I scrambled to my feet, reaching into my [Hoard] as I did and pulling out a Resonance Stone, the weaker of the two.

  I didn’t have time to fuck around. This thing was going to murder me if I stood still for long enough. Heavy ordnance was my best bet.

  I used [Flame Body] to heat the explosive as I moved—the massive monster turned to face me.

  I threw the grenade. It clattered to a halt just before the monster.

  It exploded. The closest crystals were incinerated, consumed by hellish flame, while yet more shattered. Ripped from the surrounding walls, a glassy rainbow rained down upon the monster. The force of the impact made me tumble; only my heightened reflexes kept me from hitting the dirt.

  On the far side of the room, the monster lurched, holding a claw over its face as crystals pelted its shell. I caught a glimpse of it as the smoke cleared…

  The hard layer around its torso had barely been dented. The shell around its front legs, however, looked to have at least been cracked.

  It was minor damage at best. The monster still moved without issue, and I wasn’t sure if the second grenade, while stronger, would be enough to put it down.

  The monster charged. I dug my nails into my palm until I drew blood, until it hurt.

  Even with the agility boost, I was barely able to dodge the strike of its claw.

  The floor surged and quaked as the monster impacted the ground, the shockwave alone enough to knock me back. I rolled and threw myself back to standing, legs planted, staring around the room and trying to determine my next course of action.

  My opponent didn’t give me time to think. It shot forth its stinger, murdering the air between us, leaving deep gashes and impressions only inches behind me.

  This thing could kill me with a single hit if it landed. I wasn’t even sure my vest would protect me from such a strike. It was fast for its size, and it had a range advantage over me. What’s worse, I couldn’t spot any weaknesses. The enemy was like a moving fortress. The damage I’d managed to inflict was glancing at best, and wasn’t slowing it whatsoever.

  Come on… Think, Stick. There’s gotta be something you can do.

  I reached into my [Hoard] again and pulled out a small rock.

  I know. Ridiculous, right? If I couldn’t damage it with a bullet, how was a rock going to be the difference-maker here?

  For a start, it was heavier. Second, while I imagined I couldn’t damage the armoured titan simply by lobbing a stone at its body…

  It did have two very tiny weak spots. Almost impossible to hit…

  But not impossible.

  Here’s hoping all my target practice paid off.

  I dodged another strike before pulling back to throw the projectile, putting as much of [Flame Body]’s force into the swing as I could, mana ballooning in my arm.

  My body surged as I released the rock, sending it sailing right at the advancing monster’s face.

  It sailed straight past its left eye, smashing into a bed of crystals ahead, triggering a reaction. Shards bounced and flew around the room, casting a purple glow, constantly refracting as the sound of shattering gems grew in intensity.

  The monster roared, almost bursting my eardrums as I rushed back to avoid more claw strikes, digging in my [Hoard] until I found a second rock.

  I missed with that one too. Then with a bone that I threw. And the next. Each time, my body tensed and pulsed with energy, the sensation as I released almost spasmic.

  When I finally threw the third rock, I hit it dead on. The rock smashed in half along the monster’s face, one half pinging off to the left and grazing its left eye. Blood leaked from the impact zone as the monster threw itself to the side, swinging its claws wildly, raging as it smashed crystalline beds and knocked a cart flying far across the room, its contents pelting onto the floor.

  That was good. I’d hurt it, even if I hadn’t yet blinded it. If I could take out both of its eyes, then I could get close enough to kill it. That or lead it down the hole in the centre of the room…

  It wasn’t long before the creature once again locked its gaze on me. I summoned my turret as it did, pelting it with bullets and hoping to catch its eye again, but had to re-store the weapon after only five seconds as it quickly made strides to cover the space between us.

  The bounding juggernaut drew closer as I once again returned to flight mode, dodging strikes and backing away, raiding my [Hoard] for projectiles, moving as quickly as my arms allowed me.

  It didn’t take me long to stab a Rush Stone into my arm. The addictive part didn’t matter right now. Survival did. The burst of speed had me moving faster than my brain could keep up with, but it only put more force into my volleys. Bones smashed and clattered against the head of the monster, while some sailed past and triggered yet more crystals’ breakage and even explosions, one causing an entire section of the supporting wall above it to fall down.

  Maybe I could bury it? Or kill it with the pillars of rock that jutted towards the far ceiling?

