They stayed at the Mana Stone mine for seven days—digging ore and companion minerals, and letting Big Cyan rest and heal.
The ox would be their main pack animal on the return trip. Im's Expansion Pack could reduce weight, but its capacity was limited, and "reduced weight" didn't mean no weight at all.
Even low-grade Mana Stones were valuable. A standard 2.36-inch cube sold for around ten gold coins. The stones they'd dug, when converted to standard size, numbered roughly ten thousand—worth over a hundred thousand gold coins, a fortune by any measure.
They'd extracted all the easily accessible stones; any more would be impossible to transport. The ten thousand stones took up only two to three cubic meters of space, but weighed six to seven tons. Even with Big Cyan's Wilderness Beast blood, he couldn't carry that load injured—thankfully, Im's Expansion Pack cut the weight to a twentieth of its original, making the journey feasible.
Whoever crafted the Expansion Pack had used quality materials—it didn't crack under the strain.
Besides Mana Stones, they'd collected a small pile of gems: mana storage crystals, garnets, feldspar, corundum, muscovite, kyanite, rutile. Even with low purity, each was mana-infused and useful for various magical purposes, adding another hundred thousand gold coins to their haul.
In between digging, they processed the herbs they'd gathered to prevent rot. Im kept complaining about the region's low mana density, but that very scarcity meant few mages had ever ventured here—leaving herbs and minerals untouched, a hidden treasure for them to claim.
Once Big Cyan's wounds were mostly healed, they loaded the Mana Stones into Im's pack and secured it to the ox's back. They could have left some behind, buried for later retrieval with better storage gear, but none of the four could bear to abandon so much wealth. They traveled slowly, hyper-vigilant, fearing the pack might rupture from the strain.
Thankfully, the mana-poor region meant no more magical beasts. Wild boars, wolves, tigers, and leopards crossed their path, but Leon, Dahlia, and Flower handled them easily with their camshaft crossbows. If they hadn't been in such a hurry, their packs would have been filled with more dried meat.
They finally reached Linden Pine Valley, exhausted more mentally than physically. The constant worry of ambush had taken its toll. Im warned his apprentices to keep the mine a secret—they couldn't defend it, not with his diminished strength. Even with his former master's reputation, a low-grade Mana Stone mine would attract greedy mages and bandits.
Silent wealth was safer wealth.
Back at Moonlight Cottage, they set to work: processing herbs, cleaning Mana Stones and gems to remove impurities and embedded rock. Standard Mana Stones were common, but many mages preferred raw, uncut stones to avoid waste—cutting always meant losing some mana-infused material.
Leon walked to the barn early the next morning to check on Big Cyan's wounds.
He froze at the door.
A cow lay on the ground, frothing at the mouth, its chest still.
Leon stepped back, shouting, "Teacher! Something's wrong with the barn!"
Im, Flower, and Dahlia rushed over. Im frowned—his binding pact with Big Cyan showed no distress, only excitement. He summoned mana, ready for trouble.
At the barn door, Leon stood frozen, peering inside. The dead cow was one of their breeding bulls, bought to mate with their milk cows.
Im hurried forward, mana crackling in his palm—then stopped, his face turning bright red.
Inside, Big Cyan had pinned a milk cow to the ground, mating with her. Leon was covering his eyes, pretending not to look.
"Looks like Big Cyan's fully healed," Leon said, stepping aside to let Flower pass, his voice dry.
"It's… good news," Im stammered, dissipating his mana. "I'll drag the dead bull out to process."
The awkardness was palpable. They'd braced for an attack, only to stumble on a mating scene—with his apprentices watching, no less.
Big Cyan glanced at Im, as if mocking his overreaction, before returning to his business. Im dragged the dead bull away, his ears still pink.
"Should we buy more milk cows?" Leon called after him.
Im stumbled. "Stop being ridiculous," he snapped—then sighed. "Do as you like. Take the day off to find some."
He hurried away with the bull. Meanwhile, Dahlia and Flower watched Big Cyan with fascination.
The next morning, Leon went home to Acorn Village. He'd spent most of the past years as Im's apprentice, with only a few days off each month—no summer or winter breaks like he'd had in his old world's school.
The fountain pen business with Valoka Guild had made him wealthy, though most of the gold went into his experiments. He gave just enough to his family to live comfortably, not wanting to arouse suspicion with sudden wealth.
After two days of rest, Leon visited a local broker to buy milk cows. It wasn't the usual breeding season, so he had to visit farms directly—without the broker, he'd never have known who was selling.
No one dared cheat him. The village knew he studied with the lord's children under a mage tutor; the Sainsbury name offered protection. Leon didn't mind leveraging it—he'd rather "borrow" their authority than deal with haggling or scams.
He returned to Linden Pine Valley with two healthy milk cows, their coats glossy and well-cared for. He'd paid double the asking price, convincing reluctant farmers to sell now that summer had arrived and the cows weren't needed for plowing. He'd hoped for spotted or white cows—imagining calves with Big Cyan's cyan fur and spotted patterns, like dairy cows—but settled for solid brown ones.
Leon led the new cows to the meadow where Big Cyan grazed with the original milk cow. The first cow looked thin and listless, as if exhausted.
"These are your new harems," Leon said, patting Big Cyan's neck. "Picked 'em myself—top quality."
Big Cyan's wounds had healed enough for him to act aggressively. He'd chased away the calf born to the original cow—a bull Leon planned to sell. Now, he stood surrounded by three cows, the original nuzzling his side.
Leon sighed, feeling a twinge of envy. He was fourteen now, old enough for such thoughts. He glanced down at himself, then back at Big Cyan.
The new cows kept their distance, wary of Big Cyan's size. Only the original stayed close, acting affectionate in a way she never had before.
"Seriously?" Leon muttered. "Even the cow's showing PDA now? Did mating boost her emotional intelligence?"
He couldn't remember his family's cows going into heat this early, but they hadn't shown signs before he left. "Don't tell me Big Cyan has a love aura," he joked. "Total protagonist material—for a bad romance novel."
Big Cyan had likely been lonely. No other cyan oxen, not even wild cows, lived in the Crosscut Mountains. Leon wondered about his parentage—was he even a pure ox? Without Im's pact, would his bloodline have gone extinct? Now, mating with ordinary cows would dilute his genes—his calves would be hybrids, not pure Wilderness Beasts.
But if Big Cyan fathered bull calves, his Y-chromosome would pass down, preserving at least part of his lineage. "I could tell a girl I'm giving her a family heirloom—a祖传 chromosome," Leon joked to himself.
The sun warmed his back, making him drowsy. He pulled out a sketchpad and pencil, settling on a rock to practice.