Jaune 'woke' to pain and confusion. He gagged at the stench flooding the air, his stomach ached and a sharp pain came from in his chest. It took a moment before he realized his fears had come true, to an extent at least.

The sword was now halfway out of him, and had tipped over, the handle was out of reach and the blade had begun to cut him, he ran his hand down the blade and to his fresh wound. He could feel the pain, and he was left wondering how long it had been.

He took inventory of his body, he was now maggot free, the muscles in his arms were hard, his teeth pierced through the skin on his finger when he tested how sharp they were, his stomach felt full and his bones felt solid. He reached over to the remains next to him, and was surprised he could only find a small pile of rotten flesh, he had a theory that the red eyed monster also couldn't eat maggots, he might've been wrong, he wasn't sure yet.

He grabbed a few maggots and swallowed them, he barely gagged, so he took another handful, and another, and another, until he finally vomited, this one was violent. He could feel dozens of undigested rat bones scratch at his throat before he spat them out, he continued to vomit until he felt empty. He didn't bother examining the pile of puke before he hurled the handfuls over the ledge.

After that, Jaune found his rock, and used it to tilt the blade until the handle was over his head. He hadn't realized how long the blade was before now. When he was sure it wouldn't fall off the ledge, he gripped the blade and pulled it out.

The blade cut his hand but he was now free, he set the blade down next to him, as he basked in his accomplishment. He took pleasure in the pain his heart was in, he could feel it again. He didn't let himself 'sleep', he stayed 'awake' until the pain faded. Then he reached over to the hole the rodents used, gripped the edge, then he pulled and rolled himself over.

His spine tingled and his exposed back shivered in the air. Lying on his chest would make it easier to move his arm around, of course he would have to pick his head up every two times he dragged himself. He didn't plan to go in this direction, so he used his hand to drag himself to face the other direction.

As he moved over the spot he was pinned he discovered something: a crusty square. No, it was a piece of his shirt, it must've been soaked in his blood and dried up, and the insects couldn't get to it since it was under him. He had completely forgotten that he used to wear clothes.

Now Jaune needed to decide what to bring with him: the sword - somehow - or his rock and the bloody cloth. He came up with a plan to make his choice easier. He was going to throw the rock in the opposite direction of the ledge, if it landed he would go pick it up and continue down that way.

After he threw the rock almost immediately a loud clack echoed back as the rock flew past him, and down the ledge.

Darn.

Now he had to do something about the cloth, he used it to clean up his vomit, and then he ate it after it got damp. That was two out of three objects dealt with, and for the sword. He decided to hold the handle with his strong teeth, and he started dragging himself forth.

Only to stop and take the sword out his mouth, he used it to clean the pile of rotten flesh out his way, then he put the sword back and continued on his way. He chose this way because of the monster; it had come from this direction, and he wanted to 'eat' a glowing eye.

He continued down his path unobstructed for a while, but then a fire inside him ignited and he spasmed violently.

More pain flashed all over his body, and when it stopped, it took him a second to realize he was now sticky and wet, it took another second to realize that it was blood, that he was bleeding out of all of his wounds.

In the next second, Jaune had been swarmed by hungry insects. He realized they would pick him clean, and soon he would just be another rotting corpse. He continued to drag himself and he didn't stop until he felt something faintly sticky meeting his skin, he waved his hand in the air slowly.

It was a web, he could hear the change in the buzzing of insects, they moved faster but it was muffled. He dragged himself forward, into the webbed nest, hoping to lose the insect. After a while, he finally escaped the insects, and he could barely hear the buzzing that he had grown so accustomed to.

He slowed down, his head hurt and his body itched. He brought a finger over his bloody eye socket, it stung like a fresh wound and was still bleeding. It took him a while to notice a faint sound, then he realized he was hearing his heartbeat. It was faint and slow, but a beat nonetheless.

He listened again, and this time it was fainter and slower, he had to wonder about the physical significance of a beating heart. It meant blood was flowing, and blood was needed to heal. He attributed the beating heart to him 'digesting' his own blood, but maybe there was more to it. He had rat blood before and he didn't bleed, so maybe it also had to do with his heart not having a sword in it.

