Winston sat there, eyes half closed as he sent shard after shard of energy crashing into the door. He was bored. So very bored. As much as he wanted to buy [Energy Conversion Core], he had to admit that the only reason he was still going was to spite Thalysar.

  Winston was running low on food energy, so he decided to take a break. He could gain energy by eating or using [Consume] on items, but he could still let it regenerate on its own, albeit much more slowly.

  Winston got to his feet, yawning, and walked over to the base of the door. Immediately, he sold the new flakes of metal, bringing him to a total of 89 shards. Just an hour before, he’d been at 62. While Winston’s new method of earning shards was efficient, it lacked the excitement of actually hunting.

  Winston whined. It’d only been a few hours since they were separated, but he already missed Erynd.

  He turned around, walking into the main room of his cell. As he tried to suppress his emotions, he began to consume random things around the room. After he felt his energy had been somewhat replenished, he looked around. He’d consumed a significant chunk of the grass and rocks in the room, leaving a large patch of barren dirt.

  Not wanting to ruin the rest of the grass, Winston looked around the room for something else to consume. Then, an idea came to him. Whenever he’d used [Consume], he had always used it on individual objects. He’d never tried consuming a chunk of something larger.

  Waddling up to the stone wall before him, he tried to consume it. It was strange. Winston growled as the wall itself seemed to resist him, but he pushed through. Then, it was like something snapped. A chunk of the wall, just an inch deep and half a foot wide disappeared, its energy flowing into Winston.

  [Consume lvl 7 → Consume lvl 8]

  Winston yipped in excitement. This could change everything! Winston turned around and dashed towards the door as quickly as his stubby legs would allow him.

  Winston activated [Consume] on the glowing metal of the door, eyes squeezed tight in concentration. Just like the wall, the material resisted. But where the wall’s resistance had been like fighting through the trickle of a creek, trying to break through the door was like swimming against the rapids.

  Winston stumbled back, panting in concentration.

  [Skill level not high enough to Consume this item.]

  Winston plopped down in disappointment. He hadn’t really expected it to work, but it was a letdown nonetheless. Even with [Consume] at level 8, it was still not strong enough. When would he be able to consume the metal that made up the door? Level 10? Level 15? Winston sighed, feeling the chaos of the day weighing on him. It was time to take a nap.

  ?? ′?? ? ??` ??

  Winston woke from his slumber to the sound of the cell door slamming closed. He jumped in alarm, nearly hitting his head on the stone above him. He’d moved between the padded mats for a while, eventually deciding the most comfortable one was under the stone ledge.

  He yawned, stretching as he watched Commander Thalysar enter the room. After a moment, he extricated himself from beneath the ledge, waddling out.

  Thalysar’s smile faded as he looked about the room. “Huh. You really can just consume everything, can’t you?” He gestured at the large patch of missing grass. “You know, this room was designed to hold powerful warriors of other factions. We put a lot of effort into curating the environment. It was meant as a gesture of goodwill, but you just had to come and eat it all.” He chuckled.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Walking up to Winston, he bent down. “If you don’t mind, I’ll be taking that for a moment.”

  Winston felt his body freeze again. While his torso was frozen, his limbs and head were still free to move. As Thalysar slid the spatial ring off of his paw, he tried to figure out how the commander’s skill worked. If he was to escape again in the future, he would have to figure out how to counter it.

  Winston squeezed his eyes shut, examining his body in a similar way as to when he entered his soulspace. There, at the very edge of his senses was an unfamiliar energy. Winston tried to concentrate on it, but it was too late. He felt Thalysar sliding the ring back onto his paw, and his body was freed from the paralysis.

  Thalysar stood up. “I’ll be back in a few hours with some others. Please do your best to comply. We wouldn’t want you to get in the way of our research. Oh, and please try not to destroy the cell while I’m gone.” Thalsyar stopped. “Can you even understand me? I just assumed that you could…” He shrugged.

  As the commander reached to open the door, he froze and dropped to one knee. Winston felt both anxiety and amusement growing within him as he watched Thalysar inspect where he’d been attacking the door.

  Slowly, Thalysar turned around. Winston just watched Thalysar.

  “This is expensive,” A muscle in his jaw twitched. “So, fucking, expensive.”

  Winston yipped smugly, holding his chin high.

  Thalysar buried his head in his hands. “What the fuck? How did you even do that? You’ve been here for 10 hours. Just 10 hours. And you’ve already done this much damage?” He looked at Winston, an incredulous expression on his face. “Where did the metal even go? It wasn’t in your ring—” He inhaled sharply. “You’re selling it. You’re fucking selling it.”

  Thalysar took a deep breath and walked out the door, slamming it behind him.

  Winston took a moment to relish Thalysar’s reaction. There was something amusing about his anger. Winston yawned again and waddled up to the door.

  Plopping down before it, he was about to begin attacking it, but he stopped. What if he tried going around the door? He knew that even with a clear path out, he wouldn’t get far. But still, he wanted to try anyway. Closing his eyes, he activated [Consume].

  A moment later, a chunk of the stone was gone. It wasn’t any significant amount, but it was progress nonetheless. He tried to consume another section of the wall, but felt something stopping him. After a moment of confusion, he realized why.

  When he consumed magical items, they went to his secondary stomach he had from [Enhanced Stomach]. Still, it took a moment to digest. He’d never tried to consume anything in such quick succession—or at least not any magical items.

  Winston tilted his head. Did that mean the stone walls were strengthened? Was that why he could only consume such small amounts at a time?

  The stone had already finished processing, giving him his energy several seconds prior. As he went back to consuming the wall, he thought. It’d been days since [Enhanced Stomach] had leveled up. It was still stuck at level 3. Winston guessed that he had to be close to level 4 by now.

  An inch at a time, Winston ate his way through the stone. Finally, he’d gotten far enough that he would only need to use [Consume] one or two more times to break through the wall. Just as he’d suspected, [Enhanced Stomach] had leveled up after consuming just a few chunks of the wall. After a moment of contemplation, he didn’t break all the way through. Instead, he walked back into the main chamber of his cell.

  Plopping down on the grass, Winston closed his eyes and entered his soulspace. He landed before the stone platform and immediately stepped forward. Looking up, he squinted at the swirling clouds of emerald green energy, trying to make out how much there was. Just the day earlier, he’d used the energy to boost his stats before his failed escape attempt. Now, he’d partially replenished it.

  Winston wasn’t planning on escaping, so he didn’t put all of the energy into increasing his stats. Instead, he divided it fifty-fifty, half going to advancing his rank and the rest to boosting his stats.

  Closing his eyes, he compressed the mist, biting down on it in his mind. One thing he’d noticed was that since he gained his [Mental Manipulation] skill, cultivating the mist had become significantly easier.

  Winston opened his eyes, looking down at the two bowls. He wasn’t sure, but he hoped there would be enough kibble to push him up to Initiate 9. Taking a deep breath, he stuck his face into the bowl. It was time to rank up.