Jack's Unrivalled Arcaner persona was wearing Cloak of Shadow, same as Storm Wind since cloak and accessories were not affected by class. At this moment, he had been standing for a while at the corner. Jack had chosen a corner that still had its walls intact. The walls provided some shadow. His Cloak of Shadow's ability was triggered after he stood still for a few seconds. His figure merged with the shadow and turned invisible.
He waited in the shadow for a while. He noticed from the faint voices in the distance that the meeting had resumed. Was he not allowed out? Jack thought with worry as he waited.
He soon heard footsteps and saw on his radar someone was approaching. Finally! Jack exclaimed in his mind.
A man came into the small garden.
Why was it him?
Jack was puzzled. Earmouth passed by in front of him. He looked around the room. He spent some time observing the withered tree at the center before turning his attention to the broken fountain. He looked at it for a while. Jack was nervous. If the guy put his hand into the lion's mouth, he would have no choice but to appear and slay him.
Jack realized that he had underestimated the man. Earmouth was not as simple-minded as he first thought. The guy obviously was suspicious of him, otherwise he would not have come out here. It was evident that he was looking for him, trying to find out what he was up to. Luckily, he had the Cloak of Shadow, allowing him to find out about Earmouth without the guy realizing it.
Jack saw the guy bending down slightly in front of the lion sculpture. His arm was moving forward towards the sculpture. Jack was just about to change into Storm Wind and equipped his sword when another person appeared from the other entrance.
"What are you doing here?" The new person asked, who was John.
"What are you doing here yourself?!" Earmouth shot back. He recognized the guy to be the annoying prick that tried to sabotage their meeting.
"I am taking a walk. Why? Is it not allowed as well? Do you consider me your underling already?"
"You truly have a sharp mouth. I've been tolerating you from the side, do you not believe I will teach you a lesson?"
"Can't you look at yourself first before you make a threat? You want to fight? Bring it on!" John took out his Magic Staff and made a pose as if ready to fight.
Earmouth was obviously overestimating himself, considering his opponent was a Mage, while he was still a Magician. But he was not about to back down.
"Why don't you look at where you are at. One call from me, and my people will come here swarming at you!" He said.
"Are you trying to scare me? Tough luck! Go ahead and call! Everyone will then see what kind of a guild you are. What kind of farce this meeting is. That you will silence a person who speaks out against you once you have the chance."
Earmouth hesitated after hearing it. He was right, they are still in the middle of the meeting. If he created a commotion and everyone found out that the troublemaker had been killed by the members of Death Associates. Everyone would be leaning more to what this troublemaker had argued before in the meeting, that the three organizing guilds were trying to dominate them. He must restrain himself for the bigger picture.
"Hmph!" He huffed. "I will not waste my time with the likes of you. Don't cause any more trouble, or I really will not let you off."
He walked past John with an unfriendly glare.
"Look to the front. Careful or else you will trip," John said to him.
Earmouth didn't reply. He found it pointless to argue with a guy like him.
John looked at him walking away. Earmouth looked back after walking a distance, and saw that John was still looking at him.
"What? You changed your mind?" John challenged him.
Earmouth turned away and grumbled as he continued to walk away.
After making sure that Earmouth had gone out of sight, John turned back to survey the small garden. He noticed the lion sculpture that Jack had mentioned in his message. He walked towards it. He looked around again to make sure that no one was looking before he slipped his hand into the lion's mouth.
He took out a stone with dull red color. He studied the stone for a while before storing it inside his bag.
After making sure John got the stone, Jack told him about how to use the stone and what it was for. John read the message and frowned, he looked around the room again. He was sure that no one was around.
Perhaps I'm too hasty, Jack thought. He should have waited a while before he sent the message.
John didn't seem too bothered. He followed Jack's instruction and sent his consciousness into the stone. His eyes turned wide after viewing the content of the stone. His mouth then slanted upwards into a mischievous smile.
Jack waited while watching his radar to make sure that John had left the premises before he came out of hiding. He then hurried back to his post, he wouldn't want to miss the coming show.
Manager Steelhand delivered his speech in express. He was not doing it deliberately. He probably didn't realize the extent of the influence John had inflicted on him, he ended up trying to complete the topics he was trying to deliver before John came back.
However, the speech was still delivered clearly. His experience in public speaking was not shallow. In his speech, he had addressed the resource management plan and that the governing party that regulates the plan will be formed out of an alliance of representatives of all the guilds involved here, making it sounded like a democracy.
Of course, he did not mention how many representatives each guild was allowed to send. Obviously the three organizing guilds would have more representatives on the seat while the rest would only have one seat for each guild, but such details would be discussed later after they secured the other guilds' allegiance.
Scarface and Queen Magenta were actually against this representative system, but Manager Steelhand told them that there was nothing they could do. At this point, if they still wanted this alliance to come to fruition, they would need to make a few compromises. If he had known, he wouldn't have invited the Handy Craftsmen. He never expected one of their members was such an instigator.
John returned as Manager Steelhand was wrapping his speech. He saw the guy coming with a poise. He wasn't worried, now that he had made his thoughts across to the audiences, he was ready for some arguments. He was never scared of speaking against opposition in a public setting, so long as it was on his terms.
"Mr. Saint John, welcome back!" He greeted. "We had just wrapped up our speech. Now we can go to a Q&A session which I'm sure you are most eager to."
"It's done?" John asked.
"Yes. We still have the final phase of this meeting, but that phase would only be put forward after the forming of the alliance. So only those that agreed to work together would be privy to continuing this meeting, but we will go to that after your questions. If no one has questions then we will go on a short break before we go on a vote on who will join our alliance and who will not."
"Well, I don't have a question," John said.
Manager Steelhand smiled, this was unexpected, but was pleasant nevertheless, "in that case, we will…"
"However, I do have a presentation of my own," John interrupted him.
Manager Steelhand expression darkened slightly. He knew this guy's silence was too good to be true. "I'm sorry, but this meeting is not…"
"I believe what I'm about to show you will interest you greatly. You will need to see this before deciding anything," John didn't put Manager Steelhand in his eyes, he just strode up to the courtyard's center.
Queen Magenta who had been bearing a grudge on John, immediately called out, "security, take this troublemaker away!"
A couple of level 16 Fighters walked out and advanced towards John.
"Halt!" Kill Order called out from his seat, "I want to see what he wants to show us."
"What's to see? The guy is just trying to causing a problem!" Boulder countered from his seat.
Kill Order turned and gave him a cold stare, which silenced him down. Boulder was a typical bully. He might act brutish, but he was a coward when faced with another stronger, well-known party.
