Winston woke up whimpering, huddled in the cave. All around him, he saw and heard similar sights; wolves keening and whimpering and trembling as they slept.
Looking for something to distract him from the tragedy, he checked his credits. 3829. He let out a satisfied sniff. He could afford [Energy Conversion Core] now, but he wanted to wait, just in case. First, he would look for any skill that fit better.
Winston found several good options, but they were outside of his price range. Instead, he filed them in the back of his mind. In the end, [Energy Conversion Core] was still the best option.
Taking a deep breath, Winston purchased the skill.
Instantly, there was a strange sensation in his body, like something was changing within him. It wasn't painful, just uncomfortable. For several minutes, this went on. Winston could feel something changing in his body, but he didn’t know what.
When the feeling finally subsided, he looked over his status screen.
Race: Corgi
Class: Relentless Consumer (Unique)
Rank: Acolyte 1
Soul Shards (1/?):
Devour (Unique)
Titles (3/5):
Non-Humanoid Progenitor
[Redacted]
Modified
Food Energy: 422/840
Stats:
Strength: 30
Dexterity: 36
Toughness: 43
Charisma: 55
Stomach: 84
Mind: 55
Free Points: 0
Active Skills (4/10):
Consume lvl 9
Channel Food Energy lvl 10
Mental Manipulation lvl 3
Constructs:
Passive Skills (2/10):
Enhanced Stomach lvl 5
Passive Charm lvl 10
That was…strange. There was a new section for ‘Constructs’, but it was empty!
Looking around in confusion, Winston found a small, perfectly round manastone sitting before him. He stared at it, and a screen appeared before him.
Energy Conversion Core (Construct)
Grants the user the ability to convert mana or energy into other energies or stats. The user may only convert into energies or stats that they already have.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Would you like to absorb this construct?
Yes/No
Winston tilted his head. He hadn’t expected to get a physical item. Before he absorbed the construct, he picked it up with a tendril of golden energy.
Just staring at the mess of inscriptions and lines made his head hurt, but he persevered. He thought he could just barely understand how it worked.
After getting everything he could out of observing it, Winston absorbed it, the manastone disappearing. In the center of his body, above the stomach and below the ribs, he felt a burning pain. It was as painful as when he advanced to Acolyte, but it was gone as quickly as it came.
It was hard, but Winston could sense something strange in his body.
Taking a breath, Winston stood up. Everything was coming along nicely, but he needed to test out his new construct.
He made his way out of the cave, pointedly ignoring the bloodstains. Outside, the bodies were gone, moved away to some place that Winston didn’t know.
Winston stopped for a moment, remembering that he’d purchased information on the Glassheart. He’d fallen asleep immediately after he’d done so, and it’d ended up buried in the back of his mind. Shutting his eyes, Winston tried to recall everything.
Glasshearts—the crystals that covered the skin of all Caltherans—were an indicator of their power. Not of their System rank or skills, but their innate strength, separate from the System. The different Caltheran tiers Winston knew about were decided by the amount of crystals. As a Serath, Thalysar would have more Glasshearts than Erynd, who was a Drathen.
Glasshearts developed during childhood, always stopping when the child finished growing. The one exception was that by climbing the Tower, Caltherans could further increase the amount of crystals on their body. Winston’s curiosity was piqued, but there was nothing more about it.
Most of a Caltheran’s strength was stored in their Glasshearts, and losing one meant permanently losing it. Winston made a smug face. He’d at least managed to take away some of Thalysar’s power.
Before he’d fallen asleep, he’d only skimmed through the knowledge to make sure the Glassheart wouldn’t be of importance to himself before he sold it.
With that out of the way, Winston was ready to use his new construct.
Leaping onto a rock, Winston tried to activate the construct. He could faintly feel energy flowing through his body. Focusing, he tried to redirect it towards the construct that was just below his ribcage. After a few tries, he managed to move a trickle of energy towards it. Then, he began to convert the energy to strength, his lowest stat.
He felt a slight change in his body as he continued to funnel energy into the skill. It wasn’t much, but it was noticeable. He was slightly stronger.
Winston sighed. It was practically useless as it was. He needed to practice and level it up.
He strode away from the cave, a sense of anticipation in his chest. He wanted to get stronger. No, he needed to get stronger. So that he wouldn’t fail as he had. So that next time, he’d take more than a crystal from Thalysar.
?? ′?? ? ??` ??
Winston wove out of the way of a giant paw, using [Energy Conversion Core] to boost his dexterity. Immediately, he switched it from boosting his dexterity to strength. Lashing out, he struck the side of the beast, tearing into its flesh.
As it fell back, roaring in pain, Winston took a breath. The concentration needed to feed energy into the construct was exhausting. He was getting better and more efficient at it, but it still took a toll on him. It was different from all his other skills—he had to use food energy to activate it. [Consume] didn’t require any energy, and neither did [Mental Manipulation], so Winston had no experience powering a skill or construct. The precise control it required made Winston realize just how inefficient his energy movement was.
It was better than when [Channel Food Energy] had been lower leveled, but there was still huge amounts of energy going to waste. As his ability to sense energy improved, Winston began to notice how much was radiating out of him when he used it. At first, he’d thought it was just naturally radiating off him, but in the past hour, he’d realized that when he used no energy at all, the energy coming from him disappeared as well.
Winston growled. So much was going to waste from his sloppy use. He would have to work on it later.
His opponent began to push itself to its feet, but Winston was done. Forming a spear of golden light, he launched the spear at the beast, ending its life.
[You have slain Bear - Initiate 8]
Carving up the bear, Winston took what he could for the pack and sold the rest to the System shop for 21 credits. Then, he began to make his way back to the cave.
When he arrived, Winston searched for the alpha. After a while, he realized the wolf wasn’t in the cave. Sitting down, he began to wait.
An hour later, the alpha returned, and Winston walked up to the wolf. As he barked to the alpha, he knew he wouldn’t be able to convey everything that he wanted to. Instead, he just told the wolf that he was going to leave to get stronger. The alpha nodded in acknowledgement before turning away.
With that done, Winston walked out into the snow. He needed to get stronger. Hunting with the pack had been nice, but in the end, it only held back his growth, reducing the amount of energy he gained. If he’d been stronger, he could’ve defeated Thalysar. He could’ve stopped the deaths of Renir and Roderic. He could’ve done so much.
As he walked farther and farther, Winston paused. Turning, he looked back at the cave. He’d found camaraderie and friendship there. No matter what he told himself, he knew this was the last time he would see the wolves. He’d checked the leaderboards, and more than a dozen Caltherans had made it to the second floor. He needed to get there as well.
Taking a deep breath, Winston took one last longing look at the cavern before walking away.
Patreon link! (I've added a tip jar option where you can just send me a few dollars to support my journey without paying the full 10 dollars!)
