Cain woke up in the morning to the feeling of a small body climbing into his bed to hide. The lack of presence told him it wasn't Luna for a change, so it must be Solara hiding from her.
He was about to speak when the alchemist put a finger to her lips to silence him and curled up between him and the wall. She had only been there a few minutes when Luna and the others came out from the other side.
"Have you seen Solara? I wanted to get her dressed up for the day, so we could show off our new Disciple." Sabbat asked.
"She already headed out for breakfast. But you all wear uniforms. What is there to do?" Cain asked.
"You don't understand the necessities. A lady needs her hair done, makeup, lotion, powder, exfoliation, and so much more. We can't just roll out of bed this beautiful every day." Sabbat informed him.
So that was what Solara was hiding from.
"I am sure you can discuss it at breakfast. Now, get up and get going, or you will miss the best dishes." Cain instructed his Disciples.
Once they were gone, Solara stuck her head out of the blankets and gave Cain a wink, ready to head out.
"Stop. You can't go out with your hair in a nest like that. Come sit here, and I will straighten you out, so you are presentable for the public. We can't have people thinking I am negligent as a Sect Master, unable to even supervise six people." Cain told her and took a brush out from his inventory.
"You know I am nine hundred years old. I don't need someone else to brush my hair." Solara pointed out.
"Not anymore, you're not. If you want a fresh start, you need to stop acting like the Elder you used to be. So, now you are nine, and I am your Sect Master. Now sit down and let me fix your hair." Cain demanded, tapping his knee to indicate that she should sit down and obey.
"Fine, but just this time."
For all her reluctance, Solara began humming happily, not even a minute after Cain started to brush out and plait her hair into braids, acting very much like the happy young Disciple that she appeared to be.
Cain was just tying a ribbon at the end of the braid when Luna came back in and began pointing at Solara in outrage.
"So that's where you were. You tricked me into leaving so you could get a head start on having your hair done. That's not fair. Next time, I will let you wander until mine is done first." Luna complained.
With her hair finished, Solara turned to whisper into Cain's ear. "She has totally forgotten that my appearance doesn't match my real age, hasn't she?"
"About three minutes after I finished transforming you, most likely." Cain agreed, while his newest disciple sighed and stepped away from him for Luna to take her place.
"Master Cain is the best at hair. He doesn't pull the tangles or anything, and the braids last all day." Luna informed Solara with a smile as Cain began to work.
"Okay, done. Now, let's get breakfast, and then you are coming with me to the pagoda that the Lotus Blossom has set up for us. Solara, you can come too, but I don't know how interested you are in Inscription techniques." Cain told his Disciple, then carried Luna out of the tent and over toward the tables.
When they sat down, Cain could see the new temporary structure being assembled, using a colorful cloth to emulate the traditional tile roof over a wooden structure. It was an impressive venue for a simple vendor stall, but compared to the venues that were prepared inside the city for most symposiums, it was rather small and crowded, thanks to the flow of morning traffic walking between camps.
"Almost everyone who is going to the city will be gone within an hour, and then we can get started. The pathway is mostly empty all day, so only those who are interested will show up, and the others can take a different route back to their camps if they return early." Elder Ling explained, seeing the concern on Cain's face about their choice not to have him find a spot in the city.
In that case, it should be fine. Plenty of other Sects have small vendors set up at their camp because they couldn't get a spot inside the city. They're usually not influential or large ones, but that pretty much sums up the Forbidden Treasure Sect, doesn't it? We aren't even large enough to set up our own camp and share with friends instead." Cain agreed.
"That's part of the Sect's charm. You showed up with just enough Disciples for a team, plus one Elder, and made your mark on the tournament as well as the Symposiums. Dozens of small Sects and hermit cultivators have tried to do exactly the same thing to get themselves new Disciples, with varying degrees of success.
The trick is, you really do need to have something amazing to offer to entice disciples worth training to a teacher who is unlikely to be able to offer them any training resources at all, much less a chance at extremely rare ones like the big Sects can."
That made a lot of sense to Cain. There was a lot of competition at the bigger sects, and most of the disciples understood that it would be a harsh environment, but that was the only place you could get the resources to actually advance your growth at a reasonable rate.
Not that his disciples needed resources. They had him and Luna for all the experience buff that they could ever need, and the system didn't demand rare treasures to help them advance.
At least not most of the time.
Cain thought of his quest to integrate the Dragon Core at that moment and brought up the quest progression in his interface.
[Dragon Core Integration] 65 Percent
It was going way faster than he had expected, with all the small quests that he had been getting, and it wouldn't be long before Cain could make the Immortal Rank Awakening and become qualified to go to the world that the Ancients were hiding on, according to the one named Nyarla, who seemed to be taking care of Misha.
Once he got there, Cain had every intention of settling down to a relaxing family life for a change. That was what most Awakened did once they had power and wealth, just settled down to family life for a few decades.
Lately, Cain was really beginning to appreciate the fact that he was, in fact, going to be Immortal, with no hurry to get things done in a limited lifespan. The Elves along the coast of the Serrah Woods embraced that fact, knowing that they had a thousand or more years to live, and thoroughly enjoyed their time.
In theory, he had hundreds of times longer than that, and by the time he could be considered "old" by Ancient standards, even the Elves would feel like children to him.
That might just be this world getting to him, though, as they considered it perfectly normal for a Sect Master or First Ancestor to go into secluded cultivation for a century or more at a time and then return to their duties when they had made a breakthrough, or when there was trouble that their juniors couldn't take care of.
He could certainly appreciate that feeling. Watching Luna and the other Disciples train and grow was a relaxing sort of feeling. He didn't need to do dungeons constantly to grow. He only had to keep up with the System Quests and make sure they were safe.
But for now, there was a lot of excitement to be had. Even before the paths between camps had cleared out, they were beginning to draw a crowd, eager for him to do practical demonstrations and open up a shop selling things that no other Sect in the area could make.
"Elder Cain, are you coming? The crowd is beginning to get annoying." One of the Lotus Blossom Elders called as he walked out of the tent with Luna and Solara in tow.
"I am on my way. Just let me grab a bit of breakfast to go." Cain called back, using mana to enhance his voice.
Nobody outside the camp would mistake his voice for anyone else since he was the only male in the entire camp. That should keep them calm for a few minutes. Or so Cain thought until he heard the cheering. Hearing that he was coming only made things worse.
"Calm down, calm down." He yelled out to the crowd as he made his way to the pagoda, carrying both disciples, one on either hip.
It wasn't until he set them down on the cushions that he realized the look that he was getting from Solara was not a friendly one.
"Sorry, you're the same size, and she likes to be carried," Cain whispered to the former Elder, then gave her a wink and turned to the gathered crowd out front of the camp.
"Good morning, everyone. This will be more like an interactive shop than a symposium. I will explain the theories behind my actions as I create the orders that customers place. It might be unorthodox, but I think it will be more interesting than some simple lecture.
You can ask for Skill Tomes, Rune Crafted items, or just ask questions if you like, but as you know, I do not care for cash. I have enough."
[Quest: Please the Crowd] complete the day without causing a Sect War.
[Reward: Skill Tome] Mana Transformation. Allows System Users to convert mana from mana gems and monster cores directly into experience. Items will be destroyed when used. 1exp per mana converted, in addition to kill bonuses for monsters hunted.
