Kai commanded Shade to fetch fruits and small saplings while his mysterious benefactor slept. Instead of eating them, Kai absorbed the life essence from them, turning them to dust after every ounce of life was stolen.
Kai checked his system each time after waking. His age remained the same, so less than a year had passed, but he had no other way to tell how much time passed, or so he thought. He checked the system after absorbing the life from an apple-like fruit.
Something changed.
[Life Essence: -3,264.]
'Before, it was -3,266. A fruit is worth two points of life essence? With Shade only being bringing back five fruits and two saplings per day, because I can't absorb any more in time before my caretaker comes back from wherever they go, I just need to see how much a sapling increases the count.'
Sure enough, once Kai absorbed a sapling, he saw another increase.
[Life Essence: -3,258.]