Chapter 233 Lets get cooking!
If a living creature wants to grow, then it must eat.
Plants needed to consume water and air in conjunction with sunlight in order to provide them the nutrients to grow.
Animals and humans on the other hand has to eat and drink if they want to live and reach the peak of their ages.
Eating is a basic facet of life that had been obvious for all the time that living beings have appeared.
Without eating, there will be no progress for any living beings.
And the same thing holds true for the monsters too.
"...For me to evolve, I must eat and absorb essences and energies of stronger monsters..." Alex thought to himself as he stared at the black pearl hovering in front of him. "Without the inherent energy inside these monsters, there will be nothing that will push my monster body to evolve..."
As Alex thought of his, his gaze landed on Gluttony, who was still drooling as he looked at the black pearl.
Alex could only shake his head wryly at his Abyss Sprite’s endearing behavior.
"Okay Gluttony, do your thing." Alex said. "There’s no need to worry, I will not be mad even if you do something wrong."
"Okay master!" Gluttony did not waste any more time as he grabbed the black pearl with his bare hands.
Gluttony then opened his mouth as he swallowed the black pearl whole.
"..." A few seconds passed by, and Alex felt nothing special happening to him.
"Hey, Gluttony, what am I sup-" Alex tried to ask Gluttony on what to do next, but before he could complete his sentence, he suddenly felt pain blossoming inside his body.
"Ah!" Alex could not help but let out a shout as his body curled on the floor, with his limbs trembling in agony.
"What the hell is this?" Alex asked in pain as he stared at Gluttony, who was watching Alex with a worried expression on his face.
Gluttony slightly flinched as he saw what was happening to his master, and it took him a few seconds before he gave his reply
"Master... when I ate the ball, I transferred the majority of its contents inside your body. The pain that you are having right now... it was the cause of your body reacting to the contents of the pearl." Gluttony haltingly said as he bowed his head down. "Master! I’m sorry but I cannot stop you from feeling the pain!"
"It’s fine! Just let me deal with this by myself." Alex grunted out as he started to roll over the floor in agony. "F**k! This hurts so much!"
"Okay master..." The forlorn looking Gluttony then faded in sight as he rejoined the other Abyss Sprites.
"Stupid mother****king, c*** s**king, c**p eating, son of an effing, flying b***h lasagna!" "F**k!" With Gluttony gone, Alex was able to let out more strings of curses, with some of it much more creative than the others.
"Splat!" Out of nowhere, tentacles began to appear behind Alex’s back, with these tentacles trashing around everywhere.
Slowly and gradually, Alex’s human appearance disappeared as he assumed his monster form.
It was as if the pain had made Alex unable to control of his body, making him go back to his tentacle appearance.
"Stupid little s***ting spree! When will this c**p f**king end?" Alex thought to himself angrily as observed his entire body with Mental Power.
"..." With his power allowing him to view at the microscopic level, Alex saw tremendous changes happening inside his body.
The contents of the black pearl, which looked like a black sludge, was now wreaking havoc inside his body, with Alex’s cells getting devoured and destroyed everytime they get into contact with the black sludge.
Once the cells get destroyed, they immediately reform, as if there was a mysterious force that was forcing them to fix themselves even when they get destroyed.
These reformed cells looked slightly different from their predecessors, with them looking slightly tougher than before
But before these reformed cells could settle down, they were once again destroyed the black sludge, then reformed again, leading to another generation of reformed cells.
These new cells enter another path of destruction and reformation, which goes on and on, creating a cycle of destruction and creation inside Alex’s body.
Alex could only watch morosely as he watched what was happening on his cells, as he knew that it will take some time before the whole process gets finished!
So before that time comes, Alex had no choice but to endure the excruciating pain that he is feeling right now.
And if Alex’s suspicions were right, the pain is just going to get worse.
"Ah! Sons of liberated b***hes! F*** this all!"
**************
5 HOURS LATER
Alina’s eyes narrowed in worry as she heard every howl pain and every string of curses uttered by Alex from inside his room.
This should not be happening, as from what Alina knew, Alex was the type of person that can handle pain, and as much as possible, he will not shout in agony if he can do that.
The mere fact that Alina can hear Alex’s pain right now was already an indication on the pain that Alex was in.
"Should we... not do anything?" Alina asked her other two teammates as she looked at them with worry. "Maybe it’s just me.. but what if there was something wrong happening to Alex?"
"Don’t worry about that guy. He won’t be just taken down this way." Professor Frances replied as he let out a sneer. "That guy is as tough as nails!"
"I don’t know what he is going through, but in my opinion, I think that Alex can get through this." Queen Mother chimed in as she leaned back on the wall. "So Alina, don’t get that worried for him."
"...Yeah, I think you are right about that." Alina replied as she let out a sigh. "It’s just that... it’s hard to feel confident when you hear him in this kind of agony..."
"Hmph, you’re just smitten with him, that’s why you are so worried for him." Professor Frances snorted as she crossed her arms. "You haven’t even mated with Alex, and you are this worried for him already! I wonder how you will turn out once you two have actually copulated together. Maybe you will-"
"Oh god please stop saying those things." Alina replied as her cheeks went scarlet from embarrassment. "Don’t you get the atmosphere here?"
