Chương 287

Then came Kratos and Vritra. The tank-sized Imperial Lion and the mutated white storm serpent approached the meat station. They didn't eat one burger. They didn't eat two. Kratos and Vritra both opened their massive jaws and inhaled ten consecutive, buff-stacked burgers and sausages in less than twenty seconds. Nom. Nom. Nom. The pets couldn't see the system interfaces, but Rudra certainly could. A cascade of golden alerts flooded Rudra's vision as his passive skills and titles perfectly synergized.

[Layered Nourishment has reached Maximum Stacks (3/3)!] [Base Effect: +20% Strength, +20% Agility, +20% Stamina per stack.] [Title Effect: 'Heart of the Imperial Lion' applied. Food buff effects are doubled for your pets.] [Current Total Buff for Kratos & Vritra: +120% Strength, +120% Agility, +120% Stamina.] [Buff duration reset to Base Maximum (6 Hours)!] Kratos and Vritra both froze. They suddenly felt the raw stats boost increase way higher than they expected.

Kratos's black and gold fur literally stood on end. Vritra's pristine white scales began to hum with a terrifying, visible vibration.

"Too much power," Kratos rumbled, his deep voice shaking the nearby tables." I have too much strength. I cannot sit still. I must move." The giant lion began pacing. He didn't just walk. He sprinted in a tight, hyperactive circle near the ruined fountain. He ran so fast, for so long, that his heavy paws began digging a literal, three-foot-deep trench straight into the solid stone pavers. Beside the trench, the normally serene Vritra let out a low, vibrating hiss. The massive white storm serpent's eyes dilated.

Unable to contain the one hundred and twenty percent surge in his agility, Vritra shot into the sky. He didn't roar or cause a scene, but his speed was completely blinding. He moved like a bolt of white lightning, silently weaving rapid, flawless patterns through the clouds just to burn off the suffocating amount of energy.

"Look at them go," Rudra laughed, wiping his hands on his apron as he watched his pets completely lose their composure. Rudra looked out at the vast crowd. Thirty-eight thousand people were eating, laughing, and talking. The triple-stack buffs were turning his exhausted laborers into tireless workers for the next six hours—and as long as they kept returning to the dining hall, the buff would never drop. The fear was gone. The morale of Stormbreak was completely restored.

"I need to make sure this doesn't stop," Rudra muttered. He walked over to the edge of the Magic Tower boundary and called to the Clone that was in the kitchen. Rudra informed the clone, "From now one, you are stationed here indefinitely and you can use the mana from the Tower of Limits to recharge your mana."

"Mumud's Spell Drain." [Spell Drain active.] The clone tethered the absorption field directly to the massive, ambient mana crystal reserves powering the Magic Tower. The continuous mana flowing from the tower fed into the clone, perfectly offsetting its maintenance cost in a closed, infinite loop. It could cook forever without touching a single citizen's health or stamina. In the manor doorway, Silas watched the clone set up the automated cooking loop. The young Viscount held his golden abacus.

His fingers moved in a frantic blur. Clack-clack-clack-clack. He calculated the labor output saved by the food buffs. He calculated the gold value of the mundane ingredients and the effect that an automated clone without the need of any resources to maintain itself can constantly produce various dishes that would power the entire territory. The numbers multiplied well past into the millions. This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Silas's hand slowed down.

He pressed his palm against his forehead.

"The economic efficiency is unnatural," Silas whimpered, giving himself a massive stress headache. Vex, the Fox Chieftain, stepped up beside him and handed him a small, dried green leaf.

"Chew this, Viscount. It smells like mint. It stops the head-throbbing." Silas took the leaf without arguing. Rudra stood on the steps of the manor, watching his city. Thousands of people were breathing in synchronized rhythm, utilizing [Genesis Breath] while they ate and worked. The faint green auras pulsed across the entire plaza. Ding! A massive, golden system window suddenly shattered across Rudra's vision, glowing brighter than any prompt he had ever seen.

