Spencer took out his remaining food pill and popped it into his mouth, it was approximately 3 in the midnight. By the time he was hungry again, there should be plenty of restaurants open. He then opened the system tab and once again clicked on the plus sign behind meridians.

He braced for the intense pain, but it still hurt like hell when it actually hit. He curled up into a ball, screaming without care as a way to relieve pain. It felt like it lasted for less time than before, but maybe it was his resistance that increased.

He watched 10 wealth disappear from his panel, but the meridian count was now at 3. It felt far better than sitting for hours to refine a single meridian. Speaking of sitting for so long, Spencer was sure he wouldn’t have been able to do so if it wasn’t for his grit and perseverance. At a certain point of time, it had become monotonous enough that he lost the sense of time, mindlessly repeating the process.

Instead of sitting cross legged once again, Spencer simply clutched his leg, curled into himself on the floor, and mentally clicked on the plus sign.

Waves of pain crashed into him as Spencer screamed his heart out.

At 6 in the morning, Spencer left his cave and headed towards the common bathroom to take a bath and change his clothes. When he reached there, he realized it was a far cleaner building than he thought. It was apparently the male common bathroom no. 39, to be used only by the males living in the surrounding area.

Spencer didn’t know how many caves existed in this area, nor did he plan to. He walked inside the building, surprised to find a male receptionist working behind a booth. Opposite of it, occupying half of the entire first floor was a variety of towels, soaps, body gels, shampoos and other stuff. The other half was filled with tubs marked by the same, apparently one had to throw whatever you took into the respective tubs.

After conversing with the receptionist, he learned that bathrooms with showers were present from 2nd to 4th floor, while the 5th and 6th floor had ones with tubs and jacuzzi respectively. Unfortunately it cost a single spirit stone even to use the bathroom for a week, 2 for ones which had tubs and 3 for the ones with jacuzzi. He booked one with showers and headed onto the 3rd floor where it was located. Spencer was genuinely impressed with the lack of pungent smell common in public bathrooms, but wasted no time in completing his task.

Twenty minutes later, he returned whatever he had taken from the first floor and gave his used clothes for laundry, before leaving the building completely fresh. It helped him that the crowd was less this early into the morning.

Relying on his memory, Spencer headed towards one of the restaurants where his coupon would be applicable and bought a hearty meal.

“Have you found out what your talent is?”

He heard someone speak to him after he was almost done with the food. Spencer slurped the noodles hanging onto his mouth and looked at Clara sitting opposite him.

Contrary to the other day, she wore Earth-like clothes today, with a black t-shirt and similar colored shorts. Her long black hair flowed in the air without anything binding them, giving her an overall free-natured look.

Spencer spoke, forgetting that he still had food in his mouth.

“O eee onth no.” His bulging mouth let out a series of garbled noises, causing Clara to chuckle. “Take your time.”

She leaned forward, placing her hands on the table and spoke after a moment of thought. “You must’ve already embarked on your cultivation journey, right? That’s impressive determination I must say. Not a lot of people from earth, myself included, were able to complete imagining the entire route in a single day. That’s a lot of discipline and willpower I must say.”

She leaned even forward, lowering her voice. “You’ve also refined more than 2-3 meridians right?”

If Spencer was surprised, he didn’t show it on his face. He was frankly just tired, mentally and physically. Enduring the onslaught of pain inflicted by the system during refining was no joke. Taking a shower had helped him recover a bit mentally.

Clara had a hard time believing the change in him. It had just been a single day, and yet here he was, having changed so much. His eyes were of a person who had gone through countless difficulties, his aura spoke to her of the hurdles he had crossed.

What happened in a single day? Is this related to his talent?

Spencer continued eating nonchalantly, aiming to finish whatever he had ordered. Living on food pills was comfortable but he was already missing the taste of real food. It brought energy back to his body and his spirits lifted. Clara didn’t speak again. When Spencer was done eating everything, he stood up and refilled his plate, intending to completely fill his stomach.

He aimed to get a nice sleep once he returned to his cave after taking his ID from the Administration. With a genuine lock on the door, he would feel safer sleeping in the unfamiliar environment. After waking up, he would go looking for missions, since he had completely drained his wealth points. He had to start earning if he wanted to continue progressing at a fast speed. At least until the system was able to continue boosting him up.

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Before he resumed eating though, he looked at Clara, who didn’t have an ounce of impatience on her face. If she had, she didn’t show it.

[Wealth: 10]

[Meridians - 20+]

His entire body felt nourished, extremely healthy and in top-notch state. His legs especially were feeling far stronger than before, he felt like he could easily run at a speed and distance he had struggled to the previous day.

“I still don’t know my talent. But how do you know about the rest?”

She was correct in that he refined more than 2-3 meridians, but she was nowhere near the exact number. Still, how did she know?

