n

n

n

nThe room is dead silent before the Dean of the Indra Academy spoke up.

n

"I already sent people to the Hub, but there is no one there. None of its usual activities are happening. I also got the news that Daksh and the managers of the Hubs in other areas are all going berserk over the fourth graders of the Zeus academy and some from other Olympian academies.

nThe death toll is alarmingly high. Each of them took out more than dozen.

nThey also didn't hold back at dealing with the instructors that faced them. One of my men is stuck there and the news is that Ivar and Icarus, two of the managers had killed Elder Gawk. The assassin maker of the Zeus academy.

"

nThis only increased the tension in the room.

nBy now everyone came to one conclusion, their initial suspicions when the Hub employed these managers were actually true. They were all hired not because they were all competent and were also kicked out of their respective academies… instead it was their hatred towards the system that made them the perfect hires.

n

"To think all of this was because of the mistreatment of a few students…. This is indeed a tragic thing. It seems like the dark side of the academy realm that we don't show outside has finally caught up with us.

"

nOne of the elders spoke.

n

"What mistreated students? These managers are all mere pawns. I am sure that the real culprit is whoever that created the hub.

nThere is no way these managers can create something as sophisticated, innovative and intricate as the Hub. I already made my enquiries. These guys might be skilled and powerful, but apart from Daksh no one among them had anything remotely related to auxiliary professions like artisanry and formations.

"

nA different elder rebuked.

nThe first elder who is clearly lot more aged, sighed and spoke.

n

"Still, it is the academy realm that mistreated these talented students and planted the seeds of vengeance. The creator of the Hub might really be the real culprit, however those seeds of vengeance are the reason that he got such a great chance.

"

n

"Enough out of you two. We have bigger things to consider.

" The Dean of the Viswakarma academy spoke. Actually neither his academy nor him are actually highly powerful, when it comes to pure combat prowess.

nEven in numbers, the people in Viswakarma academy are quite pitiful compared of the rest.

nBut they are highly respected because of their focus on the auxiliary professions. In that regard, they are neck on neck with Gambler's academy. The major difference being Viswakarma academy only focuses on creating these masters of smithy, formations, inscriptions, etc.

nThey don't focus on any form of combat strength that much apart from the basic lessons.

nIf the students of their academy are interested, they are allowed audit those classes from the other academies.

nAnyway, the Dean of the academy has quite some sway because of all the connections. He turned to Virat and asked.

n

"Are you sure that the chip is that difficult to decode? You managed to do the bird when we all thought it was not even worth it to try. You might have a chance.

"

n

"No. I don't think I can do it. At least not any time soon. It might take months or even years. Because these chips are engraved with so many self-destructive mechanisms. It is almost like the other party is daring us to try to decode them.

nIn fact, if anyone with the cultivation level of over second grade even injects their energy forcefully, it will be destroyed.

nThis intricacy… I almost feel like whoever made this, actually made these puppets actually wanted us to find out what is inside the bird.

nIt is almost like they deliberately left a chance open for someone like me to decode it.

"

n

"Enough Virat, don't overthink too much. What could anyone gain from leaving a loophole that even a first grader could crack? It is definitely some form of incompetence on their side. I am sure with enough time and thoughts, you can break the chip too. Stay on it.

"

nThe dean of Indra academy spoke as he stood up. He didn't give Virat or anyone else any chance to interject as he continued.

n

"I don't believe there is any point in this meeting. First of all, I think we need to inform the other academy regions. Otherwise, they will still be victims of further surveillance.

nSince we are the first ones that actually found out about this, we can stay united and gain as many benefits as possible.

nSecond point, we need to make sure that the Hub is left intact. That is the only way for us to find the people behind it. There is no other possibility for us.

nFinally, we need to find a way to convince the Zeus academy to let our people go. There are a lot of spies from all our academies in that city, it would be trouble if Zeus academy vented their anger on them. We will lose our credibility with our people.

"

nThe rest of them all nodded at the three suggestions, however the last one… they knew the difficulty of it.

nHow do they convince the Zeus academy about this, when they already had the momentum because of the already caused destruction.

n

"I think we have a method for it.

" Virat who has the lowest authority there, spoke up. He then projected a different video.

nInside the video, they all saw three people. Joker, Gungnir and Bloody Chariot. It was the video of them discussing their agreement, when the terms were heard, the room was stunned silence once again as everyone exchanged a glance.

nThings are looking great for them. The Zeus academy people has to let their grip loosen up now.

nMeanwhile….

nIn the White crystal nest discovered by the one and only Bloody Chariot, the atmosphere is also very tense.

nIt has been a long time since they entered the planet and since it was a second grade expedition, the second graders split into teams as they explored different places.

nEvery group focused on one Dome each, while Bloody Chariot and the formation team oversaw both the expedition and their escape route.

nEven though Bloody Chariot was a bit skeptical about how the students of the Zeus academy will do after the fight, he still gave them the benefit of the doubt. He hoped that they could do something about the domes.

nAfter the first couple of hours, the initial skepticism was gone.

nThe students actually showed remarkable progress as they interacted with the formations. There are several tests included in there which couldn't even be triggered because of the overwhelming power of the elders who tried to get close to it.

nAfter three hours, the first dome opened up. The dome that was handled by the team under the leadership of Christos.

nBloody Chariot is glad that he brought that guy here despite the differences. That team broke down the first dome and then opened up the egg shaped containers around the puppets. They didn't dare to randomly claim ownership to those puppets, in fact even though one of them tried, they couldn't.

nWith bloody chariot on their backs, they left them alone and moved to a different dome. After the first one broke down, the other teams are managed to break it down a bit.

nBut after some time, they were unable to do anything to the remaining domes. Up on closer inspections, the students noticed that the domes that they managed to break all had the same number of puppets inside.

nHowever, the domes that they are trying to break down now, are much bigger and have more puppets as well. They even noticed that there is slight difference in the egg shaped pods inside.

nIt seemed like there are levels of these domes.

nBloody Chariot implored that they identify how they can crack the other domes. Meanwhile, he focused his efforts mostly in assisting the research teams.

nThe white crystal is indeed a fascinating item, as they slowly harvested it bit by bit, they started discovering more and more about it. One of them is that the crystal part that is closer to the root of the crystal bush, is of much higher quality.

nThe liquid coming out of there is of much better quality as well.

nAnd they also noticed that the more they are moving towards the poles, the denser the crystals become. Another thing is that the planet as a whole rarely has any spots without the white crystals. Everyone was doing their tasks, and it all seemed to go well…

nUntil…

nIn one of the corners of the planet, a student team that was stuck at this second level of the formation domes along with the rest of the teams, the tensions were really high.

nOne of the students who was supposed to be a prodigy in formations is expressing his dissatisfaction as he led his team with an iron fist.

n

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