The academy's schedule was a thing of beauty. Three classes a week. The rest of the time was dedicated to "self-directed enhancement," which was a fancy way of saying "go train or die trying." It was the ultimate NEET-friendly curriculum, and I was here for it.
The next day, a delivery drone deposited a small box at my door. My "ingredients" had arrived. I opened it with the reverence of a bomb technician. Inside, nestled in protective gel, was a small jar of vibrant blue, wobbly Slime Jelly and a vacuum-sealed packet containing what looked like several thick, white, silky cords—the Spider Arancar Silk Glands. They were surprisingly smooth and felt strong.
I spent the next few hours in my dorm, trying everything. I held the silk gland in my hand, focusing my energy, trying to absorb it, reinforce my strings with it, anything. Nothing. I tried coating my strings in the slime jelly. It just made a sticky, glowing mess that dripped on the floor.
"Hays," I sighed, slumping at my kitchenette. "I doubted myself. I thought I discovered something, but it's nothing. Just a stupid idea."
Defeated, I decided to just go through with the original, horrifying recipe. If I was out 130 Unions, I might as well get a meal out of it. I followed the instructions I'd downloaded: boil the silk glands until they softened into noodle-like strands, then mix them with the liquefied slime jelly in a pan, letting it set into a wobbly, blue-tinged block.
I stared at the final product. Spaghetti Jello. It looked like something a depressed alien would serve at a dinner party. I poked it. It jiggled menacingly.
"Well, here goes nothing," I muttered, scooping a hesitant bite onto a fork.
I braced for the worst and shoved it in my mouth.
And… stopped.
I chewed slowly. My eyes widened. "Wow. This is… actually delicious?"
It was cool and slightly sweet from the slime jelly, with a satisfying, chewy texture from the silk "noodles." It tasted like a weird, magical fruit gummy with a pasta twist. I took another bite. Then another.
After about five bites, something… shifted.
A warmth spread through my stomach, not uncomfortable, but… energizing. It was a familiar feeling, like the synthetic energy gel the trainer had given me at the gym, but cleaner, more natural. I felt a slight tingle in my fingertips, the place where my strings manifested.
Then, a new impulse hit me. A strange, instinctual knowledge. I held out my hand, not to create my usual white energy string, but to focus on the material I'd just eaten. I poured my will into it, imagining the properties of the Arancar silk.
A thin, glistening *white* string, slightly thicker than my usual ones, shot from my fingertip. It wasn't made of my blueish-white energy. It looked and felt like the actual, physical silk from the spider, but it was connected to my will. I could control it perfectly.
I was so shocked I dropped the fork. It clattered onto the plate of spaghetti jello.
"Holy crap," I breathed.
I hadn't needed to *weave* with the silk. I hadn't needed to *absorb* it. I needed to *digest* it. My body, my power—it was processing the material on a metaphysical level, understanding its properties, and allowing me to *replicate* it! It was like my ability was constantly evolving, adding new "recipes" to its database every time I consumed something relevant.
I devoured the rest of the spaghetti jello in a frenzy. With each bite, the feeling grew stronger. The silk string I could produce felt tougher, more resilient. I tried to snap it against the edge of my table. My normal energy strings would have fizzled or cut. This one held firm, stretching slightly before rebounding.
A wild laugh escaped me. "This is it! This is my cheat! I don't just train; I have to *eat* my way to power! I'm a magical gourmet!"
I immediately dove back into my research, now with a frantic, new purpose. I discovered that the strength of Arancar silk came from its molecular structure, and that knotting it multiple times could increase its tensile strength exponentially. Maybe I could mimic that with my will!
But more importantly, I looked up other spider silks. My heart sank. The next tier up, from a C-Rank monster called a Spider Grangantuar, cost **30,000 Unions per kilogram**.
"30k?!" I yelled at my holoscreen. "For one kg?! That's more than half my life savings! This is too muchhh!"
The Arancar silk was cheap. A whole kilogram of it cost only 1,000 Unions. If I could get stronger just by eating more of it… maybe I could push this "recipe" to its limit before I had to bankrupt myself for an upgrade.
I placed an order for a full kilogram of Arancar silk glands and another few jars of slime jelly. I didn't want to eat spaghetti jello all the time—the thought was already getting old—so I started searching for other recipes. "Arancar Silk Energy Bars." "Slime Jelly Smoothies." "High-Protein Monster Silk Loaf."
This changed everything. My power wasn't just about control or creativity. It was also… dietary. I had to craft the ultimate power-building meal plan.
I laughed again, a little maniacally, alone in my dorm. I was no longer just a guy with strings. I was a guy with strings who needed to go grocery shopping. This was the weirdest, most amazing pay-to-win system I had ever encountered.