Eric gently shook his head. "Leave alchemy to me and artisans as well. As for scrolls, we all have to take it, though we have to learn spells first. For now, let's leave scrolls to the last month or the second-to-last month, if we finish with others."
He had already shown the Spell Books to Lyria and Livy, and they had decided to learn them in the last few months.
"Liv, for now just focus on Array and Rune. Later, if we have time, we can focus on Artisan together, as many products require Arrays as well."
Artisan was not a lone subject. Someone could indeed focus on only one specific path or aspect of it, but higher Tiers eventually require both Array and Enchantments knowledge and expertise.
Lyria and Livy quickly agreed with Eric's decision.
Eric was very satisfied with how much his workload was reduced.
Although he expected Lyria and Livy would help, he didn't expect them to be so enthusiastic.
"Alright then, Liv, first sit down on that mat and don't move or resist. Let me do my thing," Eric said, pointing at the mat where he had sat in the past.
Lyria and Livy's eyes brightened as they quickly caught on to what was about to happen.
They understood that Eric was going to increase their stats through his talent. They had full faith in him and were very excited to see the effects.
Livy sat on the mat and waited.
Eric came and held both of Livy's shoulders tightly from behind her.
Livy felt a pleasant shock throughout her body and trembled. It strangely felt quite romantic being grabbed like that from behind by Eric.
She immediately started exuding her signature lavender smell.
Livy blushed deeply, but she was helpless.
Eric's mouth twitched. He ignored Livy's special effect; it was a very pleasant smell anyway.
He needed to do this to hold Livy in place, in case she moved around subconsciously. According to Riya, one shouldn't break the connection during the changes, or it would become extremely troublesome for her.
Eric followed Riya's suggestion, though he had complete faith in both girls. They had long surpassed the normal level of masochism and were currently at the peak of Master level, so this level of pain would only make them feel nostalgic.
"Liv, try your best not to move, and no matter what—don't break my hold. This should take around 10 minutes," Eric warned.
Livy nodded, and Riya immediately got to work.
Riya first focused on increasing Livy's Constitution stats.
Livy initially shook a little, then eventually calmed down and let the changes follow. Her bones and insides felt like they were being stretched—it was painful in a completely different way than what she had experienced in the past. Even so, she sat in peace, as this level of torture was just beginner-level for her. It was a little new, though nothing she couldn't enjoy.
Lyria's expression was sharp as she stood beside Eric. She would hold Livy down in case she tried to move too much. She understood Eric wanted her to help if things went out of hand.
After about 12 minutes, Livy's body stopped aching and returned to how it was before, though strangely she felt stronger and freer. She couldn't pinpoint how or what had just happened yet.
Riya informed Eric of the success with an elated tone.
Thus, Eric now knew Livy's stats should be—
Constitution - 30 (+17)
Eric wasn't tired, but he'd used much of his Mana, so he sat back on the couch.
"Liv, go play outside and return after 10 minutes. It will be Ly's turn then."
Livy nodded with a smile and left to tour around the island once again—barefoot this time.
Lyria was confused. She had many questions, yet she knew she couldn't ask them right now, so she held back her curiosity and calmly sat on her seat.
Eric and Lyria casually chatted while he also drank a bottle of Mana Potion.
He was wealthy, so he could use Potions like water, and according to Riya, everything he ate or drank produced a little explosion—in other words, some extra unused energy that would eventually be added as 1 unused point.
After about ten minutes, Livy returned with a confused but excited expression. She could feel that she had become faster—or rather, her control over her body had improved—and because of this, she felt she could move her body more freely. She also felt her body had become much sturdier. It felt strange. She felt she might be hallucinating.
Her confusion was due to how quickly the change had occurred in her body.
By the time Livy returned, Eric had already recovered nearly 70% of his Mana, so he promptly began working on Lyria's Constitution.
Constitution - 30 (+19)
Riya used Constitution first as it was also an experiment, since Constitution touches almost everything—or rather, it influences all other stats.
Lyria went through similar changes, and after she went out and returned, she had a similarly confused and excited expression as Livy.
After both had calmed down, Eric decided they should get to work.
"We'll continue after an hour. For now, let's go and check out the contents of the space pouches in each room."
With that, Eric grew excited along with the other two, and they headed toward the Blacksmith room first.
Riya had already passed Eric the knowledge on how to differentiate and name most metals, fabrics, leathers, and so on. So, he smoothly started differentiating their Tiers while both Lyria and Livy were in charge of pulling things out of pouches.
As Eric explained, Lyria and Livy also learned many things; they would eventually study in more detail after reading and memorizing the contents from books and Memory Orbs later.
