Chapter 59: Relentless Pounding aka "Sustained Repetitive Effort"!?!

Chapter 59: Chapter 59: Relentless Pounding aka "Sustained Repetitive Effort"!?!

Lucien pulled up the reward list properly.

[Investment Target: Aurelia Astrax]

[Multiplier: ×52]

[Investment Rewards: 5× Epic Mana Vein Restoration Elixir, Crimson Feather Underarmour (Epic), Investment Reward: 13× Various Weapon Manuals (Common to Rare), 10× Rare Mana Recovery Potion, 10× Rare Healing Potions, Protection Array (Epic)]

He pulled up the Crimson Feather’s description, his brows lifting at the effects it had.

[Crimson Feather Underarmour (Epic Rank)]

[Greatly increases physical defense. Reduces mana consumption for fire type skills. Reinforces the wearer’s mana veins against mana strain. Automatically adjusts to the wearer’s body. Converts a portion of absorbed impact into kinetic energy that is dispersed.]

’Reinforces mana veins against mana strain, that’s practically tailor-made for her to use.’

’She’s going to love this,’ he thought, warmth spreading through his chest.

---

[Investment Target: Seraphina Lilith]

[Multiplier: ×59]

[Investment Reward: Appraisal Skill (Rare), 3× Soul Calming Pills (Super Rare), Mana Shield Skill (Uncommon), Rare Potion Storage Set, Lunarveil Robe (Epic), Assorted Alchemy Ingredients (Common to Rare)]

Lucien noticed the pattern immediately. ’Every single reward almost relates directly to what I gave her, not just random junk, specifically alchemy-adjacent upgrades.’

’So the system isn’t just multiplying raw value,’ he thought slowly. ’It’s paying attention to what actually matters for each of them, though the Barrier Skill doesn’t fit, so maybe it is randomly rewarded?’

’If it’s true, I can start being deliberate about the investments and invest specifically toward what each of them needs, and the returns should follow that logic, I hope but can’t be too sure.’

’I’ll remember to check this out later on, after the dungeon.’

’I also got to check out other types of skills, I don’t have any attacking or defensive skills, should have thought of this, wonder how many a person can learn, it can’t be infinite, right?’ He thought pulling up Evelisse’s rewards.

[Investment Target: Evelisse Noctis]

[Multiplier: ×44]

[Investment Reward: Mana Vision (Epic), Phantom Veil (Epic), 5,000× D-Rank Mana Crystals, 1,156× C-Rank Mana Crystals, 204× B-Rank Mana Crystals, 20× Rare Magical Snacks ]

Lucien stared at the last line of rewards.

’...The system knows her disturbingly well, it’s even handing out magic snacks for her.’

’If she finds out there’s an entire box of magical snacks sitting in my inventory, cultivation is officially over for the week.’ He thought shaking his head, and wondering whether to give this to her.

’What even makes them magical?’ He thought opeining the system tab and checking their description.

[Magical Snack Pack (Rare)]

[These snacks glow and hum with immense mana, but they provide absolutely zero buffs or effects. They are entirely useless for combat or survival. They are, however, disturbingly delicious. Warning - dangerously addictive.]

[Snacks Included:

Blue Clock-Berries: Glowing blue berries that taste like sweet mint. They look like they should control time, but they don’t, you will still get hit by that incoming sword in normal, real-time.

Sparking Truffles: Dark chocolate balls covered in a harmless red spark. They taste like rich sea-salt caramel, but they give no strength buffs, punching a monster after eating one will just break your hand.

Fizzy Pop-Rocks: Pink popping crystals that hover slightly in their bag. They taste like wild skyberries, but they do not grant flight, you remain completely stuck to the ground, so don’t jump over a cliff thinking you can fly.

Smoky Jerky: Black dried mystery sea creature meat that tastes like perfectly smoked barbecue. It looks intimidating, but it does not grant water-breathing, if you jump into a lake to test it, you will still drown.

Crunchy Night-Chips: Dark potato chips that taste like sour cream and onion with a hint of balck pepper. They look stealthy, but they are so loud and crunchy that every nearby monster will immediately hear you eating.

Dream-star Chocolate: Milk chocolate wrapped in silver foil that smells like dreams. They do not increase your intelligence stat, you will still be just as confused by techniques and manuals after eating one.

Warm Sugar-Cookies: Warm, orange sugar cookies that taste like fresh cinnamon. They do not grant fire resistance, you will still get burned if you touch a fireball

Made by ??????, who placed taste above all else when making these.]

’What the hell is with this description, they seriously have no effect, and what’s with these blanked out words, don’t tell me some God or some great Emperor or something made these?’ Lucien thought staring at this overly long and somewhat funny description.

"Yeah, definitely not giving these to Eve with that addiction warning, knowing her she’d one hundred perscent get addicted or worse." He said coughing, definitely not planning to use it as blackmail to make her cultivate.

’Yes definitely not, I am a good husband, how can I bare to do that to my glutton wife?’

---

After some time, and leaving the jokes aside, he checked his system Inventory, which was full of random things, luckily everything was self sorted and stacked with similar things.

He turned his attention to the pile of manuals he’d accumulated, investment rewards on top of purchases, stacking up into a genuinely absurd collection.

He started pulling them out one by one, and the bed slowly disappeared beneath paper and leather bindings.

[Ironbody Combat Art]: A Rare unarmed combat fundamentals with various body conditioning steps.

