Chapter 3
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Ominous Echoes in the Black Forest
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An ominous rumble began deep in the Black Forest.
‘Footsteps I’ve never heard before….’ And not just one or two. The hairs on his body stood on end instinctively.
Dane tossed the rope from his waist upward and scaled the tree in one swift motion.
Focusing his attention on everything in his field of view, Dane waited for the source of the sound to reveal itself.
Before long, shaking the forest as they appeared, were beasts he had never seen before. His memory supplied one word first.
‘Dinosaurs?’
Similar to raptors, but different.
The thick black fur covering their backs didn’t make sense.
Thinking they might be the Epups his parents had mentioned among the monsters, Dane stifled his presence and observed them.
There were eight monsters. Each slightly larger than Dane’s build.
One let out a raspy cry like clashing metal, twitching the long appendage attached to its flat snout in all directions.
It seemed to be probing the surroundings like antennae. Dane heightened his senses to the max to gauge their strength.
Their short forelimbs were so atrophied they posed little threat. As expected, their main weapon would be those sharp, massive teeth. Judging by the size of their jaws and the muscles, their biting power looked tremendous.
But most astonishing of all were their thighs, incredibly thick compared to their bodies.
‘Those could leap right up here. If they spot me….’ He could picture their method of attack naturally, but Dane couldn’t find an opening to counter.
‘One or two, maybe, but eight? No way.’ The nonstop simulations in his head never ended in victory.
While Dane pondered, the busy twitching antennae of the monsters suddenly stopped dead.
They all charged at the Bloodrock at once, burying their heads in it.
-Crunch!
With a chilling sound of bones breaking, the Bloodrock’s torso rapidly vanished into their bellies.
Watching the meat he’d so painstakingly butchered disappear before his eyes, Dane racked his brain but no solutions came, leaving him frustrated.
‘If I just go back empty-handed because of these guys, they’ll tease me endlessly….’ He’d bragged about catching monsters, and now here he was hiding. Pathetic.
Not only had he failed to catch any monsters, but even the Bloodrock meat was being stolen. He’d return empty-handed. He could already hear his parents’ mocking laughter.
‘What do I do?’
As frustrating time dragged on fruitlessly, two monsters grabbed opposite ends of the intestines and started tugging.
A strange sense of déjà vu.
As Dane watched their movements intently, one monster’s head snapped upward. Its gaze locked onto Dane and froze.
“Vn!”
“!!!”
The moment their eyes met, an unformed plan sprang into action.
Dane leaped down, cleaving toward the monster’s neck with his cleaver.
The monsters let out a short roar as Dane’s arm swept sideways toward another’s neck.
‘Two!’
In that split second, he eliminated two, swinging his arm again, but the next monster dodged by a hair’s breadth. The rest quickly retreated beyond the cleaver’s range, regaining their formation.
Incredible reflexes. Analyzing muscles and bones didn’t always guarantee victory.
‘No need to panic.’
He’d anticipated a chaotic melee the moment he jumped. So he planned to press the attack, accepting some injuries.
The one that dodged used the recoil to propel itself forward, gaping its crimson maw to bite off his head.
Dane instead dove toward it, sliding low underneath.
“Belly!”
He sliced open its abdomen and quickly rolled sideways to face another.
‘Push with momentum.’ Even ferocious carnivores hesitate when prey charges unexpectedly, wondering what’s up. The monsters were doing just that.
A strange lifeform had appeared out of nowhere, claiming three lives in an instant.
Confused by this incomprehensible predator, they milled about, and Dane didn’t miss the opening.
“Sirloin! Thigh! Tail!” The cleaver swung wildly, carving into the monsters’ bodies wherever it struck.
Amid the geysers of blood spraying everywhere, Dane thought he had seized the advantage. But.
“Gah!”
An unexpected sharp pain seared into his right thigh, shattering the thought.
He’d been kicked by the hind leg of a fallen monster, its hooked claw stabbing his thigh. On the brink of death, their thrashing was wild and exaggerated.
“Vnq!”
The brief lapse led to the monsters’ counterattack.
Dane’s shoulder was torn out by one in a chunk, while another bit into his left side simultaneously. He grabbed its mane, slit its throat, and it collapsed backward.
As he desperately swung the cleaver to defend his chest and head, all he saw were teeth.
