Silence the Hunger

It had already been two weeks on this alien-like spaceship. He was slowly getting used to the geography of it all.

Most of his days comprised strength training, survival training and sparring with that god damned brute Ellena. Apparently she was a well-practised fighter, and it showed. However, the good thing was that he quickly learned how to better use his hands and feet. He was used to getting into fights from before, but it was a unique experience against a professional.

Despite that, the most difficult thing to get to grips with was being told what to do. His thoughts drifted back to around a week ago when he refused to clean the toilets because of the soldiers' attitude. His back was still littered with flogging marks as the soldier’s scream penetrated his ears without consent.

However, he felt like he was getting a little better with being ordered around, unless it was something ridiculous that was.

As they sat at one of the canteen tables, Alphonse listened to the excited rambling of his newfound ‘friends’ around him.

"I hear there's quite a few beauties within class A." Dillan's eyes shone.

"I've seen a pink-haired girl walk about. She's... her name is Felecia. She's really... pretty." Halfway through the sentence, Marcel realised what he was saying as his cheeks turned a deep scarlet.

"Oh shit, Marcel, you have a crush!" Ellena's shouted. A grin appeared on her face as her eyes opened wide. She took great satisfaction in Marcel's embarrassment. The other members from Class E Looked over at the loud-mouthed Ellena.

"Ellena." Marcel shifted in his chair, his shoulders drooped downwards as he made his body as small as possible.

I bet she's not even that pretty. Isobelle thought to herself as she swished her hair to the side.

"Besides, is that all you guys think about? Can't you be more like Alphonse?" Ellena said.

"What?" Alphonse ears picked up his name. He was barely listening as his face was stuck in his plate.

"You, because you're not interested in women, right?" Ellena said in a low voice as she winked towards him.

"What are you talking about?" Alphonse looked side to side. Is she crazy? Alphonse thought as he looked at Ellena's creepy grin.

"Seriously, If I hadn't already known you had been with women before, I would be concerned about you. You haven't looked at a single girl here, not even in the showers." Ellena said she emphasized the shower part.

"Not that you know of." Alphonse smiled.

"Don't be silly. The only thing Alphonse is interested in is that plate of food." Isobelle laughed as she watched Alphonse devour the food in front of him.

The others had gotten used to Alphonse when they were having dinner, his stomach didn’t seem to have an end as countless amounts of food vanished before their eyes.

Of course it was because he was hungry, but that wasn’t all. If you could become stronger with eating, like hell you would choose a small amount of food!

< Quest Complete! [ Eat 100,000 calories in two weeks ] >

< Quest reward received. >

< Hunger trait is evolving… >

His stomach was about to explode as he finally heard the announcement in anticipation. Dillan had already completed his quest of reaching a certain weight lifting limit. It resulted in a massive strength and toughness increase.

I wonder what I will get. Alphonse thought as he rubbed his hands together in excitement.

< Mutation of trait [ Hunger ] has taken place. >

Ah shit...

Alphonse clenched his stomach in panic. The agony that freshly arrived wrecked his body as he tried his hardest not to scream out in pain.

What the fuck! Alphonse’s face turned scarlet red as he bit his tongue, trying to redirect the pain somewhere else. He quickly urged his status to open as his stats appeared in full view.

[ Name Alphonse Khastal

Class: None

Traits: Ravenous Hunger [ Mutated ]

Skills: Gourmet Extraction

Attributes:

Strength: 4.8

Dexterity: 7.9

Constitution: 5.4

Intelligence: 5.6

Wisdom: 6.2

Charisma: 3.3 ]

His stats had a steady increase over the past couple weeks but his attention was on the so-called mutation that caused this crippling pain. He focused on the trait as it moved to a different window.

< Ravenous Hunger [ Mutated] : If you don’t consume a certain amount of food within a time limit you will suffer immense pain from starvation, gradually gets worse until death. >

How can I eat even more food, damned system, my stomach is going to explode! Screw it!

Alphonse snatched Dillan’s plate of food as he devoured it. Sauce and fat from the foods covered his fingers as he no longer cared about using eating utensils.

“Alphonse man. I’m going to be sick. What's up with you?” Dillan spoke out as the rest agreed, it was a sight that was hard to stomach.

Alphonse only stopped after his hunger had been satiated, at least for now.

“Damn, I thought I was going to die.” Alphonse took a deep breath in relief.

Alphonse looked at the worried faces of his friends. “Don’t worry about it, it’s just my trait acting up.”

“Still, I think you should tell Professor Parsons. This is still unknown territory, after all.” Isobelle said in concern.

