[What 's going on?! How come I get paired with him again…]

Everyone was looking at him with evident shock. Inside the martial house, disciples gave the elders their utmost respect, he clearly crossed a line by swearing out loud. However, Aegon was unaware of his grave offense and was still ruminating about his bad luck as he made his way towards the center of the amphitheater.

[Am I supposed to be used as a benchmark for his power or something? An ever-present reminder of his prowess? A stepping stone? I almost feel like I'm the handsome, scummy, weak and blindly arrogant young master. Well, I am handsome but everything else is completely false without a shadow of a doubt!]

Aegon was clearly starting to feel like a side character in this world. There was little proof of that being the case but he, as always, took everything to the extreme and from a few unfortunate events where he ended up being used as a comparison, a lacking one to boot, he, using his mostly broken logic, formed this idea.

He soon found himself once again facing that eagle stealer of a man. He wasn't particularly mad at not being able to buy the Green Scout Eagle anymore, Kuro was well-deserving of his partner status. However, he was a moody teenager after all was said and done, this together with his new conspiracy theory turned his previous “I don't care about the matter anymore.'' stance into a reason to start hating the seemingly perfect young man.

Last time, because Roy had surrendered right after getting on stage, Miss Julia didn't even have time to see Haris’ weapon. Throwing an inquisitive glance his way she waited for him to reveal it of his own accord.

Sensing her intentions, he moved his left hand across his right one where he had an inconspicuous ring, instantly a 1.8 meters long spear appeared in his grasp, it was made of a reflective silver which combined with the sunny day reflected light in all directions making everyone but Miss Julia unable to look directly at it.

[Cheeky bastards.] She was referring to the Lawrence family in a somewhat offensive way but that was the best way to describe them with all the cheap tricks they had their youngsters employ on their early cultivation days. Some outsiders saw these tricks as stupid and useless before true power, even tough that is true they dismissed the fact that the type of people these youngsters compete agaisnt don’t have the so-called true power, far from it.

A few of the disciples averted their gaze from the spear and looked at the ring on Haris' finger. It was a special ring, a spatial ring, one who looked very similar to the ones the elders use, the only notable difference being the different shine the ring had, it seemed lackluster in comparison to the rings owned by the elders.

Aegon was mostly focused on the ring, if someone like Haris had one it meant they couldn't be outrageously rare and maybe in the future he could afford one of his own…

Miss Julia remembered that she still had to give Haris a wooden weapon which would rob him of his “reflective spear” advantage but she was still confident he would win, even though she hadn't seen him fight personally she knew of his abilities and rank, that spoke for itself, furthermore, he had already defeated this opponent once before, it would be a disappointment if he couldn't repeat the feat.

She threw him a spear of similar proportions and while still in the air Haris’ own silver spear vanished back into his ring.

Now both fully armed, the revenge battle for one and the second coming of victory for another was about to begin.

Haris stepped forward and started walking around Aegon, always keeping eye contact.

Aegon noticed sand moving around everywhere Haris stepped. It was a small detail, mostly inconsequential, but it gave him a foreboding feeling, one he hoped wasn’t right…

Unfortunately reality disappointed him, with each step Haris got slightly faster, he started off walking and gradually started striding, then he was lightly jogging, after that running and finally sprinting at breakneck speed, some afterimages formed all around Aegon, all of them running like Haris.

As his speed increased more people started noticing the effect of the wind around his ankles.

“Did he learn a skill already?” A whisper was heard in the amphitheater and although no one confirmed anything the slightly surprised expression on Miss Julia's face was answer enough. [He combined it with his family’s illusion techniques, fascinatinating!]

[Ahhhh, why? What have I done wrong to deserve this?] Aegon was really dispirited, although he didn't believe he could beat Haris he hoped he could at least put up a good fight, he now knew that wasn't going to happen.

[Should I quit?] While Aegon searched for answers, the circle around him kept shortening and he would soon be within the spear's reach…

Reach, that was his biggest problem. The spear was longer than his swords and the momentum Haris was building would also make his attack stronger which basically meant he had only one option, dodging.

Having no time left to think he went with his gut feeling, when he felt the spear swiping in his direction he ducked, evading various attacks from the afterimages now sprinting only a meter away from him.

Aegon was already preparing his signature spinning move when he was hit in the back with the shaft of a wooden spear leading to him falling face first on the arena floor.

No one laughed this time, even when he tried a completely stupid strategy. Everyone respected power and among them Haris was the most powerful. It wasn't a loss of face to lose to someone at the pinnacle, it was only natural.

The man in question was slowly getting back on his feet and after returning his wooden swords he walked to his seat, barely holding his laugh. [Ah well, it was a REACH to think that would work.]

