Name: Devil's Taste
Species: Sea Cucumber (
Holothuria pardalis)
Appearance: It has a soft and cylindrical shape, with white thorns protruding from its rough pink skin.
Origin: Inshore region surrounding No Names City.
Inhabits the sea between the shoreline and the edge of the continental shelf. Often seen attached to human or animal corpses.
Feeding: Saprophytic. Feeds on bloated human corpses as they decompose within the sea. It grows into the human body as the Devil's Taste consumes its host's nutrients.
Reproduction: Capable of both sexual and asexual reproduction. It secretes sweet serum when the sea cucumber is matured enough to reproduce. Animals and humans are attracted to the scent, and are often tempted to consume it. Using a trick similar to the parasite toxoplasma gondii (
link), the ingested sea cucumber will cause the victim to release a slightly sweet scent, influencing other living organisms to turn aggressive and prey on its host. When the host is dead, the Devil's Taste will release thousands of spores attaching them onto the inner skin of the corpse. Each spore will grow into a new Devil's Taste, as they eat their way out of their victim.
Folklore: It is rumored that people can predict their own deaths by consuming the Devil's Taste - a bad taste indicates survival while a good one indicates upcoming death. However, in reality it was only the working of the sea cucumber's peculiar mating mechanism. In fact, there are cases when people ate a disgusting Devil's Taste only to be killed right after.
Commercial: Fishermen in the City of No Names are known to harvest the Devil's Tastes on a monthly basis and sell them to the local market or inns. Prices (as of 2017) can range from 435 to 1000 Euro per kilogram.
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