  If I brought the entire room down, I’d die too, but if I didn’t find a way to damage this thing soon…

  As I turned to throw my latest projectile, blue power rippling across my arm, something struck my chest.

  I felt my vest split apart as I fell to the ground. Something inside of me had shattered.

  The monster retracted its stinger. It hadn’t managed to pierce me, but it’d broken my armour entirely, as well as knocking the breath from my lungs.

  I tried to take in a breath, but I couldn’t. My ribs were pressing against my lungs. I was being stabbed from the inside.

  I used the fleeting seconds of my remaining consciousness to summon a superior health potion. I felt the bottle materialise in my hand. I tried to bring it up to my lips…

  The bottle slipped from my fingers. It clattered against the ground, unstoppered.

  I watched as the liquid seeped out, half of the remaining contents dashed upon the stone.

  My chest was too ruined. I couldn’t bring my arm up to my face. I could only sit there and stare as the remaining contents sloshed back and forth in the upturned vial.

  I tried to grab it multiple times. Each time, my arm could scarcely brush the surface of the glass. I couldn’t even feel anything.

  Trying to grab it was impossible. I was too injured to tense my hand.

  The monster was drawing closer. Each reverberating step redoubled my heartbeat, expelling more of the remaining air from my leaking lungs.

  My brain was fizzling. I could still feel the unearthly speed of the Rush Stone pushing against my body, commanding movement.

  I could feel the mana within me, championed by [Flame Body]. It was in full rebellion against my stasis, bouncing around my entire body.

  It didn’t want to be extinguished.

  I didn’t want to die…

  I tried to twist onto my shoulder. The pain that erupted across my body was impossible to describe. It was grievous, suffocating, beyond anything I’d experienced before. My bellow shook the lowest pits of this hell until it became a whimpered cry, until my throat closed.

  A single thought cut through my pain. Swallowed and engulfed it.

  It made a proclamation to me, laid upon my deathbed, the weight of judgment pressing against my very soul.

  It told me to keep going.

  It told me to fight.

  I knew the voice. It was mine. The one I’d rebelled against only hours prior. The one that did as much to scare me as it did embolden me.

  But right now, I had no fear but stopping. My heart still pulsed, and my body still moved. It didn’t want to stop. Pain or no, difficult, impossible, those were just words. Concepts. I discarded them with my hesitence, as useless as my fear.

  I rolled. My body crumpled and twisted. It felt as if my organs were tearing in half.

  I placed my lips to the bottle. I squeezed as hard as I could, and then twisted my head skyward.

  It took everything not to cough up the viscous liquid, to not spasm as the effervescent feeling assaulted my chest.

  I spat the bottle from my mouth seconds later. It clattered against the ground, rolling away as I finally intook breath.

  It’d only been ten seconds since I’d been struck, but that was enough time for the monster to close the gap. My chest continued to knit itself back together as I launched myself to my feet and back into the fray.

  I couldn’t take another hit like that. I couldn’t even take one hit like that. I’d struggled immensely to get back on my feet, and with the energy I still held, with the knowledge that my lungs were only operating at about half-capacity as they continued to try and heal through heavy use, I knew that I needed to end this fight quickly.

  I couldn’t run. It’d follow me into the tunnel. My body would give out far before it did. I needed to get the plan back on track, to keep aiming for its eyes, to get the monster to cause a cave-in on itself…

  It wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t throw properly like this. Even as my body attempted to repair itself, each attempt to throw a projectile was yet another tear. My mana was rebelling against itself as the healing potion attempted to work, refusing to bolster my strikes or move through the top half of my body.

  I was running out of options. It wasn’t like I could directly attack this thing, either. I didn’t have nearly enough force behind my strikes to make a dent.

  The only thing I had left that might be able to kill it was my single remaining Resonance Stone…

  But if it didn’t work? If I threw it and it was a dud? What the fuck then? Roll over and beg?

  I knew I wasn’t getting two chances at killing this. What I was considering doing next was drastic, almost ridiculous…

  But since when was that anything new to me?

  I jabbed a Power Stone into my left arm. Felt the rush only bolstering my forming decision.

  I placed the Resonance Stone into my hand and began heating it. I gripped it as I turned to face the monster, stopping dead for the first time.

  It fired its stinger at me. I barely dodged to the side.

