"Your narcissism didn't go anywhere, I see.

" Arkiv retorted.

"Of course, what can I do. It is an inherent trait.

" Sam replied with a smile.

"Anyway, how are things? Anything important that I should know?

"

Sam just passed him a wrist band and said.

"Soon, in your region the hub will be completed. A metallic bird will come and meet you at that time. If you any crew members, leave me their names, I don't want you guys to get swept in my plans.

"

"I only have a very small group of people with me.

"

"Finally, you learned. It is important to have a team of your own.

"

"Yeah, I learned. Anyway, what else is here? What are the standards of these people? Are they any good? I noticed the top ten is completely occupied by your crew.

"

"They are not bad. Just above average. Except for select few, the rest are not exactly notable. However, I heard that it will change soon.

"

Sam proceeded to give some information. Including what Ling Tian told him.

"I guess, I better be prepared.

"

Sam nodded at Arkiv's reply. They just chatted for a while.

Of course, the arrival of his friends didn't hinder Sam's plans. They kept on going forward. Particularly, in two fronts.

And at the moment when Sam was speaking to Arkiv, some meetings are taking in Zeus Academy which are going to catalyze Sam's plans and help him move forward better.

One of the meetings in between the Student Council. Pearl is there along with the rest of their student council including Christos and some Grade 4 students as well.

"The agenda of this meeting to end the nuisance named Stone. That guy has been targeting our students every day. And he always has a smooth escape plan.

We were unable to catch him.

One of the reason was because we underestimated him at the start and didn't bother to put any focus on him. We brushed him off as someone trying to seek attention after the stunt he pulled off at the felicitation ceremony.

However, his actions are getting bolder.

"

Pearl scoffed at this. Quite openly too.

The senior looked at her and frowned. He is very displeased, but he cannot lose his cool on her.

"You have something to say Pearl?

"

A different senior, also a woman asked.

"I better stay quiet, the student council wouldn't be able to handle my loose tongue. It is better this way.

"

"Don't worry about it. Just say it out loud.

" The same woman spoke, interjecting the speaker who was about to continue forward.

Pearl shrugged and spoke.

"It is just so weird listening to such?bull** coming out senior's mouth. And that straight face, you could have sold that crap to me, no problem, if I wasn't aware of it beforehand.

"

"What do you mean?

"

"Don't act like all of us here don't know about it.

I already told you that Stone is a problem. But no one bothered to listen to me. Particulalry when he only targeted some small fries at the bottom of the list. It was neither underestimation, nor was it a miscalculation.

You were biased and didn't want to do anything because there are no benefits in there for you.

Now that Stone's claws are even bared against the Noble League and their relatives, everyone became anxious about dealing with him.

Just say it as it is and don't cover it up like some whiny bitches. At least, being greedy and selfish aligns with the values of Zeus Academy. Acting like you have some special moral high ground is disgusting to be honest.

"

Pearl's outburst silenced everyone in the room. Except for the lady senior who is smiling with a big grin on her face.

She knew this would happen, that was the reason why she egged Pearl on. Pearl had repeatedly asked for assistance from the Student Council. She wanted to handle it with rules. She could have moved her own forces, but there is a lot of attention on her because of the felicitation spectacle as well as the ranking.

Many people are already gossiping that Pearl already became a 'has been'. She is not in top ten and she didn't even do that well in the felicitation ceremony. Stone who happened to be the person that got some really great attention in the ceremony could be seen as target of Pearl's jealousy.

Of course, most of it was her own speculation.

In short, she had a long winding excuse for the student council to take action instead of her. But they rejected her proposal. They told her that they couldn't just target an up and coming person by ganging up on him, just because some of their students lost.

As for the personal grudge Pearl had with him, they have nothing to do with it.

But now that the Noble league is the one that got their asses handed to them, they wanted to deal with him instantly.

If not for her own vested interest in destruction of Stone, she would have gotten up and left.

The meeting continued after her small disturbance.

The conclusion is simple. They decided to predict who the next targets are going to be and they are going to give out some special communication tokens along with some hidden guards.

These guards will come and try to subdue Stone as soon as he initiated the attack. At the same time the communication token will inform some of their other team members and they will come and capture Stone.

As long as they captured Stone before the City guards, they can deal with him in the confines of their Academy.

They will have more influence there and they can put a stop to this.

While this meeting was happening, another meeting took place, however this is not a meeting between students, instead it is between the Instructors. None of them are considered Elders, they are just a bit more experienced Instructors of the Academy.

"The Dean officially gave us full power to deal with Ivar and his disrespect towards our Zeus Academy.

Our Elder interrupted the competition in the freshman tournament in order to save one of our precious candidates. Ivar who was the invigilator of the examination, didn't give our Zeus Academy any face even when we withdrew from the competiton.

We lost a lot of our reputation because of this.

From the talks we have with the Thor Academy, they claimed no responsibility and declared that it solely rests on Ivar's shoulders.

Even Ivar claimed that he will take the sole responsibility and anyone from the Zeus Academy can go and knock on his doors. He eve dared us to test our guts by knocking on his doors and make him admit his mistake.

It is a test to our dignity and self-respect.

We are convening this meeting solely to deal with this issue.

Now, everyone, please provide a suitable approach to handle this issue.

"

This instruction opened the topic. One of the other instructors immediately raised his hand and asked.

"Isn't Ivar the monstrous student that appeared a few years ago? The one that beat an instructor when he was still in fourth grade?

"

Everyone just nodded. The question was mostly rhetorical. However, that one question stumped everyone from speaking up. The instructor that Ivar beat at that time was precisely their equivalent at that time.

Even though the fight wasn't exactly easy for Ivar and damaged him a lot, the Instructor had it worse. Because Instructor commented something about Ivar's mother, Ivar chased the instructor down throughout the Academy.

With his arm broken, ribs cracked and even one of his leg's crush and a bunch of burn injuries all over his body, he used his left hand and half broken axe to cut off that instructor's head while he was still in front of the Dean's office.

There Ivar lost his consciousness, but he didn't fall. Instead he stood straight like a stone pillar even in that comatose state.

Not a single healer dared to touch him until Olaf came out and compelled a healer to heal Ivar. He became a nightmare to the instructors at that time. More often than not, people don't do certain things because they believe they are impossible.

Once they deemed possible more and more people will attempt to do it. Since Ivar's success at cutting an Instructor's head off, there are many genius students who tried to compete with the instructors, but they utterly lost.

Many came close that almost jeopardized the Academy's hierarchal structure.

It almost led to instating a Grade 5.

All these instructors felt a shiver go down their spine. Now, they have to deal with that guy? On their own? They almost felt that it was impossible.

However, they had to make some plans and once they had the ball rolling, they managed to manifest some sort of feasibility within their minds. They slowly believed that they might have a chance. The meeting was soon concluded after they agreed on one particular plan.