Aven’s cycle continued ineluctably.

The first 20 hours of this cycle had been filled with much more variety than he had seen in the entire last few cycles, but that didn’t make him feel like he needed to change how he lived and contributed.

It wasn’t just a question of finding the most rewarding quest combination, it was a question of helping himself survive the global event that had repercussions that could go up to destroying all sentient life on the planet.

He didn’t want to be one of those people that relied on the already established order to safely cruise through the current chaotic time, he wanted to prove that he belonged with them.

And while by now he had pretty much already fully convinced himself, the invisible enemy quest forced him to remain there, near Eland’s command center, to make sure nothing could aggravate him.

The White set, then rose, then set, and this time his cycle ended before it could rise again.

Same as before, there was no fairy gathering in the fairy garden, and as a result, he just retired straight to his villa where he claimed his reward for the day, minus the initial 10 hours of production he had already claimed to replenish his FCP stock to pursue his cultivation resources expenses.

Dynamic Faction Contribution Quests: Nation of Eland

…

Dynamic Contribution: 30 528 000 FCP

“Not bad… Ouf~ Though I don’t see any return from having gifted Commander and Rival very expensive items… Not that I hoped anything would happen…” Crashing on his soft bed, he let out a breath of unknown feeling allowing him to clear his mind and open his shop to focus on what he had to claim with those 30 million FCP he had just gained.

“Bringing my current military-related knowledge to the peak, or exploring new fields… This choice… Isn't hard at all!” Erasing all the items except for the expert knowledge, he focused on the ones that cost less than a million EP.

This price meant he had already claimed parts of them that made them be decreed as expert-level knowledge.

Faction Contribution Shop: Nation of Eland

Faction Authority: Violet Fairy

Faction Contribution Points: 31 143 133

…

Knowledge: Expert Teamwork (219 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Energy Applications (222 300 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Chemical Engineering (224 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Ammunition Engineering (231 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Weapon Engineering (236 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Counterintelligence (246 800 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Special Operations (248 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Weapon Systems (248 500 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Logistics (249 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Military Tactics (250 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert War Planning (251 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert History (252 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Hacking (254 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Alloys (254 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Energy Cultivation (255 800 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Innovative Designs (256 900 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Data Modeling (257 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Engineering Management (258 900 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Manufacturing (259 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Resources (261 300 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Pressure Management (263 300 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Structural Analysis (264 500 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Environmental Engineering (268 100 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Agricultural Engineering (273 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Repair and Maintenance Engineering (277 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Mining Engineering (281 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Construction Engineering (285 900 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Nuclear Engineering (286 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Criminology (297 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Super Biology (299 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Vehicle Driving (308 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Infiltration (314 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Vehicle Designing (317 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Cyber Warfare (320 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Aeronautical Engineering (324 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Close Quarter Combat (329 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert High-Pressure Mentality (333 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Aircraft Piloting (341 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Electrical Engineering (345 400 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Aerospace Engineering (347 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Biomedical Engineering (352 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Armament Engineering (364 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Mechanical Engineering (366 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Energy Cultivation Resources (369 200 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Industry Skills (370 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Problem-Solving (371 700 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Energy Engineering (375 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Psychology (385 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Human Resources (392 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Materials Engineering (396 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Management (402 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Leadership (408 500 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Politics (418 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Industrial Engineering (419 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Biology (422 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Mathematics (423 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Programming (425 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Physics (429 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Developmental Engineering (432 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Communication (433 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Administration (434 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Economy (437 000 FCP)

Knowledge: Expert Diplomacy (440 000 FCP)

“It’s really a miracle that there’s so much more knowledge outside of the highest… Or is it?” He stopped himself from speaking and asked with pure curiosity.

“Is the military the highest technological power of Eland? Who am I to say that? Why can’t ERA be above them? And what about people who dedicated their whole life to research outside of the military and governmental sphere?” Relativizing about the importance of the military in a nation populated by more than 600 million people, Aven smiled at the assumptions he had previously made.

If there was an invisible enemy able to threaten the entire Nation of Eland, why couldn’t there be… Literally anything he could think of?

In his mind, the respective power index of both the military and Eland itself flashed by, they were respectively 40 000 versus 65 000 from what he remembered.

