THEOS

Luke watched the sheep’s figure fade away into the distance with an expression of mild relief.

“Why would you think that getting its milk– directly,” he shuddered, “is a good idea?” Luke asked, turning to Rex and crossing his arms under his chest.

“Well, do you have a better idea?”

Is he for real? He can’t be. Luke thought, resisting the urge to facepalm. She literally told us that the sheep are milked by a machine. How did he forget?

“I can’t imagine having a worse idea, there isn’t anything I can think of that would be worse.” He lied, knowing objectively that there were worse ideas, but unwilling to even entertain them.

“Well if your so –”

“That’s enough.” Nel massaged her eyebrows. “That’s incredibly stupid Rex. Living in the capital has rotted your brain, and look.” She nodded her head toward a sheep in the distance.

Luke squinted his eyes, straining to see what she was pointing at.

Oh. That’s clever.

“It’s just a sheep.” Rex said, his eyes incapable of seeing the thin tubes jutting our from the ground, and latching onto the sheep from a distance.

My vision really has gotten better. Luke realized. Guess those points in agility weren’t a complete waste.

“There are tubes sticking out of the ground attached to its belly. That’s probably what Sophia meant when she said there's already a machine to milk them.” Luke explained. Already looking around the room to find where the extracted milk was being sent.

“Oh.” Rex mumbled, his face rapidly turning red as he remembered that specific piece of information. “I uh… Normally I–” He hedged. Almost sighing in relief when Nel interrupted him.

“Over there.” She pointed to the wall full of shelves.

I can’t believe I thought he was kinda smart when I met him. The kid just likes being edgy. Go figure.

Early Warrior, Mid Warrior, Late Warrior. Not bad. Luke nodded appreciatively, his eyes darting between the three nozzles sticking out of the wall. A small metal plaque above each one, telling him exactly which was which.

Not bad at all.

“Who wants to go first?” Nel asked. Glancing between him and Rex.

“New guy, you're up.” Rex grinned at him.

“Why me? Don’t you think it should be Nel that goes first. She’s the strongest out of all of us.”

“I’m sure it’s safe.” She assured him. “I just… I don't like it.”

“What?”

“Milk. It’s gross. It–”

“It’s milk.” Luke said.

“That’s why you should drink it.” Nel argued lamely.

“That… Fine.” He shook his head, not interested in arguing with the siblings about it. It’s not like I wasn’t going to drink it. What’s the big deal anyway? Milk is milk, sure sheep milk is kind of out there, but is cow milk objectively better?

Grabbing a glass from a nearby shelf, he put it under the nozzle labeled Early Warrior.

If this stuff is anything like the Stat Points from killing the flying serpent, then it’s probably best not to over do it. I doubt it’ll be anywhere close, but starting with the least potent one is just common sense.

White liquid gushed from the tap as soon as he slid the glass underneath it, the flow cutting itself off as the glass filled halfway.

Is that it?

Staring at glass apprehensively, Luke brought it to his lips, and gave it a quick sniff. Nodding approvingly when no foul odor climbed up his nose.

Well. Here goes nothing.

He opened his mouth and swallowed the meager amount of liquid as soon as the taste hit his tongue.

Not bad. Not bad at all. He smacked his lips, as the fluid settled into his stomach. Closing his eyes, he felt his mana, frowning as he tried to feel it in his system.

Where’s the mana?

Suddenly it hit. Mana appeared within his body, seemingly out of nowhere. It felt heavy and uncomfortable in him, but luckily the Seed had no problem whisking it away to wherever it stored Stat Points.

+2 Stat Points

+3 Stat Points

+2 Stat Points

…

Eleven points for drinking one glass of milk… That’s – He eyed the empty glass, its walls stained white with traces of the fluid, with greed. I need more. A lot more. All of it. Forget maxing out my main attributes, if I drink enough, I might even be able to unlock my bloodline. All without lifting a finger.

He looked at the tap labeled High Warrior. Especially if I get some of that.

“So how is it?” Nel asked.

“Not bad, not bad at all. Lots of mana.” Luke nodded, before turning to Rex. “You should probably drink it in small sips instead of a big gulp, the mana feels a little heavy. I think I wasted some of it too.” Luke lied confidently, understanding fully that the Seed didn’t waste mana. “It's probably more effective drinking that after a good workout.”

“I’ll be fine.” He claimed, grabbing a glass, he put it under the tap, and imitating Luke, chugged it all in one go.

Only to stumble to his knees moments later. “Ugh.”

“What happened?” Nel knelt down next to him. Putting a hand over his chest as she did, no doubt sensing his mana.

“I’m fine…” He grunted. “I just need to–”

“Told you.” Luke said casually, frowning slightly when Rex shot him a venomous glare in response.

Right, his sister just killed his friend a couple days ago. Probably not the best time to make fun of a guy for being dumb. Luke realized, as he awkwardly scratched his chin. I bet the pain doesn’t help much either, it’s nowhere near as bad as killing the serpent was, but it’s still a punch in the gut. And he doesn’t have the Seed to take away the burden… I’ll talk to him later. Luke turned away, and looked back at the milk dispensers.

I can’t just chug that stuff down without caution. At least not without looking like an idiot. It’s pretty clear that the best way to cultivate is by destroying our muscles, and then drinking the milk to recover. That said, what's the worst that will happen if I do?

