CHAPTER 138: WE HAVE A PROBLEM

We have a problem

Osho and Ellie arrived at a fairly small meeting room within the building.

There, Mrs Jane, Kurt, and the others, Stephen, and Lady Haggai all sat. They seemed to be discussing some mundane topics, but when the two arrived, they all gestured for them to sit.

Osho watched curiously as he and Ellie took their seats. He had an idea of what the conversation would be about, but he didn’t fully know the details, so he waited patiently to be addressed.

"How are you, Osho?" Mrs Jane asked, her voice noticeably softer than usual as she stared at him.

Osho smiled.

"Well my brain doesn’t feel like it’s biting the curb anymore, and I did what I wanted to do. So I’d say I’m alright." He replied with a chuckle.

Mrs Jane just nodded before addressing the rest of the table, more specifically, Osho and his friends.

"Alright. I’m sure you guys have an idea of what I want to talk about, so I’ll just get right into it." She paused before continuing. "You are all aware that envoys from several Beast Tamer Colleges will be arriving in a few days, so the long-awaited moment of picking out which College you will go to has arrived." They all nodded.

"Your situations are quite a bit different than usual." Lady Haggai continued. "Mrs Jane told you before that your admission being postponed due to the Beast Tide a few months ago was accurate. While it doesn’t always happen, it’s common enough for there to be measures in place. What should have happened after the practical examination was that you lot would pick a college and then the envoys would arrive about a week later to assess your scores and see if you fit the bill.

However, what happened with the Abyssal Scrounger made that process get pushed back, as you all know. As such, integrating you into a college is going to be quite a hassle now as you lot are behind in their academic years by quite a bit, meaning accommodation and lectures are things you might struggle with. Especially when it comes to lectures, and you may have to work quite a bit more to catch up." She explained, and while they already knew this, hearing it said aloud was still a bit disheartening. Until..

"That is..." Stephen followed up. "...Unless you guys were normal students." He pointed out, and the other two adults nodded.

"It goes without saying, that due to just how much your potential has risen, as soon as the Colleges are made aware of how high your ceilings truly are, it’s not an exaggeration to say that they will trip over themselves trying to get you to join them." He continued.

Similar to ordinary schools, Beast Tamer Colleges followed the premise that the amount of funding they received was dependent on how well their students performed. It was a bit more advanced, though, as some were privately owned or had independent sponsors.

But even then, managing to nurture a talented individual was a great way for them to attract attention to themselves, something most, if not all desired.

And with Osho’s interference, talent wasn’t something they lacked.

"Being behind on classes will still be an issue. However, where you’d have to struggle to get materials to catch up, chances are that the Colleges will actively help you catch up to your peers. Moreover, it’s a common theme for talented students to be granted their own residences within particularly prestigious Beast Tamer Colleges, so if all goes well, the accommodation won’t be an issue either." Mrs Jane said and tilted her head.

"As for funds, well, we initially planned on sponsoring you guys, but we realized that you could all easily get a scholarship. Not that we wouldn’t still be sponsoring you if that wasn’t an issue." She shrugged.

The group fell silent as they absorbed the information.

’Well, it’s not too different from what I initially anticipated.’ Osho thought. The additional delay had certainly been a bit of a wrench in his plans, but the conclusion he reached wasn’t too different from what the adults had said. So all in all, nothing too concerning.

"However." Mrs Jane suddenly said with a grim tone.

’I take it back.’ Osho sighed inwardly, he knew things wouldn’t be so simple.

"Depending on how this goes, this matter may or may not end up involving you 5 directly due to how close you were to the epicenter of the previous incident." She took a breath.

"In addition to the Envoys, several Specialized Investigation Teams will be coming here to thoroughly analyze the two incidents." The group shared looks.

"Didn’t we expect that already?" Irene asked. They’d anticipated that some people would come to investigate the incident already.

"Well, yes. But it would appear that things are a bit more... complicated than we initially expected." Mrs Jane shook her head, and they were about to ask her to elaborate when Lady Haggai said flatly.

