The Witch Hunter System

626 Berucha Shadi

What was the privilege of being an honorary core member of Martial Hall?

The privilege of an honorary core member was mostly the same as the privileges of a regular core member but without the responsibilities that came with it. In other words, an honorary core member would have access to the same cultivation resources and facilities but would not need to carry out any compulsory missions on behalf of the Martial Hall.

Although the Martial Hall would give honorary core members missions to perform, honorary core members also had the right to reject all of them.

If nothing else was considered, being an honorary core member was much better than being a regular core member.

However, honorary core members couldn't enjoy such great benefits without any responsibilities attached. At the very least, there should be some price for it.

"Is there a guidebook on the 'can do's' and 'can't do's' of an honorary core member, Elder Severus? I want to read one if possible," Vaan politely requested.

"Oh?" Elder Severus lazily glanced at Vaan from his rocking chair before nodding, "You can find what you need on the back bookshelf. As long as you don't take any of the books outside the Registration Hall, you can read anything on that back bookshelf."

Shortly after Elder Severus said his piece, he resumed his business, flipping open a worn-out book to read. Occasionally, he would scribble something inside it, correcting and altering some flawed content.

With Vaan's Omni-Sense and short observation, he quickly discovered the worn-out book was a low-rank martial art with an ordinary name – Mantis Chop.

Elder Severus's hobby was finding flaws in existing martial arts and improving them in his spare time.

But although Elder Severus's hobby caught Vaan's interest, he did not disturb the grey-haired old man. Before doing anything, he had to gain a complete understanding of the Martial Hall's rules and customs.

Only when Vaan knew what he could and could not do in the Martial Hall would he be capable of avoiding all meaningless troubles and inconveniences that could affect his plans.

It didn't take long for Vaan to locate the guidebook about honorary core members and finish it.

The content was just as he suspected – there truly was a price to pay for being an honorary core member.

While it was true that an honorary core member had access to the same resources and training facilities as regular core members, their priority was at rock bottom.

For example, if all the gravity chambers for core members were in use, an honorary core member would have to end their training and give up their gravity chamber when another core member needed it.

Furthermore, at the Mission Hall, core members also had priority in choosing newly posted missions. Honorary core members had to wait for all the core members to select their missions first. On top of that, honorary core members received twenty percent less contribution points from the same mission given to core members.

Inside the Martial Hall, contribution points were the only acceptable currencies. It was used to exchange for cultivation resources and reserve training time in special facilities like Gravity Chambers and Black Mountain.

Thus, even if honorary core members weren't forced to complete a fixed number of missions for the Martial Hall each year, they still needed to complete missions anyway—that was, unless they didn't care about earning contribution points.

Vaan looked through the catalog of exchangeable rewards and noticed even a heaven-defying pill like the Rank 4 Body Reformation Pill was on the list.

So long as one had enough contribution points, even a Rank 4 Body Reformation Pill could be theirs.

However, the staggering amount of contribution points needed to exchange for one Rank 4 Body Reformation Pill was enough to shatter many warriors' dreams.

The pill was listed for two million contribution points.

It wasn't an amount a warrior could get from completing ordinary missions, even if they kept completing them for their entire life.

Nevertheless, Vaan wasn't concerned about the disadvantages of the resources or the training facilities.

After all, most honorable core members were young masters with powerful, noble backgrounds. Normal core members wouldn't dare to offend them by snatching their training spots or a mission they were interested in.

On the contrary, they would be buttering up honorary core members and trying to build a good relationship with them. After all, if they had mediocre power after graduating from the Martial Hall, they could at least rely on these connections to secure stable positions such as personal guards for nobles or royalties.

However, the real problem for Vaan was that he became an honorary core member under Duke Zaahir's recommendation. As such, core members affiliated with the other dukes would try to screw him over.

If he were found guilty of three offenses, such as intentionally causing trouble for other students in the Martial Hall and affecting their learning, his honorary core member status would be revoked.

