Chapter 139 137 - The Strongest
Following the X ranked test results, the rest of that day went by like a blur, they did countless retests to make sure he truly was X ranked. Following that they went through a few interviews. The way X ranked gatecrashers were categorized was different from the lower ranks. Because X ranked people were walking war machines, they gathered more info on them than anyone else to help better protect people.
Milo had to give tons of information including his ability for them to put it into a database. Since no one had ever had his ability before, he got to name it and he decided to name it the same way the system had, as it had done a good job. Milo could literally create natural disasters through the use of his ability.
The GAA then offered him a recruitment following his reawakening, apparently this was something that they did for all high ranking gatecrashers when they first awakened. It was to keep the power of the GAA strong enough to keep gatecrashers in check. They were successful at recruiting some A ranked gatecrashers but aside from Richard Brand, the president, they hadn't successfully recruited anyone X ranked over to their side. This was due to the difference in income a guild could offer. Along with this, the association wasn't home to any big names, and most of the time would control media appearances for their members. Guilds were more lenient which allowed Gatecrashers to become famous for things other than closing gates. In some cases, you could even see famous gatecrashers in famous movies or TV Shows. One such case was a retelling of the recapture of Manila, it was a wildly famous movie about humans reconquering the Filipino capital after its fall in 2097, and even had two members of the strike team that reclaimed the island from the beasts star in the movie.
Milo thought about it some when they first made the offer but when considering the pros and cons of it, he decided that joining or starting a guild would suit him better. If he joined the association he would be forced to follow their orders, along with this, the association very rarely closed high ranked dimensional doors which would cause his growth to stagnate which he couldn't allow to happen.
"So what do you say Milo? Following graduation how would you feel about being brought into the fold?" Richard Brand asked.
"I'm going to graciously decline your offer, I feel that my place is in a dungeon slaying beasts. However I will gladly assist the association in whatever way I can when I graduate, as long as I'm free, I will always answer your call," Milo said in response.
By offering his assistance whenever he could, Milo hoped that it would allow him to get resources from the association. The association was the organization that had the most information on the Fellowship, and by staying on their good side, even if he wasn't joining them, it would hopefully allow him to get his hands on the information when he needed it.
"I see, we will gladly call upon you if we need your help. There is one other thing," Richard said, "The big four have a tendency to get pretty aggressive with their scouting of high ranked gatecrashers, especially those at the X rank. I just felt I should warn you, when the database gets updated they will be among the first to make a move."
"Thanks for the heads up," Milo said. With this their meeting was over and Milo was handed his license on his way out the door. Rather than a silver color this time, it was matte black with a golden X engraved in the side. These licenses were only given to X ranked awakened people, no matter their age anyone who had one of these licenses would be able to access things lower ranked gatecrashers would never know about. Along with this, someone could essentially join in on the closing of any gates around the world, even without a permit. That was the power of being X ranked, it came with privileges normally only allowed for association members.
After receiving his license he returned to the Academy. By then classes had ended for the day and his friends wanted to know where he had been, once he told them about the retest and showed them the license they all got excited. Seeing he had an authentic X ranked license they were all clamoring to get a look at it.
"So this is what they look like, I've heard about them but never seen one before," Chris said.
"Only one of my brothers was ranked X," Maria added, "I guess this makes you a step above them, well all but one anyways."
While his friends were all checking out his license, he received some messages on his holo, he checked them and was surprised about the accuracy of Richard Brand's statement about the Big 4.
Among the messages he had received from the big four, there was also one from the Incubus Guild, Jorge was reaching out and wanted to congratulate Milo on doing something not even he had done, being an X ranked awakened.
The Big 4 were the four strongest guilds in the world, and their guild masters were among the strongest people in the world, no one was sure which one was the strongest, but they were all considered to be slightly below Richard Brand in terms of strength. Milo had seen the guildmasters of the big 4 plenty of times on television during interviews and broadcasts. They were prominent figures in society and were even considered to be equal in power to the leaders of some countries.
Among the Big 4, Maria's brother was the vice guild master of the Striker Guild, they were based out of London, England. Their guild master was Helena Dempsey and unlike the other guildmasters she was reawakened like Milo. From the appearances Milo had seen on television, she appeared to be the most strict of the guildmasters and seemed almost like a boot camp instructor. Milo couldn't remember a time where she didn't have a serious face on. She was a support role and her ability involved buffing her allies, the more allies she had the more powerful the buff became. Because of this, the Striker Guild was known to use strike squads much larger than what was considered necessary, with her buffs on the whole team however, it was nearly impossible for beasts to do enough damage to kill a member of their squad.
In Europe there was one other member of the Big 4, this was the Huntsmen Guild whose headquarters were located in Munich, Germany. Their guildmaster was more of a figurehead and while he was considered the strongest of their gatecrashers, their vice guildmaster handled all of the administration work. The guildmaster of the Huntsmen Guild was Kristoff Jenkins, he filled one of the tank positions in their top strike squad. His ability allowed him to partly transform himself so that he gained the attributes of a bear. It fit his appearance as well as his large bushy beard and hulking physique gave him the aura of a wild animals. There was a scar over his left eye that he was rumored to have received when wrestling with a real bear before the dimensional doors appeared which is why he gained the ability he had.
Asia was home to one of the Big 4 as well thanks to Japan's Sakura Guild which was located in Tokyo. They had the most X ranked gatecrashers of any guild and all of them were gathered thanks to their guildmaster who was considered to be a super celebrity around the world. Her name was Mei Watanabe, she was among the dealers of the Sakura Guild, and her combat prowess was a major contrast to her cutesy and girly personality. Her weapon of choice was a Katana and her family was famous for their strength with a sword due to how well known they were in the world of Kendo, being the only girl from her family, she wasn't recognized until the Dimensional Doors first appeared and she awakened her ability. Her ability allowed her to suspend time delayed slashes in the air that then activated whenever she felt like activating them. Because of this she could pull off attacks similar to Mikael when using his double impact ability, striking multiple times at once by timing the delayed slashes with her actual attack.
The last guild of the Big 4, Milo already had experience with. This was the Olympus Guild whose headquarters were located in Miami, Florida in the United States. They were the newest member of the Big 4 and this was mainly due to their guildmaster who was the youngest among the Big 4's guildleaders. Like Milo he achieved an X ranking as a student and then went on to catapult straight to the top when he started his own guild after graduating. His name was Steven Smith and was also a dealer. His nickname was "the archangel" due to his ability which gave him the wings of an eagle. Unlike most abilities this was a permanent change to his body which meant he had to have special clothes made that allowed his wings to be free at all times. His wings allowed him to fly at high speeds and when combined with his archery skills it made him quite the powerhouse.
Milo had received messages from all of these guilds attempting to make a meeting with him to talk about joining their guild. His display on the show with Marcus Davis had attracted their attention. He was thinking of ways to get information from all of them without joining one of them specifically, if he limited himself to one then he'd be stonewalled from the other's information on the Fellowship. Because of this he thought up a slightly mischievous plan. He agreed to meet with all of them, there was one catch that they weren't aware of however. He had given all 4 of them the same date, time and place.
Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.
This chapter upload first at NovelBin.Com