  I began to run towards it.

  The monster skidded to a halt. It didn’t understand what I was doing.

  Its stinger retracted, and it began stabbing at the air around me in a frenzy. Each attempt drew closer than the last, but still it missed its mark, still I drew closer.

  Until I was right on top of it.

  Until I was shoving my fist right into its mouth.

  I deposited the Resonance Stone. If this didn’t work, nothing would. I felt slimy residue coat my hand as I reached far into the creature’s maw to ensure the bomb would stick.

  I felt teeth rip into my arm as I attempted to pull away.

  I hadn’t been fast enough. It was gripping onto me with such intensity that I could feel the muscles and vertebrae in my forearm beginning to tear. Then my skin. I could barely handle the sensation. I wanted to lay down and quit right there.

  My body wouldn’t let me.

  I tore from the monster with all of my might, backing up and throwing myself back, the pain a ringing constant within me, the incessant dull throb of my mangled appendage igniting like wildfire as I stumbled and sprinted to safety.

  Still I pushed against it. Still [Savage Reflex] worked overtime to block out the pain, to keep me squared in on nothing but the ongoing fight.

  It was like applying a burn salve to a roaring volcano, but still it did something to keep me cognisant. It was just enough.

  I didn’t just hear the explosion. I tasted it.

  The monster buckled and caved from the force of it. Its shell splintered and started to fall away, crumbling from its chest. The enemy dropped to its knees, heaving and spitting bile.

  Still, it wasn’t dead. I’d exploded a grenade strong enough to destroy a small room inside of its mouth, and it wasn’t dead. Its shell was mostly decimated, and part of its face was gone, but it still laid there, heaving, its body pulsating.

  It looked as if it might die eventually, but I hadn’t put myself through that to almost kill this thing.

  I walked up to it. I jabbed a Spirit Stone into my arm. I placed my hand on its face.

  I began to channel [Flame Body].

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  The level of heat within me was far from dormant. It roared and screamed with my anger, with my bloodlust, coursing from my arm and worming its way past the creature’s exposed defences, heating its entire body.

  Smoke began to rise as the nightmare crumpled. As it withered. As it turned to a dehydrated, hollowed out, pathetic imitation of its former self before me. As it died for me.

  I boiled it like seafood. I ignored its dying screams. I didn’t even feel vindication. Only purpose.

  I’d cemented myself at the top of the food chain. What else mattered?

  I eventually noticed the mangled mess that my left arm had become. I took a hefty swig of my remaining superior health potion, hoping to stave off the worst of it.

  It didn’t reform properly. The bleeding ceased, but deep scars remained within the tissue, and try as I might, I couldn’t clench my hand, and could barely move my arm past the elbow.

  I decided to store the creature to see if I could locate its remnants.

  [Would you like to store C Grade Marilik Husk? Y/N.]

  I selected yes, but received an error message.

  [Creature too large to store! Make space in your Hoard if you wish to store this creature.]

  That was irritating. Oh well. I started emptying my [Hoard] to make space for the monster.

  If it wasn’t obvious, I wasn’t too perturbed about the loss of my arm. Well, I knew Adam would be. The version of me inhibited by worry and weakness.

  That was why he’d chosen to rely upon me. To give himself fully to me. It was the only way he was getting through that fight. Because I was willing to do things that he wasn’t. If it meant our victory, then I’d do anything.

  I… don’t think Adam invented me as some kind of trauma response growing up. I think I exist within all people. Everyone suffering a harsh reality, everyone that’s been pushed to a breaking point. I’m a coping mechanism. An action. An impulse. I’m always there. In every selfish desire, in every prideful decision, in every surge of motion, rational or not.

  I’d always been there, long before Adam developed [Savage Reflex]. All that did was allow me to come to the forefront of our mind, to lead the charge. To take over when things got too difficult.

  But I also got us in this mess. I didn’t feel bad about it, but I could at least acknowledge it. If I wasn’t clouding Adam’s timid brain, he, I would’ve hid and waited before looting this place. I had my uses, but I was also destructive. He was scared and careful. I was reckless and creative.

  Together, we’d managed to survive a long time. In a single day of me making all the decisions, we’d nearly died twice.

  Maybe I was giving him too much credit. His will was weak. He needed me in order to survive. He’d have gone crazy without me. Wouldn’t have half as much drive.

