The Sinful Saint

Si Sheng set off traveling in the direction of the nearby mountains. This day the sky was clear with nary a cloud in the sky. There was a slight pleasant breeze blowing through the forest, which rustled the branches above.

The forest's trees were tall, around 50 meters tall. The ground floor was relatively dark and humid. It was swampy down there and there were a lot of fungi growing. Who knew if any of them were edible.

Si Sheng walked into this swampy forest and started his journey.

There were many interesting looking plants down there. There was one that looked like a box, which had a "hat" on top. Si Sheng walked up to it and pulled at the "hat" and it started to lift thinking it to be a funny decoration. When he thought he had gotten the "hat" off, he felt like a lever or switch was flipped. The next thing he knew there were vines lashing out from under the "hat" that caused Si Sheng to stumble backwards in surprise. When Si Sheng looked back at the "hat" he realized there were eyes underneath it staring back at him coldly.

The tentacle-like vines retracted and so did the head with its "hat." Si Sheng decided to try out his Evil Eye: "Identify."

Wung!

The status of the creature displayed in front of Si Sheng.

[Juvenile Box-Plant Hermit Crab | Level 3: A variant hermit crab that lives in box plants]

'That crazy looking thing is a hermit crab???' thought Si Sheng dumbfounded over the strange creature. Saying it was a hermit crab with the tentacles it had was hard for him to believe, but he didn't question it since this was a vastly different world than he was used to living in and his common sense formed there wouldn't necessarily apply here.

Si Sheng decided to pass by the strange crab and continue his trek.

Si Sheng walked for a number of kilometers and came across a river. Si Sheng didn't need a fresh water source for drinking water since he had water magic, but other creatures did and he thought he could kill some easy game; he was in need of food after all.

Si Sheng approached the river with caution. He had seen the weird crab-plant creature and wasn't going to leave anything to chance. He was quiet in his approach as to not disturb the wildlife. Si Sheng's thoughts were of catching some fish to eat, since they were the easiest and quickest to prepare.

Si Sheng thought if it wanted it could bite him in half with ease. His only solace was that it was in the water and he was not.

Just as he thought this the fish made a swift moment and rushed to the surface breaching the water like a Great White Shark aiming straight for Si Sheng.

Si Sheng jumped back but was not caught off guard. He half expected the bloodthirsty fish would make a move on him. After dodging the fish's attack, he ran back towards the falling fish and grabbed it out of midair and threw it further onto land. It flew around a meter away. The weight and size of the fish made it hard to handle and only let it travel such a small distance.

Now, the fish was landlocked with Si Sheng in between it and the river. It'd have to go through him if it wanted to return. To add urgency to its predicament, it was running out of oxygen and would need to return to the water if it didn't want to suffocate.

The fish flopped its way forward gnashing its teeth in a threatening manner in an attempt to scare Si Sheng. It didn't work and Si Sheng simply picked up a rock off the ground and walked over to the fish. He straddled it holding its mouth closed underneath him. The fish was in despair as his would-be prey was now on top of him restricting its movements.

Si Sheng looked cold as he looked down at the fish with rock in hand. The next moment he raised the rock in both hands and smashed it into the head of the fish. It didn't kill it and the hit only made the fish flail in pain. Si Sheng then repeatedly smashed the head of the fish, over and over. Blood flew and the sound of bone crunching and snapping under the rock was heard. Brain matter and fluid leaked out of the wound as he continued to pulverize the skull.

There was a massive hole in the skull of the fish after the repeated strikes. The fish was gasping for air as it could only lay there helpless getting beat senseless in a brutal fashion.

After a couple minutes of Si Sheng's brutalization, the fish finally kicked the bucket. It's head had turned into a soup of blood, brain matter, and pulverized bone. It was a disgusting and gruesome scene.

Si Sheng suddenly heard a sound through his panting ring in his head .

