“That should be it,” sitting wearily on the couch that had practically become his home, either that or this whole room had become his home, he claimed his reward for the previous…

Whatever. Around 24 hours.

Faction Contribution Quest: Nation of Eland Military

Volunteering: Contribute to the stability of your faction without asking for anything in return. The more time spent and the harder the tasks, the greater the contribution.

Reward: 199 200 FCP

“Holding back has been so hard… But finally~” With a true smile appearing on his face, Aven opened his faction contribution shop and focused on the latter items, though not the latest ones, and not on the knowledge of course.

Faction Contribution Shop: Nation of Eland Military

Faction Authority: Captain

Faction Contribution Points: 840 300

…

Energy Growth Wonder Flower (780 000 FCP): A flower only found in nature in extremely luxuriant environments with growth conditions not yet understood. Awaken any life that eats it while also giving it the natural energy growth energy talent.

“1 of 2, that’s half of my investment realized,” projecting himself into the imminent future, he started claiming for the first time… An item. A physical, real, tangible, item.

And this time too, there was a last confirmation that appeared, warning him of what he was about to do despite his FCP having already been consumed.

Energy Growth Wonder Flower (Claim?)

“Stop teasing me, claim,” he vocally and mentally confirmed.

Then, following his claim, a faint flower outline started materializing.

The color that made this outline ranged from blue to gray, to white, to red, to pretty much any color he could imagine, and it strangely reminded him of when he awoke his innate ability and became a grade 0 super.

This event didn’t last long, and a few dozen seconds after he had claimed his item, the flashy colors disappeared, only leaving behind a very pale green and white flower, it was as if it was made of jade.

‘So… I just consume it?’

Not willing to lose any time as maybe the period it took for the flower to work its wonder transformation was more than the 24 hours it would exist for, Aven brought the delicate jade-like flower to his mouth and took a bit out of it.

Then another.

Followed by another.

Eventually, a few more bites later the whole flower had been ingested, and he started feeling tingling all over his skin.

Those tinglings then proceeded to spread to his energy, making his energy sense discover a new sensation, one similar to tingling, but spiritual tingling, a neither comfortable nor painful new sensation.

It was just unique.

A few minutes later, the sensation disappeared, and faced with this first-time event, he didn’t know what else to do but bring up his status.

Aven Amias

Faction: Nation of Eland Military

Energy Grade: 2

Energy Cultivation: 102/1 000

Energy Affinity: Tech

Physical Talents: None

Energy Talents: Basic Tech Energy Affinity, Basic Energy Sense, Basic Natural Energy Growth

Spiritual Talents: Inquisitive Spirit, Intermediate Knowledge Integration

Universal Talents: Unawakened Fairy Ancestry

“Hehe~” Smirking at the much quicker success than he had anticipated, he focused on his new talent, one that should hopefully do as he intended it to do.

Basic Natural Energy Growth: Your energy will make the best out of every event and opportunity that can lead to its growth. Minimally increases the effect and efficiency of energy cultivation and cultivation resources.

“Hahaha! I was right!” Doing a standing ovation for himself, Aven felt a rush of adrenaline course through him.

He had just confirmed that his temporary materialization worked, and in 24 hours, he would know whether the effect of temporarily materialized items lasted beyond their time.

“I’m not worried! I’m not worried! Let’s go! I need to infuse more production machines!” Convincing himself, he put his headphones back on and he exited the room before his phone’s alarm even rang.

Maybe he had been a bit worried, but that only lasted for the next 24 hours, and after he had confirmed his talent was still present after that duration, and even after 25 hours, he just rejoiced silently and continued on his selfless volunteering.

He had a second item to materialize as soon as possible.

…

A week.

For others, most others, a week of time would only be enough to maybe conclude a minor project.

For Aven, however, a week meant 168 hours, and those 168 hours equaled the number of times his phone’s alarm had rung out to tell him to further his ambition by infusing more and more machines.

With his acquisition of the natural energy growth talent, he had forgoed pursuing more knowledge and entered a stable period where his only focus was training his knowledge application skill.

Even on the side, when his sleep quota was completed and he could do whatever he wanted, he only seldomly went to the shooting range or took a ride out.

That spartan schedule eventually led him to gain 201 600 FCP on his first day after acquiring his first artificial talent, bringing his total to 261 900.

But that just wasn’t enough.

On his 2nd day, he attained an average of 85% tech-production enhancement, earning himself an additional 204 000 FCP, bringing his total to 465 900.

