Luna's help was undeniably effective, but eventually she had to leave. Ethan stood alone in that strange room, eyes darting from crate to box, wondering what kind of horrific artifacts rested within. He had been informed that there was a proper containment place for the more dangerous anomalies, but these were all fairly low-rank. One day, they would bring him in on the entire scheme, but today he had something else on his mind.

  Ethan pinched a coin between his fingers. It had an image of a man he almost recognized on one side and an abstract picture on the other. Embossed on the face was the number 100. Luna had given it to him as payment. Being part of the anomalous materials group meant a lot of money, according to her, yet he had no idea what to do with it. The 100-coin piece felt heavy in his hands. He walked through the streets, taking in the sights and breathing in the scents of food stalls and restaurants alike.

  Luna had suggested that he spend the entire value of the coin at a food stall. She had even mentioned the specific one to go to, but hadn’t said what to get. Without a clue how much this money was worth, he wandered, eventually finding a stall with the words ‘Beasts Bazaar’ hanging over the top. Approaching, he read the menu and frowned. There was a strange selection of dried fruits, tree bark, and roasted monster meat. One item stood out.

  "Chimera haunch. I'm not sure that sounds appealing."

  “Never said it was!” the short bearded man said from behind the counter of the stall.

  The scents coming from the grill behind the stall were intoxicating. Ethan's brows knit as he tried to understand what he was smelling. It was as though somebody had taken the odor of a steak and condensed it a thousand times. It made his mouth water and his nostrils flare as he stared at the grilling strip of what was apparently a chimera haunch.

  "How much chimera haunch does this get me?" Ethan placed his 100-coin piece on the counter and slid it over.

  "A plate for 95," the man said, taking the coin and flicking it. Another coin appeared out of nowhere, rolling across the countertop until Ethan stopped it with a resounding slap. He scooped the coin up, rolling it over to find a 5 embossed on the face. It felt lighter than the original.

  What an interesting currency.

  The man behind the counter wasted no time slicing a smaller piece from the large haunch and setting it on a ceramic plate. He slid it over with a beaming smile. "Is this your first time trying monster meat?"

  "Yes, I suppose it is," Ethan said, blinking slowly.

  “Just try and take it easy. Maybe half of what you have there at first, and then wait out the effects. I recommend sitting down.”

  This was the part where Ethan would have normally politely accepted the man's request and then thrown it in a trash can at his earliest convenience. Instead, he nodded and headed off, finding that, just like Gale House, the Silver City had its share of beautiful parks. He settled in one close to the gate that would take him home, finding a bench and sitting down. That's when he was able to fully appreciate the scent of the meat that seemed to follow him like a cloud. The spices and seasonings were so intense on the meat that it was hard to discern any individual element. Ethan took a steady breath, cutting a small piece off and placing it in his mouth.

  He didn't pass out as he had expected. His mouth didn't explode until he died from a flavor overload, yet the strip of meat was extremely delicious. It was laced with striations of fat that melted as he chewed. The meat itself was so soft that even a person with only a few teeth wouldn't have any trouble eating it. The warning the man gave him only came true when he finally swallowed his first bite.

  From the middle of his stomach, Ethan felt something spreading out and coming as a tingling warmth at first, until it transformed into a sensation that felt very similar to the mana moving through his body. It seeped into the nearby tissue, spreading out and infusing something into his internal organs. This most certainly would have freaked him out if he was still back on Earth, but he trusted Luna. She hadn't steered him wrong yet, and he figured this was part of her training.

  Eating the first half of the meat didn't knock him out as expected, but it did make him unable to walk. The energy spread throughout his entire body, soaking into his muscles, bones, organs, and veins. Even his eyes were affected, causing everything to go hazy as he digested the meat. The only thing he could think to do was exactly what he had been taught. He moved mana around this time and infused it with the delicious chimera steak meat, then reordered his insides.

  A few hours passed, and he ate the rest, splitting his concentration this time between processing the energy and drawing his circles. Those rings came with a new focus. Each little piece seemed more distinct than the others, and he had a decent understanding of what he was looking at. He barely realized it was getting close to the end of the day when something finally happened. A message appeared, clouding his vision and snapping him out of his concentration.

  [Error Resolved]

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  You have created a feature for your system. Please find the Attribute Rings section unlocked in your class screen.

  Ethan almost couldn't believe what he was seeing. It had snapped together so quickly. Had he really done that much work to earn this new feature? He shook away the confusion and summoned his class screen. Sure enough, the top error that he had seen before had been replaced with the word "attribute rings." The other error was still there. Most importantly, he was interested in seeing if the error had resolved in the Emulation Mode ability.

