My jewel’s stomach had all the room in the world now, so I started to consume it. The molecules from the rock lifted into the air, soared toward my jewel, and shifted behind my core’s hard surfaces. The mace’s stone head was simple to digest and carried almost no taste. In fact, it was almost bland, but I enjoyed it all the same. I paused at the part of the stone where the rune was drawn, and decided I’d save it for last. I imagined the taste would be incredible, and I never ate dessert before dinner.
Leaving the thin slice of enchanted rock untouched, I started to devour the wooden haft. I was only a few bites in before I had to stop and reflect on the experience. The wood was unlike anything I’d seen on Earth, and it seemed to have an almost purple sheen. It carried a flavor distinct from rocks, and the oiled and well-cared-for handle haft almost tasted like an aged whiskey. I imagined the tree it had come from, this visualization only enhancing the flavor.
This wooden handle was the first substance I’d consumed that had actually been alive once. The tingle over my core wasn’t quite electric, but seemed to hum all the same, as if the memories of organic life still shimmered through its molecules. The final speck of wood entered my core, and I brimmed with pleasure.
It was a meal even the head chef of Hell’s Kitchen would have appreciated.
Zagorath Consumed a Savage Mace
Physical Essence +100
Finally, a blueprint of the stone-headed weapon blazed into my consciousness, clear as daylight. Incredibly simple, but still far more complex and advanced than anything I’d consumed before.
I understood it.
I knew then that if I wished to reconstruct such a weapon, I would simply have to channel my Physical Essence and an identical replica would come to life. It was a kind of infused knowledge, the same knowledge I had used to construct my Spring Trap.
Satisfied with this skill acquisition, I moved onto the sliver of rock marked with the Swiftness seal. Shimmering with Infernal essence, its purpose became clear to me as I slowly consumed its edges. The seal was a conduit that would feed from a stream of near-constant energy. In the case of monsters, it would be the Infernal Essence inside them. My avatar would use that same essence as well as the magic existing within my dungeon core. Gavin, on the other hand, had used the substance contained within his magical branding: Soul Essence. I wasn’t sure how Gavin had acquired the tattoo, but Bertha had mentioned it was the mark of a Sand Pirate.
I moved onto the leather scraps of Gavin’s clothing. All that was left were tattered remnants of something resembling an Ancient Roman battle skirt. The texture was tough and carried a salty taste. Like the wood I’d consumed, it brought a sensation of organic life, specifically the cow-like creature the leather had been harvested from. In the case of the battle skirt, I could consume its Physical Essence but couldn’t learn the details of its construction. I figured the brokenness of the item prevented me from complete understanding, and that my ‘infused knowledge’ skill required an item to be whole.
Well, at least I could make old scraps of leather.
Leather pieces were often used to craft items in games, so maybe they would prove useful?
Zagorath Acquired Crafting Material
Leather Scraps
When the scraps dissolved, there was a tiny trinket in the shape of a bat left in their place. I hadn’t noticed it before since it was so small, and it almost looked like a D&D miniature.
Puck snatched up the device before I could consume it. “This is pretty, Master.”
He had obviously fully healed and returned to his annoying ways. “Keep hold of it for now. I have something else I want to do.”
I cast my sight over Bertha and looked at her with pride. She and Puck had both fought valiantly. Their healing had cost a total of 150 Infernal Essence, but they had earned far more. They both deserved a reward.
While I was more than happy to fulfil the position as evil overlord, I knew rewards worked better for morale than intimidation alone. If the trinket Puck was holding turned out to be nothing other than a keepsake, I would allow him to keep it. I figured Bertha would prefer a more personal approach to being rewarded.
I had just consumed a mace of great power, and Bertha could always add another two-handed item to her arsenal. She had told me she’d been trained with many weapons, but it would probably be easier to enchant her poleaxe with the Swiftness rune. A burst of extra speed certainly wouldn’t go amiss inside my dungeon. Enchanting her weapon would benefit me at the same time, but I genuinely wanted to thank her for her service.
Maybe I could try something even more ambitious?
“Bertha, give me your poleaxe,” I commanded.
She looked puzzled but laid it dutifully on the floor. I pounced on the weapon with my mind. With my new understanding of the wooden handle, my plan would easily come to fruition. The metal blade, however, would prove far more difficult.
I touched the substance and realized it was formed in flames from a liquid but was still simply another kind of stone I hadn’t yet tasted. I gnawed at it as I figured out the dimensions, the thickness of the blade, the tightly-bonded atoms that gave it its strength, its sharpness, and its killing power.
A moment later, I had it, and my whole dungeon shook with excitement as the form of the poleaxe suddenly illuminated my consciousness. I had yet another blueprint, another thing I could form from raw Physical Essence. The long weapon vanished into essence as I consumed it,