Whatever the case, Jaune grabbed a handful of thick webs and soaked it in his blood, then he swallowed it and waited. When the fire ignited, it was less intense, but gave him the same results as the cloth. He repeatedly 'ate' soaked webs until there weren't any webs at his level, then he let himself 'sleep.'

They were gone, the small wounds that littered his body were gone. The slices that went around his arm from the red eyed monster's teeth, the scratches from dragging his face on the ground were gone.

His bigger open wounds were closed off or covered by scabs. His left eye and ear, the rim of the gap in his cheek, the hole in the back of his skull, the stab wound in his chest, and the exposed fleshy bits on his right arm, all were covered in layers of scabs. Of course his gut was still exposed and seemed unaffected, aside from the dried blood.

Jaune couldn't hear his beating heart anymore, but he wasn't worried, he had saved one blood soaked web. And he wasn't worried about decaying any further, his dead body seemed to not decay normally. He wasn't even sure he understood how his body moved, how did he get stronger if his muscles didn't heal? How did eating something just affect his nose and teeth?

He could sit here and ask questions forever, but instead he chose to act. He continued down his path, only hitting a dead end twice, but he stopped when he heard movement around a corner, it sounded slimy and smooth.

He was excited, he hoped it would be the red eyed monster. And he wasn't disappointed, no, he was overjoyed when he saw three of them. At first he was wary at seeing three red glowing eyes but then, as his eye adjusted, he saw that they weren't one being.

Jaune put the blood soaked web down, and he grabbed the handle on the sword, he bent his arm so his elbow was pointing upward and the blade was against the ground near his gut, and he waited.

When the first monster passed by him, he used all his might to extend his elbow and swing down the blade, he twisted his body as much as he could and slammed the blade down on the monster. The steel bit deep and then slid out a now still monster.

As the other two reacted, he dragged his body to face them and waited, he needed to see what they could do. One seemed to scrunch up, then it jumped at him, he raised the sword and stabbed it forward - into the gaping mouth. As the monster fell, impaled, it dragged the sword down with it.

The second survivor of his first attack squirmed away and he debated chasing it down, before dismissing it.

He used the sword to slice completely through the boneless bottom half of the two monsters he had killed. Which, now that he could see them better, realized they looked like giant worms. He took nibbling bites of a Dark Worm's pitch black flesh, they tasted slimy and like bitter blood and dirt.

Once he finds a tongue and heals his cheek, he would start chewing normally. He 'ate' about a fourth of one of the Dark Worms, then he 'ate' one of the glowing red eyes. He ripped the other out its socket and kept it with him as he scooted back to where he dropped the blood soaked web.

He swallowed the web, and went to 'sleep.'

He 'awoke' and found he went through no major changes. He hoped healing while 'digesting' would give him a glowing red eye, it would appear he was wrong. Partially, maybe, Jaune's left eye socket did feel a bit warm, and that was enough to give him hope, but he knew it was probably just fresh blood pooling under the scabs.

The glowing red eye he didn't 'eat' had dimmed slightly, he could still see with the faint light, but he had to strain his eye to do so. It was weird to look at things, he decided after looking over his body, which had healed some more.

He started dragging himself over to the sword and the dead Worms, when he suddenly had an idea. Now that he wasn't moving with a heavy sword in his mouth, he could use both his elbows to crawl, of course his head hung but that wasn't important.

When Jaune reached the corpses, he 'ate' some of the remaining flesh and then went to work dissecting the Worms. They were weird, their mouths were three stripes of teeth that were all connected by a stretchy muscle, and behind their jaws they were just organs, muscle and flesh. The glowing red eye seemed to connect to a cable that went somewhere in the back.

Then he just filled his stomach with whatever parts looked neat. Afterwards he bit into the sword and continued to crawl, he got into the habit of using his elbows, Jaune also had to stop every time to roll the glowing red eye a little bit ahead of him. He eventually spasmed, but kept on crawling.

Then he found more Dark Worms. He was probably headed for a nest, and the thought filled him with anticipation. He watched as two monsters approached him, they seemed to ignore him.