On his 3rd day, he attained an average of 86% tech-production enhancement, earning himself an additional 206 400 FCP, bringing his total to 672 300.

On his 4th day, he attained an average of 87% tech-production enhancement, earning himself an additional 208 800 FCP, bringing his total to 881 100.

On his 5th day, he attained an average of 88% tech-production enhancement, earning himself an additional 211 200 FCP, bringing his total to 1 092 300.

On his 6th day, he attained an average of 89% tech-production enhancement, earning himself an additional 213 600 FCP, bringing his total to 1 305 900.

And on his decisive 7th day…

Faction Contribution Quest: Nation of Eland Military

Volunteering: Contribute to the stability of your faction without asking for anything in return. The more time spent and the harder the tasks, the greater the contribution.

Reward: 216 000 FCP

His average tech-production enhancement was 90%, earning himself an additional 216 000 FCP, bringing his total to…

Faction Contribution Shop: Nation of Eland Military

Faction Authority: Captain

Faction Contribution Points: 1 521 900

…

Self Revolving Energy Mutation Elixir (1 460 000 FCP): An elixir created through an ancient rainbow fairy formula with most of its ingredients being extremely difficult to gather. Gives the self revolving energy energy talent to anyone consuming it.

“60 000 extra… Completely normal, right?” Sarcastically commenting on what he had worked “hard” for in the past week, Aven started claiming his final big investment.

Self Revolving Energy Mutation Elixir (Claim?)

“I wonder… What if I claim a few dozen of it? Would it boost my talent to the intermediate level? Definitely something to try with something less expensive when I can,” having interesting thoughts as he claimed his prize, he took his phone to add them to a quickly growing list.

Distracting him heavily from writing his thoughts, however, was the outline of a sparkling flask made of unknown material that began appearing before him over the course of a 2-minutes long light and color show.

“Definitely artificial… But guess who’s owning something like that and not consuming it… Yet another question that will only be answered after… Things… Happens…” Being cryptic at the end of his sentence on purpose, he clearly didn't want to talk about what he had just implied.

Opening the flask once it had fully materialized, he drank it in one shot, then his energy sense discovered yet another sensation.

That of being punched repeatedly over more than 10 minutes without being able to do anything about it.

But the result of such an intense beating session… Was his energy actually starting to move in a way it never had before.

Without his intervention.

Aven Amias

Faction: Nation of Eland Military

Energy Grade: 2

Energy Cultivation: 103/1 000

Energy Affinity: Tech

Physical Talents: None

Energy Talents: Basic Tech Energy Affinity, Basic Energy Sense, Basic Natural Energy Growth, Basic Self Revolving Energy

Spiritual Talents: Inquisitive Spirit, Intermediate Knowledge Integration

Universal Talents: Unawakened Fairy Ancestry

“Worth it!” Pumping his two fists in a short and explosive celebration, Aven was only 2 fingers away from mobilizing his energy to reinforce his body and punch the air to show how happy he was in a destructive manner, “Let me see!”

Mentally pushing, he opened his new talent’s detailed description window.

Basic Self Revolving Energy: Your energy automatically cycles in the most optimal and purposeful way, bringing about either an increased passive energy regeneration or a natural energy cycling cultivation state depending on your energy condition.

“I don’t know if there’s an efficiency loss in not involving myself in cycling my own energy… But I sure hope there’s not. And even if there’s one, then I hope once more that my natural energy growth makes up for it…” Praying according to the Vow for a few dozen seconds, he stopped worrying about what would anyway happen and opened the shop again.

This time though, he focused on a relatively “inexpensive” part of the materialization session.

The grade 2 cultivation resources part.

Faction Contribution Shop: Nation of Eland Military

Faction Authority: Captain

Faction Contribution Points: 61 900

…

Bio-Innovative Grade 2 Energy Cultivation Cycle Downtime Canceling Serum (14 400 FCP): Cancel a grade 2 energy cultivation downtime period

Mark 3 Rainbow Fairy Grade 2 Energy Cultivation Base Increase Serum (15 000 FCP): An elixir artificially increasing the amount of energy being cycled during grade 2 energy cultivation by 250%. Artificial increase cannot go beyond grade 2 maximum threshold.

Fifth Harmony Grade 2 Energy Cultivation Base Increase Serum (15 200 FCP): An elixir artificially increasing the amount of energy being cycled during grade 2 energy cultivation by 270%. Artificial increase cannot go beyond grade 2 maximum threshold.

