Chapter 53: Chapter 53 – Black Tipped Fangs
It had taken around 15 minutes before the sounds of digestion finally receded.
When Adam pulled his hand back, A cleanly cut neck of the gecko came into view. It was as if the head had been cleanly chopped off in one stroke by an extremely sharp blade.
The girls at the back just watched the whole sequence of events in horror. Luckily it was their young master who was pulling off these things if not these girls would have long since passed out since they would have had nothing to worry about.
Since it was Adam who was in the middle of this horrifying spectacle the girls kept a sharp vigil. Ready to step in to help him at any time.
On Adam's side.
He had just received two notifications.
'Black Tipped Fangs' and 'Lava Spray'
These were the two skills that Adam could learn from devouring the Black Magma Leopard Gecko.
Black Tipped Fangs allowed him to grow the gecko's black tipped dagger-like fangs.
Lava Spray allowed him to spew molten lava from his throat.
Adam had only 3 skills that he could devour and learn in this first stage of gluttony-'Hunger'. The Gecko was the strongest monster that Adam had come across so he most definitely wanted to get at least one of his skills from this monster.
He did not want to squander this opportunity at the same time so he seriously contemplated his choices.
In the end, he picked Black Tipped Fangs. His reasoning for it was very simple. Greed, This passive skill allowed his skills to have unlimited potential to grow. In his view, he already had great attacking potential, Spewing lava from his mouth would not add too much to it, as well as he saw much more potential for growth with the former skill.
He felt a magical pulse run through him.
In his abdomen, just below his stomach a small round ball the size of a ping pong ball formed.
One part of the devoured energy was fused into his body while the rest flowed through his body and made its way down to his abdomen. When that energy reached near the black ball that had just formed, Just like P*c M*n. The ball split open and all the energy was sucked into it.
The ball grew in size when it did but it slowly compressed and reached its original size again and went dormant. It was as if the previous opening and devouring had never occurred.
Adam felt this whole process. When the ball formed it had established a connection with him. He couldn't explain it but it was almost like a sixth sense. It was like his heart. He knew it was there, he could feel its movements but he had no conscious control over it.
Since he had a connection with it, he could tell that if he fed it enough, his gluttony skill would advance.
Adam increasingly had the sense of his body becoming inhuman and more of a nursery. First, he had to nurture three elements in his body and now he had gained an additional mysterious black ball that he had to feed.
'Ahhh, It's not killing me and only making me stronger. Suck it up, Adam.' He tried setting himself straight. 'Why did I have to think of something so ridiculous? Now the damn thing is stuck in my head.'
He finally settled down his distracting thoughts after a few seconds and came back to himself.
He grew excited again once he realized that he had gotten a new skill. This was actually his first active skill so it was that much more special.
He activated it with a thought.
'Black Tipped Fangs'
He felt slight discomfort in his mouth and his hand that he had not yet morphed back, it still had the beastly maw on it that began glowing dark red along with the discomfort.
His lips puffed out a bit and the beastly maw had now taken on a form that was identical to the shape of the Gecko's triangular mouth.
Adam grew more excited. This skill had even affected the maw that had morphed from his hand.
He opened his mouth and the maw on his hand at the same time. The maw on his hand was the exact same as the maw of the Black Magma Leopard Gecko. Those hundreds of dagger-like sets of teeth that occupied the maw, Adam had been almost devoured by it on a couple of occasions in their previous fight. His mouth was slightly different. It still retained its shape, only the number of teeth increased and they took on that dagger-like shape.
"w'at d'ya gouys shink?" He turned to the girls and said as he waved around the menacing open beastly maw in front of the girls. He wasn't used to talking with those sharp and long teeth in his mouth and his teeth chattered more than the words he spoke.
Elaine's eyes rolled up from the sudden shock, while Luna straight up fainted from the jump scare. Her body limply fell to the floor with a soft thud.
Adam retracted his skill. He scratched his head awkwardly.
"Sh*t, I didn't expect it to be that effective." He found their reactions funny but he also knew that he was a dead man once the girls woke up.
"I only have myself to blame on this one." He lamented. He had already made the blunder, he could only accept his ill foreboding fate.
He turned around and reactivated his skill.
Crunch! Munch!
2 Minutes later not a bone was left of that humungous carcass. Compared to the toothless maw of before, his devouring speed now was so much faster.
This only made him that much more satisfied with his choice. Losing one slot for enhancing the ability of the base skill itself? Worth it!
He also no longer had to go through that long and disturbing process of slowly dissolving a carcass to absorb it. He took that as an additional win.
All the energy he got from devouring the rest of the carcass was cleanly eaten by the little black ball under his stomach.
He also received an additional learnable skill.
