Recruitment day. The event that sects all over the Empire ardently look forward to, since it is a unique opportunity for them to dip into a truly diverse pool of applicants and pick up a horde of new sect members. Sect were true adherents to the principles of natural selection, and for it to work appropriately, a large influx population is a necessity.
The sect atmosphere works as a gauntlet, weeding out members one after another until only those truly desperate, persistent, or talented enough remain. The desperate and persistent remain at the bottom-most rung of the ladder cursed to never climb it. Those desperate and talented, are cursed to be forever taken advantage of by the sect. It is those that are persistent and talented that can bask in all that the sect has to offer and thrive in its unforgiving environment. Of course, this overlooks the rare occurrence of the wealthy and connected. These specimens need not be talented, nor is it necessary for them to have persistence since the sect is incentivised to keep these cash cows in their ranks as it automatically comes with a lot of benefits.
In a sense, Jean happens to be one such cash cow for the True World Sect. Although Markus would more than love to deny that claim, one look around his current living arrangement held those rebuttals from exiting his mouth.
Although, even if Jean weren't highborn, there would still be a place for her in the True World Sect. That was the beauty and unique selling point of Markus' Sect.
"For our recruitment, I want to be more selective and deliberate over the people I want to join the Sect," his Master said as Markus and Jean entered the event grounds. All three carried wooden crates in their hands, with their heads barely peaking over them.
"Are we setting a cultivation baseline for our recruits?" Markus inquired. He couldn't stop the surprise from leaking into his tone.
"No," his Master responded with a shake of his head. "It's less to do with their cultivation and more to do with their character. Remember what I asked you when I first started teaching you guys about magic?"
"About why I wanted to become a mage?" Jean probed.
"Think back to your answer at that time," his Master suggested. "Markus here wanted to protect his family. Jean wanted to become a healer."
The man paused, turned to face Markus and Jean and declared, "I want people that are learning magic to help the world or others rather than themselves. Doesn't matter if they aren't talented in magic, doesn't matter what social class they come from. They must be passionate and selfless in their pursuits."
"It may sound naive, but we all know that magic has the power to corrupt its user. If the mage's starting point is selfish, they will only get more and more detached from the world as they advance," his Master added.
"So... how will we be sifting through the applicants?" Jean chimed in. "Will we be asking the same question to them? How will we judge if their answer is adequate?"
"Hmm..." Master Larks rubbed his chin thoughtfully before extending a finger and poking Jean and Markus in their bellies, "Use this."
"Our gut?" Markus deciphered immediately.
"I know what you're thinking. That you guys aren't experienced enough to make those judgement calls. But you forget that you are in a unique position to actually decide who gets to be your colleague for what could be the rest of your lives. This does not mean that you need to look out for people who share your opinions, or have similar views on life. What you need to look out for are people who share a similar mindset, people you wouldn't mind working with for the foreseeable future."
Markus hummed and admitted, "That does narrow our search a little bit."
And like that, the trio wove through the burgeoning crowd and arrived at their stand. The Alliance offered certain services to sects participating in this event regarding setting up the stalls. For a small fee, they would put up a standard kiosk with the respective sect's logo and name emblazoned atop it for all to see. With some additional payment, they would also provide features such as strength and cultivation testers, training weapons, and other equipment that may find some use when evaluating the quality of recruits.
Master Larks opted for the standard kiosk, which was plain in content. Then, Master opened up one of the boxes that they carried in and pulled out a bundle of hollow sticks, connected with a tough rope weaving through their centres. He placed the sticks in a line and pulled the rope, causing them all to slot together to form one large pole. From the same box, he retrieved another wooden square prism about an arm's length, with a conspicuous slot at its top the same radius as the pole. The pole went in, and his Master pulled a string hanging out of a thin and long slot below the pole slot, causing a long sheet of cloth to unfurl. The string was then tethered to the top of the pole.
Taking a step back, Markus saw what looked like a sailboat with just its sails. The cloth that acted as the sail was a banner with details about the True World Sect printed on it. It listed information such as the Sect's vision and mission, specialities, brief history, locale (nothing too specific), facilities, expectations, and goals for the future.