'I don't want to look for trouble, but trouble will definitely come knocking. What can I do to remedy this situation?' Vaan pondered.

He only came to the Martial Hall because he was interested in reading its accumulation of martial arts. Thus, he didn't want his reading time to be disturbed by flies.

However, in order to deal with flies, he would have to sacrifice some of his precious reading time.

As for the methods to deal with flies… He could think of many ways.

"Thank you, Elder Severus. I have finished reading and will be on my way now," Vaan informed the grey-haired old man after returning the last book to its shelf.

"Go on then," Elder Severus waved Vaan off without looking, eyes still fixed on the content of his book, Mantis Chop Technique.

Vaan silently nodded and took his leave. The core member who escorted him to the Registration Hall also left to follow him shortly after informing the elder of his departure.

Sometime later, after two had long left, Elder Severus glanced at the back bookshelf with some doubts.

Although all the books had been returned neatly to the shelf, Elder Severus could still tell which book Vaan had read within the half hour of his stay. After all, it had been a long time since a person was bothered to read the Martial Hall's introductory guidebooks.

A lot of dust had gathered on the back shelf, and they had been recently moved.

'That kid read all of that in half an hour?'

Elder Severus tried to maintain his aloof and calm outer appearance, but he was dumbfounded inside his heart.

He quickly recalled how fast the pages had been flipping and figured Vaan might have just been skimming the pages. He felt a little disappointed at that thought.

Nevertheless, it had been a long time since someone had shown interest in reading the introductory guidebooks. Thus, he was a little interested in this new student.

'Vanderlin Pendragon, was it? Someone with a name like this had certainly left behind quite an impression,' Elder Severus mused.

However, he suddenly thought about the complications that came with such a name. This new student would have no shortage of trouble and only had an honorary core member status.

'This kid wouldn't get expelled from the Martial Hall on his first day, would he? Hm… I will look after this kid for a little bit. I want to see if this kid is a true dragon or a paper tiger,' Elder Severus decided.

…

Meanwhile, after Vaan left the registration building, the core member who escorted him earlier quickly caught up to him.

"Young Master Vanderlin, you must not be familiar with our martial school yet. Where do you want to go? I can show you the way," the core member offered with a friendly attitude.

Vaan glanced back at the core member and briefly studied him.

This person was a thirty-year-old Dunean young man with only the strength of a Low-level Rank 2 Body Refiner. Compared to Jihaad, who was both a Peak-level Rank 2 Body Refiner and a Peak-stage Aura Master with a similar age, this person's martial talent was considered mediocre.

As such, it was also clear why this person approached him enthusiastically.

Since the person could be used, he should use him.

"Sure, I'm heading to the Martial Arts Repository," Vaan calmly replied.

"Great!" the mediocre core member exclaimed excitedly before taking the lead, "You're heading in the right direction, Young Master Vanderlin. Please follow me. It's not too far from here, only about fifteen minutes walking distance away."

"I'm sorry, I haven't caught your name yet. This Senior Martial Brother is…?" Vaan sought out the person's name.

"Ahh, pardon my late introduction, Young Master Vanderlin," the mediocre core member smacked his forehead before introducing himself, "I am Berucha Shadi, but you can just call me Berucha or Martial Brother Berucha, Young Master Vanderlin."

"I don't dare to be a senior martial brother and pull my weight in front of you," Berucha added with an awkward smile.

Even if Berucha's martial talent was mediocre, he still had some awareness. He could tell that Vaan's strength was above him despite being younger.

Thus, as someone who had spent fifteen years studying at the Martial Hall yet only managed to be a Low-level Rank 2 Body Refiner, he didn't believe he was qualified to be anyone's senior martial brother.

"Martial Brother Berucha it is then," Vaan calmly nodded.

Berucha immediately felt relief after seeing that Vaan didn't look down on him and still gave him the basic level of respect as a fellow martial brother of the same martial school.

Meanwhile, Vaan figured he couldn't be too casual since he was still new. He didn't want to give others a reason to find fault with him.