Si Sheng thought the amount of experience he gained was quite large. He had easily killed the Giant River Stalker and the experience gained had filled up by one fourth of his total experience. He didn't know if the experience system just worked like this or if the Giant River Stalker was just weird. Whatever it was, he wasn't going to complain; he had easily gotten a meal.

Si Sheng went around gathering dead and dry rubbish for a fire. It had been around a day or so since he had eaten anything and he was dying to try the meat of this fish.

Si Sheng was no cook and only knew the basics of cooking, so whatever he would make wasn't going to be a gourmet dish.

Si Sheng laid out the dead rubbish in the form of a dead plant bead. He was going to use his fire magic to light a fire to cook the Giant River Stalker. First, Si Sheng went to clean the fish.

"Clean," chanted Si Sheng as water poured over the fish scrubbing the scales and flesh free of dirt and grime as it went down .

"Ignite," he lit the fire and placed the fish on the burning bead of plants. Si Sheng wasn't worried that he'd start a first fire with this, the surroundings were moist and wouldn't catch fire easily.

The magic Si Sheng used he somehow knew. When he thought about using a certain type of magic, the various chants associated with them filled his head. It was almost like looking up the directions in an instruction booklet that he was given.

The fish started to cook and gave off a mouth watering scent. It was a salty and fishy smell that was almost tangible. Juice oozed out of the fish coating its body in a l.u.s.trous gleam of tantalizing sublimity. The scales on the body of the fish were thin and fell off with the contracting skin, leaving behind a perfectly descaled fish. The image alone was enough to make Si Sheng's mouth water, but the smell sent him over the edge; he could barely control his urge to devour the fish then and there.

The fish had finished cooking and the air was heavy with the scent of freshly cooked fish. Si Sheng put out the fire and let the fish cool down before trying to take a piece off.

'Ugh!' Si Sheng tasted it and felt like spitting it out; it tasted horrible. It tasted rotten and burnt, like roadkill that had been baking on the side of the road in the summer heat. He didn't know if he cooked it wrong or if there was something wrong with the fish to begin with, but it tasted awful. Although it smelt good and was pleasing to look at, the fish was barely edible.

Since he couldn't be picky with food in the forest he continued to eat despite the revolting taste. After the second bite Si Sheng took, he heard a voice ring out in his head:

[Giant River Stalker consumed: "Skill: Presence Concealment (Intermediate)" Aquired]

"Hm? That's how it works? That's pretty nifty. I just eat and I get stronger! Now that's nice," Si Sheng thought out loud. He thought this would eventually be his greatest skill out of all the ones he'd connect, as well as his favorite, since it involved eating.

While Si Sheng was eating his fill, he heard rustling of leaves behind him. He turned around to see the rustling turn into shaking as the bush violently thrashed. Through the leaves a long snout pierced through revealing a drooling mouth filled with large, knife-like teeth. Out stepped a two meter tall, mangy, black wolf with glowing yellow eyes and a low snarl bellowing from its sloppily, drooling mouth.

The wolf eyed Si Sheng with bloodl.u.s.t, which made his face run pale. He knew he couldn't complete with the wolf and only wanted to escape at that point. The wolf slowly approached Si Sheng with its head lowered and eyes fixed on him. Si Sheng slowly got up and backed away in the direction the wolf was heading.

After Si Sheng had gotten a few meters away from his orginal position, the wolf was where he had been; it stopped there. Si Sheng then heard what sounded like someone sloppily eating; it was the wolf chowing down on the fish that he had killed and cooked.

Si Sheng let out a sigh of relief eazing some of his tension. This didn't upset Si Sheng that much, since he was already full and the fish didn't taste that good to begin with. He also didn't want to risk being killed over food such as this and wasn't keen on fighting right now.

Si Sheng continued slowly backing away until he could no longer see or hear the wolf. The time Si Sheng had spent walking and handling the fish was enough to for the sun to begin setting. He needed to find a place sleep in safety for the night or he might end up as something's next meal.