'Sticky Fingers.' It gave him suction cups at the ends of his fingers.
Not to say anything more about it, he immediately discarded the idea of learning the skill. He was bound to go down a completely different perverted path if he picked it up.
Turning away he put on his most saintly face as if he was devoid of worldly desires and let the black ball devour the energy of the skill. 'Ahh, What a pity.' A fleeting thought may or may not have crossed his mind.
Adam walked over and picked up the girls one by one. He held Elaine in one hand and Luna in the other. Though the girls were light as a feather, they still had their training weights on them. It was not an easy task to carry them both. Carrying them through the library was merely a couple of steps but walking all the way back into town… all the way to the lodge, this was a challenge.
Adam bucked himself up, this was his own punishment for pulling that silly prank. 'No regrets!' He would let out a laugh from time to time when he remembered their faces from before.
This was a testament to how attached he himself had gotten to the girls. He wouldn't show this silly side of him to anyone else.
He took one last look at the place around them to ensure that he hadn't left any major marks behind.
The Black Magma Leopard Gecko was a direct sign to the fact that they had entered the core room.
Even though he would have most probably gained a huge sum in the form of the remuneration for a corpse of the level 20+ Gecko. He had to make sure not a trace of it was left.
The offer to turn the carcass in was 'tempting' but Adam had not grown any suicidal tendencies lately. He knew just how seriously the Guild treated the dungeon core and its core room.
To the influential Guild, he was just some random kid. They would kill him without the blink of an eye to set an example. Adam knew his place and limits very clearly.
Making sure that he was good, Adam departed the dungeon.
....
When the girls woke up in the lodge, Sure enough, Elaine started hammering Adam and chased him around while Luna gave him the silent treatment for the rest of the day.
The trio was exhausted that day and so they didn't do much else. They took their time to meditate over their respective body refinement manual's when things settled down.
The next day Adam was sitting in his room with the two girls next to him. They were all leaning forward in a circle looking at a map that had been sprawled out on the floor.
They were currently deciding where to set up their experience farm.
Elaine pointed at a spot on the map and spoke: "What about here? The forest around the depression can act as a barrier."
"It's not bad… the only problem is that it is east of Two Fang. We would have to traverse the river every time we wanted to get there." Adam replied.
"This does not seem to be a bad spot." Adam pointed slightly north of Two Fang where there was a volcano. "We can use its insides."
"It's an active volcano young master. It also seems to be a very popular spot for adventurers and miners." Luna held a book in her hand and she read from it.
They kept on pointing out spots but every one of them had some disadvantage that made it unusable for their purpose.
What they needed was three things,
1- An uninhabited and unvisited place.
2- A naturally barred environment to prevent the monsters from escaping.
3- It had to be at least a bit close to Two Fang city. They could not afford to travel for days or months on end.
"Young master!" Luna seemed to have found something. That book still in her hand, she was on its last pages.
She pulled the book up in front of Adam and pointed at a specific line for him to read.
"Bullpen mountain range." He read the name aloud.
This was called a mountain range but in fact, it only had 4 miniature mountains and one normal mountain in the centre. This was a mountain range that had 2 dormant volcanoes.
"This is perfect!" Elaine who had come up and was reading as well exclaimed.
"Yeah. An abandoned mine due to it being depleted. No monsters in its vicinity so no adventures are drawn there either. The only problem is the geysers that shoot up around the mountain range all year round." Luna said.
"That's a good thing. It's a natural barrier. I'm sure the miners would have had a way to bypass the geysers. We just need to go and find it." Adam was rubbing his chin as he contemplated.
"Then it's settled!" Elaine almost yelled in her stupor.
"What's settled?" Yuki's voice came from beyond the door.
The trio's faces went pale.
Adam's fingers moved like lightning as he flicked the map and pushed the book. They both slid and ended up beneath his bed.
Turning around he took in a breath as he watched the door slide open and Yuki walk into the room.
"Nothing mother. Elaine just decided what she wants to have for lunch. Pay it no mind." Adam said with a completely straight face. If Yuki even got a hint of suspicion about their plans then it was all over.
"Silly girl. Stop thinking about food all the time." Yuki messed with the girl's silky hair as she said.
Elaine gave Adam a death glare from Yuki's blind spot.
He put up one hand in apology and gave her a look that said 'forgive me. You know why I said it.'
Luna almost let out a giggle on the side.
"Mother, are you taking some time off?" Adam asked.
"Yes, I haven't gotten any time to spend with you lately." Yuki had on an obviously dejected pout on her face.
"That's great. Oh, that's right. Mother we received a parcel from big sis Fen the other day. She sent you something as well."
There was a package wrapped in fine silk in the corner of the room. Adam walked up and brought it over for Yuki to open.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone