I Have to Eat What?

After trying to come up with a solution, and failing, Kantan eventually just decided to get some rest. While he wasn't expressly hungry, he could feel that his body craved the various resources he needed to sustain himself. As long as he continued to absorb creatures though, he would survive. A theory he needed to test was if lower rank demons would suffice as proverbial food. It may not contribute toward the evolution of his body, but it may be enough to sustain him, while also not requiring him to exert himself too much either.

Seeing as the control room was the same all over, he just propped himself up in one of the corners of the room and closed his eyes to sleep. It was the first time he was getting real rest, despite how uncomfortable it was, in over 48 hours. Dreams did not come to him in his restless slumber, the time passing almost in the blink of an eye. He expected the normal drowsiness to impede him, but a flash of chi through his body immediately aroused him completely.

It was a perk he hadn't expected, but was now very grateful for. No longer would he struggle with wanting to go back to sleep for just a bit longer. Once he was up, he inspected the control room and saw that it was back to its original essence density. Wanting to make sure though, he had Veri check the dungeon through the control gem and they determined that the dungeon had reset itself.

Remembering his thoughts on absorbing lower rank creatures, he decided to get Veri's opinion. "Based on what you know about demon physiology, do you think our method of absorbing lower rank creatures will suffice for our body's maintenance requirements?" If they could do that, it would mean that he could focus on figuring out more about his core and how to rank up there. As long as he made progress each day with atleast a rank 1 creature, he could evolve his body in around a week and a half. He hoped that he wouldn't have to stay there that long, but he liked having a plan just in case.

"We would have to try it to be sure, but it would just be easier to actually eat it at that point. Absorbing creatures takes considerably more effort than you think, especially since all you are doing is powering the procedure. I have to manually break them down to their finest elements, which is not easy to do when my mind is limited by our current power." The sarcasm was thick in her voice, and he wanted to fight back.

The thought of eating a demon made his stomach do flips, and just as he was about to retort, she interrupted his thoughts. "Here's the deal, you need to, and I quote from some divers, 'nut up and shut up'. Or atleast thats what I think they said. Basically, I am not going to let your wimpy stomach make us starve to death. Meat is meat, no matter what it looks like. Here I am, directing a dungeon to put food in front of you the only way i know how, and you want to tell me its icky? Well enough is enough. You'll eat what we can find, or im taking away your chi privileges."

Kantan was stunned at her words. She had never seemed so authoritative, and the flip in her personality really surprised him. It felt like he was being lectured by one of the school elders when he messed up during class. The part of him that didn't like being yelled at wanted to lash out in rage, but her tone was serious enough that he took her words to heart. He knew that he would need to get used to some nasty things as a warrior, there was no way to avoid things like blood and gore.

When he thought about it even more, he felt like a kid who was complaining about dinner. Her words even partially reminded him of a time he had been scolded by his mother for such a thing. It was the only time he had ever really gotten in serious trouble while his parents were still around. In order to teach him the importance of food, his mother had left it on the table until he ate it. While that might not have been bad, she had also forbid him from eating anything else until then. Kantan had tried to hold out rebelliously, but hunger was a powerful motivator.

Once he had decided to eat the food to get rid of the hunger, she had removed it and made him a fresh meal. This time, he wolfed it down and thanked her for the food. After that Kantan had always made sure to clean his plate. After they had died though he had often been the one to cook as his grandfather was absent minded. At his level, people don't need to eat often if at all. Their bodies were so in tune with chi and essence that they needed very little actual food or rest. In the time where he had basically been fending for himself, he had always bought the food he liked the most. His grandfather's position afforded them plenty of money, so they hadn't grown hungry.

Kantan knew this was a time where he would have to do something even if he didn't like it, because it was his only option. "Alright. I'll eat it normally, but I am not eating them uncooked. If I have to eat demon meat, I at least need to be able to cook it. No matter how much I want to eat something, if it is nasty and slimy there is no way i'll be able to keep it down."

Veri seemed fine with that though, "We can make that work, just let me update some of the monsters to provide some cooking type artifacts as a reward."

Kantan wasn't expecting something like that to be possible. "Wait, you hand out cooking tools as a reward? Why would you do that?" He couldn't think of a time where they would need to cook in the dungeon, so he didn't know why she would provide them.

"This is something you would have learned if you started diving, but since you didn't i'll have to teach you. Once someone has access to chi, they can operate chi forges and cauldrons. Do you know what they are used for?" She seemed slightly annoyed that she had to explain something, and he could feel that she thought the concept was simple.

"I am not sheltered, I know what they are and what they are used for. What does weapon making and pill making have to do with cooking normal meats though?" Meat of spirit beasts were sometimes used in making certain pills, but most ingredients were plant based. Even if they wanted to use demon meat to make pills, the demonic essence tainted the meat, making it unusable. That was half the reason most people wouldn't hunt demonic beasts. You couldn't use their bodies to make anything because the demonic chi made the process unstable.

Veri seemed pleased that she didn't have to explain everything, "Since you know their purpose, then that makes this easier. Demonic meat may not be able to be refined for use by humans, but I have been dabbling with this stuff for over a thousand years. Once we get our hands on the tools, and I teach you the process, you should be able to make pills out of the meat. Then you can use those to fill your stomach. It is not dissimilar to what I do when I manually absorb something. The key difference is that you'll be doing the work, and you can do it in bulk."

Kantan now understood part of why she wanted to get a cauldron for cooking the meat. It would mean she wouldn't have to do it herself. He didn't necessarily mind that though, as he wasn't adverse to earning his keep. "I can work with that, especially since I'll also learn some basic alchemy."

"That's good, since im done making adjustments. I've set up a route for us to take that will lead us through what used to be some empty rooms, which are now populated with some new mobs. The rewards should be every thing we need to refine some nourishment pills of the demonic variety, but we'll need something from every room but the guardians. I can't change his loot until he is killed." Veri seemed in a better mood now that they had a plan and something to keep her distracted.

"Alright, open the door to the portal and lets get started." Kantan resigned himself to a long day of diving, something from Veri's mind giving him the impression that this dive was not going to be easy.