Eric didn't hold back and put the rest of the 10 unused points into Intelligence stats.
It was both pleasurable and painful.
Half the points felt like someone was massaging his brain directly. It sounded disgusting but was actually very pleasurable—he had experienced a similar sensation while doing certain breathing yoga in his past life. The other half felt as if someone was pumping too much water into his brain. He felt his brain was about to explode. Thankfully, it didn't.
Eric could dodge this painful experience while inside the Mind Space, but he took it head-on, as this much pain was nothing compared to what he had endured during the past half-decade of training. He almost felt nostalgic—the recent training was no longer that torturous.
Intelligence - 30 (+28)
Eric's intelligence was now higher than his other stats.
He then emerged from his Mind Space to check.
At first, the only thing he noticed was how sharp his vision—or mind—was. Nothing too noticeable externally, but his life experience had suddenly become calm, steady, balanced, and confident, as if he could calmly handle whatever came his way without flustering. It was strange but pleasant.
Eric next tried storing both the low-grade Tier 1 bow and the sword inside his Ring—and succeeded in a single attempt. It was so smooth he barely struggled.
Storing objects in Space Storage was far more difficult than merely imbuing them with Mana, as imbuing didn't require the same precision as placing items in Rings or Pouches. Though imbuing takes a lot more Mana, storing doesn't need that much—just greater control.
Eric was amazed. After all, it was only a 10-point increase—why was the difference so drastic?
Riya answered, "At this stage, even minor increases are clearly visible. The current improvement was also significant. Your Intelligence stat is nearly reaching the base value of a mid-stage Rank 1 Mystical Knight. Anyway, come inside."
Eric went in and once again stared at Riya in total amazement.
She had truly delivered what she had promised!
Imagining was different from experiencing it firsthand.
Within an hour, Riya had increased his stats, especially Intelligence—which was supposed to be the hardest to improve—like it was nothing!
Even he felt this was too unreal. He hadn't doubted Riya, but when truly living with these changes and experiencing them firsthand, it was surreal.
Eric sighed, thinking how he was clearly cheating now. People worked so hard to earn these improvements over a year or more with tough training, fighting, or whatever, but he had done all that within an hour!
Eric eventually calmed down.
Cheating was what evil people were supposed to do. So, he hadn't done anything 'wrong.' It was truly a gratifying fact that he was already evil from birth.
Similarly, from now on, it should be completely acceptable to everyone when he bullies his peers in the future, as evil people were also supposed to do that.
Thinking this far, Eric found his inner peace. He felt he had returned to the 'right' path.
"Ahem. That was amazing. Good job, Riya—as expected of you! Right, how do I earn more of these unused points?"
Eric was already starting to feel addicted to his fast improvement. He absolutely wanted to reach the maximum of 50 points on all stats immediately and see what this breakthrough was all about.
His desire to explore everything possible was finally coming into reality!
Riya giggled happily at Eric's praise. She didn't need thanks, but praise was always pleasant.
She felt all her hard work over the years had finally paid off. She had managed to do what she had promised and now felt completely fulfilled with Eric's praise.
Riya's eyes shone with strong, hardened determination.
'The promise I made when Eric fell down the cliff—I will make sure to deliver it completely! Prepare yourselves, everyone, to see the worst possible nightmare of your imagination!'
She took a deep breath and calmed her fired-up spirit down.
Riya was also very excited—and just like Eric, she also wished for him to reach the peak immediately—but they were also out of stored "food." So, all they had to do was cook more and devour more!
Riya answered, "Eric, all you have to do is drink or eat Tier 1 meat, fruit, and so on—but the best, of course, is potions or pills—but as I said, only Tier 1 until you reach Rank 2." She didn't bother explaining why, to not bore Eric with her calculations.
Eric nodded. "Is there any particular alchemy recipe I should try making? Also, will it work by just taking raw ingredients?"
Riya shook her head. "I think taking raw ingredients won't have much effect, but we'll experiment on this later, as everything is just theory at this moment."
"I understand. For now, let's return to the orphanage."
Eric was very excited to swim with his overpowered body, and nighttime was no longer a problem for him.
"Before leaving, go and read all the books available. You don't need to check each page like before—just flip them swiftly, and with the Mana I control, I'll be able to capture everything."
"I think you can now start to sense the Mana I'm using from you. It's like a subconscious Mana leakage for you. Just don't forcefully take charge of it, and it should be fine."
Eric could break her control anytime just by taking his Mana movement more consciously.
