One Last System

\'Ever since I met with him, my life was quite frantic, wasn\'t it?\' Mia thought to herself, her lips curving up a little. \'Still, it\'s better than what I had before,\' Mia raised her eyes, \'there is no doubt about it.\'

She took several deep breaths, allowing herself a minute of rest.

And then she jumped up from the bed, heading straight towards her quarter\'s doors.

"There is no time to waste," she whispered to herself, pushing the old, wooden doors open as she hurried back towards the training grounds.

\'I can no longer allow myself the sweet ignorance of worldly affairs,\' she thought. It was a motion that she became increasingly aware of ever since the last meeting with Arganar.

Was he truly on her side? What kind of agenda does the elder have? Or maybe he was testing her to see how much she knew about the sect\'s shenanigans?

\'I don\'t know,\' Mia thought, pursing her lips into a thin line. A single wrinkle appeared on her forehead.

"Then I need to become strong enough not to care," she added in a low voice, quickly returning to the usual spot.

\'But this is not the kind of strength that I can grow on my own,\' Mia thought to herself as he stepped into the middle of the training grounds.

"Gather up, everyone," she called out.

There was a time to train their bodies, and there was a time to do something else.

\'And if I want to expand the group...\' Mia thought, looking around the place as her companions stopped their practice and sat around.

"I\'m going to go and sell a huge chunk of our resources," Mia announced once everyone gathered up. "Right now, we can\'t even fully use them without going against our principle," she added as she lowered and then shook her head. "It\'s better if we use those resources differently," she explained.

Ever since Mia met with Arganar, they had more resources than they could consume. Especially with the principal rule of using every last thing to its fullest.

They all saw the effects of properly training their bodies along with cultivating. Even if it was an easy way forward, Mia decided not to fall into this trap.

"Guys, we need to get stronger," Mia said, sitting down and resting her arms on her knees. "No matter what, we need to do everything towards this goal. Only when we are strong enough we will be able to fend for ourselves," she said, her voice quivering a little.

Mia didn\'t know who was behind all the bullying that she was subjected to ever since she arrived at the sect.

Sure, the sponsored disciples could do a bit; maybe someone disliked her in the logistic chain...

Yet, even when discounting her own case, Mia couldn\'t help but be shocked by how useless this sect was.

\'Back when we first heard about it, wasn\'t this supposed to be the high and meritocratic society?\' she thought, recalling her last days at the Skyladder sect. \'How is this place any of those things?\' she asked herself whenever a wave of doubts would wash through her head.

\'I don\'t know who\'s behind all this systematic bullying,\' Mia thought, rephrasing her earlier statement. \'But I will grow strong enough to put an end to it,\' she declared before herself.

But what she wouldn\'t admit to was the reason why she was so keen on destroying this obstacle.

\'If they keep causing trouble, how could I grow strong enough and quick enough to be of use to Arthur?\'

This one question plagued Mia\'s mind, even if she refused to acknowledge it. The root problem was the foundation for her current determination.

"So, back to the training, are we not?" Veila asked with a small smile.

Ever since her results started improving, it felt as if a new life had entered into this formerly grumpy girl. Every move of her body was filled with energy, proving that she had discovered some sort of inner strength.

"Not really," Mia replied, her lips curving up in a small smile. "I\'ve got those for you guys," she said, rubbing the storage ring she received from Arganar and pulling out a set of paper sheets.

"Those are the missions that you need to fulfill over the next three days," Mia announced, distributing the papers to the group. "If you can\'t read, just run it through Arganar once he returns," she recommended.

"What about you?" Sander smiled when asking the question. "You. Not we," he pointed out the details of Mia\'s recent words. "I couldn\'t help but notice," he added, a gentle smile appearing on his lips.

"I\'m going to the auction hall," Mia replied without even a second of hesitation. "I will sell enough of the resources to get our training ground improved," she announced, not holding back anything at all.

"Huh?" Sander shrugged, taken by surprise. "Is there really any need for it?"

He was one of the few truly literate disciples in the entire normie group. As such, he had no trouble deciphering the words scribbled on the paper.

"It\'s not about the rewards but about the popularity," Mia explained.

The papers that she just handed out were the requests submitted to the sect.

Normally, it would be one of the sect offices tasked with distributing them towards the disciples. Yet, as Arganar explained, the inner disciples were hardly present to take those tasks on.

By submitting her own group for the jobs, Mia managed to circumvent the bureaucracy, as that particular office was troubled with no one taking the quests.

And the reason was simple. The rewards... they were mediocre at the very beast.

Sure, they would be like a godsend for Mia\'s group, but not after they received Arganar\'s support!

"Well, it\'s fine by me," Sander said as he shook his shoulder. He then looked down at the concrete slabs that made up the training grounds. "I guess you just need us out of this place for a while, don\'t you?" he asked, the right corner of his mouth rising in a mocking smile.

"That\'s right," Mia nodded her head. "If I want to remake this place, then no one will be able to train here for a while," she said, standing up and looking around the area. "And I don\'t want you guys to just sit and do nothing. We don\'t have time for such folly," she said.

"It\'s better if we get going, then," Veila said with a small sigh. "Well, that\'s exactly what we signed for, isn\'t it?" she added shortly with a delicate smile as she gathered her stuff and wiped her forehead with a towel.

"I will be moving as well," Mia said, patting herself on the hips. "I will do my best, so expect great results," she added as she raised her hand in a farewell before moving out of the training ground.

\'I still have the schematic with me,\' Mia checked, patting herself over her pocket.. The soft resistance underneath the fabric of her robe confirmed her thoughts. \'Now, let\'s see how much they will ask for!\'