Hunting was a lot harder than the movies and books made it seem. According to the countdown floating in the sky, it had been four hours, and the closest Ryan had gotten to catching something was when he almost stepped on a rabbit-like creature hiding in the grass.

  At least finding water had been easy. It turned out there was a large river cutting through the forest only a short walk away. When Ryan made his way over, there were already several others there. After watching someone else drink without harm, Ryan had taken a small sip. So far nothing bad had happened.

  Ignoring the growling of his stomach, Ryan glanced over his shoulder at the timer in the air.

  91:52:12

  91:52:11

  Good. He could still see it. He turned back to the direction he was going and began trudging deeper into the forest.

  Half an hour later, Ryan stood at the edge of a small clearing. It was a circular patch of short grass about the same size as a typical suburban backyard. In the middle of the clearing was a grove of trees only slightly taller than he was, their branches covered with spherical yellow fruits. Even from where he stood, Ryan could smell the sweet and tangy fragrance.

  A hot, savory meal would be ideal, but Ryan would never complain about something sweet.

  He took one last look around the clearing. Nothing suspicious as far as he could see. He tightened his grip around the sharp rock he had found earlier and prowled out.

  It was a short, uneventful walk. Maybe too uneventful. Either way, Ryan reached the grove of trees and plucked one of the fruits off a branch. It was about the same size as an apple - maybe a bit larger and rounder.

  Ryan resisted the urge to sink his teeth into the fruit right away. Instead, he took the sharp rock and used it to cut an incision down the length of the fruit. The skin split cleanly, revealing an interior the same hue as the skin.

  He let a couple drops of fruit juice drip onto the palm of his hand. Then he looked up at the timer floating in the air and waited for a minute. There was no pain or itchiness. No change in color around the place where the juice had fallen.

  Ryan figured that that was as thorough testing as was worth his time. His stomach growled, as if agreeing with the sentiment. Unable to resist any longer, Ryan sunk his teeth into the fruit.

  The sweet juice leaked into his parched mouth. The fragrance of the fruit, magnified a hundred times from before, wafted into his nose. The combination of the taste and the scent was almost too much to handle. Ryan found himself needing to gasp for breath in between bites as he devoured half of the fruit in one go.

  He forced himself to stop before he finished the entire thing.

  Need to wait half an hour to see if this is going to destroy my stomach.

  His stomach gave off one last half-hearted gurgle of protest before giving in to his brain’s rationality. Ryan turned to look at the countdown once more to start tracking how much time he needed to wait.

  That’s when he saw it. The short, gnarly figure at the edge of the clearing.

  It stood about four feet tall with gangly arms hanging down to its knees. Its green skin was mottled with dirt and scars, and its sharp yellow teeth were twisted in a vicious snarl. At the ends of both of its arms were thin, needle-like claws.

  “Hey!” said Ryan, giving it a wave. “You made it here too, huh? These fruits are real tasty if you want to give one a go.”

  He plucked a fruit off of a tree and tossed it in the direction of the creature. The fruit landed next to it and rolled past its feet. The entire while, the being did not take its yellow eyes off of Ryan. When their gazes met, the corners of its mouth pulled upwards in a half-snarl half-smile.

  Ryan reached down and rummaged on the ground for his sharp rock. For an instant, he dropped his eyes downwards to confirm where the rock was. And that was when the monster attacked.

  It charged forwards, spindly legs propelling it towards him. Luckily for Ryan, the clearing was large enough to give him an ample amount of time to react. Winding up and sucking in a deep breath, he hurled the sharp rock at the incoming enemy.

  There’s a reason I won MVP in Little League!

  The rock sailed ten feet over the head of the monster.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Shit.”

  The green creature leaped forth in a tackle. It extended its gangly arms, reaching at Ryan with those nasty looking claws.

  Instinct kicked in and Ryan lashed out with foot. His shoe smacked the face of the monster, knocking it back with an unceremonious hiss.

  In the brief respite from the attack, Ryan turned and grabbed two more fruits off of the tree and hurled them, one at a time, at the monster.

  This time he was close enough not to miss.

  The first fruit nailed the monster in the temple. The second one in the center of the face, splattering open in a burst of yellow juice.

  The monster let out a howl and stumbled to a stop, clawing and wiping at its face. Ryan’s eyes darted to the ground. There, near the base of the grove of trees was a group of stones. Bending down, he picked up the largest one with both of his arms.

