Cain looked away from Elder Ling and declined to answer her question about whether he intended to hide the relevant information about awakening and advancing Disciples. That wasn't going to be enough to convince Elder Ling that he thought it was beneath him, but it would at least stop him from having to confirm it outright.
Instead of answering, Cain deflected. "Who would have thought that you were so devoted to healing and helping others that you would get a Class like Holy Cleric, though? It's one of the few classes that can gain experience by using their class skills which isn't a trade skills class."
Elder Ling looked even more shocked now than when she had received her own System Interface. "So, you're saying that you could teach skills to a weapon smith or an Inscriptionist, and they could advance through to Immortality simply by crafting items?"
"Of course. Little Solara is an Alchemist, and she will begin to level up as she starts to work. As you get further along, it will require you to make more complex and powerful items, though, but the Class advancements will usually give you at least a few basic recipes to work with, so you don't end up at a dead end.
Don't give me that look. If I activate Systems for your Disciples, the System might count them as my own Disciples and require me to bring them with me on my adventures. I would hate to be stealing the futures of the Lotus Blossom Sect, and I plan on leaving quite soon."
Once he was done speaking, Cain sat down and began writing more copies of [Mana Transformation] so that he could give them to his disciples. That would help them blend in here, and it would also speed up their rate of progress, making each monster that they killed in the wilderness contain a ball of bonus experience that they could consume.
That made it even more worthwhile to take them all on an adventure, but before they left, he was going to have to obtain a Monster Core so that he could increase Solara's level somewhat. Having started over at level 1, she would be in incredible danger the moment that they were in the wilderness, and her physical skills would be far below the others, so Cain would have to carry her. That wasn't likely to go over well with the proud former Elder, and Luna would get jealous, so Cain would end up having to carry them both for the entire trip.
The area around the city was wiped entirely clear of all forms of beast due to the number of Mortal Realm Cultivators present, so they would have to go further out to start hunting, but Cain was certain that someone had Mana Stones still. They were a staple of most forms of Cultivation.
That was it. The girls had gotten them for winning the Outer Sect Disciple fighting competition. They hadn't had any use for them until now, so they should still have them, and even Solara might still have her own supply in her storage ring. She had lost her levels but not her resources.
Cain went to find the girls, who had all retreated to the arena with a platter full of snacks so that he could give them the new skill books.
"Ladies, I have a good thing for you all. Mana Transformation, so that you can advance your levels with only mana stones and monster cores. Once you have the skill, you can just directly absorb them for the experience." Cain explained as he sat down beside them to watch the Lotus Blossom Disciples fight.
Four matches at once were about the limits of the arena for the stronger Disciples, but the Outer Sect disciples could have split those four into four times as many arenas and still had room to fight. They didn't need much more than a boxing ring to fight comfortably, while the movement skills and energy attacks of those with more cultivation meant that they needed a much larger arena so that they could actually put their skills to good use and not just clash auras.
Cain gave his Disciples the books and watched as they marveled over the new skill. He was beginning to see where the Laughing God found entertainment in the System. The joy and expectation every time they got a new thing to play with was highly entertaining to Cain. It didn't even have to be a big thing. Little ones like the cookbook were enough to keep them energized.
"Solara, before you start gobbling down Mana stones, I should warn you that every level will bring you a bunch of notifications. They can be pretty intense in the lower levels if you advance too fast, so don't worry about rushing things. You can take your time and advance slowly over the next few weeks as we travel." Cain explained.
"Thank you for the warning. I learned about them this morning when I went from level one to twenty after making a Celestial Mind Pill to see if we could make Luna less scatterbrained." Solara laughed.
"Did it work?"
"Not in the least. Improving the clarity and acuity of her thoughts only made her more hyper, with even more questions, which made her even more distracted than she was before. The problem is, pills are intended to permanently improve your mind, so we will have to teach her to focus all over again." Solara joked while Luna looked offended.
"Hey, I'm not that bad. It just let me think of so many good ideas that I had been working on that I had to get them out all at once. It's all sorted out now that we have discussed them."
Penny brightened up at that explanation. "So, like an epiphany. The Pill let you break through a bottleneck in your understanding of the topics at hand, and now you can work on more complex ones."
"Exactly. Now I know exactly the cream-to-puff ratio for the perfect chocolate eclair. That pill saved me so much trial and error." Luna informed her proudly.
Well, Cain should have expected that the problem was going to be something like that and not some deeply intense metaphysical conundrum. Luna was a straightforward person with simple desires. Food and War were all that was on her mind most of the time.
Each of the girls took a handful of small mana stones out of their inventories, a collection of cultivation resources that would normally last an Outer Disciple for months since they could only absorb one a day, even with focused effort.
Most of them seemed to assume it would be the same way with this new skill and that they would need to focus for an extended period of time to get any results, but the moment the first one disappeared in an instant, they realized that this method was far superior to the one that they had been practicing.
Once she realized how they worked, Luna picked a round Mana Stone the size of a fingertip out of her palm and looked at it with great interest.
"They look so much like rock candy. I wonder what they taste like?"
With that, she popped the stone in her mouth and gave a small grimace.
"So, what do they taste like?" Penny asked, genuinely curious.
"They taste like I should have washed my hands before my snack. They disappear the moment that they touch your tongue if you want to absorb them, which leaves behind everything that was on the surface of the Mana Stone. Two out of Ten, I do not recommend them as a snack."
Penny shook her head at Luna's antics, then looked at where Solara was sitting to find her zoned out and staring at nothing. She must have triggered a wave of notifications.
Her hands were empty, so Cain couldn't tell if she had used a different size or quality of the item for her first absorption, but it really did seem to be helping her out. Her level had gone from twenty to eighty in an instant.
Of course, the lower levels were much faster, and they had an experience buff active, but Cain didn't have many summons out right now, so it shouldn't be too bad.
"Did you know I have an incredible skill for leveling up? It's called [Battlefield], and it's like this arena, only without the safeguards. I just make a little pocket dimension where people can fight to the death." Luna informed her father.
"How is that a great skill for leveling up?" Tena asked.
"Well, they still count as within the range of my experience buff, so I filled it with Pixie Druids, who could summon living flowers and swarms of bees. There's like a thousand of them in there right now." Luna replied with great pride.
She opened a small portal in front of herself, and Cain was treated to the view of an immense battlefield filled with flowers and Pixies, most of whom were busy making honey and sweets created from honey.
"So, you opened it to increase the speed of your advancement, did you?" He asked her skeptically.
"Well, sort of. The rest is just a bonus, right?"
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