Seed of Titan-Chapter 64: The Aftermath; Jian’s Fortune

In the shadows of the night forest, Christo was standing among the trees.

Out of nowhere, a figure materialized in front of him and quickly bowed.

"Master," greeted the figure with a gruff voice that sounded like an old man who smoked too much.

"Liam, why did you intervene earlier?" Christo questioned.

"To protect you," Liam curtly replied.

"Did I look like I needed your protection that badly?"

"Yes."

Christo fell silent.

A few moments later, he said, "I would’ve been injured at most. We’re lucky that nobody noticed you. Try to hold yourself back next time."

Liam silently nodded.

"And keep a secret about Drai’s powers," Christo added.

The figure slightly flinched, seemingly surprised by the command. Unlike before, he didn’t immediately agree.

"What? Do you have something to say about this?" Christo asked upon seeing Liam’s hesitation.

"Your companion is a suitable addition for the cause," Liam replied.

"I don’t disagree. But regardless, keep it a secret. Especially from the old farts."

Liam fell silent.

Christo waited patiently. He knew Liam wasn’t someone who would betray or lie to him, so Christo wasn’t worried that Liam would feign compliance.

"May I ask why?" Liam finally spoke up.

"This might sound unconvincing since I’ve said it countless times for the last few days, but it’s my intuition," Christo replied.

Hearing this, Liam remained silent.

"Let’s just say that if we go with the direction you’re thinking of, it would backfire instead of helping us, so it’s better to just let things remain as they are. Besides, all of this would likely be meaningless in the grand scheme of things," Christo vaguely elaborated.

Liam remained silent, pondering over his master’s words.

Christo briefly glanced at his comm, checking out the time.

"It’ll be troublesome if I don’t return soon, so let me just ask you, Liam. Are you loyal to the cause or to me?"

"To you, Master," Liam replied without hesitation.

"Then do exactly as you’re told. You can divulge everything else, but not Drai’s powers. If you really don’t have a choice, alter his maximum transformation to twice his size. I don’t want him to attract too much attention and not only from us. Don’t worry, I have my own plans."

It took Liam a few seconds, but he eventually nodded.

"I shall comply."

"Good. Now resume your duty."

Following this, Liam bowed before vanishing from sight.

Christo let out a small sigh before heading back to the crowd.

When he was a distance away Drai and his friends, Jian spotted him and gestured him to come quickly.

"What’s the matter?" Christo asked after rushing to the group, wondering if there was a sudden development right before their departure. Perhaps something related to the mysterious underground jungle.

"Tell us, how big was it?" Jian asked anticipatingly.

"Huh? How big was what?" Christo asked back confusedly, not understanding the question.

"You know—your turd."

"..."

"Come on, tell us, dude. Otherwise we can’t cash in our bets."

"..."

"Just the rough size is enough if you didn’t measure it. But don’t exaggerate. Our bets must be decided fair and square."

At this moment, Christo secretly wished that the venomous monkey had bitten Jian instead.

***

After returning back to the academy, the next few days were pretty hectic for Drai. He and the other members of the party were subjected to questionings and reports, although Christo was busier than the others since he had to submit additional reports as the party leader.

The higher-ups were also pretty busy, especially after the academy was made aware of the incident. Fortunately for all of them, there were no casualties this time, so the repercussions weren’t as severe as it would have been.

Among the professors, there were a few that made a huge fuss about the incident.

The first one was obviously Irina Velles, since her niece was involved and had been in peril.

After visiting Auri in the hospital, she barged into Valiant Ventures’ headquarters and demanded a complete explanation regarding the venture’s location, mission, and preparation, along with the details of the incident that befell the party.

In the end, she left without complaining further since upon realizing that there wasn’t any obvious flaws to the venture plan and that this was quite a freak incident that nobody could have predicted beforehand.

However, she had also added that she wanted to talk privately with Christo. Perhaps Irina intended to question Christo’s decisions during the venture, particularly regarding the reason why he had let the party be transported underground instead of trying to escape when the stone building had only begun to move. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

It was also fortunate that Auri’s other relatives decided not to follow Irina’s lead. Christo suspected that Auri had asked her family not to make things more difficult for Valiant Ventures, perhaps thinking that her envenomation was partially her own fault.

Meanwhile, the second one to make a fuss was Ravismus Ondor who was implicated because of Drai. Interestingly, Ravi’s reaction to the news was arguably more severe than Irina’s.

Unlike Auri’s aunt, Ravi didn’t confront Valiant Ventures’ management but opted to complain directly to the rector.

Facing Zar, Ravi demanded compensation, saying that his years of research could have gone down the drain if anything bad had happened to his precious Drai.

