31 Planning

Jim had felt far better in recent days, Serene Mind was really effective in treating his anxiety, he hadn't encountered a single hallucination in what seemed like forever. His next doctor's appointment was coming up, he planned to tell them of his improved mental state, leaving out all the magic and different world travel of course.

Afterwards, he planned to start selling Divine Jing Qi Pills, he could now mass produce them at Great quality, and the amount of Jing Qi Flowers produced even outpaced the number of Pills he could make. After testing it on himself for three days and carefully monitoring the effects on his body, he was comfortable having others take them, and passed handfuls of them out to Astril, Libta, and his mother.

Feeling your mind becoming noticeably sharper after taking one pill could be called miraculous, the best part is the lack of side effects, after some research he found the Divine Jing Qi Pills could be categorized as Nootropics. Researching further, he found it can take years of data collection and red tape to introduce a new drug to market in the US. Large companies placing pressure on him, questions on where the ingredients come from, he got a headache thinking of dealing with everything.

Trying his luck, he decided to send in an application anyway, but needed a backup plan.

[Subordinate Libta Has Learned English Language Skill]

[English Language Skill Obtained]

'Huh...seems I obtain skills my subordinates learn, not sure how useful that will be.' His own learning speed could be considered monstrous after all. Seems Libta has started understanding English, he wasn't sure about Astril yet, but she also has Linguistics Master, it shouldn't take long.

Jim decided to do something he had been putting off for some time now, mastering Detection, he had spent a hefty number of points on it after all. Activating it, he felt the flow of knowledge was far easier to handle now. 'Is it Mental Endurance? The Pills? Serene Mind? Maybe all three...' Spending the entire day, he got to know the ins and outs of using Detection. After becoming comfortable with it, he began activating Appraisal on everything he could sense.

[Copper Ore Vein]

'Mm? That's it!' He could detect exactly where objects were with detection, his superhuman body and inventory would allow him to collect it all too. "Mom, I'm going out!" Jim had Astril and Libta stay here, they had been getting along with Jane quite well recently even if there was a language barrier, he felt comfortable with them staying here without him.

Activating Shadow Meld, Perception Interference, and Ground Shrink, he quickly left the city. Reaching an isolated point in the forest, Jim took out the shovel he had used for placing traps before and started digging madly, he activated inventory to store the dirt. *Clink* He had run into stone, although the shovel was able to pierce the rock, it wasn't ideal to use it. Jim purchased a pickaxe from the tools shop and continued down.

The broken rock was also stored in his inventory, several minutes passed before he reached his goal, a vein of Pyrite. Also known as fool's gold, he didn't really have a use for it other than practice in extracting precious minerals.

[Mining Skill Obtained]

Not much sunlight reached once he got deep enough, Jim started using Light Orb to keep his vision. The rock and soil seemed somewhat unstable, Jim visited the Spells Shop to look for something that would help.

[Fortify Object]

[Stiffening Effect, Increases Rigidity Of Target, Not Applicable To Lifeforms]

[Price - 1,000]

'Perfect', Jim started casting the new spell on his surroundings.

[Force Magic Skill Obtained]

Using Detection to figure out where he should head, a combination of Pickaxe, Shovel, Inventory, Light Orb, and Fortify Object was used for hours on end.

[Low Atmosphere Breathing Skill Obtained]

[Low Atmosphere Breathing Level Max]

[Low Atmosphere Breathing Derivation Skill - Internal Atmosphere Storage Obtained]

[Poison Resistance Skill Obtained]

[Poison Resistance Has Reached Level 3]

Jim felt uncomfortable in his chest. He had gotten used to the feeling of low oxygen some time ago, this was different. It felt like his internal organs were being rearranged. Turning Detection inwards, he found the contents of his chest had changed, there was a new organ next to his lungs. It was like a bladder that filled up with breathable air. His respiratory system had been remodeled to incorporate the air bladder.

He felt like he could hold his breath for days on end if he tried, but he wasn't unoccupied enough to actually try that though. Checking his Inventory, he now had a lot of soil, rock, pyrite, and iron. He dug his way through to a large copper vein.

[Mining Level Max]

[Poison Resistance Has Reached Level 4]

[Light Magic Has Reached Level 8]

[Force Magic Has Reached Level 3]

[Detection Has Reached Level 7]

[Mental Acuity Has Reached Level 6]

With the copper in his inventory, Jim started releasing the stored dirt as he backed out of the tunnel. Filling in the rest of the hole with Create Soil, Jim cleaned himself off. After heading home, he began using Serene Mind. 'No breakthrough today...it's getting harder to advance.'

After serving Dinner, Jim had another try at using Shadow Emperor Infinite Duplication. The black mass nearly came up to his chest in size when his Qi ran out, then collapsed.

Sighing, Jim started getting ready for bed, Libta jumped on the bed and nestled up next to him. Astril was torn, she didn't want to sleep in the same bed as Jim, but also felt it awkward to not sleep next to Libta. Jim was too tired to care about this, he soon dozed off.