After checking his status, he turned to his earrings. Well, the flower-like tattoos that had replaced them. They acted as the gateway into his soul, but it was something he had hesitated to use before. His golden body had a strange representation within his soul. It was an impossibly large heavy fruit that vaguely resembled a misshapen gourd. Now that the trial was complete, he figured it would be fine to return. Priscilla was controlling his body and would tell him if something was happening with his friends.

Jill was still fighting the boss, and Mash could hear her swearing loudly as she fought. Even if she wasn’t taking much damage, she was making a mess. The water was nasty, and he had seen more than a little of it splash in her face. He didn’t need to try very hard to ignore her and let himself get pulled inward instead.

His soul was different. He could tell immediately. Even before it came to his vision, the overwhelming feeling of hunger had wrapped around him. Saliva filled his mouth and he had to swallow a few times just to get himself under control. Even then he struggled once he could actually see his soul. The golden fruit was enormous. It hung from the tree in the center, but now it had grown to rest against the ground below. The base of the fruit was far wider than the top and it felt like some weird pumpkin. Its surface was a beautiful unblemished gold. The fruit itself was only one of the things he noticed though. The tree that held it had changed too. It had grown bigger. And he noticed that it was moving. Now it seemed to beat as his heart did. The vibrations of the wood seemed to echo into the world around it.

Mash hesitantly took a step forward. The desperate sensation of hunger grew rapidly as a sweet scent emanated from the fruit. Normally the sickeningly sweet scent would turn him away, but his feet dragged him toward the odd fruit. It had changed a little like the tree. Although it was a more subdued movement. It wasn’t a physical thing, but he felt like the fruit was reaching out toward him. He wasn’t being drawn toward it. They were pulling one another closer.

He pushed his gaze from the fruit, even as he drew closer to it. His soul itself was fundamentally different. Previously, the tree had seemed to stand upon a tiny plot of land. Now it felt like an entire world was resting at his feet. And that the tree’s roots dug through to the opposite end. The marks that had once hung like moons in the sky had shrunk further. Now, they felt like tiny clouds couldn’t ever hope to cover his skies. Then there was the final change he noticed. The clouds that had been the class system were gone entirely. His skies were clear, and he briefly gazed into a beautiful starry night. Each star shone with a different color. They were a representation of his magic.

His hand brushed against the fruit. The surge of hunger made his stomach churn and hurt. It felt as though he hadn’t had a meal in days. And he struggled to contain the urge. Had he ever truly starved? He shook his head and pulled his hand away, even though he planned to eat it.

Mash had instinctively known what he needed to do with his golden body. He knew it was a risk though, so one of the things he had done when locked in his brother’s house learned about the golden body. He had even spoken to Robert about it since it was their world that had given him the skill. Mash had given Robert an abbreviated version of what had happened with his golden body. Sadly, Robert didn’t have much to add. Despite the power being somewhat commonplace in their world few people got beyond a golden body. So, there wasn’t information to gain, though Robert insisted that he should trust his intuition.

Mash wasn’t so sure about that now though. He wasn’t sure if it was his intuition telling him to eat it, or if it was the thing that stopped him now. It was hard for him to know, and he hesitated even as his stomach groaned in protest. He had already decided to eat it and had told the others as much too. So, what made him stop now? Fear. Sweat built on his forehead, and his hands grew clammy. He tried wiggling his toes, only to remember that he didn’t really have a physical body. Despite that, he still knew that he could eat it.

Slowly, so slowly that he counted ten beats of his heart, his hand reached into the fruit. The exterior wasn’t as hard as it looked. It bent and tore like flesh. The meat of the fruit felt like actual meat, and the juice was red like blood. If not for the sickeningly sweet smell that was coming from it, he would’ve assumed it was something else entirely. The meat reminded him of a melon, and he shoveled the first handful into his mouth. The sweetness was even more extreme than he anticipated. And the fruit quickly dissolved into within his mouth.

He didn’t even really know how he was eating, but he didn’t stop. Rather he felt like he couldn’t stop. Somehow, he knew that stopping early would be the worst decision he could make. He continued eating, bite after bite. The fruit was so large that it felt like it would take days to eat the whole thing. And weirdly he felt his hunger grow with every bite. His hands, or whatever he used for hands here, grabbed larger portions of the fruit each time. He was growing with every bite too.

His hunger didn’t abate in the slightest. The next chunk he took of the fruit tore it from the branch that it had hung on. Over half the fruit was already gone but his stomach rumbled for more. And he furiously reached for more of the fruit. Taking bites without even bothering with hands. Chunks of the fruit vanished as he pushed further into it. He didn’t stop or slow. Red juice splashed about and leaked into the grass around the tree. The tree itself was somewhat stained.