Greater Vow Grade 2 Energy Cultivation Base Increase Serum (16 200 FCP): A serum artificially increasing the amount of energy being cycled during grade 2 energy cultivation by 370%. Artificial increase cannot go beyond grade 2 maximum threshold.

Written Vow Grade 2 Energy Cultivation Cycle Sustaining Serum (17 400 FCP): Postpone a grade 2 energy cultivation downtime period by revitalizing all the spent energy artificially.

Third Harmony Grade 2 Energy Cultivation Cycle Boosting Serum (17 600 FCP): Increases the energy cycling speed of grade 2 energy cultivation by 320%.

“Dozens of options, but I have the description of each of you, so I already know which ones I need to choose, hehe~” Going for the most efficient, and coincidentally expensive, ones, he claimed one of each.

Greater Vow Grade 2 Energy Cultivation Base Increase Serum (Claim?)

Written Vow Grade 2 Energy Cultivation Cycle Sustaining Serum (Claim?)

Third Harmony Grade 2 Energy Cultivation Cycle Boosting Serum (Claim?)

“The Vow Church really looks to be at the apex in terms of energy research… They’re measuring up to their reputation…” Entranced by the 3 small flasks materializing before his eyes, each unique in their own light and color show, he absent-mindedly exposed his thoughts.

Pulling himself together a few minutes later, he picked a first flask, one he was most curious about whether it would work or not.

“Will this work?” He whispered, uncertain about what would happen, “Only one way to know.”

Pulling the cap of the cycle boosting serum, he drank all of it, then started experimenting with manually cycling his energy.

‘It really looks like taking part is only bothering it…’

Releasing his hold on his own energy, it returned to peacefully cycling through his whole body without forgetting a single part, juicing every cell of whatever it needed.

Then, the cycle boosting serum was incorporated into his organism. And his energy happily digested it.

“It does…” Observing the slight increase in cycling speed, Aven didn’t conclude this experiment but continued to observe as his energy slowly but surely increased its own cycling speed throughout his whole body.

When his energy cycling speed flashed through his whole body, fully displaying the might of a 320% increase in speed, he relaxed his clenched fists, not even knowing he had kept doing that for the better part of the whole experiment.

Standing up, his cycle wasn’t interrupted, and when he drank the remaining 2 cultivation resources, bringing about the famous energy cultivation trinity synergy, his cycle became heavier, his cells were always filled with more energy, and everything just worked perfectly.

“So now… I just need to keep this going, and I’ll eventually reach grade 3,” moving and talking around the room to corroborate this dream-like situation, his energy cycle held strong and continued revolving.

“I thank whoever decided to hold onto this elixir without consuming it or climbing the rank. I promise that when I reach a sufficient power, I’ll make sure to pay you back for this life-changing choice you made, even if you actually didn’t know you owned such a revolutionary elixir,” sincerely thanking someone he didn’t know, Aven stepped out of his room.

He needed more FCP to keep his energy cultivation going, and the more his cultivation grew, the more production lines he would be able to infuse, the more he would earn more FCP…

His positive feedback loop was going to become much wider than he had ever imagined before.

‘My expense will climb through the roof too though… Oh, well~ Not like I need to care about expenses made to make more FCP long-term!’

Thus, with a burning motivation, he entered the production hall of this building he now knew so much, and as his energy pool was full, started infusing machines after machines.

What he had planned to start doing from this day was to consume 4 sets of grade 2 cultivation trinities to optimize his cultivation at all times, irrelevant of if he had spent half of his total energy pool to keep his volunteering quest going.

With one grade 2 cultivation trinity costing him 51 200 FCP, his daily materialization expenses would have achieved an unchangeable sum of 204 800 FCP.

This sum would then “fortunately” be fully counterbalanced by his volunteering “pay”, which had already begun amounting to such an amount for a few days already.

And despite knowing that his true gain in terms of FCP would henceforth be extremely reduced, he didn’t feel conflicted at all.

That was the plan.

That should have been the plan.

And in Aven’s mind, there had not been another option.

There shouldn’t have been another option.

That was until he realized that he didn’t know what he needed to infuse next after… The hundreds of production machines and dozens of production lines he had already infused.

And for no reason at all, after having instinctually gone through all the machines he remembered having to go through from a pile of documents he had left in his room, he was reminded of a core principle of the Vow Faith.

One he had never seriously thought about other than to appear cultivated and intelligent or to make jokes between friends.

Man proposes, Nature disposes.

And in this case, Nature had just opened a new path for him.

One that he couldn’t hide.

