[Warning: Your Hunger is reaching the threshold. Please eat something to avoid backlash]
It was the first time a warning like this had appeared before Azekiel. A Hunger Threshold? It was also his first hearing about this term.
He knew that the stronger he became, the more his hunger increased. Other than quickly becoming hungry, he hadn't expected any other disadvantage of this Hunger. He thought the hunger only meant he was going to suffer the tormenting hunger, but even that wasn't a massive problem for him.
He had already experienced the tormenting hunger before and understood what it felt like. He didn't believe it was that big a problem for him to go hungry for a few days.
Unfortunately, it appeared as if he had underestimated this whole hunger thing. He was the King of Gluttony, and that came with many benefits, but there were also disadvantages of it.
As the King of Gluttony, hunger was his biggest enemy while also being his closest friend. It was something he could neither fully embrace nor completely avoid.
Now he saw a glimpse of the negative side of Gluttony. If even his system was warning him to eat something, that meant the backlash wasn't just a simple burst of hunger if he didn't eat anything soon. It was something more severe if even his System had to intervene to alert him.
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could eat at the moment, despite feeling excruciating hunger. Nothing except... He gazed at the apple in his pocket.
He remembered when he held the apple; his system hadn't issued any warning. Did that mean there was nothing wrong with the apple? Moreover, his system had just told him to eat. He wondered if that was his system telling him that it was safe to eat.
Azekiel brought the apple out of his pocket, gazing at the beautiful apple, which was free of any flaw.
"I'm trusting you. Don't disappoint me now," he muttered in an inaudible voice as if talking to his system. He knew what a significant risk it was. If the apple was poisonous, it was game over for him right there. Unfortunately, there were no better alternatives.
The system warning didn't tell him when the backlash was going to hit if he didn't eat anything, but it sounded not too far. Even if he waited longer, it was unlikely that he was going to find something to eat that was completely safe. There was a chance of everything in this town being poisonous or corrupt.
If it was an inevitable risk, then it was better to trust his system for now.
He brought the red apple close to his lips. His lips parted slowly.
"What are you doing? It might be-"
By the time Raphael noticed what Azekiel was attempting, it was too late already. He was in the middle of his sentence when Azekiel took his first bite from the apple.
As soon as Azekiel took the first bite of the apple, he could feel a sweet taste filling his mouth. The taste of this apple was unlike any apple he had ever tasted before. It was sweet but not too sweet.
He couldn't recall when he ate something so delicious last. This fruit was heavenly. It was certainly not an ordinary fruit. But at the same time, it also wasn't poisonous. He couldn't feel anything strange in his body eating the apple.
"Are you alright?" Raphael asked in concern, not understanding how Azekiel could do something so stupid out of nowhere. Was his hunger really so overwhelming that he couldn't control himself?
Azekiel took another bite of the apple after making sure there was nothing wrong with it. For some reason, eating only one apple itself filled him up entirely. He didn't feel hungry anymore... At least not for now.
This was incredulous for him. Generally, he ate as many as twenty people in one sitting before he could feel full. Based on that, he was sure that he shouldn't have been full even if he ate hundreds of fruits. However, just this one was enough here.
'He might be the Soul Demon, but the apples he carries aren't bad. If I can finish this mission and get that entire bag, I could keep it all in the storage ring. These strange apples could save hours of time I waste eating.'
As Azekiel thought about how he could get even more benefits than he initially thought, he didn't realize that there was something really ironic going on with him.
He was the King of Gluttony, but in the last few minutes, he was experiencing the Greed. Then again, Greed and Gluttony weren't that different from each other after all.
As Azekiel ate the apple, the smile on the old man's face widened. He finally stopped looking back at Azekiel. Instead, he focused ahead.
"The hunger can turn even the best of us into the worst," the old man mumbled. "Unfortunately, that same hunger can lead one down a path of no return."
The old man finally stopped before a house in the middle of the small town. He opened the door and entered the tree house, not forgetting to leave the door open for the three guests behind.
Azekiel didn't enter right away. Instead, he finally stopped.
"Raphael, quest," he stated in vague terms so that even if the old man was hearing, he couldn't understand.
Even though Azekiel only said one word other than his name, Raphael understood what he implied. They had accompanied Azekiel on quite a few quests.
Azekiel observed his surroundings once again before pointing to the old man's house. He didn't mention the old man, but it was evident who he was implying.
He further raised his hand, keeping his palm open before clenching it suddenly. "Finish."
'A quest to kill that old man?' Raphael deciphered the signals. 'What kind of quest is this? To kill the man we know nothing about? It's too risky. Especially with how strange that man really is.'
Based on what Raphael had managed to decipher from the old man's action, he wasn't an ordinary man. It wasn't going to be easy to kill him. The man was like a ghost. This mission appeared too risky.
"Risky," Raphael stated.
"Must. Stay ready," Azekiel replied.
"Will you three stop your discussion and get inside?" The old man appeared at the door again, this time dressed in a different attire.
If previously he was wearing the clothes of an ordinary villager, now he was wearing something even more bizarre. The old man was wearing the clothes from Azekiel's world...
