Tutorial Time Remaining: 47 days, 12 hours, 32 minutes.

  Survivors: 1370/2000.

  We took Tucker back through the bubble and buried him with the other three. Gregory gently removed the boots and amulet from his body, laying them aside as I was digging. When we finished, he picked up the boots and amulet and held them out to me. I hesitated.

  “Are you sure?” I asked. “Can either of you use them?”

  Cari answered. “No. I’m a Vibrant Naturalist who focuses on nature and healing magic, and Gregory is a Hardy Lumberjack specializing in the axe. Maybe you could use them?”

  I took the items and inspected them. “I think it would be best to just eat them, as I already have an amulet and I can’t wear boots, at least not these. Thank you.”

  You have devoured the Amulet of Shadows, Inferior. All stats increased by 5. Consuming magic items does not grant experience points.

  You have devoured the Stealth Boots, Inferior. All stats increased by 5. Consuming magic items does not grant experience points.

  Ten more points all around. I pulled up my status to look over my recent growth.

  Status

  Name: Dan Trench

  Humanoid Race: Omnis Vorare 14

  Class: Hypocrite Revolutionary 15

  Profession: Neophyte Enchanter 13

  Max Health: 1900

  Max Stamina: 3230

  Max Mana: 3170

  Agility: 171

  Endurance: 159

  Intelligence: 159

  Perception: 163

  Strength: 164

  Vitality: 190

  Wisdom: 158

  Race Skills:

  All Stats Must Be Eaten. Unique.

  All-Consuming. Unique.

  Infinite Tank. Unique.

  Sense Power. Inferior.

  Class Skills:

  Eat the Rich. Uncommon.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Guerilla’s Cloak. Inferior.

  Profession Skills:

  Meditation. Common.

  Infuse Object. Inferior.

  Etch Rune. Inferior.

  Feast Bolt. Inferior.

  Equipped Gear:

  Amulet of Holding. Common.

  Razorclaw Gauntlets. Inferior.

  Steeltusk Leather. Inferior.

  My stamina and mana had now surpassed three thousand. My health was almost to two.

  I felt unstoppable, but I knew it wasn’t enough. I needed more.

  “Would you both be interested in training a bit with me?” I asked.

  “How could we help you?” Cari asked with genuine interest, grasping at anything to distract from their companion’s death.

  “Well, the people that are inside the bubble are getting free experience. But what they may not know is that true power is never free. The guides during the race selection told me about something called records. I don’t fully understand what they are, but I know that you have to earn them. So, we fight some powerful creatures as we go in search of loot, in preparation of returning to claim the sphere. Maybe we can find an unclaimed sphere or two.”

  “We should see if there are any other markers around nearby, or hell, even not nearby, as I think we agree that we all need to get stronger,” Gregory said as he hefted his axe.

  “Let’s get a better view,” I said as I jogged toward a particularly tall building. “Race you to the top?”

  “You’re on!” Cari said as she burst into motion, firing a series of small green bolts that caused vines to grow on the building wall, which she used to launch herself upwards. I dug my claws in and launched myself up. This skyscraper was tall and sheer, and I felt the wind as Gregory seemed to fly past me. I looked up to see him grip the wall, his thick fingers digging in the concrete like clay, then he embedded his axe into the wall using some kind of skill to lock the axe in place. He pulled the haft, which somehow bent slightly, and launched himself further into the air, using another skill or spell to keep pulling the axe back to his hand.

  A vine grabbed his left foot and pulled him down, almost colliding with me as I continued my climb. Cari tapped my shoulder as she was thrown by the almost sentient vines and I felt the petrifying gaze slow me down just enough for her to get ahead. I threw myself in her direction and ate through a vine that was in the process of throwing her further up, which knocked her away from the building and down to where Gregory relentlessly continued his climb.

  It continued like this for some time, with each of us continuously trying to thwart the one in the lead. Ultimately, it was Cari who won out, using some extra vines to keep us at bay for the final push. We were all breathing heavily as we sat on the building’s flat roof.

  “I don’t suppose we have anything like a minimap?” I asked.

  “I can only see my status page,” Gregory said.

  “Same here, but maybe there’s a cartography profession?” Cari asked.

  “I don’t know, in the dungeon I cleared to get my profession, there weren’t any map related tools. Maybe it would be different for different people.”

  They stared at me like I had a third head. “Oh, right. Sorry, I guess I haven’t told you much about what I am class wise and such.”

  I explained what had happened and how I’d been in that dungeon for the majority of the time so far. “The beacon was red, so I figured the red beacons would be for dungeons?”

  “We explored around for the first several days and found that there was a pattern to the beacon colors,” Gregory said as he delved into the details.

  The beacon colors were as such: Red for dungeons, Blue for strong monsters some of the groups of survivors called area bosses, Green for puzzles that most often held good magic items, Purple for Control Spheres, and Black for similarly colored cubes of unknown purpose.

  As I looked over the ruinous city, there were not many beacons available close at hand. Several of the bubbles seem to have moved, and there were quite a few blue and green beacons visible in the distance. “Do we need to go further away from the center to get more access to dungeons and control spheres?”

  “Probably, yes. The green beacons will be the leftover puzzles that are the most difficult but likely will yield the best kinds of loot. Also, many groups of survivors chose to avoid the blue beacons for optimal survival chances,” Cari said.

  “Well, I wanted to do the blue and green beacons anyway, so that’s amazing! Plus, the harder the fight, the better the experience. Which will help you more than me, as I have to eat my experience and stat points. Except for my profession, weirdly? That one improves as I use it.”

  “Puzzles or fighting first?” Gregory asked.

  “Puzzles will be mean loot, which will make fights easier, so loot first. Plus, I wonder if we could pull the blue beacon beasties toward our little bubble friends.”

  “Solve one problem with another? Not a bad idea, really,” Cari said.

  With that, we set a path forward toward the nearest green puzzle beacon.