Mixed Blessing System

Upon arriving in front of a building that looked like a golden pyramid trunk, Lothur did not waste much time enjoying the surroundings and soon entered the local Cultivation House.

Like the Innumerable Scrolls store, this place was an institution with a presence in many cities throughout the empire and was one of Leopoldine's great organizations.

Not only did this place offer cultivation rooms for rogue cultivators, but it also had services for outsourced work, such as escort missions and similar things.

At the same time, there were some establishments related to spiritual cultivation in that place, such as a store for pills and alchemical potions, items often used by customers of places like this.

However, when entering the entrance hall of that post, Lothur did not pay attention to any of these options available in the Cultivation House.

No, since his funds were only dwindling recently, Lothur was interested in just getting on with his training to avoid running out of coins for future opportunities.

He could even spend everything he had on cultivation products to try to raise his level quickly. But since he did not yet know precisely how cultivation resources worked, doing something like this would be a mistake.

Thus, sticking to the basics and continuing with his plans seemed to him to be a better idea than risking everything on strange things.

At the same time, he did not feel ready to undertake missions or jobs that might pay him good money. So, he really could not pursue all the options on his path.

With this in mind, he quickly arrived at the main service counter of the place, where half a dozen people were serving at the moment.

All these people attending were beautiful women dressed in matching dresses, which showed how healthy they were.

And seeing one of them getting free, Lothur soon approached her in search of information.

"Hello, this is my first time in this place, so I want to know how to get a good training room."

Hearing the voice of the most handsome man she had seen in her entire life, that attendant smiled and took a brief moment to respond to Lothur. "Well, I am happy to be able to attend to you on your first time in the Cultivation House..."

"I hope I can satisfy your questions about this place."

She ran one of her hands through her hair, looking intensely at Lothur. "The training rooms of our institution are available in three ways."

"First, if you are part of one of the large organizations in the empire, you naturally only need to pay the basic fee for the cultivation room you want."

"Second, if you are a member of our institution, you can pay smaller amounts regarding the fee of the cultivation rooms depending on your rank."

"Third, you can simply skip these requirements by paying the fee for the cultivation room you desire."

Upon hearing this, Lothur continued to stand in front of that woman, his arms crossed at chest height. "How much is that fee?"

"For cultivation rooms for Mortal Warriors, the cost for 12 hours is one thousand bronze coins." She said to him, assuming that he was probably in search of this room.

She was not a cultivator. But considering how youth and inexperienced Lothur seemed to be, she had readily assumed he was a 1st stage cultivator.

'A thousand coins?' Lothur showed no surprise, but in his heart, he was shocked.

A thousand bronze coins for only twelve hours... How many days would someone like him need to work to get that many coins?

Hell, even peak cultivators of the 1st stage usually did not make much more than 100,000 bronze coins per year of work. But here in this place, they were charging that for just 50 days' rent for the cheapest type of cultivation room!

'Spiritual cultivation is truly expensive! No wonder it's so hard for ordinary people to raise their level.'

He then asked. "I've heard that the Cultivation House doesn't require loyalty. Is that true? I'm interested in joining your ranks if it is."

She smiled at him and said. "Yes, indeed we are. Here you only need to be loyal to what you commit to."

"But in other situations, we never demand help from our members. We don't charge our members anything beyond what is promised when they do missions and other things. On the other hand, we give various advantages to members of the Cultivation House."

"Is that so? Tell me a little bit about it."

"If you look in that direction..." She pointed her right hand to someplace. "You will find the information station in this building. There, our members can get information of different ranks depending on their position in the ranking of our agents."

"At the same time, you can meet high-ranking people and even trade with them if so you are qualified."

"We also have exclusive auctions, partnerships with local stores, and more."

"As for the previous cultivation room, someone new to our organization only pays 50% of the normal amount."

"But that amount can decrease and even reach 0 depending on your position in the Cultivation House!" She said in an excited tone.

"I see..." Lothur muttered in a low voice, interested in this initial discount. "What do I need to join the Cultivation House?"

"You need to be at least a 5th Transformation cultivator since we don't have missions for people of cultivation lower than that. In addition to that requirement, we will, of course, do the necessary physical tests and an examination to prove that you are not an enemy spy."

"If there are no problems, your application can be confirmed within a week."

"A week, huh?" He sighed as he realized he had no alternatives but to pay more per hour. 'It doesn't seem to be difficult to join this organization, but I can only wait for now.'

"By the way, I want to know if I have to use my real identity when I join this organization. Can I keep my identity secret?"

"Yes. In fact, many of our members are quite famous for their deeds, but few truly know their names and origin." She laughed, finding it funny that such a striking-looking person would think to hide his identity.

'With such looks, even if I have seen tens of thousands of faces in my life, I will never forget your appearance...' She appraised him once more, thinking he would not be able to hide, at least from her.

"Very good," Lothur commented before finally moving on with his plans there. "Then, for the time being, I'll rent a cultivation room for 1st stage cultivators."

"Uh? What about your application?" She asked in surprise.

"I'll do that later."

"Oh? All right, then."

After that, they completed the transaction, with Lothur leaving a thousand coins behind in exchange for the key to one of the many cultivation rooms in this building.

...

After going up to the second floor, Lothur walked down a long corridor until he reached a door with the number '217' engraved on it, the same as the access key he had obtained.

With that, he quickly unlocked the room and went inside, curious to know what the notorious cultivation rooms were like.

However, upon entering that place, Lothur found nothing exceptional but rather a place of about 20 square meters, almost entirely empty.

In fact, there were only three things in that place. One was what looked like a ceiling air conditioner like the ones from his former life. Another was what looked like a wooden dummy, and finally, a small cube that stood precisely in the middle of the place.

But as he entered, Lothur unconsciously looked at the door that was already closed at the moment and saw some hints on how to use this place.

'Good thing they put this here...' He sighed in his heart.

And upon reading that, it did not take him long to understand that the object on the ceiling was actually an object containing a spatial formation for the best use of the spiritual energy within that room.

On the other hand, the dummy was a puppet that also had formations on its body, which was helpful to use in training.

As for the small cube, that was a small simulator that used an illusory formation that enabled its users to have any kind of mental training they wished.

'Oh? That seems useful for me to increase my understanding regarding those techniques...' He realized this, finally preparing to begin his training.