Bleh, the taste isn't that good.

Viers found the taste of the wine wasn't quite agreeable. Still, he enjoyed the moon watching while sipping wine from time to time. He appreciated his hard-earned rest and didn't think about any hard problems.

Wine… red… like blood. Well, not completely alike but whatever. That's why there’s an alcoholic drink called Bloody Mary… I think. Blood… I have it too. Oh yeah, I drank human blood before, the woman that fought with Guo Song, the bull and my potential spirit guru. It also didn't taste very good, furthermore, I didn't get any mutation from her blood.

Did I do something wrong? Do I need to eat her whole? Skeleton and all to get said mutation? Well, I wasn't ready to go down the cannibal path. I’m not that insane nor that desperate. Still, I have a lot of abilities that need polishing. I should be careful to not acquire too many skills and become a jack of all trades but a master of none.

And… it wasn't as if I didn't realize it was a Chinese-sy name from the start. He said he was from the eastern continent, wasn't it? Does that mean that the continent's culture and people will be like a full-blown xianxia novel?

Hmnnn, what an exciting journey it would make! Kicking arrogant young masters’ ass, killing the pursuers from his family, keep piling grudges, until I single-handedly destroy their sect or clan. I gotta say, I want to experience something like that at least once. I will definitely visit that continent in the future. Huhuhu…

“Aaah.”

Viers let out a satisfied sigh after gulping a mouthful of wine.

Guo Song… I read a great novel where the MC’s grandpa had a similar name. Come to think of it, she also has a life-energy thingy just like me. The difference is she got it from a world serpent while I got it from a mysterious flower. It offset her void element negative effects… Hmm?

Viers had a light bulb lit up in his head.

She could produce her life-energy outside of her body, letting her familiars eat it or mix the life thingy with liquors to fill it with vitality. Can I do it too?

Conveniently, he currently holds a glass of wine in his hand. He immediately tried to channel his green energy to the wine.

“Hmph!”

Unsuccessful, his life-energy could only reach until the tip of his fingers. He could not project it outside of his body.

Okay, so how could I circumvent this limitation? Ting-tong, blood may be the answer! It is part of my body, but I can get it outside by bleeding a little!

Viers tested his idea. He concentrated his life-energy to the tip of his finger. After he made a slit on it with a knife, he dropped the blood to the glass of wine. Viers observed the mixture process very carefully. When the drop of blood met the wine, there were no visible changes.

The blood is still a normal red color though, I faintly feel my life-energy inside it. No changes to the wine could be seen with naked eye… okay so what now? I suppose I could only test-taste it myself. Bottoms up.

“Gulp… ooh. Wow, OOOH!”

The taste was heavenly. Viers couldn't believe his own tongue, too delicious, it was almost too good to be true. Deep and complex flavor, faint fruity aroma permeated his sinus, the taste was not heavy but not too light either. Viers relished every drop of it.

An extraordinary drink for an extraordinary day… let’s put more of this magic wine to my belly.

Viers felt today was his lucky day.

***

Two days passed since Viers became level 1.

Viers spent the last two days familiarizing and testing his newfound capabilities. He didn't make any waves and kept his advancement hush-hush. Unlike other MCs that had something special or critical dropped from the sky after they leveled up, Viers’ plan was to keep his head down and accumulate strength quietly. But trouble came to him, in the form of sheer reality.

I require more vespene– no no no, I require more Mana crystals!

Viers became level 1, which means he also needed Mana-mastery (cultivation) resources suitable for that level. Which he didn't have at the moment. He used most of his crystals for speeding up his Mana-mastery but after he achieved that short-term goal, Viers was broke. Only one crystal remains, nowhere enough for his needs.

Level 1 Arte prices are a lot more expensive from level 0’s. And this is the cult’s price, the normal price on the surface is higher still. Need more crystals to absorb too or my Mana-mastery will stagnate. Magic items suitable for level 1s are also rarer and pricier.

Viers had foreseen this dilemma. After his level up, he would be in a vigorous money-making period by taking on cult’s higher difficulty tasks. Testing his skills in the fire of combat. However, he now had an unusual business plan. He planned to sell the blood in his very veins!

But he still had some semblance to common sense, it would be too conspicuous selling bottled blood so he took a step back. He would mix it with something first then sell the thing. Since the discovery of his blood potential, Viers wracked his brain on how to turn his blood to literal crystals and this was the result.

Viers wasn’t a wine expert nor a wine critique. He only thought his life-energy infused blood could make a wine taste very, very good. So he hoped he could make money with it.

