At noon, Sabrina and Dagon talked with Grand Admiral Rudra on a video call. Sabrina explained the plan to deal with the time bomb that was Draven.
Hearing Draven’s situation, Rudra’s mustache flared in anger, “That bastard! If he raised his son with a bit of kindness instead, he wouldn’t be wallowing in grief right now!”
“Alright,” Rudra sighed and continued, “I will arrange this play you made, Sabrina. But let’s go with three days instead of five.”
Dagon and Sabrina were surprised.
“Lily told me Almond planned to completely clear all the areas,” Sabrina blinked. “But you think he can do that in the next three days?”
“Senior Rudra, you have seen him in action and also praised him to the heavens,” Dagon said with a laugh. “That’s enough reason to believe you.”
“Well, I can’t disagree,” Sabrina chuckled. “I am more and more eager to see him in the flesh.”
“Don’t count the chickens early,” Rudra sternly said. “He must pass my test first. If he doesn’t pass-“
“He will pass,” Dagon grinned. “We believe in our daughter’s ability to see someone’s character. She said he is a good person, so he is.”
“That’s right,” Sabrina said with an almost prideful tone.
“Alright, alright. I’ll find that myself soon. You two just get him to me when he comes. As for Draven, I am directing Han to relay the message to him now.”
“Thank you, Admiral Rudra,” Sabrina smiled.
“You two have accepted him without even meeting him,” Rudra rolled his eyes. “Alright, I am cutting off now. Let’s hope he passes my test.”
…
An hour later, Draven got a call from Mr. Han, and he immediately jumped from his chair.
“Mr. Han? Please tell me you have good news.”
“I do have the good news, Mr. Draven. I have gotten approval from the Grand Admiral to allow you to watch the recordings captured by Arcane Eyes.”
“What?” Draven was shocked, his lips trembling, “D-Did you already see what happened to my son?”
“No. I am not allowed to see it. The new policy is that those whose relatives met with unfortunate development will be allowed to see what happened to them in the Labyrinth. This is not public yet, but I requested it, and they agreed to let you see it after three days.”
“Three days?” Draven frowned and then eased it up as he added, “Understood. I’ll get on the flight after two days.”
“Yes. The arrangements will be made by then.”
“Thank you, Mr. Han.”
…
Lily and Natalia woke up in the evening after resting fully.
After freshening up, they went to the dining table to eat and started TV to watch the ongoing situations over the world.
“Super Rookie Jian Ranford has just returned from the 2nd Floor yesterday and already cleared a red-colored C-rank Dungeon all alone in just three hours!”
The screen showed a young man, eighteen years old, with short white-blue hair and brown eyes. He could be considered a pretty boy with his thin frame and look, but his demeanor was cold and indifferent.
The reporters were asking him questions while he was moving towards the car surrounded by bodyguards, but he kept a mum and a plain face, ignoring them until he arrived at the car’s door and finally turned to the cameras.
“I heard a question about the strongest Super Rookie, who asked that?”
“It was me!” A round, spectacled lady in her late twenties replied, raising her hand.
Jian looked at her and replied, “You will get your answer soon when the new leaderboard opens up.”
After saying that, he entered the car and left while the reports continued to speak.
“Humph, that bastard is quite haughty,” Natalia snorted.
“I’ll beat some sense into him when I fight him,” Lily chuckled. “Anyway, you are participating in the Rising Star Tournament, right?”
“Of course,” Natalia grinned. “I can’t possibly back away when this tournament is giving away stat-boosting items. With my new class, I might enter the top 100 in the new leaderboard, what do you say?”
Lily chewed her meatball before answering, “No idea. You need to get better combat-wise. Talented people between 18 and 24 all over the world will be entering brackets of different ranks in the Rising Star Tournament. We’ll be in the Silver rank bracket, and there will be many Silver-ranked adventurers.”
“But I can at least get into the top 100 in the Silver bracket of Leaderboard, right?” Natalia asked with a pout. “That’s minimum if I want the stat-boosting item.”
“You gotta train,” Lily wryly smiled. “Look, there are 150 cities in total. Thousands will participate, and there are many of the so-called elite families that train their kids to be fighters. Just after the first year of the appearance of the Labyrinth, these families had popped up as they knew that the future lay on becoming powerful and having a powerful new generation.”
“That’s why the competition will be tough. Aside from class skills, you also need to learn core techniques like Physical Enchantment, master a weapon, and train in combat. In your case, your class is one of those perpetual class combat types, so you need to master an instrument first.”
“Your second class skill: Musico Weaponize, is pretty cool. It’s a passive skill and allows you to perform unique basic attacks based on the instrument you are wielding. Any instrument you use will be your unique weapon, so mastering one is a must.”
Natalia nodded, her eyes fired up, “Piano will make it hard for me to move, so I can’t train in it if I want to utilize my second class skill for the Rising Star Tournament. I’ll go with Flute first.”
“That’s good,” Lily nodded. “You’ll start training in it once we reach the Firefly City.”
“When’s our flight?”
“Tonight at 9 o’clock. Meet your grandparents and stay with them for a bit before we meet up at the League of Firefly guild’s training center. I’ll talk to my mentor to allow you in.”
“Yey! Also, we’ll enter Labyrinth near the end of the second cycle, right? Because I want to finish the floor trial and get the juicy reward. I’ll need it to do better in the tournament.”
“Of course. Anyway, let’s finish eating so we can go to the GAA branch. I saw Mom’s message on the phone after I woke up. It seems Mom and Dad want to talk about something related to Almond.”