The great stone tree's core practically exploded in my stomach. Or at least that's what it felt like, as mana so dense and rich flowed from it that it blew my mind. On my very first taste I knew what a tremendous difference tier two mana made. I had thought that my own mana had started to become thicker and carry more power, and it had, but it was a far cry from what it would be in just a few levels.

I'd scarcely begun to eat, and my cores were already filled to the point of straining. I simply could not consume the mana quickly enough. I started to vent it out of my body, but hungry reared its head. It would not allow such waste. I felt the Concept leading and empowering my instincts. My instincts flared and took over my mana consumption.

Pure gluttonous ecstasy enveloped my mind. Not a drop of the luxurious mana was wasted. Nothing was allowed to reach my cores any longer. With that handled, my mind turned to the truly divine part of the meal.

The four Concepts etched into the core shone like beacons to my senses, Strong, Sturdy, Enduring, and Protective. My hunger was stoked to extremes I had never felt before, even when I was quite literally experiencing starvation, I fell upon the most attractive Concept first.

Randy had given me instructions on a technique that contractors usually picked up in their later lives, after their souls had developed an innate sensitivity to Concepts. When they felt a new Concept coalescing in them, they would guide its primary definition to suit themselves. It was an important skill, since what people thought of you seldom entirely matched reality.

The method was deceptively simple. All you had to do was have your own strongly defined image of what the Concept meant to you, and hold it firmly in your mind as the Concept bound itself. I had two of the hardest parts practically gift wrapped for me. Knowing when a Concept was coming, and knowing enough about the Concept to be able to visualize it in a way that it could match.

I hadn't just been digging tunnels during my time using the stone tree's Concepts. I'd been getting to know them well, sculpting the much more malleable channeled versions until I ended up with something I could live with.

Strong was, unsurprisingly, a powerful Concept. It was also a common one, almost every deity had it, or something close to it in definition. According to Randy it was one of the most versatile pure enhancement Concepts, it could apply its power to basically anything.

When I reached out for Strong I had my definition at the forefront of my mind. The moment I touched the Concept with the intent to remove it from the core and take it into myself, I felt the tree's definition of strength try to push against my own.

The tree's core idea of strength was unbending and undeniable. When I applied it to the tree's attitude, I could see why the tree could not be convinced that its methods were wrong. When applied to its physical form, it explained why it was so damn easy to break under pressure.

With those weaknesses in mind, and my mental preparation, it was easy to resist the definition it tried to thrust on me. I felt the Concept change subtly as it merged into me. It felt amazing, almost electric, I felt it touch every part of me, body, mind, and soul. I felt it as it touched and enhanced my existing Concepts. I let out a roar that shook the nearby trees, it made me feel so good.

The definition that I'd set for it skewed towards physical strength and magical power, so that was where the bulk of the Concept's energy went. But it still ran through the entirety of my being. That was the most dangerous part of strong, it could cause previously mild Concepts to go a bit wild.

It would be as if every Concept I already had was brand new for a while. Eventually things would settle, but I would have to be very careful to set boundaries for myself for a while.

When that was done, I mentally licked my chops. Sturdy presented itself to me next.

Sturdy was another enhancer like strong, and only slightly less commonly held by contractors and deities. It was probably the textbook example of a Concept perfectly aligned with earth mana. I probably would not have had to look hard to find an earth monster with sturdy in its core.

Sturdy made the things it attached to durable, and very resistant to being shaken, this applied both mentally and physically. It also carried with it a slightly worrying tendency towards passivity if left unchecked.

The downsides were mild though, as they weren't the main aim of the Concept. Randy had told me to frame them as the ability to take an insult, or a punch and not feel the need to instantly retaliate. I thought that suited me and my contract quite well.

When I took it in, there was very little resistance to my definition. My version was less rigid than the tree's, but that only made sense, I wasn't made of stone.

The Concept was nowhere near as enjoyable when it applied itself. Every muscle in my body seemed to tighten at once, as though the Concept was trying to find my breaking point. The sensation passed after a few minutes, leaving me feeling like I'd just had the best stretch of my life. I huffed out a contented sigh, the pain had passed, and I was unshaken, the Concept already at work.

Enduring was next, it was similar to sturdy in a lot of ways. But it was more focused on being able to handle being broken, spent, exhausted, and continuing on despite it. It was the ability to shrug off damn near anything the world threw at you short of death. It almost flew into my soul when I mentally approached it.

Having survivor as my core Concept meant interesting things for enduring, as the two were somewhat related in the minds of many. And so they became linked in me, without having to expend any extra energy. The link was supportive, not restrictive, with the two Concepts pooling power between them to make either one more powerful if it was called upon. I was quite happy with the results. There was no pain, no electric sense of growth, just the feeling of something that belonged slotting into place.

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The fourth and last Concept in the core was shining before me. Protective, I had been uncertain about it, but hungry was more active than it had ever been before. And I had stupidly accepted the definition of not allowing anything to go to waste. I could still just unravel the Concept, and consume its energy, but what my soul got from that was nowhere near as much of a boost as a full new Concept.

Eating it that way would be wasteful. As long as I limited it, protective would be a boon to me. The Concept would lend me power when I was acting to protect something. Even if all I was protecting was myself, or generally protecting the population by hunting problem monsters.

I readied my definition, and pulled the Concept in.

