"The underground facility in this mansion rivals ours in Spyder," Dane told Kai as they approached the meeting room.
"I can feel that I am close to reaching the next rank," Dane said with a silly smirk on his face.
They didn't know, but many mansions under the Greville family had such facilities, and Asher had chosen this mansion for that particular reason only.
"Whatever," Kai ignored Dane, who had been having a fun time training all this time.
Kai was more focused on the various research and books that Tom had sent him, and he was figuring out how to improve his capabilities as a mage.
'Living like this isn't too bad,' Kai remembered the old days, and a smile appeared on his face.
Both of them entered the room and saw Tom sitting in the center.
"Sit down. I have called this meeting to discuss the next mission," Tom said as he watched Dane and Kai enter the room.
"Shouldn't we wait a bit? The authorities are on full alert after the previous heist," Kai said as he sat on one of the seats around the table.
"It's the Boss's orders. I can't do anything about that," Tom replied as he tapped on his phone.
A hologram erupted in the center with various red dots in the center.
"Let me give you the rundown about the next mission," Tom said as he looked at the two of them.
"So, it's like this..." Tom started explaining the plan that Asher had told him to work on.
As Tom explained various parts of the plan, Kai and Dane's faces changed from confident to horrified.
Being involved in an organization like Zephyr, it was rare for them to react like this, but seeing their current reaction, both of them couldn't believe what sort of absurd mission they were being sent to.
"Wait, wait, wait, the Boss won't be joining us on this mission, right?" Dane asked.
"Yes, this time, it will be only the two of you, and I will be coordinating you guys like last time," Tom replied.
"Hey, did we do something wrong on the first mission?" Dane asked with a serious look on his face.
"No," Tom shook his head.
In fact, he was glad that both Dane and Kai hadn't done anything stupid on the mission, even though many unknown variables got involved in that heist.
"Isn't this basically telling us to die?" Dane asked, looking at Tom,
"No, I wish you guys successfully performed this mission," Tom replied.
Dane looked at Kai, who was just frowning right now. He was looking at the map that Tom had shown them.
"Forget about the other locations. We will get killed before we even move out from here," Kai said, pointing at the first red dot.
"Don't worry, my role in this mission is to make sure you guys don't die," Tom said,
'Or try to make sure you don't die,' Tom thought.
He wasn't sure whether Kai and Dane would survive and complete the mission.
"Take these tokens," Tom took out various tokens with the symbol of Zephyr, which was the letter 'Z' with a special design around it. It was a pitch-black token, and the message it was trying to convey was pretty clear.
"We will use the teleporting artifact that we brought out of the heist," Tom pulled out the necklace that Asher had given him.
"How does it work?" Kai asked.
Not all teleporting artifacts worked properly, and he rarely saw a teleporting artifact that could teleport multiple people.
"I've gotten a person to inscribe the coordinates on the back of the artifact," Tom said and showed it to them.
He explained to them the workings of the artifact as Asher had done for him. Tom didn't know why Asher could describe it so precisely, but he didn't question him.
"Wait, this is one of those artifacts that also works in a dungeon?" Kai asked with a shocked look.
"Yes," Tom replied.
This made them a bit nervous as they looked at the artifact.
The teleporting artifact, which even worked in a dungeon, was a priceless treasure.
This meant that people could even escape Red or Yellow Gate dungeons.
Something like this would be coveted by all the people in this world.
"There's a good chance with this artifact that we'll survive the first two locations, but surely you know what kind of security is present at the third," Kai said as he looked at Tom.
"Don't worry, we'll plan it together," Tom continued the meeting, but it was hard for him to make them believe this mission was possible.
'The deadline is the Gala. We can't miss it,' Tom remembered Asher ordering him to ensure their mission was completed before Kalvas Gala began.
"Kai, you need to improve your bloodline ability by the end of this month," Tom reminded Kai, something Kai was already working on.
"I've increased my limit by 15 minutes, but I think this is my limit," Kai replied.
