I dodged two more beams in my approach, several large trees around me exploding from the power. With a short push off the ground, I, once again, failed to consider my newfound strength, which now sat at 837. Flying over the gazer, I flailed with a helpless laugh as three more beams arced at me, narrowly missing. I managed to position myself to land heavily to my feet, only a few meters away from the Talui man. The wriggling eyestalks of the gazer halted their beams as the conductor swiped his wand.

  Then he did something weird. Despite not wearing any glasses, he pushed a finger up his nose as though he were adjusting them, then tipped his non-existent hat.

  “Milord.”

  Oh, no.

  Why did he have to talk through his nose?

  “My name is Ernest, and I’ll be your conductor this evening!”

  I was about to respond, but the gazer must have some kind of telekinesis ray as I was lifted off the ground. The adorable little guys leapt at me at the same time, slashing at me with their cute little cla-

  “Aaagh!” I called out as blood gushed out from deep gashes. The energy I’d consumed from the eight before this fight began immediately repairing the damage, but they kept coming. I could feel their hunger, similar in many ways to my own. It would take a while for them to whittle my health down, so I turned my focus on Ernest. Instinctually, I punched out at the next veloci-labrador that made a slash at me, knocking it into an unconscious spin before it skipped a few times and rolled into a sleeping heap on the ground.

  Feeling my vision tighten on Ernest, something new appeared in my vision. Whether it was my new nearly 900 Perception or just the nature of Ernest’s powers, I saw thin, nearly invisible threads extending from his wand to connect with the gazer and the hybrid dogs. I forcibly spun myself to face the gazer and extended my right upper arm, sending a Feast Beam right into the stalk that held me up.

  Through unknown means, the beast roared in pain as the stalk and a chunk of its body was consumed by the beam. I fell to the ground, two more of the veloci-labradors darting in to bite at me.

  Their little needle teeth, while adorable, hurt like a motherfucker. But they were close enough for me to reach over and, with mouths that opened on my hands, bite down on the threads holding them under Ernest’s control.

  I passed through them. As I grunted with the pain of the bites, I tried again, again to no avail.

  Ernest pushed up his non-existent glasses again. “Ha! My teacher told me of you, All-Devourer, and He was right! Control rests under the umbrella of Temperance, and your Hunger has no power over my control!”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Will you please stop talking to me like I’m some kind of anime villain?” I said with as much exasperation as I felt.

  “Ha! I’m the hero here, you fiend! My beautiful monsters will slay you and all who seek to thwart the power of the Chainwright’s Chosen!”

  “You got a Token!” I realized out loud.

  He started at that, but quickly recovered, sending beams arcing at me from multiple directions at once, forcing me to dodge backward. “You solved a puzzle?”

  “Of course I did,” I said as I raked a claw against the gazer’s lower body, getting myself covered in green blood as I did.

  “But you aren’t high enough level to use it!”

  “So? Let me kill this big guy and I just might make it there.”

  Ernest struck a pose. He was surprisingly good at it, though I internally cringed nonetheless. “And why would I ever do such a thing?” His dogs moved to flank him on either side, ready to pounce at me at his command. Having seen many of the animes this guy must be obsessed with, I had a few ideas.

  “Well, two reasons. But first,” I dodged another series of beams directed at me, “I need to ask you something. Were you the one who killed the people back there?”

  “Ha! No, that was this gazer thing! It tried to kill my veloci-labradors, but I got it under control before it could kill any, until you came along and I lost Rex. At least he wasn’t my favorite, or I’d been really mad!”

  As I could tell he wasn’t lying, I continued, “Alright. Two reasons. One, I know you have some Control Spheres that I need in your satchel.” Plus, I’d frankly rather get as many survivors out of the tutorial as possible. “Two, any true hero needs a villain, right? And I’m just a measly level 45, almost half your level. I’m not even on your radar yet, and would certainly pose no threat to you and your monsters until you give me time to power up!”

  Ernest seriously considered my words and, again, tipped his non-existent hat at me. “You’re right! It would be a waste of my power to use it on one so weak as you! Do as you must.”

  He’d, as I suspected, completely ignored the first thing I’d said, along with not considering I was about to kill and eat a creature eight levels above him, but I didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I got right to it.

  Though I wasn’t sure how the chosen of a being known as the Chainwright would react, I needed the stat boost to fight the gazer and called upon the Tyrant’s Due. Black chains wrapped around me and extended from my arms. Ernest’s mouth unconsciously dropped open as I felt my stats surge into the quadruple digits for the first time.

  With a flash of movement, I appeared before the gazer and swung all four chains toward it. Four groupings of stalks were wrapped tightly together, forcing fewer, more concentrated beams fired at me. I dodged under and leapt over them, landing atop the beast. I ran along its… back? Top? Whatever, severing stalks as I ran.

  At the other side, I dug deeply with my claws, rending the dense flesh before me. Without its upper stalks, I knew it couldn’t easily see me. With the softer insides of the gazer open before me, I activated Ravenous Cloak, Purging Surge, and felt Eat the Rich empower the strike as I plunged my claw deep into the gazer.

  Hunger energy flooded the body of the beast as I followed it up with a Feast Beam.

  HUNGER!