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[Skill-Eater] Chapter 20: Mushroom
🕑 Added 2024-07-15 17:05:01 +0000 UTCEdge stepped over the cooling corpse and walked over to the mushroom growing in the middle of the glade. He was relieved to see that it hadn’t been harmed during the battle. Now that the adrenaline flowing through his veins was fading away, the scent was utterly intoxicating.
The richest magic that he’d ever seen was swirling around the cap, magicytes congealing as they were drawn down into the seed. It was weird and beautiful. Mystical and entrancing.
He was curious how it all worked on some level. The physics and biology behind it all. But it was nothing compared to his anticipation of the glorious meal to come.
His enthusiasm grew sharper by the footstep, as Edge internalized that the valuable resource was his to claim. That the empty feeling inside his core would soon be nothing but a memory. Not to mention his stomach.
As he crossed the final stretch of soil, he took a closer look at the mana-seed, the object that he’d wagered his life to obtain. He had never seen mana-food up close before. Even if he had, he wouldn’t have been able to appreciate its true allure until he’d bound his core.
The two-foot-tall mushroom was striped with thin bands of what looked like living crystal. They were layers of solidified magic, deposits glowing with a soft brown light that somehow felt earthy and vital.
Edge wanted to eat it, and his core did too, their gluttony mirroring one another. It was a different hunger than the lust to devour a new skill. A pure desire without a trace of compulsion.
He reached down to touch the seed, savoring the tingle it left on his fingertips. Then he carefully began to dig. He wanted to unearth every last bite, instead of just breaking the stem. When he was done, he tapped the stalk against one hand to remove most of the dirt, then rinsed off the rest with a splash from his canteen.
The seed was a lot bigger than he’d originally thought, more than sufficient to refuel his core. If the situation were different, it might have been better to eat just one piece, saving the rest for when he knew he would need it. However, there were two problems with that plan. The first was that mana-food didn’t last long after being picked. It would start to erode in less than a day.
The second was the smell. Edge was still stage-zero. He wasn’t strong enough to fight off the monsters and beasts that the mana-seed would attract in its natural state, without a specialized storage container to seal it away.
Carrying raw mana-food in his pack would be more of a liability than an asset right now, so there was no reason to hold back.
“Screw it.” Edge shoved the first bite into his mouth and started to chew, glad to be eating actual food for a change. The moment that the shroom touched his tongue, his eyes widened with astonishment and his stomach started to purr. Because the magic-rich mushroom tasted even better than it smelled.
He’d heard that mana-food was better than ordinary fare, once you’d obtained a core. But he had never imagined that it would be this fucking good. Without a doubt, the mushroom was the best meal that he’d ever eaten. It put everything that had come before it to shame, satisfying him in a way that nothing ever had until that moment.
It was better than drugs. Better than sex. The only thing that could compete was the exquisite joy of devouring skills. While eating both mysterious substances was delightful, they were so fundamentally different that it didn’t seem right to compare.
Edge treasured every second of the wonderous experience. He chewed slowly, sliding each bite across his tongue. He committed the moment to memory, so that he could call it up when he needed a reason to get out of bed in the morning.
The entire mushroom was delicious. But the crystalized magicytes in the middle were absolutely divine. They melted on his tongue like sugar before absorbing into his body to recharge his core. The congealed magic tasted sweet, savory, and earthy all at the same time, rich with notes of an alien spice that he had no words to describe. The closest he could come was electric sunshine.
For the next ten minutes, all his suffering and his woe disappeared. During those magnificent seconds, the horror and loss of being stranded on a deadly alien planet faded away. The only two things that existed were the delectable flavor on his tongue and the rejuvenating warmth of mana burning in his core.
That was amazing. Edge licked the last traces of oil from his fingertips. Now I see what all the fuss is about.
And this was only one kind of mana-seed. There were countless others to try. Not to mention mana-berries and fruits, which were rumored to taste even better. An endless procession of new culinary delights to broaden his horizons. Something to look forward to over the coming weeks, if he managed to live that long.
As his awareness returned to his surroundings, Skill-Eater roared to life. His core was overflowing with power, stuffed with more magicytes than his reservoir cold hold. The last traces of his injuries vanished as regeneration worked its magic, now that there was plenty of mana to consume.
He could tell that Skill-Eater was absorbing the excess, converting it into experience to fuel its evolution, unwilling to waste even a drop.
Edge cracked his knuckles, then rolled his neck around with a series of pops. He stood up and stretched out, running his fingertips across the unbroken skin of his stomach. He frowned when he looked at the bloodstained remnants of his shredded shirt. Then he started to laugh.
He felt better than he had since his ordeal had begun. He was free of pain, his belly was full, and his reactor was raring to go.
Now he could fight and bring it all to the table. Throw down in a brawl with every skill that he had. Tomorrow, he would start cycling-up his core and hunting for more skills. But first, he needed to figure out where he was going to sleep before he started losing the light.
Edge didn’t want to meet any of the nocturnal denizens of the plains, especially with monsters on the prowl. It was time to find somewhere to hole up for the night.