"They are coming from the Eden Citadel."

The room froze.

Sam and Irene paled, Kurt flinched, Ellie frowned, and Osho narrowed his eyes.

After a long silence, Osho spoke.

"That’s... certainly something." He mumbled.

As for why their reactions were so exaggerated, well...

In case one needs a refresher, there are 4 types of Citadels.

The first and smallest types are Haven-Class Citadels.

These are usually seen as small outposts, usually placed at the edges of human-controlled territory, and they either serve as the bases for deeper exploration into the wilderness, or research posts for studying certain unique phenomena.

Then there are Bastion-class Citadels. These sit firmly in the center when it comes to pretty much everything. Population, military might, technological advancements, etc. The Blossom Citadel the group originated from was seen as a high-level Bastion-Class Citadel, quite good for its level, but still only a Bastion.

Then there are Zion-Class Citadels. The number of these drop significantly, and it’s in these places where key things like culture and traditions remain the most as they are usually made up of former significant cities found in the world before Mana descended. Moreover, they are usually in resource-rich areas and have a significantly higher technological level compared to other Citadels with significantly higher populations in the tens of millions. It’s also in these places where most Beast Tamer Colleges could be found as well as high-ranking Beast Tamers.

Then there are Zenith-Class Citadels. The absolute peak of humanity.

Each Zenith-Citadel is placed in strategic spots around the world. Their populations are in the hundreds of millions, with there being several Bastion-Class Citadel branches around them.

Technology, power, influence, culture, research, they are the Apex of humanity in all those areas.

Moreover, it’s in these Citadels that the only Mythical Rank Beast Tamers humanity has reside.

5, to be specific.

Why was this important? Well...

Eden Citadel is one of these Zenith-Class Citadels. So the fact that the investigators were coming from there meant that this issue which they thought was only ’somewhat’ problematic in the grand scheme of things was now being blown WAY out of proportion is investigators from one of the most important locations humanity possessed deemed the issue with the Scrounger and Harbinger big enough for them to step in personally.

"... So aren’t we just screwed?" Kurt asked with a frown. "I don’t doubt their methods when it comes to acquiring information, and sorry, but I don’t think we have any way to avoid spilling at least SOME information. If they find out about—" Osho cut him off.

"Kurt, calm down." He said calmly and lightly knocked on the table. "It’s a wrench in our plans, sure, but in the end, we haven’t actually done anything wrong. You’re not wrong for getting worried, but thinking about it when they haven’t even arrived is just going to make you needlessly anxious, and make you seem even more suspicious when they eventually arrive." Hearing this, Kurt hesitated, but he eventually nodded.

"That said, it is good to be concerned." Mrs Jane pointed out. "So the main point of this meeting is to discuss how we will prepare for their arrival." She looked at Osho.

"Without a doubt, when they hear about ’Maven’, their interest will be piqued. Especially when they realized he could effectively evolve beasts with a limited failure rate. They will want to know everything they can about him and possibly try to track him if possible. The other students will be mostly ignored since they didn’t come into contact with him. But you guys are right at the center, so you will inevitably be questioned, and it’s extremely likely that they will have a way to see if you are lying or not. We need to be extremely careful about this, as the slightest mistake will blow our cover. The Abyssal Scrounger and the Skyblight Harbinger were bad enough, but something tells me their attention will almost immediately become fixated on the possibility of some unregistered individual moving around and evolving beasts." She explained.

"What’s more, there’s a chance they won’t believe our story, and we expect them to stay for a while. Like Jane said, we need to be very careful." Stephen echoed.

"Okay, so what do we do? There are only a few days before they get here. The Maven story will only hold so much substance, how do we work around that?" Ellie asked with a frown, and as if on cue everyone looked at Osho.

Usually, he’d pretend to be surprised, but instead, he just looked thoughtful as he rubbed his chin. In fact, there was a bit of a smile on his face.

"Actually, I have an idea." He regarded everyone, his smile turning downright predatory. "Moreover, if it works, we could end up benefitting immensely from this entire situation."