Winston rubbed himself affectionately against Erynd’s leg as they walked back to the camp. Erynd still had a blank look in his eyes as he muttered, “Why did Roderic give me command? I was the worst choice. They could’ve died…”

  Winston had stopped listening to Erynd a while before. Nothing he could do right now could make Erynd forgive himself. Looking down at Winston, Erynd smiled softly and scratched his head. A moment later, the smile faded, and he continued to mutter.

  Occasionally, a weaker monster would try to sneak up on them. The moment Winston noticed, he would scare them off with [Channel Food Energy]. They were nearing the camp, but Winston was running low on food energy. During the fight, it had leveled up once, but that hadn’t made it much more efficient.

  Name: Winston

  Race: Corgi

  Class: Relentless Consumer (Unique)

  Rank: Initiate 3

  Titles (3/5): Non-Humanoid Progenitor [Redacted] Modified

  Food Energy: 89/220

  As they walked, Winston tried something he hadn’t done yet. He knew eating and using [Consume] would both replenish his food energy, but he had yet to try the latter. Taking out the leg of a buck and an ursiterra claw—Erynd had taken the valuable parts of the beast before they left, and had given some to Winston.

  He used [Consume] on them both, but found that his skill wasn’t a high enough level to [Consume] the claw. He let out a sigh of relief when he consumed the leg, which replenished more than 50 points of energy.

  The rest of the trip back to camp went smoothly, with Erynd slowly beginning to pay more attention to his surroundings. Several passing parties called out greetings, but he still didn’t respond.

  Back at Erynd’s tent, they sat around the small firepit next to it. Erynd brewed a cup of something similar to tea for himself and poured Winston a bowl of cold water. After a moment of drinking, Winston leaped onto Erynd’s lap.

  Hearing that Erynd was still muttering about how everything was his fault, Winston sighed and entered his soulspace. Walking past Roderic’s grave, he stepped up onto the stone platform. Above the two bowls was a huge cloud of green mist. After contemplating for a moment, he decided to use half of it to advance and the rest to strengthen his stats.

  Closing his eyes, he concentrated, squeezing out one drop at a time. He had to take several breaks in between his cultivation. Finally, there were roughly six inches of kibble and four inches of water. Bending over, he ate and drank, feeling the cool energy flow through his veins.

  It was like his body was being remade, but it felt good. He could feel it both inside and outside of his body. Winston hadn’t consumed anything close to this much energy at once before.

  Winston plopped down on his back, enjoying the sensation of the energy flowing through him. When it finally abated, he remained on his back, but checked his status screen.

  Name: Winston

  Race: Corgi

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  Class: Relentless Consumer (Unique)

  Rank: Initiate 5

  Titles (3/5): Non-Humanoid Progenitor [Redacted] Modified

  Food Energy: 220/220

  Stats:

  Strength: 5

  Dexterity: 2

  Toughness: 4

  Charisma: 40

  Stomach: 22

  Free Points: 8

  Active Skills (3/10):

  Consume lvl 3

  Channel Food Energy lvl 2

  Charm lvl 2

  Passive Skills (2/10):

  Enhanced Stomach lvl 2

  Passive Charm lvl 6

  Winston yipped excitedly. That was a lot of progress. He still wanted to boost his stomach stat, but at the same time, his physical stats needed work as well. Eventually, he settled on putting 3 into Stomach, 2 into Strength and Toughness each, and 1 into Dexterity.

  Exiting his soulspace, he found himself back in Erynd’s lap. With a yawn, he got up and stretched. He was walking towards the fire to warm up when he heard Erynd speak for the first time.

  “What the fuck,” Erynd said softly, “How are you Initiate 5? You were Initiate 3 just a few minutes ago. You helped against the Ursiterra, but there is no way that was enough to boost you up that much.” He shook his head and shrugged before his eyes widened. It was like he had temporarily forgotten about his failure, and now it had come back to him. A moment later, his eyes regained that blank quality, but he didn’t start muttering again.

  Half an hour later, Erynd stood and walked back into the tent. He collapsed onto his bedroll and began to snore almost immediately. Winston sat down on his bed in the corner and began to browse the System Shop. He had four ursiterra claws, and saw that they would sell for 10 credits each. After a moment, he sold two of them, putting him at 21 credits. Then, he browsed the information section of the System Shop.

  Finally, he found what he was looking for. For 18 credits, he could get a guide to what the words in the parentheses next to Caltheran meant.

  Instead of being purely information like the cultivation guide, this one came with both a screen and information. Each rank represented a Caltheran’s innate power. Their rank was based on how many crystals a Caltheran had on their body. While the early ranks were similar in power, the later ones were significantly more powerful and nearly impossible to achieve. Sadly, the guide didn’t provide any information on how the Caltherans gained more crystals.

  Calen

  Thren

  Vaelth

  Vorn

  Drathen

  Kareth

  Daren

  Serath

  Taren

  Marthar

  Echovar

  Vaelric

  Serathin

  Vaelarch

  Winston’s eyes widened. There were a lot more than he expected. And there were six ranks above Serath? But Commander Thalysar had seemed so powerful. Perhaps there were only a few Caltherans at the higher tiers? Winston didn’t know.

  Erynd was relatively high as a Drathen, and Norra was a Vorn, just one rank below him. Making a mental note to pay more attention to the crystals on the Caltherans’ bodies, Winston snuck out of the tent.

  Careful not to wake the resting Erynd, Winston moved a few dozen feet from the tent, plopping down under a tree.

  With nothing else to do, he released some food energy. He played around for a bit before deciding to test his range. First, he released even more energy and extended it as far as he could, forming a spear several meters long. Then, when he could stretch it no further, he moved the spear itself.

  Winston felt a drain not only on the amount of energy he had, but also on his mind as he strained his abilities.

  It seemed that he could manipulate food energy in a field of about ten meters around him. His actual constructs of energy could be moved even farther, as long as a small amount remained within range. Pushing against the boundaries, Winston forced his spear out of his range, and it immediately fell to the floor before beginning to dissipate.

  Checking his status, he found that he’d lost a small amount of food energy. Summoning another chunk of meat, he used Consume on it. He felt his food energy replenish and the energy in his soulspace expand.

  As he sat there, he made a decision. Advancing his rank increased his maximum skill level, but it didn’t have any instantaneous strengthening. He knew getting to acolyte would come with a huge strength boost, but that was too far in the future. Instead, Winston decided to invest most of the energy that he would gain in the following days into directly increasing his stat points.

  Standing up, he stretched and yawned once more, returning to Erynd’s tent.