Nel and Rex will think that I’m cultivating manually, which while suboptimal, is something that people do. They’ll probably get a bit snobbish, but should I care about that?

At worst, they’ll think I’m either stupid or impatient, but the gains… It's worth it. I’ll just have to be careful not to overdo it too much.

Rex stumbled to his feet. “How are you perfectly fine?” He asked Luke.

“Uhh… It’s just pain, I guess I'm used to it?”

“Boiling ourselves was a little bit of pain, how do you even brace for that.” He demanded.

Luke scratched the back of his head. “Are you seriously comparing being boiled alive to drinking milk? How are they even remotely on the same level?”

“With the wat–”

“Rex, not everyone has the same sensitivity to mana.” She explained, putting a cup under the High Warrior tap. “It should get less painful the more you do it though.”

Frowning, she downed the liquid in a single gulp, wrinkling her nose in disgust as she did.

“Blech.” She shuddered, holding the empty cup in front of her, she frowned. “It’s something,” She said eventually. “Better than nothing, but the mana my body draws is already at the Warrior-tier. I’d have to drink barrels of it to get the same benefit as you two.” She sighed.

“Oh. That sucks.” Luke said, sliding his own glass back under the tap. Grinning a little when the machine filled it back up right away. “I think I like it here.” He chugged it down. Suppressing a grin, as another round of Stat Point notifications filled his vision.

Nel frowned at him. “I know we have a lot, but don’t waste it needlessly.” She looked around the room. “I should be able to set up a training regimen for you two. Something more optimized than just blindly drinking the milk, and hoping for the best.” She said, walking around the room. Idly running her hands over the spines of the various books, and inspecting the potion vials as she came across them.

“What are you thinking?” Rex asked her.

“There’s enough healing potions for hot and cold baths here and those are a must. And they’ll be a lot more effective with mana from the milk in your system. I’ll have to dig some holes, but it shouldn't be a problem. I’ll make an exercise routine for you as well. It won’t be as well tuned as what Grandfather had you doing in the Capital, but I’ll do my best. The closer you two are to the Warrior-tier, the better your odds will be in the Olympics, so we definitely can’t slack off. Oh, and…” She rambled on, and Luke zoned off. Only half paying attention to what she was saying.

Stuffing my stomach with as much mana milk as possible would be nice, but there’s no reason I can’t follow her training and drink as much of it as I can at the same time. Besides, there’s only ten sheep here, and there’s three of us. There probably isn’t a limitless supply of the stuff anyway.

Luke put his glass under the tap again. Once again it filled his glass. Chugging it down eagerly, he put it back underneath the dispenser.

“What are you doing?” Rex asked.

“Seeing how much milk we can expect every day. If we’re going to be here for a while, then at the very least we can figure out how much we have.”

“That’s a good idea!” Nel beamed at him, grabbing her own glass and putting it back under the tap. Drinking the contents reluctantly, she repeated the process one more time, before the Late Warrior tap refused to spit out anymore of the liquid.

That’s not bad. At all. Luke mused, once they had everything tallied up. The Early Warrior tap gave nine cups of milk, each one good for nine to twelve Stat Points. The Mid Warrior gave six, each one good for around twenty-three Ptat Points, and while Luke didn’t get to test the Late Warrior milk, he expected it to give him around fifty Stat Points.

“How are we going to split them?” He asked right away, his eyes meeting Nel’s.

I don’t think she’s going to screw me over here, but if she decides to take a bigger share or gives Rex a bigger share, then there isn’t much I can do besides whine about it.

“The early and mid stage milk isn't useful to me.” She said after a while. “You two can split that evenly, and I’ll take the high stage.”

He cupped his chin as he did the math in his head. That works, it’s not the absolute best way to split the milk, but it's not the worst either. If we did a fully even split, I’d only get an extra twenty or so points a day. It’s a good chunk of change, but I’m still getting more than a hundred points as is. Considering the fact that neither of them has the Seed to store excess mana, they’ll probably be getting a small fraction of that.

“Okay.” Luke agreed, and stared expectantly at Rex. Half expecting him to make a fuss and demand a bigger share.

“I’m fine with it too.” He said after a while.

Huh. Sweet.

Luke opened his status.

Status | Skills | Quests | Inventory

Name: Lukas King

Tier: Mortal

Mana: 45 150 / 45 150

Rate: 15% per hour

Strength: 116

Agility: 240

Constitution: 301

Arcana: 300

Stat Points: 101

Bloodline: Locked. Conditions not met. (1/10 000)

Charges: 7/10

The Seed is busted, and coming on this trip was definitely the right move. He thought to himself, as he read his stats. Doing his level best to suppress a grin as he thought about where to put his newly gained Stat Points. Near giddy at the thought of all the points he would be raking in over the next few weeks, he had to take a few breaths just to calm himself down.

I’ll get another twenty thousand points worth of mana if I put them all in Constitution and Arcana like I have been, but my strength stat is starting to fall behind.

Whatever. He dismissed his Status and yawned, his eyes gravitating towards the beds. I’ll figure that out tomorrow after I get some sleep. Two whole days on a griffin's back without rest is exhausting, even with three hundred points in constitution.