Some hours later

> My stomach feels like I just spent a week in Mexico eating street food. What the hell is going on? I don’t remember going to bed…. Shit.

Upon acclimating his eyes to the descending sun, Jake had an epiphany. He was dumb as dog shit!

> Probably shouldn't have tried absorbing something alive without at least testing something dead. Rookie mistake Jake, rookie mistake.

Jake tried to sit up, but once his abs started burning like that one time where he tried to do more sit ups than his broth.. estranged family member. Thus he gallantly choose to simply look down his prone body to the bloody t-shirt he was wearing. Noticing the blood, Jake had a mini panic attack until he lifted it up.

“Damn, when did I get abs? I mean yeah i was always skinny but my stomach never used to pop out… looks like rabbit agrees with me”.

> So no wounds, scabs, or even scars. Toned muscles on my stomach and yep, pretty much everywhere. Totally nailed that fight then, although from now on ill only absorb something alive IF I’m otherwise screwed. Do not want to attempt that again only for the monster to rip its way out! Let’s see how my stats are, i never really noticed until i was holding that death balls head but my grip has totally increased. ‘Status’.

Name: Jake Steel

Profession: N/A

Trait: Viroid Proto

Class: G

VIT: 3.55

STR: 2.005

AGI: 2.501

PER: 2.501

INT: 1.10

WIS: 1.00

NOTE: stats are relevant to base stats of humans.

Jake gazed lovingly at his status window, admiring the increase in VIT, STR, AGI and PER. 0.1 of a percentage may seem low but after only 1 day of adventuring, and only 1 fight, it was practically bus levelling.

Although Jake seemingly gained power and advancement easily, he didn’t truly realise how close he was to simply devouring himself. The rabbit was constantly thrashing around inside him during digestion but thankfully, due to its low strength, low class (H with little to no mana in its blood) and zero momentum for a charge, Jake survived.

“Crap, better get back before they close the gates for the night. I’m damn lucky no other midget unicorns tried to skewer me while I was down. To infinity, and beyond!”

To the average observer Jake would appear bat shit crazy. However.. nope he probably is. A lifetime of distrusting people close to you helped build Jake a pretty solid interpersonal relationship with himself. He considered himself awesome, he agrees with himself, best relationship ever if somewhat unhealthy. Anyway in an isolated environment Jake is a downright chatty Cathy, in a crowd however Jake will just observe. Observation has served him well his whole life in avoiding irritating circumstances and now that those same circumstances could potentially be life threatening, Jake considered himself mentally ready for this world of broken dreams (Yep, he’s still bitter about the whole idol group thing).

/Siren blaring

“GATE CLOSING IN 2 MINUTES”

“Maximum effort!” Jake said to himself as he passed the guard all dressed up in what looked like brown armour, if it had a baby with a robot. Adorned on his left breast was the insignia of the city, an open tome with a staff as a bookmark. Pretty cool he begrudgingly admitted as Jake walked towards the Manadium.

> Why am I still not hungry? Does consuming mean the same as eating food? Whatever, if it means I can be a little more thrifty then the grocery budget is getting a budget cut. So long as I don't start looking at people and visualise steak. That could probably.. give me the runs.

The crowds started getting denser the closer Jake got to the Manadium, something he wasn’t enjoying but thankfully he didn't have to worry about getting his pocket pinched. Pondering on the subject further, the map never really showed a slum section. Sure there are homeless people but the lowest cast here seems to rather indenture themselves as a maid or servant to a clan for a period of years as a sort of sudo slavery. The difference being, the “Owner” has a duty of care to the “Slave” and that laws are regularly enforced by the city guard, the ‘Manardians’ as they were called amongst the locals. So really not a whole lot of crime in the stealing money department, items and things from homes sure but not much in the way of open robbery.

> I swear, whoever named shit here seriously needs a psych check. I bet they get hard every time someone says ‘Mana’ out loud near them. Time to drop off todays haul of Buckweed and then find a nice cosy corner to pass out in.

Jake quickly made his way towards the HG only to find all the counters full with lines starting from a minimum of 5 people per booth. Frowning in irritation, Jake stumbled over to Benji’s line again because he figured why not go to where you know? After roughly half an hour it was finally Jakes turn, just as Jake was stepping forward some massive mound of muscle swiftly cut him off and proceeded to talk to Benji. Jake was fuming and was about to reel back to punch the thing in the back of the head when it suddenly turned around and looked at him. His blood froze.

> That’s a chick?

Standing there like an idiot struck by lightning, Jake couldn't utter a sound. The love child of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brienne of Tarth eyed him up slowly from top to bottom and back again before quickly bumping her band to his. Just as quickly as she had appeared, she left, and Jake slowly came back to reality as he approached the counter. Turning in his haul in a perfect rendition of a manufacturing line robot he spun on the spot and proceeded with his coding. Just as Jake turned towards the exit his band suddenly flashed.

MESSAGE

FROM: Clara Claptrap

Call me

Jake wept that night in his solitary corner of the Manadium like a recently deflowered maiden.