Bernard who was summoning Hell’s residents fought with a Silver Legionnaire and almost lost his life. It seemed they wounded each other but Bernard’s wound was worse than his opponent. He was undergoing intensive treatment at the cult’s base. Viers wondered if Bernard’s opponent was his acquaintance after hearing her description from an eye witness.

Monica who was drawing away the level 2s was also injured although not as severe as Bernard. Viers guessed she was too tired after consecutive battles and suffered the injury during their pursuit. Viers heard that she was later saved by August and they successfully reached the base together without other complications.

Two executives of the Cult of Dumuzin were injured and many others didn’t pass through the night without injury. Some didn’t have the luxury to be injured and became deceased instead. The mission for stealing the Faith Water was a success but the cult had to pay a severe price. The cult’s power was cut about half.

Well, all of that has nothing to do with me. I’m just here for the crystals. Do the job and take the money, no need to overcomplicate things.

Callously, Viers paid no mind to the cult’s situation, nor he regretted his action of worsening the situation by killing one of the cult’s promising member. In fact, he profited greatly from this event.

I’ve got quite the harvest this time, first…

First, was witnessing other Path-seeker battles, especially the level 2s. He now had a rough gauge of his power and other people. Using all of this trump card; items, monster transformation, Hyper Arte, and sheer foul play, he could best all of his level 1 opponents. Against level 2, he could only prolong his survival by seconds or minutes. Not that he planned to pick a fight with someone who’s clearly stronger than him but more information especially one that he witnessed himself wouldn’t hurt him.

Second… or is it one point five? Because it’s closely linked to the first one. Bleh, whatever, second.

Second, the way people in this world do battle became clear to him. He knew the classification of warrior-type and mage-type but his assumption that mage-type had to be protected by front liners was off the mark. Mage-type wasn’t helpless in one-on-one combat, against another mage-type or even warrior-type. He witnessed this from Soris and Monica’s battle. Soris used mobility to evade his enemies while Monica used tanks such as her blood knights and beast. What really matters was their Arte built, Viers reckoned mage-type without some versatility wouldn’t last long.

The rule of thumb hasn’t changed, mage-type is squishier and easier to kill. But the higher level the mage-type, they would have found ways to counter this weakness.

Third, Viers saw the result of his arduous training. Compared to his state during the ghoul attack, he was far stronger. His advancement to level 1 was the main factor but his training had shown clear increase in his spec. He was not a particularly diligent person during his time on Earth. After he reincarnated as Viers, most of his time was spent doing various kinds of training. From running, muscle building, even sparing with various people. He knew it was necessary and didn’t skimp on his training but seeing the fruit of his labor brought a nourishing joy to his heart.

If I didn’t train as hard as I could in the past, perhaps my power would be 20% or 30% lower than now. Only… my fat didn’t really decrease. As I thought, with healing factor on, my fat regenerates! The logic baffles me, my body is a mystery even to its owner.

Fourth, this was his biggest gain, material wealth. Viers was broke before the holy water conflict but he became rich soon after. 30 crystals, this was his reward for his contribution; the high amount mostly because he saved Monica and Farley from the trap. He also got Soris’ reward, 20 crystals. It was because of his death duel agreement: the winner shall have all of the loser’s possession. The crystals were Soris' whether he alive or not and now it belonged to him. Soris also had other things, he took the useful ones and sold the rest; another 9 crystals from selling the dead boy’s stuff. Then there’s Soris’ savings, 14 crystals.

Viers got 43 crystals from Soris’ life plus 30 crystals as his own reward, his wealth soared. Because of one sentence, his enemy’s life became a great fertilizer for his growth; Viers was very pleased.

Other than crystals, Viers also received some Artes that Soris had. To learn Arte in this world, one must study them. Most Arte for sale was written in parchment or scroll, it described how to invoke said Arte. For all intends and purposes, a manual.

Organizations that had many Artes for sale normally didn’t sell the whole scroll or book, they kept it in their library. If someone wanted to learn them, they must pay a fee accompanied by a magical agreement to not teach it to others without permission.

The Magisterium used this rule and the cult was the same. Viers didn’t get permission to the cult’s Arte library based on Soris’ permit but he received the Arte scrolls and parchments that Soris really had. Most were useless to him because it was wind-based Arte but some caught his eye.