“Damn it! You meatbag bastards….” Pain flooded in from all sides, his mind going hazy.
His curse—that he’d butcher their bodies and devour their flesh—never made it past his lips.
Dane was the one being eaten.
“Argh…!”
Screams accompanied the darkness.
* * *
‘….’
In a blink, the scenery changed.
‘I was definitely in the middle of fighting….’ A perfect void with nothing around.
Standing there naked, cleaver in hand, in a space filled with sloshing water.
Dane’s body, most of its flesh torn away, was a ragged mess that miraculously still stood. Strangely, it didn’t hurt.
‘Am I dead…?’
As Dane stared at his shin-bone sticking out, a voice spoke.
[An impressive wish, indeed.]
The dull, heavy voice reeked of thick masculine scent. Its owner was nowhere to be seen.
“Who are you?”
He waited for a reply. After silence with not even an echo,
[You must have some idea.]
Reflexively, one thought surfaced at the question.
‘Divine authority?!’
He intuited that the moment Deliel had spoken of had arrived.
Suppressing the excitement welling from deep within, he cleared his throat.
“I’m Dane, son of Deliel and Walter. Are you the god who will grant me power?”
[Yes. Your desire and wish summoned me.]
“I… made a wish?” Dane sifted through hazy memories, but he’d been swinging his knife so frantically, nothing specific came to mind.
[You wanted to strip the bones, slice the meat, roast and boil and devour it raw.]
It was a curse he’d almost spat at the monsters in rage. Could that count as a wish?
Moreover, a god responding to a curse didn’t inspire confidence.
“Then you are…”
[I am the god who governs all flesh and blood, Kaipatu.]
“…Your name and domain sound impressive.”
[Flattery falls sweet on the ears.]
Governing flesh and blood sounded cool, but an ominous feeling lingered too.
“So, precisely what god are you? War? Battle? Hunting? Or… medicine?”
[Haha! Your desire lies in meat—why conjure irrelevancies? Naturally, the God of Butchery.]
“Ah… butchery.”
He barely swallowed a snicker.
As the son of a witch, he’d eagerly awaited awakening to new power. His second life came with some consideration, it seemed.
But the God of Butchery as a partner? He’d never even heard of such a god.
Dane’s mouth went dry. Or so it felt.
“Lord Kaipatu, haven’t you already given me abilities…?”
[I’ve given none, yet you possess them—what a grand affair.]
“That’s just my innate talent, you mean…”
[The sharp eye that appraises beast flesh, the endless appetite craving meat, the deep curiosity and drive to explore new meats. Your talents are astounding.]
“Please, let me speak too…”
[…]
“My original abilities seem sufficient. If you’re giving more, couldn’t another god come?”
[Even your impudence mirrors mine.]
“I was already good at butchery, so if possible…”
[Indeed, you pleased me daily.]
“That’s why, something else…”
[But you didn’t stop there. Even on the precipice of life and death, you thought of meat. That earnestness called me.]
“I didn’t call…”
[Child born for butchery. You are my son, my incarnation, my apostle—not of any other god!]
The space filled with passionate voice.
‘A total brute of a god.’ Feeling deflated, Dane gazed at his cleaver. Had choosing this knife doomed him from the start? An inevitable choice?
“You’ll refuse a refusal, I suppose?”
[…Amusing words.]
No escape in sight. The god was utterly unreasonable.
‘I’m not in a position to choose, but I can’t just go along blindly.’ Dane decided to hear Kaipatu out first.
“Anyway, thank you for thinking so highly of me and coming.”
[Wise choice.]
“What did I do?”
In that instant, a crimson aura began from the cleaver, slowly enveloping Dane’s body.
‘What’s this?’
And then…
[You shall know beasts and monsters. Your knife shall respond to your desire and will.]
“Lord Kaipatu?”
[Your knife shall decisively sever life’s path and more precisely carve flesh. You shall live to slice, and live by slicing.]
“What does that…”
[You shall gain by eating, and wander to obtain. Your body shall endlessly crave meat!]
“Why a curse?!!”
[Only after seeking the ultimate meat shall your wish be fulfilled!!!]
“What? Sir? Sir?!”
The unanswered oracle ended in fervent tones as brilliant red radiance enveloped Dane.
And the scenery shifted again.