"Boy, you're not seriously wasting my time here with a worthless Dust Affinity Umbra Spirit, are you?" A Sect Recruiter said with the most disdainful looked I'd seen on a person in both my lives.
"Sorry kid, but the Sect for rejects is-a that-a way." Another Sect Recruiter said while pointing dismissively. Even when I asked for better directions, he just ignored me.
"For the first time in my life, I can honestly ask, are you courting death? I'm a representative for the Fiery Hearts Sect and you're asking if you can join with an F Rank Dust-type Umbra Spirit?"
"Look, I'm just an orphaned homeless kid, ok? I'm ignorant about a lot of things in the world, so could you please explain why you sound so offended?" I asked, swallowing my pride in search of answers of any kind. This had been like the fifth Sect to respond to me like I'd challenged their dignity at the mention of my Umbra Spirit.
"You don't know?" A girl suddenly interjected.
Turning I around, I was impressed she looked so nice even without make-up. Unlike me, who hadn't showered or changed out of the rags I came into this world in, she was actually dressed in clean new white and purple robes.
"Young miss!" The Sect Recruiter bowed to the girl like she was an Empress or something. "Don't bother yourself with a reject like him," he urged her.
The girl ignored the Sect Recruiter in favor of sizing me up. I had the feeling I was supposed to be fearful and respectful of her, but she didn't exactly command a tyrannical presence.
"Dust is a derivative element of Earth," the girl said. "It's actually the weakest derivative element, period. So, most Sects will reject you. However… Our sect, you know, which consists of mainly Fire Cultivators, we'll think you're trying to make fun of us if someone with an Earth or Air type Umbra Spirit tries to apply; nevermind someone with a Dust type Umbra Spirit."
"I see… So, I should look to join a Sect of Earth Cultivators, then."
"More like, you should look for an Attributeless Sect, seeing as only some of them might have it in their hearts to accept someone with such a weak Umbra Spirit."
"Thanks, miss..."
"You don't have the right to ask for her name!" The Sect Recruiter barked at me.
"Sheesh, I was just trying to be polite," I shook my head and offered the girl another word of thanks before walking away. Despite her bluntness, she'd been the nicest person I'd met so far.
…
Eventually, my search for an Attributeless Sect landed me in the backwaters area of the city which I still didn't know the name of.
It baffled me that even after a week, I'd failed to catch word of the name of the city I'd been living in, while people went on and on about the Nine Abyss Plane and the Midnight Abyss World at large. But that couldn't really be considered the strangest thing I'd seen so far, so I set the thought aside.
"The Harbinger Sect?" How ominous.
"Yes? Do you want to join?" A man, maybe three or four years my senior, asked. He had come out of nowhere.
"I have an Umbra Spirit with Dust Affinity," I got straight to the point.
"I don't see why it'd matter. This is a Body Cultivation Sect after all."
"Could you explain what that means?"
"You don't know about the two paths of cultivation?"
"I'd appreciate it if you thought of me as someone who was born yesterday."
"Er… Ok. Well, let's start with what Cultivation is."
I gave him a nod as if to convey, "Yeah, I don't know what that is either, honestly."
"We call Cultivation the Primary Occupation because it is the main focus of everyone in any Sect. It is a system of Realms and Stages a person must go through to build themselves up and achieve immortality and godly power."
"You mean like having an infinite lifespan?"
"Yeah, that's the main goal. Or at least, originally, the cultivation systems were created for that sole purpose. But, over time, the power and influence Cultivators gained shaped the world into what it has become, with practically everyone cultivating even if they aren't part of a Sect.
Now, Sects are like businesses for Cultivators. There are many different kinds of Sects that specialize in all kinds of fields. My Harbinger Sect is only a fledgling Sect at the moment with only three members, and as a Body Cultivation Sect we only work on hunting Demonic Beasts."
"Sounds kind of dangerous," I mused.