Arte — Speed Up

Arte — Air Food

Arte — Size Down

Speed Up Arte was a buff type Arte, it enhanced the caster’s speed. Simple but practical, using this Arte along with Rapid Water Steps would raise his speed even more.

Air Food Arte made the user could satisfy their hunger by eating the very air around them. Unfortunately, Viers couldn’t use it. The user needed to be one with wind affinity. Nevertheless, it gave him an idea to make the water version of it. Path-seekers needed to eat and the Arte would be useful in emergencies. The Arte scroll came along with a warning that Air Food wasn’t a complete substitute for real food. Viers reckoned using this Arte for an extended period of time would have consequences.

The last one was the most precious to Viers, Size Down Arte could shrink other things. The smaller an object became, the higher the Victa cost. Viers was overjoyed by this Arte and immediately imagined he could resolve his problem of not possessing inventory items. Since he didn’t have a magical item for storing stuff, he could just shrink things to the size of a pebble and put it in his pouch.

But the problem was, he couldn’t return the shrunken objects to their original size! The chair that became his test case turned into a chair for Barbie dolls and he had no way of using it again. He could shrink it further but he chose not to. The effect was permanent or very long, at least after a week, the chair showed no changes. The downside of this Arte was the huge Victa consumption. Ordinary objects took a substantial amount of Victa to shrink and magical or enchanted items took even more. The Arte also couldn’t be used on living beings. He tested this on a grasshopper and it had no effect.

All in all, there was potential in this Arte but impractical at its current state. Unless he could return the shrunken object, his impromptu inventory creation idea was unusable. Using Size Down as the base, Viers planned to construct the counter version of that, Size Up. The formula was there, he only needed time and effort.

The Arte parchment was quite old and seemed neglected. He didn’t know where Soris got the item but it didn’t seem to be used recently. Viers thought Soris was unable to see the potential in this Arte and didn’t learn it.

After he killed Soris, Viers did a background check on him. He didn’t have any interest on the boy, what he was looking for was his family, relatives, and friends. People that might hold a grudge against him. What would Viers do to those people? He would keep his guard up dealing with them, even striking preemptively –fatally– if necessary. But his luck was good this time, Soris was an orphan with no living relative, he had cultist friends but no one that would pose a threat to Viers.

Viers was also illuminated on how Victa consumption work. Victa was the MP in this world, all Arte needed Victa to be used. Victa regenerated automatically and without limit. This was quite different from Viers’ experience on fantasy stories and games; the issue was both good and bad.

In combat, Victa was spent in massive amounts. During Viers’ fight against the five level 0 church boys, he didn’t use much Victa but his fight with the cultists of Teorph was another matter entirely. Viers didn’t use all of his trump cards but he certainly fought in earnest without holding back. The monster transformation was powerful but it also took quite a lot of his Victa. Added with the various Artes he used, the fight with Test Subjects ABC used about 10 days’ worth of Victa.

This was based on his pure Victa generation rate, without any spending. Because Viers needed to train his body, improving his Arte, and constructing new ones, he used 50% of his Victa every day. This means, that one fight with Test Subjects ABC used up something that took Viers 20 days to accumulate.

Based on this data, fighting equal level opponents took a lot of resources and shouldn’t be done recklessly. He could win a fight with level 0 without spending much Victa but level 1 was another matter. The fight itself didn’t yield much gain for him, only a health potion. Considering what it cost him to win such fight, he felt it was a very wasteful use of his Victa. This was an eye-opener for Viers, the colossal rate of Victa consumption.

To make matters worse, this world had no MP potion. Because Victa was a personalized Mana for every person, there was no easy way to gain a lot of Victa instantly. At most, there were magic items that improved Victa generation rate like what Viers had.

I’m sure there are things that can increase my Victa instantly like an MP potion but it wasn’t common knowledge. I have to rise higher in this world to know deeper mysteries.

The Faith Water robbery was a profound experience for Viers, it made him more mature and more aware of his standing in this world. He realized that even with his cheat, his journey in this world won’t be a cakewalk.

And that’s EXACTLY what I want!

Viers watched the starry skies with enthusiasm for tomorrow.