Tim opened his little black book as a skystrider ambled toward him. He grew another foot taller, his fur shifted to a deep purple, and his armor swelled with him and seemed to come alive as the figures depicted thereon began gyrating suggestively. His expanding aura was reminiscent of Thalassa’s when she tried to feel me up, which was kinda gross, but it also weirdly worked a bit on the behemoth buildings.

  “Ledger of Flesh!” Tim called out as streams of black arced out from the book to mark nearby skystriders. I could sense the lines connecting them.

  “Binding Contract!” Tim called out again. The connecting lines thickened somewhat as Tim’s muscles bulged out, draining some of the power of the skystriders for himself.

  An incoming punch was met by a swing of his flail, his increased strength knocking the blow aside and crushing the golem’s middle finger to dust. It began regenerating, but then collapsed in upon itself as my Feast Burst consumed it starting at the weak points.

  “You know you don’t have to shout out your skill names, right?” I shouted as I leapt atop a skystrider, using Hunger Strike to sever its head. Which slowed the thing down long enough for Cari and Gregory to smash and slash it down.

  “I think it helps! Plus, it gives the attacks some panache, you know?” Tim retorted as he jumped back to avoid another clumsy punch.

  “And tells what you’re doing to the enemy! Not even Ernest does that!” I said, shaking my head.

  “These things are dumb,” Tim shouted before being forced away again.

  With the help of my friends, the cleanup began in earnest. Skystrider after skystrider fell to bursting crystals, blows from other controlled golems, swinging axes and flails, and of course, by the telltale bursts of consuming energy from Feast Burst.

  After a grueling hour of fighting, the north was clear. And just in time, as reports began coming in for need of assistance in other sectors.

  “Y’all go ahead! I need to investigate something. I won’t be long.” I used Void Step to quickly advance into the empty field, halting a few times to sense where that ping had come from. In very short order I could now sense the powerful object right below my feet. It was buried deep, but I was built for this.

  The mouth on my chest opened wide as I called upon my hungering core.

  HUNGER!

  I could feel the desire to consume, and all I had to do was allow it.

  HUNGER!

  I triggered Hunger Strike and felt the hunger of my core surge into my hands. I flipped into a four armed handstand and pushed more and more energy into the skill.

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  HUNGER!

  Slowly, at first, I felt the ground beneath me beginning to give way to consumption. One meter became two, five, ten. The space around me, only three meters in diameter, was being consumed so fast that I could no longer feel the ground below me and entered free fall.

  The ground suddenly gave way as I punched through into a chamber tens of meters tall and equally wide. I stopped the consumption and spun to land on my feet.

  “That was weirdly fun!” I said into the echoey chamber.

  All around me, the walls twinkled with intricately inlaid runic patterns. My Senses of the Deeps pulled my attention to the center of the room. In this particular instance, my ‘powerful prey’ was a diamond a meter wide and equally tall that emitted its own silvery light. It floated about a meter off the ground, and I watched in fascination as it flickered in a way that reminded me of Tree, and the runes beginning from its base twinkled as whatever magic it possessed interacted with the runes. Identification of the diamond yielded… interesting results.

  REDACTED. Unique. The fact that you are identifying this means you are in a space you should not be. Leave before-

  The lettering glitched again, faltering before the description finished. A notification that looked much more frayed around the edges slowly emerged within my vision.

  All-Devourer, we praise your name, Guide 83 here! Gotta be brief. If you want the others besides yourself to live through the Tutorial, you must eat the Systemic Gems! All of them! They give it-

  The frayed notification box burst asunder, which honestly kinda scared me and I nearly fell over. I tried to identify the diamond again, but received no notification. I approached the gem and reached out with my main right hand.

  A beam of silvery light blasted into my chest, launching me hard against the runed wall. I did zero damage to it, naturally, and groaned as I picked myself off the floor. My right arm was missing from the elbow down and cauterized as though it was pressed with hot iron.

  “That fucking hurt!” I shouted into the room. “Rude ass Systemic Gem! Fine. Thalassa taught me this little trick.” I opened my chest-mouth as wide as I could and ran at the gem, extending my left hand this time and angling my chest to anticipate the beam.

  HUNGER!

  The silvery beam, as before, attempted to blast me away, but I was ready. It entered right into my all-consuming core, and I felt the rush of power. My right arm regenerated almost instantly, and all previous injuries I’d received during the battle, minor in comparison, all closed just as quickly. My pathways flooded with power, swelling and growing.

  The beam wouldn’t stop.

  And slowly, the pain began to creep in. It was almost gentle at first, but the sheer amount of magic and power was far more than I’d experienced before, even from Thalassa. It was holding me at bay. I directed some of the power to my legs, and I took a difficult step forward, which felt like it took several minutes. The skin of my legs burst and blood dripped down as I forced another step. The damage was continuous, overtaking the incredible consumed energy overflowing my body. I could feel the bones of my legs bending as I pushed harder, roaring into the pain.

  One more step.

  The Systemic Gem entered my core and my vision went white. Maybe it was the pain. Maybe it wasn’t. The white flickered, and I found myself floating in a void of grey. I looked down to find that my body wasn’t present, like in an older first person shooter before they thought to add your own body to the graphics engine.

  I saw monsters of varying types and strength, all floating alongside me. Many I recognized, from the veloci-labradors to the stormhorn stag. Many I did not. Bizarre amalgamations and elemental infusions abounded.

  Pain spiked again as knowledge flooded into my mind and my vision flashed again to white.