While organizing the materials, they were completely astonished by the sheer amount.
In the end, they had to stuff all the materials back into the space pouches in a proper order—otherwise, the entire football field would had been completely filled with metals, ingots, and whatnot.
Eric felt numb inside. There were Space Pouches that had even more Space Pouches inside, and inside those were even more materials.
Although the quantity was huge, after melting, processing, and so on, the sizes would shrink from their original masses. So, the finished goods wouldn't be as numerous as the materials suggested.
Eric had no idea how many they could build, but considering there would be many failures, his guess was at least 100 or more Weapons, Armors, and so on.
While sorting, Eric, Lyria, and Livy didn't forget to increase their stats. By the time they finished, Eric had managed to use up all the girls' unused points.
Lyria and Livy had now reached the peak of Mortal Training (+20) in each stat, and amusingly, Livy had the highest stats at that moment.
Livy's personal capabilities had reached an all-time high, and she arrogantly declared that even if both Eric and Lyria ganged up on her, they still wouldn't be able to catch her!
To which Eric had to back away like a coward.
It wasn't about stats—it was more about how one used them—and he didn't think he was a match in terms of body maneuvering compared to Livy. It wasn't entirely hopeless either, if touching her was the only goal.
Due to the changes, both Lyria and Livy were jumping around excitedly, though sadly they couldn't talk about it—Eric had forbidden them to, at least until they left the island eight months later. They had to hold on until then.
Eric was pointlessly worried—he knew that. But this was the best he could do. He wouldn't be able to hide the results if Lysandra was closely observing, but he could hide the process as much as possible by not outright speaking about it in the open. It was better to take some precautions rather than nothing.
Just by not speaking, Lyria and Livy wouldn't develop diarrhea—Eric was sure of it!
They finished sorting quite a lot of Blacksmith contents but were still far from completing the task, and they were already tired…
Eric had originally planned to do all the rooms, but it was no longer possible. The Blacksmith and Alchemy rooms had the most contents, though Blacksmith materials were bulkier compared to Alchemy ingredients. There were indeed some Alchemy ingredients that were quite big, according to books, but most weren't. There were also many readymade potions and pill bottles to sort out as well.
In short, it wasn't possible to finish in a single day.
Thus, in the end, Eric stopped bothering with checking other rooms, and they eventually decided they would take care of their own profession rooms by themselves.
Eric pulled out his pocket-watch—which he still hadn't 'registered' yet—and checked the time. It was already 7 PM.
His eyes brightened; he would take Lyria and Livy out to experience the 'make it romantic' Array after dinner. The orbs feared entering the cave, so there were none floating around.
"Liv, Ly, I have a surprise for you both. For now, don't go into the living room. Let's take a bath first and then eat something."
Lyria and Livy tilted their heads in confusion and curiosity. They calmly nodded and went to their rooms to bathe, and Eric went to his.
After bathing, all three gathered in the kitchen for dinner. There was a dining table with chairs ready in the room.
Eric pulled out some dishes from the space pouches.
Each pouch had unique dishes. Probably even Elves didn't know how many dishes existed in their cuisine.
Eric, Lyria, or Livy didn't need to cook anything, yet despite that, Lysandra had left behind a Mana-powered cooking stove and more.
Eric guessed it was just Lysandra's perfectionism acting up, leaving so many things behind.
After dinner, they were free for the next half-hour.
Eric went to the Alchemy room—he wanted to check on a few things—while Lyria and Livy went to check other profession rooms.
Half an hour later, Eric had counted and separated plenty of alchemy bottles with Riya's help. According to her, many bottles were perfect for their current stat growth.
Not all Alchemy products would result in the same unused stat points every time—later, the energy generated would weaken. Similarly, once he reached Rank 2, Tier 1 products would barely generate any points, if any at all.
Further, according to Riya, since their stats were already high—inherited from their Mortal training days—later stat growth would require far more energy to obtain unused points. It was the same as how anything becomes harder the further one goes—an understandable phenomenon. Otherwise, everyone would have reached the peak by repeating the same exercise over and over.
Eric then took Lyria and Livy outside the cave.
As soon as they stepped out, they were shocked—their eyes widened to extremes. The only word that appeared in their minds was—too beautiful.
They had never imagined that so many colors—with red and pink being the most prominent—could blend so smoothly together to create such a mesmerizing scene.
The colorful light from each transparent orb wasn't too bright—it was dim and hazy, making the entire landscape spellbinding, enchanting, and completely otherworldly.
Both Lyria and Livy stood stunned for a long time, completely absorbed by the unworldly beauty of the island's nighttime.