I had to pass by empty courtyards and classrooms before I could make it towards Lily’s place.
The inner students of all the peaks lived in small courtyards, sometimes even sharing them when space was tight. Too many students, not enough room.
But Lily? She had the entire place to herself. No crowded dorms, no sharing space. Just her, her courtyard, and an entire peak’s worth of luxury.
She practically lived like a queen.
There was no other inner student other than her, all the others were either registered disciples or outer disciples, who had their own dormitories in the lower sections of this mountain.
They were taught by instructors that also live in the lower levels of the mountain. This upper part was basically reserved for the peak Master and her students only.
Quite a privilege if you ask me.
No one thought it was weird that my mother only had one disciple as it wasn’t like there were none who applied. A lot did actually.
Being an Alchemist was probably one of the best career paths in life. No combat, no bloodshed, no problems.
That's what many thought when they came here, but a single class by my mom set them straight, and almost all of them dropped out.
I still remember last year when she had one of the newer students drink a paralysing poison to understand its effects.
Never saw him after that. Poor guy.
And that was one of the tamer incidents. I have seen students being burnt beyond recognition in her class once. Even my mom had a look that said that maybe she crossed a line that day, and that’s saying something.
There’s a saying in the sect that combat focused peaks had nicer and kinder instructors. That was how bad my mom’s reputation was.
But since she was too good at her work, no one bothered her and it wasn’t like she had kicked everyone out.
She had taken two students.
No, rather than saying she had taken two students, it was more accurate to say that only two survived her hellish lessons.
One had already become a prime disciple. The other? Lily. And next year, she’d take that spot too.
Five peaks. Five disciples.
After that? Instructor or enforcer.
Instructors trained disciples and protected the sect. Every peak had plenty of those.
But no one talked about the enforcers.
“They’re always on missions,” the sect says. Convenient.
Yet somehow, I’ve never met a single one.
Honestly, that sounds worse than being stuck on a mountain. But maybe that’s just me.
Very few people actually even reach that stage, that’s why every five years only five people are chosen from the four standard peaks and the main central peak.
I kept looking around before reaching the entrance of her courtyard. Before I could even call out to her, she came running out.
“Anshe! Thank god you’re okay, I was so worried!”
She came running and hugged me tightly. I have been hugged a lot today, not like I hate it though.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
‘How did she even know I came here? I am pretty sure I look like a normal mortal on the outside.’
The weird chill I felt when I entered the dormitory area disappeared when she came out.
[The host was being watched by her magical sense from the moment we entered the dormitory area.]
I knew something was off.
‘Rather, you can tell that as well!?’
[The system is aware of anything that is happening to the host’s body.]
‘Please tell me whenever something like this happens. Also alert me whenever anything changes in my body through outside stimulus or if you detect any hostility towards me.’
[Understood.]
I remembered what the system had told me, I need to be thorough in explaining what I need from it otherwise only I would be the only one to blame for any oversight.
…
In one of the rooms of her cottage, I could see her looking at me with weird eyes as she repeatedly opened her mouth to say something before closing.
“Y-y-you’re really giving this to me?”
I sighed as I had answered this question so many times already.
“Yes. Please use it. I insist.”
In the end she could only nod slightly as she kept head down again without looking at me.
I was worried she might do something weird, but seeing this, maybe I was wrong about her.
So I said my goodbyes and left while also encouraging her to work harder.
“Work hard, Big Sis! Your success is my success!”
Literally.
…
Even after Anshe left, Lily didn’t move from her spot, she waited till she couldn’t feel him anymore before letting her tense body go as she collapsed on the bed behind her.
“I might’ve really done something that I would’ve regretted later, he would’ve definitely hated me if I hadn’t controlled myself right now.”
She didn’t even open the box as she caressed it to sleep.
“Oh, Anshe…”
His last statement made her blush so hard, she couldn’t even look him in the eyes anymore. So she didn’t even say anything before he left. Although she felt some regret, she knew there was a lot of time for them to grow their love together.
And now how he had gifted her something this precious, she felt that her feelings were validated again.
“You feel the same, right Anshe? You just don’t know yet, you’re still young, but one day, one day I hope you will look at me the way you used to… though I also hope you don’t keep me waiting for too long…”
A pale girl’s face flashed through her eyes.
“Even death couldn’t keep us apart, what can a little brat do…”
She slept with the box in her hands and with a wide grin on her face. Only she knew what she was dreaming about.
…
I stood out at the base of the mountain where the entrance to the sect was located.
Today, no one was accompanying me as my mom had explained to me before, I was totally on my own today.
I still planned to join the Shining Cauldron Peak anyway, but that didn’t mean I didn’t need to perform today.
And since I can only use the
Still I couldn’t help but smile upon seeing the girl who was standing in front of me.
“Hi, Sarah!”
I called out cheerfully. And I wasn’t giving the fake smile I was giving yesterday, but rather a very genuine smile as she had given me quite a power boost last night.
Let me explain.
You see, as I had decided to work on practicing my ability after I left Lily’s place, I was going to do just that but I was bombarded with messages before I could do so.
[Target - Sarah Scarletgrave has advanced to Rank 1]
[The Insatiable System demands more - 10x multiplier applied.]
[Energy threshold reached. Host - Anshe can advance to Rank 1]
[All stats +10]
[Energy threshold reached. Host - Anshe can advance to Rank 2]
[All stats +100]
[Host – Anshe]
[Realm - Rank 0 (Pending Breakthrough: 2)]
[Physique - 226] (+110)
[Magic- 340] (+110)
[Control - 290] (+110)
Before I even started practicing my abilities I had technically reached almost halfway through Rank 1. Though I knew the reason why the number in the status was still showing 0.
‘Isn’t this basically cheating, Avaria?’
[If this meager amount of power is enough for the host to consider this cheating then the host can only be called naive.]
If Avaria had a face, she would have a shit eating grin plastered on it as she said this.
Still, I wasn’t going to let this system get to me.
‘Just make sure the energy I show can only be perceived as a Rank 0 for now.’
[Understood.]
My mind returned to the current moment where I was standing in front of Sarah, who had somehow reached Rank 1 in a single night.
‘I may be cheating, but what about you?’