Handyman Disciple

"Hey Minos, have you completed your chores for the day?" Shouted a tanned teenager, around 17-19 years old.

"Not yet Gantel…" Replied Minos, a young man of around 13-14 years old. He had an ordinary face, strange white hair that stretched down to his shoulders and coal-black eyes.

If one had to describe anything special about the young man, they'd naturally have to talk about his hair, unfortunately for Minos, this hair of his was seen as a bad omen and only ever affected his life negatively.

"Well remember to come here once you're done. I need some help with my chores." Gantel spoke with a toothy grin. The rotting teeth in his mouth, however, seemed to reflect his true nature perfectly.

Minos didn't bother to reply, he just continued walking under the burning heat of the midday sun.

The Green Barrel Sect was one of the countless low-level sects one could find within the Alephora Continent, however despite its "low level" nature, for most people, it was incredibly difficult to become an outer disciple.

Minos himself, with his subpar talent, had been relegated to being a handyman disciple, which quite frankly, didn't even deserve having the word disciple in its title.

Handyman Disciples were the lowest of the low within the Green Barrel Sect, forced to do menial labor in hopes their cultivation will eventually pay off and they will become official outer disciples.

For Minos, this hope seemed to become increasingly slim with each passing day. Though an ambition burnt in his heart that made him refuse to quit despite knowing his own qualifications.

Minos continued through the handyman disciple area, hearing the shouts coming from all around. The seemingly infinite vigor of the young men and women coupled with the lazy almost dead appearances of the veteran handyman disciples gave birth to a strange atmosphere.

Minos knew that once these new recruits were here for a while, they'd get beaten down too. It was a seemingly endless cycle of broken dreams, and Minos naturally didn't want to be part of it.

With bucket in hand, he rushed to the nearby river, about a ten minute walk, before filling his bucket and making the entire journey back.

He was in charge of watering the herb garden located near the back of the handyman disciple area. Naturally these herbs were all low-leveled ones that were of practically no value to those inner disciples and above, but to the outer disciples and handyman disciples, they were very important.

With another ten minutes, Minos finally made it back to the garden, watering one section before repeating the journey once more.

Each trip took twenty minutes, and Minos had to make about 30 trips each time, meaning his average work day lasted ten hours.

Waking up at 6am every day to start, he was done at about 4pm, of course with Gantel making him "help" with his own chores, Minos was truly done his day at 7pm.

Naturally Minos would love to fight back, but Gantel had already broken his second Life Lock, giving him 300 extra pounds of strength, not including the increased speed and physique that comes with breaking two Life Locks.

Minos had only broken one Life Lock, gaining 100 pounds of force. Paired with his normal strength of about 150, he had 250 pounds of strength total.

Gantel as a fully grown man was naturally already far stronger then the young Minos, coupled with his higher realm, he likely had around 600 pounds of strength, which would easily crush Minos.

Minos had already seen what had happened to the last person who refused Gantel. The extra time spent healing would undo any benefit gained from rebelling.

Minos had always been good at controlling his emotions, hence despite the way Gantel treated him, he never responded negatively, but that isn't to say Minos had given in.

Rather he was waiting in patience, prepared for the best chance to not only have his cake, but eat it too.