Clara giggled, she liked watching the look of surprise and curiosity on people’s faces when they didn’t know about her talent. She watched him go back to eating, then opened her mouth after seeing how he had no plans expressing anything else. Unbeknownst to her, Spencer wasn’t being rude but he simply had no extra energy after going through the harrowing ordeal.

“My talent is about, well, investing. Not just any investing, but in people. I can only invest in people less than my cultivation level, and the returns I get depends on how much I invested, and how much the person being invested was in need of my investment. But there is a rule, I will always get far lesser returns than the targeted person. I mean, I am not mad about it either. It would be crazy if my investment broke through a rank and I somehow broke through 2 ranks as a return of my investment.

“Do you remember how I sold you 2 food pills? Even though I ‘sold’ them to you at the standard price, getting a spirit stone in return, the food pills were ultimately what you needed at that point of time. It somehow counted as my investment since I helped you. When I woke up in the morning, I sensed that my realm was extremely tiny bit higher than before. It is negligible at my level but I was still able to sense it.

“And I was surprised to find that my talent directed me at you as the cause of this increase. This is why I already know that you must have started cultivating and even refined more than 2 meridians.”

She had a smug look on her face, but Spencer inwardly thought while chewing on his sandwich.

Maybe she can’t accurately grasp how much I’ve grown based on the investment she made. Or maybe it’s simply much more difficult to quantify such an obscure thing such as ‘investment in people’ and ‘their need for it at the time of investment’.

Others might not have a system as their talent, else it would’ve quantified the amount and she would’ve known the exact value. I’ve never heard others speak about it either. All they speak about is talent, nothing among the lines of a system.

Spencer still was shocked enough when he heard about her talent though, and this time it was displayed bare on his face. Her talent basically allowed her to climb realms without any hard work if her investment happens to pay off. It was far less than the targeted person, sure, but it was still plain benefits without putting in the time.

It was a pot calling the kettle black.

Clara opened her mouth once again, finally satisfied that the newbie had shown due respect to her great talent. She had a calculative nature but even she couldn’t help but feel proud when someone praised her, being surprised at her talent was one form of it.

Clara ordered some food for herself and spoke again. “I am here related to this.” She coughed into her fist and continued. “I want to continue investing in you. Seeing how fast you progressed and your will to persevere and progress, I think it will be profitable for me even if you only reach till Foundation building before I break through to the Nascent soul stage.”

Spencer raised his eyebrows. “You are at the golden core stage?”

He knew about the few beginning realms of cultivation, it hardly diverted from the majority of the novels he had read. It was only in later stages that all the novels cooked up their own realms. Turns he wasn’t exactly incorrect regarding the cultivation stages of this world.

It went as follows: Qi gathering -> Foundation building -> Golden core -> Nascent soul. He didn’t know what came next.

“Why? Do I not like one? I am only staying as the outer sect disciple because I am waiting for Sofia. She isn’t yet powerful enough to become an inner disciple yet.

“And stop diverting the topic. We were talking about your investment, how about I give you 50 spirit stones? Considering it takes around 500 spirit stones for an average person to finish refining their meridians, I think it is significant that I am sponsoring 10% of it. You don’t need to return them, just breakthrough to foundation building as soon as you can, at least before I become a Nascent soul stage cultivator.”

Spencer nodded his head in silence. It was an unexpected windfall on his part, but he was grateful for it nonetheless. Spencer finished his meal in the next five minutes and waited for Clara to finish hers. It was the least he could do after getting spirit stones for free, if not he would have left already, not caring what she thought about him.

They parted their ways after leaving the restaurant, Clara was only here to sponsor him, and that too for her own benefit in the long run. He didn’t feel the need to be more polite than necessary.

Resisting the urge to head back to his cave and cultivate, he headed towards the Credit hall, where missions were said to be posted. One, because it would be doubtful if Clara immediately sensed the increase in her realm as soon as he parted ways with him, which would give away the fact that he could refine his meridians far faster than the usual 6 hours, and second, even 50 spirit stones weren’t enough. He needed to earn more.

Approximately 10 minutes later, he reached the Credit hall. It was smaller than the Announcement hall, probably because its purpose wasn’t to house lots of disciples in one place. From what he heard, you were given a talisman to choose through the missions you were eligible for, and a receptionist booked it under your name after you notified them of your choice. There was a separate talisman for buying things with Credit, which had the same procedure.

It would be good if I can get a mission which starts in the afternoon. That way I can get a good sleep before starting my mission.

The only reason he didn’t first head towards his cave to sleep then went for the Credit hall was because it was awfully long from the cave itself. He wasn’t sure he wanted to walk so far again. Taking a minimum of 10 minutes to reach everywhere was chipping away at his patience.

He browsed through the missions when his sight fell on one by Grand Elder Lyra.

It was related to stars.