"Atmosphere? Bah, the atmosphere that I can sense was you two being hungry for each other." Professor Frances said as she smirked at Alina. "I don’t know why you two haven’t done the deed yet, but I advise you to do it as early as possible. Who knows, that Astria might do something to your lovely Alex!"
"Hmph, if she dares to do something, I will be there to hack her off!" Alina frostily replied as she gritted her teeth. "Hmph, let’s see if she has a deathwish like that!"
"Deathwish? That depends if you can do something to me." Alina’s tirade was cut off as a melodious voice interrupted their conversation.
"Squeak, squeak.’ The sound of rolling wheels made Alina turn her head to the source of sound, and there she saw Astria approaching them.
Even without any visual cues, it was quite obvious that Alina’s already down mood just worsened with Astria’s arrival.
"What are you doing here?" Even before Astria could continue talking, Alina beat her to the punch as she spoke first. "Do you know that Alex is currently busy?"
"-b**ch!" Right on cue, Alex’s muffled curses rang out once more, making all the women outside his room stiffen considerably.
"Is Alex... having a swearfest inside his room?" Astria asked as she looked at the room with incredulity. "I never knew that swearing can be done this way..."
"What the hell is your little brain thinking?" Alina snarled as she approached Astria. "Just tell us why you are here, and quit telling those little lies of yours! You’re just being ridiculous here!"
"So I am the ridiculous one now? In my opinion, you are the ridiculous one." Astria shot out as she gave Alina a smile. "You’re always strutting around the kitchen, stuffing food inside that body of yours! It’s no wonder many chefs are scared of you! You just suck them dry!"
"You!"
"You know what, I think I should not call you Alina, maybe Nom nom is a better name for you."
"Hey-"
"Nom nom."
"!!!"
"Nom nom."
"Okay little girl. You asked for it." Alina muttered as her face darkened considerably. "Why don’t you come here and be an ingredient for my dish! I think it won’t taste good, but at least you have the honor of being sliced into pieces by my knife!"
"Me? An ingredient? As if a glutton like you can cook!"
"Hah! You shall see it now!"
"Bring it then!"
"Hey! Cut it out you two!" Before Alina and Astria could make their moves, tree branches sprouted off the ground, wrapping themselves around Alina and Astria’s legs.
Queen Mother, who obviously was the source of these tree branches, gave Alina and Astria a glower as she stared at them. "If you want to fight, just do it once all of our problems are done. Don’t add to the problems, you little kids!"
"..." With that stern reminder from the tree woman, Alina and Astria gradually reduced their fighting intent as they lowered their weapons.
"Good." As she saw that the two had listened to her, Queen Mother let out a sigh as the tree branches burrowed back into the ground. "If you try to fight each other again, I promise you that I will stop you in a more forceful way!"
Alina and Astria’s reply were just small nods as they slowly relaxed their tense bodies.
With the tense atmosphere almost cleared up, someone else joined in the conversation.
"What is wrong with you two? You always fight when you see each other!" Professor Frances chimed in from the background as she shook her head in disappointment. "Don’t say that it’s because of Alex! I can see that you two already hated each other even before Astria made a move on Alex. Heck, I am sure that the only reason that Astria made a move on Alex was because she already hated Astria!"
historical
"...."
Under Professor Frances’ query, Alina and Astria’s reply were just simple.
"I don’t know, I just don’t like her when I saw her." Alina said as she shrugged her shoulders. "There’s no other reason for that. I just hate her."
"I feel the same thing too." Astria replied as she smirked at Alina. "I don’t know why I hate her. I just do."
"Ugh, this is hopeless." Queen Mother muttered as she bowed her head in frustration. "I wish Alex is already done so that he can deal with these two already..."
"Well, speaking of Alex, I think he is already done." Professor Frances said to Queen Mother as she pointed her finger to the door. "Since a minute earlier, there had been no shouts or curses coming out from his room. Maybe that means that he is already done."
"Creak..."
Right on cue with Professor Frances’ words, the door to Alex’s room suddenly opened, and as the crack of the door opened, a trembling figure came out of it.
Alex, who looked extremely disheveled with his bloodshot eyes and thin body, slowly walked out of the room.
His whole body which looked like an old man that was starved to death, was shivering as he took each step with difficulty.
His eyes, which looked sunken, stared at Alina blearily.
"..."
Alex’s stare lasted for a second before he started to talk.
His voice was raspy and thin, which sounded grating to Alina’s ears.
"Everyone, you should prepare, for tonight, we will go to the Blue Moon." Alex slowly said as he took some slow, deliberate breaths. "Tonight is the only night that we can go to the Blue Moon, so we should not waste time anymore! Astria, gather all the Symbolists who wants to join! If they can’t go right now, then there will be no chance for them to go anymore!"
Sufficed to say, the words that Alex just uttered out managed to beat the shock induced by his malnourished appearance.
"What did you just say?"