Viers was digging up his clothes and backpack from a pile of rocks he built himself earlier. Currently, he had already left the underwater cave. He turned into a fish, swam upwards, then returned back to human, naked human. As he got dressed, his pocket watch told him that he was down there for almost twelve hours.

Heh, my mind is already a few months older thanks to the friggin’ desert. This must be what time travel feels like, a minor one of course.

Because he still had a lot of daylight, Viers decided he should begin the trip back to town. He had a lot going on in his mind. During the walk, he often looked at his left wrist. He covered the snake tattoo with his tribal bracelet magic item –the one that could hide his level 1 Path-seeker aura– so it couldn’t be seen directly.

I wonder if I made the right choice… Other MC in my position definitely will choose something more… confrontational. Because Farley’s (possible love interest) life is on the line so the ‘saving the damsel in distress’ protocol in their head is in full effect. Saving damsels are 70% of hero’s purpose in life. With a possible ‘banging’ somewhere down the line.

My choice is basically a coward’s choice, an escapist way of thinking. I definitely want to kill the cult leader but when shit hits the fan, I’d rather be far away from ground zero. The wooden snake artifact will help me paving my future prospect if things became THAT bad.

Viers reviewed his choices during the trials, finding faults so he could learn from them. But the conclusion he reached to after researching the scenario a few times, was the same. The third trial was too disadvantageous for him.

Well, my rotten morals won’t win any points for those trial givers archetype. Except… maybe if the trial givers aren’t the benevolent kind but the demonic sort! Oh wow, should I search inheritance from murderous, vile, sinister devils and demons? Yes, this idea is quite good. Something to add in my to-do list.

Naturally, he felt disappointed that he didn’t get the most precious treasure of the lamias but the feeling didn’t eat him to the core. His first lamia friend’s last act of kindness moved him greatly.

If Kala didn’t help me, at most I will only get low-grade items… But maybe that’s okay too. Isn’t it a common occurrence in the stories for MC to pick up junk but it turned out to be a super OP treasure? Perhaps that choice is better for me? Decisions, decisions.

Viers etched his gratitude towards Kala deep in his heart and steadily walked back to Luxore town.

***

What the…

There was a celebration at the dorm. It was already dusk and Viers caught the jubilant atmosphere even from before opening the dorm’s entrance door. After entering and making some inquiries, it seemed Max had returned earlier that day and reached level 1.

How? The two or three days ago, the last time I saw him he wasn’t at breakthrough point yet. He should be still needing a lot of Mana.

The dinner turned into merrymaking, Yisha the matron cooked a feast to congratulate Max, the first student to reach level 1. Max seemed happy, so did the other classmates. Max was well-liked by his peers, completely different from Viers.

First to become level 1, yeah right. I don’t know if I was the first or Farley. Well, he looks jolly enough, no need to burst his bubble. Wow, Farley’s seemed so sincere congratulating him. I can’t see any falsehood at all… perhaps I should learn her two-face technique? I can see the usefulness during the years to come… a thought for another time.

The others pushed him to tell what happened so Max did.

Friggin’ power-up during life and death moment!? Convenient, if everyone can do that then what’s the point of my blood and sweat? And isn’t level up only possible when you have enough Mana in your body? We have to condense all the Mana into our Intio. His breakthrough didn’t conform with logic, where did the deficit Mana come from? Just appear for the heck of it? From the environment around him? If that’s the case then why I have to burn money for this shit? Another nitpicking, during my Advancement I needed total concentration and focus, his happened in the middle of a deadly battle and going smoothly just like that? Sonnava…

Viers drank his orange juice quietly at the edge of the table, keeping his annoyance under control. Max didn’t tell his classmates what happened after, about his trials and Ivory Fire ability.

Max didn’t know, should he opened his mouth to brag that day, his life would be a lot shorter. There was one person who didn’t take the news kindly… at least one.

***

After all this time, Viers finally had time to gather his thoughts and organized about what he should do after his Advancement to level 1. Because at this point in time, he had only been a level 1 for one week!

