Zane had never suffered from a long term illness, or lived with a permanent disability (besides a case of terminal stupidity). He had no frame of reference for dealing with the draconic corruption slowly warping his body. So, he didn't.

The young man dried his eyes and stood up. “Well, it's been nice chatting with you, but I've got a competition to win.”

He went over to the kitchen and started retrieving monster parts from his necklace. Zane laid them out on the counter and took stock. A cow-like creature caught his eye, and he felt a plan beginning to form. But it would require spending some Essence.

Zane needed to upgrade his cooking ability, but when he did, his unspent Essence would start leaking out. Once Zane purchased the ability, he would only have a few seconds to infuse as much Essence as possible into the meat. After that, he would need to cultivate to replenish his core.

It was wasteful, decadent, and exactly the kind of thing the judges would love. But he would need to time things perfectly to achieve maximum potency.

From his experiments down in the warren, Zane had figured out that Essence acted a lot like a gas. Unless something was working to contain it, Essence would expand and diffuse until it reached equilibrium.

When he cooked, Essence flowed out from his core and infused the food. If his core was almost empty, only a little bit of Essence would find its way into the dish. If his core was full, it would infuse the food until the “pressure” equalized.

Therefore, the amount of Essence he could infuse into the meat was limited by how full his core was. However, he could only partially fill up his core by cultivating normally. Eventually the pressure would overwhelm his ability to cram Essence into it.

The higher concentration of Essence in the temple had allowed Zane to fill his core. And his Death Siphon ability had kept it topped off on the way home. But now it was time to say goodbye to his ill gotten gains, and cook.

Zane had waffled back and forth over buying the upgraded ability first, versus infusing the meat then buying it. But an upgraded ability always gave dramatically better results, and he needed every possible edge in the upcoming competition.

The young man summoned his Mesh interface, then dismissed it. He looked down at the meat and cocked his head to the side. If corruption was similar to Essence, then it would be logical to conclude that removing corruption from the meat would free up space. At the very least it would possibly improve the flavor.

In a rare moment of forward thinking, Zane decided to test the theory. He took a piece of meat, minced it with his knife to ensure that everything was uniform, seasoned it, then separated the resulting mixture into two equal piles.

Zane took a deep breath, then used his Consume Corruption ability on one of the piles. At such close range it was easy to detect the toxins. They looked like tiny flecks of black oil hidden in the meat. He raised his hand, and started drawing the corruption towards him.

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A slender black tendril emerged from the meat he was working on and stretched towards his hand. Before it could reach him, Zane summoned a glass jar and captured it, screwing the lid on tight for good measure.

The rogue cultivator kept his ability active as he inspected the captured corruption. The pea sized drop of black fluid ran up the side of the jar closest to his hand, drawn to him like metal shavings to a magnet. Zane dismissed the ability, and watched it fall into a shapeless puddle.

“Interesting,” he said, “Very interesting.”

Zane summoned a new knife, then took the two piles of minced meat and divided them again, making a point of starting with the “clean” meat to avoid contamination. He infused half of the meat with Essence, then fired up the grill.

“Hey Kiel!” the young man called out as the meat cooked, “Come and be my guinea pig for a moment.”

The kobold scowled. “I'm a lizard, not a pig.”

“Tomato, potato,” Zane said as he plated up the patties, “Tell me which one tastes best.”

Kiel took a bite of each, chewed thoughtfully, then nodded. “The ones infused with Essence have a lot more flavor. But it's hard to tell if the one you cleansed of corruption tastes better or not. It definitely has a bit more Essence in it, so that's probably the way to go.”

Zane frowned and looked at the plates. “How did you…”

The kobold let out a chuckle. “Kiddo, I'm a cultivator, and a damn good one too. Did you really think I wouldn't notice you screwing around with an ability that manipulated corruption?”

“Yes?”

Kiel sighed. “Look, I've seen that ability before. I even knew a kobold who had it. I'm guessing that you thought it might be a way to cleanse yourself of corruption.”

“Maybe I did,” Zane said, “What of it?”

“Purity and corruption are linked, but they aren't the same,” Kiel explained, “Purity is more about the kind of person you are, while corruption has to do with the physical state of your core and body.”

Zane let out a groan. “So you're saying that I fucked up.”

“No, I'm not saying that at all,” the kobold clarified, “Consume Corruption is a powerful ability. It's a great counter to all kinds of poisons and dark techniques. If you level it up, you will eventually be able to control corruption and mold it to your will.”

Kiel held out his hand and summoned a golden wand. “My abilities as a sorcerer let me use Essence to create objects, but it's limited. I can only summon things from a certain catalog, so to speak.”

He dismissed the wand and made a fist. The kobold didn't sweat, but his face was set in a look of intense concentration. Kiel opened his hand to reveal a pearl of pure Essence. It shimmered like a tiny nascent core.

“If you learn to control Essence or corruption directly, you won't be limited by your catalog,” Kiel said.

Zane took the pearl and held it up to the light. “Huh, it kinda reminds me of Dippin’ Dots.”

The kobold frowned. “What are ‘dipping dots’?”

“It's a kind of fancy ice cream from back home,” the young man said, “I haven't had any since I was a kid, but they were really good.”

“Figures,” grumbled the kobold as took the pearl back, “I show you a miracle of cultivation and all you can think of is food.”

“In my defense, I am a chef,” Zane said.

“Bah!” Kiel threw up his hands in surrender and stalked off, leaving the rogue cultivator alone in the kitchen.

Alright, Zane thought to himself, No more distractions. It’s time to get down to business.