“Six months?” Kevin blurted out, unable to keep the shock out of his voice. He’d been struggling to believe it was possible in a year, yet she planned to do it half that time.

  Swallowing, he tried to keep the dismay out of his words. “Is that even possible?”

  While he wished her the best, his heart clenched at the idea. Six months was such a short time, and she might not be the only one to make it.

  If she thought it was possible in six months, then wouldn’t Brad be likely to make it, too?

  He would have had a whole year to build merit by then, and his high combat ability should earn a lot in the primary tournament.

  There was a real chance that both his new friends would leave for the inner sect far sooner than he’d expected.

  Amelia cocked her head, staring at his face for a long moment before responding.

  Gathering the required merit in six months is difficult, but my research shows it’s possible. There have been a few examples in recent years.

  There is a lot of merit to be seized in the various skill competitions held before the cutoff date. Winning or coming second or third in multiple would get you far.

  The primary tournament is worth even more, but I’m not confident enough in my strength to say I’ll win that.

  A self-deprecating smile crossed Amelia’s face as she wrote the last sentence, though a hint of embarrassment joined it.

  Though why that would be, Kevin couldn’t say. In his books, being in contention to win multiple other competitions was more than good enough.

  Shaking herself, Amelia returned to her usual smile as she continued writing.

  Still, ranking in even the top sixteen is worth three thousand merit. Combined with enough other sources, it might be enough to make it.

  However, the largest potential boost is to attract the interest of an elder. Even an outer sect elder can give out thousands of merit a year if they see a reason to.

  “Really?” Kevin asked, leaning forward as his initial worry turned to interest. “I’d heard they could deduct merit, but I didn’t know they could give it as well.”

  Any hints on gaining merit would be important for his own need to reach the minimum threshold.

  While he didn’t like to think about it, his task had become even more difficult now that his talented friends were competing in the same competitions.

  If outer sect elders could give out that much, what might Elder Fischer be able to do if he impressed her enough?

  Amelia nodded, a knowing smile crossing her face before she hid it behind a hand.

  Indeed, several of the older students I talked with confirmed it. You have to impress them a lot, however. If they hand out merit, they are endorsing you to an extent. If you fail later, it will reflect on their judgment.

  “Right, that makes sense,” Kevin nodded, considering her words. An elder wouldn’t give merit out just to be nice. It was a way to showcase their ability to spot talent early and tie them to rising stars in the sect.

  “How much do you need, anyway?

  Amelia shrugged, an almost believable look of unconcern on her face.

  The requirement is a touch under twenty thousand this cycle

  Yeah, that was about as bad as he’d been expecting. You needed three times the minimum cutoff to make it into the inner sect.

  That left a wide margin for people to keep studying in the outer sect without moving upward. A new surge of concern shot through him as Kevin considered the implications.

  There had to be a lot of half-decent disciples hanging around who still needed to meet the minimum cutoff each cycle. Wouldn’t that mean such people flooded the skill tournaments?

  Amelia gave a solemn nod when he brought it up.

  Indeed, I believe there are about two hundred outer sect ‘lifers’ as they’re called. Most years, they earn enough merit to pay for their tuition, allowing them to continue a comfortable life in the sect.

  In addition, there are those who still intend to advance but haven’t had a good enough cycle. These people are more of an issue; their hunger for merit far outweighs those who have given up.

  Between those two groups, few new disciples win any of the competitions. A leading theory is that the sect keeps them around as an extra challenge to weed out the prodigies from the merely above-average.

  “I see; thanks for sharing all that,” Kevin sighed, leaning back. She’d done a lot more research than he had. With the whirlwind of classes and cultivation, he’d put that off for later.

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  A casual look at how you could gain merit had been enough to reassure him it would be difficult but possible. Now, he was far less confident.

  He’d only been factoring in students who would have joined six months ago, not those who remained from previous years. With more practice time, they would have to be more skilled.

  His plan to get decent placings in the skill competitions was looking shaky.

  Keeping Elder Fischer happy was even more important than he’d thought. No, he needed to do more than keep her happy if he wanted her to go out on a limb for him.

  He had to make her confident he’d continue to succeed.

  The more merit he could get before those competitions, the better his chances of remaining, even if he had to stay in the outer sect alone. He’d just have to catch up later.

  “Does merit keep stacking up?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. If so, wouldn’t everyone make it eventually?

  In a way, Amelia wrote with a shrug. Your current and maximum merit will keep rising, but they take your level after each cutoff as your new baseline. In other words, they only count what you’ve earned since they last evaluated you.

  Therefore, most inner sect members are disciples who made it in after their first year. After that, they have a cutoff every six months, so accumulating enough is harder.

  Kevin raised his eyebrows, seeing her choice in a new light. Testing early meant she was taking a significant risk. Amelia had to be confident if she was willing to risk a near certainty a year from now for an earlier attempt.

  That or she was more desperate than she’d let on. Perhaps being bored was a more serious issue for her than most people. Either way, he had to admit that her commitment was impressive.

