“When you enter meditation, how do you visualize your core?” The Living Rune asked.

  “Usually a sphere with branches of my energy flowing through my body.”

  “Please enter meditation for me.”

  I sat and did so.

  “I can’t sense your meditative state. You have a stealth skill active?”

  “I do.”

  “Well, turn it off.”

  “Won’t the cube start to eat me?”

  “Yes, but you can turn it back on after I’ve had a second to get a good look. I’ll use the Sense rune to help.”

  I took a deep breath and turned off my Ravenous Cloak. Immediately I felt my energy being consumed, but it was slow and not too painful.

  “Hmm. Yes. Interesting. You’ve already divided your circulation, good good. Your Meditation skill based on your regeneration must be Common rarity. Soul Chamber will bump it at least two stages depending on how successful we are.”

  “Are you talking to yourself? This hurts, you know.”

  “Now you know how I feel!”

  Feeling a bit bad about that, I let the rune finish its musing.

  “Your regeneration while in meditation will slightly surpass the consumption of the cube, and you will want as much circulating as you can. Now, for the best results, given your hunger affinity, we’ll need to use a few runes you don’t technically know, but I’ll show you what it should look like.”

  With that, we began working on the Soul Chamber. Hunger affinity, according to the Living Rune, was somewhat inherently paradoxical. That made sense to me, as my own hunger did not interact well with the cube until it had achieved equilibrium. Order within the chaos.

  WIthin the cube, the hunger magics were chaotically strewn about, constantly on the hunt for errant energy to consume. I spent the early stages studying the movement of the cube’s magic. Though it seemed at first glance to be utterly chaotic, there were subtle patterns to the movement.

  Slowly, I extended the tendrils of my hungry core, pulling it back so it blended with the ambient energy. The Living Rune helped me to gently bend the movements into the lattice work that would serve as the base of the soul chamber. As we worked, I shaped the runes we would need, as taught to me on the fly. The Strength rune enmeshed with the Shield rune to strengthen the protective space within the chamber. The new runes were the Join rune and the Void rune, which emptied the internal space of the chamber of hunger affinities and joined the other two runes to the Void rune.

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  We were nearly finished when I felt something was off.

  “Hey, I think something-”

  HUNGER.

  The lattice frame work around the chamber pulsed and flickered. I was worried that it would fail, but my core flared out again.

  HUNGER.

  The equilibrium broke. My ever-ravenous core sent the full force of its desire to consume into the lattice. The threads thickened and spread, becoming thick walls. The constant consumption from the cube pulled back from my body as it tried to fight against the formation of the Soul Chamber.

  HUNGER.

  Unlike the mysterious cube, my hunger had no limit. I have an infinite tank. Unlike times before, when I lost control, this time I pushed my hunger to its absolute limit. The air around me began to swirl as the rate of the cube being consumed spiked.

  HUNGER.

  The Living Rune, knowing what was happening and feeling itself freed of the cube’s consumption, flew to hide within my strengthening Soul Chamber. The walls around me started to fleck and crack, the pieces pulled into the chamber walls. The city came into view as the cube fully broke down. Cari and Gregory stood off to the side, a rather large pile of corpses next to them, staring slack jawed as my Soul Chamber shrank down and disappeared into my chest.

  I felt an unexpectedly huge surge of my stats as I pulled up my notifications.

  You have devoured the Mysterious Cube, Legendary. All stats increased by 320. Consuming magic items does not grant experience points.

  Your stats have reached a new threshold. Inferior rarity magic items no longer grant stat increases.

  My stats all more than doubled. From one fucking magic item! What the fuck?! I need to get more of these cube things! I hungrily read the rest of my notifications.

  Etch Rune. Inferior. Using your enchanting skills, you can etch runes onto surfaces or objects, creating temporary effects.

  Etch Rune, Inferior, adapts to Etch Rune, Common.

  Etch Rune. Common. Your contact with the Living Rune has granted you additional knowledge of runes. Using your enchanting skills, you can etch runes onto surfaces or objects, creating temporary effects. Runes etched onto worn objects are minorly improved.

  DING! Profession: Neophyte Enchanter has increased from Level 15 to Level 17.

  DING! Race: Omnis Vorare has increased from Level 21 to Level 22.

  Meditation. Common. You can enter a meditative state that improves your ability to sense the energies around you and significantly improves your recovery rates.

  Meditation, Common, adapts to Soul Chamber, Epic.

  Soul Chamber. Epic. With the assistance of the Living Rune, you have created a chamber within yourself in which you are able to store items without risking them being consumed by your core. You may enter this chamber while you meditate, retaining your ability to sense the energies around you and significantly improving your recovery rates.

  DING! Profession: Neophyte Enchanter has increased from Level 17 to Level 27.

  Profession skill selections available.

  DING! Race: Omnis Vorare has increased from Level 22 to Level 27.

  I opened my eyes and looked at my two companions. They looked tired, but they had already gained a few more levels. Cari reached Level 36, finally surpassing Gregory’s Level 35.

  “You keep disappearing for days at a time!” Cari said exasperated.

  “What? I wasn’t in there for that long-”

  Tutorial Time Remaining: 37 days, 2 hours, 14 minutes.

  Survivors: 856/2000.

  Eight days had passed while I was within the cube. And over 400 people died.

  “Fuck me!”