Winston felt a stream of energy flowing into him. The deer was dead. Just like that. It’d been pinned and injured, but it had still only taken a single attack from Thalysar to shatter its defenses. The spectral horns were powerful. Winston had felt it. He didn’t know how, but he could sense the energy coming from it. Just like how he felt the energy Thalysar had spent to remain in the air. The commander’s attack had torn through them like they were nothing. It was terrifying.

  As the party recovered, Winston thought. So far, every Acolyte-tier being he’d seen had its own special ability. The Nightrender had its shadows. The Ursiterra could control its stone armor. The Alpha Fringillade had its beams of energy. Commander Thalysar’s strange ability to freeze people’s bodies. Winston didn’t know the other Acolyte-tier Caltheran’s ability, but he was sure she had one.

  Would he get an ability when he reached Acolyte as well? What would he get? Winston nearly had enough energy to advance already; the buck had given him a huge amount of energy.

  Winston waddled up to the body of the buck, inspecting it curiously. It was even larger than he’d realized, nearly three times larger than a normal deer. Erynd knelt next to him, rubbing his head. Winston yipped happily, nuzzling him.

  Winston leaped onto Erynd’s shoulder, making himself comfortable. With a thought, he pulled up his status, checking his energy stores.

  Food Energy: 227/550

  Winston was getting better at estimating how much energy he had left without checking his status, but he preferred knowing the exact amount. He needed to conserve more energy in the following fights. He’d used more than half of his energy in a single fight.

  As Erynd set him down and went to talk with Thalysar and the rest of the party, Winston subtly formed a small blade of energy. After a moment, the serrated blade floated to the buck’s leg, slowly sawing into it. The leg was thick, several feet wide. Still, Winston persisted, sawing as fast as he could. Then, he stopped. The only reason he was sawing off the leg was to consume it. But if he could consume stone straight from a wall, why couldn’t he consume it without separating it from the main body?

  Winston activated [Consume], and after a moment, most of the leg disappeared. Satisfied, Winston darted back to Erynd before anyone else could notice. His food energy had jumped up to around 300, but he hadn’t gained any of the mist that allowed him to rank up. Was that because it’d been spent replenishing his food energy? He’d never noticed it before, but his ability to detect energy had been getting far better recently.

  As the party spoke, Winston zoned out for most of the conversation, only pausing when one of them mentioned the woman’s name. Talira. He’d probably heard someone say her name earlier, but he hadn’t been paying attention.

  ?? ′?? ? ??` ??

  The rest of the trip was uneventful. Earlier, Winston might’ve considered the fights exciting, but after the deer, the other encounters were nothing special. They’d run into one more Acolyte-tier beast, but it’d gone down with ease, its body frozen by Thalysar.

  Just as they were preparing to head back, they ran into what the commander had warned them about—other Caltherans.

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  Winston leaped off of Erynd’s shoulder as the two groups stared each other down. The other Caltherans looked mostly the same: blue-skinned with amber crystals dotting their bodies.

  These were the Caltherans who had chosen to settle in the desert. Winston didn’t know why they chose that, but their clothes certainly matched the aesthetic. Winston had never paid much attention to the clothes of the Caltherans, but he knew that the ones at his camp usually wore armor or gray and brown clothes.

  Those across from him were different. Few of them wore armor, but those who did only wore small amounts. A few of them wore cloth wrapped around their heads like turbans—the rest of their clothes were designed to camouflage with the desert. The Caltherans looked terrified as they slowly fell back. The highest-ranked among them was only Initiate 8. Erynd was also Initiate 8, but he was the lowest-ranked of their party.

  One of the desert Caltherans stepped forward, hands raised.

  “We have no quarrel with you,” He said, pulling off the cloth covering his face. “Who are you? I am Sahrek.”

  Thalysar ignored him, stalking forward impassively.

  Standing before him, Sahrek stood his ground, but a shadow of fear crossed his face. Winston tilted his head. What was Thalysar doing?

  The commander came to a stop before Sahrek. Winston hadn’t noticed how tall Thalysar was before, but he towered over the other Caltheran.

  After a moment of tense silence, Thalysar sighed and turned away. “We’re just hunting. We killed a few Acolyte-tier beasts. I’m sorry we disturbed you. I wish your people luck in the Tower.”

  Sahrek nodded his thanks before hastily returning to his party. As they fled, Winston watched Thalysar with concern. The commander’s face was a mask of ill-concealed disappointment. Had he wanted a fight? Winston remembered how happy Thalysar had been after their brief bout. Was that why he’d had them hunt so close to the border? So that he could fight someone?

  The rest of the party was giving him similar looks of confusion and concern. As Thalysar marched back towards the camp, the rest of them followed, giving him a wide berth. Eventually, Talira, the other acolyte-tier Caltheran, approached him. Putting a hand on his shoulder, she got on her toes and whispered something into his ear before returning to the rest of them.

  A few minutes later, Thalysar finally spoke.

  “I’m sorry about that,” He said solemnly. “I never should’ve had us come so close to their territory. It could’ve ended badly.”

  Winston looked around in confusion as several Caltherans mirrored him. What was the commander talking about? The only reason it might’ve ended badly was if he’d been trying to cause a fight. Was he not going to acknowledge that?

  Winston and the rest of the party waited for him to continue, but he just turned and kept walking.

  ?? ′?? ? ??` ??

  Winston growled as he sat in his cell. When they’d reach the camp, he’d been separated from Erynd once more. Winston launched another frustration-driven attack at the door. The taste of freedom made staying trapped here even worse. For now, there was nothing he could do. But Winston would get out. He had to get out. He couldn’t let this stand in the way of him and his humans.

  As he turned and walked back towards his bed, he heard the door open. In came Thalysar, along with the Caltherans that’d been with him the last time they’d been testing out Winston’s [Consume] skill.

  “I know you spent a lot of energy hunting today,” Thalysar said, “But could you please try to use your skill on all these items?”

  Winston tilted his head, confused. Still, he complied as they laid out another line of items. There were some new Caltherans as well, as he began to consume the items, their eyes began to glow. It was as if they were analyzing the skill itself.

  One after another, he consumed the items, relishing in the energy flowing into him. There was only a single mana stone this time; the rest of the items were things he didn’t recognize. He could feel the energy flowing from them, but nothing came up when he tried to identify them.

  When he was done, Thalysar nodded. “Thank you. I know that probably cost you a lot of mana. We won’t bother you at all tomorrow. Take it as a rest day.”

  Winston kept thinking about what Thalysar had said long after he’d left. Not only did they think he used mana, but they thought it cost him energy to use [Consume]. He could use this.