Chapter 419: Visiting Friends

“Hello, Student Auric.”

“Chief Arnie?” Auric raised his eyebrows, wondering what Arnie wanted to tell him about. “Is the problem with the Apocalypse…”

“Yes. The Adjudicators have worked together with the police and cleared them up. It looks like the other countries are cleaning them up too. I hope that this is the end of the Apocalypse.”

“I see. That’s great. I’ll tell the others about it.”

“Actually, there is someone I want you to look at. I wonder if you are interested in taking the case.”

“Is this perhaps the one you’re talking about? Someone related to the Director? I believe you’ve told me about it before.” Auric frowned. He couldn’t help but recall what his father said.

“Yes. The Director won’t be a problem for any of us anymore. However, to destroy the Apocalypse, I have no choice but to make this deal.”

Auric thought for a moment. “Please tell me about the patient.”

“The patient is a 33-year-old female. She has been in a coma for the last ten years. The cause is listed as elemental turbulence. Do you know the case of Windfall?”

“No, is that a scientific journal?”

“Yes, it’s actually an incident where the ruins collapsed, causing elemental turbulence that severely damaged everything within a few kilometers’ radius.”

“I see.” Auric managed to confirm that this was the case his father was talking about. How did his father know about this case? He couldn’t help but think of one method. Joker.

If Joker was really his student, he would probably have told his teacher about this matter.

Auric said, “I can’t guarantee anything since this is the first time I’ve encountered such a thing, but I can take a look.”

“That’s great. When do you want me to go there? I might as well bring you all the rewards from the training program.”

“I guess that’s fine. I’m free right now since I’m planning to stop my school activities to focus on what’s important to me.”

“In that case, I will go there tomorrow. How does that sound?”

“Great. Just call me in case I’m not in my store.”

“All right. Thanks.”

“No problem.” Auric hung up the call and turned to Stella. “What do you know about elemental turbulence?”

“It’s a condition where the ruins collapse. The barrier will sink and gather in one spot before it’s dispersed into the surroundings. That will cause a massive shock wave of magical energy that will destroy almost everything within range.”

“What’s the cause of the destruction? The ruins should be stronger, right?”

“Yes, but they can still be destroyed with sufficient force. I mean, even that one small mountain collapsed because of the explosives. Remember the incident in the hunting event?”

“I remember.” Auric crossed his arms.

“What’s wrong?”

“I just don’t know whether I should focus on reaching Rank 3 first or begin my research.” Auric sighed.

“I still think that getting stronger should be your focus. In the meantime, you can take your time taking care of this store,” answered Stella without hesitation. “Since you’re planning to involve Miss Maya in your trip, you will definitely need to get stronger, not just rely on other people’s strength.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Auric nodded in understanding. “I guess we will be pushing our schedule back for a bit. Instead, I’m planning to fill up my elements by absorbing energy from the ruins.”

“Is that enough to reach Rank 3?”

“Nope. I will still need to make an effort. Looking at my current progress, I assume I need about 3 months to reach Rank 3. Maybe I will just get some artifacts, ones that match the elements I possess.”

“You need to ask for your teacher’s help with that matter—her family, to be exact.”

“I don’t really like owing people a favor…” Auric crossed his arms. “It’s best if we can just use money to deal with it.”

Stella thought for a moment. “I can handle it for you, but you will need to stay here for the time being. Don’t go out and risk your life.”

“I don’t have any intention to leave right now.”

“All right. I can go to other cities and get all the artifacts for you, but I don’t know if they will match your energy or not.”

“I will give you the list of my elements as well as their potential.”

“Okay then!”

“Besides, you don’t have to worry. Mr. Jacob is going to come soon, most likely with Arnie. Since I’m going to treat his condition, he will become my temporary bodyguard. In the meantime…”

“Are you sure about giving me free time to reach Rank 5?”

“Yes.” Auric nodded. “I think that’s the best course of action. With you and Teacher Maya, it should be fine. If not, we will add Katarina.”

“Fair enough.” She finally agreed. “In that case, I will focus on reaching Rank 5 while searching for your artifacts in the next two months.”

