Jeff stuck his hands into the System Pillar and saw a screen appear before him.

Would you like to purchase a basic meal?

Yes/No

Jeff selected yes and paid the 3 merit points for the meal. He felt something placed into his open hands and pulled it out. In his hands was an ornate metal plate complete with food and a drink.

"I really expected that finding food and water would be one of my biggest struggles during my 10 day survival quest," he thought out loud. "Why am I allowed to just buy a meal?"

"How would you get food? Everything you kill would just dissolve into Myst. Even most plants you try to eat will do the same. You might be able to find some fruit to eat, but do you think our whole Boschyan System could survive off of fruit? No. Food is created by those who have an Ability to make food out of Myst." Kazi said while Jeff went to town for his meal.

Jeff thought that through. His body had always lived on the bodies or byproducts of other living organisms. If he couldn't actually harvest those things then finding food would be impossible.

That may actually be the worst thing that would befall Earth when the Mysts arrived. So many industries relied on previously living materials. He wasn't sure what would happen to food that was already made before the Mysts came. He didn't think something like a jar of peanut butter would simply dissolve to Myst, but losing the ability to make more would still spell disaster for humanity.

At least it would if the Boschyan Army hadn’t offered help. The Pillars being sent to Earth before the Mysts came suddenly made a lot more sense. It was going to be the only way to feed all those who don’t get turned into monsters by the Wild Spores riding in the Myst.

"Having access to a food related Myst Connection is very important for anyone to survive in the Multiverse. However, the System Pillars will allow anyone with merit points to purchase food. Kill and deliver a level 1 monster and you get yourself a meal."

So each person back home will have to kill at least 3 level 1 monsters a day to keep food in their bellies.

Jeff's thoughts turned more melancholy. "You guys are feeding my kids, right? I know Ammon is super picky. And Ember only eats the things that Ammon won't eat. They will be-" Jeff stopped himself before he broke down into tears and shoved some food in his own mouth.

He needed to grow stronger. Now that it was late it made little sense to do any monster hunting. He would continue trying to improve his new magical powers through practice. If he could find a way to make real progress he hoped it would help Emily and his other viewers.

He finished his food quickly and created a disc. He threw a lazy forehand from his sitting position and caught the disc with his manipulation. He brought the disc around in a large arc and had the disc spin a full, gradually decreasing circle before it came to rest in his arms. He threw the disc again and repeated the motion.

He noticed his disc manipulation couldn't match the speed of his disc throw ability. He figured having more Might would probably speed it up. He tried to push the disc faster of his own accord and saw a very small increase. By the time his disc arrived back into his hands his spirit felt slightly strained.

Pushing like that would probably not pay off in a real fight, especially if it left his spirit strained. But if he could give it the occasional boost it would probably be useful. Maybe he could maneuver a disc around defenses then speed it up at the moment of impact. He practiced that type of moment a few times and felt his spiritual strain increase. His spiritual endurance needed to be improved.

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He decided to let his spirit rest. He got up and instead did some physical exercises. His body only barely felt like his own and getting it moving around seemed to help.

He asked Kazi and found out his weight loss and slight increase in height came from the Spore fusion process. The extra liquid that contained the Spore provided the needed Myst to allow the fuse. It also created a chance for his body to be restored to 'default'. He still maintained the muscle mass he accumulated throughout his life, but the extra padding was mostly 'reset'.

Jeff shook his head at the foreign way Kazi used the familiar game terminology. He never thought he'd hear that his body was 'reset'.

With the added attributes his body had changed even more. He had to do 100 pushups before he felt the typical strain he felt at 20. He did squat jumps, but kept jumping so high that he could barely keep his rhythm. He jogged around the System Pillar using its light to see the uneven ground. He just didn't get that tired from jogging.

Workouts that isolated a specific muscle worked better than things like jogging. His whole body had become nearly superhuman and the workouts he knew weren't made for superhumans.

He had built up a sweat and felt the chill night air blow his cool damp shirt against his chest. Getting wet before a cold night was probably not the best idea. Oh well. He finished his workout and went back to his magic training.

Magic training, he thought to himself. How cool is that?

He lifted small rocks with his disc and gradually added weight till he felt a headache coming on. It wasn't that much weight. Just over 10 pounds. He really hoped he could eventually ride on a disc. That would just be insanely cool. For now, he moved on to something new.

He threw his glowing disc into the dark of night and brought it back to him like he had done before. Then he threw it again and created a second disc in his hand. He spun the disc on his finger and left it to float in the air as he tried to mentally grab the disc he had thrown. He felt a headache coming on as he split his focus.

He could only maintain both for a second. Then he found he could jump back and forth between the two semi quickly. He would lift the one next to him up and then switch focus to the one he was pulling toward him. Each would drop slightly until he could refocus on it.

As the thrown disc neared he tried to mentally pull both discs to his waiting hands at once. His head hurt something fierce, but he was able to keep his focus long enough to land each disc softly in his hands.

Jeff nearly collapsed as he released control of the glowing discs in his hands. He barely registered the Spores words as it started talking.

"Cognition and Processing," it started. "You used Cognition to split your focus and Processing to jump your focus back and forth."

Jeff understood, but let his head rest before he thought too much about it. One thing bothered him though. "Why aren't you groaning like before?"

"Oh, because I am most tied to the spiritual side of you. I feel all of your pain, but not in the same way you do. Your spiritual pain however I likely feel 10 fold." Kazi announced much too cheerfully for Jeff's liking.

"Well then you're really not going to like what I try next," Jeff said as he decided sharing the pain sounded better to him.

Through the pain of his head ache he started creating discs. First he created three, then six, then through the growing spiritual pain he made 3 more. The pain was manageable, he didn't want to actually hurt his internal companion, just a bit of joint suffering.

Jeff envisioned 9 straight paths for the discs to fly and threw them all simultaneously. The discs flew away from him in a wide spread. Only 3 or 4 stayed on his envisioned trajectory. His spiritual strain rose to alarming levels and he fell to his knees, clutching his gut.

The Spore groaned into his ear and spoke up. "That was uncalled for. There's no way you could use that and still be able to fight aft-" Kazi cut himself off and paused for a moment before speaking again. "Uh oh, this is not the best time for this."

A screen appeared in Jeff's vision.

You have completed a quest.

Improve Depth to 5: (Complete)

Reward: New Myst Connection

Reward Accepted.

"I forgot to turn off auto-accept rewards!" The Spore cried out.

"What's so bad about getting a New–" Jeff cut off as his vision grew dark and he fell hard on the rocky surface.