  I knew he’d be angry once he discovered his mangled arm. I could already feel the fear pressing against my consciousness. Still, I’d yet to relinquish control. I was in charge here. And I’d continue to be as long as I was needed.

  Perhaps longer.

  After dumping the contents of my [Hoard], save the money, I stored the massive creature.

  It took up about eighty percent of the space inside. Once I’d deconstructed it, paying five gold in the process, I looked over the materials the creature had granted.

  I ignored the shell and meat, my eyes shooting straight towards the marilik’s core.

  It was listed as a [C Grade Armoured Core (rare)].

  That sounded promising. As for my arm, I doubted there was anything in here that could fix it. Maybe Mercury could? But I doubted it. It’d been a few minutes now, and no more feeling had returned to the appendage. It was limp and tingly, and I could barely move it. Moving my fingers more than a quarter-inch was impossible.

  Not much I could do about it now.

  Fighting with one hand was going to be more difficult. I tested resting the turret in my left hand and holding it with my right. Difficult, but doable. I’d definitely suffer a penalty to accuracy.

  Back to things I could control, the Armoured Core was interesting. C Grade was more potent than anything I’d picked up previously. And anything that buffed my durability sounded incredibly useful.

  Plus a little ironic. The universe seemed to have a habit of giving me useful things right after I really could’ve used them.

  I’d have laughed, but this part of me was bereft of humour.

  Then there was the creature’s shell. I read a description, discovering that it was considered to be lightweight and durable, difficult to pierce while barely inhibiting movement.

  Perhaps I could use it to repair my armour. That or to refine a defensive skill.

  I looked over my skill increases. Some had gone up dramatically over the course of the day.

  [Savage Reflex: 2 >> 5.]

  [Flame Body: 7 >> 9.]

  [Marksmanship: 3 >> 4.]

  [Throwing: 9 >> 10.]

  [Perception: 8 >> 9.]

  Okay. Not bad. I needed to get Flame Body to ten, however. Plus a whole bevy of other skills that needed improving.

  I’d bag up as many crystals as I could carry, then I’d go and find some new enemies. After that, I’d—

  Yeah… let me stop you right there.

  It hurt to wrangle my mind away from [Savage Reflex]. Lifting the toggle was even more difficult than it had been last time. I could feel that aspect of my personality rebelling against me as I lifted the veil and stuffed it back into its cage.

  It was like a part of me that had gone rogue.

  Yes, it did appear to have its uses. It was fearless. It was hungry. It truly wanted everything.

  But I was right to be terrified of it. It would undoubtedly get me killed if left unchecked.

  And so it was time to refine [Savage Reflex] into a new skill. One that didn’t carry such a heavy taint.

  I pondered if I was killing that part of myself as I searched through my [Hoard] for refinement materials. I heavily doubted it. It’d always be a part of me, but I’d control it on my own terms.

  That part of my brain having full control wasn’t healthy. Me having the ability to simply hide within it wasn’t either. I needed to deal with and brave every trial I faced without mentally retreating. I needed to be strong enough to handle pain and fear, not block it out entirely.

  I selected [Savage Reflex] and placed it in the [Refine] section of my [Hoard]. I heard a voice of protest in the back of my brain, but I smothered it out of existence.

  There was no pause for consideration. I grabbed a portion of the Marilik’s shell, as well as two D Grade Rest Cores, and selected [Refine].

  [Savage Reflex has been refined.]

  [Material Sacrifice of an Aspect has resulted in increased refinement choices.]

  [Please choose from the following options:]

  The first one read:

  [Battle Trance (Uncommon): Move to the rhythm of a fight, becoming further attuned with an enemy’s timings the longer you battle while ignoring distractions. Ideal for fights with few opponents. Ineffective versus groups of 4 or more. Passive effect.]

  I squinted at that. Not the worst, but not wonderful, either.

  It sounded like an alternate version of focus. In this case, I locked onto a singular enemy, or potentially up to a couple, and learned how they moved and how to react to said movement.

  Such an ability could help me to dodge, block, and counterattack, and might ensure me the win in fights where I got to see the full scope of an opponent’s abilities.

  But… I could also die using something like this before I got any real use out of it. Most of the useful effects sounded as if they ramped up over time, and I couldn’t always control how many enemies I’d be forced to face. Besides, taking this meant indexing further into the [Savage Reflex] skillset when I’d been trying to move away from it.