"Is this the retractable banner stand, Master?" Markus inquired while approaching the ingenious apparatus.
"Yeah. People will keep passing by us, we need to have a way for them to know what our sect stands for at a glance," his Master explained. "There are two more inside. You saw how I put this one up, you and Jean can go ahead and assemble those."
With those instructions given, his Master opened another box and started to pull out more odds and ends and put them up for display on the stands at the centre of the kiosk. There was a wand, similar to the one Markus, Jean and Marie used. There were books of different kinds, probably to show off the printing press (one of the Sect's most lucrative inventions). There were a plethora of tools such as hand drills, mills, screws and screwdrivers, and assemblies that utilised these tools in some way to show off their functions. These were new additions to the Sect's catalogue borne of the lathe and milling machine. Master also retrieved miniature wood carvings that exemplified a range of uses of the two machines. Once all the items were put in place, his Master retrieved a small card stock with the names of the items on display with their function and purpose and placed them in front of their respective namesakes in a visible location.
"Master, I still don't fully understand the purpose of having these items here," Markus commented.
"Every sect has a specialisation. Cloudstrider Sect prides itself on its ritual formations, for instance. A sect may specialise in Alchemy, or Blacksmithing, or even Cooking as I've recently come to learn."
They found out that there was a niche segment of the market that specialised in cooking just for mages (hence Cooking with a capital 'C'). The ingredients used were mana charged, and the meat is sourced from monsters and beasts that had the capacity for magic. The benefit of eating such mana-dense and infused foods was that they worked similarly to alchemical potions and reagents but in a much slower and elongated way. Furthermore, it was proven to be safer and less harmful towards a mage's cultivation compared to potions.
To put it into perspective. Imagine that an artist needs to create an artwork of some kind. A potion would be like another person holding the brush and creating the artwork in the artist's place. An Enriched Meal on the other hand would be like a more experienced artist watching over the person as they perform their tasks. If they get stuck, the more experienced artist can provide guidance or inspiration. If there is a mistake, the experienced artist can offer corrections.
With Enriched Meals, the burden to extract the benefit from the meal and internalise it is on the consumer. If they are experienced, they can extract maximum benefits from it. On the other hand, a potion will provide a constant amount, though the harm that it does to a person's cultivation can be hindered to a degree if the consumer synchronises with it.
Thanks to Jean, the True World Sect members (excluding Marie) got the opportunity to taste a portion of a Griffin Steak. Even now, Markus felt saturated both in terms of his hunger and the mana circulating within his body.
"Our Sect specialises in innovation," Master Larks said. "This is how we stand out. This also happens to be an appropriate way to attract the kind of people that would fit perfectly with our Sect's ethos."
"Now-" Master Larks said as he retrieved a hefty folder from the box. After opening it, he pulled out a stack of printed sheets from within.
"Let's see..." his Master's eye alternated between himself and Jean until it stopped on his Junior Sister. "Jean! Take this stack of papers and walk around the place. If you see anyone idle or disinterested, hand this to them."
Markus noticed that the paper was like a more minimalistic version of the banners on display. He also noticed that the location of their stand was stamped onto the sheets, albeit with more variation compared to the overall uniformity of the rest of the print. Probably, his Master appended this new information last night.
"If possible, try to chat them up as you hand this to them. Try to get them interested, even a smidge. Otherwise, they will just dispose of the papers," his Master informed. Jean nodded, in turn, and took a handful from the stack of papers with her.
"Master-" Markus walked over to voice his concern, but his Master read his mind.
"This will be practice for her. It doesn't matter if she succeeds or fails in gathering a large crowd. She needs to exercise her emotions in some way. She needs to learn to display excitement or interest. It may be hard, it may be impossible, but she must try nonetheless."
"I understand, Master," Markus said with a light bow. He once again praised his Master's foresight and benevolence internally. He placed himself on the opposite corner of the kiosk from his Master and waited to welcome recruits as they arrived.
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