The next bite tore more than just fruit from his soul. A part of the tree broke along with it. There was no pain or damage that he could tell. Instead, it felt even more right. The small section of wood crunched like bark and was oddly spicy. The heat spread across his tongue and intensified his hunger even further. He was starving and his whole body ached as he reached for his next bite. This time he tore up a section of the ground, throwing up dirt and grass with the remains of the fruit. The grass and dirt tasted wonderful. He couldn’t even understand what it was, but it mixed with the fruit and balanced the overwhelming sweetness. All of this only increased his hunger, and he didn’t stop at just the fruit.

He started taking chunks out of the tree and the world around him. Hunger urged him on. It was the path he had chosen, and he couldn’t stop. Everything was being devoured, and he only barely managed to push Priscilla out of it. He just continued eating, on and on for what like days. His thoughts devolved, and all that remained was the desire to eat. It kept on until he was left with nothing.

The whole thing became a blur, and when his senses fully returned to him, he found himself floating in an empty void. The colorful stars that had illuminated the space were gone. Any semblance of the life that had previously been there was gone. The marks were gone too. He didn’t even remember eating those. It took him a few minutes to even understand what had happened. He didn’t panic or anything, instead returning to his body to find out what had happened.

He only briefly took in his surroundings. Notably, he wasn’t with his friends in the hallway, but in the center of the boss's room. The red water around him indicated that he had done something less than pleasant. Priscilla could tell him what happened in a second, but he was thinking about something else. His focus shifted inward, hoping his status would show him what he had just done.

Name: Mash Stellumbra Class: Chimeric Vagabond

Level: 137 → 142

Health: 4101 / 5010

Energy: 2109 / 5790

Fortitude: 401 → 501

Endurance: 229 → 329

Strength: 343 → 393

Agility: 379 → 429

Intelligence: 230 → 250

Wisdom: 130 → 150

Charisma: 110 → 150

Free Stats: 60 → 110

Skills: Hunt → Hunger, Magical Layered Wood, Inhuman Hibernation, Chimeric Transformation, Wooden Birth, Chimeric Reconstruction, Vagabond’s Path, Chimeric Domain, Reconstructed Adaptable Monster Core, Chimera’s Constitution, Wooden Body, Mimic’s Avarice, Harbinger of Nothing, Golden Body → Devoured Soul Body, Mark of the Devourer

Hunt → Hunger (Passive): You have gone beyond your limits when fighting enemies and devouring their power. Your limits know no bounds. Gain stats continuously when hunting. Rate increases with hunger. Stats decrease rapidly when out of combat.

Current Rate: + 1-100 all attributes per minute

Chimeric Domain (Passive): Your eyes just weren’t enough. Sense the changes in the mana around you. Connect to the mana and life in your space and inherently understand the nature of the mana and life. Your presence suffuses the space, weakens the magic and strength of enemies beneath you. They cower beneath your might.

Current Range: 57 → 75 feet

Devoured Soul Body (Passive, Unique): You have devoured your own soul, uniting it to your body through the primal action. Your body and soul are one, changes to one are reflected in the other. Changes you make in your body are now permanent.

Mark of the Devourer: Having devoured the marks of greater beings, you have stolen the keys to their power. Mark those who would become the best of meals. The mark will bring you to them when their power becomes significant.

Mash had been amazed by the last set of changes, but this was something else entirely. He felt like the system had been broken. The skills he saw, the way they worked, were just ridiculous. Each of them felt too powerful, hunger especially. His attributes along with the fact that changes to his body could be made permanent were incredible. Things beyond his level or advancement. Even beyond the next advancement. It made him feel like he had done something distinctly wrong.

He also had another unique skill. One that practically demanded immediate research. The possibilities were filling his thoughts as his senses returned to the world around him.

[What happened?]

“What did you do!”

The message and the shouts mixed together, and he turned to face the voices. A surge of dizziness overwhelmed him, and he stumbled. His foot slipped on something, and he fell into the murky water. Thankfully his sense of smell was gone. However, his sense of taste wasn’t, and the vile water had slipped into his mouth. Mash flailed and pushed off the ground with the one foot that was still on the ground. He launched out of the water and collided with the ceiling that was over a dozen feet above him. Before he could fall back into the water, he dug one hand into the ceiling and killed his sense of taste.

He just hung there for a second as his senses adjusted. His body was fundamentally different, and his domain was considerably bigger than he had been prepared for. There were just too many changes to adjust to quickly. Mash blinked a few times as he took in his friends, all of whom seemed ready to fight him. It was time to figure out just what he had done.