Chapter 142 140 - The Leaker
After the meeting concluded, the 4 guildmasters stayed at the GAA for a while longer wanting to talk to Milo a bit more. The young man intrigued them, even if his scheme annoyed them a bit, it took a certain level of either confidence or arrogance to invite 4 of the world\'s strongest and most influential people under the guise of joining hands with them. While talking to each of them, Milo checked all their abilities using his plunder skill to see the copy conditions of each. All of them were simple tasks but would be difficult to complete. There was one that stood out from the rest however.
When testing the ability on Steven Smith of the Olympus Guild, he found that the Plunder skill wouldn\'t allow him to copy the ability. Milo wasn\'t sure why so he asked Navi for clarity. She told him that due to the nature of the ability, the system is unable to replicate it, Steven\'s ability caused him to grow a pair of wings, his ability changed his body physically when it manifested. This was most likely why it was impossible to copy. Abilities that physically altered the person who used the ability were very rare, so Milo didn\'t see this downside of the system as a significant weakness. He had been on the lookout for strong abilities to copy for a while now, ever since coming back to the academy, but none had tickled his fancy.
Once the friendly conversations with the Big 4 had ended, Mikael and Milo made their way back to the Academy.
"You know Milo, you really had me worried back there," Mikael said, "you could\'ve at least clued me in on what you were scheming, I thought I was going to have to get serious."
Hearing this, Milo wondered just what Mikael looked like when he took something serious if all he\'d done thus far was laid back. It made Milo realize just how strong Mikael was, with his abilities Milo may be able to slow him down, but he would struggle based on what he\'d seen Mikael do so far. If he took a fight seriously how much stronger would he be?
The pair eventually had arrived at campus and split off at the front gate, Milo had thanked Mikael for his help and headed back to his dorm. He was set to have a meeting with his team about their in field experience. They had been training diligently and today they would be having a strategy meeting to go over ways to improve. Milo had treated their in-field experience like his gatecrashing squad from his internship and so far it had been working.
When he arrived, he noticed that everyone had already arrived as well, they decided to meet in the lounge area of the sim room. Everyone was eating snacks and chatting so Milo made his way over and joined them. The group was talking about something that had happened during the combat class that day, apparently Waki had gotten into some mischief during class causing Zach to get in quite the pickle. According to his friends, there wasn\'t anything dangerous about what had happened but it was quite comical to those who were watching the events unfold. Krista was also joining the friend group for the meeting even though she wasn\'t partaking in the in-field experience.
Once Milo had arrived, everyone in the group asked where he had been, but before he could answer, Courtney spoke up interrupting him.
"He was meeting with the Big 4, right?" she said.
Everyone in the group started to have a small freakout about Milo meeting with Big 4, but hearing Courtney say it for him caused him to pause. He hadn\'t told any of his friends about the meeting, not even Krista.
"How did you know about my meeting with them?" Milo asked Courtney.
"I have my ways," she said with a wink, "How do you think the press heard about your reawakening? Did you not realize how big of a deal that was? My family runs a prominent news agency based here on the Acropolis, so I figured I\'d help you out with revealing it to the world."
Hearing this Milo noticed a vein appear on Krista\'s forehead. Milo could see the signs of a fight breaking out, so before anything else could happen he told Zach that maybe he should take Krista outside for a second to let her calm down. Zach figured it was a good idea and guided her outside. Milo then turned to Courtney who seemed clueless to what was going on.
"So you were the one who reported about my reawakening?" Milo asked. Courtney simply nodded in response as she sipped on a soda she had bought from the lounge\'s convenience store counter. She was nonchalant which made Milo realize that she had no idea why what she did was wrong. Milo sighed loudly before he explained to her why he was hiding the truth about his reawakening. When hearing about his cousin\'s death and the fact that he may now be a target of the Fellowship\'s Courtney immediately felt guilty and burst into tears. She was very immature for her age which made Milo wonder if keeping her on the team was going to be more trouble than it was worth, but at this point all the other teams had already finished forming so they were stuck with her.
Milo heaved out another sigh, "There\'s no point in dwelling on what\'s already happened." Had it come with some annoyances? Sure, but now I don\'t have to be careful about using my powers and I\'ve built a relationship with the Big 4, so it\'s not all bad, Milo thought. After getting Courtney to stop crying and apologizing, Milo brought Krista and Zach back into the room. Krista seemed ready to give Courtney an earful until she saw her sniffling with marks from tears on her cheeks. Seeing that she had been crying she figured Milo had handled it and so she simply huffed before retaking her seat.
Milo then carried on the meeting as that was the original point of their get together. The meeting ended on much better terms than when it started and Courtney had even apologized to Krista after as she could tell Krista seemed to get heated when hearing that she was the one who leaked the information. On their way out, Milo was approached by Zach who asked if they could go to the practical training hall. Milo was confused as to why they would need to go their but agreed. Zach said he\'d need to pick up Waki first as the thing he wanted to show Milo included his tamed beast. Once they had gathered Waki, Zach and Milo made their way to the room.
Zach then pulled out a short metallic spear of some kind, it looked more like a dagger with a long handle. It was silver in color and the handle looked to be about 18 inches long with a small ball on the end. Zach explained that he wanted to show Milo something he had come up with to help direct Waki\'s electricity. Normally when Waki would shoot off his electricity, it would shoot out in all directions and would hit anything that was nearby which if used incorrectly could also hit their teammates. Zach then walked a few meters away and stabbed the short spear into the ground. He then instructed Waki to shoot his electricity out, the small spear acted like a lightning rod and pulled the electric shock towards it. Once the barrage of lightning had finished Milo noticed that the small spear was deformed. Zach explained that he couldn\'t get a design right that would last more than 3 attacks from Waki and asked if he had any advice.
Milo thought for a second then said that he had an idea, he decided that he should introduce Zach to Avery, with her expertise in blacksmithing and working with metal, she may be able to come up with a solution to the problem. Not only this, but Milo\'s equipment needed some work done to it, after fighting the Fellowship it had sustained a lot of damage and needed repairs. He told Zach to meet him tomorrow and he\'d take him to someone who may be able to help so the two retired back to their rooms for the night.
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"Yes, ma\'am he didn\'t suspect a thing," a young girl\'s voice said, when speaking into a transponder in her dorm. Currently both her roommates were out doing their own thing so she was alone within her room.
Another voice could be heard coming through from whoever had taken the call. "Good, that boy is much too strong for his own good. He must be dealt with at all costs before he can stop our progress anymore. Have you come up with a way to stop him?"
"Not yet, but in a few weeks there will be an in-field experience. The other members of the team will be troublesome but if it comes down to it, I will sacrifice my own life in order to prevent him from increasing his strength," the girl said.
"Wonderful, I saw his interview, and if what you say is true about his meeting with the Big 4, I worry that he may be untouchable following his graduation from the academy. The Godfather has stressed his strength so do not underestimate him, you must take care of him at all costs. He has already taken out one of us, the 7 Cardinals. Not only do we need to correct the mistakes made by the 5th cardinal at all costs, but this will also bring my rapport with the Godfather higher. You cannot fail me," the woman on the transponder said.
"Yes ma\'am I will not fail you. I will prove my worth," the girl said.
"Good, keep me posted with updates on your progress. May our work lead to a better world," the woman said before ending the call.
The girl then turned off the transponder and hid it inside her dresser. After doing so she looked in the mirror before speaking to herself. "For a better world."