  It was almost certainly the wrong choice. I knew that before I’d even read my other option:

  [Moonlit Grace (semi-rare): A gentle aura akin to meditation, heightening senses and boosting reaction time. Moonlit Grace facilitates the movement of mana through the user’s body while bolstering mental resilience. Toggle ability.]

  That… almost certainly sounded better. A lot better than I’d anticipated receiving.

  Honestly, besides the lack of a pain-based agility boost, it sounded like a direct upgrade to [Savage Reflex], offering increased mana control while removing basically all of [Savage Reflex]’s downsides.

  The more I reread the description, the more certain I was.

  What could go wrong with this one? Would I end up being too calm and rational, somehow?

  There wasn’t just the lack of perceived downside to consider—[Moonlit Grace] was a toggle ability. While [Savage Reflex] had been one, too, and I’d found that extremely difficult to turn off, I still trusted something I could turn off over something that was simply listed as a passive ability, as was the case with [Battle Trance].

  Plus, after recent experiences, I really wasn’t sure how much I trusted something with ‘trance’ in the name.

  I noticed I didn’t get a third option. That must’ve been because I hadn’t put multiple types of cores in. My assumption was that the first option given was a direct continuation of [Savage Reflex], while the second choice was a redrawn version of the skill that drew upon the Rest Cores I’d used.

  Either way, there was no doubt I was picking the toggle ability.

  I locked in my selection, and the instant I did so, it was as if an ice pick had been removed from my brain.

  I gasped as I looked down at my useless arm. I stared all around me and tried to determine whether I was going to attract yet another monster by standing out in the open like this.

  I quickly decided that wasn’t the case. The fight I’d had with the marilik had been incredibly loud. Every creature in the vicinity had surely heard it, yet no more had arrived.

  It’d been over five minutes, now. I could reasonably assume that nothing was coming for me right this second, and even if something did, it’d likely be more interested in the pile of discarded meat laying on the floor than it would be in me.

  Then there was my arm to consider. It was shit, I knew, but I could handle an injury. It was paralysed, not missing, not rotting. There was a chance I’d find something in the facility that might help me repair it.

  Maybe I wouldn’t. Regardless, I believed in my ability to get through this place. I’d gotten this far… I just had to keep going.

  So that’s what I’d do. One foot in front of the other… well, until one of those stopped working, too.

  …yeah, I felt a lot more myself now. I’d wanted to be sure I was mentally handling the situation before I tested my new ability. The last thing I wanted was to repeat earlier mistakes, and now, I felt satisfied enough with my headspace that I was willing to give [Moonlit Grace] a first try.

  I activated the ability, and this time, it wasn’t as if a sheen descended over me. It was more as if the world opened up.

  Everything was more vibrant. Almost prettier. Even my imagination felt more vivid.

  It was… louder than anything I was used to. I was having the opposite issue that I’d had with [Savage Reflex]: while I’d wanted to retreat into that ability, this one was almost overwhelming. I had to fight against an urge to shut it off as colours became sharper and lines blurred with the tilting of my head, as further sights drew closer and distant sounds became louder all the same.

  I had to sit in the feeling for a while to grow accustomed to it, and even a minute later it was still strange. While [Savage Reflex] had enhanced things, it had been accompanied with a single-minded focus. I had no such anchor with [Moonlit Grace]. The world was a sprawling canvas that my mind struggled to make sense of; the added detail threatened to overload my senses.

  I toggled the ability on and off a few times to get used to the change. The additional contours on the wall before me, the hidden details in each crystal. There were sounds I could more acutely recognise for pitch and depth. I could hear my own heartbeat clearly, something I wasn’t sure I ever noticed without active focus.

  In time, I began to cull back the bedlam. I wanted to make this feeling the new normal. Along with the changes to my sight and hearing came a heightened internal sense. I could feel the mana in my body more clearly than before. Even in my left arm, which I could scarcely move, I could feel a massive clogged amount of mana residing there.

  Was it… trying to repair my arm? Or was the buildup part of the reason I couldn’t move it?

  While moving mana through other parts of my body felt easier than usual, I couldn’t seem to budge the buildup around my left forearm. It was something I’d possibly experiment with later, but for now, I chose to accept that my lack of knowledge—magical or medical—was more likely to lead me to damaging my arm further than doing anything good to it.

