Grey walked out of the outpost with a deep stretch, reaching his fists toward the skies and grunting. He was finally full, but he had a feeling he would be hungry again soon.

’This is going to be a fucking problem...’ Grey sighed, shaking his head.

Now that he had time to adjust and actually spend time in his body, he realized why it was he was so fat. There was a practically infinite well of energy within each one of his fat cells. It wasn’t that Joaquin’s power had been so great, but by the time it transferred, it was so enhanced by his fat that it projected it to be so.

That was to say that right now, the power of this body wasn’t Grey’s own, it was whatever external source had triggered these changes in him.

His Resonant Frame could literally feel countless circuits running through his fat that weren’t in his direct control. The feeling was about as uncomfortable as Center of Balance had been in the beginning before he managed to fuse it into his Paladin Frame and raise it beyond Passive Link.

However, this felt like another level of difficulty entirely. That and...

—

[Name: Grey Temolt]

[Name Affiliation: Disciple of Sir Trolley] 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

—

[Frame: Prometheus]

[Frame: Vampire Lord (Established Class)]

[Frame: Paladin (Proving Class)]

[Frame: Helion (Proving Class)]

[Frame: Mark of the Buddha (Proving Class)]

[Pending Quests: 1]

—

Stamina: 222/222 (+100%)

Sync Rate: 0.012%

Energy Reserve: 20.1/20.1

—

Sync Rate: N/A

Energy Reserve: N/A

—

Sync Rate: N/A

Energy Reserve: N/A

—

Sync Rate: N/A

Energy Reserve: N/A

—

STR: 76 (+40)(+100%) SPD: 104 (+100%)

DEX: 104 (+50)(+100%) INT: 61

END: 182 (+60)(+100%) PER: 73 (+50)

—

Harmonic Stats: N/A

Free Stat Points: 1397

—

Abilities:

Body

Resistances: Lv11 Iron Veil; Lv6 Helion Body

Combat: Lv11 Heart Lance; Lv6 Solarbrand

Enhancements: Lv11 Hemorrhagic Regeneration; Lv6 Solar Regeneration

Mind

Resistances: Lv8 Mental Fortitude; Lv11 Abyssal Anchor; Lv8 Center of Balance; Lv8 Living Dawn

Combat: Lv11 Void Gaze; Lv6 Helstorm

Enhancements: Lv11 Crimson Cognition; Lv3 Paladin Spirit; Lv6 Helion Resonance

—

There was a new Frame there, but once again, there were no new Abilities attached to it.

Grey really didn’t understand whatever weird fetish the Church had going on, handing out Frames without Abilities, but it really pissed him off.

It didn’t feel like a weird quirk, or even like they did it just to get their people to earn everything instead of being handed it. If there was some sort of bottleneck where the God or gods that oversaw the Church could only supply a select few with power and thus had to do things this way, he would understand. But it didn’t feel like that...

It felt like it was a method of control.

Center of Balance had quite literally manipulated his mind, trying to make him a kinder person. And now this stupid ass Frame made him a fat fuck. No wonder monks were celibate, their bellies were too fat to find their dick, let alone use it.

’I might have to pee sitting down now...’

Grey sighed.

He hadn’t moved since he stepped out of the outpost. Part of that was because he was organizing his thoughts and trying to not use so much energy that he would need to eat again too quickly, but also because he wasn’t sure where to go.

Should he go back to the city? They probably wouldn’t recognize him on sight, and Bishop Calixan would probably be more interested in kissing his feet than getting revenge. With that kind of backing, maybe he could even cut Captain Terran’s head off in the middle of the street and get away with it.

But it was also hard to say if Calixan would still be so deferential after his breakthrough. People tended to switch up when they gained power. And, Grey was actually quite curious about the hub Brad was talking about before.

Also, though not everyone would recognize him on sight, Barkeep Ji had, and his citizenship and knighthood was still registered to Grey Temolt. So unless they assumed he had the exact same name, they would definitely find out eventually if they used their system. That felt dangerous, not just because of Calixan, but also because he had left despite a warrant being out for him.

After a breath, Grey shook his head. ’No. Let’s return first and assess the situation. I need to know.’

...

It took Grey an hour to return to Zone 234—record time by a large margin. He didn’t even feel winded.

When he looked at his stamina, he was even more shocked. He hadn’t even dipped below 200.

There wasn’t a change to his stamina stat overall, but it felt like every stat went further.

Part of that was definitely being in the Established Class, another part was certainly because he had advanced with a Linear Frame, but Grey had a feeling that at least half the reason was all this fat.

The power wasn’t his own, and it made him hungry every time his body drew on it, but it was definitely powerful.

’Fuck I need to find something to eat.’

Grey found a food stall and bought a whole box worth. He slung it over his back and then made a trudge over to Globb’s shop to check what was certainly going to be damage.

He hadn’t taken the armor with him because he could tell at a glance he didn’t have a slot in his inventory strong enough to store it. Even if he had, doing that would have exposed the fact he had an inventory to Giyoto, and that was also unacceptable.

Unsurprisingly, Grey found his shop in complete ruins.

The windows were busted and they hadn’t even bothered to board it up.

’Hm?’ Grey’s eyes narrowed.

Something felt off. Grey cleared the kebab he was eating, took a light hop back that sent him over 10 meters away, then flicked a finger.

The wooden stick that was left of his food shot forward like a speeding bullet.

BOOM.

Grey frowned as he watched the shop go up in flames. There was nothing of value in there other than the armor to him, and this level of power wouldn’t even leave a scratch, but it still pissed him off.

’Wait...’

Grey walked forward, wading through the fire like he couldn’t feel the heat. He made it to the hidden floorboard and slammed a foot down.

Smoke billowed and when he laid eyes on what was beyond, the simmering rage only kicked up more.

The armor was gone, but more importantly, so was the Cyber Mat.