One Last System

"Levisay..." I repeated the man's name, allowing it to properly sink into my memory. "It's definitely easier to say it than calling you Pathfinder all the time," I then added, raising my eyes and giving the man a small smile.

"You can just call me Levi if it's the convenience you are going for," Levisay gracefully offered before turning his eyes to Mia and bowing his head a little. "The same applies to you, miss Mia."

"Thank you for your kind offer," Mia said, doing a small curtsy in response.

"Normally, I would suggest for us to sit in what's left of my hut..." Levi suggested, turning his eyes toward the ruins. He then looked back and gave me a smile. "But judging from your reaction before, it's better to just talk while we walk."

"Thank you for your consideration," I nodded my head low enough to hide the blush that appeared on my face.

It was one thing to do some things that virgins would find embarrassing... But it was something completely else to lead a vitally important discussion while surrounded by the markings left by our joy hour with Mia!

"Wait, on the go?" I caught up to the hidden meaning of Levi's suggestion after a few seconds. "Go where?"

Levi leaned his head to the side while giving me a surprised look.

"Aren't you guys kind of in a rush?" he asked, alternating his eyes between my and Mia's face. "I mean, that's how you appeared so I thought it would be better if we didn't waste time standing around," he explained his line of thought.

'Now that he pointed that out, I'm suddenly feeling bad about spending nearly an hour in his hut,' I thought.

I then gulped down my saliva and closed my eyes for a second. Then, two deep breaths later, I opened them back up again, freed from the burden of embarrassment or surprise.

"Nothing can escape your eyes..." I said, only to hesitate at the end. "Master? Senior? Elder brother? Uncle?" I listed out a short list of potential ways for me to refer to Levisay. "How would you like me to call you?" I then asked, going for the most obvious way of resolving this problem before any feelings could be hurt.

"Master? Senior?" Levi repeated after me. He then shook his head. "I do not deserve such titles. Save for some of the arts I polished to the level allowing me to take on the royals..." he hesitated for the first time since we reunited. "I don't think my power amounts to anything when compared to the might you are wielding."

This took me by a surprise.

Sure, I saw how little to no mana he used to kill the royal. Sadly, this short and anti-climatic fight didn't amount to much in regards to letting me judge his level of power.

After all, rather than using his combined and ultimate power, he took advantage of speed, surprise, and brutal approach along with just a single technique to boost those three even further.

Then, I realized that this wasn't the most important point hidden in what he said.

"You can see my power?" I asked.

I wasn't aware of any technique similar to my mana awareness within the cultivation world.

'I know I didn't study cultivation techniques and martial arts all that much,' I thought, mentally beating myself in the chest. 'I guess I have a lot to catch up on.'

"See it?" Levi shook his head sideways. "No, not at all," he replied. "But I can still notice a lot about it... because of how my hidden techniques work," he explained.

"Why do I have a feeling that most of your explanations will only confuse me even further rather than making it easier for me to understand the situation?" I muttered, annoyed by the reality of any and all reincarnator or otherworldly person.

My common sense and way of understanding things were simply too different, too skewed by my years of life experience on earth. Rather than seeing things like someone from this world, I was doomed to forever consider them from a different point of view.

'My tactical mage job is proof that it's not always bad, but the current situation proves there are no pros without cons,' I thought.

"Hidden technique is something that one develops on their own, never to share it with others," Mia explained, perfectly pinpointing the part that I was most confused about. "And in the case of your master, he appears to invest quite heavily into those techniques, expanding them into an entire system," she elaborated, turning her prying eyes on Levi's face.

"That's not the case just for me," Levi mentioned, nodding his head when Mia shared her knowledge. "Most if not all of the overascenderst hat the royals chained went this route not to allow themselves to stagnate."

"Mia?" I turned my eyes to the girl only to see her shake her head.

'So she doesn't know what that means either,' I thought.

I was a novice ascender myself when going by the cultivation rank alone. The name of my rank displayed by my system implied that the one above was that of an ascender. Yet, overascender?

I didn't want to believe that whoever came up with all those rank names was so sloppy with the naming. And if that wasn't the name of an even higher rank... was it a derivative route, akin to how I was a tactical mage? Something that royals would impose on all those who they didn't wish to see reach their rank?

"Overascender is a rank above ascender and a rank below royal," Levi explained, cutting my mental chatter and stopping me from doubting the very fabric of the system at its core.

Yet, as much as it calmed me, I couldn't help but close my eyes and take a deep breath.

'So they really named a rank in such a sloppy way,' I thought.

It was great to know that the idea of secondary growth paths didn't appear for everyone in the ranks above mine. Yet, as great as the news were, the cringe in my soul struck me hard.

I shook my head.

Right now was the time for me to listen to Levi's answers, not analyze them too much. Just like the teachers back on earth always emphasized the need to first read the entire question before trying to solve it, it was better if I put all my opinions on hold until I would get a fuller picture of the stuff I didn't know about.

"You proposed for us to talk while we are on the move," I said, seemingly putting a pause on our discussion. "Then let's do just that," I suggested.

"Just one second," Levi replied. "I still have to bury the unlucky guy that I left here," he said, turning towards the ruins of his shed. "Oh, if you don't want me getting inside..."

"We already did it," I informed while averting my face.

There was no reason for me to explain why burying the corpse inside the shed was the first thing we did before properly cleaning the insides and turning them into my and Mia's love nest.

"I see," Levi said. He then shook his head after a short pause. "Let's get going then," he proposed, going along with my wish. "No matter where you want to go, this continent is massive. And with how much you need to learn about it..."

"We will have just enough time to discuss it all."