Time passed by quickly for the Battle Maiden Sect and another week went by. Mira continued training, sparring, and cultivating while Maria did that plus study alchemy. Dominique also hasn't stopped training ever since Mira gave her. Mira appreciated how hard-working this girl is and stopped paying too much attention to her training. She just told Dominique to let her know when the training becomes slightly easier. Of course, Dominique immediately agreed even though she knew Mira would only make her training harder.
Soon it came time for the last mandatory class. All of the new disciples were excited because these classes were starting to lose their value for most of them. Almost all of the new disciples have found what profession they want to go into and have either found a Master or are studying hard so they can find a Master. Mira hasn't talked to the Inscription Master yet since she hasn't found time with all of her cultivating and training though she plans to go there next week now that they won't be having any more mandatory classes.
"Welcome Class. Today is the last day for mandatory classes, but I won't be going over much. I'm basically just here to inform you of an important upcoming event. I'll also be announcing this to the rest of the Sect once everyone is present, but a lot of the other disciples already know about this."
"There will be an Inter-Sect Tournament in a little over 2 years. This won't be some ordinary tournament between the 5 Sects that surround Lunar Fox City. No, this will be a tournament between all of the Sects in the surrounding area. There will be a total of 17 Sects participating in this tournament and it's a rather huge ordeal. Hundreds of thousands of people come to attend this event and cultivators from all over come to watch the next generation fight. But this tournament also has more than one purpose and isn't meant to be for entertainment."
"There is something that we call a Secret Realm thousands of kilometers away from here, but the thing is this Realm only allows a certain number of people to enter. This Secret Realm holds countless treasures, has a much higher Qi density than out here, and is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you to grow. Who knows what you might find there?"
"The reason we have a tournament is to determine which Sect gets how many spots to enter the Secret Realm. Obviously, if a Sect wins the tournament then they get the most spots and the Sect that comes in last gets the least amount of spots. This is a tournament that will have hundreds of people competing so we also came up with a way to score each Sect based on each disciple's placement. Essentially, the lower the number, the better. For instance, 1st place gets one point, 2nd place gets two points, and so on. This is so that one Sect doesn't just focus on 1 disciple and forgets about the rest. We want to train and help all of our disciples instead of just choosing one and forgetting about the rest. But it also makes things fairer because what if one Sect takes the top 17 spots in the tournament? Wouldn't only that Sect get to participate if we only took the Top 17?"
"Well, another reason for the tournament is that all of the Sects around here have an agreement that allows every Sect to have a chance at participating in the Secret Realm. We don't want a war to break out and turn this side of the continent into a wasteland so we all came to an agreement… After some fighting of course. Hehe."
"I'll go into more detail about the Tournament and Secret Realm when it gets a bit closer and I announce it to the rest of the Sect. And in case you're wondering, there is a benefit to us Elders if you do well in the tournament. We get the rights to more materials in the area, Spirit Stone mines, and also a special place that only we Elders are allowed to enter." Elder Kendra explained with a wink.
The new disciples were shocked by this as they've never heard of this Secret Realm, but nonetheless, they were excited about the thought of participating. But there were quite a few people that had questions.
"What are the requirements to participate in the tournament? How often does the Secret Realm open? How many people get to participate in the Tournament from each Sect?" One disciple threw out a bunch of questions.
"All good questions and I'll get into this later. But the minimum requirement is to be in the Foundation Realm. The Secret Realm opens every 20 years. And 15 people get to participate from each Sect. It sounds like a lot, but even the smaller Sects will have around 15 people in the Foundation Realm. Most of our older Core Disciples are in the Foundation Realm, but not too long ago we had quite a few of them graduate or leave the Sect to go exploring. There are also a number of them that either get killed on missions or are captured by others that want to do wicked things to them. So the amount of Foundation Realm Disciples we have right now is rather limited, but there are quite a few of you that are close to entering the Foundation Realm and some of you that have already entered. I have no doubt that in 2 years' time there will be an lt of you in the Foundation Realm." Elder Kendra explained with a smile, but when Mira looked at this smile she only saw a sly old fox.
True enough this started to spark some competition between the disciples. A lot of them weren't that far from the Foundation Realm and to be able to participate in an event like this is not only a huge honor, but the number of benefits that they could get out of it might be incalculable. Cultivators will always fight for benefits no matter the gender or race and this little comment only increased their will to fight for what they want. Even Maria was starting to get hyped.
As for Mira, well, she will just keep going at her own pace. Things like this will surely be beneficial and she will fight for it as it may be able to further increase her battle prowess, but she has no need to get so worked up over something like this. She doesn't need competition to spark her desire to get stronger.
"I'll go ahead and end class today. If you have any more questions, please save them for when I announce this to the rest of the Sect. And just a reminder, this is the last mandatory class, but I would appreciate it if at least some of you would show up for the next class. Alright, you may leave now." Elder Kendra said this and left.
Mira got up and left with Maria, but now she actually planned on seeing the Inscription Master here at the Sect to ask a few questions and also ask if she can teach her.
The two of them chatted a bit on the way there. It didn't take long for them to reach the Inscription Master's place. Mira opened the door and found a middle-aged lady inscribing a weapon. They both just waited quietly for her to finish what she was doing as it would be quite rude of them to disturb her.
A few hours later, the lady seemed like she was done and put down the weapon and looked at the two of them.
"Yes?" She asked with a blank face. Mira frowned slightly but decided to ask her questions. She took out her scythe and showed it to the lady.
"Can this be inscribed?" Mira showed her the scythe. The lady inspected it for a few minutes then just shrugged her shoulders and looked away. Mira's frown got a bit deeper.
"If a weapon already has been inscribed, is it possible to remove the inscription and put a new one on?" Mira asked. The lady paused before answering.
"...Yes." The lady gave a brief answer.
This time Mira squinted her eyes and felt like something wasn't right. She was not satisfied with that answer but knew that she'd get nothing out of this Elder.
"How much would it be to inscribe this weapon?" Mira asked and the lady thought about it for a minute. Then she held up two fingers and this time Mira really felt like facepalming.
"200?" Mira asked, but the lady shook her head.
"2,000?" Mira asked again and the lady shook her head again.
"20,000?" Mira asked with a straight face and this time the lady nodded her head.
"Why?"
"Spiritual Weapon." The lady answered which didn't surprise Mira too much. There's no way it'd cost 20,000 Spirit Stones to inscribe a normal weapon.
"I see. What inscription would that get me?"
"Crap."
Mira felt a vein pop in her head as this lady spoke too few words. But this isn't the first time she's dealt with someone like this. Though she really hates this kind of troublesome person as you always have to read between the lines to understand what they truly mean.
"Can you teach me inscriptions?" Mira forced out the words with a sigh.
The lady just nodded and pointed at a stack of books. Mira walked over to the stack of books and stored them.
"I'll come back when I finish memorizing them." Mira said and the lady nodded her head and went back to work with a slight smile on her face.
Mira just shook her head and turned around to leave. Maria was standing there with her face full of shock. She could barely keep up with the conversation, no, this can't be called a conversation. Both of them barely spoke anything but seemed to understand each other. Mira just dragged her out of the building to get back to their schedule.
The Lady just turned around to watch them leave and was a little curious about this disciple that she's never seen before.