Might As Well Try

A full twelve hours after Mateus fell asleep, his eyes snapped open. In reality, he needed less than seven hours to fully sleep off the fatigue accumulated from the day prior, and for the past seven hours, he had actually been mulling despondently in his bed without moving.

'That cat, Kaiser...' Mateus thought for the umpteenth time before sighing heavily and standing up. He shook his head and left his room, then, the house.

Across the street, the cat was still sitting right where it had been left, prompting Mateus to stare at it long enough that it caught his presence and stared right back.

"Hmm..." Mateus began to walk down the sidewalk away from his house thoughtlessly. He didn't want to keep being reminded of his own unfortunate past. Nor did he want to be around the cat and risk being distracted amidst a meditation session. He wasn't even feeling remotely motivated to consume the transcribed Heart's Embrace Heavenly Sutra Dual Cultivation Method.

For now, the only thing he felt compelled to do was to get away from his new home.

…

"Monte said the Sect Headquarters was pretty big, but this… This is fucking ridiculous," Mateus muttered as he made it to the edge of the Outer Sect Courtyards and saw just a portion of the rest of the Sect Grounds. Even from his vantage point, being thousands of feet above the Central District, he couldn't make out the full scope of the Sect Headquarters.

"This place puts major cities like Tokyo, Miami, and Paris to shame," Mateus added as he stepped into the elevator that would take him down to the Central District. There was a hiking path he could have taken, but he wasn't feeling like wasting the next couple hours walking around.

Less than ten minutes later, Mateus found himself before the entrance to the Central District. There, all the Sect Departments and Clans had their residency. The various Secondary Occupations each had their offices and shops littering the cities, with the best ones belonging to the strongest Clans, being located near the Sect's various Subdimension Gates.

Walking along as he already knew where to go from having consumed a map of the whole Sect Headquarters, Mateus made his way to the tersely named Boot Camp. Supposedly, anyone from the Sect could opt into taking one of the courses at the Boot Camp to earn Spirit Stones.

Of course, whether or not one could complete their chosen course was another story entirely…

"Holy fucking... This is impossible! A scam! Utter bullshit!" A boy that didn't even look old enough to enter high school said by the Boot Camp's gated entrance.

"Really?" Mateus asked the boy as he approached and added, "What's the matter."

"What's the matter? This Boot Camp being utter bullshit is the fucking matter!"

"Uh… You're talking about the place that hands out free Spirit Stones so long as you get a bit of exercise in?"

"A bit of exercise?" The boy snorted, ��Maybe some two-faced Sect Elder sold you on that idea to get you motivated, but it's impossible to meet these people's expectations! They expect perfection and only reward you once for completing the courses."

Kicking some dirt as he began to walk away, the boy muttered, "I swear, I'd probably get more Spirit Stones by finding them out in the field myself!"

"Hmm..." Mateus starred in the boy's direction until he faded away into the crowd. "It can't be that bad... right?"

"Are you interested?"

Mateus turned around and found a middle-aged man in armored robes grinning at him.

"Yeah. I mean, I've got nothing better to do," Mateus lied, but it was close enough to the truth, anyways.

"Great!" The middle-aged man beamed only for his smile to fall as he said, "Though, you might want to hold out on anything outside of your comfort zone until you reach the peak of the Mortal Stage."

"What do you mean?" Mateus asked; both questioning what it was his comfort zone could possibly be, and why the man suggested he wait until he reached Level 5 in the first place.

"Why don't you first tell me what you know about the Boot Camp?"

"Eh, I don't know much, honestly. My, uh… master," Mateus cringed at the formal title he was expected to call Monte, "just told me that this place was an easy source of Spirit Stones."

"Well..." The man nearly tripped, "the Boot Camp was created for the express purpose of incentivising our Sect's members to build the best cultivation bases possible. As a result, it has a total of five courses; one for the three Cultivation Type Systems; one for the Martial Skill; and one for total Combat Prowess."

"So, not only will I get to improve my progress with cultivation by taking these courses, but I'll also get Spirit Stones in the end?" Mateus quirked a brow. "Sounds simple enough to me."

"About that..." The man chuckled, "Each of the five courses come in different levels of difficulty, corresponding to the various Stages of Cultivation. However, the courses themselves are built to test Sect Disciples at the peak of those Stages; hence, my previous advice."

"Welp, I'm already here." Mateus shrugged, "Even if I fail, I might as well try and see just how 'impossible' these courses are."

"That's the spirit!"

Five minutes later…

"Is this a joke? A prank?" Mateus asked as he looked away from the four Spirit Stones on his hand and over to the middle-aged man, Hanns.

"No."

"But I didn't even do anything? I just pulled out my Fractured Spirit Wire like you asked!"

"Kid… The Mortal Energy course requires less than a third of the energy you currently have in your reserves. The Mortal Soul course only requires a Sub Trash Affinity for any element. And the Combat Prowess and Martial Skill courses? Forget Mortal level. From the change in aura producing your weapon caused, I can see you passing the Soldier and, dare I say, Saint levels of the Boot Camp respectively."

"The only thing keeping you from a perfect Mortal Stage foundation is your lacking Body Cultivation," Hanns said as he looked at Mateus like he was some sort of supreme heavenly treasure.