(Phew. That was intense.)
After successfully killing the wyvern, I finally relaxed my body and my mind. I am just greatly relieved that I survived a life and death situation.
If I was still a human, I would have soiled myself or ran away if possible. But for some reasons, since having this current body of mine, I have never felt the fear of dying or the sense of fear itself. Though I can still feel the danger, the alarm, which is just a natural instinct rather than dread.
It is as if the fear of being a human has been stripped from me. This courage might bring me into dangerous situations someday. Being fearless would eventually attract danger.
Anyway, I undo my white exoskeleton and revert back to my original wooden body. Before me is the lifeless and mutilated body of the wyvern. Red blood is pouring out of its severed neck and wings and then boils after exposing to the air for a bit of time.
I stand in front of its chest and then I extend my tongue before turning it into an ivory serrated blade. I stab my tongue into the wyvern's soft chest and begin dissecting the monster. After tearing through its flesh, I sawed off its bones in order to access its insides.
Once the chest is opened, I undo the blade so that I can carefully take out its magic crystal. Its crystal is as big as baseball and it is quite heavy. Orcs and goblins have deep red magic crystals, but the one from the wyvern has the same hue as an emerald.
Unlike the other magic crystals I have seen, this emits the most magical essence. My body is badly craving this power.
(Alright. Time for a big meal.)
Crunch.
I put the crystal into my mouth and let my internal teeth grind it for me. It is like eating hard candy. The fragments of the crystal are immediately being absorbed by my flesh and I can feel my body fires up.
(Ohh! What's this power?!)
The more I absorb it, the more powerful I have become. I can clearly feel that my strength, mana capacity, senses, and thinking speed improve again. This time, the power-up is more than everything I have gained since the beginning. My power essentially doubles or greater. I am overwhelming with mana.
I note that my power-up, in terms of measured quantity, is not as much as the mana I feel in the magic crystal. I also felt the same for the ones with the orcs and goblins. I did not get each of the magic crystals full power, just a percentage of it.
If I compare the input and the output, the mana I absorb is roughly around half of the source. Nevertheless, I feel like it's more than enough and a lot better than obtaining nothing or a pinch of the power like gaining grams of protein out of kilos of meat.
After consuming the magic crystal, I focus my attention on the wyvern's corpse. My first question is how can this monster use magic but I cannot? I need to investigate this.
Firstly, when this wyvern was about to spew its fire, its throat swelled and mana was collected in it. Also, fire attacks are the only things it can do.
My first thought is that it has a specific part or organ that allows it to utilize mana, which I suspect is the throat. If I can replicate anything I have eaten to my body, in theory, I would be able to shoot flames if I devour its throat.
In order to consume all of it, I open my mouth wide, enough to fit the head, and grab its head and pull it into my mouth using my tongue. For some reason, my body is like an endless pit and I am able to easily swallow that much content. Naturally, wyvern meat is much better than goblins, but not as great and tender as orc's.
(Okay, let me try this first.)
The first thing I do right after devouring the severed head and neck of the wyvern is to partially transform my wooden exterior into scales. For me to see the results, I stick out my tongue far and transfer my eyes into, essentially turning it into a selfie stick.
(Ooh. This is so cool.)
My old boring wooden body has turned into a masterpiece of an armor of dark brown scales. My new body is shiny and gains a lot more durability. This might be my permanent skin for now. However, having only all scales is too brutal and plain. For aesthetic purposes only, I turn a few inches of the edges of my body back to wood.
(Alright, that's better.)
Once I am satisfied with my new look, I proceed tinkering with the wyvern's special ability of creating fire. Examining the throat, I find out that the fire came from a specialized organ. I do not know the nature of it, but I theorize that mana is supposed to channel it in order to create those fiery flames.
After replication the organ on the palate, I open my mouth and begin inputting my mana on it. To my surprise, heat actually starts generating in that organ. Thankfully, I transformed my insides like that of the wyvern for adapting the fire.
When I sense that I have reached the minimum threshold to fire, I direct myself to the piles of dead goblins and unleash the accumulatimed heat.
VRRSHHH!
Suddenly, flames actually gush out of my mouth and shower the corpses in fire. The flames are projected like that of a flamethrower, condensed fire at the opening that spreads out the further it goes. My flames do not hurt me or anything since my exterior and interior parts are identical to wyvern's.
Upon seeing the flames, I measure that I can shoot out fire up to a target as far as thirty meters. After ten seconds, I stop the flames and charge some mana again. I close my mouth in order to gain momentum before I quickly open it back to fire a ball of fire.
VHOOSH!
The fire ball flies fast in the air before hitting the goblin mountain, creating a small explosion upon collision, which catches the corpses in flames.
(This is great.)
I am finally able to use magic. This adds to my collection of offensive attacks. In the end, I conclude that I need to consume a specific part in order to replicate the ability.
So right now, my mission is to devour every powerful and worth-eating monster I encounter and take their powers. My goal is not just to get stronger, but to overcome every obstacle. I have no idea how powerful I am currently in comparison to the powerhouses of this world.
(Yeah. I have to eat the whole thing if I want to fly.)
Afterwards, I reward myself with a dragonic feast.