  It took time to realise there was… something else to my senses that I hadn’t quite possessed previously. Certain pockets of air and clusters of materials felt more… dense than others. Was that something to do with ambient mana?

  If it was, I couldn’t reach out and grab it. That would, assumedly, be gathering, and I didn’t know how one went about doing that. But I was sure there was something there, now. It was a ‘something’ I could only vaguely sense when I had [Moonlit Grace] activated, and didn’t feel at all otherwise.

  I did wish I knew how to gather. I was sure I’d expelled a lot of mana fighting, doubly so when I’d actually tried circulating. Where It often felt as if I was moving vast swaths of energy through my body, there was less than usual, and a large amount of what remained seemed to have consolidated around my core, where it refused to budge.

  That said, I could almost… listen to my own core. I felt a strange hum within. Over time, I became almost certain that it was regenerating mana I’d previously lost.

  Whether that was a passive form of gathering, or that the body simply generated mana on its own, I wasn’t sure of.

  Either way, I decided to dig through my potions and pull out a respite potion. Now felt like a good time to use one.

  I downed about a third of the green liquid contents, feeling a warm glow settle in my stomach and suffuse my aching muscles. I breathed a sigh of relief before refastening my mask.

  That’d keep me going until I found somewhere to sleep. I was going to have to be careful about where I chose to make camp or make a fire, and I wasn’t sure I’d even make another fire. I’d been fine last time, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t wind up inviting something new to attack me if I did the same thing twice.

  As for the rest of this room… I had a lot I needed to take stock of. I tried to compartmentalise everything that I’d recently gained and think about what to do next.

  Honestly, it was difficult without [Savage Reflex]. I was less certain than I’d like, and things weren’t staying in my head easily.

  I reminded myself that I’d spent my whole life without that crutch until now. That I was no stranger to situations like this, even if they’d never gotten quite this bad.

  I’d get through it.

  I took a breath and went over my skill increases again:

  [Throwing] hit ten. That could be refined or combined soon. [Perception] would hit ten soon.

  More importantly, [Flame Body] was on the cusp of being maxed out.

  I was unsure what I wanted to do with [Flame Body]. It was my most important ability and I was worried about refining or combining it into something otherwise useless, but I also knew I needed something stronger.

  The ‘exceptional’ amount of mana within me, channelled through [Flame Body], had allowed me to finish off a half-dead monster within thirty seconds. It was a big one, sure, but it’d taken time and a lot of energy to get the job done.

  The heat tolerance was useful, but the durability component was lacking. That was the main reason I needed [Flame Body] to be better, and the main reason I’d held onto the C Grade Armoured Core.

  As for what else I could find to increase the potency of my upgrade?

  Well, I had a whole room of crystals scattered around me. About time I started searching.

  I walked up to one of the two crystal-filled carts in the room, the contents a spectrum of glimmering colour.

  [Would you like to store Earth Stone, C Grade?]

  [Would you like to store Spirit Stone, C Grade?]

  [Would you like to store Pyre Stone, D Grade?]

  [Would you like to store Corrosive Stone, D Grade?]

  [Would you like to store Control Stone, C Grade?]

  [Would you like to store Electrostatic Matrix?]

  I kept digging through the cart. With every new object I stored, I began to feel better about my situation. By the time I’d started finding new crystals I’d never seen before, I felt myself growing excited.

  Who knew what else I’d find here? I hadn’t even gotten to the bottom of this cart yet. Just wait until I’d finished looting this place.

  I didn’t grin maniacally or laugh with glee as I shovelled my way through the valuables… but I did feel manic. The more I searched, and the more I found, the more difficult it became to lament being trapped down here.

  Fear paled in comparison to desire. And the truth of it was, for all the satisfaction I felt storing hundreds, possibly thousands of gold in materials, for all the knowledge that I could use these items to grow stronger…

  It wasn’t enough. I wanted more.

  By the time I’d dug through the two largest carts, my [Hoard] was over two-thirds stuffed with crystals, minerals, and metals. It was enough to finally sate me, at least to the point that I could stop manically gathering and start sorting through them.

  First, I’d figure out what to use and what to keep. Next, I’d discard the most useless and worthless materials and make more space for the valuable ones.

  Then? I’d stuff my [Hoard] to its limit.