When asked about the specifics, Ravi demanded a huge chunk of money to fund his research, an agreement that Valiant Ventures would be doing errands for his research without being paid, and that Drai was to be appointed as Valiant Ventures’ president.

His demands were obviously rejected by Zar, but since Ravi kept insisting and had even threatened to leave the academy with Drai, Zar negotiated the terms and eventually agreed to increase Ravi’s research budget, pay for three commissions to Valiant Ventures for his research purposes, and compensate Drai with student credits for him to spend in campus amenities.

And for the third professor, it was surprisingly Paul Warden, Drai’s professor for his System Introduction class. Perhaps ever since their conversation during the first class, Paul had taken a liking to Drai, or maybe he’s just an overly caring professor.

Similar to Irina, he had gone directly to Valiant Ventures’ headquarters and demanded all the details regarding the venture and the incident. He also questioned Drai and a few of his party members about the whole thing.

After Paul received all his requested information, he finally looked content and didn’t demand anything else unlike Irina and Ravi. Perhaps he too had understood that this wasn’t really anyone’s fault and decided not to be too harsh.

Another thing to note was the rise of Valiant Ventures’ notoriety. Nobody knew who had leaked the incident, but the other students had been gossiping about Drai’s party in particular and Valiant Ventures as a whole.

These students didn’t really know about the details though, so there were inevitably fabrications in their stories, such as the absurd notion that Drai’s group had been sent as human sacrifices to open a mystical gateway connected to another continent or that the party had discovered an ancient inheritance from the Century of Chaos era but it was quickly snatched away by the government.

All in all, this venture was quite the fiasco.

***

This afternoon, Drai and his friends were hanging out at a small park near the female dorm. Auri had just returned to the academy after her short hospital stay, so Drai and the others decided to meet close to her dorm in case she had not completely recovered.

The group was seated on the ground on top of one of the picnic mats that were provided by the campus.

"How are you feeling, Auri?" Drai asked.

"I’m feeling quite good," Auri replied. Her complexion was miles better compared to before, but there were dark circles under her eyes and she also looked thinner.

Flo was examining Auri’s hand that was bitten, asking, "What did the healers say?"

"They said if not for your emergency treatments, I might not have lasted that long. I owe you my life, Flo," Auri said as she held Flo’s hand.

"You mean you owe us your life," Jian quickly corrected her, looking a bit smug.

"Yes I do. Thank you for not abandoning me back there," Auri said, smiling warmly at Jian.

"Huh? Uh... S-sure," Jian awkwardly replied, not expecting this amicable reaction from her.

’Her brain must’ve been damaged,’ Jian inwardly remarked.

"I’m glad things are starting to become normal again. I can’t remember how many times I’ve told my part of the story. I’ve memorized it so much now that I’m sure I can even recite it while sleeping," Natalia commented, pinching her eyebrows upon recalling those long and tedious reports.

"What do you mean normal?" Jian instantly refuted. "My classmates are flocking to me like crazy nowadays. Even my seniors occasionally stop me in the hallways just to hear my account of the incident."

"That’s what you get for being so boastful. Me and Drai almost never get asked about it," Natalia replied.

"That’s because your classmates are scared of Drai while you’re an unapproachable cold bitch," Jian argued, not wanting to lose.

"Oh yeah? Let’s see how this cold bitch beats your ass."

"Sure. Just don’t go crying for daddy when I spank yours."

Natalia and Jian were ready to throw hands, smiling fiercely at each other.

"If only you guys were this vicious against the golems," Christo remarked from the side.

"Fuck you!" Natalia and Jian simultaneously swore at Christo. Their faces were a bit reddened, slightly embarrassed for their childish bravado.

"Just wait. One day I’ll wash that filthy mouth of yours," Natalia remarked.

"And one day I’ll get myself a fancy scale armor. I think I’ll have it in blue," Jian countered.

"Hmph!" Natalia snorted, accepting her loss. She secretly admitted that she’s quite lacking in the trash-talking department compared to Jian.

"Why are you so defiant today, Jian? I figure you’d be more reserved against Nat like usual," Flo curiously remarked.

"He’s just looking for a new opponent since his usual foe is still recovering," Christo said, gesturing at Auri.

"Your vigor is related to what happened during the venture before you returned to us, right?" Drai surmised as he looked at Jian.

Drai had sensed that Jian’s demeanor was slightly different ever since he saw him walking down the secret labs’ hallway that day—a bit more confidence and cocky if Drai must say.

Drai’s words briefly silenced Jian because he didn’t expect Drai to be this insightful.

"Hahaha, you’re right, Drai. To be honest, this Jian has powered up! Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have been able to defeat that golem," Jian proudly announced.

"You leveled up?!" Natalia gasped, her eyes widened in disbelief.