Holding the creature’s two front legs with my hands, I pulled on its neck as my maw had its head stuck in a vice grip. It was safe to say that the ugly thing was reconsidering the choices that had led it here today.

  It let out a pitiful wail just before I tore its head off. Feasting upon its corpse and that of the beastfolk it had been carrying. Before long, nothing was left of either of the two remains.

  Mmh… That thing probably wasn’t the one who killed that beastfolk. That guy’s corpse had clearly begun to rot a little while ago. The corpse had probably been scavenged. To me, this implied that there might be something of interest about where that creature had come from.

  I might as well pass by and check it out. It’s not like I have anything better to do at the moment.

  I lined myself up with the exact spot the ugly beast had emerged from and began traversing progressively more and more sprawling vegetation and foliage until I couldn’t see anything in front of me. It felt like I was going nowhere–I mean, that creature had been pretty big, shouldn’t it have crushed the grass and broken branches while making its way through here? It felt like I was stepping into completely unexplored territory.

  Still, going forward was the plan, regardless of whether or not there was actually something interesting around.

  Eventually, though, I felt something–I could smell scrumptious flesh in great amounts nearby. I could usually only sense flesh when it was on something that was already dead, and also if the death was fairly recent. This meant that there had been a massacre.

  How exciting.

  I slowed down and approached the source of it all slowly. I would have liked to make good use of my ‘Quietness’ upgrade, but it only affected the sound made by me alone. It doesn’t count with the branches, leaves, and other bushes that were rubbing against my steel body.

  My approach was thus… Not as discreet as I would have liked, but soon enough, my eyes peered out of the mass of greenery, setting sight upon what appeared to be a mix between a primitive tribe and a more typical village. There were houses made of wood, but also tents made from beast skin.

  From the looks of things, the more important places were actually the ones that seemed the least advanced. I assume that this is simply a beastfolk village with a taste for the old traditions.

  Many beastfolks–Even the more folk than beast ones–Tend to group up together into a tribe-like environment at first, having a penchant to try and emulate the way of life of the creatures they possessed traits of, leading them to often prefer a more wild lifestyle… At least, that was what I had heard about.

  Nowadays, only the genuinely more bestial of beastfolks actually keep tribe structures. The rest do like humans and live like actual people, but I suppose that it wouldn’t be weird for them to continue paying homage to that way of life.

  Regardless, I probably shouldn’t focus on architecture and what it implies about the local society–The entire place was littered with corpses. Dead beastfolks were to be found everywhere, most of them being feasted upon by scavengers right at this very moment, but it was odd, from the looks of things, these people had not died just one day ago. They had begun to rot and stink.

  Yet, the creatures had only gotten to all of this free food just now? Were they only clued in by the smell? It didn’t make much sense in the case of the carrion bird I was seeing. Those should have seen the corpses before the rest. The village was completely open to the air–Wait a minute.

  Why were they vulture-like birds here? This was a sprawling forest with a thick canopy all over the place. Don’t vultures usually hang in open biomes specifically so they can spot food? I am no expert, but I am fairly certain that’s how they are supposed to operate.

  Thus, I did not see how it made sense for birds of this type to be around here in the first place. They would struggle to find anything normally–Especially if they took several days to find a slew of corpses in one of the few areas they could actually see.

  Also, what the hell were these creatures? I thought the one from earlier was an ugly, wrinkly, and hairless dog-lizard-looking abomination whose even its own mother would never love… But they took it to a whole other level.

  Their bodies were covered in fleshy bumps. Excessive growths of flesh that were, for the most part, covered in pustules, which were themselves growing a handful of long strands of hair.

  In general, the creatures that should have fur lacked most of it, and the same went for the feathery ones. I honestly doubted that those vulture-things could actually fly anymore.

  On top of this, I couldn’t help but notice that they had similar facial distortions to the first creature I encountered. Be it maws or beaks, they were warped, turning into exposed rows of thin, pointy teeth that almost came to resemble grins.

  I could chalk up one to it being a nasty-looking species, but there were way more this time, and there were clearly several species of creatures. All bearing oddly similar anomalies.

  Furthermore, they were all eating the corpses without paying attention to one another. I found that a bit weird. Shouldn’t at least some of them be fighting one another for access to the food?

  …What did I stumble upon? Any ideas, Nara?

  I do not know the exact origin, but these creatures are clearly suffering from mutations–Also, I have been paying close attention to the beastfolk corpses, especially the untouched ones. I have noticed that they bear no signs of having been attacked or having struggled before death

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  It looks like they simply dropped dead without explanation

  A plague, perhaps?

  If so, we might be able to find something interesting regarding unlocking the ‘Rusted Plague Form’

  Oh. Good call, actually. I had almost forgotten about that one. I’ve been focusing too much on the ‘Nightmare Form’.