“Pffft”

He couldn't completely contain himself from his own joke and still made a low noise but looking around no one seemed to notice.

[Good thing no one saw me, they would probably think I’m missing a few screws if they heard me laugh after losing.]

Maybe he was indeed missing some screws but he didn't dwell on that thought too much and instead started thinking about his afternoon training with Roy, not paying any attention to the class after that.

…

With the class done, Aegon was headed home when he recalled his earlier mental note.

[Oh yeah, I wanted to check if there were any spirit herbs for sale.] Taking a detour, he went to the Resource Hall.

Along the way he passed the pavilion where he had seen that weird group of disciples that, for some reason, found another couple’s lovey dovey moments an interesting thing to watch.

Thinking about useless things was one of his ways to pass time and due to that he reached his destination without even noticing the time pass.

Once again he entered the shop-looking building finding the same Elder reading a book and once again not sparing him a glance until he was right in front of her desk.

“Hello, I’m looking for spirit herb seeds that can be bought with outside money. Are there any of that kind?”

The woman looked at him from head to toe and found him surely lacking in funds but still answered his question, it would be a great way of opening his eyes to the world and the price of cultivation overall.

“There are indeed spirit herb seeds available for purchase using outside money, however the cheapest ones cost 10 silver coins and I’m pretty sure you have none.”

The Elder judged this information to be a good eye-opener in regards to the cost of the cultivation road, and an eye-opening experience it sure was.

[These prices are ridiculous, some plant seeds are 5 times more expensive than Kuro!]

He looked at his trusted companion, who was currently scratching his head with his hind leg, a funny scene that helped him calm himself down and judge everything clearly.

Kuro was worth a lot more than 2 silver coins, Aegon was sure of it, how much Kuro was worth exactly he didn't know. Still, 2 silver coins was a fair price for most common beasts and yet it was 5 times cheaper than the cheapest spirit herb seeds, the gap in prices between the two “commodities“ was enormous.

The middle-aged woman seemed to sense Aegon's thoughts as she had thought the same back in her glory days so she decided to give him some advice.

“Look, It's probably best for you to go see if there are any interesting missions in the Mission Hall to gain contribution points. That is the best currency inside the Martial House.”

Aegon agreed with her words and, after bidding his goodbyes in a respectful manner, left towards the direction the Elder had indicated, with a black wolf in tow of course.

It didn't take long for him to reach a three-storied building that resembled a Japanese palace, above its entrance hung a simple cloth with only two words “Mission Hall.”

“The designer of this place went nuts and did whatever, there is no similarity between this building and the resource hall.” He was already delving into one of his daydreaming and pondering sessions on yet another useless thought when he was snapped out of it by a bite on his ankle.

“Heyy!”

Kuro wasn't flustered by the annoyed look he was given and simply signaled to go inside which Aegon did without hesitation.

The inside of the palace was mostly made out of wood, wooden walls, wooden tables, wooden chairs, even wooden statues in each corner probably depicting some ancient cultivator he didn’t know.

In the center of the room was one large desk in the form of an O and on the opposite side of the main entrance was a large stairway, but it seemed to have restricted access because only people who showed their identity tokens and got approval from the guards could climb to the next floor.

From what he observed, the desk was the place where disciples registered their missions, as for where they could choose them from...well..the whole wall.

The walls were covered with papers describing various missions and multiple people were looking for something that paid well with the least effort or danger possible. That obviously made it so that some missions were never picked and others didn't even have the time to settle in on the wall before being taken to the desk.

Aegon started his search and chose to only pay attention to the papers in the best condition. After an hour he had a rough idea of the content of all the recent missions in that floor, the ordeal left him unimpressed. Everything was easy and because of that the rewards weren't anything to write home about.

He didn't know the price of anything in contribution points yet but he doubted they were more valuable than actual money so the 200 contribution points gained for taking care of an Elder’s spirit garden for a month were, in his optimistic calculations, worth around 150 silver.

In the outside world and especially in the countryside that was an enormous sum for only a month of work, however, for a cultivator it meant gaining 15 seeds of a low tier spirit herb for a month of work, that was pitifully low.

Aegon had no other option but to start reading through the old missions one by one and he found them to be a lot more rewarding but that came with drawbacks of course.

Most of them involved killing or capturing magical beasts of a higher strength than the people in this floor, others were mercenary missions in warzones and some were the *oldest jobs* in the world being rewarded with contribution points instead of the normal coin.

Amongst these 3 types he was more attracted to mercenary missions as they were often team based and people, himself included, tended to feel safer in groups. With his preferences sorted out he made sure to review all the mercenary related missions, paying more attention to detail this time.

A few hours later, Aegon walked towards the desk with his choice in hand.