  And thinking about that was better than worrying about his own chances. He would never have that year to build up merit, so he’d have to work hard if he ever wanted to get into the inner sect.

  Which he very much did; who’d ever heard of a mere outer sect disciple getting anywhere with cultivation?

  After the heavy starting topic, Kevin turned the conversation to lighter matters while they ordered and ate lunch. Concern might be growing in him, but you couldn’t make a genuine friendship without learning about each other.

  They didn’t have much time, but it was enough to touch on each other’s preferences and hobbies.

  It was no surprise that Amelia’s favorite activity was learning something new; the more complex, the better. She even planned to spend most of the merit she learned on technique manuals.

  More of a surprise was a marked dislike of cultivation practice.

  It’s so dull. You just sit there and do the same thing over and over again. Also, you have to stick with the same style for ages if you want to see any progress.

  Letting pills do most of the work is far more civilized.

  Amelia pouted as she finished writing, looking more than a bit contrite.

  Kevin snorted, shaking his head with an amused smile. So she wasn’t perfect at everything, then.

  It also explained why she was still only in the second stage despite being a few years older than most new disciples. A combination of focusing on pills and blowing tons of Qi on techniques must have resulted in slow progress.

  A potential idea was brewing, but he needed more information first. “What’s your aspect? If you don’t mind me asking? Mines Earth.” He just hoped it wasn’t too impolite a question.

  Amelia hid another silent laugh, her shoulders shaking.

  Ink, of course. It is a hybrid aspect of Water and Earth, though many scholars would say it is Water corrupted by Earth.

  Kevin nodded; he should have expected that. So there were hybrid aspects, too? Were they more powerful or versatile than basic ones? It was an intriguing thought, but he was running out of time to finish the conversation.

  “Perhaps cultivating would be more bearable if you weren’t alone? I sometimes cultivate at the public Earth courtyard, so we could meet there.”

  With her aspect being part water, Fire seemed right out. Earth shouldn’t be a problem, however. It would be a good chance to spend more time together without taking up too much of the time he needed for classwork.

  It could also be a way to introduce her and Brad later if it worked well. He was pretty sure the large man’s aspect was Metal from the hints he’d dropped, so Earth cultivation should be beneficial.

  “I think they expect inner sect cultivators to be in the Energy Gathering realm, at least,” he finished.

  Amelia gave a silent sigh but nodded in agreement.

  You aren’t wrong; I suppose it is something I need to try harder at. My investigations at the library have shown some promise for a more… palatable style, but I will need more merit first.

  We’ll make it a deal. If you remind me to cultivate, I’ll remind you to do everything else.

  She had an impish smile by the time she finished, seeming to have forgotten her earlier reluctance.

  Kevin burst out laughing in response. He’d let on about his full cultivation days, and the look on her face had been something to see. Still, she wasn’t wrong.

  He’d been doing well the last few days, but it wouldn’t take much for him to sink back into doing too much cultivation.

  The draw of advancement was so alluring it was easy for it to override everything else.

  I have nothing planned for Sunday afternoon; does that work for you?

  After thinking for a moment, Kevin nodded his agreement. It would cut out some time to work on his formations, but he wasn’t about to argue against a solid bout of cultivation.

  If he planned around that, he could spend more time working on them between Friday and Saturday to ensure he finished.

  He would have liked to stay and chat more, but they’d already stayed longer than planned.

  He’d miss his appointment with Dr. Vaughan if he wasn’t careful.

  Kevin stumbled into the waiting room a minute before his appointment time. The flat-out sprint he’d needed to make it had tired his upgraded body out in a way that no amount of jogging seemed to.

  The receptionist didn’t bat an eye at his state, instead gesturing him through to the doctor’s office.

  “Hello, Kevin,” Dr. Vaughan greeted him. The man had a hint of eager interest in his expression but was otherwise the same as Kevin remembered.

  Kevin grinned in response, trying to keep his nerves or exhaustion from showing. Lunch with Amelia had done a good job of keeping his concerns at bay, but they were flaring up now the time had come.

  It seemed ridiculous to worry when everything had been going so well, but so much of this was still a mystery to him. What if something was going wrong that he couldn’t detect?

  He’d had enough medical surprises like that for a lifetime.

  Dr. Vaughan pulled out a notepad and gestured for him to take a seat. “How has the new tattoo been working? Have you had any issues?”

  Kevin licked his lips. “No issues, exactly. There are a few things I’d like to improve, but for the most part, it’s been great.”

  The doctor smiled, scrawling rapid notes. “That’s good to hear. Why don’t you take me through it all, and then I’ll do a quick checkup before recommending anything?”

  Nodding, Kevin took a moment to assemble his thoughts. With luck, everything would be fine. With more luck, Dr. Vaughan might suggest something to speed up his cultivation.

  It had been flagging with so many other demands on his time, so anything to make it more efficient would be incredible.