It sank into me, and happily the first protective desire it spurred in me was the desire to protect me from itself. I spent much of the unattuned Conceptual energy that I had gathered from eating cores to bind it to both survivor, and kind.

Survivor would suppress it if it was trying to make me throw my life away protecting something when I had no chance to succeed. Kind would keep me from being like the tree, the desires of the ones I sought to protect would always matter.

When that was finished, I laid back and enjoyed the feeling of hungry working to finish the last dregs of mana in the core. I couldn't help it, it may have strengthened the connection between the Concept and me, but it was just so damn pleasant. I didn't know that I'd ever had a meal so rich, so flavorful as that mana. The earth worms didn't hold a candle to it.

When the mana was gone, hungry sputtered out and went dark. I groaned, my whole body felt overstuffed to the point of absurdity. I rolled on my side, and fell asleep, blissfully, with not even an ounce of the hunger I had been enduring for too long.

I don't remember my time in Belua's realm. The moment I opened my eyes there, I rolled back over and slept there as well.

When I woke up, the birds were singing and the sun was shining. Even with the energizing Concepts Belua usually gave me every morning weren't enough to counter the drowsy feeling of my still overly satiated state. The discomfort of my sleeping arrangements was the only thing that eventually made me decide to open my eyes.

Trees. I was laying on downed trees. They seemed a little small. I carefully rolled onto my paws, and did my best to stretch without breaking anything else around me. My roaring yawn shook the trees for some distance, and the forest went silent around me.

I remembered Samuel's description of the spirit beast that acted as a guardian for his home. I was still a long way from dwarfing a town's tallest building, but I seemed to be catching up with that bear rather quickly. I could easily see over the tops of the trees surrounding me. I wasn't sure how tall that made me, but I wasn't thrilled, it wasn't a very useful size to be.

Upon further inspection, I couldn't help but notice that I was carrying a lot more weight than usual. I suppose all that energy I ate had to be stored somewhere. I felt a sudden kinship with Samuel, I was also not a fan of carrying my excess energy on my frame.

Perhaps it was my fairly high charisma working to make sure I still managed to look majestic to the casual observer, but I wore the weight well. I took some time to groom myself, I could smell Torill in a tent that she'd put up as far away from me as possible while still keeping me in sight. From the sound of her breathing, she was still asleep.

Resting some more sounded lovely. I felt good, very good, better than I'd felt in over a week. I wasn't hungry , the relief granted by that one fact was enough to make me want to cry. The Concept seemed to have overloaded itself in addition to expending its energy. When I looked at it inside me, it almost looked charred. I knew it was only a matter of time before it recovered though, and when it did, it would probably be stronger.

I wanted to enjoy the time I had without it. I was pretty sure it could still be removed, but I would do well to distance myself from overt acts of gluttony in the near future. I could tell that it had come closer to merging with me than ever before, mostly because I had so freely accepted it when I needed its help.

Letting out another yawn that I wasn't sure how Torill slept through, I decided to make myself more comfortable. I called on Assume Form to shift myself, not to any new shape, just a smaller version of what I already was. I was glad to find that my instincts helped. When I was just about the size of an average horse, I stopped, feeling a resistance to the idea of going any smaller. It had taken quite a lot more mana than I had anticipated, but I shrugged it off. I still had half my pure core, and I could fill it passively as I rested.

I laid on the grass, rolling onto my back with my eyes half closed to let the sun's rays warm my belly. I felt so content, so at peace, so very very relaxed after my big meal the night before. It was like all of my worries about the future had suddenly become less of a burden.

It wasn't as if I felt any happier about the idea of killing a mana beast, or any less worried about what the spirits would charge for removing hungry, if they even could by the time I was ready for that. I certainly wasn't spontaneously okay with the idea that I'd soon be leaving all of the friends I'd made in this world. It was just that none of it felt like it was going to crush me anymore.

I knew I'd have some things to get acclimated to in the near future, the fact that I had knocked down trees when I rolled over in my sleep made that quite obvious. But I could definitely ignore that for the moment. There was nothing on the planet that could make me move until I had to.

I was ecstatic to find that when she was left to her own devices Torill was a late sleeper. I was less happy when I found out she naturally woke up with enough energy to take off running.

She made that clear when she started pushing on my shoulder, vainly trying to roll me off my back.

“Come you lazy cat. I know you're awake! You've already slept for an entire day, you don't get to lay around any longer.”

I sent her the feelings of warmth and contentment that she was interrupting. The way the sun heated my fur was delightful. I stretched my paws towards the sun, protesting the idea of getting up without words.

“Nope, you are getting up now. I don't want to do this but…” She took a deep breath. “If we don't start making progress on going home soon you will be impeding my contract.”

All the sun in the world couldn't warm the chills those words sent through me. I was on my feet a moment later.

“Good boy!” She patted me on the shoulder before moving to take down and store the tent.

“Let's go collect our new friends, shall we? I did some shopping at the nearest town while you were sleeping.”

I looked at her in shock, the nearest town was a hundred miles away. She had to have left me unconscious and alone for quite a while.

“Don't look at me like that, I had a long talk with the turtle, and he watched over you. My little trip saved us a lot of time.”

“What could possibly have been that important?”

She grinned. “You'll see! Come on, we moved the petrified people nearby. I need your help before we can really get moving though. Doing it myself would be way too expensive!”