  Mascot Form

  Nightmare Form

  Revenant Jack-Out-Of-The-Box

  Wire Mess Form

  Pure Spirit Form

  Rusted Plague Form

  Biobot Form

  I actually had quite a few forms that were technically on their way toward being acquired… The only two I actually had an understanding of how to get there, though, were the ‘Nightmare Form’ and ‘Wire Mess Form’. The rest, I frankly didn’t have a clue.

  If anything, apart from these two, I only knew that the ‘Biobot Form’ had probably been unlocked thanks to ‘Repair Protocol’.

  Nara was right, though. If the source of what was happening here was actually a plague, then it only made sense to guess that it could be useful for the unlocking of the ‘Rusted Plague Form’.

  None of the creatures actually looked all that strong. It was almost like the stench of the corpses had only attracted the weak.

  I suppose it was a good occasion to test a few things…

  I stepped out of the foliage, and almost immediately, the closest group of mutated beasts turned to face me in unison. The first one to charge had what looked like an extra, small paw growing from the back of its neck–Nasty stuff.

  I reeled back my right arm and let the full might of ‘Hydraulic Limb’ be unleashed upon the unsuspecting feral creature. Since using it against SHLAD, I hadn’t really taken the time to see the effect a full-powered punch could have.

  The result was far from disappointing.

  Back then, pushing SHLAD back with a strike that damaged my own limb had been considered a great success. This time? I almost thought I missed with how little resistance I felt, my fist went right through the beast’s teeth, face, and skull and then through the rest of its body as it had made the mistake of lunging at me.

  Getting it in the face mid-jump should have ended its momentum, but because I tore right through everything without the slightest of issue, the creature actually kept its momentum, resulting in nearly its entire body being ground into crimson mist and bone dust.

  Chunks of flesh fell to the ground alongside its now disembodied limbs.

  Holy moly… It felt like punching air. The durability of this creature had simply seemed nonexistent, and I had never felt so powerful.

  …’Hydraulic Limb’, my beloved… If you show up again in my list of upgrades, you will definitely be a top contender for the pick. Getting the upgrade applied to all four of my limbs would be absolutely incredible.

  Despite my display of absolute brutality, the rest of the beasts charged without thinking. No sane creature would dare to attack after seeing one of their own reduced to a few pieces like this, but I suppose they were anything but sane.

  I didn’t even bother to punch them properly. They all attacked in the exact same manner, lunging at me without thoughts occurring in that noggin of theirs. I just swatted them away with my right arm, breaking them just like that.

  …Alright, I think it isn’t just that I hit very hard. They also seem very fragile to begin with. I didn’t even use ‘Hydraulic Limb’ on the last one, and it is still writhing in agony on the ground with its ribs shattered to pieces.

  The commotion attracted the attention of the other mutants, but just as I thought, they were all very weak–Probably weaker than they had been prior to being turned into what they currently were.

  Regardless, I killed and ate them all, devouring the beastfolk corpses whole like how a seagull would to a rabbit.

  “Poppy. Float up and te–tell me what you–ou see”

  When it came to doing this, Poppy was definitely the best of the band. In general, she seemed to be the one with the most talent in the basic capabilities of a vengeful spirit. Her special abilities themselves were actually quite in line with what should be expected of a spirit like her, as well.

  Since the floating height depended on the last solid spot she had stood upon before moving upward, I picked her up, making her stand on my outstretched hands.

  This allowed her to move well above the trees and get a good look around for anything that might be of interest. While Poppy was busy with that, the rest and I looked through the village.

  There were a few pieces of steel here and there, but apart from that, absolutely nothing interesting anywhere. The houses and tents felt rather empty. It seemed likely that someone else had ransacked the place at some point.

  “Big… Sis… Over… There… I… Sensed… A… Presence… And… Found… A… Cave…”

  “Good j–job”

  I patted the blonde’s head, making her smile, as all of my ghostly cuties sank into the ground, remaining hidden as I followed the direction Poppy pointed to.

  As she said, there was a rather large cave opening there. I wasn’t quite as sensitive to things like ‘presence’ like she was, but as I used ‘Forward Shine’ to illuminate the inside of the cave, I spotted a group of three, small humanoids, hunched over with the same disgusting features as the mutated beasts.

  They turned to look at the source of the light, revealing their ugly faces and species. Goblins.

  Another kind of creature that had countless species that could hail from various categories. A goblin was most often recognised as a kind of short, green-skinned, humanoid monster, however.

  The sapient ones preferred to stick away from other sapients–Though I had been told that a sizable amount of men were interested in female goblins of a ‘rotund’ variety.

  I remember it quite clearly. I had questioned why I had to compete with goblins on the marriage market at that time. I didn’t know that they could actually look kinda good at the time, so I had really thought that some men were into the ugly-faced monsters I had been more familiar with at the time.

  Anyway… These three are also charging at me like they actually stand a chance. The mutation either makes things recklessly aggressive or very stupid.

  My bet would be on a mix of the two.