One Last System

"There really isn't a lot," I muttered under my nose while watching a pile of resources grow by my feet.

Ever since the destination of my now massively enlarged group was decided on, we rushed everyone to the simple task of gathering every last mana-rich piece that was left on the battlefield.

If I were to do this task with just me, Mia, and Levi, we would likely fail to clean it all up before a week would pass. What's more, the huge amount of mana leaking from both the monster parts and the anti-mana bubbles scattered on the field would likely end up attracting even more monsters.

And with around one hundred and eighty weaklings in tow, we wouldn't be able to contain the frontline to just a hundred meters or so. Their mere presence would make the monsters look for other ways to get to them, turning an otherwise easy fight into an unnecessary bloodbath.

Thankfully, just like the number of people that we saved earlier would turn into a hardship in a fight, it turned out into a blessing when it came to simple, manual labor.

"I still don't think it was wise to let them do it," Levi complained while standing by my side.

Given just how much value there was gathered at my feet, he decided against just doing whatever and opted to stand guard by my side just in case.

"What are you so worried about?" I asked while holding back an exhausted sigh.

'This guy comes from a world where strong eats weak,' I had to remind myself. 'His way of thinking will always be inherently different from mine.'

"Won't they try to snatch some for themselves?" Levi protested, pointing out a seemingly obvious possibility.

"Your view is limited by your strength," I replied, this time unable to hold a sigh back. "In your eyes, those bits are of a small but real value," I said only to turn my eyes towards the former cultivators busying themselves with cleaning up the scraps from the highway only to bring them and pile them up by my feet.

"There are only seven people at the mana purification stage and one at the core expansion stage," I pointed out. "And I'm keeping an eye on them all the time," I added.

"What about it?" Levi inquired.

"Those below the enlightenment stage would instantly advance from even the tiniest scrap from the battlefield," Mia appeared by my side with an answer.

Contrary to Levi, she couldn't handle the idea of just standing and doing nothing. Instead, she made herself busy by going around the place and overseeing the former cultivators at their work, helping with pieces that turned out either too mana-rich or simply too heavy for them to lift.

"I don't know if it's because of how much spiritual energy you guys used to kill all those beasts or maybe they were somehow stronger than the average monster in the area... but there you have it," she said while shrugging her shoulders.

"And if anyone advances, we will be able to instantly sort the bad seed out," I finished the idea behind the current arrangement.

The people that we saved were gathered at random. And judging from how those people didn't appear to know each other either, their presence here could only be explained by pure chance.

As such, just like there were bound to be some righteous people in the group of otherworlders we saved, there were bound to be some that followed the law of selfishness.

'I can only hope that the second category of people all went up and left,' I thought, taking a quick glance in the direction those who refused to follow me went.

And as if would happen, they appeared to not trust my warnings about the effects of cultivating the anti-mana. And as they had no means of snatching the scraps from my hands, they all opted to head to the borderlands.

"And what if they simply hide them to cultivate with those resources later?" Levi pointed out the possibility that fell outside of the scope of my arrangement.

"Learning always comes at a cost," I replied with a shrug of my shoulders. "And if that means they will lessen the burden of clearing all that anti-mana for me..." I raised the corner of my lips before turning silent.

After all, Levi was intelligent enough to get the point even if I didn't spell it out loud.

Thanks to the number of people working on the task, the job itself soon reached its completion. And with a huge pile of scrapped monster parts right before me, there were only two things left for me to do.

"Once again, I'm sorry dear," I said while reaching out for Mia's hand and pulling her into my embrace. "I will make sure to help you advance later, mkay?" I then promised while placing a quick, gentle kiss on her juicy lips.

"It's okay," Mia eagerly replied to my desire for closeness before pushing herself away a bit. "Now, do what you need to do."

With everything said and done, only one thing remained for me to accomplish.

And so, with a mere thought, I ripped half of my formations into pieces, cannibalizing their formation stones to create a cultivation array.

The first ring of the formation served to reduce all the physical matter and free the energy hidden within. The second ring of formation aimed to purify the mana. Then, the third ring accelerated its flow, the fourth directed it all back to the center while the fifth ensured no energy would leak out of the system.

In the end, only the pile of resources and I stood within the entire formation with Levi and Mia guiding everyone some distance away from the outer reaches of the fifth ring.

'It's been a while since I last advanced properly,' I thought, gulping down my saliva. I then closed my eyes, took a deep breath... and activated all five of the formations at the same time.

'It's time to catch up!'

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