  Right as the monster managed to clear its eyes, Ryan slung the rock downwards on top of its head with all his might. There was a sickening crunch and the monster lay still.

  Chest heaving, Ryan stumbled back and crashed into one of the fruit trees. He grabbed onto one of its branches and used it to prop himself up.

  After his heartbeat slowed, Ryan took several steps over to the creature. It was lying motionless on the ground, blank eyes staring up at the sky. A trickle of red blood leaked out of a wound on its head.

  In the moment, the blood looked a little like a human’s. A little too human for comfort.

  Ryan’s stomach lurched. He leaned over and deposited the remaining contents of his stomach onto the forest floor. When his stomach didn’t have any more to give, he dry-heaved several times for good measure.

  When the retching subsided, Ryan wiped his mouth with a trembling hand. If he didn’t kill the monster, it would’ve killed him. That’s all it came down to.

  Translucent glowing words sprang to life in front of his face, making Ryan yelp and fall onto his butt.

  5 credits granted.

  Ryan’s eyes shot to the words floating in the sky - the countdown and the credits. The amount in the sky still said thirty credits. So whatever it was measuring, it hadn’t changed even when he had been granted the five for killing the monster. Maybe it measured the total number of credits that everyone in the forest had. Maybe it was the total number of credits you could earn by killing monsters like this.

  But why the countdown timer?

  Ryan ignored the countless questions flying through his head and began harvesting fruit before something else attacked. He was wearing a t-shirt, hoodie, and jeans, so the fruits ended up going into the pockets of his hoodie. In total, he could fit four fruits.

  He found himself pausing before leaving the clearing. His eyes drifted down to the corpse of the monster. Despite the rational part of his brain screaming at him, he couldn’t help but think the dreaded, cursed thought.

  I wonder what that tastes like?

  Maybe it was the incessant hunger gnawing at his stomach. Or maybe this entire mad scenario was making him go a little crazy. Whatever it was, Ryan found something propelling him to bend down and use a jagged rock to cut off a piece of flesh from the monster’s arm.

  Ryan held the tiny piece - just two or three inches - of meat between pinched fingers. After removing the skin, it kind of looked like a piece of raw fish.

  It’s sashimi. I’ve had sashimi at least a dozen times in my life.

  Before the rational side of Ryan’s brain could speak some sense into him, he plopped the piece of monster meat into his mouth and swallowed.

  For several seconds, nothing happened. Then another set of glowing words appeared in front of him. But before he could even begin skimming the words, Ryan’s conscience hit him like a truck and he realized what he had just done.

  For the second time that day, Ryan emptied everything in his stomach onto the ground. This time was even worse, and he found himself coughing and hacking for several minutes before he could even stand up straight. And as soon as he saw the monster corpse in the corner of his eye, he immediately bent over and dry heaved for another two minutes.

  Only after gnawing desperately on one of the fruits was Ryan able to gather some form of composure. Ignoring everything else and focusing on the sweet juice flowing down his throat, Ryan squeezed his eyes shut and walked away from the clearing as fast as he could. When he was safely within the dark embrace of the forest once more, Ryan opened his eyes.

  Skilled activated: [An Acquired Taste]

  Movement: 0 → 1

  Just like in the stone chamber, Ryan found himself enveloped in a momentary warm embrace. There was a difference, though. Before, it had felt like the pain and aches had lessened after the sensation of warmth. This time, there seemed to be no change to his body whatsoever.

  Last time must’ve been a trick of the mind.

  Ryan took a step to leave.

  And fell flat on his face.

  Groaning, Ryan rolled over and looked down.

  His foot felt light. Much lighter than before.

  Standing, Ryan paced back and forth. When he had arrived at the clearing, his feet had felt like lead blocks because of how many hours he had walked. Now, each step he took was effortless, as if the four hour trek here had never actually happened.

  The pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place. The stats he saw for the [An Acquired Taste] skill. The increased Constitution after biting the masked figure. The slight healing of his body afterwards. Now the increased Movement and light steps after taking a bit of the green-skinned monster.

  I gain stats by eating.

  Ryan turned back to the clearing where the monster corpse still remained. He ignored the protests of his stomach, his taste buds, and his dwindling rationality.

  It was time to chow down.