Mixed Blessing System

Hearing Annaliese's question, Lothur looked intensely at her but did not hide his plans. "Whether I will pursue a career in this? Well, I won't become a traditional poison master who depends on clients to survive."

"I don't intend to open a clinic, serve people, or even focus on this profession. The opposite of that, I intend to master this area of knowledge for my own use."

"Won't you focus on that? Own use?" Her eyes widened as she found how unusual Lothur's goal was.

Not many successful professionals in this world have more than one occupation. In fact, those who had many talents and tried to develop them all usually did not achieve the peak in any of them!

And with so much history known, most cultivators in this world knew that following such a challenging path was not worth it. After all, it was definitely better to have one specialization developed to its peak than several underdeveloped skills!

Because of this, people willing to have more than one specialization, as in Lothur's case, were not at all common to find, even considering those geniuses with multiple skills.

On the other hand, after hearing that he wanted to use it for his own use, Annaliese became a little less concerned about his interest. "Don't you find it simpler to find one occupation and then hire the service of professionals to help you with your other goals? That seems much simpler to me."

"No, because I would have to entrust important things to others when I am still fragile." He went straight to the point.

Lothur wanted to reach the top, but he did not want to be used or tricked by ill-intentioned people who would surely come his way.

And even if there were ways for him to trust other people, to hire 'outsourced' services safely, it would only work if he had the strength to do so. But unfortunately, he did not have the strength on his side, much less the resources to hire other people.

Thus, learning professions on his own, creating his products, and keeping their secrecy to himself was the best he could do now. As such, he did not judge Annaliese's suggestion as good for him.

On the other hand, he honestly did not need to reach the top of any of his future professions. After all, he only wanted to learn them for himself, not for the sake of status, love for the profession, or ambition to be the best in those domains.

As in the example of the poison masters' profession, he wanted to use it just to improve his resistance to poisons, thus decreasing his chances of being poisoned to death in the future.

And considering the peculiar characteristics of his body, he would be better off not trusting other people too much!

"Oh?" Annaliese's eyes opened wider, with her finally understanding that Lothur's ambitions should not be small. 'So you have plans that could be jeopardized if you allow others to know certain details, huh?'

'I wonder what you want? It can't be simple, or you wouldn't be so concerned as to choose such a difficult path...' She felt her curiosity about the man in front of her increase to another level, still listening to him.

"In any case, becoming a peak spiritual professional or famous one is not my goal. Eventually, I may even traditionally use my future professions, attending to one or other people, but those will be exceptions."

"I will become a poison master for my own sake." He looked at her more seriously and asked. "Did your sister tell you what happened recently?"

"What happened recently? No." She answered awkwardly, not understanding what Lothur could be talking about.

He then said in a low voice. "Someone broke into your sister's residence, disguised as her, and poisoned me."

"What?" She stood up from where she was in nervousness, already feeling her heart beating faster, as one of her hands ran up to Lothur's left arm. "When did this happen? Why didn't you tell me about it? For that matter, are you okay?"

Hearing that woman's worried tone, Lothur smiled and reassured her. "Don't worry, Anna. Luckily I resisted that person's attempt to kill me."

"Because of that, I decided to become a poison master."

"So that's why..." She finally understood the reason for his goals, no longer disagreeing with the choices he was making. 'Who did this? How could anyone act against him like that?'

Gulp!

Annaliese then felt a tightness in her chest, fearing that something could happen to that man. 'Someone almost killed him, and I didn't even notice anything... What am I going to do? What can I do to change this?'

After feeling nervous for a while, she finally agreed with him, determined to help Lothur. "You're right. It's better for you to be average in your professions but have cards up your sleeve than to be vulnerable or dependent on others."

'As long as you are safe, it will all be worth it...'

"So, I think you should focus on your support professions. At the same time, I will find a way to train with you more often!"

"Oh? And what will we do about your parents? Your mother won't make our time any easier, and I'm not willing to let other people know me as well as you do."

Annaliese felt good hearing that and promptly said the first alternative that came to her mind. "I have a way."

"First, I will help you reach a level of strength equivalent to the 5th Transformation. Once that happens, you can enroll in the Cultivation House."

"After that, we can do pair missions that will give us the excuse to be alone." She smiled at him, feeling that this could become quite fun in addition to being helpful. "We can train while doing missions outside Peters City."

"I see..." Lothur closed his eyes as he pondered regarding that, realizing that such a thing was indeed the best way for them.

After all, he did not have enough coins to constantly go to the Cultivation House's training rooms!

Thus, this was a good and profitable option for him.

After that, as their carriage gradually slowed down in the vicinity of the Morning Star Academy, Lothur checked Annaliese's status.

[Name: Annaliese Frost]

[Cultivation: level 6]

[STR: 19.5] [CON: 22.1] [DEX: 23] [AGI: 21.9]

'By my estimates, Annaliese is almost at level 7... Well, that's good. She'll be able to train me for longer than I had thought.'

'That way, this plan of hers can be effective for a good period!'

"All right, let's do it your way."

...

After the start of the day for those two, quickly hours passed, and by now, Lothur was getting ready to leave for the auction he and Annaliese had agreed to go to.

During that day, he had settled several matters at the academy, had some more fun with Elke, and once again noticed an advance in her Constitution.

Lothur still did not know what was happening. But, for the moment, he had in mind that perhaps their intense 'exercises' were somehow improving Elke's musculature, as would happen to an out-of-shape person when starting to train.

Anyway, he had decided to pay attention to this in the future before he had gone next to her to Innumerable Scrolls and bought another attack technique.

After that, he learned the basics of such a technique and finished his studies for the day concerning those three spiritual professions he had begun to grasp.

Of those three professions, he already felt ready to begin practical training, the tailoring one. Still, given his plans for the next few days, he had postponed this until the future.

In the case of the formation master's profession, that was definitely the one that required the most of him, so he still did not have enough to start training.

He still needed to learn more symbols and the workings of this type of spiritual item. Hence, although he already knew the basics, Lothur did not want to rush and would study it a bit more before attempting to build his first formation.

On the other hand, his compatibility with poisons was genuinely superb, and because of this, he had already begun to experiment with this profession.

After Lothur learned the basics and tested the set he got from Rebecca, he had already prepared some poisons!

But given his commitment to Annaliese, this man left it to start tempering his body with those resources later, after today's occasion.

With that, it did not take long for him to leave his room and head toward his appointment with Annaliese!

...