“Mm, I'll do that then.” He spoke, trying to console his friend. Like hell he would, he thought.

“So, are any of you nervous about the exams coming up?” Marcel opened his mouth, his shaky voice still not fixed as he tried to avoid eye contact with everyone.

“Alphonse definitely should be. I don’t think he’s even opened up the study section of his D.S.D once for the entire two weeks.”

At the mention of the study Alphonse grimaced. “Hey, if I fail, I fail alright. I have no interest in becoming an officer, after all.”

“Still, you don’t even know the history of this place yet, Alphonse.” Isobelle’s clear voice attacked him.

Ellena put her hand up into the air as she looked at him. “I’m right there with you.” She felt his pain.

The others knew Alphonse by now, stubborn as an ox and fully incapable of opening a book.

“So, what’s everyone going to do now?” Alphonse patted his bloated stomach, changing the subject completely.

“Work out.” Dillan and Ellena spoke at the same time.

“It’s all the same with you pair of muscle heads.” Isobelle shook her head as she took a sip of her tea.

“You can talk, well I’m guessing you and Marcel are heading to the library then, bookworms,” Ellena responded to the teasing.

They both nodded as Alphonse placed his head onto the table and mumbled. “Ah, you guys are so boring.”

Smiles covered their faces as they soon left the paralysed Alphonse sitting at the table.

“What do we have here? The food here is that trash. It must have poisoned him to death.” A group of four young men that had just entered Class E’s canteen. They had a badge with three stars that represented recruits from class C.

Ah, young brats are all the same. Put them in a higher class to others and they act all superior. Alphonse said to himself as he shifted his eyes upwards towards the group.

Just go away. However, it was too late. They noticed Alphonse’s eyes sneaking a look, and they walked closer. They had a confident swagger as they approached. Alphonse forced himself up as he grabbed his food tray and began walking towards the bin. Unfortunately, that’s where the Class C recruits were walking.

As they neared closer, one of them stepped to the side right as Alphonse was passing. Causing his tray to fall to the ground, the noise gathered everyone’s attention that was still within the canteen's halls.

“Hey what the fuck? Look at what you’ve done to my uniform.” The young man's eyebrows furrowed into a scowl, his pointed nose dipped forwards slightly as he pointed to the stain on his uniform.

“Ah, really?” Alphonse looked at them with a bored expression. It was something he dealt with in early highschool, and for it to happen here as well was pathetic.

“Hey what’s with the piss poor attitude? You ruined my friend's shirt, the least you could do is apologise.” A well-built young man joined in, they looked at each other and it seemed like they wanted to mess with him.

“Hey, isn’t that Alphonse? People call him Gluttony, constantly breaking chain of command and eating an absurd amount of food like a pig.” One of them spoke up and soon the others laughed.

“So I guess it’s doing a favour for our superiors if we beat his ass?” The pointy nosed young man taunted him as they moved forwards. His hand stretched forwards and was about to place it on Alphonse’s shoulder.

Alphonse smiled at the childishness of the group in front of him. He stifled down his laugh that was threatening to leave his mouth. “Gluttony, that doesn’t sound so bad, you know.”

Alphonse’s fingers flicked forwards as they dug snugly into his eye sockets, blood flowed down his face as Alphonse stepped inside and shot his knee straight at his groin. The others were completely stunned in place at the sudden brutal attack.

“You know, the only rule that I have paid attention to in this place is that a soldier of lower rank may defend themselves in any way they see fit from the attack of a higher class. They think that the weak should have the strength to stand up to those who are stronger.” Alphonse laughed, excitement filled his eyes. “I agree.”

Alphonse shot forwards, He made use of his heightened stats to the fullest. As he exploited the untrained technique of the fools in front of him. After all, it had only been two weeks, they were a bunch of inexperienced chickens.

Alphonse slipped the punches hurled towards him as he rapidly shifted his weight to the side. Thanks to his high dexterity, he sent a strong hook right to the nearest opponent's chin. He folded onto the ground from the accurate hit as Alphonse quickly dispatched the other two, using his elbows as the strongest part of his body.

He walked over to one of the young men and grabbed his arm and wrist. “Now fuck off.” Alphonse snarled at him and twisted his arm until a dull snapping sound transmitted into his hands.

“AHHH!”

The young man’s arm was suddenly twisted at a strange angle, as it sent the others chills down their spine as they heard the bone snap in two.

Alphonse walked off, completely ignoring the screams of the Class C recruits. The others in the canteen hall looked at him as if he was some sort of demon.