Arthur glanced down at his plate, and as if responding to his intent, the silverware floated up for him to grasp.
"Why, thank you," he said with a faint smile, taking hold of them and slicing into the silver sphere before taking a bite.
The moment the flavour touched his tongue, he was hit with a harmonious sweetness—just rich enough to be satisfying without overwhelming his senses.
Evan, too, experienced that same sweet taste, noting how different it was from when last he'd been here.
As he made that mental note, the flavour coursed through his body, sinking deep into his energy core while a soothing sensation flowed through his energy circuits.
Faint wisps of black and gold energy began to escape from his body, dissipating into the air like shimmering mist.
Unlike before, Evan could clearly perceive the universal laws at work within him, gently cleansing his energy core by expelling all impurities.
'That's the black mist. I'm guessing the gold one is the energy tainted by those impurities…'
His thoughts were correct.
As the tainted energy was purged, his body absorbed clear ambient energy to replace it.
"This feels like cheating..." Arthur muttered under his breath, watching the silver mist drifting from his body.
At that, Jamie chuckled and agreed.
"It IS cheating."
Evan laughed too, glancing at his hand where the final wisps of black and gold energy shimmered before dispersed like smoke.
"Seems we got the same thing," he said, and Arthur nodded in agreement.
As for what they received, it was simple, yet powerful.
"My energy quality increased…" Arthur said as he flexed his arms and roused his energy.
He could sense there was now more space which was being filled with newly refined, higher-quality energy.
So then, why had he said it felt like cheating?
The reason lay in his natural circumstances.
Arthur's energy quality was already exceptionally high due to his Race Breed, Singularity nature, Pseudo-Authorities, Law Comprehensions, and personal training.
Like Evan, he practised a difficult technique to compress and refine his energy—circulating it throughout his entire energy circuit, then swiftly retracting it to make it denser and more compact, while simultaneously creating space for further growth.
This was one of the reasons why Arthur and Evan were always many times stronger than others at their level.
Arthur's energy quality was 5x the norm for a Sovereign, allowing him to deal 10 units of damage with just 2 units of energy. After eating the silver sphere, this improved further—he now needed only 1.5 units.
Though it seemed like a small boost, it was a huge gain for Arthur whose energy quality had already hit a natural cap, hence why it felt like 'cheating'.
Evan wasn't much different. He, too, had a higher energy quality than normal, boosted to 6x the universal energy quality constant for a Legendary Level existence.
Seeing the effect the first sphere had on him, Arthur quickly moved on to the next one, picking the blue sphere this time. Meanwhile, Evan, who had started with the gold one, switched to the red.
As they continued, Jamie's order arrived, and he began eating his burger, seemingly oblivious to Arthur's widening eyes as the second sphere's effects took hold.
"I thought the blue one was going to affect my Time Powers, but it affected my body instead?"
Arthur wasn't sure what was happening—it felt like something was squirming through his flesh, deconstructing and reconstructing it in certain places. But with each reconstruction, he felt a little stronger.
Jamie, mid-bite, glanced over and noticed Arthur's reaction. He set his burger down and casually asked, "Are you sure your Time Powers are not affected?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Arthur's question prompted Jamie to explain.
"Arthur, you're eventually going to become stronger. It's only a matter of Time.
But what if this sphere is amplifying your Time Powers to speed up that process? It's not just strengthening your body—it's fast-tracking your growth.
Think about it. Let's say there's a sequence of steps you need to follow to reach your full strength. If you're currently on step five, it's using your Time Powers to push you to step six faster than you're supposed to reach it."
Jamie paused, watching as Arthur processed the idea. "Of course, this kind of acceleration doesn't come free. By the time it's done, even you, with your vast energy reserves would be unable to escape a vast depletion since this process is going to e—"
Before Jamie could finish, Arthur's vision blurred, and the world around him seemed to spin. His body collapsed forward onto the table before his brain could process it.
"Arthur?!" Evan exclaimed, quickly grabbing him by the shoulder to keep him from falling. "What the heck is going on?!"
Jamie, far from concerned, chuckled and leaned back. "I wasn't even finished explaining, and it already happened."
Evan's brow furrowed at Jamie's casual tone. He turned back to Arthur and froze, his eyes widening.
