Building An Empire Starting From The Labor Camp In Exile-Chapter 71: Next move I

Atrox grinned and then clapped. It echoed in the silent room like a bad drum. "Alright! Where’s the section for creating a new team?"

Xan groaned and facepalmed. "Oh no."

The whole room turned dead silent as the whispering and bustling stopped. Everyone turned to look at them with different expressions, but Atrox saw that distaste and disgust led the way. They curled their lips and sneered.

What they saw were four people: a man just past his teens with green eyes and black hair, a girl that looked like an alley cat, a man with a grim face pretending dignity, and then there was the boy! All of them wore drab clothes, some ripped and stained.

This wasn’t the first time they had seen outlaws pulling something like this. Either they wanted to join a team or demanded to form one. Stunts like this had been pulled again and again, even though most of the time it led to arrests and executions.

Without anyone saying anything, they ignored them, and the room returned to normal. That made Atrox twitch, and he felt a wave of annoyance. Then he thought about it again. ’Well, I’m new here. I just have to make my name known, that’s all. But first things first—make a team!’

He picked his way over, passing the crowded sides of the other admins. The farther they went towards the end of the building, the fewer Knights they saw. Eventually, they reached a section with no Knights near the admin.

The admin, a thin man wearing oversized glasses that made his eyes look enormous, blinked at them in surprise and then tried to glare them off, but it wasn’t working—not when he looked like an owl blinking at them.

Atrox leaned against the table, and the man flinched, even with the glass wall between them. Atrox frowned. ’Did he think I’d reach out and hurt him?’

He even saw the enchanted words on the glass wall and shook his head. "I’m here to create a team."

The man looked baffled, then his eyes slid to Tiber, Slya, and finally Xan. "A team." The admin had heard that outlaws sometimes demanded this, but he hadn’t thought he’d ever be confronted with it.

"I... I can’t do that!" the man squeaked.

"Why not?" Atrox asked easily with a sigh. He was getting tired of asking this question over and over again. "Is there a rule against it?"

The admin’s face turned sour. "There’s no rule against it... it’s just not done! What do you even mean by creating a team? Just join one and be a squad leader."

Xan spread his hands at that.

Then the admin’s eyes lit up. "That’s right, you’re outlaws! Yes, you can’t join a team unless the team leader specifically chooses you, and you definitely can’t form one!"

He leaned forward and whispered to them. "Get out of here now and don’t cause a scene. If not for this place being neutral, the other Knights here would have already separated your heads! As it is now, get out of here before security arrives."

Atrox didn’t know if the man was trying to convince himself or them. He curled his lips. "I’d like to see them try. Tiber?"

Tiber brought out a small piece of paper and handed it over. The man took it and glanced at it, his face twitching. "Alright, this proves you’re not outlaws. You’re from the Steelclaw Alliance flag.

"But this doesn’t mean you can create a team! Let me tell you the teams under Steelclaw: Ranks 2, 6, 7, 17, 23, and 27. You can head to their base and join them. Next!" The man glanced behind them, but there were no other Knights waiting for his help.

Atrox leaned forward and let a little of his essence pressure wash forward, pressing gently on the man, who was only a Squire. He was already getting angry with this "no making teams" nonsense. The air around him heated up as if they were under a hot sun. "Then who has the authority to grant a new team?"

The man’s scowl turned to a fearful look as he began to sweat. "Wh... the Ten! Only they can do something like this! They can give you the authority to start a new team!"

Atrox smiled. "We’re getting somewhere. Then how do I speak with them?"

The man looked at him, baffled, before his face cleared. "You can write to them. Yes, teams always write to them if they want something addressed."

Atrox collected a pen and paper and handed them to Slya to compose his intention, only reading it afterward before nodding in satisfaction. He placed it on the table in front of him, then made the air around the admin flash with heat for an instant, making the man yelp and jump.

"I know you don’t plan to send it to the Ten, but I’ll be back, owl eyes. If you don’t send it, you’ll become ash." He said no more as they turned to leave.

"Wow," Xan whispered as they left the cathedral behind. "I’ve never seen anyone treat the admins like that before. It’s as if you’re going to roast him and eat him just like that. But unfortunately, nothing will come out of it.

"The Ten will just ignore you. After all, they get requests like this all the time."

"Ignore me," Atrox said softly. "The last thing I want happening to me here in the second layer is to be ignored."

Suddenly, he smirked. "I know just how to make it impossible to be ignored. But first, where in the Infernal are we going?"

Atrox looked at Slya, Tiber, and then Xan. He grimaced. "I think the first thing to do is to find a way to earn money. We need to change our clothes and buy some weapons."

Xan smiled. "I know just the way to make quick coins. We’ll get used to the second layer this way before... you do whatever you want to do." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Hope it has nothing to do with alchemists?" Slya asked, and the others laughed. They’d had enough of alchemists for now.

"What? What?" Xan looked at them in surprise.