Beast Taming: My Beasts Grind, Die, and Respawn

Chapter 54: Cashing Out

Chapter 54: Cashing Out

Jin pressed [Sync].

Five seconds later, he realized he had made a terrible mistake.

He hadn’t prepared nearly enough food.

But that realization came later.

First, there was the button—and the button had been a full day coming.

Glitch’s leg was ready.

Jin had checked it that morning the same way he checked it every morning. Hands first. Data Appraisal second.

For the first time, the results were clean all the way down.

The swelling was gone. The wound had closed properly, with pink new tissue sealing the injury. Glitch had walked the entire length of the apartment without pain or the unconscious favoring that had followed him since the examination.

Only one minor warning remained.

The newly repaired muscle was slightly weaker than the rest of the leg. It needed time to strengthen naturally, but the injury itself was stable.

Nine days until the results.

A stable leg.

Several days of growth waiting inside the Engine.

Time to cash out.

Jin had prepared everything beforehand because he wasn’t an amateur.

Two liters of water. A stack of synthetic nutrient bars. Most of what remained in the household ration bin. A full measure of beast feed and several things from the back of the cupboard that Elena hopefully wouldn’t miss for a day.

It looked like a lot.

More than any lizard should have been capable of eating.

Jin felt quietly confident.

He opened the Sync panel.

[Unsynchronized Growth Available] [Combat Instinct: Significant Accumulation] [Agility Development Recorded] [Vitality Development Recorded] [Harden Proficiency Increased] [New Skill Pending: Lesser Regeneration] [Estimated Synchronization Load: High]

He performed one final Appraisal on the real Glitch.

Heartbeat steady.

Circulation normal.

Injured leg stable.

[High synchronization load may cause extreme hunger, exhaustion and temporary soul fatigue.] [Proceed?]

Glitch had gone completely still.

He recognized the sensation. He had experienced smaller Syncs before, and the last one had added muscle to his body overnight.

He raised his head, his entire body tight with anticipation.

The emotion traveling through their bond wasn’t nervousness.

It was hurry up.

"Yeah, yeah," Jin muttered.

He selected:

[Proceed]

The energy entered their contract like a river forcing itself through a crack.

Jin felt it before he saw anything.

Pressure swelled behind his eyes, immediate and enormous, as though something were inflating inside his skull. A sharp headache bloomed at the base of his neck and traveled over the crown of his head.

Then came the experience.

That was the part he hadn’t prepared for.

Days of it poured through their bond at once.

Every slime. Every boss run. Every death. Every hard-earned understanding of an enemy’s movements.

Jin caught flashes as they rushed past him.

The instinctive sensation of a crushing attack winding up. The muscle memory of bracing Harden against a blow. The patience required to wait for a blue core to surface.

None of those memories belonged to Jin, but they brushed against his mind while traveling toward Glitch’s physical body.

Days of accumulated learning were being forced through a channel barely wide enough to contain them.

Jin gritted his teeth and kept Data Appraisal active.

Glitch’s body began to change.

Not dramatically.

His obsidian scales darkened and tightened, developing a denser, polished sheen. The muscles beneath them firmed and drew closer to the bone. His claws lengthened by a fraction and sharpened into cleaner points.

The small horn buds on his head pushed upward by barely a millimeter.

The violet markings along his flanks glowed faintly.

Then something about the way Glitch held himself simply resolved, like a blurred image pulling into focus.

His balance settled.

His weight distributed itself correctly.

The instincts acquired through hundreds of digital battles sank into flesh and became permanent.

Jin watched the repaired muscle in Glitch’s leg strengthen alongside the rest of his body. The remaining weakness gradually disappeared as development spread evenly through the limb.

Glitch endured everything without making a sound.

He was too proud to cry out.

His claws dug into the blanket. His jaw remained tightly clenched. He held perfectly still, refusing to whimper.

Through their bond, however, Jin received a constant stream of complaints.

This is unpleasant.

This is extremely unpleasant.

I do not care for this.

Whose idea was this?

