Max was still laughing when his stomach growled.
He looked down at himself. "Don’t tell me all that excitement made you hungry again."
Actually, that reminded him of something much more important than the missing chair. His Blackthorn bag was sitting in Stomach, and inside it were fifty-five ordinary E-rank mana cores and three cores from the Thorncrown Ravagers.
He summoned the bag onto his bed. It landed with a heavy thump, making the springs complain. Max opened it and counted the cores again, enjoying the sight of all those crystals lying together.
Originally, he’d meant to sell at least half. He had rent covered for now, but potions weren’t cheap, and his clothes seemed determined to get destroyed every time he entered a Gate. Besides, a Player couldn’t live on monster meat alone.
’Well, I probably could. But I don’t want to.’
His phone chimed before he could make up his mind.
[Player Association]
[Emergency Gate Break Contribution Award: 22,000 Credits]
[Transfer Complete]
Max stared at the screen.
"Twenty-two thousand?"
He opened his banking app. The money was really there, sitting beneath his balance like it belonged to him.
Then he looked at the cores.
"Ah. That settles that."
He’d nearly died getting some of these. Selling them had made sense when rent was hanging over his head, but now he could afford to be a little greedy.
Max picked up the first core and bit down.
CRUNCH!
[Mana Core Devoured]
[EXP +75]
The familiar coolness spread across his tongue. He chewed another, then another, while the little blue notifications flickered and disappeared. Ten cores became twenty. Halfway through, Max abandoned the bed for the kitchen and brought himself a large glass of water, although he wasn’t entirely sure whether a mana core needed washing down.
By the fortieth, he was grinning. The energy kept gathering inside him, but the level-up he’d expected still hadn’t arrived.
’Come on. I’m feeding you an entire Gate’s worth of cores here.’
He swallowed the last one.
**Ding!**
[55 E-rank Mana Cores Devoured]
[Total EXP +4,125]
[EXP: 4,820/5,000]
Max stared at the window.
"You have got to be joking."
A hundred and eighty EXP. That was all that stood between him and Level 15, after he’d eaten fifty-five cores in one sitting.
But the irritation lasted only a moment. Four thousand one hundred and twenty-five EXP was an enormous amount. Ordinary Players would have needed days, possibly longer, to cultivate through a haul like that. Max had done it while sitting on his kitchen counter.
He glanced at the three Ravager cores he’d kept aside. One of them would probably finish the job.
His hand hovered over the case before he closed it again.
’No. Those are interesting. I’ll save them for later.’
He had a more exciting option, anyway. A single D-rank monster would push him past the threshold, and there were some species he’d wanted to see for years.
Max sent the empty bag into Stomach, then retrieved one of his healing potions. It appeared in his hand instantly. He stored it again, tried the same thing with his knife, and finally summoned both in quick succession.
The knife landed in his right hand, while the potion appeared in his left.
He grinned.
A weapon, medicine, cores, spare clothes, even something too large to carry. All of it could be hidden where nobody would think to search. And unlike a storage ring, there was nothing on his fingers to steal.
’Why would anyone pay hundreds of thousands for one of those things?’
Well, because they didn’t have Glutton. That was rather the point.
He was about to store the last specimen case when he remembered the title he’d acquired at the reserve.
[Gatebreaker]
[Title Effect: Damage dealt to Gate bosses increased by 10%.]
Max read it once and smiled.
It wasn’t as absurd as unlimited storage, but ten percent against a boss could make the difference between breaking through armor and leaving an embarrassing dent in it. He’d certainly take that.
A call interrupted his thoughts. Talia’s name filled the screen.
"Morning," Max answered.
"It’s evening."
"Then good evening."
"I watched the video," she said.
Max put the empty core case down. "Which one?"
"Max."
"Right. That one."
She didn’t laugh. "You told me you were going to have a look. Then I wake up and everyone’s talking about you killing the boss of a Gate Break."
"I did have a look. It was just a very eventful look."
"Instructor Hale nearly died."
Her voice had gone quieter. Max stopped playing with the specimen case.
"Yeah," he said. "He did."
For a moment he remembered the fallen pylon, Hale pinned beneath it, and the Tyrant gathering that second roar. He could still see the monster’s jaws opening.
"But he’s alive," Max added. "I saw the healer working on him."
"I know. He sent a message to our class." Talia sighed. "I’m glad you were there. Just don’t leave me wondering if you’re dead next time."
"Fair enough. Sorry."
She accepted that, although he could practically hear her shaking her head. Then she asked, "How strong are you now, anyway?"
Max glanced at the Status window floating in the corner of his vision. His physical stats were already ridiculous for his level, and even more so after the meat he’d devoured at the reserve.
"Stronger than yesterday."
"That’s not an answer."
"It’s a very accurate answer."
This time she laughed. They talked a little longer, but Talia had an Academy shield assessment the following morning, and Max could hear her friends calling in the background. He wished her luck before hanging up.
He liked hunting with her. She’d been a good partner in Blackthorn, and a much better fighter than her equipment had suggested. But after the Tyrant, he couldn’t pretend that the same Gates would challenge them both in the same way anymore.
His phone chimed again.
This time, it was an unfamiliar number.
"Max?" a man’s voice asked when he answered.
"Depends who’s calling."
A quiet chuckle came through the speaker. "Darius Venn. C-rank. Captain Rourke gave me your number. I saw what you did yesterday."
Max straightened slightly. "Oh?"
"I’m leading a D-rank Gate expedition tomorrow. Four people. One of my fighters has pulled out, and I’ve been trying to fill the position."
"Why me?"
"Because you killed a D-rank Elite in front of half the Association. And because Hale says you’re quick enough to keep up with people who ought to be much faster than you."
Max couldn’t help smiling at that.
"What’s inside the Gate?"
"We call it Hollow Sky. Flying predators, mostly."
Flying predators.
Max’s fingers tightened around the phone.
"What kind?"
"That’s part of the problem. Nobody’s collected a complete specimen yet. Most parties are more interested in getting home than finding out what the things eat."
"Do they use wings to fly?"
There was a pause. "You really were a monster researcher."
"That’s not an answer either."
Darius laughed. "Some do. Others don’t seem to need them. Meet us at the north Association staging yard at eight. You can decide whether to come after you’ve met the team."
Max looked at the three Ravager cores resting in their case, then at his gauntlet.
Four more boss kills to evolve it. One hundred and eighty EXP to his next level. And now someone was offering him a Gate filled with monsters he’d never tasted.
"I’ll be there," he said.
After the call ended, Max picked up his knife, made it disappear, and summoned it back into his palm.
Tomorrow couldn’t come quickly enough.
***
"You’re the white-haired kid?"
Max turned toward the voice and found a tall woman sitting on the edge of a transport truck, swinging her boots above the ground. A pair of narrow metal fins rested against her back, although they were folded too tightly to be ordinary wings.
"Depends," he said. "Are you the one with the flying monsters?"
She laughed and hopped down. "Cass. Cloudwalker, D-rank. You’re really the guy from the video?"
"That’s what people keep telling me."
"You look shorter in person."
"You looked taller sitting on the truck."
Cass snorted. Before she could reply, a man carrying an enormous bow emerged from the vehicle. He had a narrow face, dark hair tied back from his eyes, and a leather guard covering most of his left forearm.
"Ilan," he said, offering Max his hand. "Farshot. D-rank."
Max shook it. "Max."