And like with energy cultivation, at least he supposed it worked like that, pushing something already high higher was much more difficult than pushing something low higher.

Meaning, a faction with a million grade 1 supers would be overtaken in the power index department by a faction with a single grade 5 and no one else.

“Ah~ Anyway, let’s spend 20 million FCP tonight… Maybe I can push my knowledge integration talent further? And if not now, then I’m sure I’ll reach the next level at some points,” Aven stated, as if it was a given conclusion.

He simply couldn’t realistically visualize any scenario where his knowledge integration talent wouldn’t be pushed to the next level by the time he had finished claiming all the thousands of advanced and hundreds of expert knowledge.

He knew that exactly like the energy cultivation system and the faction indexes he got from his appraisal, every additional point starting from zero in his shop symbolized, meant, something.

Claiming a knowledge worth 200 000 FCP in a totally new field wasn’t equal, at all, to claiming 200 000 FCP worth of knowledge in a field he had already pushed to the expert level.

Knowledge: Expert Teamwork (Claim?)

Knowledge: Expert Energy Applications (Claim?)

Knowledge: Expert Chemical Engineering (Claim?)

Knowledge: Expert Ammunition Engineering (Claim?)

Knowledge: Expert Weapon Engineering (Claim?)

Knowledge: Expert Counterintelligence (Claim?)

Knowledge: Expert Special Operations (Claim?)

Knowledge: Expert Weapon Systems (Claim?)

Knowledge: Expert Logistics (Claim?)

Knowledge: Expert Military Tactics (Claim?)

…

“It’s going to be a hectic night! Hehehe~” Seeing the huge list of knowledge he had to claim, he laughed once again at how ridiculously powerful his innate ability’s knowledge integration power was as he claimed his first knowledge of the night.

The first of a long list worth 20 million FCP.

20 million FCP… Weren’t that much anymore.

…

With a routine established for himself, Aven continued with his life as the most contributing and hard-working fairy probably in history, that was at least the goal he had fixed for himself.

After updating his expert knowledge, what he got was mostly very concrete applications of mathematics and physics to very precise circumstances with very specific materials involved.

There was a limit to how much knowledge was involved in the making of a single bullet, every bit of knowledge beyond that point belonged to the experimental territory that he fiercely wanted to start exploring.

After all, where one field could maybe end up blocked at some points, he wasn’t a single field engineer or researcher.

He was an interdisciplinary genius.

Unsolvable problems in some fields could easily be resolved using a weird innovation discovered in another field.

And after actualizing all his military-related knowledge, he knew that he had acquired a very different kind of weapon that only needed him to dedicate time to it for it to become a spark igniting the beginning of a revolution.

A revolution of his own making.

Keeping all these thoughts in a corner of his head, Aven knew that the knowledge he had acquired would never leave him. It was part of him.

And so his life in the middle of the abomination surge plodded on.

Gaining 15 minutes each cycle, pushing ever onward towards the symbolic 100 hours from his current 63 hours…

Pushing his knowledge application skill, gaining 2% of additional tech-enhancement per day, through both careful intense instances when he used the ASHAS production hall and continuous instances when he took on the duty cleaning the abomination ocean…

Contributing to Eland and being rewarded for it with both FCP he used to claim more knowledge and recognition for his efforts that certainly weren’t going unnoticed when he was actively supporting…

Proactively using his peak military tactics knowledge and strategizing everything that could possibly happen, foiling every possible attempt at inflicting damage to Eland by diminishing its super population…

His knowledge claiming spree only ended 7 cycles, or 23 days in real-time, later, after he had invested a total of 270 million FCP into this endeavor.

Judging that with his faction contribution shop being emptied of everything related to supers, engineering, natural and social sciences, administration, and pretty much anything he ever thought he could potentially need, he made the decision to stop.

At this point, there was not even a single expert or advanced knowledge remaining, and he had carefully looked through all the basic and intermediate ones to find nuggets of yet undeveloped, but with extremely high potential, knowledge.

Knowledge: Basic Mechanical Suit (5 800 FCP)

Knowledge: Basic Exotics (2 900 FCP)

Finding this sort of knowledge at this point in time and at this level didn’t come as a surprise for him.