[The territory-wide adoption of your created technique has reached a major milestone!] [You have understood the true meaning of a sage!] [The Second Deep Sage Class Quest "The Legacy of the Deep Sage" has been created!] [The Legacy of the Deep Sage] [Difficulty: Class Quest (Milestone) A true Sage is defined not by the depth of his solitary study, but by the breath of his reach. Knowledge kept to oneself is merely a stagnant pool; shared, it becomes an ocean that transforms the world. By creating and imparting your own original techniques to the world, you walk the ancient path of enlightenment. Teach the masses, expand the horizon of mortal understanding, and elevate the minds of all living beings beneath the heavens. As your teachings spread across the continent and beyond, the system will recognize your growing legacy.] [Current Progress: 10, 015 / 100, 000, 000 Individuals Taught] [Milestone Rewards:] - 10, 000 Individuals Taught: [Sage's Sermon] - 100, 000 Individuals Taught: [???] - 1, 000, 000 Individuals Taught: [???] - 10, 000, 000 Individuals Taught: [???] - 100, 000, 000 Individuals Taught: [???] [Quest Failure Condition: Total erasure of all imparted knowledge from the world.] [Quest Failure Punishments: Wisdom -500, Title: 'Failed Enlightener', Permanent sealing of the 'Knowledge Creation' skill.] Rudra stared at the milestone quest. First, a wave of genuine surprise hit him. Over ten thousand people in Stormbreak had already successfully learned [Genesis Breath]?

He had passed the skill to his drill instructors over two weeks ago, but the cascading speed at which Piaro, Dante, and the others had drilled the technique into the citizens was still staggering. Then, his eyes drifted to the final milestone number. One hundred million. Rudra's jaw actually dropped. He stood completely dumbfounded on the manor steps. One hundred million individuals? That requirement was entirely absurd.

If he were to somehow pool the entire populations of all sixteen allied kingdoms together—men, women, children, and the different races—it would barely scratch one hundred million people. To clear this class quest, he wouldn't just have to teach a single kingdom; he would have to nearly teach the entire world. It would require far more time, travel, and exhaustive effort than Asterion's Quest [The Legacy of the Submerged God] which made him travel throughout the continent to find the 113 hidden temples.

"I'm going to be teaching for the rest of my life," Rudra muttered, rubbing his temples. He glanced down at the quest failure condition and frowned, thoroughly confused. Total erasure of all imparted knowledge from the world. How could that even be achieved? Once a technique was out in the wild, being passed from person to person, erasing it completely would mean wiping out every single living mind that held it.

Was the system hinting at a future threat capable of global annihilation, or some kind of world-tier memory-wiping magic? Pushing the dark thought aside, he opened the newly unlocked skill details to see what his first reward was. [Sage's Sermon (Lv. 1)] [Active] [A mass-teaching skill designed for rapid dissemination. - Allows you to instantly impart knowledge to the targets simultaneously within hearing distance. - Targets learn the skill at Level 1 instantly. - Resource Consumption: 500 Enlightenment per meter radius. - Skill Cooldown: 24 Hours.] Rudra closed the window, letting out a massive sigh of relief. A slow, deeply satisfied smile spread across his face. He did the math. His base Enlightenment was 10, 500, but thanks to his [Latent Duke of Boundless] title, all his resource pools were increased by 20%. With a total pool of 12, 600 Enlightenment, he could easily push the skill out to a 25-meter radius in a single burst. He was incredibly thankful.

If he had been forced to continue meeting each person to impart knowledge one-by-one, passing down a technique to a hundred million people would have literally taken centuries. Now, he could stand on a city wall, cast the skill over a dense crowd, and instantly teach hundreds of people in a single breath. It drastically decreased the time required to complete his growing list of burdens. He looked down at the central plaza. The walls were rising. The citizens were well-fed and buffed.

The clone was running the kitchen. The knights were empowered. Stormbreak was ready. Rudra grabbed a burger from a passing tray, took a massive bite, and looked out toward the distant horizon. It was time to see what else the world had to offer.