Dinner was no simple affair.
Bob had spent quite a bit ordering a whole table of dishes from outside. There was no magical beast meat, but even the ordinary meat had been stewed until tender, its aroma filling the air. Wangcai crouched under the table, gazing longingly at the basin of stewed meat, his tail sweeping back and forth across the floor.
Bob gave him two pieces. He swallowed them in one gulp and kept staring longingly.
Two more pieces, swallowed again.
Bob looked at that little bottomless pit of a belly and began to question his life.
"Does he... usually eat this much?"
Loa gnawed on a bone and answered indistinctly, "Yeah. He's still growing."
Conditions in the wilderness were too poor, with hardly anything to season food. Food made in the city really did taste better.
"With that build, how much does he have to eat to grow?"
"No idea."
Bob shook his head and gave Wangcai another two pieces of meat.
After dinner, Bob cleared away the dishes, while Loa carried Wangcai back to his room.
The room was just as it had been.
A bed, a table, a chair, and a wardrobe. The Thousand-Fold Steel sword hung on the wall-the one that had accompanied him for so long before Hidden Abyss replaced it. Before leaving, he had wiped it clean, wrapped it in oiled cloth, and hung it on the wall.
Clean bedding covered the bed. Bob had probably aired it a few days earlier; it smelled of sunshine.
Loa put Wangcai on the bed and sat down in the chair.
He untied the cord around his neck, with the Space Ring attached to it.
The ring was dark and unremarkable, but it held everything he had gained over the past year.
He extended his spiritual