It took me around an hour to gather up all the objects from the room into my amulet. I was even able to snag all the tables except the one with the embedded disk, which was secured to the ground. Even after I bit off the bottoms of the legs of the table, I couldn’t add it to my amulet.

  So, it got to be the first snack before I started on the walls!

  To save it for last, I ate the table around the disc first. This would be my first consumed magic item, so I thought it would be a good idea to enter meditation while I did so to see how it worked.

  After giving the disk a small sniff, I tossed it into my mouth and bit down.

  An intense, blinding energy erupted into me from the disk and I felt it smash into my core. The coils of my pathways expanded and glowed white again, and pain erupted across my body as it tried to get a handle on the incoming power, which felt like it had no end.

  My skin began to burn as I delved deeper into my core. I felt my inherent racial skills. My never-ending hunger, my ability to eat anything, and that my stomach was the source at the core that gave me my stat increases from eating slain foes.

  But why would it have to just be from them? Why not use the energy of magic items in the same way?

  Growling with the effort, I willed my hunger to grab at the incoming power. I nearly lost consciousness as the pain spiked, but slowly I felt my coils of stamina, vitality, and mana reform, stronger and sturdier than ever. My burning skin began repairing itself faster than ever before. My meditative senses burst out from within, and I finally could sense trickles of the ambient magics around me.

  After what felt like both forever and no time at all had passed, I opened my eyes to several new and frankly insane system messages.

  Your racial skill, All Stats Must Be Eaten, has expanded.

  All Stats Must Be Eaten. Unique. You gain stat increases from consuming monsters, other humanoids, or magic items rather than based on your race, class, or profession levels. Overconsumption of a particular monster will have diminishing returns. Monsters below your level do not grant stat increases but can refill energy resources. Magic Items will expand your stats by a set number relative to a number of factors, including your current levels, attributes, and the rarity of the item consumed.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  You have devoured Assessment Disk, Rare. All stats increased by 40. Consuming magic items does not grant experience.

  DING! Profession: Neophyte Enchanter has increased from Level 2 to Level 8.

  DING! Race: Omnis Vorare has increased from Level 6 to Level 9.

  “HOLY SHIT!” I nearly shouted as I read. I had no idea what gave me the enchanter levels, but I’ll take it! When I tried to leap to my feet, I ended up slamming my head against the ceiling. My stats had nearly all increased by a factor of 4 in an instant! My vitality and hit points had almost doubled. My stamina and mana were 4 times higher than before!

  I moved to the wall that had been the hallway entrance and thrust my hand into and through the wall. It wriggled as before and opened, revealing the long hallway. I took a hammer out and set it by the already closing opening. With my improved agility, I ran down the hall faster than any pre-System runner could achieve. My improved perception and mental stats kept my reaction time fast enough to keep up with my improved speed. I felt invincible as I ran. Then I discovered the hall somehow repeated itself. On the ground before me was the hammer i had left.

  I picked it up and wanted to try something else. I gripped the solid steel head of the hammer on either side with my lower arms and pulled, stretching the steel like it was putty.

  “Damn, this is wild,” I whispered as I squeezed the hammer back into its original shape. Well, I tried anyway. It didn’t really work quite right, so I just chomped down on the messed up tool and faced the wall again, taking a deep, steadying breath.

  Tutorial Time Remaining: 50 days, 10 hours, 23 minutes.

  Survivors: 1717/2000.

  Five more days had passed while I was processing the magic disk. This was getting ridiculous and I felt I no longer had time to mess around in this dungeon. So, I again punched my way into the large room and put my improved perception to good use.

  I watched the wall seal itself closed again, and I noticed that there was a miniscule variance to the color of the entryway. I walked along the wall, looking for other such areas, and found two, one on each of the walls perpendicular to the way in.

  Sitting before one such space, I placed my hands on it and meditated. I could feel the vitality of the wall, vast and seeming almost endless in scale. I sighed, understanding that this information likely meant I couldn’t just eat my way out of here without it taking an absurd amount of time. So I would need to make the correct item.

  I stood and forced open the first door. Inside was a closet sized room with a thin pedestal limned with glowing runes. Knowledge from my class rushed to the front of my mind and I found I could read the runes.

  To spark the end and dodge your doom,

  Present a tool that brightens the room.

  The other room had a similar pedestal, but with different runes.

  To dodge your doom and spark the end,

  Present a tool that helps defend.

  “Okay, so, I need to figure out a light enchantment and a shield? Magic or physical? Maybe either?” I paced as I thought out loud, appreciating my improved mental stats.

  The empty room was as good a place as any, so I sat down and retrieved several of the tools I thought might be able to achieve the enchantments.