It had been a month since Eric, Lyria, and Livy left Ringwood Town behind and started their wild journey toward the dangerous and terrifying Northern Plains, full of anticipation and excitement at the prospect of being bullied left and right.
But as time passed, their expressions turned uglier and nastier.
Not a single Mana Beast ambushed them!
So, in the end, instead of waiting for the repulsive prince to arrive, they actively started searching for beasts or any sort of trouble.
But no matter which cave, mountain, forest, or wherever they searched, all attempts ended in failure—those places were completely empty!
At most, they found signs of past Mana Beast habitation or existence, but the beasts themselves were nowhere to be found. Almost as if they had either been eaten until not even bones remained or had grown wings and flown away to heaven, given the abundance of fat and easy prey in that place.
Eventually, Eric, Lyria, and Livy's motivation dwindled, and they casually wandered northward, hoping some Mana Beast would take the hint and attack the three idiots who had no caution or guard up. But this plan, too, ended in complete failure.
They stumbled upon a few hamlets and small villages, but those were also deserted.
From the clues they gathered, they guessed these villages had either relocated or evacuated within the last five years—or perhaps they, too, had grown wings and flown away, as not even bones of the villagers remained in those empty settlements.
The likelihood was high that they had moved to larger villages. Yet, every "large" village they found was also eerily empty, almost like ghost villages, which made no sense as those lands seemed fertile and teeming with fruit trees.
So, instead of growing impatient and frustrated, Eric, Lyria, and Livy practiced breathing, yoga meditation to control their destructive urges and began acting like saints who enjoyed everything. They toured casually, laughing and having fun.
They weren't in any hurry to reach Batley City, and the Northern Plains—or perhaps the Southern Plains, as Batley City might call them—were vast. From the map of the Silvia Kingdom Eric had obtained from the library, he could see the plains stretched far eastward, possibly thousands of miles.
Still, by rough estimate, it would take two to three more months to reach Batley City.
During this time, something terrifying began happening to poor Eric. Both Lyria and Livy had gone rogue, flirting with him increasingly often, pushing boundaries bit by bit, and becoming far too touchy!
This primarily occurred because they were now all fifteen, including Eric, so the girls had begun dropping their pretenses—which frightened him, though as a man, he was confident he could survive... for now.
But there was something else Eric was even more frightened of!
Days passed, and his stats climbed higher and higher, yet everything was too peaceful!
He panicked and was desperate to find trouble.
But who could he annoy when only trees stood around, devoid of those power-packed Mana Beasts?
Ten days after leaving Ringwood Town, all of Eric's new stats reached 30, and he already sensed he'd soon hit some sort of wall.
This stat-training journey felt bizarre from the start, but he knew that was inevitable—he was cheating the universe this time. So he ignored the odd sensations and kept pumping himself with even more steroids and drugs.
As days passed and his stats rose, along with them his impatience also grew. He knew if he didn't start bullying innocents, adorable mana beasts, or inciting mass destruction—or at least World War III—soon, his breakthrough requirement would become so terrifying he might as well die attempting it!
Even worse, there was no easy way to train!
Setting up a Gravity Array wasn't simple, and it couldn't be carried with them. Training or sparring with Lyria and Livy was out of the question—they couldn't go all-out against each other anymore, and physically, both girls were already weaker due to his higher stats. Besides, dueling or physical training barely counted as warm-ups for him now.
The reason they couldn't fight seriously was their lethality. Even Eric could die if struck by one of the girls' abilities—and with a misstep, he might kill them, too.
After a month of investigation, various horrifying truths about their 'abilities' had surfaced.
For example, Lyria's Whirlwind Sprint tripled her Agility stat! This meant if her Agility rose in the future, so would the ability's effect. But that wasn't all—even against someone with triple her Agility, she'd still win easily in a race, as Whirlwind Sprint was a unique talent or strange running technique. She could stop or change direction without staggering, something a stat-dependent opponent couldn't replicate. Not only that, even if someone with three times her Agility chased after her, she could still easily outrun them.
Agility didn't equate to running speed—it mainly governed agile movement and reaction in a single place, though it also had some effect on sprinting as well. Thus, unless someone had a unique warrior skill or talent, they were no match for Lyria in running speed, at least not within her stat range.
Lyria's Crushing Blows could unleash two times her strength stat! Again, it was different than just punching, as this ability functioned more toward blowing something from the inside out—almost like she pushed an explosion inside an object or person.
Her Absolute Gravity matched her Strength stat, and her Hardening again tripled her Constitution!
Lyria's abilities were the most monstrous—and easiest to link to her stats.
These multiplications of stats only impacted the said ability and didn't change their true stats.
Not all abilities worked this way. Livy's Vitality of Water had no stat influence, nor did Eric's Space Shield.
In fact, Eric was the most pitiful—only his Telepathic Slap was stat-dependent, and that, too, only matched his strength stat rather than multiplied like Lyria's. Yet his abilities were the scariest and most unpredictable among them, though he still hadn't fully figured out their limits yet.
The most terrifying aspect of abilities was stat multiplication. If they grew in stats either through Rank Breakthroughs or Training Stats, then these abilities would also grow together.
That wasn't all.
Usually, powerful physical skills, techniques, and spells also scaled with the user's stats when used. Among them, spells were the deadliest—their firepower was often higher than raw physical attacks.
For example, a light punch and heavy punch draw different stat values. Similarly, through techniques, someone could draw more stat value, perhaps even slightly higher than their original stat value—but that was not so easy.
From their knowledge and research, they figured out: A basic Tier 1 spell typically dealt 60–70% of one's Intelligence stat—in other words, a little over half of their true stat. This was already amazing.
Similarly, a punch, if used with technique, might reach just 40 to 50% of their strength value. If someone somehow managed to use their full strength, then they would risk self-harm unless their Constitution was high enough to mitigate it.
A powerful technique or spell that could push beyond 100%—or perhaps 110%, meaning 1.1 times the original stat—should be some rare technique or spell. Maybe an advanced Tier 2 spell or higher-tier spells could even draw out 1.2 or 1.5 times one's stats.
These sorts of powerful methods were probably not easily found in the world; they were hidden, passed down within a family, or maybe discovered through lucky chances—like being able to purchase from a shop, auction, or accidentally found in the wild, and so on.
These exceeding the powers beyond stats couldn't keep increasing, as the burden on the body would also increase. Perhaps reaching twice the stat value would be the limit. Beyond that, it would probably count as a forbidden spell or technique—using them meant severe backlash and could even kill the user.
That was the reality. One could not easily go beyond these decimals or percentages without drawing too much out of them. Only with powerful weapons or artifacts could someone push certain limits.
Yet their abilities were effortlessly pushing beyond their base stats—twice and even thrice, and that too without any drawbacks or supports!
They themselves didn't feel anything strange while using their abilities; it almost felt more like their own arms—like simple running with their legs, and so on.
However, when it came to application in the world and compared to what other "normal" Mana Wielders could do...
This was just too monstrous and unbelievable!
Abilities were far too scary—and shocking—the more they looked into them. No wonder even reaching the second breakthrough was not that easy, much less successfully passing through them.
Abilities aside, if Eric didn't stir trouble soon—or at least instigate some nuclear war between countries—then he too would be in serious danger, as he didn't want to give up on breaking through the third training breakthrough.
Today marked a month since leaving Ringwood Town—with Eric's all new stats having reached 40.
Eric exhaled deeply and turned toward the two beautiful girls before him.
"Ly," he said, "lend me your shoulder for a moment."