23.2ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ.ᴄᴏᴍ/sᴛʀᴀᴛᴏᴛʜʀᴀx

Opal blinked at him. "Uh, you okay?"

Rain's jaws slowly began moving and his eyes rolled up. "Soooo guud," he moaned. "What even is this." His ears folded down and his tail wagged of its own accord. His taste buds ignited as the lush sensation spread, he actually had difficulty moving his jaw just from the sheer overwhelming flavour.

"It's like the most savoury yet richest meat I've ever eaten. Dear gods it's melting in my mouth!"

"Are you messing with me?"

"No! It's something about the meat." He closed his eyes as the last of it slipped down his gullet. "Rank one food, no, I might need to make a new special rank for this. Oh, it's good for growth too!" said Rain, rolling his shoulders as his body grew a little once more.

Opal tilted her head to the side. "Now you've made me regret giving it to you instead of keeping it for myself. Why was it special? You've eaten levelers before."

He shook his head as though to clear his overwhelmed senses. "It's that Inquisitor, she wasn't entirely Human, I know whatever made up her other part- it was special, just tasting that mere fraction of it- gods I want to eat whatever species that is."

Rain considered just what the Inquisitor could partly be. Most obvious was Drake or Wyverling which would be fitting for the sword, perhaps even a rare breed of Minotaur or Goatrian would cause those horns, or maybe, maybe even a Drag- but no, that couldn't possibly be... could it?

"Hrmm. Well too late to chase her down now and that other Human that ran off screaming has vanished, so I guess you'll have to make do."

Rain sighed and felt a little depressed to his surprise. Just the thought of not getting more immediately was almost too much to bear.

"Fine, if I can't have quality then I'll just have to settle for quantity. Where can I find lots and lots of monsters to eat Opal? I want, no, I need to eat and become stronger."

"Well, the Piscine seem to have abandoned this floor. Disappearing one of their armies would do that. Uhm, I do know of somewhere we could try, not far, lots of food, but it might be very dangerous."

"Alright, let's see if we can scout it out."

He handed over the longsword to the Goblin who attached it to the top of her pack. She now had three swords, a cutlass and a rapier, one at each hip, plus the new longsword.

They left the dark tunnel and found themselves by the two remaining Kobold slaves that Opal had chained up. The two Kobolds looked up at Rain with fear, backing away nervously. That fear was not without reason.

"I, I helped you with your trap! You've got to let me live! Look, eat this guy, he's way tastier than I am, just look how fat and obese his tail is!" said the red-scaled Kobold.

The fat-tailed Kobold screamed in outrage at this and attacked the red-scaled Kobold clawing at his face before a massive paw came down on his shoulder and pulled him back into Rain's jaws swiftly ending his life. He ate him from top to bottom entirely, fat tail included. He checked his injury and noted it was gradually starting to heal.

"Listen, I can help! Just let me live, please!" said the remaining Kobold.

"Sorry scaley, big and hungry over here already has me," said Opal, picking under her nails with her knife.

Rain paused and glared at the Kobold. "How?"

"H-how?" stammered the Kobold. "Uhm, uh, I can c-carry stuff!"

Rain snorted, then laughed aloud.

Opal gave Rain a scathing look.

"He has a point and your pack is getting kind of full," said Rain giving her a pointed look in return. "Besides, it makes it harder for you to do important stuff lugging that around."

"Grr. Okay fine. Don't make me regret this you scaley bastard."

She dumped her rucksack and removed the longsword which she strung across her back. Then she grabbed the chains that the other two slaves had been wearing and formed an extra long chain with which to use on the newly promoted pack Kobold.

"I won't disappoint you! You can count on me to provide top tier stuff carrying services!" said the suddenly hysterically happy Kobold.