  [Emulation Mode]

  Description:

  Allows you to emulate the operation of other systems in a limited capacity. This ability scales with your Affinity Ring and is limited in scope by your Mind Ring. This feature is accomplished using the [Celestial Pen] item.

  “Did I actually do it?” Ethan couldn’t believe what he was reading. He had actually created a feature for his system, resolving a few errors. The Emulation Mode feature, attached to his Primordial Scribe ability, scaled with two of the attribute rings he had made. If he had done it correctly, those rings were now representations of attributes. But he felt something inside himself that was still incomplete, and worried he had missed something.

  The scribe dug through his interface, mentally clicking on the Attribute Rings entry in his class screen. Another screen appeared.

  [Attribute Rings]

  Strength 1

  Agility 1

  Dexterity 1

  Vigor 1

  Endurance 1

  Affinity 1

  Mind 1

  Ethan figured that the number next to the rings was the relative strength or perhaps how many rings there were. However, he shook the thought away, mentally clicking on the mind ring and watching as a novel screen appeared. It wasn't like the others. When this one appeared, he saw the ring he had been drawing for days now. There was a circle that appeared attached to the top of the ring as though he could place something there, but he couldn't figure out what. For the first time, his system decided to be helpful, popping up a message that described exactly what was going on.

  [Attribute Rings and the emulation system]

  The Breadth and Depth of an Attribute Ring determines your score in that attribute. Increasing the quantity of slots on a ring depends on the breadth of your knowledge in a ring at that level.

  Using Emulation Mode allows you to learn any skill, ability, spell, etc from any other class system. Learning skills, abilities, spells, etc requires a certain understanding.

  After understanding is achieved, you may mount any skill, ability, spell, etc into the slot on any ring. Different rings will have different effects.

  To engage Emulation Mode, simply observe someone using another system (roughly at equal rank to your own) and activate the ability.

  Remember: the most effective way to obtain new items for your rings’ slots is practicing with other systems. You don’t need to become a master, but general understanding is required.

  More information about these systems will become available as you progress.

  That was the single largest bit of information his system had ever given him. Ethan’s head swam through a combination of that knowledge and the heady feeling of the monster meat. Even with the length of the message, it boiled down to a specific directive: emulate other systems and learn their stuff. That was easy enough… especially since he had someone to test it on. The point was: he needed to get back to Gale House to observe some folks at the lower ranks.

  Heading home was easy enough. When Ethan unpinned his badge to hand over to the attendant, he paused. Near the top of the brass badge was a circular mark he hadn’t noticed before. It was new. The attendant finally clicked his fingers to get the scribe’s attention, finally accepting the badge and scanning it.

  “Oh. Sorry, sir,” the attendant said, forcing a weak smile. “Your portal will be ready in a few moments.”

  Accepting his badge back, Ethan gave it a closer look. The new circle on his badge was embossed and had a single symbol in the center he didn’t recognize. It was easy enough to put two and two together. Perhaps being a member of the Anomalous Materials Group would have more advantages than he had originally thought. Once his portal sprung to life, he headed back to Gale House and breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Thank god. Not sure how much longer I could’ve handled those spires…”

  Out of the dizzying city and back in a sensible area, Ethan allowed the smells of the streets to wash over him. The spires of the wizards were much less intimidating. He wandered away from the portal, making his way toward the sea as quickly as he could go. Along the way, he turned his senses inward. No matter how faintly he brushed his intent against his soul, he could feel the rings. Each radiated power he didn’t have before. Some quick tests along the way, focusing on the Agility Ring, revealed a marked increase in his innate abilities. He moved quicker, ran with less fatigue, and felt generally stronger.

  If he had to guess, his physical state had increased by about 50%. Which wasn’t bad for some base-level attributes.

  Finally sitting down on the docks, dangling his feet over the edge, Ethan scanned the area. As always, there were students on cleaning duty. The docks were no different, with two teams scouring the wooden planks clean. No matter how much he stared at them, he couldn’t quite understand exactly how they were casting the spells. But he felt his soul twitching in response, so he withdrew his pen and sketched random stuff.

  The pen wanted to draw something specific, but the pen’s user just couldn’t figure it out. Ethan finally gave up, checking the time. With an early day tomorrow, joining with the Anomalous Materials Group at the eastern gate, he didn’t want to stay up too late. Whatever had happened in Barry and Amelia’s class kept them busy, meaning he ate dinner alone. At least that gave him time to feel around his soul, fumbling as though he could figure it out.

  At least tomorrow would bring more time with Luna’s instruction. Even if he had to pretend to be a big boy who knew his place within the Anomalous Materials Group.