I want it officially recorded that I am being very brave.

"You’re being very brave," Jin told him through clenched teeth. "It’s recorded. Stay still."

Near the end of the process, the panel changed.

[Skill Synchronization in Progress] [Lesser Regeneration Successfully Transferred]

Warm energy gathered around Glitch’s previously injured leg.

It wasn’t a miracle.

There was no flash of light or instant transformation. The skill worked exactly as its description had promised.

Slowly.

The residual inflammation Jin had monitored for days faded over the span of a minute. The repaired tissue stabilized. The pink scar began to lighten.

At the same time, Glitch’s stored physical energy dropped rapidly.

That was the limitation.

Lesser Regeneration didn’t create energy. It consumed nutrition and stamina, converting both into accelerated healing.

The moment the skill activated fully, Glitch’s golden eyes snapped open.

One overwhelming demand struck Jin through their bond.

Food.

Food now.

Jin pushed the prepared supplies toward him.

Glitch attacked them.

The nutrient bars disappeared first. He swallowed so quickly that Jin had to pull the wrappers out of his mouth.

The beast feed vanished next.

Then the water.

Glitch ate with the same focus he normally reserved for boss cores, tearing through an amount of food that should have lasted several days.

Eventually, he reached the end.

He looked at the empty containers.

Then at his bowl.

Finally, he lifted his head and stared at Jin.

The meaning traveling through their bond required no translation.

More.

"That was everything," Jin said. "That was the whole—"

Glitch’s stomach made a sound like a distant landslide.

Jin stood.

The room tilted around him before settling. He walked unsteadily into the kitchen and searched through the cupboards.

He found half a tin of recycled protein and several dried ration blocks intended for the following week.

He brought them back because the alternative appeared to be a Rank 1 dragon dismantling the furniture in search of calories.

Glitch ate those too.

Somewhere during the destruction of next week’s food, the full meaning of the situation settled over Jin.

He had believed his method was free.

That had been the miracle.

Grinding while sleeping. No blood. No permanent injuries. Growth obtained without buying expensive cultivation resources.

And the grinding itself really was free.

The avatar required nothing except time and an occasional headache.

But the growth had to become real eventually.

A stronger body had to be built from something.

When Jin transferred several days of development into Glitch’s physical body, that body required real fuel to support it.

Far more than Jin had expected.

The grinding was free.

Cashing out came with a grocery bill.

And his family couldn’t afford that bill.

Jin looked at the empty tins.

Elena worked twelve-hour shifts underground for those rations. Elsa counted every meal because somebody had to make their supplies last.

Several days of food had disappeared in twenty minutes to make Glitch stronger.

The Engine could provide endless opportunities for growth.

It couldn’t provide the calories required to support that growth.

That price had to be paid in the real world, from a cupboard belonging to a family with no margin for mistakes.

New limitation, Jin recorded.

For once, no joke followed.

A major one.

Glitch finally slowed.

He licked the final container clean, sat back and released a deeply satisfied sigh.

The Engine chimed.

[Synchronization Complete] [Combat Rank Increased] [Rank 1 Novice: 1-Star → 2-Star] [Skill Acquired: Lesser Regeneration] [Synchronization Load: High] [Recommended Recovery Period: 24 Hours]

Jin stared at the result.

Two-Star.

One complete Star of growth.

It didn’t sound like much when reduced to a single line.

But Jin knew what had gone into it.

Four days of continuous grinding. Several deaths. Repeated boss fights. A skill assembled from three fragments and terrible luck.

Every piece had become real, permanently embedded in a body that would carry that progress for the rest of its life.

The reward felt satisfying.

Earned.

It also felt like being struck by a train.

Jin’s headache had grown worse. His vision blurred whenever he moved his eyes too quickly. Beneath the pain sat a scraped-out, soul-deep exhaustion, as though he hadn’t slept properly in a week.

He wasn’t beginning another manual session today.

He wasn’t sure he could stand again without the room tilting.

So that was the full price, Jin thought, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes.

Not just food.

Me too.