“Sounds good to me.” Auric raised one finger. “But before that, do you mind if we do something first? Just so I won’t need to leave this store for a while.”

“What is that?”

“Visiting two friends.” Auric smiled.

“Eric? Is he even there?”

“I just messaged him and told him it was fine to visit.”

“Oh, great.”

Auric was rather curious about the group that Eric and Tommi were trying to build. After all, it was hard for them to build everything from scratch, especially without any money.

A few months had passed, so he wondered about the progress of the group. While he didn’t mind spending some money just to support his friend without caring if that money would disappear or not, he certainly didn’t want to give the money if the other party didn’t want him.

The group seemed to have started from Thunderer City because Eric was actually the leader of this organization, not Tommi.

So, it didn’t take too long for them to arrive at the small building they rented.

“Is this the place?” Stella looked surprised. The building itself was quite old, but it still functioned properly.

“Yeah. Apparently, they had rented this place for a year, using all the scholarship money they had received.” Auric nodded. “They got it cheap, but the air conditioning wasn’t working. At least, this is where they started.”

“Oh!” Stella was quite impressed.

When they entered, the interior was actually better than they expected. Even though they hadn’t reached the main office yet, the air was already quite cool, showing that they had repaired the air conditioning.

However, they noticed two Rank 3 humans were walking down the hallway.

“Who are you?” They suddenly became vigilant when they saw Stella and Auric.

“Wait. I know you, you must be Auric Elfe. Your face is all over the internet.” One of them recognized Auric.

“Hey!” Auric nodded calmly. “I am going to the main office. Do you know where it is?”

“Why are you going to the main office? Are you trying to harm the boss?!”

“The boss?!” Auric was startled. Even Stella looked at Auric in disbelief. Tommi and Eric were supposed to be Rank 2, so it was quite surprising that they managed to get two Rank 3 humans as their subordinates.

Then again, Auric even had Katarina and Stella, but that was because Auric had some special power, unlike Eric and Tommi.

Fortunately, the one who recognized him stopped his friend. He said, “You may not know this, but I did see this guy walking together with the boss on TV. They’re friends.”

“Wow.” Auric smiled. “I thought he badmouthed me or something.”

He paused for a moment before pointing to the back. “Follow me.”

The main office was quite small, but it was pretty warm. Tommi was scratching his head as he was cursing out loud. “Paperwork. This is hell!”

Eric continued reviewing all the documents quietly, acting as if Tommi didn’t even exist.

The guy suddenly opened the door and said, “Hey, Boss! You got visitors.”

“Oh! Auric!” Tommi immediately jumped off his seat, as if he didn’t want to deal with the paperwork anymore.

“Yo!” Auric gave a fist bump and a hug.

“…” Eric sighed. It might be because of the weight of responsibility, but Eric always calmed down whenever he met Auric, just like how Vera stopped picking a fight with Ellia. “Welcome. I’m sorry, but there are still too many documents I have to review, so let’s just cut the visit short.”

“Of course.” Auric nodded calmly. “It does look like you’re doing a very good job over here. You even got two Rank 3 humans.”

Tommi closed the door so that no one heard anything before saying, “There are actually more. It was actually more like a gang that was trying to make ends meet. They were almost wiped out, but we saved them.

“We repelled the beasts coming their way, and their injured boss, the one with the beard, survived because of Eric.” Tommi pointed at Eric.

“Really? Wow.” Auric was impressed. “I never thought your blood had healing properties.”

“It didn’t. He was saying that he used his blood element because he had to control his own blood because of a certain guy kept provoking him and causing him to have constant high blood pressure.”

“That man must be annoying. You really need to slap that guy.” Auric nodded in understanding.

“It’s you, man.” Tommi shook his head helplessly.

“I know.” Auric smiled.

“…” Tommi’s eyebrows twitched.

“What do you want?” Eric sighed.

“I’m just visiting. Maybe I should also do some business.” Auric smirked.

“Business?” Tommi tilted his head in confusion.

“I’m talking about a capital injection.” Auric patted Tommi’s shoulder and walked toward Eric. “Well, that’s only if you want.”