Oris Vermiculus unlocked]

Huh? What was this? Monster digestion proficiency? More importantly, a new profile had been unlocked?

***

Monster Profile:

[Novacula Oris Vermiculus: Razor Mawed Maggot. Premature monsters who have relatively no mutations yet. These invertebrate omnivores tend to live in groups because they all start as eggs, however, they hunt alone. Their gluttonous nature would lead them to making impulsive decisions such as eating the their own species, committing cannibalism if they searched for food together. These insect monsters are highly sensitive to vibrations and are very alert. Be cautious of the razor maw these monsters are equipped with. Only found in #%*! Unnamed]

Advanced Profile:

[Novacula Oris Vermiculus: Razor Mawed Maggot. A newly spawned and created monster, and the subspecies of the Vermiculus monster species. They are specifically designed to live underground on the first stratum of the new Labyrinth that is being constructed. The mutation and evolution pathways are currently being theorized]