[Moonlit Sword Draw]: A Rare high-speed sword drawing technique that combined explosive acceleration with graceful movements.

[Mountainbreaker Greatsword Art]: A Rare heavy weapon art for greatswords that focused on overwhelming force.

[Galewind Spear Art]: A Rare spear technique that combined thrusting precision with distance control.

[Warhammer Earthshatter] — A Rare momentum-based blunt weapon style technique.

[Crimson Axe Dominion]: A Rare sweeping axe technique.

[Phantom Step]: A Rare footwork technique that focused unpredictable movements.

Plus a dozen more, ranging Common through Uncommon.

Lucien sighed at the pile. "...I really invested in that many?"

’Well, might as well learn these, not like it costs me anything, besides a small headache seeing the volume of them, maybe.’

He confirmed each one through the system.

[Learning Technique...]

[Learning Complete.]

"Next."

[Learning Complete.]

"Next."

[Learning Complete.]

He kept going, the process turning almost hypnotic, sword forms, greatsword forms, spear thrusts, axe sweeps, hammer momentum, unarmed combat, footwork patterns, all settling into his mind whole and complete.

"...Thank you, System," he muttered eventually. "At least I don’t have to actually read any of this, otherwise I would never finish."

"Now just got to practice and perfect them for myself, wonder how Aurelia mastered so many weapon arts with no cheats, just shows how much of a genius she is." He thought.

"Wait a damn minute, didn’t I have a massage manual as a reward, can’t believe I forget about that, though maybe I can get a better one and use it on them all, to help with their healing, definitely, not other reasons." He thought back to the manual he received as he recalled the finger and other techniques in them.

"I am definitely using this qhen I get back, do many things happening that I actually forgot about this."

---

Once the last manual finished processing, he sat still, letting it all settle.

’Sword. Greatsword. Spear. Axe. Hammer. Bare hands. Footwork. Draw techniques. But why are there no scythe techniques?’ He questioned the unresponsive system, like it was deliberately not giving him any.

’Every single one of these was made by someone else, for someone else’s body and someone else’s strengths.’

’None of them were made for me specifically.’

An idea sparked, quiet and half-formed.

’What if I made my own? Something combining all of this — my stats, Blood Manipulation, the scythe, my abilities, the way I actually fight instead of the way a manual says I should fight?’

"And I can call it sanguine something art." He didn’t have the full name yet.

"Maybe someday, can’t do it yet, I need more experience and weapon mastery first otherwise it’s a waste of time."

He let the thought settle in his mind and glanced toward the window.

Dark, and pitch black with only some lights in the distace.

"...Seriously?"

He checked the time properly. "Three hours passed so easily."

’The girls didn’t even come check on me, I thought tonight would be the promised night, but I guess not.’ He thought regretfully.

He smiled slightly. "They probably figured I wanted the privacy."

"Still would’ve preferred them here, honestly."

---

He turned to the skill books next, activating each one after taking them put of his system’s inventory and passing his mana through them.

Mana Vision (Epic) absorbed into his list of skills as his mana entered the book, Phantom Veil (Epic) followed after, then Appraisal (Rare) and Mana Shield (Uncommon).

He double checked his own new acquisitions to see if he was missing any.

’Good, all accounted for, now the actual fun part.’

---

He opened the storage ring properly and laid out the blood vials in a neat row across the bed, labels catching the faint moonlight streaming from the curtains.

Goblin (E, Common).

Kobold (D, Common).

Ironback Boar (C, Common).

Hell Hound (C, Uncommon).

Shadow Panther (C, Rare).

Venomfang Serpent (B, Uncommon).

Storm Hawk (B, Rare).

Minotaur (B, Rare).

Orc (A, Uncommon).

Crimson Bear (A, Rare).

’Please don’t give me anything stupid,’ he thought, picking up the Goblin vials first and turning all the Goblin blood into a candy before popping it into his mouth.

’And please don’t give me anything permanent that makes me green, or worse and makes me ugly.’

He swallowed it, praying not to become green.

[Ding!]

[Blood Trait Activated.]

[Blood Detected.]

[Race: Goblin.]

[Trait Extraction Beginning...]

[Trait Acquired: Relentless Pounding (Common) — Lv.2]

[Description: A racial trait improving stamina, recovery speed, and endurance during prolonged physical exertion. Particularly noticeable during activities requiring sustained repetitive effort.]

Lucien read it twice.

"...Why does Goblin need to have this?"

Then he remembered exactly what goblins were famous for.

"...I don’t want to know." He said remembering that they were relentless in procreation with anything that had a hole, especially the ones outside of dungeons as those ones couldn’t procreate.

He set the empty vial aside with the specific energy of a man choosing not to examine his own life choices further.

The Kobold blood followed next, it’s blood candy going down his throat.

[Ding!]

[Blood Trait Activated.]

[Blood Detected.]

[Race: Kobold.]

[Trait Extraction Beginning...]

[Trait Acquired: Keen Hearing (Common) — Lv.2]

[Description: Detects faint sounds beyond normal mortal hearing range.]

He went still, listening to the wind against the window, something scuttling through the garden grass, small and quick, a distant beast call in the forest behind and the house’s own quiet creaks and settles.

’Okay, That’s actually really useful.’

"The way its going, I’ll become a monster even among the monsters themselves, but please don’t make me an ugly monster."

He thought before going on to the next vials of blood, praying once again for his beloved beauty.