Winston just sat there, staring at nothing as he tried to ignore the body of Renir lying just a few yards away. He felt a sense of despair bubbling in his stomach. It overrode his anger at both himself and the System. He wasn’t completely sure, but he believed that since humanity had been taken away to serve in the tower, they would be distributed across different floors of the tower. If his theory was right, then since the different races of contenders would only congregate after the 10th floor, humanity would only be there after the 10th floor as well.

  If the first floor was so dangerous, how dangerous would those later floors be? Would his humans even still be alive when he got to their floor? When his humans left the house, he would sit and watch the news on the television. He knew the human population. There were billions. They were expendable.

  Winston shivered. The System wouldn’t care if they died. Unless they had some kind of special protection, they could very well be dead already. That meant one thing. Winston had to climb faster.

  Turning back around, he watched as more parties of Caltherans streamed towards the site of the battle. Winston walked towards the body of the Alpha Fringillade, feeling his chest tighten as he skirted around Renir’s body.

  The body of the alpha was too large to fit into his spatial ring. Winston barely registered what he was doing as he consumed a large stone on the forest floor. As he used the energy, he began to saw the alpha into pieces, while he thought about his new skill, trying to distract himself.

  [Mental Manipulation]. Just the name of it made Winston hesitant to use it. [Charm] had been different. He had begun to use it to communicate with Erynd, but now…he feared what would happen if he used Mental Manipulation on him.

  With a thought, Winston pulled up the description of Mental Manipulation.

  Mental Manipulation (Rare)

  Allows the user to control the minds of others. Depending on the force used, the user can shatter an opponent’s mind altogether. The user can gain complete control over the mind of their target. Also allows for less severe uses, such as imposing the user’s will or ideas on the target. Charisma and [Redacted] significantly enhance this skill’s effects.

  Winston tilted his head as he read the last sentence. What had been redact—

  Error Contender does not have Intelligence stat… User not compatible with mana…

  Winston just stared at the message. He’d gotten error messages before. He just needed to wait a bit—

  Congratulations, Contender!

  You have gained a new stat: Mind

  Unlike Intelligence, the Mind stat will not increase or supply mana. Instead, it will only apply to mental skills. Like Intelligence, the Mind stat will not increase intellect or memory.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Mind will start with 5 stat points.

  Winston’s eyes widened. That had been faster than he expected. Winston shook his head as his mind began to drift back towards Renir. Now wasn’t the time. As he read through the System message, he continued to saw off chunks of the alpha, placing them in his spatial ring.

  A new stat? That was interesting, except that he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to increase the strength of his Mental Manipulation. Shaking his head once more, Winston growled at himself. He couldn’t neglect it just because he didn’t like to use it. The past few days had taught him that he would need everything he had to survive.

  When his spatial ring ran out of space, he began to use [Consume] on the bird. As he consumed one chunk after another, he heard an angry Caltheran yell.

  The man, easily six feet tall, but with few crystals, marched up towards Erynd. “Your pet’s taking the beast!”

  “My pet,” Erynd, still on his knees, looked up at the man, “Is the reason that my entire party didn’t end up like Renir. Now fuck off. The spoils aren’t yours, anyway.”

  The man looked like he was going to argue, but then he seemed to change his mind. With a reluctant nod, he turned and walked away.

  Winston finished consuming the beast, feeling the energy flowing into him. Turning around, he waddled over to Erynd and curled up in his lap, letting out a burp. Erynd smiled down at him, but it didn’t reach his eyes. No, his eyes were almost as bad as when his mistake had nearly gotten them all killed. Except this time, instead of being dominated by guilt, it was grief.

  ?? ′?? ? ??` ??

  Back at Erynd’s tent, Winston curled up next to him. Erynd had taken the loss hard. Even harder than when Roderic died.

  Closing his eyes, Winston entered his soulspace. Appearing in the endless field, he let out a sigh. He just closed his eyes and listened to the breeze and the rustling of grass. For a moment, there was nothing else. No worries, no death, no System. For a moment, he was back at his house, lounging in the sun as his humans lay on the ground around him.

  He felt a keen welling up from deep within his chest. He hadn’t felt like this for a long time. Not since he was a puppy. But now, all the pent-up emotions and grief made themselves known. Winston sat, unmoving. Just like the world around him. Nothing but the rustle of grass.

  With a sigh, Winston opened his eyes, swallowing his grief. Winston stepped onto the stone platform, staring at his bowls. After a moment of contemplation, Winston decided to advance, but not too much. Closing his eyes, he squeezed the mist. Focusing all of his mind on it. Leaving everything else behind.

  When he opened his eyes, there was a pile of kibble in his bowl. Winston frowned, but just for a moment. There was less kibble than he expected, but after a quick inspection, he found that it was far more energy-dense than normal.

  When he finished, he opened his status screen.

  Name: Winston

  Race: Corgi

  Class: Relentless Consumer (Unique)

  Rank: Initiate 8

  Titles (3/5):

  Non-Humanoid Progenitor

  [Redacted]

  Modified

  Food Energy: 300/300

  Stats:

  Strength: 10

  Dexterity: 6

  Toughness: 10

  Charisma: 44

  Stomach: 30

  Mind: 5

  Free Points: 0

  Active Skills (3/10):

  Consume lvl 7

  Channel Food Energy lvl 7

  Mental Manipulation lvl 1

  Passive Skills (2/10):

  Enhanced Stomach lvl 3

  Passive Charm lvl 6

  After reading over the screen, Winston looked up at the huge cloud of mist that was still above him. It was time to gain some stats.