The black beacon was set in a park styled area of the tutorial city. Large trees nearly half the height of the surrounding buildings dotted the grass, which was… mostly green. In the center of the park, the grass shifted from the vibrant green to black. This color change did not affect the life of the grass, and the thick black grass glistened with dew.

  A 7 meter tall cube rested on the grass, so deeply black it seemed almost like it consumed light. It bore, as far as I could see, no other markings. There was something odd with the cube.

  “There is something extremely strong in there,” I said, “my Sense Power is going a bit crazy.”

  “Oh, that’s just lovely,” Cari said. “Any idea how to open it?”

  “Well, if we can’t manipulate it with magic, I could always eat my way in.”

  “Are you sure?” Gregory asked, “That cube looks like it’s a weird material.”

  “My skill lets me eat anything, so it should allow me to do so, but I don’t know. I haven’t run into anything that resisted consumption. The only thing that might really stop me is if-”

  Mysterious Cube. Legendary. This cube is made of a mysterious material, and its contents are unknown.

  “-its rarity was too high.” I finished, deflated. “Shit. The Rare disk had so much energy, it felt like I would burn out.”

  “Aren’t you much stronger now than you were then?”

  “I… hadn’t considered that.” It was true that my stats were much higher now than then, so perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad.

  “Can you sense any powerful enemies around here? We should go train if we want any hope of keeping up with you,” Gregory said.

  I nodded and pointed out several directions that had powerful enemies. “If you can, bring the bodies here for me.”

  Cari nodded, “You got it.”

  As they left, I reached out and touched the cube. It was surprisingly warm and weirdly rough, like those holograph bookmarks with the moving images.

  “Hmm,” I muttered as I walked around the cube. The surface was the same on each face, and for good measure I leapt up onto the top. Same deal. What the hell was this thing?

  Sitting on the top of the cube, I placed all four of my hands onto its surface as I slipped into Meditation. I gently prodded the top of the cube with my mana.

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  I woke up a few moments later in an empty room in one of the nearby buildings, several holes in the walls telegraphing my arrival. The cube does not like being touched with magic, I guess. Pain pinged my joints as I stood, as if I’d been struck by lightning.

  “Okay, different tactic,” I groaned, jumping down and jogging back over to the cube.

  I made a Feast Bolt, intentionally keeping it separate, and struck the cube from behind a nearby tree. When it hit the cube, a wave of color rippled across the surface like throwing a stone in a pond.

  “Am I in the cl-”

  A beam arced out in my direction, cutting the tree I was standing by straight through at an angle that knocked it over away from me.

  “NOPE!” I yelled as I ducked the beam. “Holy shit, man! Relax. I just want to see what you’re hiding in there.”

  I, much more gently now, approached the cube. I touched it again.

  “So, physical touch is acceptable, but magic is definitely not.” For laughs, I did try to pick up the cube, finding not at all to my surprise that I couldn’t. This thing was crazy heavy. I didn’t think even all three of us with our enhanced strength could lift it.

  I shifted from foot to foot nervously. One more thing to try. I was not excited for this, given the cube’s reaction to magic. I moved to the edge of one of the sides, patting the cube on both sides.

  “Here goes nothing.” I opened my mouth and bit down onto the edge.

  First of all, the cube didn’t really have much of a taste or rather its flavor was very subtle, like Kix cereal. Secondly, my mouth tingled and went slightly numb from the bite. Finally, the cube repaired itself faster than the bubble had.

  I was not launched away or blasted by a beam. In fact, any damage I had received from being thrown was quickly repaired as I was flooded with regenerative energies. I felt like I wanted to run around and lift a bunch of heavy shit. What did that remind me of? Pre-workout, maybe.

  In all seriousness, the cube seemed to be possessed of boundless energy to repair itself. I had another bite or two before running around the park and lifting the broken tree, tossing it aside.

  “Woo! That is really something!” I said, unable to sit down. I tried a series of different things, such as etching the strength rune to my arms and legs, still unable to lift the cube. I made another weak glowstone and tossed it on top of the cube. There was a flash and the inferior item was beamed into nothing.

  “How to open the damned cube? I sense something in there, so it must be able to be opened somehow,” I said to myself. I entered meditation to consider my next steps.

  Feeling the energy around me, I focused on the energy from the cube. Generally, the ambient energy of the realm came in various types or affinities. Rocks, for example, naturally emitted earth affinity magic, water emitted water affinity, etc. The cube did not emit anything, and in fact was surprisingly like me in that it seemed to constantly consume the affinities around it. The consumption was far slower than my own, and I felt the black grass doing the same thing.

  “So the cube is very slowly converting the grass from plant to hunger affinity. Explains why they turned black but haven’t shriveled. Okay, now what? And perhaps more importantly, why is this even here?”

  Something I hadn’t tried just yet, I pressed my claw against the cube and scratched. Flecks of the cube fell away like paint, but it repaired itself just as quickly. I caught one of the flecks, and felt the hunger trying to consume my hand. With a small push of effort, I sent a bit of my own hunger.

  The fleck stopped trying to consume my hand, as if an equilibrium had been reached.

  This gave me an idea.