The Ultimate Devourer

Acclimatizing to a new environment (Part 2)

A day and a good night's rest was almost enough for me to get back to full power, my regenerative capabilities had increased immensely after that near-death experience, and even though my body was unable to absorb all of the energy that I got from eating the last two people, I still improved in all areas.

I clenched my fists as I got up from the floor of the broken house that I was in before I stretched my body and got out to be greeted by the first ray of sunlight that slowly came down from the morning sky.

It was a beautiful sunrise that I didn't get to enjoy when I lived as a bandit. It was always killing pillaging, and doing things that made me uncomfortable until I became numb to them. Of course, now they brought a rush to me that I had no idea how to explain besides the fact that I most likely got addicted to doing those things.

I sighed and shook my head as Shira slowly made her way toward my house. She still seemed a little bit unsure about me since she was walking very slowly. But I was sure she was gonna come around, and we would become great friends. At atleast as long as she was needed.

I waited for a bit before she stopped looking at the ground and I waved at her, startling her slightly, but she waved back unsurely.

However, we weren't the only ones who decided to watch the sunrise, and most of the kids/teens around here didn't look at me favorably at all.

It got to the point that some of the dumber ones immediately went towards Shira and stopped her from waving at me before saying with a voice loud enough so everyone could hear:

"Don't wave at that damned heretic! He is a cannibal! He is going against the teachings of the lord, and he is only here because he will become a needed canon fodder on the battlefield between the Churches!"

Shira also knew these things, but she could see that I wasn't much different from them, of course, there were the obvious sharp teeth, unusual red eyes, and red hair. Besides those things, I was normal, just like all of them, personality-wise speaking.

Shira tried to speak up for me, but the dumb youngster tried to strike her down, he was taller than her, and his muscles were rather defined, but Shinra easily side-stepped his attack and punched him in the face, knocking him down to the ground and making blood trickle from his now broken nose.

The kids started talking amongst themselves:

"I know that guy's pretty dumb on the usual, but he would attack Shira? Of course, she was wrong to interact with that red-haired devil, but getting physical with her only would ask you for a beating... after all, she is one of the best amongst our group."

The others nodded and then threw a side-glance at me, wondering if I somehow seduced her while she was sent to my house with dinner.

Of course, if I knew what they were thinking, I would be laughing my ass off, seducing?

But since I was oblivious, the only thoughts in my head were the analysis of Shira's strength.

From the punch's speed that I saw just now, I could feel that her strength was not worse than mine, and there was still a lot of room to grow for her since she was younger than me, her talent was off the charts, to say the least.

Atleast compared to mine? She could be considered gold and I wasn't even a common metal, I was stone or wood.

I sighed inside and decided to make myself familiar with the training grounds, while I couldn't learn anything with my pathetic learning ability, I could make my body more familiar with the moves that I have devoured from the prisoners below, they were all basic, but they were just like a puzzle that was slowly getting in my mind, after eating the last two, I could now do proficiently seven out of twelve moves of the basic Church's swordsmanship.

Shira looked down at the dumb guy that decided to attack her and shook her as she saw me go towards the training grounds, she didn't give another glance to the fallen kid before she followed me from behind, catching up to me and saying:

"Sorry for all of that, they just don't know you. I'm sure you only ate human flesh due to an extreme situation where you couldn't have had any other option for survival."

Technically, she was right. If I didn't eat that squire's body, I might have died due to blood loss if I didn't seal my wound quickly enough.

Of course, that wasn't my first deadly wound and I could have sealed it, but the temptation that my psyche imposed on me after I unconsciously drank that blood and felt the power was the thing that pushed me towards cannibalism.

It was the seeking of strength, not survival.

We arrived at the training ground, and I started to do the moves for basic swordsmanship. They were sharp and neat, showing that I have fully absorbed the experiences of the previous wielders who polished this art to its maximum ability before they moved on to higher things.

My body was slowly getting used to the moves as I did them with precise movements before stopping awkwardly into the eighth move.

Shira looked at my training before she nodded and said:

"It looks like you have polished the first seven moves of our Church's swordsmanship to near perfection, are you going to learn the next move and do the same onward?"

Well, that was the plan, but learning it would take a different approach to what she was thinking about.

I nodded and told her that I was waiting for my teacher, Aratas before I could move on to the next move, as I would learn better directly from him.

Her eyes widened as sparkles appeared in them and she said:

"You are Aratas's squire? Why didn't you say so before?"

I didn't know what to say, Aratas was the one who brought me here firsthand, didn't she know? Was she training so hard that she couldn't even see when her idol arrived at the training camp with me?

Seeing my puzzled expression made her cock her head to the side before her eyes widened and she said:

"I remember now, some of the guys said that while I was training, Aratas came and dropped off a new squire to rest."

She face-palmed and continued:

"I didn't even get to talk with him at least once while he was here, damn it, I get easily sidetracked and distracted when I'm training."

She shook her head and told me:

"Could you break me out of my training when Aratas returns? I want some pointers from him as well!"

I nodded and promised her I would do that, it wasn't a big deal, and since she was one of the more talented ones in this batch of trainees, it would be good to make a deep connection with her, since if I ever got in trouble on the battlefield, her help would be essential.

After all, I don't think I would be able to trust the squad of cannibals that Aratas would put me in, especially if they would be all like me.