Ethan looked down at himself and snorted.
He was covered in dirt, streaked with drying blood, and had rags torn into makeshift bandages loosely tied around his body. His feet were in sandals that had impressively held themselves together.
Only his underwear preserved what very little dignity he had left.
He looked like something that had crawled straight out of the Stone Age.
"A caveman," he muttered. "A very unlucky one."
His gaze then shifted to the boar's corpse; it was huge, with a tough hide, dense muscle, and thick layers of fat.
Ethan swallowed.
'I don't even eat pork…' he laughed, 'But I'd eat literal shit right now if it stopped me from passing out.'
Hunger clawed at him worse than any beast had.
His stomach twisted painfully, his limbs weak and trembling, barely staying upright after his MP was depleted. If he didn't eat soon, it wouldn't matter how clever or lucky he was - he'd just collapse and get eaten by a random beast.
But there was a problem.
'How the fuck am I supposed to butcher it?!'
He had no knife or tools, and even if he managed to tear into it...
'Wild boar meat definitely can't be eaten raw,' he thought grimly. 'It probably has all kinds of parasites and bacteria, especially since this ain't a normal boar.'
He groaned and scrubbed a hand down his face.
'I'd rather not shit and vomit myself to death.'
That meant not only did he need to butcher the thing, but he also needed to cook the damned beast.
'To think that eating would be so difficult.'
Something that most took for granted was now the bane of his existence.
Then, strangely enough, he couldn't help but think back to the prison chow hall that had sustained him for pretty much his entire adult life.
The prison chow hall - plastic tables and lukewarm slop that nobody truly knew what it consisted of.
But that wasn't the food nor the conflicts he had within it that brought it to mind... It was the one channel the guards ever kept on the single old television that was something straight out of a 90s movie.
The geography channel.
From survival shows and half-naked men wrestling crocodiles to animals mating and lions hunting zebras. It had it all, and back then, he'd barely paid attention.
If anything, it did his head in; he would rather have stared at the ugly, bald, tattooed man who always sat opposite him.
Now?
'Please tell me some of that useless crap stuck.'
Fire.
He needed fire.
And he needed to cut through that hide.
The smell and smoke would be a beacon, sure, but without food, he was done for, regardless.
Ethan let out a shaky laugh.
"You've got to risk it for the biscuit."
Decision made, he scoured the ground until he found a jagged stone. Sitting down, he began grinding it against the large rock he had used to crush the boar's skull, sparks flying occasionally as he worked.
Minutes passed.
His hands ached, and his weak arms shook, but eventually, the edge grew sharper.
"Good enough," he muttered.
Still, even with a sharp stone, cutting into the boar was a nightmare.
The hide was thick, much tougher than it looked, so much so that most kitchen knives would struggle to cut into it. Ethan was running on fumes, and he waited patiently until he regained 2 MP.
He was practically a sitting duck, and if even a house cat showed up now, he would be defenceless. But in the same way this trial seemed curated to push him, he hoped its design would give him time to recover, just to throw even bigger beasts at him.
Thankfully, that seemed to be the case, and as soon as he had the bare minimum MP to sustain Beast Assimilation for a minute, he activated it without hesitation.
Warmth surged through him, strength flooding his limbs just enough to push through the pain and fatigue, though in his condition, it was nowhere near as effective as it should be.
Immediately, he went for the underbelly that had a thinner hide and softer fat.
The sharpened stone bit in slowly, stubbornly, as he hacked and sawed, his muscles screaming in protest. Fat split and blood seeped out. The smell was strong: earthy, metallic, overwhelming.
Eventually, he managed to carve out rough strips of meat.
They weren't pretty.
But they were closer to something he could eat.
Ethan then staggered back toward the riverbank, choosing a spot with fewer trees and better visibility. He gathered dry branches and snapped sticks. Then, after several frustrating attempts at creating sparks, he managed to coax a small fire to life.
'Bear Drylls, you are an absolute legend. A bit of a lunatic for willingly doing all that survival bullshit and even drinking your own piss, but it works.'
The flames flickered weakly.
It was far from a bonfire, but it was enough.
He skewered the meat onto sticks and held them over the fire, turning them slowly, watching the surface darken and sizzle.
The smell wasn't great, but it looked edible, and that alone made his mouth water.
But when he finally took a bite, he winced.
"Yeah… that's awful."
There was no salt or seasoning, and aside from that, it was tough and gamey, with an odd aftertaste. Though as he continued chewing...
Warmth bloomed in his chest, and his body reacted instantly; it was unlike anything he had experienced.
Within minutes, his pain began to dull, the weakness receded, and energy flooded back into his limbs. Then a series of notifications flashed before his eyes.
{Strength +1}
{Speed +0.5}
{Stamina +0.5}
Ethan froze in a mix of shock and awe, then laughed.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Even his MP surged upward, recovering at a pace that felt almost unreal.
{Exertion and recovery increase stats in the same way strain and rest increase muscle mass.}
That was all the voice said, but there was more to it.
The key thing was that eating beasts made him stronger.
Yes, maybe the mental and physical struggle he had endured played a part in his development, but it was the recovery that was key. And the meat he was consuming was doing wonders at that.
Either way, he was addicted to the feeling of progressing.
Money and power were cool and all, but it was their pursuit that had been exhilarating, and Ethan now had a taste of what was possible as Lord Of Beasts.
He devoured the rest of the meat he had cut up without hesitation.
By the time he finished, he felt human again.
No, more than human.
Even his wounds had sealed, and he had recovered as much as it might have taken a normal person weeks to in a matter of minutes.
'I wonder if I just keep eating beast meat, what the limits are.'
There was so much he wanted to explore, and he even contemplated returning to retrieve more beast meat from the giant boar corpse. But he had felt like he had eaten his fill, and it was the first bites that had the most benefit. After that, it had less of an effect on his body and was just filling his stomach.
For now, his priority was survival; after that, he could train like a maniac and eat an entire zoo's worth of beasts.
As such, not wanting to push his luck, Ethan kicked dirt over the fire, smothering it completely. He then cleaned himself up in the river as best as he could and moved on before the smell of cooked beast meat could draw anything dangerous.
Thankfully, nothing came.
Continuing downstream, he looked up and noticed the sky begin to shift subtly.
It was still bright, but it reminded him of what was coming. From the 24-hour timer to the sun moving in the sky, it was fair to assume that this replicated Earth's environment.
And if that was the case, it was only a matter of time before nightfall...