"Welp, it's kind of all we're capable of at the moment. Besides, hunting is both a good way to make money and develop your Martial Arts."
"And knowing how ignorant I am, you'll still let me into your Sect?"
"Kid, I don't have anything to lose and everything to gain by letting you in. You're the one who's signing up to enter a new Sect and hunt demonic beasts with your life on the line."
"Hmm… It beats being a homeless vagrant, so… sign me up," I said.
…
"Ji… This has to be a joke," a woman I had come to know as Emma said to the man that recruited me into the Harbinger Sect.
"What? We need all the members we can get," Ji ignored Emma's glare as he picked out books from a book shelf. Us four members of the Sect were in the Harbinger Sect's small compound; three of us gathered around a round table.
"The kid doesn't even know the basics of the Body Cultivation System! I doubt he's even touched a sword; nevermind gone out to kill even the weakest F Ranked Demonic Beast!"
"So? Maybe he'll turn out to be a prodigy after I show him some techniques," Ji said, as he walked over to the round table and dumped the books before me.
"This is a rather questionable decision, leader..." The final original member of the Harbinger Sect, Wattson, said with a somber tone.
"Look, you guys can bitch and moan all you want, but you can't change the fact that as we are, we need quantity more than we need quality." Ji shot me a look and said, "No offense, Joji." It was the name I'd picked to live with in this next life as a homage to someone with a similar name to mine on Earth.
"I can't really afford to be offended when you've been the first person to accept me into their Sect."
"Anyways, we can be more picky about our recruitment process after people start lining up to join us," Ji said as he rolled his eyes. "For now, let just worry about expanding out of this shithole and raising our combat prowess to at least D Rank."
"You want to hunt a D Rank Demonic Beast?" Wattson paled at the thought.
"It would be the fastest way to increase our daily earnings," Emma said as she bit the nail on her thumb; she was also stressed out by whatever hunting a D Rank Demonic Beast entailed.
"Yeah, but before that'll have to take a couple days to teach Joji the basics of Cultivation, Martial Arts, Demon Hunting..."
"No the fuck you won't," Emma snorted. "You're the strongest of us all, the closest to D Rank in strength. You don't have time to be playing the part of a teacher."
"So you're offering to teach Joji in my stead? How thoughtful of you," Ji chuckled to himself in total disregard for Emma's murderous stare down.
"He better be worth my fucking time." I won't lie, I was much more susceptible to her glare.
...
"Holy fuck, you really are as ignorant as Ji mentioned," Emma said as she ruthlessly attacked my ego.
"All I did was ask what the Cultivation Realms and Stages were… You don't have to be so hostile..."
"Aren't you like seventeen? That's like going your whole life without knowing how to do basic addition and subtraction. This is common sense, elementary grade stuff, Joji."
"I get it… Just tell me already so I can graduate from my ignorance."
"Hmph! Listen well, because I'm only going to explain things once! Both the Energy and Body Cultivation Systems follow the Alphabetized Rating System of Martial Arts and Demonic Beasts. Ranging from F Rank as the weakest, to S Rank as the Strongest, there are a total of Seven Realms for both Cultivation Systems."
"Time," I signaled her to stop, angering her without a doubt, but I had to ask, "Now, when you say ranging from F to S, do you mean going up the alphabet from F to A, and ending with an S? Because any other way doesn't add up to seven..."
"Yes," Emma narrowed her eyes at me, "The Seven Realms are, depending on if you are an Energy Cultivator or a Body Cultivator, the F Rank Collecting or Saturation Realms. The E Rank Gaseous or Skin Exchange Realms. The D Rank Liquid or Musculoskeletal Transformation Realms. The C Rank Pillar Formation or Visceral Rebirth Realms. The B Rank Core Compaction or Acupoint Opening Realms. The A Rank Divine Avatar or Meridian Clearing Realms. And, the S Rank Immortal Realm which has the same name for both systems."