Finally, all Contenders will begin with 100 Credits. Use them wisely, and good luck!

  Winston took a moment to take in all the information. It was a lot, but he thought he got the gist of it. Scrunching his eyes, he concentrated, trying to bring up the shop.

  System Shop

  Items

  Skills

  Information*

  *Most Information sold in the System Shop is not directly supplied by the System. While some is provided by the System itself, the rest is sold to the System by Contenders. All information is verified by the System.

  Winston let out a yip of disappointment as he opened the Information tab. There were only a few items, and they were all absurdly expensive. He had been hoping to purchase information. He supposed he could wait for someone to sell the information. Hopefully, it would be cheaper than this. He glanced at Erynd, who was staring blankly forward. Most likely looking through the shop as well.

  Looking back at the shop, he closed the Information tab. Next, he concentrated on Items.

  A massive list appeared before him. It was covered with countless words that meant nothing to him. And the prices on some were ridiculous—he didn’t know much, but he was sure that hundreds of thousands of credits were a lot.

  He experimented with the Screen, changing filters at random until he found what he wanted. Now, looking at only the items he could afford with his 100 credits, he sifted through them.

  He saw a few that he had seen on the big screen at his home. Swords, spears, bows, and countless other items were all familiar to him. But there were some he had never heard of, like a ‘Morning Glory.’ He found many items that weren’t meant for combat as well.

  In the end, he found nothing that he could actually use, and his shopping was interrupted by Erynd.

  Turning towards the excited shout, Winston saw Erynd holding a bundle of arrows. Faintly glowing red veins wove themselves across each arrow’s tip.

  “This is amazing!” Erynd shouted as he ran towards Winston, buzzing with excitement. “You don’t understand how great this is! Or do you? Can you even understand me?”

  Erynd stopped and thought for a moment before shrugging and continuing, “Anyway, this is ground-breaking! It changes everything!” He pointed at the arrows in his hand. “These are Inferno Arrows! And I could get them on the first floor!”

  Winston just stared blankly at Erynd, his tongue lolling out. Was he supposed to understand this?

  When Erynd finally stopped, Winston was completely zoned out.

  “I’m sorry about that,” Erynd said, suddenly frowning, “Wait…can you actually understand me? Raise one paw if you can.”

  Winston stood, still staring into the distance. When he finally processed Erynd’s words, it was too late.

  Erynd sighed and picked Winston up, setting Winston’s tiny body on his shoulder.

  “Well, it was worth a try.” He muttered, trudging out of the clearing. Back on Erynd’s shoulder, Winston sat in defeat. He finally had a chance to show that he understood someone, but he had thrown that chance away.

  Winston supposed it was probably better that Erynd didn’t know that he could understand. But still, all his life, everyone had assumed that he didn’t understand, that he was less intelligent.

  Shaking his head, Winston focused on the chatter around him. As he listened to the Caltherans talk excitedly about the System Shop, he realized something. When he first encountered the Caltherans, their voices had grated almost painfully on his ears. Now, it was as if he was hearing his humans speak. Not as graceful as barking, but still acceptable.

  After ages of monotonous walking, Erynd finally came to a stop at the edge of the camp. Before them lay a small blue tent.

  Setting Winston down, Erynd smiled at the tent. “Welcome to my humble abode.”

  Winston wandered into the tent after Erynd, looking around in wonder. The inside of the tent was packed. Several bows leaned against the fabric walls, while a box of arrows took up a corner of the tent. The rest of the space was reserved for a bedroll.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Well, I’m going to sleep now,” Erynd said, before his eyes widened. “But where will you sleep?”

  After a moment of contemplation, Erynd sighed. Bending down, he picked up his bedroll. Giving it one last sad look, he drew the dagger from his waist.

  As Erynd worked, Winston poked his head outside the tent. Why was Erynd going to sleep? It wasn’t even dark. Winston tilted his head. Had it ever been dark? He’d been asleep for a good portion of the last day, but he didn’t remember the sky ever dimming. Filing the information away, he pulled his head back into the tent.

