With 36 Stamina in the proverbial bank, Max took it slow. Not wanting to pull anything while working out, he started with some light stretching. It felt pretty good and should also help with the soreness that was bound to be there in the morning. It had been years since his last workout, even before IDK-25, his lifestyle was very stationary.

‘On second thought, with my new body and higher Constitution, can I even get sore?’

…

Max wasn’t sure how long the workout lasted, his only reprieve was the breaks in between each set. Even though his Stamina was still above zero, he could still be out of breath. Some of the leaves and mosses were used up during each of the breaks to replenish his water reserves. At the end of the workout, the stockpile was already halved.

His routine consisted of pushups, situps, squats, and jumping jacks. Of the four, jumping jacks were the worst and hardest for him. Even when he worked out in college, cardio was always neglected in favor of muscle development. But now, there was a tiny inkling that told him there was going to be a lot of running in his future, especially if all the beasts were as strong as the hawk.

‘At least they are better than burpees.’

Max had driven his Stamina all the way down to zero and collapsed. This was the first time his Stamina reached zero, and his legs just gave up. He was a sweating heap of mess on the floor. No matter how deep each breath was, he felt like not enough oxygen was getting to his lungs.

‘Definitely not letting that happen again.’

Max was glad that he had the foresight to take off his poncho shirt before the workout, it could have been so much worse. Laying there, the ground sapped the excess heat from his body. When Max finally caught his breath, he checked his progress for his Body Tempering. 9/150. It increased by 2…

‘Well, shit… 4 points for the whole day. That’s going to take me almost 40 days to get to the next stage. Looks like this is going to be a long grind… Should I focus on leveling instead? It took one kill to level up from level 3 to level 4. But each level only gave 2 free stat points. While progressing my cultivation gives 5 points, one in each of my physical stats. The risk of leveling is also a lot higher, I almost died in my first fight.’

Max spent some time thinking about the pros and cons of leveling and cultivating. After muddling over, there didn’t seem to be a clear answer. There was merit in both and couldn’t decide on one or the other. Feeling physically and mentally exhausted, Max decided to call it in for the day. He had already been through a lot today and on top of that, he had been up since dawn. Getting some sleep would do him some good.

Max let the fire die out and carefully lowered himself into the hole. He barely had the energy to even do that. Max felt a lot safer in this hole. The enclosed space might trigger some people’s claustrophobia, but Max felt protected. Holding on to his Chi-Infused Rock also gave him an extra sense of security.

Max stretched out his legs, but his foot brushed against something hard. His heart skipped a beat, he had clearly remembered the ground here had been patted down when the Chi-Infused Rock was found and didn’t uncover anything. After a moment of thought, the answer came to him. Chuckling to himself, he remembered the bowl-shaped rock that was left here to collect the water droplets.

Without the fire, the cave was pretty dark, and it was even darker down in the hole. There was no way to tell how much water the rock bowl had collected, but it couldn’t be that much. Thirsty from the workout, Max tilted his head back and tossed the content of the bowl into his mouth. The moss and leaves were too far and this seemed to be the more convenient option.

As soon as Max downed the couple drops of water, his body instantly absorbed it. It started as a subtle warm sensation spreading throughout his body, but it continued to build on top of itself. In the next moment, a new notification popped into his field of view.

Status effect - Greater Enhance Regeneration

For consuming the Midnight Dew (x6), gain a 500% increase in health, stamina, and chi regeneration for the next 24 hours.

After reading the notification, Max’s eyes completely bugged out. His jaw hung loosely as the notification finally registered with him. Sure enough, the character sheet showed health regen increased from 13/hour to 65/hour and stamina regen increased from 16/hour to 80/hour. As Max stared at his stamina, it increased from 2/53 to 3/53.

What was even more astonishing was that his cultivation progress also increased from 9/150 to 39/150. That means for each drop of Midnight Dew, his cultivation progress increased by five.

Max could feel a strange power spreading throughout his body, it was warm and welcoming. Tensions and knots that had formed over the course of the day started melting away, even the ones that were unknown to him. His tired muscles from the day’s activities were rejuvenated. Even his slightly labored breathing also evened out. It felt like stepping out of a nice soothing shower, but in reality, he still stank.

Max basked in the newfound comfort. When the initial feeling finally abated, the stamina pool was already half full and it continued to surge. Refreshed by the extra energy, he was ready for another round of workouts. Getting out of the hole, he checked on the fire, luckily for him, there were still some embers burning. Gently stroking the fire, the flames were relit.

As Max restarted his exercise routine, he kept a close eye on his stamina. It was regenerating even faster than it was going down. Pushing himself to the limit, he finally saw it ticked down by one, but in the next moment, it went back up. Not having to worry about his stamina usage, Max kicked his workout into overdrive. He was on a one-track mind to get as much out of this workout as possible. He lost count of how many cycles of pushups, situps, squats, and jumping jacks he went through. At some point, in order to change things around the jumping jacks were replaced by burpees.

‘Even with near-unlimited stamina, I still hate those.’

By the end of the intensive session, Max still didn’t feel physically tired but was still out of breath. But more importantly, the workout accumulated more mental fatigue, which added itself to the already stressful day. It was hard to stay in that high-intensity training mindset, towards the end his concentration kept slipping. When the workout was finally over, all the moss and leaves were consumed. Checking over the Stamina pool, it was almost impossibly near full. There was a disconnect between what the brain told him and what the body told him. At the same time, he checked the cultivation progress. That had moved up by four points, which placed him at 43/150. At this rate, he would be able to advance to the next stage in Body Tempering in three days, which is a lot better than his initial almost 40-day estimate.

Max checked his “Greater Enhance Regeneration” status.

Status effect - Greater Enhance Regeneration

For consuming the Midnight Dew (x6), gain a 500% increase in health, stamina, and chi regeneration for the next 20 hours.

‘So that workout lasted four hours, that means I am averaging about one point of progress for each hour of extraneous workout.’

This time Max let the flame die out for good. He descended back down the hole. He didn't forget to replace the bowl before he left for his workout. It was too dark to see inside the bowl, but with 4 hours passing Max guessed there must be some more Midnight Dew in there.

In hindsight, Max should have used Analyze on it. Even if he didn’t get much information, he would have at the very least known it wasn’t ordinary water.

‘Well, better late than never.’

Analyzing…

Item: Midnight Dew (x2)

The Midnight Dew is a natural treasure that only condenses in darkness. Its primary property is health, stamina, and chi regeneration. It can also aid in the cultivation of weak individuals.

Max now understood why there was a Formation that didn’t let any light in.

‘If I got 2 drops of dew just now in 4 hours, that means that each day there would be around 12 drops of dew. Where did all of them go? The Formation looked to be very old or else why would some of the runes be fading?’

Max wasn’t sure how long it took for the Formation to start breaking down, but it had to be more than a day, or else he would have noticed something.

Reminded of the massive Space Attributed Chi Stone that was here before it turned into dust, Max wondered if the Midnight Dew was soaked up by it. That was the only explanation that he could come up with. It’s even possible that the Chi Stone was initially a normal stone and it was thanks to the Midnight Dew; that it became a Chi Stone. It wasn’t something that he could figure out tonight. He was also mentally drained and could not spare the energy to think about this.

Max got into as comfortable a position as possible. He made sure that his bowl was in the right place and that it would not be knocked over in the night. He used the leftover feathers as a pillow. As soon as Max closed his eyes, exhaustion overtook him.

…

…

…

“HOOOWWWLLL”