14 Hunger

Mike woke up again, he had slept a little more since the failed attempt on his life and it was now early morning, as always the first he did was to open his hand as the knife flew over and landed in his hand

"Thank you my dear"

Mike caressed the knife on the blade before he put on some clothes and went downstairs to eat some breakfast, after he finished eating he walked aimlessly into the city and wandered the streets while he felt hungry again

'Oh well I have the money for more food, besides I won't get fat with all the exercise I do… let's eat some more'

Mike ate some street food before he eventually arrived at the guild and went in to take a look, standing in front of the request board Mike looked over the request board when he suddenly thought

'Yeah goblins would be good… but I really want the blood of humans… wait what?'

Mike shook his head slightly before he ate the last of the skewered grilled meat he had brought, his hunger had subsided a bit but it was still there

'Maybe my hunger is an after effect of leveling up? Should I maybe go ask Julie?'

As much as Mike disliked the idea of seeing Julie two days in a row he didn't really feel like he had a choice as he had too little information and thus he went towards the temple where he soon arrived and walked into the grand lobby and asked the receptionist for Julie

"Oh, you must be Mike right?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Well lady Julie said that if a youth came here and asked for her it would be a Mike and that we should let him wait in the lobby while sending her a message"

"Oh… I see, well then I'll wait"

"Yes, I'll go inform lady Julie"

Mike found a seat and sat down, for about 20 minutes he counted the people that came and went in the temple while saliva was gathering in his mouth as his hunger grew at a rapid pace, soon his stomach began growling and just as he was about to walk out of the temple to get some food Julie showed up.

She was not wearing her armor instead a blue summer dress, still she wore a belt where her sword was strapped to which totally ruined the cute look she was going for, Mike stood up and greeted her

"Good morning Julie"

Julie blushed slightly before she began playing with her short silver hair

"Morning Mike, so what's up… I am busy you know"

"First let's go eat"

At this point Mike was starving so he simply threw caution to the wind and grabbed Julie by the hand and half dragged her out of the temple (Of course he would be unable to drag Julie anywhere if she didn't want to go as she was still a level over him) After Mike had dragged her halfway down the street Julie finally spoke

"Mike… Your hand"

Mike looked back and saw that Julie was blushing all the way up to her ears, he suddenly felt a pang of hunger again and leaned in slightly before he thought

'She sure smells good, I wonder what shade of red her blood is..?'

"Mike?"

"...Sorry I just had a really ridiculous thought, do you mind repeating yourself?"

Julie took a deep breath and calmed down before she asked

"So where are we eating?"

"Hmm… I had thought about just grabbing some skweres"

Julie played with her hair a bit before she asked

"What do you normally eat Mike?"

Mike thought for a moment before he spoke

"Well what the Inn serves? That or some grilled meat from the street stalls"

"Hmm… I have never had any grilled meat from the stalls so let's try that, go get us some"

Mike gave a sigh

"...Sure"

Then he went and brought some grilled meat and handed a skewer to Julie before he began eating his, after eating about half Mike spoke

"So I have a question for you Julie, it's about leveling up"

"Sure ask away"

"Were you overly hungry anytime after you just leveled up?"

"Hmm… well to tell the truth I don't really remember when I level up to level 2 like you, after all I was only five at the time… But at least when I reached level 3 I didn't feel overly hungry"

"Oh, I see… Maybe it's just me"

"Well I could try asking around"

Mike gave a slight smile before he gave a nod and finished his skewer

It was only after noon that Julie let Mike leave again, she commanded him around so Mike could only endure, afterall he didn't want to get beaten again, she only let him go because she had to attend a ritual at the temple

'I swear I'll beat her up when I am able…'

Mike was once again walking around the city aimlessly, enduring hunger pangs Mike finally decided on something to do and walked back to the Inn and picked up his backpack with igniter paper and a leather pouch for goblin ears and went hunting

'I can at least still fight while I am hungry… Maybe it will set my mind off my hunger…Besides I have to make a dent in that 100.000 experience...'

Mike ignored the weird thought he had about blood as he walked past the people in the city and soon he reached the woods just outside of the city and began hunting for goblins, which in and of itself wasn't very hard and soon he found a group of about 15 goblins, among them were one with tattoo like patterns on its body but Mike oversaw it and treated it as a normal goblin and stepped out into the clearing in front of the group of goblins and yelled to get their attention

"Oi Green skins, come at me!"

The goblins discovered him and charged at him with an eerie likeness to toddlers that had just learned how to walk, Mike began kicking them around (sometimes literally) and totally missed the one with tattoo like patterns on its body that was chanting with increasing speed before suddenly a fireball the size of a soccer ball appeared in the air above the goblin mage and was hurled towards Mike at a really quick speed, Mike only just managed to spot it before it was too late and bent his body over backwards just barely dodging the fireball that continued on and hit the trunk of a tree, leaving behind a rather big scorch mark

"Holly shit!"

Mike looked over at the tattooed goblin mage and narrowed his eyes slightly when he saw that it was chanting again before he threw the knife and hit the goblin mage right in the middle of its head, the knife buried itself into the skull of the goblin mage with a rather satisfying sound before Mike opened his hand and the knife was pulled back to him, then he quickly finished off the rest of the goblins and gave a sigh

"I nearly got my face melted off…"

Mike quickly began collecting the right ears of the goblins before he drained the corpses for blood and suddenly didn't feel hungry anymore, he noticed this and paused before he looked at the knife and spoke out loud

"Don't tell me it was you that was feeling hungry..?"

The knife gave a soft glow as to confirm his question which really startled Mike until a soft red light glowed in the depths of his eyes once more and he gave a nod

"Well makes sense you were hungry, you got to taste that vampire from yesterday but you didn't drink his blood…"

Mike careased the blade of the knife for a few seconds before he put it back it the sheath, then he quickly piled the corpses and ripped a piece of igniter paper and dropped it on the pile and stood and watched it burn for a few moments before he gave a nod and walked back towards Morkove

'Now that I have solved the hunger problem I suddenly don't feel like hunting anymore… I am also feeling that the knife have grown tired of goblin blood…'

Soon Mike returned to Morkove and turned in the 15 goblin ears for some money before he went back to wandering the streets, as he passed by a weapons shop he suddenly stopped and looked for a bit

'Was it my imagination..?'

Mike stood still and listened for a bit before he decided to walk into the weapons shop and walked over to a display and put his hand on the glass and mumbled

"It was not my imagination… This one is hungry too…'

Inside the display case lay a rather dull looking short sword, but despite how dull it looked Mike could feel an intense thirst for blood from the sword and gave a slight smile