Is it the red light?

Jaune had an idea as to why they weren't attacking him, but he shoved it aside to focus on killing these two. He chose to wait until he was behind the two Worms to attack. When they went past him, he turned around and stabbed the sword into the back of one, then he dragged himself up, and slammed his right arm into the back of the other while falling.

They both died with a whimper.

That was so cool!

Jaune took pleasure in killing the monsters with style. He 'ate' the flesh and eye of one of the Worms, and had another idea. He didn't know if it would work, but hey, he didn't have much to lose for trying.

He cut the bottom half of the monster he didn't feed on, and took the eye out with some of the cable attached, then he rolled both the dim eye and the new eye to a wall, before he scooted himself over while dragging the bottom half of a Dark Worm with him.

Once he found the wall, he rolled the worm bottom upside down and used the wall to turn himself on his back, then he stabbed his spine into the Worm and pulled it up till the exposed guts met his own guts. Then he peeled the scab out of his left eye socket and shoved in the new glowing red eye into his socket, cable first. He peeled off some more scabs and 'ate' them all, before drifting off to 'sleep.'


Jaune was unsure of whether or not to be happy that his experiment had worked, kinda. His flesh and body parts of the Dark Worm were connected, but it was a little unresponsive. He could barely get his tail to twitch, and he couldn't see out of his new eye.

And now he had to drag along extra weight, but on the plus side, he didn't have to roll an orb every time he moved. He ate the rest of the monster, hoping that he just needed to 'eat' some more of them for his new appendages to become active.

He bit the sword once more, and continued to drag himself. He was going to hunt down some more, then eat his scabs to heal while he 'digested.'


Jaune 'woke' to feel himself squirm, his Worm half was squirming.

Yes!

After he stopped cheering, he realized he had done the Worm hunting in his 'sleep.' He was a little conflicted on what he should feel. On one hand, it was nice that he 'woke' to progress, but on the sharp bones, he liked being able to think.

It took Jaune a second to notice, but now he could see out his Worm eye. It was actually harder to use both eyes, his vision seemed to default to looking out his new eye now. The glowing red eye could see in the dark, like actually see.

Maybe the glowing red light was just a side effect.

He could see clearly in all directions, as it seemed it didn't have a singular facing pupil. He took a moment to examine his body, his right arm had healed and his scabs had mostly turned into skin now. His cheek had closed, and the scab on his ear was just scar tissue. The cut on his chest was just a scar now. His gut had connected with his Worm half in a gross slimy scar. His pinky finger on his left hand was one-third back to normal.

He continued to crawl as he also practiced squirming. And he also accepted the fact that he was going to 'sleep' for most of the adventure and only 'wake' when he finished a task for now.


Jaune used his monster half naturally, and he decided to take a bite out of his right arm when he healed, so he wouldn't run out of scabs to eat. He could use his Worm eye like it was his own, and decided to start 'eating' the stretchy muscle in the mouth of Worms.

He had to tear open his cheeks so they healed with the new muscle. Now that he had gotten everything he could from the Worms, he told himself to find the nest and destroy it.


Jaune 'woke up' amongst piles of dead half eaten Dark Worms, he was looking down on them with his height. He examined his body, his Dark Worm lower half had tripled in length, now he was bending it upwards at where it used to end. He knew it didn't have bones, so it was all muscle that propped him up.

His Dark Worm eye had also tripled in size, deforming his skull, it used to be the size of his fist, now he would need two hands just to cover the exposed half. The only remaining wounds on his body was his missing right hand and a scab on his arm.

The monster nest wasn't anything special, just a big cave with a lot of tunnels. With a sword held in a firm grip, he slithered forward into a tunnel that went deeper underground.

I should probably find an animal or monster that had ears or a tongue. Being able to hear better or talk at all would probably make staying awake easier for me.


Thanks for reading! I'm always open to feedback, so please leave a review, or reply in my forum, about what you liked or hated about this chapter or the whole story. If anyone wants to be a Beta Reader, then PM me and we'll talk details.