Chapter 40

Dinner once again gave Keith a few stat points. According to Yara, Keith should expect to gain around a thousand stat points over the next year. With a cooking skill over level 400 and the best ingredients the Innate Dimension could offer, that was the limit before the body grew resistant.

In any case, Keith was stunned that he could gain so many stats for free. Adding all his current stats together amounted to a little over one thousand, so to hear a grandmaster chef could double that was incredibly impressive.

Besides food, another sure-fire way to gain stats was to take a medicinal bath. Through countless research and experiments, alchemists developed a formula that combined various herbs which the body would absorb through a medium, that being water. There were all sorts of medicinal baths – some would make you highly resistant to the fire element, while others would grant a significant amount of Health. There were all sorts of methods to increase your power as long as you could afford it and had the necessary connections.

After dinner, Markus was very enthusiastic about bringing Keith over to his mansion. Along the way, Markus preached, “A training program develops your delayed gratification and builds good habits. When taking on a complicated project, it's best to break it down into manageable pieces—doing it that way alleviates stress. The best part is the rush you get whenever you complete one of your goals.”

Keith listened as Markus droned on and on, sounding like one of those motivational speakers. Upon entering Markus’s office, he asked Keith, “By the way, why do you need money?”

“My innate ability requires all sorts of items to develop,” Keith replied. “It’s a gold sink.”

“Hm.” Markus grew thoughtful as he walked up to a whiteboard with a list written on it. “Look here. I brainstormed a bit and wrote down some missions for you. What do you think?”

To be honest, Keith was only accompanying his Dad to humor him and didn’t think anything about the rewards. That was why reading the first mission and its corresponding reward left him speechless.

Mission 1: Create a legacy skill. Reward: 100 million gold

All the money Keith earned over the past few months, all his hours of labor, didn’t amount to more than five million gold. Yet by creating a legacy skill, Markus would reward him with one hundred million gold. Was something wrong with Markus’s head?

Keith turned to his Dad and pointed at the first mission with a shaky finger. “Are you sure giving me that much gold is okay?”

“Of course,” Markus nodded matter-of-factly. “To create a legacy skill requires deep insight into skills and how they work. Accomplishing this is no simple matter.”

“Then what about this one?” Keith pointed at the second mission, full of doubt.

Mission 2: Undergo two weeks of mana-stimulated nerve therapy. Reward: 5 million gold

Markus’s eyes lit up. “You’ll gain almost complete control over your muscles after the treatment, though it’s pretty painful. If you can bear through the pain, I highly recommend it. Afterward, you can make all sorts of funny faces, see?”

All the tiny muscles on Markus’s face squirmed to create several strange expressions. Keith forced a laugh. “Shouldn’t it be more like the treatment increases your combat ability?”

“It does that too,” Markus shrugged. “Increased muscle control gives you higher awareness of your body, thus allowing you to train some skills faster.”

“But why is the reward five million gold?” Keith focused back on the core issue.

Markus frowned. “I knew it was too little. How about 10 million gold, then?”

“No, no, five million is good enough,” Keith quickly refuted as he came to a realization. Five million gold for Keith was a vast sum, but it was merely chump change to Markus. Markus’s lifestyle was just too high-class. Keith couldn’t compete.

On second thought, why was Keith trying to sabotage himself? If Markus wanted to give Keith five million gold or a hundred million gold, what reason was there for him to decline?

The whiteboard had a little over 20 missions, with some appealing to Keith more than others. A few required a lot of effort. For example, the most difficult one was a mission that rewarded 50 million gold if Keith went through three months of wilderness survival training. An easier one was to learn from a close-combat military instructor for two weeks.

Keith noticed that each mission guided him to become stronger in one aspect or another. After Keith had a good look at the whiteboard, Markus spoke up, “What do you think?”

Keith turned to his dad with a grin. “I’m getting excited, though I’m wondering how I’m gonna find teachers for a lot of these.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve got you covered,” Markus responded with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Just tell me what mission you pick, and I’ll set up everything else.”

Keith glanced back to the whiteboard and gave it another look before deciding, “I’ll start with mission 2, the nerve therapy one.”

“Oh?” Markus’s eyes lit up. “Why’d you pick that one?”

Keith shrugged. “The body is the core behind everything we do. If I can gain complete control over my muscles, then all the other missions will become a bit easier.”

“Smart.” Markus nodded. “What’s your schedule look like? Each nerve therapy session takes two hours, and you’ll need to go in five days a week.”

Keith thought for a moment. “Anytime around noon will do.”

“Okay, I’ll have my secretary set it up. What’s your magic tablet number?” Markus asked as he withdrew the device.

After exchanging contact information, Keith talked about various topics with his Dad for a bit before heading home. By now, the sun had fallen, with the moon clear to see. The plants and trees between Yara, Markus, and Keith’s mansions glowed underneath the moonlight, while frogs hidden on the mountain croaked one after another.

“So this is my new home, huh?” Keith stopped, looked up at the moon, and took in a breath of fresh air. It turned out he was worried over nothing. Meeting his dad and grandmother went much smoother than he expected.

The only worry was Yara’s story, which still sounded surreal. Yara’s main body and the other dimensions sounded like insurmountable foes, causing Keith to grow more anxious the more he thought about it.

In the end, he shelved the matter after realizing Yara surely had plans in place. People like Markus would hold up the sky, so Keith needed to focus on increasing his power. Thankfully, Markus paved a gold-brick road for Keith to follow. All Keith needed to do was put in the effort.