Not long after becoming one, he was forced to take part in the theft of Faith Water. He didn’t have time to breathe because soon after, Farley dragged him to the orphanage and dropped the bomb of patricide request on his lap that night. The revelation made Viers have a sudden need for power so he decided to excavate a promising place for mystery, the cave under Tomalica Lake. As he hoped, he found something, something to increase his power by leaps and bounds. Alas, the Lamia Queen found him wanting and he failed to get the ultimate prize. The grace of Kala made his trip wasn’t a complete waste of time but what he got didn’t increase his fighting prowess in any way.

His primary objective was to address the red tumors problem but Farley already gave him the cure. His next objective was to kill a ‘boss’ enemy and save Farley and Gwen from death.

Okay brain, think, think. Think because I need to kill a level 2 boss, possibly level 3, in his lair. Not impossible, very much so for a man of my means. If it’s just a matter of boss-killing then it’s easy but how do I do it in a way that maximizes my gains from the deed? At the very least, I have to take back the loot from the demigod bull and the others.

Use sword versus sword approach? Nuke the site from orbit initiative? Assassins’ style infiltration? Game of Thr*nes’ intrigue and conspiracy? Throw heroes and good guys at the cultists à la Practical Guide of Ev*l? Decisions, decisions.

Viers was not a mastermind or a scheming person of any sort, but decisions had to be made. Thankfully, he still had time. Months, before the winter solstice, according to Farley, and this was still in the middle of summer.

It was more than enough for a man with a thousand stories in his head to prepare.

***

One week had passed, and Viers was currently making his second batches of his delicioso wine. His first batch of ten bottles of wine had been transferred to Farley so she could sell them. How she or her wine company handled the marketing wasn’t Viers’ business, he only hoped she know what she was doing. Viers decided on the wine name so his wine version could be sold with a name of his own choosing.

Red Fairy, he called it.

Blood Fairy seems too direct so that name is a no go.

Other than the ten bottles for sale, Viers made a few more bottles of the Red Fairy wine, for research purposes. He found out that the taste will start to deteriorate after five days since the day of the making. Cooling the wine at a certain temperature, or even freezing them had no effect. After the fifth day, the heavenly wine returned to normal wine. Styra family’s vineyard’s wine was quite good on its own but his Red Fairy wine was on a whole other level.

When he found out about the defect, he reached out to Farley immediately. What steps she took after that was unknown to him. Still, he felt quite confident his wine would do well on sale. The first launch didn’t need to be perfect, three or four bottles sold would make him satisfied.

“In the end, only five out of ten bottles sold,” Farley informed him.

“Mm, not bad for the first launch,” Viers nodded. “I’ve already prepared another ten bottles. I hope this time, all ten can reach people’s mouth in time.” Viers calmly replied.

“Well, the people that bought them were very satisfied. We hope the positive opinion will spread from word of mouth of the buyers, they are an influential lot. One bottle was sold for five crystals, your cut was fifty percent so here are twelve and a half crystals.”

Viers said his thanks before leaving. His relationship with Farley didn’t change much. He interacted with her as usual and doing their own thing. Farley pledged himself to him but ultimately, it wasn’t too important at this point.

He had not finished digesting Mana from the previous Mana-crystals he absorbed so he had quite a lot of leeway with his wealth. Currently, he had more than 80 Mana-crystals, a staggering amount of wealth for someone of his age.

Now, I have to spend this money to improve my strength.

Buying better equipment such as enchanted armor or accessory was the norm but Viers had another path available to him. Viers might not be the smartest guys around but he wasn’t a fool. After a bit of thinking, it was clear to him that currently, his biggest trump card was the monster transformation. His transformation into a monster frog and testing his capabilities in the fires of combat only reinforced this idea.

When he was level 0, he used all his wealth to race to level 1 as soon as possible. After reaching the finish line, he was broke. Thanks to Soris donating his wealth -albeit unwillingly- and his other reward, Viers now had the funds to buy monster cores.

Monster cores were expensive! Tier 1 monster core has a market value of 10 crystals. Unlike Artes, the cult’s price wasn’t too different from the surface, about 8 or 9 crystals.

He had three monster forms now, a fish, a crab, and a frog. Except for the frog one, the rest were tier 0. Viers bought the Jagjag crab core in the past when he was still experimenting with his newfound power but a tier 0 core was far cheaper than a tier 1.

I could buy more water monster cores and add more transformation options for versatility, or I could buy cores to evolve my existing forms. Decisions, decisions… so many decisions!