Eric lay comfortably on his bed.
Unlike both girls, he was too lazy and not dedicated enough to work hard. He just had a few remaining plans left, such as making three space tents and a few other utility items. Those could be worked on during the last two weeks.
So, after returning from the training island, they had their dinner, and Lyria and Livy went to their profession room while he returned to his room to call it a night.
While Eric was thinking about what other crucial things they should create before leaving the following month, he suddenly received a call from his doctor.
So, he closed his eyes and went to meet her.
"Riya, what's up?" Eric smiled but found that Riya wore a serious expression on her pretty face.
He wondered if he had caught some incurable disease and his naughty time was finally ending, which was why she wore such a grave expression.
He sat in front of Riya and asked 'gravely', "How many days do I have left?"
Riya couldn't help but drop her seriousness and started giggling.
"We'll talk about that later—for now, check this."
Two deep blue screens with words on them appeared in front of Eric.
---
LYRIA
Strength - 60, (150)
Agility - 60, (150)
Intelligence - 60, (150)
Constitution - 60, (150)
Crushing Blow Lvl 1, Whirlwind Sprint Lvl 1, Absolute Gravity Lvl 1, Hardening Lvl 1.
---
LIVY
Strength - 60, (150)
Agility - 60, (150)
Intelligence - 60, (150)
Constitution - 60, (150)
WaterJet Dual-Wield Lvl 1, Mudskipper Lvl 1, Hydro Explosion Lvl 1, Vitality of Water Lvl 1.
---
"The 'Lvl' is because you guys said your abilities can improve further, so I added a level system," Riya explained briefly.
Eric nodded and took a moment to admire their stats. He couldn't help it—it felt like he had watched his "diaper buddies" grow into fine warriors.
He suddenly felt very nostalgic, recalling that a long, long time ago, when they were just normal mortals, they had tried to comfort each other by hugging tightly during shivering cold winter nights.
Ahem. That never happened...
It hadn't even been a year since they were just mortals, and now both girls had progressed from barely 20 in each stat to 210!
Seeing their progress in barely seven months, how could he not feel deeply touched?
Riya smiled, "Alright, now the main dish—your stats."
---
ERIC / ZEPHYRION NIGHTGLOW
Strength - 60, (150) (+1)
Agility - 60, (150) (+1)
Intelligence - 60, (150) (+0)
Constitution - 60, (150) (+2)
Telepathic Slap Lvl 1, Disappearance Lvl 1, Blink Lvl 1, Space Shield Lvl 1.
---
Eric glanced at Riya strangely. "You even remember my original name in this world? I've long forgotten about it..."
Riya rolled her pretty blue eyes. "Check for other stranger things in your stats than your freaking name!"
Eric checked again, then started stroking his chin with a smile. "Add a title behind my current name. So, from now on, my name should be—Eric Badass!" He started nodding in satisfaction. Maybe he should add a middle name—'the'?
Riya gave Eric a nasty glare. She knew he had noticed it and was just waiting for her to explain everything.
After releasing a helpless sigh, Riya began explaining, "Eric, by now you know the girls—or rather, in a normal sense, a person can only walk until their second breakthrough, and after that, there is simply no way to progress further. Do you understand so far?"
Eric nodded. Riya had already spoken something similar in the past, and he, along with Lyria and Livy, were already feeling it vividly—that after the second breakthrough, they were too 'full' and had nowhere to progress further.
Riya collected her thoughts and decided to first describe her hypothesis and current understanding of stats.
"Eric, stats—in a sense—are not a 'miracle,' and neither are the breakthroughs. In fact, there is no such thing as a breakthrough. I know it sounds confusing, but in the perspective of entire existence, it was like one 'evolved' person—that is, a Mana Wielder for this world—had pushed themselves beyond and thus evolved in one specific stat. But the limit, in our understanding, is the second breakthrough. Beyond that, there is no such thing as a third. There is no such path, or even a possibility."
Eric had a strange expression while watching his stats window.
The second training stats bracket was supposed to be the maximum—so where did his (+0) come from? His Constitution, Strength, and Agility were also doing sneaky things behind his back. Did they not want to rest? After seven months of overfeeding torture, had they all awakened their 'true-M' nature?
Riya ignored Eric's great reasoning on this subject, declared proudly while slapping her chest, "I did it!"
Eric looked at Riya even more strangely. So, she was the one who had awakened her 'true-M' nature?
Riya coughed, then smiled like an evil uncle who wanted to fool a little child with candy. "Young man, don't you want more power? More strength? To crush innocent, cute heroes under your foot? Then simply follow me! I will take you to the wonderland of power where no gods or demons are equal to you—all shall be beneath you! Muhahaha..."
Eric decided to wake Riya up to the century they lived in. "You know, 21st-century children no longer get fooled by candy—you need to provide free Wi-Fi!"
Riya clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Damn 21st-century kids..."
She coughed again and explained properly, "You see, Eric, normally after a bucket is filled, there is no more boundary to hold the water from spilling out. But what if someone with long fingers and hands covered the bucket to give it more boundary? Don't you think more water could be stored that way?"
Eric agreed. "The question is, how long can it be held? Also, one mistake can spill all the water out."
Riya nodded, then sighed deeply for all the troubles that awaited her.
"You can leave it to me to hold the bucket. Though this was just an analogy, it's also the case here."
"Usually, it's impossible to keep increasing stats, but for you, you have a mutated, infested soul working hard inside you—while you sleep, eat, fuck—anything. So be more grateful! Cough."
"Basically, I will have to work a little harder to hold your extra stats in place, and during this time, I won't be so active or chat around with you all the time. Similarly, I can't help you or anyone with any other things."
