The three of them walked, one holding a child. Following his cousins’ walk, they finally arrived at Zhentian Martial Arts Center.
The kid was being carried the entire time. After all, he was too young to walk on his own at this distance.
His cousin was at the Triple Awakening Stage, so holding a small child was nothing for him.
It came to Tang Yu’s mind that he and his cousins were all hunters. It showed that their family had excellent genes.
Tang Yu suddenly paused. Indeed, his cousins were hunters, but he originally wasn’t!
He just realized that he was an imposter hunter.
What a shame. He had brought shame upon the family.
…………
The Zhentian Martial Arts Center was located in a busy area of the Luoxia Shelter. The place was filled with flickering neon lights.
Most survivors passing by in this area wore formal wear; no survivors with ragged clothing was seen.
Tang Yu observed that there were ordinary people as well as hunters in the building. There were also some people dressed in bright and colorful clothes.
It seemed they didn’t come here to learn but to attend some kind of elite society party.
His cousin whispered. “They mostly came from wealthy families. Most of them were ordinary people, they can’t learn anything, but these people give a lot of money, so the martial arts school is quite welcoming to them.” She glanced at the elite people in disdain.
The cousin found a suitable cafe nearby and waited with the youngest cousin. This cafe had an elegant interior, with soothing music playing in the background.
It was said that if you spend 0.5 spirit stone, you could stay inside for 2 hours. It’s a bit pricey.
There were a lot of chairs already placed in the Martial Hall. Unexpectedly, it was quite crowded. It was just like college, where he came to class to listen to the lecturer. Most of them were members. There’re only a few senior members who brought along a friend. Very few. He already counted his fingers, calculating the school’s income.
There were so many rich people in Luoxia! In comparison, the territory’s training camp fee is too cheap!
At this moment, he realized he had learned a lot. According to his cousin’s information, the Zhentian Martial Hall was a big one, but it was ranked in the top five.
If the top 5 already had these many members, what about the top 1?
It’s a huge market. Unlike hunters in Lindong who didn’t really care about martial arts school, or perhaps there were many self-called ‘masters’ in Lindong, so their popularity wasn’t that great.
But Luoxia’s martial arts school system was carefully planned. Tang Yu focused on thinking about the construction and environment that a martial arts school should provide to its students. And he found he could provide all of them.
Or maybe even better!
It’s a pity for this school. After all, he was Tang ‘Earn everything’ Yu.
After a while, the Master of the Zhentian Martial Arts School walked towards the lectern.
This man was about 34, with a slightly handsome face and walked with a master’s grace. It seemed that he was popular.
There were shouts from the students, including his cousins, who sat next to him. Tang Yu stroked his chin.
The Master on the stage cleared his throat and began to say.
“Many people thought martial arts is about the moves, but it’s not. The moves are just one of the few aspects. One’s martial arts’ power is reflected by the overall quality. Such as the body’s strength, the positioning of the physical attack weapon, the force of the movement… the speed and strength of the stances, the sense of force, the ability to accept, transform, and stress to the incoming force, attack speed, defense ability… the switching of offense and defense, the ability to react, the instinct of sudden changes, one enemy or many enemies, ranged or melee, and such. All these aspects are the embodiment of the martial artist’s skill.”
“Embodiment involves various aspects, among them is physical strength is the foundation. But it’s just a foundation. Whether the person can exert their own strength, how much they can exert, it’s the manifestation of their merit. This is why the strength of hunters at the same Level varies…”
It was just an introductory lecture, but the Master explained deeply yet in a simple way so the people could understand.
The students, especially those who newly joined and were still ignorant or even slightly skeptical about martial arts, were all glowing with information.
However, Tang Yu lacked interest. His main purpose in coming here was because he was curious to find out the details of the martial arts school.
He tried his best to perceive the Master’s aura, but it was very faint, just like Roger and the others who had converged their aura.
Although Tang Yu wasn’t as good as Roger and the other followers with warrior jobs in terms of combat skills, his observation skill could spot valuable information from the lecture.
