"What did you just call me?" Elder Mark froze in his steps as Jack's jaw dropped down in shock.
"I said you can't go in there and disturb Ghost, he strictly ordered me not to let anyone inside" Gaya feared if he failed to breakthrough, Ghost would refuse to give her any more pills, so she stood before Elder Mark like a stone pillar refusing to let Elder Mark go inside.
"How am I going to hold this old man back?" She thought to herself while Elder Mark was stunned. If she had her cultivation, she would have sent Elder Mark flying with a single spell but now, she was crippled and the only reason for her body to have a little Arch energy was the pills that Ghost gave her.
"How dare you disrespect my teacher?!" Jack clenched his fist and roared at her.
"Look, he's deep in cultivation and already started to break through. If you stop him now, it might break his meridians and cripple him, you know that " She reduced the volume of her tone and explained it to Elder MArk before he cast a spell to throw her out of the way. In front of Gaya, when Elder Mark heard her words, he sighed because he knew she was right. Also, he didn't decide to pursue the matter that she just called him an old fart as he didn't want to lower himself to argue with the mortal girl with his status as an Elder.
"What's your name, girl? And how do you know Ghost?" Since he couldn't stop Ghost's cultivation, Elder Mark turned his focus to the haughty girl before him and tried to get to know Ghost better.
"Pri..." She almost forgot her place and introduced herself as Princess but she quickly swallowed the remaining words and cleared her throat.
"I'm called Aelia, I help Ghost in his cultivation by finding him ruins and places to explore" Her words made Elder Mark slightly raise his brows but when he remembered Ghost's previous claim saying that he explored ruins and places, what she just said made sense.
"When did you come here? I didn't see you at the competition"
"I was in the river town packing our stuff to move here, speaking of the river town, Ghost wanted Jack's help with something " She slowly turned her gaze from Elder Mark to Jack as Elder Mark asked frowning
"What is it?"
"He asked Jack to go to river town and bring Raylene Agner"
"Who is that?"
"She's one of the survivors we rescued from the Rosewood village"
*************************
(After two days)
[Congratulations to host 'Michael' for leveling up. The current stage is Body Refining stage Level 2]
[Congratulations to host 'Michael' for leveling up. The current stage is Body Refining stage Level 3]
[Congratulations to host 'Michael' for leveling up. The current stage is Body Refining stage Level 4]
[Congratulations to host 'Michael' for leveling up. The current stage is Body Refining stage Level 5]
Slowly, the interface appeared before Michael as the darkness that surrounded him since he started to upgrade faded away.
"Finally"
He heaved a sigh of relief looking at the interface as he ordered the system to bring him the status window.
Host: Michael
Cultivation Level: Body Refining stage, level 5
Experience Points: 0/300000
Badass Points: 15000
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Responsive Shield - LVL 2
Environment Scanning - LVL 1
Ignitia - LVL 1
Lightning Dash - LVL 1
Energy Devouver - LVL 1
Occupation: Disciple of Sunrise sect
Status: Healthy
Goals: Be the strongest Predator in the world
Subordinates: Gaya (loyalty level 18%)
[DIng! Host 'Micheal' has received a lucky draw. Does the Host wish to access the lucky draw? ]
While he was looking at the refined status window, another notification tab in bright blue appeared before him.
"Lucky Draw? What is that?"
[Every time System goes offline for a while, the system would offer one Lucky draw as compensation for its absence!]
"Cool, I like free stuff, open it"
As he said, the bright blue tab transformed itself into a golden box and then, the box exploded with sparks as it presented three cards wrapped in red ribbon before him.
[The host can choose one item for free. 200,000 badass points will be charged for each additional card!]
"Holy shit! 200,000, are you kidding me?!"
[No]
"It was a rhetorical question, you bastard"
The number made him go mad at the system but he soon calmed himself and inspected the first card. The red ribbon on the first card unwrapped itself and presented a beating heart with descriptions about the card.
Spell name: Seducer
Effect: Make the target instantly fall in love with the host
Upgradable: Yes
Current Level: Can affect anyone under the Core Formation stage
"Seriously?! I don't need this, system are you playing with me?!"
He was annoyed by the spell and would have punched the system in the face if it had a physical body.
[The spell would be useful if the host wants to build a harem of beautiful maidens!]
"Harem?! It's a glorified word for cheating and no, I don't want to go from place to place collecting beauties. In every novel I read, harem would just bring the mc more troubles to deal with, so no, I'm not going to build a harem"
Pushing the card away from his view, he opened the second one hoping for something better than the previous one.
[100,000 Experience points]
The second card had no fancy effects such as beating hearts or sparkling pink letters like the previous card rather it looked simple as a card with 100,000 numbers written on it.
"Hmm, tempting, certainly better than the Seducer. Let me see the last one"
The red ribbon wrapping the third and the final card unwrapped itself as the descriptions about the card appeared.
Function name: Banker
Function: Enable the System to convert gold coins into Badass Points
Upgradable: Yes
Current Level: Conversion Rate between Gold coins and Badass points = 1000:1
He blinked in disbelief as his eyes opened wide looking at the card. Then, after a few seconds, his lips curved in an upward arc
"This is it! The one I've been waiting for. With this, I can earn badass points more easily"
His joy seeing the card made him ignore the outrageous conversion rate and also, he knew that the system won't change the rate because he's whining about it.
"System, I choose this one"
[Ding, The host has successfully acquired the level 1 Banker]
"Awesome, System how much to upgrade this function to the next level?"
[10,000 Badass points!]
"And the conversion rate will be?"
[1000:5]
"You're worse than those in the pawnshops, System, you know that right?"
Even though he knew about the System's habit of taking his badass points faster than it gives him, he couldn't help but curse the system when he saw the conversion rate for the Level 2 Banker which would cost him 10,000 badass points to upgrade from Level 1.
"Put a lid on the upgrade, first I should find a source of income. To do that, I might need badass points"
He closed the Lucky draw window and then, he took a final glance at his status window
Host: Michael
Cultivation Level: Body Refining stage, level 5
Experience Points: 0/300000
Badass Points: 15000
Skills & Spells:
Wind Blast - LVL 2
Responsive Shield - LVL 2
Environment Scanning - LVL 1
Ignitia - LVL 1
Lightning Dash - LVL 1
Energy Devouver - LVL 1
Occupation: Disciple of Sunrise sect
Status: Healthy
Goals: Be the strongest Predator in the world
Utility Function: Banker - LVL 1 (Ratio - 1000 gold coins: 1badass point(s))
Subordinates: Gaya (loyalty level 18%)
"Time to rock this world"
He exited the system full of excitement in his heart. At this moment, his next fun-filled adventure started again.