The Mana Riya was controlling didn't belong to her—she didn't have any Mana Veins. She didn't even exist in reality or on the physical plane. So, her 'arms' or Mana control was more like how marionettes are controlled—too weak and fragile, but it could still do many things.
Eric was fine with some book-flipping. It should take an hour at most.
He had already checked the memory orb in the living room. Those things couldn't be speed-run like books. What they did was show projections, like a movie projector.
Eric left the mind space and walked toward the blacksmith room. There were only a few books in this football stadium—he'd be done with them in a jiffy.
As Eric entered, he suddenly wondered if he could now lift Tho—that hammer!
So, he came and stood in front of the 'only for the destined one' hammer.
He leaned forward and first tried to lift it with pure strength.
Even after using all his strength, it still didn't budge even a little! Totally unbelievable!
He finally sent his Mana inside—and truly, as Riya had predicted—he managed to lift it up, but it was still very heavy.
Probably, Lysandra meant this hammer could help in making peak-grade Tier 2.
Maybe he needed to be at late-stage Rank 1 to properly use it. But it was no longer an issue with Riya's help in increasing stats.
Even so, he still didn't want to spend time doing blacksmithing.
Eric dropped the hammer not-too-gently to the ground, and the ground didn't even shake, nor was there any damage to it.
Complete... nonsense!
Eric ignored it and noticed he was standing right in front of the blazing fire of the forge, but he wasn't at all bothered by the massive heat of it like when he was mortal. He wondered why...
Riya answered, "It's because of your Constitution and the changes that followed after becoming a Mana Wielder. Normal fire won't be able to burn you up in a short time. You can even touch the fire with your bare hand and see."
Eric stretched his hand inside the fire—and indeed, he didn't feel it would burn him anytime soon. He only felt that the inside of his hand was slowly heating up, but the outer skin was completely fine.
Eric continued checking other objects nearby that he had skipped before, and he found there was a switch—like in the gravity training room—with which he could control the temperature of the fire inside the forge.
The fire currently being used was operated by some Mana core—the grade was unknown to Eric, as it was hidden from outside view just like his bow—but according to the display, with the current fire temperature, it could keep burning for the next 500 years!
Eric felt completely numb inside.
In just the last few days, he had suddenly come into contact with so many things that were way beyond his imagination.
Leaving that aside, he even doubted he'd be able to carry everything away when he left this island in the future.
Eric shook his head and proceeded to flip the books in a speedy manner.
With just one complete flip, Riya captured everything.
After the blacksmith room, Eric went to the alchemy room, followed by the others—artisan, enchanter, ruin, array, and finally scroll.
Not all rooms had the same number of books—like alchemy—so Eric was done within half an hour.
He then proceeded toward his own room.
Eric picked up some clothes, towels, and other necessities from his wardrobe.
"Anything else?" he asked while putting the spell books inside his ring.
Riya answered, sounding distracted as she had just copied all five spell books.
"Just grab whatever food and water you can in case you need them."
"After that, head back to the alchemy room. I now understand which are Tier 1 potions and how they're made. Thankfully, most Tier 1 potions only have Tier 1 ingredients—no higher tiers mixed in—as there are some like that, and we should avoid those. For now, just grab a few bottles that I point out for emergencies, and then you can swim to your heart's content."
"Also, remember which slot or 'door' you're keeping the items inside your ring. Although there shouldn't be any dangerous aquatic animals nearby, it's always best to be cautious. I'll be a bit busy for a while—understanding and organizing this knowledge for you."
Eric was quite embarrassed. He might joke around, calling Riya a housewife and many other things, but she really looked just too perfect as a wife.
'I mean, how can there be such a hardworking wife... who'll be so enthusiastic to help her husband even with studies, while I'm too lazy to do anything by myself.'
Before Riya could even 'answer' his thoughts, Eric quickly stopped her to save himself the embarrassment, "Riya! Ahem, don't pass me all the knowledge. For now, just pass on how to recognize ingredients, metals, and so on. We'll take care of the rest in the future."
After saying this, Eric quickly went to the kitchen, grabbed some of the space pouches inside his space ring, and then went to the alchemy room for the readymade potions that Riya pointed out.
After all that was done, Eric once again climbed the hill to check a few things—including the direction.
Eric wasn't worried about aquatic beast sneak attacks—not from overconfidence in being far stronger than before, but due to his darkness element.
Even in water, it was as bright as day. He could clearly see everything underwater from the shore—not all the way to the ocean floor, but it was enough to see the energetic fish families traveling together everywhere within the current dark ocean.
After driving, he swam against the waves with great enjoyment.