"Let's go." Leticia immediately ran after him, excited. Belen and Rima also raised the speed.
A while later, they were standing in Max's room, surrounding him. Seeing the excitement on Max's face, they were eager to see what was in the spatial bag and very much wanted to rush him to show them. However, despite their curiosity, none was willing to show their impatience to him. So, they stood around him without saying anything.
Max looked at their curious expressions, took a deep breath to calm down, and opened the spatial bag.
Swish!
Five small wooden boxes appeared and hovered in front of him under his control.
"They are..." When Belen, Leticia, and Rima saw the boxes, after a moment's confusion, their eyes widened.
"A-aren't they the same boxes that held the spirit fruits?" Leticia asked, staring at the boxes without blinking.
"Yes." Max nodded and before she could ask anything, he opened one of the boxes.
Just as he did, a refreshing scent spread throughout the room, and when the ladies and he saw the small violet fruits lying there, their eyes sparkled. Without wasting another second, he proceeded to open the rest of the boxes. With each box opened, his excitement rose.
"Wah! F-five spirit fruit!" Leticia exclaimed in shock. Belen and Rima were also shocked. They hadn't expected little Arya's father to be so generous as to gift them with five spirit fruit.
Seeing them, Rima smiled happily and thought, 'Now I can also have one and breakthrough to the peak two-star.'
Although she had willingly given up on having a spirit fruit before, it was only because they only had two and she didn't want to fight Belen and Leticia for one. However, now that they had a total of seven fruit, she wouldn't feel bad having one for herself.
'This is good. Now I can save a lot of LPs after I break through to the three-star realm.' Max thought excitedly.
After breaking through to three-star, the Mana needed to progress further was many times higher than the Mana needed while in the two-star realm. To be precise, one needed 100,000 units of Mana in their Mana core to break through into the four-star realm.
Therefore, he would only need four of the spirit fruits to reach the peak of three-star. How could he not be excited by this? However, his excitement was quickly doused by the system's voice.
[Don't be too excited, kid. Only the first fruit a person eats will affect them. If you eat more, they would be useless. Oh, not useless, you can still eat them to sate your hunger.]
Max's expression froze when he heard this. If what the system said was true which he knew was most likely, he could improve his cultivation by only one minor stage by eating the spirit fruit.
Max glanced at Belen who was looking at the spirit fruit and asked, "Belen, can one person only eat one such fruit?"
Belen moved her gaze away from the fruit and nodded, "Yes. Only the first fruit you eat would help you because after consuming one, your body would develop resistance toward the same kind of fruit."
"Eh? That's too bad." When Leticia heard this, she was disappointed just like Max.
Max sighed. 'It's alright. I shouldn't be too greedy. I can still save 25,000 LPs if I consume it after reaching the middle-stage three-star realm.' He comforted himself.
He then glanced at the gorgeous ladies in front of him and smiled. He gave one fruit to Rima. As for Belen and Leticia, they had already received one fruit each after the auction.
After giving it to her, he said, "Since you and Belen are already high-stage two-star mages, I think you shouldn't use the fruit right now as it will only take you guys to the peak two-star. Use it after breaking through to the three-star realm where you will receive the maximum benefit."
Rima and Belen nodded and decided to use their fruits after becoming three-star mages. He then turned to Leticia and said, "Since you are still a mid-stage two-star mage, you can consume it and break through to the peak two-star or save it for later use, it's up to you."
Leticia didn't respond when she heard his suggestion and she seemed to be struggling inside. After a moment she glanced at Rima and Belen, took a deep breath, turned to Max, and said resolutely, "I'll also save it for later."
After saying this, she turned around and left.
Watching her leave like that, Max frowned and asked, "Is everything alright with her?"
Belen hesitated a little before she sighed and said, "After our encounter with the dark mages, we both realized we need to be stronger to survive and... be with you. This is especially true for Leticia. She thinks since she is the weakest, she is a liability to you and although she doesn't say it, I know she fears you might leave her if she continues to be weak. That's why she has been training hard to improve."
"I see." Max nodded and thought, 'I need to do something about it.'
He then said, "Okay. You guys should return to your rooms and take that medicinal bath."
"Yes." Belen and Rima nodded and walked out of his room.
After that, he also entered the bathroom. The bathtub was filled with a green liquid and steam was rising from it. Just a sniff of the vapor made him feel as if he was in clouds.
"This is some good stuff." Without wasting any time, he took off his clothes and entered the bathtub.
Nice~
As his body plunged into the hot green liquid, he let out a moan because of how comfortable it felt. His fatigue starting vanish and he closed his eyes and simply lay there.
[Hey, kid. Don't just lay there. Use this chance to strengthen your Mana core using the bath's medicinal power.] Just then, the system's voice sounded in his ears.