He had already known that the scientific methodology was a relatively recent addition to Green's history and that his innate ability had the ability to distinguish and judge, so when it said something was at the basic level, then it was at the basic level, no negotiation allowed.

And what he got for claiming them was the most general knowledge of how nervous integration systems worked and how exotics were things too much above the current technological level of the material science field.

Following the end of his knowledge claiming period which had propelled him to the absolute forefront of scientific pioneering and tech-production as a grade 3 tech super, he could only smile at the quick progress he had made.

His knowledge integration talent broke through to the level after the advanced one, which turned out to be, unsurprisingly, the expert level, giving him a major instant boost of 50% average tech-enhancement in addition to the 30% he had progressively earned simply by virtue of having massively widened and deepened his knowledge ocean.

This boost of 80% in average tech-enhancement, combined with his daily progress in his knowledge application skill, were slowly but steadily making him reach the symbolic 1 000% tech-enhancement level.

Certainly not a level that should ever be attained, or attainable for that matter, by grade 3 tech super.

Focusing on his pure contributing routine from that point on, he had already thought about what to get next, so cycles passed until 3 cycles, or 9 days as his cycle’s times combined with his sleeping time had finally reached this point, later…

Dynamic Faction Contribution Quests: Nation of Eland

…

Dynamic Contribution: 35 760 000 FCP

“Now… I have enough,” he seriously said as he opened his shop where he had erased all the knowledge items and uninteresting materialization items to focus on the one and only item he absolutely wanted before anything else.

Faction Contribution Shop: Nation of Eland

Faction Authority: Violet Fairy

Faction Contribution Points: 108 534 150

…

Spiritual Entity Exotic Core (84 560 000 FCP): The spiritual core of a dead spiritual entity. Can be consumed to gain the spiritual foundation spiritual talent.

“My spirit is the only weakness I can do nothing about, and with the presence of… Things…” Lowering his voice until it was extinct, he smiled at the foolishness of the situation.

He was so careful of this invisible enemy that had successfully registered itself on his dynamic quests list that he didn’t even dare mention knowing it existed.

“Anyway, I don’t need a reason to increase my spiritual defenses,” putting on the act of the young hot-blooded fairy too honest for its own good, he claimed the item he needed to remain free of worries.

Spiritual Entity Exotic Core (Claim?)

The moment he claimed it, a pretty large light and color manifested before him, still on his bed.

“Looks like a correlation between price and size isn’t a theory I can dismiss easily… Not that it matters~” Waiting a few minutes for the exotic core to finish materializing, he then undressed completely and added more energy to his body.

His fairy form grew to the point of it nearly touching the very high ceiling of his fairy-sized master bedroom, but that slightly ridiculous moment was completely worth it for him as the core became small enough to actually be swallow-able.

Doing just that, it melted away in a few minutes once he had ingested it as his fairy body metabolism just didn't work in the same way that a biological body would.

Other than feeling a slight chill strangely reminding him of the general vibe that psy supers emanated when they mobilized their energy, however, nothing else happened.

‘If I didn’t have a status… I would continue expecting for something else to happen…’

Putting an end to his doubt, he opened his status.

Aven Amias

Faction: Nation of Eland

Energy Grade: 3

Energy Cultivation: 1 315/10 000

Energy Identity: Tech

1st Energy Specialization: Undivided Infusion

Physical Talents: Fairy Body (Violet Grade), Basic Energy Furnace Cells, Basic Condensed Body, Basic Regenerating Body, Basic Inexhaustible Body, Basic Energy Immune Constitution, Basic Energy Life Constitution

Energy Talents: Fairy Energy Origin (Violet Grade), Pure Fairy Energy (Violet Grade), Fairy Affinity Resonance (Violet Grade), Intermediate Tech Energy Affinity, Intermediate Energy Sense, Basic Natural Energy Growth, Basic Self Revolving Energy, Basic Seamless Energy, Basic Excitable Energy, Basic Equalizing Energy, Basic Energy Photosynthesis, Basic Compatible Energy, Sensitive Energy

Spiritual Talents: Inquisitive Spirit, Expert Knowledge Integration, Basic Tireless Spirit, Basic Armored Spirit, Basic Enhanced Awareness, Basic Spiritual Foundation

Universal Talents: Awakened Fairy Bloodline (Violet Grade), Creative Instinct, Essence Stabilizer

Expert Knowledge Integration: A quantity of knowledge beyond what your biological brain was able to even remotely support has forced your spirit to innovate a new way of storing and accessing what you learned. Greatly increases your knowledge access speed, slightly enhances your memorization abilities, and minimally increases your spiritual cohesion.

