In reality, even through Lucien was collecting so much blood, he didn't even know the requirements on promoting his Rank 2 Blood Count Path. He felt that promoting a Middle Path wouldn't be as simple as opening the gates.
He couldn't even explore before getting the manual. The special thing about the manuals was the diagrams that described what route needed to be taken when connecting one gate to another. Once someone was a Rank 0, he could feel the first gate inside his body and it was even possible to open it, but if a wrong turn was taken while guiding the Particles to the second gate, the consequences could be dire. The breakthrough was sure to fail and there was even a high chance for a backlash that would wound the Practitioner.
It was the same with the diagrams used to train stats, for example if one wanted to train his Soul, the route would end in his brain where the Particles would pour inside and temper the Soul. If the route the Practitioner took was just random, the Particles wouldn't be purified of chaotic traits and pouring that inside a vital organ might lead to serious injuries.
Lucien marveled at how the first Practitioners suffered in their training while grabbing for the right routes in the dark. The Practitioners now didn't even try to find a new and better route, using the old ones that were polished by blood and tears was enough for them.
After a couple of days of this expeditions, the profits Lucien had accumulated were astonishing. He had killed 3 Rank 1 Beast which yielded 24000 in total and about 3 liters of Rank 2 blood. Eating them took most of the time, with scouting for dangers taking the second rank in time consumption. Another astonishing thing was that Lucien found a Herb.
It was a Water Path Rank 1 Herb, he had to kill the Rank 1 Beast that was guarding in order to obtain it, which brought a bit of a headache. Since the Herb and the Beast were the same Rank and it was still unconsumed, Lucien was sure that the Beast was a subordinate tasked with guarding it by at least a Rank 2 Beast.
He would have normally avoided such a situation, but the Herb was too much of a temptation. From his basic understanding of how the world worked and how the Paths were stabilizing it, Lucien knew that he needed to gather Sources of All Paths to make his Crimson World stronger.
It was also a wake up call to Lucien who had completely forgotten about absorbing soil, as this was the perfect chance. He didn't hunt in the nights, so absorbing soil while eating Beast meat would be the perfect way to pass time. Lucien was already considering spending extended period of time here and grinding till his satisfaction.
From torturing the families he had still 30 000 Existence Points left and now adding the 24 000, he was well on his way of creating the Lightning Clone.
'Even if I buy another Manual, I can't train them both. And the more Rank 3 Clones I have the better.'
Lucien didn't plan to make clones with Rank 2 Potential as they required 10 000 Existence Points each and the upgrade would still be 100 000. Directly creating ones with Rank 3 Potential would save him 10 000 Existence Points per clone.
Last time Lucien was absorbing soil, his Soul was barely Rank 2, while his other stats were at the peak of Rank 1. Right now Lucien was just about 10 times stronger than back then.
He didn't plan on wearing the Devil Armor for extended periods of time to make his stats higher, after all it was fine if he wore it for an extended period of time, but it still put a burden on his body, after all it was like putting it in overdrive in a gentle way. He could probably sustain it for a night or two, but it would be a bit too much if he went on with that lifestyle for months.
Back then Lucien needed 8 months to absorb 80 square meters of high grade soil. Which translated into 8000 square meters or 8 000 000 kg of normal soil. This was something he took from this world forever.
He needed 3 days to absorb 100 square meters of normal soil, 3 days to get 1 square meter of high grade soil. And now Lucien was 10 times stronger. He could get 1 square kilometer or 10 square meters of high grade soil in 3 days.
What took him 8 months before could be done in 24 days now. It was staggering. And he was sure that the increments wouldn't just follow his stats in the future. The Devouring Path sounded like it might offer him a nice surprise on this front. Strengthening the Crimson World might also enhance his absorption abilities.
Just by absorbing soil Lucien could make 100 000 Existence Points in a month, if he decided to convert, which was off the table. Seeing that he could find Herbs, he planned to finally strengthen the Crimson World a bit, he was convinced that the benefits in doing so would not lack.
Lucien continued following this routine, and since he was making sure to be invisible to the higher ranking beasts, changing locations often was the minimum requirement. Moving around also fit his plan on collecting different Herbs.
Since this turned in a long term expedition, he made sure to lower his killing rate just in case, he didn't kill anything while looking though the area for Herbs and once he made sure he didn't miss a spot, he went to kill no more than one or two Rank 1 Beasts in an area before he moved on.
Since the soil he required for his nightly activities was everywhere it didn't matter in which area he was. Lucien still made sure to keep to the outskirts, and using his Soul Domain, many unwanted troubles such as bumping into Rank 2 Beasts and attracting unwanted attention were easily solved.
Unknowingly to the Beasts, a Devil had snuck in their midst and was slowly grinding its teeth, making them sharper for the future when he would jump up and devour them all.