One Last System

But as great as it appeared to be on the surface, my mana condensation still lagged behind by quite a bit.

\'Now!\'

It felt like lightning striking my body. Upon reaching the perfect position, perfect breath, perfect flow of mana inside my flesh, my body snapped, sending my right fist forward.

Tic.

The moment my first struck the pillar, the familiar sensation coursed through my flesh. But instead of checking my status to see whether my mana condensation improved as well, I pulled back to the preparatory stance and took a deep breath.

The times when I could just smash away without a care in the world were now over. I had to focus on the stance before hitting... but the stance and calm after hitting as well.

Whether I had to do it or not... I actually had no clue. It was just another guess of mine, something that I figured out to be the most sensible way of improving my focus, of improving my chances at farming up my mana condensation points.

Once my adrenaline settled down, I brushed my finger against the spirit stone held in the small holster in my left palm. I allowed the fresh energy to loosely assimilate into my system for a moment before starting to focus myself on the pillar once again.

Bit by bit, my body grew colder, preparing for the impact. And just as I was about to strike again...

"ARTHUR!" Vaner shouted, pushing the doors to the garden open.

\'NOW!\' I thought, forcing the attack to go through even without the total concentration.

In a sense, this attack was better than what most of the cultivators at the sect could ever dream of executing. Yet, for me, it wasn\'t enough.

I could feel the mana that I just absorbed from the stone going awry inside me, contributing far less to my growth than I hoped it would.

\'What a waste,\' I thought, feeling how my body warmth increased a little. It was the sign of the mana failing to fully absorb. Just like with electricity, once there was resistance, the energy would be lost through heat.

"Elder," I turned around and bowed while clasping my hands, hiding the ugly expression that made its way on my face.

\'You couldn\'t wait for me to strike the stone...\' I thought with grief, killing all hints of it from my face before raising my head up.

Vaner stood right at the entrance of the garden. He had a strange look on his face and held a simple, white letter in his right hand.

"Arthur..." Vaner lowered his eyes the moment he noticed my tense expression. "It\'s hard for me to say it... But I know where this letter came from," he added with a deep sigh, a small blush appearing on his cheeks.

\'Letter?\' I thought, caught by surprise. \'But I don\'t have any correspondence with others?\'

For a moment, I scurried my mind to figure out what could be the origin of this letter... But no matter how hard I tried, the answer turned out to be too elusive for me to find it out.

And then the realization struck me.

Because there was only one place that I actually had some ties with. Only one place located outside the sect which would force this form of contact.

\'I forgot to give them my account at the auction house,\' I realized, my eyes inevitably widening as the realization exploded in my mind.

Since the girls at the brothel didn\'t have any means of transfering my share of the money, they could only send it with a letter!

"This is not what you think..." I muttered, only to bite my tongue a second too late.

This kind of excuse was as good as pleading guilty at the court.

"What is not what he thinks?" Mia appeared from behind Vaner\'s back. A towel over her shoulders, proving that she just got out of the bath.

For a moment, I wanted to bash Vaner for intruding on our room while she was bathing. But the look of genuine curiosity in Mia\'s eyes...

Right now, I was in too much trouble to change the topic just like that, no matter how much I wished to do so.

"Mia, dear..." Vaner shook his head, pulling the lid of the letter open and showing a cheque valued at nearly three hundred gold coins.

\'At least the investment is going nicely,\' I thought, unable to hold back the corner of my lips from raising a little.

"It pains me to say this, but your boyfriend just received a huge cash cheque from a brothel," Vaner said, a hint of a smirk appearing underneath his fakely concerned expression.

\'This bastard...\' I thought, tightening my fists. Knowing him, this fucker was already fully aware of my deal with Madam of the brothel, yet he still presented the situation in such a misguiding way...

Was this his way of taking revenge for excluding him out of this business of mine?

"My b-b-boyfriend?" Mia stuttered, a blush appearing on her face. But this cute expression lasted only for a short second before her face turned white in shock. "Wait, what? He received the cash?!" she screamed out, the chaotic movement of her eyes showcasing how confused she was.