In fact, on the first day of the discovery, the taste was so good Viers was tempted to slit his own wrist and drank all of his own blood. But his insanity meter wasn’t that low so he erased the suicidal and destructive idea from his head.

He considered other options of what product he should sell after lacing it with his heavenly taste blood.

Juice and other conventional beverages popped up in his mind but unless he made beverages factory and could sell said product in large quantity, the income won’t be worth it. He couldn’t charge too high of a price for a bottle of juice no matter how good it was.

He already tested his magic blood with other things. He also experimented by putting it in his food, but it wasn’t exactly compatible. It became more delicious but it wasn’t game-breaking or anything. Selling food also faced the same hiccups as the conventional drink ones. He needed to sell a lot of it for a great profit. Though monster dishes could be sold at a high price, he couldn’t cook it or supply the ingredients in the first place so Viers crossed this idea.

Thus he’d settled with wine. Wine could be sold at an exuberant price in this world just like on Earth. It was a luxury item after all, and the rich that had too much money always wanted luxury. Unlike other things, he wouldn’t need to sell barrels and barrels of wine to rake in the dough.

The life-force he spent to turn a bottle of wine into ambrosia of the gods was negligible, just a tiny, tiny amount. He now saw his own body as an untapped, limitless goldmine!

Of course, I won’t bleed myself dry for this, but ten bottles a week and selling them for crystals should result in quite a sum. And I’m in luck! Don't I know someone that got a vineyard? Time to make use of that two-faced girl.

If possible Viers didn't want to involve the Styra family in this entrepreneurship. But the other option was buying and selling the wine himself. While he could hog all of the profit, it wasn't a viable long term situation. People would start asking questions, how he made the wine, what were the ingredients he used, and so on.

If people got curious and greedy then simply abducted him, what could he do? Viers might be a level 1 but he wasn't able to fend for himself from a Dyn*sty Warriors situation… YET. Thus making use of Farley’s vineyard would be a better alternative for him, in his own opinion. He could use them as his shield from unwanted attention so he only needed to deal with the Styra family.

Still, he wasn’t a hundred percent sure his magic wine could sell like hotcakes so Viers conducted a little test.

***

“Paina, here.” Viers gave a bottle of wine to the dark-haired cute girl.

“…Wine? Thanks, I guess. But why? What’s the occasion? Wait, aren’t we still too young for this?”

Viers called Paina and gave the bottle after calling her to the ground floor of the dorm.

“This is a special wine I brewed using my grandma’s recipe. I want to know your opinion about it. And as long as you don’t go overboard and Yisha doesn’t catch you, a few nibbles is surely fine.” Viers said plainly.

“I never drank wine before, I don’t think I’m qualified to judge.” Paina hesitated.

“Just drink it and tell me how you think of it. It’s a special day and I want to give away gifts.” Viers flashed his recently brushed teeth for this conversation.

“But wine? This is a bit weird but if you put it that way… fine, thanks.” Her smile was so pure that even Viers felt somewhat fuzzy inside.

“Good, share it with Farley too. It’s enough for you both. Bye then.” Viers turned around. “Oh, I hope you can taste it today. While it’s still fresh.” Viers added.

***

“Kyuu…”

Paina made a cute sound as she fell to sleep. She only had a few mouthfuls but the alcohol content was too much for her. Nevertheless, she couldn't complain about the wine’s taste. Paina slumbered with a red face and half smiling.

“Aww, what a light drinker. How adorable,” Farley sipped Viers’ wine slowly and carefully like a professional connoisseur. Tasting every taste that touched her tongue. She had done this for every drop of the wine for doing any less felt like an insult to such fine drink.

She was invited by Paina to her room. To Farley’s surprise, Paina offered her a glass of wine. After a little explaining, Farley agreed to accompany her friend to a little drinking party.

Farley tucked Paina in her bed and continue drinking Viers’ wine.

How the hell Viers could make something like this? This is the best wine I’ve ever had by far…

Farley wasn’t an avid alcohol drinker but she knew her wine. She was exposed to it since a few years back thanks to her background. She never went too far, she always moderated her consumption of wine and accepted it as an art form.

Despite the great wine on her lips, Farley was in deep contemplation.

Fat… then wine… I’m now certain he is the one. There are still risks but I have to throw my chip soon. The time of mine and Gwen’s death is fast approaching.

She lightly twirled her glass of wine. In her eyes, the swirling dark-red liquid was a whirlpool of blood that sucked her fate to an abyss with no hope of escape.