Chapter 15

Keith spent the next few days lounging around the house, either hanging out with his sisters or spending time thinking about the future. In the end, he didn’t have any control over the situation, so he would just go with the flow. It wasn’t like he’d never see his Mom or Uncle Ridger. Instead, they were coming with him, something that reassured him greatly. As for his sisters, they were still in the dark, so he didn’t know what they would choose to do.

One afternoon, when Keith was relaxing in the garden listening to the birds, a notification popped up. At first, he thought nothing of it, but when he finally got around to reading it, he sat up in shock.

You have received a payment of 350,000 gold due to your contract with Adeiv.

Keith read the message multiple times to ensure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. Only when he checked his inventory’s currency tab did he know he hit the jackpot. If future payments were like this, Keith could expect to make almost 1.5 million gold a month.

In comparison, it took a decade and 2 to 3 million gold to acquire Keith’s current collection. Keith’s thoughts slowed to a halt when he realized he could double his collection in just a short two months. When that happened, what would his stats become, and what could he buy from the shop?

Returning to reality, Keith jumped off the bench he was resting on and ran around the garden as adrenaline coursed through his body. After a few laps, he ran to his room, crashed onto his bed, then pulled out his magic tablet. As he browsed through the auction house, wondering what to buy, he slowly calmed down.

Instead of buying anything that caught his eye, it was better to test what items gave the most CV. Mass food? Equipment? Monster pets? Keith needed to understand how his innate gift evaluated things to get the most bang for his gold. Realizing this, he spent the next few hours in the warehouse, collecting items from every industry.

Keith’s findings were fascinating.

The Collection Grimoire seemed to know humanity’s strengths and weaknesses and what they had trouble acquiring. For example, humanity produced explosive amounts of fruits, vegetables, and grains due to innate gifts and skills, so their CV wasn’t much if the quantity was low.

The Collection Grimoire valued food higher if humanity had trouble mass-producing it, like monster meat or unique plants like the ones in Keith’s garden. From this perspective, Keith realized the System had a deep understanding of humanity. There were many theories on whether the System was sentient or not, and Keith usually held little interest in such topics, but now he couldn’t help but wonder.

Shrugging, Keith realized he wouldn’t find an answer no matter how much he thought about it, so he returned to his research.

After experimenting with 100,000 gold, Keith now had a firm understanding of what to do. Purchasing food or raw materials en-masse was an excellent method to gain CV, at least at first, because the diminishing returns were high. Eventually, the cost wouldn’t be worth the CV gained.

A safe method was purchasing equipment. The CV didn’t decrease nearly as much based on quantity, and it was more of a ‘you get what you put into it’ type of situation. If Keith had unlimited money, this was the most solid route.

The riskiest and potentially the best method to gain CV was to purchase monster pets. Each monster pet gave a significant amount of CV, but their market was incredibly volatile. Their price depended on their grade, species, how many abilities they had, and their inherited stats. Even their appearance mattered, with trends in fashion causing previously stable prices to fluctuate.

After racking his brains overnight, Keith decided to use all three methods at different ratios. With every paycheck, he’d spend 20% of it on food and raw materials, 30% on equipment, and 50% on monster pets.

The next day, Keith acted on his plan and spent the rest of his money, spending a small fortune in less than an hour. As a result, each of his stats rose by around 10. While momentarily exciting, the following days waiting for his next paycheck left him bored out of his mind.

He just didn’t have anything to do.

The twelve years of mandatory schooling were over, and for the first time, Keith felt restless. With no desire to continue his education, and no reason to get a job considering his family’s wealth, he had too much free time on his hands.

To tackle this problem, he visited Ridger’s gym, where he found Annallee working up a sweat among the numerous machines and dumbbells. Not wanting to interrupt her, he sat on a nearby bench and browsed through his magic tablet.

Sometime later, Annallee walked over while wiping her forehead with a cloth.