"In short, I'll be too busy and largely stay silent to remain focused. So, unless I'm calling you, don't you dare come inside the Mind Space!" she sternly warned.
Riya didn't know how terrible her condition would get over time, but she was certain she wouldn't want to meet Eric face-to-face during this period.
Eric agreed with a shrug.
He avoided asking about the process because he was certain it would be too abnormal. The previous two breakthroughs were already beyond his ant-sized brain's ability to comprehend—much less now.
Leaving that aside, there were other questions he was most curious about.
"How long will this bracket go? Will there be a breakthrough? Also, will there be a new bucket after this?"
Riya shook her head, and grimly spoke. "First, understand this—there is no 'beyond.' We're already breaking every limit in existence with this. You won't understand a thing if I explain all this with logic, so let's leave it."
"In short, this is a +1 that shouldn't even be possible in all of existence. To make it easier to conclude this matter—this is the final bracket for your current rank."
Eric nodded. He would understand it better later on as he himself would be the one going through it.
Riya smiled and continued, "About your previous question—it would be exactly until '50' again. As I mentioned in the past, if there's a path to walk, then there will be a wall to break—so there definitely will be a breakthrough!" She was quite excited about it.
Eric's eyes also sparkled. 'Breakthrough!' Will there be new, unexpected candy? He loved fruit-flavored ones!
Riya raised her hand to stop Eric's wild expectations. "No mixed fruit candy this time. I can even calculate that if you manage to break through, your stats will likely double again. I'm not entirely sure, but it definitely will only have an impact on your stats. So, nope—no ability is possible anymore in this rank."
Eric was dazed. He was just casually expecting...
If his training stats truly doubled again...
He glanced at the 2D screen and secretly gulped.
300! Army of 300! He would become invincible!
Riya rolled her eyes. Eric's calculation was wrong. It would be 400, as there would be another 50 added this time.
"Let's not go that far, as we can't be certain if you'll be able to fulfill this breakthrough requirement or not. And honestly, I'm also not too confident in myself about how long I'll be able to hold this 'water in the bucket.'"
She sighed—this would be quite hellish for her.
She wasn't mentioning it. Currently, she was already pulling all the discomfort, pain, and other extreme negative impacts on Eric toward herself—or rather, transferring those effects into spiritual and mental energy and then channeling it into herself during this stats bracket. Otherwise, Eric wouldn't even be able to move right now.
She hoped she could at least hold on for another half a year. Yet, in truth, she knew well that just pushing it beyond a month would already be too much for her.
This training bracket would be a test for her and her own commitment—and since both Lyria and Livy had such tough determination, she didn't plan to lose.
"Will this breakthrough be extra difficult? If I don't break through the current training bracket, what will happen? Will I lose all the stats gained?" Eric asked in confusion.
"I don't know," Riya shook her head. "Still, if you don't just sit around, the difficulty of the breakthrough should reduce."
"If we're giving up on making further progress in this training stats bracket, then just break through to the late-stage Rank 1. As long as you break through either in a stat trial or in rank, the process so far in the training bracket is, in a sense, 'saved' and becomes permanent. Of course, even if you break through to late-stage Rank 1 and if we still haven't given up, you can still keep progressing in this current bracket."
Eric nodded, then his expression turned solemn. "Riya, tell me honestly—is it too much for you? You know you don't have to do so much for me."
He was genuinely feeling quite embarrassed.
Just how did he land up with such a masochistic, beautiful A.I. wife who was even more enthusiastic than him?
That didn't mean he wasn't excited for it. He had long wished to walk all paths completely and get a 100% completion achievement. So, if there was a third stats breakthrough possible, he definitely wanted to go all the way.
Riya was both happy and shy about Eric's concern.
She glanced down and played with her long black hair bashfully.
She was indeed doing too much—yet helping Eric was her only joy and motivation. Otherwise, she wouldn't have worked so hard since the beginning. She also wouldn't go back on the promise she had made months ago. She was useless anyway and couldn't do anything for either Eric or her sisters directly, so she should do whatever she could to her best possibility.
Riya's expression changed to determination, and she chided, "Don't worry about such girly things. Just go conquer more sisters for me—cough—leaving that aside for now, there's also some risk."
"Knowing you... Never mind, let me still ask. Do you want to back off from a risk of going against and beyond the existence and becoming the strongest? Or do you prefer to walk the safe path that is available and possible?"
Even though she knew the answer, she felt she should still provide Eric the option to choose—to back down or take the risk on traversing an unexpected and uncharted explorative path.
Eric waved his hand off and laughed. "What nonsense! I don't care about being the strongest or not, but if there's a path possible to walk, then even if it's going against everything, I'll do so!"
He was never bored enough to compare himself with others. He might joke about it, but in truth, he didn't really care if he was the strongest or not.
Though he was also very happy and excited for having more strength to bully good people—also perhaps this would help him protect himself in case both Lyria and Livy decided to reverse gangbang him—ahem. After all, girls in this world were far too aggressive—only his cute Elara was trustworthy.
'Hm... I wonder if she has yet become a Mana Wielder or not—or is she still getting bullied by her 9 ft. mother?'
He coughed. "Is there anything else I need to know?"
He was quite exhausted from the earlier full-body deep-sea massage, then the battle against an oversized, human-like expression fish. He just wanted to sleep and rest for the night.
Riya gently shook her head. "Nothing else. Just take your potions and pills like the last two times—I'll handle the rest. Try to reach the peak of your mid-stage as quickly as possible and, at the same time, reach for the new '50' stats on this bracket. After this month, try to experience various things—it should definitely help in reducing the difficulty of the upcoming breakthrough."
Eric agreed and left the Mind Space.
After coming out, he yawned. He left the future planning to his future self, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.