Invisible Reaper Dragon (A Reincarnation Story)

Chapter 41 - The Test (Part 5)

"I guess you wouldn't really care about anything other than food when it's right in front of you huh?" Pops sighed. I watched as he turned around and walked up the stairs, I followed behind as he went to the kitchen and set everything on the center island, motioning for me to take a seat. "Sorry I took so long. There was a bit of a situation in the Main Commerce area that stalled the distribution of things until it was resolved...

I tilted my head at that, he was hiding something. I was sure of that, but what could've gotten him irritated enough like this, from what I understood Pops didn't get annoyed that easily. 

...Well, whatever it was, it was over with now and he'd been able to get food nonetheless so the wait was worth it in my eyes. Especially when I was able to actually dig in: the flavors and spices were on a similar level to the things that he used, but the meat was different: it was a mix between savory and tough, something that took a second to eat, but it was worth it as the taste never dulled at all as I chewed. And with how much different my jaw structure was and how sharp my teeth were now it was a testament to how hard this most likely would've been to eat, and whoever prepared it was clearly very skilled. 

It took me probably twenty minutes to eat the five skewers that he'd brought back: they were pretty big skewers too, with each of them being as long as Pops' legs and almost just as thick...I was definitely going to find wherever it was that these were made and figure out a way to learn how they were able to cook meat like this. 

"This is Ogre meat," Pops spoke up seeing that I was almost finished, and I tilted my head at him: I'd heard about Ogres before back on earth, even seeing a bit of art depicting several different kinds, but maybe it was different here... "They're one of the few humanoid creatures found in dungeons that area considered a delicacy amongst all forms of meat-eating Beask-Kin and other sentient humanoid beings. Now of course it was a bit of a controversy whether it was considered to be cannibalism considering they're also humanoid, and some of them are able to grow strong enough to become self-aware, but the general public amongst Beast-Kin and other species like myself enjoyed their meat too much to care so eventually the stigma disappeared and some diners and traveling carts started selling Ogre meat as jerky or skewers like such.

"Of course, you've never seen one before so I wouldn't expect you to know how they look or what to think about this. The change did happen only a few decades ago, and that's fairly recent considering the history of this Empire, but to other sentient quadrupedal creatures like Dragons and related species. These guys were hunted nearly to extinction. Going as far as to flee to Dungeons and Portals in order to escape. Then something happened here and there and now they can be found as a naturally generated monster in most of the higher leveled Dungeons around." 

He leaned back against the counter-top next to the sinks in thought, "Come to think of it I believe that there was a special kind of dragon hunting group specifically for the capture and elimination of specifically Ogres among the Dragons, due to their high resistances to most kinds of attacks as well as their naturally high threat level." He looked at me, I was still tilting my head at him to show my curiosity and he chuckled, "They're natural rank is around a Higher B Rank Adventurer, and those that are able to get around the hundreds in level can even reach S Rank threat levels. So for dragons and other kinds similar in level or even slightly above, hunting them was a lot of fun. Maybe even a bit of a challenge for the newer hunters in the groups...I know that I certainly had a lot of fun killing them: I couldn't just (Disintegrate) them, as that would be a waste of high-quality meat, and they were highly Resistant to Impact and Stabbing attacks, as well as Fire and a wide range of other Magics." 

That sounded like something I wouldn't be able to face until I got a little stronger yet. "If you're thinking you wouldn't be able to take one down by yourself I don't know. Your venom is corrosive to a degree and they're still susceptible to other kinds of internal damage, so as long as you're able to get past their tough skin--which I'm sure your claws, tail, and teeth are already capable of--you would have to get through another way: eyes or mouth are usually the most widely used options. Though, Unfortunately you wouldn't be able to actually sell any of their meat for profit as your venom is only able to be consumed by you and you alone, and there's no way to purify it either."