Winston consumed yet another pebble, ignoring the trickle of energy within him. He’d done it so many times that it no longer excited him. If anything, it was boring. The cloud of green mist had grown greatly, but it was still barely larger than Winston.

  [Consume lvl 2 → Consume lvl 3]

  Letting out a sigh of relief, Winston waddled back into Erynd’s tent. He’d been meaning to clear out the entire patch of pebbles in front of the tent, but there were just too many. He’d settled for just clearing out a small portion of the pebbles, but even that had taken him hours.

  Now that he was finally done, he could rest. Plopping down on his makeshift bed, Winston took special care not to wake Erynd.

  After a minute of quiet bliss, Winston decided to check the System shop. He still didn’t know what to spend his credits on. Immediately, Winston opened the information tab. Unlike earlier, it was now flooded with options. Upon opening the Shop, Winston saw an option titled A Complete Guide to the Tower. It wasn’t sold by a Contender but by the System itself.

  His eyes widened. This was exactly what he needed! As if he were scared that the information would disappear, he immediately selected buy.

  *Error* Insufficient Funds.

  Total Funds: 100 Credits

  Funds Needed: 10,500,000 Credits

  Winston stared at the screen in awe. Ten million credits? Ten million credits? That was ridiculous! Not letting himself get crushed by the disappointment, he changed the filter to only show him information that he could afford.

  The options shrank significantly, but there were still countless pieces of information to choose from. As he thought back over the previous day, he remembered several Caltherans mentioning gaining ranks. He was only Initiate 1, but some of them had been higher than that. Winston furrowed his brow, trying to impress his will onto the shop. To his surprise, the System Shop complied with no resistance. The list had narrowed down to only options that would teach him how to increase his rank.

  With his filters, there were only a few dozen options. Most of them cost between 10 and 50 credits, but one of them stood out. Priced at 99 credits, it was titled A Basic Guide to Cultivation by a person named Dareth. All the others seemed far too specific, like Maximizing Gains from Cultivation to both the Mind Palace and the Rank.

  Steeling himself, he purchased the information. He had been expecting a physical item, like Erynd’s arrows, but instead, he found his mind bombarded by information.

  As fast as it came, it was gone. It was as if he had always known what his purchase had provided. It was all so clear now, so obvious. How had he not known before?

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  He entered his soulspace. That’s what it was called, a soulspace. He immediately dashed up onto the stone platform. Now all he needed to do was condense the mist into his basins—basins? Winston blinked, snapping out of the trance. He was supposed to condense the mist into the two massive stone basins on the platform. But…he didn’t have any! Why did he have his food bowls? Was something wrong with the information, or was something wrong with him?

  Deciding to follow the rest of the instructions anyway, he concentrated on the mist. The guide told him to imagine compressing the fog with his hands, but that didn’t work for him either. Instead, he imagined the mist was corporeal and that he was chomping down on it with all his might. Slowly, the mist began to solidify, and when enough had formed, he directed it to his water bowl. Instead of a deep golden ichor, a drop of pure, clean water fell into the bowl.

  Now Winston was sure that something was wrong, but so far it was working. He supposed that water was close enough to the intended result and moved on. He repeated the process once more, but this time, he directed the mist to his food bowl.

  And just as intended, a drop of pure—Winston froze. Kibble? Kibble wasn’t even a liquid! He looked down in dismay at the small brown ball sitting in his food bowl. Had something gone terribly wrong?

  Deciding it was too late to turn back now, Winston condensed the rest of the mist into kibble. When the emerald mist finally ran out, his bowl was half filled. Looking at the food, he realized he was hungry. Very hungry.

  As he devoured the kibble, he felt energy flowing into him. It was different from when he used [Consume]. That energy was just stored within him. The energy from the kibble, however, he could feel flow into every corner of his body. As the amount of kibble lessened, he could feel the energy making him more powerful. In what way he was more powerful, he didn’t know. But he was stronger nonetheless.

  When he finished the kibble, Winston let out a burp. He would definitely have to use [Consume] on some more items. Willing himself out of his soulspace, he found himself back in Erynd’s tent.

  Winston stretched and wandered over to the box of Erynd’s arrows. Without thinking, he stuck his head into the box and consumed an arrow. His eyes widened as he realized what he’d just done. The pangs of guilt overwhelmed any sense of fulfillment or pleasure he got from consuming the arrow.

  Erynd had treated him with nothing but kindness, and within hours of arriving at his home, Winston had already stolen something from him. And this wasn’t something that could be amended by simply returning the arrow. It was gone.

  Still wracked with guilt, Winston took a look at the box. There were only a few dozen arrows in it. As far as he knew, the Tower was a dangerous place, and Erynd needed the arrows to survive. And just like that, one of them was gone.

  The guilt was all it took to break what little mental calmness he had. The reality of his situation came crashing down on him. Distress gripped him as he realized the weight on his shoulders. The burden that he had to bear. Everybody from Earth was gone, and he was the only one who could help them.

  Winston let out a quiet whimper. Desperate for any source of comfort, Winston found himself curled up beside Erynd. He knew it was selfish, using the same man he had just stolen from for comfort, but he didn’t care.

  Pushing himself against Erynd’s chest, closed his eyes. It had just been a few hours since he last slept, but sleep was the sanctuary he needed. A place where he could escape from his thoughts.

  Eventually, he began to drift off, letting out the occasional whimper. The last thing he felt was Erynd’s arms around him.