One that made both Rival and Commander, his 2 pseudo-mentors, be recalled from the Forbidden Continent where a simmering abomination surge was ready to break out at any time.

…

“Still as happy-go-lucky despite your situation, uh?” A familiar powerful and deep voice made Aven stop infusing his energy inside a machine he had just seen the diagram of and turn with a start.

Upon confirming it was Rival, he immediately kneeled down until his head hit the solid concrete ground, “It’s only half my fault! The other is completely yours!”

And his joke was immediately followed by a mock kick pushing him to the side, “My plan was only for you to quietly increase your knowledge until you could help me with my research! Not to get infinite energy!”

Pathetically looking up like a dog who’s been kicked by his beloved master, Aven tried to appear teary-eyed but was stopped by someone assaulting him from behind and rubbing his eyes until they became red, “Don’t try that before him! Do that to me! You ruined my perfect schedule, at least compensate me!”

“It was all an accident!” Freeing himself from Commander’s hold, he could only use the lamest excuse he had in stock, unfortunately, that only provoked the fierce Rival even more.

“You really think I don’t know it was an accident?” His powerful voice let through his centenarian’s wisdom and cold-blood through, giving Aven a chill, “In case you misunderstood: I don’t care. I don’t care about your life. I don’t care about how much you follow the path I paved for you. I only care about pursuing my own path, and by pulling your stupid infinite energy stunt, you interfered with it.”

“Well, nothing I can say to that…” Unable to come up with a counter to that, Aven didn’t even try to lay the blame on the administration who didn’t ask him before bringing back his 2 pseudo-mentors.

It happened like that, and he hadn’t been proactive enough to stop it, so it was somewhat his fault no matter how he tried to convince himself.

“Why not tell us about what happened in your own words?” Coming to the rescue was the kind and caring Commander, asking him to quickly summarize the whole situation to be done with it.

“That, I can say,” putting on an arrogant smile at the current situation being brought up, he totally ignored the fact that they had probably already read the report about the discussion he had with a lie-detector super, “It all starts with me deciding to invest in my energy cultivation growth…”

“Skip to the self revolving elixir and trinity conflict, 3 sentences maximum,” Rival instantly stopped him and ordered him with a frigid tone.

Becoming silent and immobile in the middle of his grand gesture that should have been used to illustrate his master plan, he smoothly transitioned to dozens of sentences later, “After acquiring the self revolving energy talent from the self revolving elixir, which I didn’t know was an ancient long-lost fairy-restricted elixir, I hardly began infusing different production lines that I woke up, stunned.”

“Waking up stunned from what, you ask? From my trance, of course!” He subtly advertised his dedication, “When it’s time for me to ‘contribute’ my energy, I don’t look at how many machines I infuse, but at how much energy I still have.”

“In the end, before realizing that the cultivation resources I consumed prior were automatically consumed to refill my own energy thanks to my new talent, make it talents, the deed had already been done… Sigh…” Dramatically finishing his “2nd” sentence, Aven sighed heavily.

“At some point, a supervising staff had noticed that something was wrong, so not even 10 minutes after waking up surprised at my still full energy pool, a bunch of very important people came to kindly escort me away,” fake nostalgia appeared on his face as he related this tale.

“I don’t know what happened back in the building, but when I came back after a very pleasant discussion with a lie detector super, everyone looked at me as if I was a newly-arrived engineer,” he winked at that part, very explicitly.

“So I took my stuff under the supervision of my new escort, and then arrived here, at this fantastic building where there’s absolutely no one except myself and tons of integrated production lines for me to contribute to our glorious military!” He saluted while looking at the ceiling of this new building he still hadn’t completely explored yet.

Following the end of his glorified summarized explanation, Rival swiftly approached him with big cold strides and started shaking him left and right at the first opportunity, “You! Naive! Uninformed! Dumb!”

A shower of mean terms drowned Aven without him having a choice, the grandpa shaking him was only an old man in appearance, he had no way of resisting the force he was subjected to.

When he ultimately released him, it was the kind and caring Commander’s turn to do the unthinkable, “I didn’t take you for someone so passive…”

“Ah! My chest! My heart! My arrogance!” For Commander to start criticizing him… Aven felt the impact of how badly he had managed the situation. His inner conflict was quickly resolved nonetheless, as he was in no way restricted after unveiling a great part of his exceptional innate ability.

“Anyway, it's time you show us,” changing the subject, Commander waved at the massive integrated production line behind him, “I want to see for myself this legendary talent, so get to work.”