Mixed Blessing System

"Millions of silver coins?" The woman following Larissa asked in surprise, not believing that an individual like Lothur had done something like this at his age.

By the standards of this cultivation world, someone around 20 years old earning millions of silver coins in a business was similar to a person of the same age on Earth amassing 1 million dollars.

It was not impossible. Some could do it. But it was extremely rare, something less than 0.01% of the population could achieve.

So Lothur's achievement was quite impressive, something that made those three young men look in the direction of where Annaliese was taking him and Elke at the moment.

"That's really impressive..." One of the men muttered as he remembered how popular rumors about Viktoria marrying a good-for-nothing were until weeks ago.

"And what do you want with him, Larissa?" This same individual, with black hair and with a full mustache, asked their faction leader.

This beautiful white-haired woman looked away and said. "I want to connect with him to get a piece of this business. If he joined our faction, it would be easier for me to get it..."

"But there are other ways."

"Hmm, you wanted him to join us?" That woman in that group, with brown hair just like Viktoria and Annaliese's, asked.

"Yes, wouldn't it be nice to have someone like that in the family we are going to raise?" This level 14 cultivator asked.

Like these other people, Larissa was not part of the nobility, and her family was a bourgeois power. But there were benefits in the nobility that interested these people. So they had an interest in forming a noble organization together.

They could form their organization and rise to the nobility because their families were not interested in showing themselves, but they did not limit their members. But, on the other hand, every individual who wanted a job done in this world without having to do it themselves needed at least the means to get others to perform that service for them.

Houses like Larissa's family sometimes used their connections with other powers to do this. But in other cases, they let their members start new organizations to serve them somehow.

That was one of the two ways a noble house came into being, so powerful families started branches of themselves in areas farther away from their core.

As for the advantage of doing this? Simple, not everyone in a family has a chance to lead, have the best resources, etc.

By creating an organization and using her contacts to develop it and elevate it to nobility, someone like Larissa could get a good position and resources with relative ease.

That, of course, would not mean that she could not continue to grow within the Carstensen family. On the contrary, she could use a new organization to grow faster and achieve what was necessary to go further within her original family.

That was the advantage of someone talented like her doing such a thing, which justified not only her but prominent figures from doing this.

An example of someone who had done the same thing this young woman planned was the father of the current Duke of Linn, the creator of the Waldeaur family.

That man was part of a more prominent family. Because of his talent and connections during his time at the academy, he had gotten what was necessary to start his organization. Decades later, that organization was recognized as a noble family, having then achieved the highest position of nobility within a province during his son's generation.

As for that man, after long enjoying the position of Waldeaur patriarch, he had returned to his native home and significantly improved his position.

Of course, he had done a solid job, so today, the Waldeaur family was in the sphere of influence of that power, and he still received dividends from his creation.

That was the goal of Larissa and these people!

So considering the potential that Lothur's vehicle project had, this woman wanted him to be associated with her so that her journey would be shortened.

Anyway, the three agreed that Lothur could add a lot if he were as talented as everyone was saying lately. And if that project Larissa had discovered were really as important as she thought it was, it would be well worth having him on their side!

"Still, I think he will join Viktoria's faction. In fact, he should be going to start the procedure regarding that right now." The second strongest said, feeling that their efforts would be futile.

"It's true, Larissa. We can't compete with his wife..."

She heard that and said. "We'll see. Anyway, even if he doesn't accept, we'll find a way to bring him over to our side."

"Coins are what push cultivators to the limit."

...

While those individuals were talking about Lothur, this fellow arrived in front of Ice Feathers' mansion.

Upon arriving there, Annaliese promptly introduced this place to him. "Lothur, this is my sister's faction. That is the home of faction number 2 of this academy, which with less than half the cultivators of the number 1, we can compete for good missions for our members."

"Hmmm." Lothur nodded his head, noting that this was indeed true.

Although there were fewer people there than at Angelic Feathers headquarters, and this place was much smaller, it was a fact that the average quality of the cultivators was higher.

Except for Annaliese, who, by the way, was almost at the 2nd stage, everyone there was a Spiritual Warrior.

Lothur saw this through the system and the visual ability that could show him the people through the walls of that mansion.

So Annaliese introduced the mansion to him and Elke. "Our faction consists of quest hall, membership rank, administrative office, trading office, vault, and miscellaneous rooms."

"Here, we do not focus on teaching our members, but the miscellaneous rooms can be used for either training, theoretical teaching, or group planning."

Factions were large groups with similar purposes. But within these groups, there were smaller subdivisions. After all, it was impossible to go on a mission with all the faction members at once...

Hence, there were several groups in factions like these, which needed spaces to discuss strategies and things like that.

"Ranking?" Lothur questioned.

"Oh, right. The academy has a ranking, right?" Annaliese looked at Lothur and explained. "So, we just replicate that ranking only with our members. We use that to define the relevance of members for missions and the like."

"Oh? That's it then..." Lothur looked at the ranking and saw his wife's name in 1st place, while Annaliese's came a little lower, 124th.

Then he and Elke followed Annaliese until they came across an old acquaintance, Viktoria's best friend, Karen Hum.

Seeing that beautiful woman he had not seen in ages, Lothur looked at her status and saw that Karen had improved one level.

'Level 11, eh? It looks like I've outclassed you, hehe.'

...