"Still, try to increase it as much as you can. I'll give you all the Mana-related artifacts that the Boss left us," Tom said. Kai nodded, but the atmosphere in the meeting room wasn't good.
Dane and Kai left the room, and as they were walking in the hallway, Kai looked at Dane, who had been silent throughout the meeting.
"What are you thinking?" Kai asked.
"Nothing, I was just thinking of the mayhem we'll cause if we succeed at this mission," Dane said as he smiled, looking at the Zephyr token.
"Crazy bastard," Kai muttered as he saw Dane's smile.
'Why am I always stuck with such people?' Kai thought in his head.
At the World Academy, Gavin walked down the hallway to his class. He could see several students avoiding him out of fear.
However, he didn't derive the usual satisfaction from their reaction this time.
At present, he was following Leonard's order to increase their influence by continuing his extreme actions, as suggested by Asher.
And now, Leonard and the entire Blood Faction were working to restore their reputation, which had been damaged due to Blake's loss.
Meanwhile, Blake was sitting in his room, scrutinizing the message he had received from his family.
"How did they get the news so fast?" Blake asked, a nervous expression on his face.
He had received a message from his family's butler, relaying that Cade, his elder brother, had commanded him to attend the Kalvas Gala without fail for a discussion.
"Damn it, if only it wasn't someone from the Greville family," Blake cursed his luck.
Ping!
His attention shifted to the message he had just received from Leonard.
"So, these are the people I need to defeat?" Blake scrutinized the list of third-year students.
Leonard had already begun to manipulate the rumors, and many people were starting to believe that Blake hadn't exerted his full strength against Asher.
It was difficult, however, to convince those who had witnessed the duel firsthand.
Still, the majority remained skeptical, as the idea of a first-year student defeating a second-year rank 1 student seemed too absurd to believe.
A week passed, and Asher stood in the Mage Theory class, where Elsa explained various spells. The topic of the day was Dual Casting.
Dual Casting involved a mage simultaneously casting two spells.
The next level of complexity was Multi Casting, a skill that required a lot of practice and talent.
Only Alyssa and Eva, first-year students, were capable of Dual Casting. Other contenders close to mastering the technique included Elena Rothschild, Amelia Greville, and Lishia Halcyon.
"Listen carefully, and ensure your fundamentals are strong," Elsa reminded them as many students struggled with Dual Casting.
"Try to make two Spell Structures at the same time and allocate enough mana for them separately, it will be hard, but I expect you guys to excel in Dual Casting, which is a much-needed skill of a good Mage," Elsa explained.
"Some of you are also learning an Advanced Element," Elsa said, her words directed toward students like Alyssa, who had mastered the Space and Ice Elements.
The Ice Element, in particular, was a formidable force with high destructive capabilities; its effectiveness depended on the mage's mastery level.
"Chants are only necessary for higher Tier spells or if you cannot Silent Cast a spell," Elsa clarified.
"If you want to learn Dual Casting, make sure you can cast these spells without chants," Elsa instructed.
While the students practiced on the dummies before them, Elsa focused on a few students demonstrating exceptional talent in her subject.
Her problem, however, was that the top student in her class wasn't supposed to be a mage at all.
Asher Greville was the student Elsa wanted to send back to the Sword Art class, but she couldn't find a legitimate reason to remove him.
"Exceptional comprehension, insanely sharp observation," she noted these traits as she observed Asher.
These observations were used to grade students in class, and Asher was currently outperforming all his peers.
This fact became an issue for those who were pure mages, and they found it hard to accept that a swordsman was surpassing them. One of these students was Elena herself.
However, she chose to ignore him as the midterm exams were not far away, and the information regarding the exams was limited.
Asher stopped when he completed the assignment that Elsa had given the class.
"Those who have completed today's task may leave," Elsa announced upon noticing Asher.
Apart from Asher, though, the others were far from finished.
Ping!
<Your appointment with Vice Principal Xander Demarcus has been confirmed>
Asher looked at the message he had received on his ID Bracelet.