\'Well, one could expect the transaction to go the other way in situations like that,\' I thought, raising my head in hopes of explaining the situation before it could turn any worse.

"This is my fault..." Mia lowered her eyes as she exclaimed. She then grabbed her own shoulders and squatted down, her body trembling as various emotions coursed through her mind. "If I didn\'t press you to find the cash to cover the tracks of the robe, you wouldn\'t have to sell yourself like that!" she exclaimed, proving just how far this misunderstanding went.

"Huh?" Vaner\'s eyes widened when Mia accidentally revealed something that I wished to keep hidden from the elder.

Vaner was my greatest support in this world... but he was still a man with his own agenda and objectives. The more of my uniqueness was revealed to him, the less trust I could have in his support.

Reaching the mana condensation stage in just two weeks was an achievement great enough to stun the others. Add my unique food ideas, now the lingerie business in a brothel and even the matter of the robes, and my uniqueness was reaching levels that would make even Vaner suspicious.

It was one of the reasons why I already decided not to reveal that I was about to reach the limits of the mana condensation stage and appear at the doorstep of the core establishment level!

"It\'s not like that at all," I shook my head as I released a deep sigh.

Truth be told, I still wasn\'t satisfied with the quality of the panties I was making over the last five nights. But in the current situation, I had no other choice but to reveal what was really going on.

Or rather, while I could keep silent about my side hustle, I dared not to even imagine what kind of effect would that have on my relationship with Mia!

"Now you made me curious," Vaner suddenly said. Even before he could elaborate, I already knew what he would be all about. "What is this robe that Mia mentioned?" he asked.

"Huh?" Mia brought her head up, her tears-covered eyes opening wide as she realized her own fault. "I mean..." she put a smile on her face that was so fake, I barely managed to hold back a chuckle. Her desperation to fix her mistake was just too adorable!

"I will explain soon, Elder," I bowed my head to Vaner before moving forward and kneeling in front of Mia. "You don\'t need to worry. This situation only appears to be bad, I promise," I said, wiping the tears out of her lovely face with my thumb.

"How else could you get money from a damned brothel!" Mia refused to accept my plea for more time, smacking my chest with her fists instead.

"I will explain it to you... Or rather, it will be better to just show it," I said, standing up and helping Mia up as well. But instead of instantly moving outside, I walked to the corner of the garden where the soaps from before were cooling down.

Given how I used the hot-soaping method to obtain them, letting them cool for several days was a bit excessive... But given how oily, only half-solid they came out, I was grasping at straws.

Yet, the second my hand touched the handle of the box with the soaps, a familiar feeling coursed through my mind.

Titititic!

Just like before, I didn\'t do anything to warrant an increase in my status. Which meant I just received a new damned job! And from how this feeling notification appeared to repeat itself a few times in a row...

Was it possible that I gained several levels of that new job at once?

Sadly, there was no time for me to check it out right now.

"Is this what we have been working on for the last few days?" Mia asked, staring at how I lifted up the chunky box.

"Yeah, now that you are on me already, I can tell what it is," I said.

"Some kind of alchemy concoction?" Vaner asked, trying his best at guessing the content of the box.

"Not really. It\'s a beautification creme," I replied, passing the two of them as I headed for the exit of the mansion.

"Huh?" Mia moaned in shock, freezing in place for a second before rushing after me. "Did I hear you right? A beautification creme? Something like that?!" she almost screamed out, making the few servants of the mansion throw us some weird looks.

"That\'s right," I nodded my head. "But that\'s exactly what I spoke five days ago. Don\'t get your hopes up too much," I muttered, kicking the doors of the mansion open.

The wave of fresh air blasted right into my face, filling my nostrils with the scent of freshness.

Given how I have yet to change after training, I was about to walk through the sect half-naked.

Still, it was better than constantly reminding Vaner about the matter with the robes!

And in my situation, was there anything that could make a common opinion on me even worse?