Chapter 198: Free Lunch

"In order to have a healthy negotiation, I believe we will have to clarify some doubts from each other. First, with a Blessing as powerful as yours, why are you still a Blessed Rank E? Everyone in the group knows that you have a Rank B Blessing, because of your profile on the GBC app, but no one ever asked about your rating out of respect. Now that we may have a mutual relationship, I believe it is a good time for me to know the answer," Noah said calmly.

Marcel was already expecting a question like that, and since Noah already knew where he came from, it became even easier for him to answer it nonchalantly. "As I said earlier, I am the future heir to the Khan family, but despite having the 'future' in the name, it will still be a few decades before that happens. So to ensure that I have a strength corresponding to my title, following what my grandfather and father had each done over the years, I have to stay at least 5 years in each ranking to be able to learn as much as possible - not only to learn as much as possible, but also not to die in an idiotic way for having overestimated myself and tried to deal with some more powerful monster.

Since I came from a powerful family, the best teachers are not lacking. The only thing I need is battle experience and time to grow. The death rate in Fortresses is extremely high, as you already know, so to minimize the chance of me dying, the family requires the heir to stay in the lower rankings for a long time, and this will make it easier for me to rise to higher rankings in the future, practically guaranteeing that in 20 years of being Blessed I will be a Blessed Rank B in my own right, instead of getting into a bottleneck in Rank C after 10 years and never getting out of there due to lack of experience," Marcel replied.

Listening to his response, Noah agreed that it really made sense. Taking several slow steps will lead to a person being able to walk much longer than someone trying to take excessively large steps, as the first person's muscles will gradually develop for the future challenges, while the person who has taken great steps will not have enough muscles to handle it.

"Okay, I see the truth in your words. Because of our friendship, I will be very sincere with you: I didn't even intend to join a powerful family from a big city, exactly because of the prejudice I had that these people would want to take advantage of me to gain my benefits and continue to treat me like a country hick who doesn't understand anything, but because I know you personally and know your nature well, that even if you are the future heir to a family like this you are still a good person, someone trustworthy who doesn't discriminate against anyone because of age, past, family, money, or anything like that, I sincerely want to consider your proposal. What do you have in mind?" Noah asked curiously.

Hearing Noah's response, Marcel was genuinely excited. He didn't expect Noah to have thoughts like that. Normally people from small towns like Eyrin didn't know much about how big city families work, and what Noah thought was exactly what happened almost every time. Of course, this wouldn't be one of those times. "Thank you for thinking that of me. I will certainly not disappoint your hopes. I believe I know you well enough to know how much you value your freedom above anything, not to mention that our invasions together, in addition to this championship, more than proved how well you are doing your things independently, so we can benefit from it more than you think.

Perhaps something that you don't know, but that the Blessed Rank C want to keep secret from the public is that the Rank C Fortresses are different from the Fortresses below that."

Noah was confused to hear that. He had no idea what Marcel was talking about. In his mind, Rank C Fortresses were just like Rank F, E and D Fortresses, with only more powerful monsters inside. "What do you mean by that?"

"Just as you are imagining, the reason large families look for people Blessed with powerful Blessings in small towns is not because they are thinking about truly integrating those Blessed into the family, but because they want more manpower to get something special that these Rank C Fortresses can get for them. Most of the time the Blessed Ones who come from small towns can't even really integrate into the family, just staying in the side branches, and despite having a Rank C strength, which would be enough to make them a householder in the smaller cities, they would still be treated badly in the big families and considered, as you said, 'country hicks who don't understand anything'," Marcel said with an honest expression, demonstrating to Noah that he was truly telling a big secret with an open heart, without worrying that Noah would leak it to other people, wanting to demonstrate sincerity.

Continuing with the same expression, Marcel completed what he was saying. "What really happens is that in Rank C Fortresses, in addition to getting random items from the monsters that the Blessed Ones kill, the Blessed Ones also have a chance to receive essences from the monsters to improve a little of a physical characteristic of the person. These essences come in the form of small stones, which when a Blessed person eats one can increase agility, strength, vitality, any of the attributes that a person has. When a Blessed person without a powerful family history signs with a large family to go to a big city, the family will invest in the Blessed with some resources so that he can reach Rank C quickly, which attracts many curious and unsuspecting people, but when the Blessed reaches Rank C, 60% of the gains in essence that they have will go to the family, limiting a lot the growth they may have in the future.

These essences can only be consumed by Blessed Ones from Rank C and can only be acquired in Fortresses from Rank C onwards, so even though it seems a disadvantageous situation for those Blessed from small towns that don't have Rank C Fortresses, when they discover that they can become even stronger than those heads of families who think they are more powerful than everyone else, even though they have to give 60% of the essences to the families they join, they still consider it as an advantage for their future and accept it." Marcel said this news that would shake the world of the Blessed as if it were trivial.

But at that moment, Noah's mind was working at high speed. He couldn't believe there was such a thing. So this means that even though he reached Rank C, the superior strength he has compared to the people in his current Rank will now be quite small compared to the Blessed Ones who have been in Rank C in big cities for a long time. "And what happens with the essences that families charge from these Blessed from small towns?" Noah asked curiously.

At that, Marcel smiled broadly. "As I said earlier: these people who come from small towns are not really considered to be fundamental members of the family, just staying in side branches without many rights. Now, the essences that they give to the family go into the hands of the main members. Through disputes and competitions, the main members compete for big prizes that normal Blessed without powerful families to support them can only dream of. While a normal Blessed Rank C needs a year to achieve 20 essences of strength, someone can achieve this in a week by being part of the nucleus of a powerful family. And it is exactly to that nucleus that I want to invite you. I want to call you to the Khan family not as a small town Blessed with few rights and many duties, since I know you would have no need of a powerful family to get your own essences."

Seeing Marcel's confident smile in addition to the tempting offer he received, Noah became excited. He knew that this was an offer for the few. Hardly anyone in a small town would receive an offer like this. Even if Noah was confident of receiving these essences alone when invading Fortresses, if like Marcel said, receiving from one's own family is much more efficient. As the heir to the Khan family, Marcel probably did not even need to dispute with others Blessed to have these essences, since he must have already had his stock separated by his own family. Noah was the type of person who thought of life as an investment. If he had the chance to earn a lot from a passive investment, just like he was doing with the imps, just letting the imps work for him and yield a lot of experience points with little effort while he concentrated on something else, that was exactly what he planned to do. And from what Marcel said, the Khan family would be just that for him. He should only do a few things for the family so that he would receive a large amount of essences for himself.

Noah was excited, but he wouldn't let it affect his deal, so while keeping a poker face, Noah asked Marcel something that still left him in doubt. "If there's one thing I know, it's that there is no free lunch in this life. To receive so many benefits, what would I have to do for the Khan family?"

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Please read the author's notes down here! he he he :3 ↓↓↓

Yeah, I'm really coming back, I'll try my best to get all these 12 extra chapters released next week hehe. Thank you for your support <>

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