Inside the confines of a small building, with only the blue neon lights offering any semblance of illumination, a youth stood with his lips curled up into a smile, displaying his completely uneven teeth as he stared at the map displayed on the screen on the table in front of him.

The room was completely quiet, but contrary to expectations, this youth wasn’t alone.

Behind him stood two other youths—the first one with a slender physique and stormy dark purple hair, while the second had a more buff physique, simple raven-dark hair, and red eyes.

Apart from these two, all around the square-shaped table were different youths, each with the same distinct features as the second youth standing behind the lavender-haired one—raven-black hair and red eyes.

It was evident that they were all from the same family, and this family was most likely a tiered family.

Only a tiered family could produce youths with near-identical features like this.

Each of them stood up straight, hands on each side, their heads straight, and gazes forward as though they were standing at attention.

Each and every one of their forms screamed robotic, with their faces completely devoid of any expression and their eyes emotionless.

“Hmm,” the lavender-haired youth muttered under his breath, breaking the silence.

‘How should I deal with this?’ He pondered, his mind going through numerous possible scenarios at a fast speed.

If a normal, unknowledgeable person were to catch a glimpse of how fast the youth was currently thinking, they would be completely and utterly shocked.

His thinking speed was way faster than what a normal 15-year-old should be able to achieve!

However, if someone knowledgeable about the tiered families in the human domain were to see this, they would be completely unfazed.

Lavender-colored hair, black eyes, completely uneven teeth, and an unattractive face—these distinct features were the unmistakable traits of the Pysquillian family, a tier 2 family under the tier one family that ruled over sector 5, the Enigmalk family.

In each sector within the human domain where the tier one family ruled, more often than not, the other tiered families and even the general populace usually had similar bloodline powers.

Although it might not be as broad nor as potent as those of the tier one family, it usually shared the same properties.

And this was the case for the Pysquillian family. They all had bloodlines that relied on intellectual prowess. .

Their family was well-known because of one thing—their bloodlines that enabled them to be masters of empathic communication.

They had the power to manipulate thoughts and emotions of individuals.

While this bloodline might sound overpowered, and truly it was, there were reasons why they were still a tier 2 family.

The first one was obvious—their lack of a paragon rank individual.

Regardless of how strong a family’s bloodline was, even if it was completely overpowered, if they weren’t able to produce a paragon rank individual, becoming a tier one family was impossible.

Regardless of how overpowered a bloodline could be, in the history of the human domain, no one had been able to best a paragon.

The second reason was because their bloodline had a significant weakness. It was highly restricted.

There were lots of conditions that must be met before they were able to properly use their power, and apart from this, members of the Pysquillian family were weak— incredibly so.

Despite being a tier 2 family, their physical strength and talent were mostly nonexistent.

But even with all these glaring weaknesses, the fact that the Pysquillian family was still a tier two family spoke volumes about how powerful and useful their bloodline was.

There were lots of conditions that needed to be met before they could use their power. Looking at the youths standing in the room with expressionless faces, it was clear that he was able to meet all of these conditions.

His brain working at fast speeds, the youth, Emeric, thought of multitudes of possibilities in a few seconds. “I guess I should see what I’m up against first,” he muttered out loud.

Turning his gaze towards the far end of the table, his eyes landed on one youth. “No. 6, take about 20 students and divide yourself into groups. Let each group head to each of the locations of the terminal and scout,” he instructed.

As soon as he finished, as though the robotic expression on the youth had been a lie, his mouth suddenly curled up into a huge grin, his full set of teeth in full display.

Immediately bending down 90 degrees, his head inches away from touching the obsidian surface, “Yes, master!” he responded with fervor.

And then, as swiftly as he bowed, he stood up and turned, heading outside the room.

Emeric simply watched all of this with a cold expression, unfazed by the youth’s response as though he was already used to it.

Turning his gaze back to the map displayed on the table, his mind once again swirled. He had come up with countless actions they could take depending on who they were up against.

Even he couldn’t lie; this division, while they wouldn’t be the weakest, was far from calling themselves strong. Emeric knew this well, but despite what many would think, he really didn’t care about the division.

There was only one thing on his mind, ‘Ah, I’m going to enjoy this.’ He simply wanted the thrill of winning.

“No. 2,” Emeric suddenly called out to the raven-black-haired youth behind him.

And just like the other youth, he immediately smiled and bowed 90 degrees with no less fervor than the earlier youth.

“Yes, leader!” he replied while bowing.

“Check to see if we have any new division objectives,” Emeric instructed.

Many would be shocked at what Emeric had just asked the youth to do.

Wasn’t it only division leaders who can check the division objectives?

Wasn’t Emeric the leader though? Why would he ask someone else to do this?

The answer was obvious—Emeric wasn’t the leader of this division.

So why was he being addressed and treated with respect by all of them?

The reason had to do with the Pysquillian bloodline.

Every year, the number of students the academy admits is truly numerous, with the same amount all getting tested upon admission.

Because of how weak physically the Pysquillian family was, it was a given that a test that focused on fighting prowess wouldn’t be their forte.

And because of this, despite being a tier 2 family youth, Emeric hadn’t been able to make it anywhere close to the top 1000 ranks.

He had unfortunately not reached a level yet where he would be able to influence mindless beasts, hence making him perform terribly during the test.

This was the same with the other youths who had participated in the test from the Pysquillian family.

Immediately the test ended and the ones below the 1000th rank were asked to select a leader, just like Atticus, Emeric had come up with multiple scenarios in his head, eventually settling on the most likely scenario.

Instead of selecting leaders that were powerful and close to the top, Emeric had chosen someone lower on the rankings, making sure it wasn’t too low and too high at the same time.

One of the things he hated the most was being controlled. He knew very well that he was a weakling, and if he selected the wrong division, that was exactly what would have happened.

What Emeric had done was two things.

Within that 30 minutes they were given to select a leader, he had found one strong purple-haired youth, a foolish one who had been releasing his Intermediate aura for all to see simply because he wanted to look intimidating.

After satisfying a few conditions, he got him under his control within 5 minutes. Instantly instructing him to join the same division he chose.

He held this purple-haired youth as a trump card just in case something went wrong with the division he joined.

Although he didn’t know for sure, he was very certain that at most, the highest-ranking individual the division could have was only an Intermediate rank. Which meant that his protection was secure just in case.

Emeric had to select a leader and division that he was sure he should have no problems controlling.

The names of every leader were displayed for all to see and after searching for a little bit, spotting a known tier 3 family youth wasn’t hard.

Luckily, the tier 3 family youth hadn’t rejected his request, and he and the purple-haired youth were able to join without any problems.

The rest could explain itself, as after getting to the expanse, Emeric was able to take control over the division without any problems.

And because of this particular fact, Emeric had absolutely no problem with sacrificing the members of his division.

Anyone dying wouldn’t affect him in any way, so why should he?

“No leader!” The raven-black-haired youth instantly replied after checking his artifact.

Emeric nodded in response.

Focusing on the map, he decided to wait for his scout to inform him about their opponents before acting.

𝘪𝑎.𝘤𝑜𝘮