The rice was still warm. Barely, but warm enough. Ash ate it with the kind of focus he had only ever shown during exams.
It was gone in about four minutes. He set the bowl down, looked at it for a moment, and then looked at the second tray Rylan had so thoughtfully saved for him. That disappeared in another three. Somewhere in the middle of the second tray, he realized his body was no longer hungry in the ordinary way. It was hungry the way a construction site is hungry. Every cell in him was rebuilding itself, and every bite he swallowed seemed to vanish into some deep, busy place and be put to work at once.
As he chewed, he could actually sense it happening. His stomach was rapidly breaking the food down and sending the majority of the refined energy straight upward toward his brain. Only the leftovers were distributed to the rest of his body. The process was smooth, efficient, and slightly alarming.
I guess having a super OP brain wasn't without its downsides, he thought dryly.