Basic Spiritual Foundation: Your spirit has a foundation on which it can rest and grow. Your spirit gains a natural growth property. Minimally increases all properties of your spirit.

One talent was something that anyone could obtain naturally, at least theoretically, and the other…

“That’s not something a normal human or fairy should have… And I so easily acquired it. I wonder if psy supers would literally kill to acquire this talent? And does the growth encompass the talent itself? This one will be a bit expensive if I want to consume its source repeatedly,” as usual, Aven easily came up with tens of questions he wanted answers to.

His streak of curiosity only ended a few minutes later when he recalled that he still had 23 974 150 FCP to spend.

Thus he opened his shop once again, focusing this time on not the most expensive items, but the relatively high-priced ones, and one of them in particular.

Faction Contribution Shop: Nation of Eland

Faction Authority: Violet Fairy

Faction Contribution Points: 23 974 150

…

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.

“If 10 doesn’t work, then I’ll go for 20, and if 20 doesn’t work… Then I’ll stop,” telling himself what he had planned, he had already realized that this experiment was similar to gambling.

Energy Growth Wonder Flower (Claim?)

Energy Growth Wonder Flower (Claim?)

Energy Growth Wonder Flower (Claim?)

Energy Growth Wonder Flower (Claim?)

…

Another reason he had decided to go on with this experiment was his knowledge on the matter that had told him there had been literally no research on ways to “supercharge” or “treat” all the resources he was interested in.

This train of thought born from being an interdisciplinary genius had of course led him to have thought of pioneering this field by himself, his innate ability was extremely suitable for it after all.

He would be able to waste as many precious, quasi-non-renewable, resources as he wanted in his experiments, and more than believing in himself, he firmly believed that someone on Green would be able to help him more than he could help himself if he gave them this sort of “budget”.

In the end though, for now, he had other much more important FCP sinks to fill than this potential high-risk high-reward new field, so he went at it the old way: Trying to brute-force his way in, knowing there was a high chance of failure.

‘Claim.’

Accompanied by 10 light swirls, he hadn’t gone directly for 20, he comfortably settled into his bed, admiring a spectacle he was sure very few had had a chance to admire so casually.

When it eventually ended, Aven used his energy telekinesis to bring a flower to his mouth and started nibbling on it.

‘It’s… So good. What the hell? Is it because when I was a human I wasn’t receptive to this taste?’

Eyes lighting up, he swiftly became intoxicated by the taste that spread in his mouth and didn’t even think about expediting the process by increasing his size.

It was a pure happy tasting that went on for more than 10 minutes. And in the end…

Nothing happened.

His body felt like it had been nourished with the highest grade of nutrients ever, and he could even hypothesize that maybe he would have unexpected energy cultivation gains “tonight”, but other than that, even after checking his status…

Nothing. Totally unchanged.

“Sigh… Do I even want to continue… I know I said I would, but…” Having an inner conflict on whether to pursue this experiment or not, he really didn’t feel that the 10 wonder flowers he had just consumed amounted to anything.

“Let’s do it. To be certain…” He yielded to his curiosity against his instinct, logic, and reason.

Energy Growth Wonder Flower (Claim?)

Energy Growth Wonder Flower (Claim?)

Energy Growth Wonder Flower (Claim?)

Energy Growth Wonder Flower (Claim?)

…

A few minutes of admiring a dazzling light show and another 10 wonder flowers consumed later, Aven finished this experiment and had to be realistic after checking his unchanged status once again.

“So this path isn’t open unless it’s explicitly stated in the description… Anyway!” He quickly changed his tone as he thought of all the pros this conclusion brought, “This means I don’t have to care about those resources anymore unless I initiate a project on it~”

Comforting himself, it somewhat worked as he had many other ways to spend his FCP and his time was precious during the abomination surge.

With a renewed state of mind and not overly disappointed at having wasted 15 600 000 FCP, he wrapped himself in his blanket and drifted to sleep.