Chapter 37

"Are you sure about this?"

Came the question from Drake who had a plateful of cut up metal in front of him and was clearly unsure what to do with it.

"It says you won't have any problems. The worst that can happen is that you put on some weight."

The bronze chalice Anthony brought home was perfect for testing out how Drake's Metal Digestion ability worked, so Peter cut it up into bite sized pieces with some help from Anthony who had the strength and the tools to actually do it.

Drake reluctantly picked up a piece of the ruined goblet and put it in his mouth. He then experienced two things that were certainly not normal. One of them was that he could effortlessly chew on the metal in spite of his lacking strength which should have also affected his jaws.

The other one was a harder one to observe for those who didn't experience it directly, but thankfully Drake did inform them right away.

"It tastes really good! Want to try some?"

After that he didn't need much encouragement to devour the rest of his plate. It took about five minutes for him to get the whole thing down to his stomach, after which both him and Peter were greeted by the expected results.

[You have consumed 1 kg of bronze alloy.]

[Result: AGI + 0.03, END +0.02, STA + 0.07, MGC +0.02, EXP +20]

[Temporary result: AGI + 0.15, END +0.10, STA + 0.35]

[Time left: 35:59:47]

Drake's ability worked as intended alongside a nice bonus in the form of the temporary attribute increases.

They planned to test how the weight increase worked. The one thing they knew for sure was that it also worked backwards. Drake on an empty stomach weighed around thirty kilograms, which was way too low for someone of his stature, even if they accounted for his previously lacking diet.

The other noteworthy thing that happened was that the boy's hair, nails and to some extent his eyes, were visibly changing their color to that of his food while he was eating.

Later they found out that this change also applied to his wings.

The experimentation had to be cut short due to Anthony's other scheduled interview on the island. This one also required the kids to tag along, for whatever reason, so the house was left empty for the time being.

Anthony found the office building to be a lot more pleasant and welcoming than the grandiose palace, however, he was also a lot more suspicious of the man he would be meeting this time.

Initially, only Anthony went inside the meeting room while the other three shared the experience of watching the interface's most common message.

[Warning: Class 29 entity detected!]

[Caution is advised.]

Inside, Anthony greeted the aging man at the table and sat down on the chair prepared for him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Williams. I hope you don't mind if we skip the formalities."

The director of Stonesafe Finances, Sir Edward Stone, was uncharacteristically helpful during the interview. He gave away his future plans for the company, openly discussed the unethical use of their services and shared some bits of his personal life.

This was a big deal coming from someone who was adamant about never giving out information to anyone, about anything, ever. It was almost too good to be true.

"It was a pleasure talk with you, the only remaining question I have is, how do I know you haven't been talking out of your ass the whole time?"

"Your concern is understandable, but what you can't deny is that I'm a man of my word. You did a favor for me, the least I can do is to be honest with you. And while we're on the topic of your favor, please send in the kid."

The one part of this interview Anthony has been dreading finally came. He took a deep breath and looked the man in the eyes.

"Can you guarantee that they won't be hurt?"

"Please rest assured Mr. Williams, you have my word.}

It wasn't really a compelling argument and Anthony had more than one frustrations with the situation he was in.

"I swear I'm going to punch one of you someday. I'll send them in but as soon as anything suspicious happens I'm kicking the door in."

As he was slowly and carefully making his way outside he heard another thing from the same kind of voice that has been driving him up the walls recently.

{There's no need to send all three of them. I only need the night walker.}

After slamming the door behind him, Anthony walked up to Peter to speak with him.

"He wants you to go in alone. I don't trust him and neither should you. Don't agree to anything while you're in there and if he does anything suspicious, scream and I'm coming in. Got it?"

Peter just nodded along. He knew that Anthony wanted him to be cautious but he was planning that for a while now. He knew fully well that his father's words about coming to help him would lose all of their weight behind them as soon as things got physical. That would have been true even if he had his old power.

He walked inside the office prepared for the worst possibilities. Fortunately, things started out smoother than he expected, even if his trust in the old man shattered at record speeds.

{You must be Peter. Please have a seat.}

[Entity class 29]

[Abilities: Body hardening, Object hardening, Barrier, Earth manipulation, Earth creation]

[Star attribute: Tactical Mind]

[Divinity: 3.45]