One Last System

"Don't be so hard on him when you return."

Veila appeared before Mia even managed to get to the main gate of the sect.

She wore her usual clothes and a small knowing smile that indicated she was already in the know.

As such, Mia didn't waste her precious free time trying to probe what the girl meant.

"What happened to work as hard as it takes?" she only muttered in response, theatrically rolling her eyes. She then looked towards the nearby gate, a decorative piece that set the boundary between the sect grounds and the civilian area.

"I didn't really think about it before, but..." Mia said in a low voice before moving her eyes directly at Veila's face. "What makes you push forward?" she asked bluntly.

"Going right for the prize, aren't you?" Veila only smiled before shaking her head. "I'm sorry, but if you want to know that, you will need to make us win at least one tournament first," she quickly denied Mia's question.

'She didn't stop smiling, though,' Mia noticed with relief, perfectly aware how her question could be taken as pretty rude.

Just the fact of asking about one's motivation wasn't rude in itself but could easily be taken as claiming that one couldn't see the motivation of the other.

Thankfully, Veila didn't seem like someone who would take advantage of this opportunity to bully Mia.

"As for your earlier question," Veila smiled cheekily, "if you want to have proper results from your training, you need to make sure to condition your body for growth," she said before stepping two paces to the back, right towards the gate of the sect.

"In other words, I need to rest," Mia said with a sigh before letting her head hang low. "I know it already. Anyway," she shook her head and looked up at her female friend. "Do you know any places worth visiting?" Mia asked, hoping that at least her companion of the same sex wouldn't refuse the answer to this question.

"I don't really know that many good places," Veila shrugged the question off. "How about going to get some food? Or maybe just strolling around the town?" she suggested as she walked a step forward and raised her eyes to the sky. "Ultimately, just do whatever you feel like doing," she advised before turning around and leaving.

'And what exactly am I supposed to enjoy?' Mia asked herself as she realized the quandary she was in.

Back in her time of being a slave, she would do everything to keep herself safe. She would work her hardest for Media and use every free moment to let her body regain its strength.

Since getting together with Arthur, Mia's life has oscillated all around him. From sleeping with him, waking up together, through training, meals, and scheming...

'Even when I came to this sect, all I wanted was to get strong enough to help him back,' Mia thought as she walked through the sect's gate, finally entering the town.

The city itself sprawled all around the sect grounds. It occupied an area far greater than the sect itself, making it easier to call the sect just a district of the city rather than using the sect to name the city in the first place.

'It's nothing like it was back at the Skyladder sect,' Mia thought as she walked through the wide streets of the town.

The city bustled with activity. People were coming and going, every last one of them busy with their own affairs.

'This place is kind of nice,' Mia thought, unable to stop the joyous atmosphere of the townsfolk from permeating through her soul.

'Now that I think about it,' Mia muttered as she reached out to the pocket of her robe, 'what am I supposed to do with those?'

In her hands, there were the cultivation beads.

According to Sander's information, they were used whenever one's cultivation was too strained from over-relying on the cultivation resources to boost it.

Mia's group never faced such a problem and was unlikely to ever face it in the first place. Since they were using the cultivation resources as a complement rather than the foundation of their growth, the cultivation beads were all but useless for them.

'Maybe I should sell them?' she asked herself, only to hide the beads back into her pocket as she delved deeper into the city.

Even though Mia spent most of her time in the normal sect area, she still had to go back to sleep to her quarters at the sponsored dormitory.

As a result, Mia would enter the sponsored area late in the night and get out of it early in the evening. That meant she couldn't really know for sure whether the other sponsored students continued to ignore the need for training, relying on the cultivation resources alone...

'I'm quite certain they do,' Mia thought when she first noticed such a possibility. 'I saw how they reacted when they got their first bit of the sponsorship. Unless our last interaction made them turn over a new leaf...' Mia's lips turned up in a mocking smile.

'Nah, there is no way,' she thought, holding back her chuckle as she raised her head to look around the streets.

The plan formed in the girl's head, prompting her to increase the pace of her walk as she moved through the streets.

Soon Mia stopped in her steps.

No one pointed this place to her, nor there were any signs announcing what kind of purpose the building served.

There was no need for any of that.

'So this is the local auction hall,' Mia thought, standing as she observed the front of the building.

Even without any signs of names, she could tell that this was the place.

The number of people in expensive clothing coming in and out of place was the first of the giveaways. A massive, although raised gate that protected its entrance was the other.

'This might be a good place to sell those beads,' Mia thought to herself as she made her way inside the building.

Even today, she still continued to wear the robes that Arthur made for her, refusing to change into the sect-provided outfit. As such, she didn't expect to receive any kind of special treatment, given how the people at the auction hall couldn't tell she came from the sect.

"Welcome to the auction hall," one of the receptionists was quite quick to approach her the second she stepped into the main hall of the building. "What kind of business would you like to conduct today, my lady?"

"I would like to sell two relaxation beads," Mia claimed, pulling out the two small tablets from her pocket and showing them in the palm of her hand. "What kind of prize do you think I could ask for?"

'I know it's stupid to ask about the price of the things I want to sell,' Mia thought, stopping an ugly grin from surfacing on her lips. 'But right now, it doesn't really matter. I didn't expect to get any money, so whatever I will be able to get will already be a profit,' she decided internally.

"Sure, just give me one second," the receptionist replied after catching just a glimpse of what she had to offer. "I will be right back, so if you could just wait here for a second," the young man excused himself with a smile before hurrying into the deeper, staff-only part of the building.

'I was supposed to get some rest,' Mia thought, releasing a deep sigh, 'and here I am, already trying to see what I can do for our cause,' she thought, rolling her eyes over her own situation and actions.

'Am I really that incapable of doing anything on my own?' she asked herself as she continued to wait for the receptionist to return.

As she had not passed the tablets to the man yet, she wasn't really worried about the man ditching her.

"I apologize for the wait," the receptionist said just a few moments later as he returned with another person.

Mia glanced over at the new person, only to notice that the small marking that the receptionist bore on his shoulder was replicated on that person's outfit, with a few more details added.

'A higher rank?' Mia thought, surprised by her discovery.

"Excuse me, my lady," the middle-aged woman gently bowed her head before raising her eyes at the girl. "Are you by any chance called Mia?"

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