For example, the Master’s breath was weak but not stable, just like a candlelight flickering by the blowing wind.
While Roger and the others’ converged aura was calm as a lake’s surface.
It was the sole difference. Tang Yu thought he already got what he wanted, but it won’t be good if he left like this.
So he simply opened the contract’s power and played the video chat with his followers.
Soon, the lecture was coming to an end.
The Master on the stage explained his main points, paused, and continued. “A true martial artist needs to experience the cultivation of actual combat.
It just so happens tomorrow we will host a large-scale training activity with a total of 600 training slots.
The senior members had a free opportunity to participate in the training. While ordinary members had to pay extra ten spirit stones to enter the training…”
Tang Yu selectively ignored the latter words. Charging ten spirit stones for each person, it’s really outrageous. He couldn’t even earn that much money.
Grand Lord Tang was already jealous. Even though he didn’t lack spirit stones right now, he predicted soon he would fall into the poverty era again. The price to increase the territory’s Level from 4 to 5 costs half a million units of spirit stones.
With the spirit stones’ mines’ aid, he can fulfill it. But what about level 5 to level 6? How much will it cost? Tang Yu didn’t dare to imagine. Even though he had no clue about the other requirement to ascend to level 5.
[Existing fit: 8%]
The system had no other explanation. He could only guess about everything. However, just from the data, he understood that there was still a big gap in the current fit.
And he still had a long way to go to upgrade it to level 5.
If he couldn’t raise his Level, he might as well think of ways to earn money first.
This was what Grand Lord Tang was planning.
…………
Mercenary Unions.
Every big shelter had a similar place where a hunter could have an extra income by taking the union’s quest.
With this, the authorities had the power to indirectly control the scattered hunters’ unstable force.
Luoxia’s mercenary union was buzzing with business. Shay could smell the familiar scent of tobacco, sure enough!
He was familiar with this kind of place! With a cigarette in his mouth and lazy snapping his fingers to ignite the fire, he came to the front desk to process the new mercenary group registration.
There were hundreds of thousands of hunters in a big shelter like the Luoxia Shelter. New mercenary regiments were born and died every day.
After the hunter in front of him finished his business, it was now Shay’s turn. The front desk staff explained. “Our mercenary union recently had introduced a rating system to ensure the missions’ completion rate, as well as the mercenaries’ safety. We will give the mercenary regiments a rating according to their strength. The higher the rating, the more missions he can take, and the more information available about the mission.”
It’s basically the same system they had back home. Only high-ranked teams can take high-ranked missions.
But in Luoxia, they could immediately become high-ranked mercenary regiments just from showing their strength.
While in the territory, mercenaries had to turn in a sufficient number of spirit stones to complete the promotion quest and ascend higher.
As for those with lesser strength, even if they had enough spirits stones, they would be stuck on the promotion quest. So there won’t be a low-ranked mercenary in high-ranked mercenary regiments.
It seems like the territory’s adventure guild system is a bit more complicated and detailed.
But the benefits offered were higher. Hunters could exchange spirit stones for points if they didn’t want to spend it.
Or use them to exchange with new equipment or props. It was the benefit, and the props and equipment were always changing. This will bind the hunters to the Tree Shade Shelter tighter.
Tang Yu knew the Luoxia mercenary union’s system as well as the territory’s current situation. He secretly praised himself.
At this time, the staff said. “Based on your strength at the Fourth Awakening Stage, the mercenary regiment will be classified into Level 2. The benefits area…”
The person in charge of the front desk was also a hunter. Although he wasn’t strong, his job was to be a human detector to sense the hunters’ aura.
Shay muttered in his heart. “Just Fourth Awakening Stage at level 2. It’s not very useful if we can’t get a lot of information.” He quickly reacted and stopped the staff. “Wait, wait, wait. Who said I’m only at Fourth? Can’t you sense it?”
The staff was confused. He concentrated on Shay’s aura. In the next second, he was shocked and stuttered, “Six…six…six, Sixth Awakening Stage!”