  Erynd finished his work, and moments later, Winston found himself in a makeshift bed in the corner of the tent. Erynd tapped him on the nose before retiring as well. Winston watched as he lay down on his bedroll, a noticeable chunk of it missing.

  Erynd was snoring in minutes, and Winston took a moment to think. To really think for the first time since he’d gotten here. He was stuck in an unfamiliar land, and he was scared. The action over the course of the past day had kept him from dwelling on what was really happening, but now he was alone with his thoughts.

  He was in another world, and his humans were gone. All the humans were gone. Everything that he knew had disappeared, replaced by this strange place. Winston let out a whimper. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He knew he had to rescue his humans, but he didn’t know how!

  Winston closed, taking comfort in Erynd’s rhythmic snores.

  After a minute of silence, Winston opened his eyes. He wasn’t tired. Not knowing what to do, Winston pulled up his status screen.

  Name: Winston

  Race: Corgi

  Class: Relentless Consumer (Unique)

  Rank: Initiate 1

  Titles (3/5):

  Non-Humanoid Progenitor

  [Redacted]

  Modified

  Food Energy: 200/200

  Stats:

  Strength: 5

  Dexterity: 2

  Toughness: 3

  Charisma: 40

  Stomach: 20

  Free Points: 0

  Active Skills (3/10):

  Consume lvl 1

  Channel Food Energy lvl 1

  Charm lvl 1

  Passive Skills (2/10):

  Enhanced Stomach lvl 1

  Passive Charm lvl 4

  Winston had already inspected all of his skills, so he looked over the rest of the screen. One of his titles caught his eye. [Redacted]. He tried focusing on it, bringing up a screen.

  Title: [Redacted]

  [Redacted]

  [Redacted]

  [Redacted]

  Glaring at the screen, Winston decided not to inspect anything else. Instead, he wanted to try out his [Consume] skill. It had said that it would allow him to consume anything, but he doubted that.

  Wobbling outside of the tent as quietly as his stubby legs would allow, he found a pebble. Concentrating on the small stone, Winston gritted his teeth and tried to focus on activating [Consume]. No matter how hard he concentrated, it was to no avail.

  After several more minutes of trying, Winston decided to try something new. He bent down and opened his mouth as though he were eating. At the same time, he focused on activating his skill.

  Suddenly, the pebble glowed green and shot into his mouth. Jumping back in alarm, Winston let out a cry, but the pebble had already disappeared. As he calmed down, a notification appeared before him.

  [You have consumed an item.]

  At the same time, Winston felt a minuscule amount of energy appear within him. Letting out yet another yip of alarm, he tilted his head to the side. It felt gaseous. He didn’t know how to describe it. The closest he could get to the feeling was a burp, but that wasn’t quite right either. Maybe a magical burp?

  When he concentrated on it, an image appeared in his mind's eye, and he felt himself being pulled into it. A twisting green mist floated before him, the background a dark void. He looked down and leaped in surprise. His body was there with him. That didn’t make any sense! He could swear that he had just been outside Erynd’s tent.

  Glancing around suspiciously, he took in his surroundings. He stood in an empty field. Nothing but grass stretching out as far as the eye could see. Before him was a stone platform, the only thing taller than a few inches. Sitting upon the platform were two bowls. Winston tilted his head. The bowls looked oddly familiar.

  Stepping closer, Winston clambered onto the stone platform. He’d been right! He did know the bowls! They were his food and water bowls, where his humans would feed him. What were they doing here? Looking further up, Winston saw the emerald green mist floating above him. Now that he had his food bowls for reference, he realized just how little mist there was. Altogether, the wisps were barely the size of his paw.

  After looking around for a while more, Winston found nothing else of interest.

  Winston tried to leave the barren field and found that it was much easier than he thought. All he had to do was will himself to leave, and he would.

  Winston found himself sitting back on the ground outside of Erynd’s tent. It was as if nothing had happened. Winston didn’t know exactly what the mist was, but he knew it was important. And now he had a way to get it just by eating!

  Looking at the ground around him, Winston let out a happy yip. It was time to [Consume] some pebbles.