One Last System

"What the hell is this?" Sander asked, releasing a deep sigh from the bottom of his lungs.

There was no surprise on his face. Only the bottomless shock when he looked at the new training ground.

It's been two days since he set off for the mission with the rest of their group. Their task, when compared to the ones that Mia distributed to the other normie disciples, was actually pretty time-consuming.

'I guess I didn't expect that they would finish this thing so quickly,' Mia thought, glancing over at the renewed training ground before moving her eyes back on her companions.

Maybe they decided to do their missions together, or maybe they just happened to meet during their return, but Veila accompanied Sander when he appeared at the gate.

Yes, gate.

As it turned out, by the time Mia returned to the training grounds on the morning of the day after it was finished, he noticed that the work had developed far beyond any of her initial expectations.

Formerly, the normie training ground was just a small plaza located in the open of the town.

It only took some insider knowledge about specific pathing one needed to take to enter the area. Enter this alley, turn to the right, then follow down the small street.

But Ackhart and his people changed that as well.

The training ground was still out in the open. But this time, its entrance was wide and decorated, going right towards the district's main street. And what's more, if there was a place outfitted with a massive number of formations, it was the gate, not the training ground itself.

'It stills baffles me to think about it,' Mia thought as she glanced around herself.

The barrier erected by the hundreds of formations that Ackhart embedded into the floor and pillars making up the entrance made it nearly impossible for anyone to forcefully breach it.

'I guess we got a lot more than we asked for,' Mia thought, turning her eyes towards Sander once again.

"It's the very reason why I wanted to keep you out," Mia finally replied to Sander's question. She then turned around and waved at the two of her friends to follow her.

'Rather than wasting my time to explain, it will be better to just show it,' she thought, guiding them through the main alley of the new training ground.

The messy arrays from before making each of the possible training areas were nowhere to be seen. Instead, the entire field was divided into small squares. Each of them was wide enough to allow for the freedom of movement, yet they were stacked right against the other.

'If not for the local barrier, this could be quite annoying,' Mia thought to herself as she looked at the place.

Without any barrier between the two squares, one could easily harm another disciple training in the near cubicle. Yet, thanks to adding a simple and small barrier to the edges of each area, Ackhart made sure no one would strike the other by chance.

"I didn't know so many people could fit into this place," Sander muttered as he followed after the girl in silence.

And it was true as well.

Before, there was a soft cap of how many people could train in the area at once. In theory, hundreds of disciples could fit into the grounds, but only around fifty arrays were messily scattered all over the place.

If one couldn't even reserve a single array for training, doing so in the peace of their own home appeared as a better option. But now? With the entire ground divided into neat squares, each a perfectly identical part of the grid?

"If I counted correctly, there is a bit less than hundred forty disciples training here, right now," Mia muttered in a low voice.

This number alone was a testimony to how great this place was. Yet, Mia didn't dare to bring it up loudly. Especially when one could see that only about a third of the entire place was actually in use!

"Wait," Sander suddenly stopped their silent stroll filled with awe as he looked down at Mia. His eyelids squinted a little as he looked at the girl with suspicion.

"If this place really is as great as you make it appear," he asked, "Then why are you not using it to its limits?" the look in the man's eyes darkened.

'This seems a whole lot too good to be true, doesn't it?' Mia thought, barely stopping herself from rolling her eyes.

She could resonate with Sander's thoughts with her whole being. Even now, a whole day after starting to witness the magnificence of their new training ground, she still could hardly believe what it was capable of.

'Ultimately, it's just a bunch of formations,' Mia thought, turning her lips into a thin line. 'You won't benefit from them without training,' she thought, taking a deep breath as she looked at Sander's face.

"I don't want to advance too quickly," Mia said, looking directly into the man's eyes.

This statement was as ridiculous as it could get.

The one job of the sect's disciples was to raise their strength. It was the one task that they had and the completion of which would change their status.

And here, Mia was claiming she didn't want to advance too quickly!

"Didn't you want to reach the sixth stage as soon as possible?" Veila asked, looking at Mia with a strange look in her eyes.

"I'm already at the sixth stage," Mia replied before the girl could go on with her tirade.

"Why are you claiming you don't want to... oh," Veila's voice snapped when she finally processed what Mia said.

