God Of Gluttony: Runestones Give Me Unlimited Abilities

Someone shoved Alex in the back and he sprawled on the ground weakly.

Tears fought to come out of his eyes as he stared at his dinner that had been wasted all over the floor.

He had not eaten anything since the previous day, and this was his last hope of getting something to eat. What the orphanage served as dinner wasn't worthy to be called food but to Alex, it was something to put in his belly. Anything would serve.

But now, these bullies had wasted his food. He clenched his fists on the floor where he lay weakly and the tears began to flow freely.

"Now now what do we have here?" Flash, the leader of the boys who bullied Alex at the orphanage walked around him, stepped over his food and squatted before him, looking into his teary eyes. "Poor Alex tripped again, oh how so clumsy of you."

Alex gritted his teeth but did not respond. He was weak. Responding to bullies never ended well for him. However, whether he responded or not, it would still not end well for him.

Flash looked down at the remains of Alex's meagre dinner on the floor. "What are we gonna do about this mess. Matron's really gonna be mad when she finds out that you spilt your dinner again. You know how food is so expensive around here."

Alex still didn't reply. However, he had gotten up to his knees. He was no longer crying rather he was mentally preparing himself for whatever torture Flash had in store for him this evening. Every day, it was one form of torture or the other. Alex wouldn't be surprised if he never made it to adulthood because at this rate, Flash would kill him one day.

Flash straightened up and began to mimic the mannerisms of the matron to the other children by speaking in an uptight and formal fashion with a strict tone to his voice, "Child, if you will waste your meals then I don't see why we should keep on feeding you when there are other children who would be grateful for the least of scraps. Next time, I catch you wasting your meal, I'll make sure you don't eat for a week!"

The other kids burst into laughter at Flash's comical mimic of their matron.

Alex was glad that they were distracted. Maybe he could make a run for it. He tried to stand but his weak limbs failed him. There was no energy left in his body to make a run. If he tried that, he would be mincemeat.

Flash seemed to have noticed Alex's frail attempts to stand so he grabbed Alex by the hair and forced his head up. "Now back to what I was saying, you have to clean this mess or else you're gonna get it from matron."

Before Alex could process Flash's words, he felt his face get pushed down into the floor. The force was unimaginable and it caused Alex's nose to start bleeding. Flash proceeded to rub Alex's face all over the spilt food on the floor also causing bruises to appear on Alex's face.

Alex whined and cried but no one came to his rescue. All the other kids just laughed at him while Flash had his fill of torture.

After a while, Flash paused and raised Alex's bloody face, "Have you had your fill yet? No? Oh, you Oliver Twist."

With that, he plunged Alex's face to the floor again and continued to rub.

Alex whined harder and squirmed as he tried to break out of Flash's grip but he was large for a 15-year-old and could easily hold down two boys of Alex's stature without breaking a sweat.

Eventually, Flash grew bored of Alex's whining and stood up leaving Alex to sob uncontrollably on the floor.

"Quit making that pathetic noise. It wasn't even that bad." Flash growled.

When Alex refused to stop crying, Flash pulled his foot backwards and dealt Alex a hard kick on his ribs. "Just shut up you fool,"

He turned to his gang and said, "Let's go do something else more fun. This sucker's boring."

As Flash and his gang dispersed, so did the other kids, leaving Alex alone and wounded on the floor with his face in a pile of dirty food.

When Alex could finally summon enough strength, he got up and managed to pack the remains of the food and throw it in the trash so that the matron wouldn't see it.

After that, he left the lodge in the orphanage and went to a quiet, secluded part of the orphanage filled with trees and bushes.

This was his private spot, where he often stayed to take a break from everyone in the orphanage, and to train for the Awakening.

The Awakening was a ceremony which was held once a year in which all the 15-year-olds in the Kingdom would gather with their runestones in the town circle and crush them. After that, some would be blessed with special abilities while some wouldn't. Those who were unable to get runestones would also miss out on the Awakening because after the age of 15, one would be unable to get abilities from a runestone.

At the moment, Alex did not have a runestone but he still tried his best to train his weak body, partly because he would be able to endure Flash's tortures a bit easier and partly because he hung on to the hope that the little money he had saved up would be able to get him a runestone that contained magic.

It didn't matter what quality of magic was contained in your runestone, as long as you got magical powers at the Awakening then your life would change forever.

After training, thinking, and resting, Alex returned to the orphanage.

He tried his best to get back before lights out so that he wouldn't get into any trouble with the matron. He was in enough trouble with Flash as it was for just existing alone. However, little did he know that he was already neck deep in trouble.

The moment his foot crossed the doors to the boys' lodge, someone gripped his ear tightly and said, "Did you think you could escape?"