Mixed Blessing System

[... 12th Frost Family: 16...]

The Province Conference ranking again changed as Lothur advanced to the next round of this competition for poison masters.

Looking at that result, Lothur figured that the other two points probably came from Viktoria since she was competing simultaneously with him.

'We've already moved up three positions, so from here on out, we might be able to get benefits for the family...' He thought about what the man who had opened this competition the day before had said, satisfied so far but much more excited for the next matches.

Lothur did not like Mabel because of his problems with that woman, and he was not a big fan of the Frost family either, given the way other nobles and servants of that house treated him. But he was married to Viktoria and was getting involved with Annaliese. So whether he liked this organization or not, its performance in this event was essential to him.

Hence, as someone who understood this very well and was pragmatic, Lothur was pleased to see the organization he represented doing better than expected.

What's more, considering his plans for the future, this could benefit him doubly in his journey in this cultivation world!

Then, amidst the looks of admiration and hatred in his direction, he quickly left with a smile on his face next to Annaliese and Rebecca.

He was still half-naked, given the impurities on his body. But Lothur was not shy, and these two women soon pointed out where he could clean himself in that coliseum.

...

As Lothur's enemies were leaving that area of the poison masters' competition to take the negative information to their leaders, Viktoria had just finished her match.

At that moment, she saw her family's position, imagined that Lothur was helping her, and smiled as she walked away from her combat platform.

But as she did so with a discreet smile on her face, she saw a young redheaded woman approaching her.

"Elke Becker..."

"First Miss Frost..."

The two exchanged those words, standing face to face, as great rivals would do after a while without seeing each other.

But then Viktoria asked. "What do you want? Are you here to talk to me?"

"Yes, we have serious business to take care of, no?" Elke seriously said, thinking of Lothur. "We have common interests, after all. So I guess we have to work together..."

"Oh?" Viktoria understood what Elke wanted and did not refuse to talk about such a thing. "Well, I have to take care of some business now, so can we talk about it while I go over there? I heard you have a lot of free time this week..."

Elke closed her eyes and smiled, trying to ignore the teasing from Lothur's wife. "Fine by me."

After that, the two proceeded to leave that area together as Viktoria fans watched in their direction with interest.

"First Miss Frost and Young Miss Becker walking together?"

"They know each other?"

"It seems so..."

"I didn't expect that. Could it be that the Becker family is closer to the Frosts than the rumors say?"

"Impossible!"

"But that seems to be the case..."

...

While curious people were discussing Viktoria and Elke's possible friendship, Lothur had already cleaned himself up, put his clothes back on, and headed with Annaliese and Rebecca to a training area of the coliseum.

This building was huge and had cultivation and training rooms available for the use of the competing participants there.

Usually, this place was open for large weekly fights open to the public, an attraction of the evenings in Peters City. Because of the need for areas for the fighters in this coliseum to rest and even test weapons, these training and cultivation places existed.

So even though the competitors would not normally train during the Province Conference due to the disadvantages of doing so, since such places existed, they were made available to the competitors.

That way, Lothur's group had no trouble finding one of those spaces, where the three promptly settled in.

"Lothur, with your advancement in poison resistance, you will have only one competitor in the trials for poison masters," Rebecca commented as she watched him prepare to face her.

"Is that so?" He questioned this woman.

Annaliese then said. "He is the Waldauer family favorite for the poison masters competition."

"Hmm." Rebecca nodded in agreement. "That person is already a 2-star poison master who is already at the 2nd Revolution. So, he will be your only challenge."

"Oh? Is there someone that strong competing?" Lothur was surprised to find that out.

"Yes... Anyway, you will hardly face each other before the finals, so you will probably be able to advance easily in the next few days." She said as she took off some of the heavier pieces of clothing on her body.

'Hmm, after several families lost their most talented competitors to me, probably organizations trying to oppose me will slow down their movements...' He considered this in silence, thinking House Waldauer would probably not force a battle between him and such a person as early as the next day.

The risk would not be small, and that family might even lose one of their favorite candidates to bring many points to them.

Hence, the intelligent thing to do in this situation was not to risk the family's future for the sake of a mere young Mortal Warrior. That is, even if Lothur had a frightening performance in this tournament, these local organizations would still have ways of dealing with him.

Therefore, they would probably let the trials go on without further interference after noting his various qualities on this first day of trials.

Lothur believed something similar to that, so he was confident he would not have to face the big favorite that Annaliese and Rebecca were already talking about the next day.

Annaliese then said to him. "I think today and the last day of the competition will be the hardest for you. So as long as we finish well today, everything will be fine."

"Hmm." He nodded in agreement to her, already preparing to raise some of his features.

"Becca, we have about an hour before Anna's next event, so we have no time to waste. You can start by fighting me with strength equivalent to 8th Transformation. But slowly increase your strength if you feel I am holding up well."

"8th Transformation? Fine, but do you want to do intense training now? Aren't you tired from what just happened?" She walked into the fighting area of that training room while Annaliese sat away from the two.

"I said it before, didn't I? My body is tougher than some of my other skills... So I will recover well." He confidently said. "Besides, after that, I'll be able to rest during Annaliese's competition, and my next competition will test only my tailoring skills. Then I'll be fine."

After hearing all this, Rebecca no longer tried to convince Lothur otherwise and prepared herself for the start of their fight, curious to see how he would do.

"Okay. You can start when you feel ready." She said as she saw a two-headed ax appearing in Lothur's right hand.

After hearing this, he ran toward her!

...