Keith looked up and saw how exhausted she was. “Is that enjoyable? Uncle Ridger made me try working out years ago, and it was miserable.”

After drinking some water, Annallee sat next to Keith and grinned. “I wouldn’t say enjoyable, but I do get a sort of rush, like when I’m fighting a monster. Plus, I get to raise my stats and cultivate mass.”

“Huh?”

“Ya know, bulk up.”

“Uh, right,” Keith nodded as he tried to understand bodybuilder terminology.

Pulling out a rectangular bar, Annallee bit off a huge chunk, then pulled out a bottle of some unknown substance. Keith watched as she alternated between the two until they were gone. Curious, he asked, “What’s that?”

“It’s a stimulant,” Annallee explained as she cleaned her teeth with a toothpick. “It increases the efficiency of growing muscles and gaining stats. Tastes gross, though.”

Keith was amazed. “I didn’t think you’d become so invested in working out.”

“Me neither,” she grinned. “but there’s a tournament coming up in two months which got me fired up.”

“Ah, the truth comes out. You’re pretty competitive. I’ll come to cheer you on,” Keith replied, making a mental note.

“Thanks, but don’t expect much.” Annallee pouted in dissatisfaction. “I just started bodybuilding, so I won’t get a good score compared to other people in my age group who’ve been training for years. Still, it’ll be a good experience.”

“That can’t be true, right?” Keith found it hard to believe. “You’re almost at the legendary grade. I doubt anyone there can compete with your stats.”

Annallee shook her head. “Height, weight, age, sex, stats, they take all that into account. I might do well in the pure weight lifting category, but there are other categories, such as flexibility, posing, and so on.”

“Wait, is that why Uncle Ridger always makes those weird poses?” Keith was enlightened. It turns out Ridger was practicing for the competition and wasn’t crazy in the head.

Annallee clasped her hands and started fantasizing. “There’s gonna be loads of muscles to see. Pectoral, biceps, quads….”

As Annallee listed off a whole bunch of muscles, some of which Keith had never heard of, he wondered if Uncle Ridger was leading Annallee down a forbidden path. Oh well, as long as she was happy, he would support her.

A minute later, Annallee turned to look at him. “So, what did you find me for?”

“I was hoping you could help me with something.” Keith took a moment to explain his predicament.

After hearing him, Annallee laughed and slapped Keith across the shoulder. “That’s easy. What you need is a hobby or two. For me, I spend at least thirty hours a week fighting against monsters to level up and train my skills. Lately, I’ve been into bodybuilding, so that takes up some time too.”

Keith’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t like fighting or working out.”

“Then why don’t you try growing your innate gift?” Annallee suggested.

“But my innate gift requires a lot of money. I can’t do anything without it.” Keith grew despondent after remembering he’d only get a paycheck once a week through Adeiv, which he’d spend in but a few measly hours. What would he do with the rest of his time?

Annallee sighed, then stood up and looked at Keith. “Listen up, brother. Killing monsters is inevitable in this world. It gives you experience, levels your skills, and makes you money, killing three birds with one stone. You may not like fighting up close and personal, but there are many ways to fight. Hell, even artificers kill monsters. I heard they set up arrays in the middle of Rifts. While their arrays kill monsters, they sit nearby, relaxing and drinking tea. If they can do it, you can too.”

Keith frowned as he processed his sister’s words and realized she had a good point. Instead of relying on passive income, he could actively hunt monsters for money. What if he got lucky and a monster egg dropped? The thought excited him.

Fighting monsters up close and personal like his sisters was a no-go, but if he could find a style of fighting he was comfortable with, he wouldn’t mind trying it out. The problem was, how should he fight? To find the answer, only one person came to mind: his Aunt!

“Thanks for the help, big sis. I’ll give it a try, but no promises,” Keith sprang up and hugged Annallee before sprinting out of the gym to call his Aunt.

“Hmph, about time,” Annallee muttered with a wry smile as she turned to resume her workout.