Arthur's energy was depleting—rapidly and alarmingly so. Magic, Divinity, Anti-Divinity—everything was draining from him at an insane rate, vanishing faster than water from a broken faucet.
Jamie, still calm, watched the scene with a knowing look. "Even his Cosmic energy is getting drained quickly."
Evan studied Arthur more closely, quickly understanding why Arthur had collapsed. "Energy deficiency…?" he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
At that moment, Evan suddenly realized this was the first time he'd ever seen Arthur in this state.
Arthur, with his vast energy reserves and rapid regeneration rate, was never one to worry about running out of energy. He had four types of energy and could manipulate ambient Cosmic Energy proportional to his internal reserves.
Energy deficiency was something he'd never experienced.
But now, his immense reserves were draining so fast that his body couldn't keep up. Unaccustomed to this kind of depletion, Arthur was unsurprisingly weak to it, and his body had shut down to cope.
Evan's face was a picture of incredulity.
Who would have thought that of all the possible weaknesses Arthur could have had, being unused to energy deficiency would be one of them?
"Just let him lean back on the chair. He'd be fine," Jamie suggested.
Evan followed his advice, propping Arthur back in the chair before turning his attention to inspect the boosts he had gained.
"Ooh, this one's pretty specific."
"Specific? How so?" Jamie asked, raising a brow.
Evan lifted his hands in response. "Watch."
He activated Mesarthim, coating his right hand in its ORANGE flames of Enhancement. Then, he ignited his left hand in the RED flames of Destruction, and Jamie's eyes widened almost immediately.
The red flames engulfed his hand roughly half a second faster than the orange flames.
"That was on purpose, wasn't it?"
"Nope. That's my new default."
Evan quenched both flames, then reignited them to show the effect again. Jamie observed closely, nodding as he pieced it together.
"Your manipulation speed and energy efficiency improved."
Exactly. The second sphere had specifically targeted Mesarthim's RED.
"25% boost in Damage, Manipulation Speed, and Efficiency for Mesarthim: RED," Evan confirmed, letting the flames recede again.
Jamie raised an eyebrow at his words. "Damage too? Lucky."
Evan gave a small grin. His RED Flames were his most used for good reason—they were the flames of destruction, his primary damage dealer.
While all of Mesarthim's flames could inflict damage, their base output was only around 30% of what RED could deliver.
Only under specific circumstances—like GREEN's flames of Life against undead or INDIGO's Ember Genesis for specialized weapon constructs—could the others outperform RED.
So, a damage boost to RED was the best possible upgrade for him right now.
"Correction there, Narrator. Make that second best," Evan interjected, holding the now empty fork that once held the multicoloured sphere.
"This thing legit boosted Mesarthim's overall Damage by another 25%. Is this even allowed? It feels downright illegal…"
Jamie burst into laughter at Evan's slightly panicked expression, nearly knocking over his wineglass.
"Relax, it's perfectly legal. You're just feeling it more intensely because your flames are soaking up all the power that would normally be distributed across your whole existence.
When the power's concentrated, the effects hit harder."
Evan nodded at the explanation, then reached for his wine and took a sip.
But the instant he finished the drink, the sensation that hit him nearly made him spit out the last bit still in his mouth.
Hurriedly swallowing it, he slammed the glass on the table, and shouted, "I CALL BULLSHIT!"
"BAHAHAHAHA!!" Jamie doubled over laughing at his incredulous expression, but Evan wasn't having it.
"You're telling me that, on top of that broken damage bonus, I got FREE Stat Levels from the wine?!
This place has to be the real protagonist of the Cosmos, and we're just the side characters—because what the hell even is this?!"
Evan's further outburst only made Jamie laugh even more. Then again, Evan couldn't be blamed for suddenly crashing out.
His stats looked like this now:
Health– X2- (1/100)
Energy– X2- (10/100) [6x]
Strength– X2- (2/100)
Agility– X1+ (49/100)
Durability– X1+ (70/100)
Intelligence- X1+ (34/100)
For the record, Evan was Level 763.
That was NOT what a Level 763's stats were supposed to look like. And yes, his stats had broken into 'X2' territory thanks to the energy from the wine he'd drunk, which his body had absorbed.
"For free…for free…"
Evan kept repeating it under his breath, still in disbelief, while Jamie chuckled and shook his head. Turning around, he waved over one of the automations to bring out some actual food for Evan.