For a moment, Veila and Sander simply looked at the girl, with their eyes widened in shock.

"I didn't realize..." Sander said, only to suddenly cut his words and turn his head around.

There were people standing at the gateway to the training ground, the place their group had just left.

'Oh, it's him,' Mia thought, shaking her head. She then looked at her friends and nodded her head. "I guess we will need to talk a bit later," she said before approaching the gate and stepping on one of the stones.

It was the method to allow someone inside the training ground that Ackhart taught her. Yet, there was one other method that Mia could use, but she decided against doing so.

In total, there were three formation stones that Mia could activate at the gate. Opening the entrance, registering the user, and banishing an existing user.

The first option would open the way for the guest once and last until he would leave. The second option would allow them permanent entry through the barrier, while the last one would revoke that right.

'I don't even want to recall Ackhart's explanation of this thing,' Mia thought, rolling her eyes as she allowed Arganar and a group of elders that followed him inside the training ground.

"This place... changed," Arganar commented, his voice stuck in his throat.

"Senior, welcome to the training grounds," Mia said, lowering her head in a small bow to the man.

Although she had her own suspicion towards his real purpose, there was no denying the fact that his presence helped her a lot.

"Yeah, yeah," Arganar dismissed Mia's welcomed, astounded by the changes to the training grounds. He then finally turned his eyes on the girl, only for his pupils to widen a moment later. "You reached the sixth stage already?!" he exclaimed in shock.

Mia couldn't stop herself from sending a quick glance to the back, to her friends.

'It appears that my decision to hold back my growth was correct,' she thought, swallowing her saliva as she nodded her head. Mia used the moment when her face was out of Arganar's sight to fix her expression.

"That's right, senior," Mia nodded her head. "The investment into this place helped a lot," she added, keeping the details of what happened as vague as she could.

'There is no benefit to sharing all the information I have, is there?' she thought, pursing her lips.

"Senior, if I may ask," Mia added after Arganar turned silent for a while. "But who are those people?" she asked, looking over the man's shoulder and towards the group of people that tagged along with him.

"When you reached the fifth stage, you became eligible for direct tutoring from the sect," Arganar explained, forced back to the reality by Mia's question. "They are here to help you out with any problems that you might encounter with your cultivation," he added, turning sideways and pointing with his hand at the group of long-bearded elders.

"Senior... But I'm just a single person," Mia pointed out. "Is there any need for so many of those important people to attend?" she asked, puzzled by the development.

"Consider this my bet," Arganar replied without even a second of hesitation. He clearly expected this point to be brought up. "I assumed that it wouldn't take long before other disciples around you would reach the fifth stage as well," he added, looking over Mia's shoulder and at the rest of her group.

Since Mia was busy talking with Arganar, Veila and Sander hurried to one of the open cells of the sect, eager to try it out. As such, despite how short Mia's discussion with Arganar was, the two of them were already in full swing of their usual practice.

"That's great," Mia commented, taking a long pause before finishing her words to think through what exactly she should say. "A lot of them is about to advance," she added, buying herself some more time with this ambiguous statement.

And all this time Mia spent thinking hard about her situation. About the situation that all the normie disciples found themselves in. And about what would be the right thing to push them towards even greater development.

"Allowing such help before they advance to the fifth stage is against the procedures of the sect," Arganar suddenly stated as a small smile appeared on his lips. "That's why I need to know an answer to a certain question before we proceed," he stated.

"What is it?" Mia asked, puzzled by the sudden point.

Given the manner in which Arganar approached her today, she couldn't help but feel suspicious about the sudden point he brought up.

"If you were the one who invested the insane amount necessary to prepare this place," Arganar started his question by spreading his arms and pointing about the training ground all around them. "Why are the people outside of your team training here as well?"

This was a pretty valid question.

Even though Mia no longer had any real restrictions in her spending, there was no denying that remodeling the training ground was a costly endeavor.

Just the monster bones necessary to set the formations cost several times more than Mia could get their hands on without Arthur's or Arganar's help. Adding the costs of manpower and Ackhart's fees, the total cost turned out to be a pretty high number.

A number that far exceeded all the resources that Arganar or the sect ever provided for her.

'It's all because this is a necessary step in my plan,' Mia thought, recalling a moment from a recent past.

But this wasn't an answer that she was willing to openly share.